Whose Ark Is It?

My dear son has a beautiful, Christian heart. When he was about 18 months old, he rode through the grocery store telling everyone we passed that they should, "Smile! God loves you."

At two and a half, he shared a message at Easter in a similar way. That time he told everyone at the grocery store, "Jesus died on the cross for all sinners."

(In the interest of honest disclosure, at 3, he told everyone at the grocery store, "Daddy got his teeth cleaned at the dentist's office.")

At almost four, he wandered through a department store singing "Onward Christian Soldiers."

From time to time, his complete faith shines in unexpected moments.

The other day, David and I went to our local Christian bookstore. While we were walking around, I saw a toy Noah's ark. Thinking that I was a clever mom, I thought I would use this as an opportunity to work on possessive pronouns.

I pointed to Noah and asked David who he was. He replied, "Noah." The toy's Noah looked a lot like Noah from our ark toy set at home so I was not surprised by the recognition.

I then pointed to the boat, "Whose boat is it?"

David looked at me and said, "God's."

I was working on pronouns. I thought David would say "his." So, I tried again. "David," I asked, "Whose boat is it?"

"It's God's," David replied more emphatically.

Silly Mom that I am, I tried one more time. Pointing to Noah, "Who is this?" David replied, "Noah." "So whose boat is it?" I asked. "It's God's boat," David said. And that was when it hit me. I was the one missing the point. He wasn't failing to use possessive pronouns. He was telling me that Noah followed God's plan when he built the ark.

You're right kiddo. It is God's boat. And, it's also God's amazing plan for a wonderful, smart little boy.

A visit with family

We are so blessed with our children's grandparents. Seriously. I know parental love is no suprise but our parents are truly amazing grandparents. Both sets have given us years of support and joy in the roles as grandparents. Sadly, we are a little too far away from either set of grandparents to get to see them very often. The grandparents on my side are several states (and about 18 hours in a car) away. When we see Grandma and Grandpa, it's typically for a week or so visit. We can't wait for the next time!!

My husband's parents live about two hours away. We try to get up for quick day trips to see Nana and Nampa. On our last day trip, we got to play, play, play!


Anna got to "play" the piano...


and she got to play with talking Thomas...


and she got to play on the giant ball.

David got to play too!


He read books and played in the yard.

We also took David and Anna to see David's favorite model railroad. It's a fantastic set up at a greenhouse near my in law's. The nursery has devoted an entire building to the trains.










Although she remained in the baby carrier because of the height of the display, Anna loved the trains too!




After the train, we went back to Nana and Nampa's for a little while. Nana took this shot of our family of four. I love it!


There were a lot of hugs to be had.


We love our children's grandparents. We wish we could see them more often!

Wordless Wednesday: Puppy Love

Taking time to enjoy spring

David is an outdoor kid. Anna is showing great joy at being outside too. When the weather got beautiful last week, we took advantage of the time to walk in two parks. Both are prairie ecosystems with ponds and streams.

The first was a family of four adventure. We walked around a park that has an old farm house and a lake with a path around it. Anna was in a baby carrier for most of the walk, but she also got to walk and play at some of the spots where we stopped for a while.










The second was a Mom-David adventure. Although I cherish these times, they are not as frequent as I would like. David is in school all day and he enjoys a lot of things that are Dad-David adventures (like swimming in the pool at our YMCA).




On this walk, David was throwing rocks and sticks into a little stream. The prairie at this park had an intentional burn last fall. The prairie grasses need fire to keep their ecosystems healthy. What I didn't realize was that David was getting some charcoal on his hands from the sticks.

Check out these two photos. Hilarious!




The park has great paths and trails. It also has some lovely playground equipment. David likes to stop and play before heading home.




Can you tell how much we've been enjoying the weather? Well, it is spring. This morning, it snowed.

Playground adventures

We have recently had an outbreak. This is the right kind of outbreak: Spring weather! When the opportunity presents itself, we go out and play. I love the look of joy and pleasure that both kids get when they play at the playground. We call this playground "The Castle" because of the neat spires in the structure.

The black rubbery mat is a "shaky bridge" that wiggles when you walk on it. That has been a giant hit for David this spring.

I love the look on David's face in the photo that has Anna walking toward David and Dave. It just captures it all!

Hooray, Spring!