It's fun continuing to watch my children's personalities grow and flourish. Some of Emily's favorite things to do lately include being a teacher and us being her students, opening her own restaurant, called 'Woodlands Restaurant', and making cards for Daddy and Mommy. Here's a few pictures of her handiwork:

The official 'Woodlands Restaurant sign

The 'do not enter' signs posted on Emily and Joshu's rooms as they are not part of the restaurant:

The Restroom sign informing the patrons where to go when nature calls:

Joshua continues to crack us up each day. Here's a moment from Thursday with him:

He was hanging out with me at the church and was informing me of all the different things you can do with a styrofoam plate including: make a face on it and 'make wind'. He quickly demonstrated when I asked him how you make wind. He cleverly took the plate and waved it in the air like a fan and sure enough created wind. He was mighty proud of his accomplishment.

The weather this time of year in Houston is incredible. So we have let the kids play outside alot lately. Emily had Kyra come over on Friday for a while and they enjoyed some timme in the sand box and swinging together. Kyra's Daddy, Ted, and myself played the frisbee game with the two girls where they alternate catching small frisbees. Each frisbee they caught was worth one point, or 5 points for the special orange one, and the 10 pointer (which Emily is holding). They seemed to have quite a good time as did the Daddy's as well.

Josh gave the weather a thumbs up!

A couple of moments stood out to me the other day I wanted to share:


Moment 1: Watching my kids sleep

As I went to wake up my kids the other morning it was just one of those amazing moments just to sit there and take it in and watch them sleep. Both of them have their favorite stuffed animal named 'Scruffy'. Emily's 'Scruffy' is a brown floppy eared dog and Joshua's 'Scruffy' is a red floppy eared horse (going along with the cowboy room). On this particular morning both of them were snuggled up close with their respective 'Scruffies' and I just took a second to enjoy it.



Emily and Scruffy








Joshua and Scruffy
















Moment 2: Emily and her tickets
We were at McDonald's meeting with some friends and our kids were playing on the playground doing their thing. Towards the end of our time we noticed that Emily had been quite enjoying her happy meal toy: an iCarly pad of paper. She had apparently been busily transforming every pad of paper into a $1 ticket. She even interrupted me one time to ask me how to spell ticket so she got it just right. As we were wrapping up she came over to me to ask me if I wanted to buy a ticket. She informed me that they were one dollar. I happened to have a dollar in my wallet so I played along with her and then as she gave me the ticket she explained to me that she was selling these tickets to raise money for the people in Haiti. As it came clear what was inside of her heart motivating all of this effort and work she had been doing it really touched me. This whole time she had been busily working over there she was thinking and truly believing that she was going to make a difference in the lives of others through her ticket sales. It was one of those moments where I felt God was winking at me saying 'I know so much of the time as a parent is humbling and you wonder if you are just screwing it up more than doing it right...but things are sinking in...so keep persevering and trusting Me.'