a walk in the park

Could you believe the gorgeous weather today? Jamie and I took full advantage of it by taking John Mark to Hafer Park to play. It is so nice that they are old enough and big enough to actually play on the toys. They had a great time climbing, sliding and running. We had a great time taking a million and one pictures of them. But I have to say, we got some great shots. Of course, it helps that we have ridiculously cute kids to take pictures of.

After playing in the park, we ate some lunch and then took naps. Well, John Mark and Caroline took naps. Jamie and I had fun playing with the hundreds of pictures we had of the kiddos. Then Jamie made famous sweet & sour chicken for all of us. I know that's not exciting information, but I am trying to take up room so I can put my favorite pictures on here.

I have recently started making John Mark sit on the bottom step of our stairs when he is throwing a fit. (I know, you are all shocked that such a precious little boy would EVER do anything like throw a fit, but trust me, it happens) When he starts to get upset with me about whatever I have done wrong (usually not getting him is juice or snacks fast enough) I will tell him to go sit on his step. He walks over looking all sad and forlorn, and then sits there on the step screaming until he is done. I have to sit in the kitchen holding in my laughter because it is just too cute. Eventually he gets tired of it and walks over to me, holding his arms up saying "up, up" until I pick him up. It seems to be working though, because he is throwing fewer fits everyday.

And this picture, well, it's for their wedding slide show one of these days! :o)

"uh-oh!"

These are the words I heard as I was sitting in the hall getting ready for church tonight. This is the little boy that I saw walking down the hall. If you can't tell from the picture, he has an entire roll of scotch tape stuck to him. He was very proud of himself for finding something new and fun to play with. And he was just so darn cute that I couldn't be too upset. In fact, I just carried him down the stairs and took pictures of the little mess.

Which reminds me, John Mark's new favorite word is "mess." Any time he drools (which, if you can't tell from the pictures, is A LOT) he points to the item he has drooled on (read: ME) and says "mess... non nart (that's his name) mess." It's precious. And I've come to accept the fact that I will never have clean shoulders again.

Micah is in Dallas attending his first conference with the new job. John Mark and I are headed to my parents for the weekend since we haven't seen them in a while. If any of you are around, give us a call! We'd love to see everyone since we missed the big party last weekend!

happy valentine's day!

Just let me go ahead and apologize right now for my lack of Valentine pictures from John Mark. I tried all day on Wednesday to get a good one, with no cooperation from him. He stood by the tree holding a big red heart screaming "DADDY!!!" as loud as he possibly could. After 15 minutes, I gave up and we came inside.

We had a great Valentine's day though. There were lots of fun parties at school on Thursday. John Mark got to take super cool Diego valentine's to his friends at school, and he made quite the haul of candy himself. Micah had the day off from work, so he brought me lunch and a card from John Mark.

For our evening, we had a Valentine's picnic in the living room floor, complete with heart shaped pizzas from Papa John's. John Mark thought that it was very cool that he got to eat supper on the floor with mommy and daddy while watching his new movie Robots. He also enjoyed the hershey kisses that I sprinkled around the blanket.

Overall, it was a great day spent with my two favorite valentine's in the world. We hope everyone had a great Valentine's day! Stay warm this weekend!

nothing too new

It's been a while.
Partly because I've been busy...
Partly due to the fact that we've been sick...
And mainly because I don't have much of interest to say.

Today is Big Weekend. Jamie and I are doing a host/lead combo with the senior girls. This feels very strange because these are the girls we taught when they were in the 8th grade. These girls were my very first student ministry anything. It was also over Big Weekend that Jamie and I became friends.

Ah, a moment of silence to reflect.

Anyway, I really should be cleaning my bathroom, or kitchen. But instead I am upstairs wasting time by posting a blog that is nothing if not boring.

This will be Micah's first weekend on the new job. I think he will be spending most of his time going around to middle school houses meeting students. He wrapped up his job with Funds for Learning yesterday and is very excited for this new beginning with HHBC.

John Mark is spending the weekend with BB & Poppy. He has been a little sick with ear infections but other than that he is getting big and cracking us up. His new thing is taking the parts of the vacuum cleaner and pretending they are the guitar to guitar hero. I have tried for 2 weeks to get that on video, but he never cooperates. Crazy kid!

I guess that's all I've got. Be praying for us as we begin this new transition into ministry. We're excited, nervous and ready all rolled into one!