Pumpkin Carving Party

Hi everyone! We just got home from our friends house. We had a pumpkin carving contest. The parents did all the work. All the kids thought it was too messy. I am also adding a crazy morning picture of ZiZi with Kramer hair.

Aspens in the Fall

One of the greatest parts of living in Northern Arizona is watching the aspen trees change color each year. This last week Craig's mom was in town and we made 2 trips up to the mountain to hike and take pictures of the fall colors. We borrowed a friend's toddler backpack (Thanks Michael and Kyla!). Here are some pictures...

Labor Day!

Zamara is officially 18 months old now. She has grown 4 inches since her 1st birthday! She is getting tall and has really thinned out. It is crazy because she is a little girl now, not a baby. She talks constantly and is obsessed with Elmo and Pooh Bear. She puts their names together and calls them "Elmopooh". She is also good at reminding us to pray at mealtimes. If we forget, she will fold her hands and declare "AMEN!" until we pray. She is developing quite a little sense of humor. It is exciting to see her learn new things each day.

Laura's parents came to visit over Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. It was the first Laura's stepdad Ralph had been to our house with Zizi here. We both really appreciate them taking the time to come and visit.

One of the projects we worked on (and are are still working on!) is a play structure in the backyard. It is HUGE! I had no idea how much work would go into it. We are almost done though. We will show you the evolving pictures when we are finished. Zizi loves to play in it even though it isn't done yet.

We also went to the county fair over the weekend. It is a total small-town thing to do. It is not a great fair, but it was good enough. It is always fun to walk around, eat greasy food, and talk to your neighbors. Very fun! Zamara got to see a lot of animals--she was able to pet a chicken--she thought that was pretty cool. We didn't go on any rides, but Zizi played in a bounce house for a little while. I am sure we will be going on A LOT more rides next year.

Zamara had another first today--she got her finger slammed in a door at school for the first time. We are surprised it hadn't happened earlier, to be honest. It seems like little fingers are always in the way when doors are shutting. She is fine. They put some ice on it and gave her some extra cuddles and love. It is swollen, but it didn't seem to hurt her this evening during dinner.

Well, here are some pictures from this last weekend.

Happy Birthday Bekkah!

Today is Laura's sister Bekkah's birthday. Zamara had a very special message to give to her auntie...enjoy!

Disneyland Pictures

THE PICTURES WE PROMISED

We have been having problems uploading pictures to our blog. Hopefully this will work. More to come...

pictures!

Hi. Sorry it has been so long since we have updated our blog. It has been crazy here for us. We just got back from a BIG trip to Los Angeles with our high school students. Craig took a week off and we brought Zamara along. It ended up being a good trip, but Zizi had a hard time with her mommy working long days. Craig was the pastor's husband the whole week. It was kind of funny because a lot of youth pastor's bring their wives and kids...so Craig was the "house husband" last week. I think he decided that he couldn't do it full time though. It ended up being a good week for our students. God moved in a powerful way.

We flew out a couple days early to spend some family time together. We went to Disneyland. Zizi was too small to really enjoy it, but she was very exicited to meet Pooh Bear. When we got up to the front of the line to meet him, she got very scared. The rest of the day she kept yelling "mickey!" and "pooh!" It was so cute! Our friend JJ had a year pass to Disneyland so he met us there. He is Zamara's self-proclaimed "Godfather", although I have to say that JJ makes a good godfather. She loved him and snuggled right up after only a couple of minutes.

During the week we also went to the beach a couple of times with the students. It was Zizi's first time at the beach. She LOVED the sand, but was a little unsure about the water. She like to point and say "wader", but she wanted nothing to do with the real thing.

The last picture (or maybe the first) is of Zamara's giant puke in the middle of the night. I was out talking with students and Craig woke up to her crying. She had puked in her bed and had gotten it EVERYWHERE! It was very impressive. Craig got a few really good pictures of it. Basically all the food from dinner and her snack had just sat in her tummy waiting to come back up. Craig had to give her a shower in the middle of the night. He said she kept falling asleep in the shower. It was not fun, but now that we can look at the pictures it is kinda funny. Even after the shower, we found puke pieces in her hair the next morning. Poor thing was all huddled in the corner of her pack and play trying to get away from it, but by that time she had already cover herself in it.