Having kids is finally paying off

Grace enjoys taking the laundry out of the drier for me.
And Elizabeth enjoys watching, and hopefully learning by example.
Now if I can just get her told fold it and put it away!

Messey Bessey

Elizabeth has been working on self-feeding. She loves it and it keeps her quite occupied. It has been causing me to miss having Guapo though as Guapo used to keep the floor under Grace's high chair clean.
I love how she concentrates so hard.
Making a mess is a must!

Sweetie Pie

Here is a little baby sweetness to hold you over until I get myself together enough to blog some more.

3 cutest kids EVER

I know I know I am biased. But they really are adorable. And watching them interact is even cuter. I love that my girls have a cousin that lives close by that they can adore, share clothes and hair accessories with.

Ahh, the cuteness. And yes, it did take like 10 shots to get these two. Love those cutie pies.

Elena really wanted Elizabeth to wear her hair clip. I love how incredibly ridiculous it looks with her tiny amount of hair, which thankfully, is finally starting to grow.

Heiresy or Hillarity?

"I'm Jesus" she says "And these are my twelve disciples."
I wonder which disciple is the dancing piggy?

Smurf Feet

Turns out, not all ink that claims to be "ultra washable" actually is. I would say I found this out first hand, but really Elizabeth was the one to bare the brunt of this unfortunate realization.

It happened like this. We have been supporters of the prison ministry Kairos for some time now. The Chapel and Valley Baptist are both involved. Kairos ministry has special weekends twice a year where churches and individuals make home baked cookies and write letters to the inmates. The candidates are blessed by the letters and cookies and through the weekend are loved on and presented with the truth that they are not forgotten, and that God has a plan for their lives. Gunnar has attended the closing ceremonies and it is truly powerful. Rodger is a yard pastor at Donovan Prison and has spoken at both Valley Baptist and The Chapel and has been a family friend for years. You can click here to listen to one Rodger speaking at The Chapel if you would like to here more about this amazing ministry.

We had a letter writing and cookie making party at church. After all, it is more fun to write letters and cook cookies in a group. I didn't help with the cookies, but the kitchen group put out and made 56 dozen. Grace, however was a proud member of the cookie making party and had a blast.

I know at this point you are wondering where the whole ink thing comes in. Well, last year, Ann, my awesome sister-in-law, stamped Elena's foot print on her letters, and I thought it was such a great idea. I thought I would copy her. On a side note, getting a squirmy 6 month old to let me stamp her foot is harder than it sounds.

I got Gunnar to take some pictures so you could get in on the whole experience. :) Here it is. The ink.
The stamp.
Cute little print. I love how she looks so bored.
And here is where the non washable supposedly washable ink comes in. After washing, look at those little feet.
I know, I know, we all want a closer look. Look at those piggies. Adorable on any day of the week, who knew they could wear smurf blue so well.
The feet sacrifice was well worth it though, look at how cute the letters turned out. I forgot to take a picture once I got done writing them, so you will have to image all forty with the text written in. I basically said that in my time of sadness God had sent Elizabeth to cheer me up and I hope her foot print reminds them that God has not forgotten about them either. It had a verse and was longer than that, but after writing it 31 times (my friend Karaline did the last 9 for me) I have no desire to write all again.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, after three days and multiple washing, her feet went back to normal. :)

Where the Wild Things are

A few weeks ago we went to the Wild Animal Park with our friends the Smith's. Matt is the pastor of Barabas Road, and we enjoy hanging out with them as we have a lot in common. Unfortunantly, Gunnar had a lot of unexpected work come up that week so he was only able to join us for a little bit and then took off. They were gracious enough to let Grace, Elizabeth and I tag along with them, which was awesome as we had been cooped up in the house a lot that week.

We had started off with the stroller, but it is so heavy with both the girls that when Gunnar took off, he took the stroller with him and I carried Elizabeth and Grace walked.

Funny thing about the stroller though, the Smith's showed up with the exact same one. Great minds must think alike.

We hung out by the elephants for a while before Gunnar had to take off. There was a new elephant born only a two weeks before, which was super cute.
Before Gunnar took off we took a family picture. I love that overly cheesy Gracie smile!
Gunnar took my camera, but Becky was so kind as to send me the pictures that she took. She took this of us checking out the tigers. The baby elephant picture and the first stroller picture were also hers.
The Wild Animal Park is beautiful this time of year, and it is even better with great friends!