Vacation Pictures Finally

Okay, so I've been a little behind on putting pictures up here. :o) But here are some highlights from our vacation to the "land of smiles" back in February. We had a fabulous time, hung out with some fun folks, and made memories that will last forever. Here's just a peak at what all we did...

The boys enjoyed feeding the elephants and hippos at the zoo. We were hoping to feed the giraffes this time (like we did before), but that wasn't an option that day. We were disappointed about the giraffes, but still enjoyed feeding (and sometimes petting!) the other animals.

Riding back from the zoo that day we took the local transportation which is like a covered truck with benches down either side of the bed for people to sit on. The kids loved riding these, but we had to hold on to the stroller and Mercy's seat/backpack!

The city with the great zoo was where we spent the first week. Then we headed south on a 4-hour van ride to the vacation place where the beach was. It was a great week for our family! Here are some of the fun things we did that week...


We spent Valentine's Day there... Thanks, G-mother for sending all the valentine stuff! We took it with us so we could celebrate there.


The place where we stayed was right on the beach. The boys had SO MUCH FUN playing in the sand and water. It was like the boys' favorite dream come true!


We spent our 3rd week in a different place where had lots of fun too. We're so grateful for the people we met and the great time that we had. What a gift to our family!

Micah's Answers

For our family devotions we recently finished The Jesus Book where we've done one of the lessons each night, then had the boys take turns doing "memory". They have enjoyed answering the questions about Jesus like "What did the prophets say about Him?" and "Where was He born?" and "When did Peter deny Jesus" and "When did His ministry begin?" Sweet Micah sometimes gets the answers a little mixed up, but he loves to hang in there with his brothers and answer them too. One night when asked "When did Jesus' ministry begin?" He answered, "After He was baptized and the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a... rooster." :-) He got "rooster" from the question about Peter. Of course, we all laughed, but he was totally serious. It was very cute.

6 months!

Mercy turned 6 months on January 19th. Hard to believe! I just feel like she's changing so fast and growing up already too quickly! She's pretty squirmy right now, rolling around everywhere when given the chance, and grabbing everything in front of her. She got her two from bottom teeth in and is already eating 3 meals a day (in addition to still nursing). She's a beautiful, happy, smiley baby, and we're so glad she's part of our family! Here are some 6 month pictures...

Outside Pics

I've been meaning to put these pictures up for some time now. There is a little playground outside our apartment building that we take the kids out regularly to play on. It's not exactly ideal, but it gives them a place to run around and expend energy, which they possess in copious quantities. So, without further ado, here are some great outside pictures of the boys!

Giggles

Tonight we were having our family devotions and the kids were reviewing things we've read about Jesus in our devotion book (The Jesus Book by Stephen Elkins - great book!). Each boy takes turns and it was Micah's turn to say that Jesus taught about baptism. When he hesitated on the word "baptism" Joshua tried to help him by saying, "It's another word for 'bapto'". Well, I thought Joshua just totally made that up, so I started laughing. Then on the next one, Jesus taught about repentance, I said, "It's another word for 'repento'". The boys thought that was totally hilarious and everyone started giggling and making up words with "o" on the end of it. Then, to my shame, Daddy came to Joshua's defense and read to me that "bapto" is the Greek word for "baptism" and that Joshua really was correct in saying that. So my 6 year old's Greek is better than mine. :-) Nevertheless, we all laughed quite a bit tonight during devotions and had a great time. I'm not sure the boys ever really knew why we were laughing except that they thought "repento" was really funny. I guess I should brush up on my Greek before I start making up words next time. :-)

If You're Ever Down in Texas...

A few Sundays ago we were having a fellowship time in our home. Luke was sitting with Daddy helping him work the Powerpoint for our music time. So, we were in between songs having a time of prayer - everyone was nice and quiet - and Luke started to sing a little song. It goes like this... "If you're ever down in Texas, look me up..." He got if off of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Funny song, not exactly perfect timing on Luke's part to sing it. :-) Such a hilarious 4 year old moment!