Close up and personal... with a giraffe

I thought you all would enjoy these pictures of me and the giraffes at Cheyenne Mt Zoo. Its's not very often that I post pictures of myself, but these were just so comical I had to put them up. I was so afraid that one of those long giraffe tongues was going to get in my hair!! :)

Just playing around

One morning this last week, while I was at a staff meeting at work, my cousin Nicole snapped some pictures of the boys. Aren't they cute, just lounging around, giggling and squirming? I love these pictures! Thanks Nicole!

A beautiful shining smile

My dear little Isaiah has a brilliant shining smile. It lights up a room. It is completely contagious. It makes you glad that you're alive to see and share such lovely moments. Dear Isaiah, never stop smiling, never stop laughing, never stop thanking the Lord for blessing you with a cheerful heart.

A trip to garden of the gods

Pikes Peak

Can Colorado get more gorgeous than this? Wow!!

Cousin Marcie, Josh, Isaiah, and Kathryn

Kissing Camels

Cousin Nicole, Josh, Isaiah, and Kathryn

My cousins, my kids, and I took a trip to Garden of the gods this past week. It was a bit of a "blustery day" as Winnie the Pooh would have said, but the beauty of God's creation made it worth battling the cooler weather. Garden of the gods is really an exquisite piece of the One True God's handiwork. Everytime I go, I'm amazed with the magnificence of the giant red rock formations, and the stunning mountain range in the background.

Psalm 111:2-3 "Great are the words of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work and his righteousness endures forever"

Doing the dishes

As most little boys do, Isaiah loves playing with water. The other night, Isaiah wanted to help in the kitchen. After we finished devotions, he pushed his chair right up to the sink and began to "work" on the dishes. I can barely describe the delight on his face as he watched the water come out of the tap, carefully caught the water in a cup, and then poured it over the rest of the dishes. It was so amusing to me to see him do what he thinks mommy does in the kitchen each day. He hasn't necessarily figured out the point of doing dishes (i.e. to clean them) but has definitely figured out that getting things wet is super fun. He cried when the last dish was washed and mommy turned off the water. "What?!?! We can't be done already? It always takes forever when I'm waiting to play with you, Mom!"

Wrestling with mommy

My little boys love wrestling. If ever they see me even sitting on the floor, their automatic reaction is to start climbing on me and wrestling around. Now, wrestling is not my area of expertise, nor is it really something I enjoy. My hair always ends getting pulled and some body part gets crushed under the weight of one of my kids. Yet, because its something that seems to be ingrained in their brains, even at this young age, I make many attempts to wrestle and play with the boys. While I can't wait for daddy to come home and take over these boyish activities, I don't want them to miss out on this experience in the meantime. In my attempts at wrestling, I usually turn it into a tickling match, perhaps because I don't see the point of plain wrestling, and this is the only way it makes sense to me. I love to hear their shrieks of laughter, continuous giggling, and the big smiles on their faces. I love their attempts to get away from the tickle monster, all the while, not wanting me to stop tickling them at all. It warms my heart and makes me laugh too. The sound of a child laughing is just so precious! There is nothing quite like it.

A rich and sweet "I love you"

I received the sweetest (literally) piece of mail today from my husband. Yes, as you are probably guessing that is a solid piece of chocolate from Hershey's inscripted with my name in white chocolate icing. I'm always amazed with Nick's thoughtfulness, and his ability to be quite secretive despite how good I am at guessing what he's up to (we had other plans for Valentines). Thank you, my love, for this sweet treat. Please don't anyone ask me how fast it gets consumed.

Dear little Joshua

Sweet little Joshua (11 months) is cruising and climbing around. I'm sure he'll take off walking any day now. Its so fun to see him learn and discover, and yes, even to get into mischief. I think that is one of the beauties of the little ones, Joshua still has such innocent expressions. Even when I catch him unrolling toilet paper, or making long distance phone calls, his face lights up with a smile when he sees me, as if to enthusiastically say with pride, "Look what I did, Mom!!"

Playing dress up

Isaiah (2 years) will be the ring bearer at my brothers wedding this summer. After discovering how expensive tuxedo's are to rent, even for just a little guy ($100 plus), I started hunting around for a suit for him. Finally, at the wonderful Army Thrift Store, I spotted this handsome black suit, in the perfect size for the summer and at an amazing price, $1.80. Yes, you read that correctly, one dollar and eighty cents!!! What a find! I'll tell you, if there's a bargain out there, I can find it. Or at least I'll die trying. :)

I had Isaiah dress up in his new suit so I could email pictures to my mom and my brothers' fiance'. I wanted to make sure that this suit was what they were looking for (and it did). Okay, so maybe I just wanted to see how cute he looked in it. :) Isaiah really did not enjoy the dressing up, but after a few bribes he was quite happy for me to snap pictures. I'm not sure where he got the folded hands from, but he did that on his own. I think he knew that it was something special to wear this little black suit.