Happy 4th!

No, not the 4th of July, but Z's 4th birthday! Z turned 4 on July 15, and we had a birthday party with folks from church the next day. Here's the birthday boy telling us how old he is.

We had a pinata, so the kids are picking up the candy and squirreling it away in their bags.

Our good friends, Mitch and Jennifer:

Myself.

Z specifically requested cupcakes. (Thankfully last year's cake did not fool him into thinking that's what he would get every year!) He picked strawberry cake with strawberry icing.

Enjoying the cupcake:

Although I specifically told everyone they did not need to bring gifts, everyone still brought one, much to Z's happiness.

Our gift to Z was too big to wrap, so it was hidden in the basement under a quilt.

The joy of discovery!

Now he just needs to learn how to pedal!

And a video of the pinata:

Summer Vacation Part 1: Kansas

We were gone on vacation for nearly three weeks during June. The first part of the trip was to Kansas to visit the Stegall clan. We stopped in Omaha for the night to make the trip a little easier and so we could go to the Omaha zoo. We had reserved a hotel room on-line that was supposed to be a suite. When we got there, they led us to what was actually a fairly small single room. After complaining, we were told the hotel had no suites at all, but they would upgrade us to a jacuzzi room. We decided to take the offer. The room was not the greatest, and Nathan and I were a little put out by the whole thing until Z prayed over our dinner. His prayer went something like this: "Thank you God for our room. Thank you that it has all sorts of cool things in it. Thank you that it has a TV. Thank you that I get my own bed. And thank you that it has a swimming pool in the room!"

Here are a few pics of the Omaha zoo. There's a three toed sloth behind Nathan and Z. (The fish picture at the top is also at the zoo.)

My parents' house in Kansas:

Z and Quentin having fun outside:

Caleb is now special counsel to the Kansas governor, so he works in the state capital and gave us a tour. Here we are outside at the top of the front steps:

Z is sitting in what used to be the chair belonging to the Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. The room is no longer used for the court, though. We told him to point as if directing our eyes towards justice. Unfortunately, it looks more like he's doing a disco move.

Here's a larger look at the room. You can see Liz joined us for the morning, which was very nice.

This picture was taken in the room where the Kansas state senate meets. Z found this Jayhawk cutout on the desk of one of the senators. He came running up to me with it on his head and said, "Is this a king's crown?" Only in Kansas, Z, only in Kansas.

We also had a day at the Topeka zoo with many (but not all) of the cousins. This is Katy and Charis looking adorable in their pigtails.

The boy cousins getting in on the photo op. That's Quentin and Theo.

Katy and Uncle Micah:

A bunch of cousing -- Z, Charis, Grady, Theo and Quentin:

And there they are all in a row:

And finally Eden. Look at those big blue eyes!

I'm realizing we took very few pictures of the adults. We'll have to remedy that next time we see everyone!

"A Blue-Eyed Boy Meets a Brown-Eyed Girl"

Just Pictures

Moving Up!

From this:

To this:

And from this:

to this:

Moving to bigger things sure makes them look small!

Happy Easter Memories

Easter is our favorite holiday of the year! This year at church we heard a wonderful sermon on the resurrection of Christ as the single most important and unique moment in history, and then we came home and opened our Easter baskets. Nathan gave me a beautiful hanging flower basket, so once the weather warms up, we can hang it on the front porch. Then we had lunch with several friends, and Z had an Easter egg hunt! Since he was really the only little kid hunting, he found a zillion eggs! When the hunt was over he said, "Mama, that was the best Easter egg hunt ever!"