Today, we took Joshua in for his 4 year old check up. He was very brave as he made it through the vision test, hearing test, blood pressure (it just gives your arm a hug as big sister puts it), blood work (yikes), and yes two different shots in the leg. I believe big sister was more freaked out than her brother was.

Josh is pictured here identifying shapes from long range for the vision test.

I love getting to take Emily to school. You just never know where the conversation will go. We have just about covered every topic imaginable. Today is the day she normally gets to check out a book from the library. So I was asking her which book she was going to check out and then I asked her what book has been her favorite that she has checked out this past year. I quickly interjected, 'I bet it was the dog book that came with the cd of all the dog songs, huh?' She quickly replied, 'No, my favorite book was the Jesus book.' I said "really, what was your favorite part?'. She said, 'all of it.' This kind of spring boarded our conversation into a spiritual one pretty quickly. I asked her if she wanted to be an online missionary with me this summer with global media outreach where we could together share Jesus with people all over the world. She seemed excited about that and then asked me if there were more people in the world who knew Jesus or more people who didn't know Jesus. I told her there were more people in the world who didn't know Jesus and that Jesus Himself said that the it was a wide road full of lots of people who didn't know and walk with God and it was a narrow road full of few people who did know God. Next she said, 'so if people don't know God they go to Hayden?' And I said, 'you mean Hades?' We talked about how Hades was a place where you spent forever apart from God in darkness, loneliness and pain and that God sent His Son Jesus to come die on the cross for us so we would be 'saved' from that place and be able to spend forever with Him. As we approached the school she concluded with asking me if she could watch the movie where Jesus dies on the cross. I figured out that she was talking about the 'Passion of the Christ' and I told her it was a very difficult movie to see that is bloody and shows exactly what happened to Jesus. She said that she could handle it as long as it didn't have any loud noises. Gotta love those drives to school, never know what might happen. This doesn't happen every morning but I've found if you spend the time with your kids even a 20 minute drive with them every day, the chances of this conversation happening increase greatly.

Well, we made it back from our Disney adventure yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Disney is such an overwhelming experience for all the senses that 6 days in the different parks (3 - Magic Kingdom, 1 - Animal Kingdom, 1 - Epcot, and 1 - Hollywood studios) feels like a month. We took almost 1000 pictures I think but I thought I would list out a few highlights and memories from our experience:

Emily's night as a princess - On Tuesday Emily and her cousin Allison got to go to Bippity Boppity Boutique and have an extreme makeover (hair, makeup, extensions, cinderella dress, etc) in Downtown Disney. They then went and had some appetizers at Rainforest Cafe. Then they took a boat ride across the lake and boarded a bus for the magic kingdom. Upon arrival the dads got to come and see their little princesses. The girls were sure that when the dads got there we would 'pass out because of they were so beautiful' so I played along acting very woozy and faintish when we first saw them. Then the girls enjoyed an amazing dinner in the castle and to their surprise got to meet four of the disney princesses (Snow White, Aurora, Cinderella and Aerial). During their main course (fancy chicken nuggets) they could see the fireworks show through the stained glass windows in the castle. It was truly a magical night for the girls.

Joshua, the doggy paddling pirate - For Joshua one of the highlights occurred at the pool in the house where we stayed. He learned how to doggy paddle with floaties or 'doggy paddles' as he called them. on Sunday night Whitney and I had to rush Emily to the ER as she slipped and fell and busted her chin on the concrete and Joshua stayed at the house and was taught how to swim with floaties on. Then on Tuesday afternoon we Joshua and I had some great Father/Son time in the pool for about an hour and a half where we just played together and I gave him 'challenges' to overcome in the pool and with every successful challenge he was so excited and giddy. He swam across the pool, he jumped off the side into my arms, he got to play whack-a-dad with a pool noodle as I popped up and down in the water. It was some great time with my son as I learned how to just play again and have fun. It was a good reminder to me to not get so immersed in bills, cleaning and to-do-lists that I don't take time to really enjoy the best gifts that God has given me, the relationships in my life.

On Friday Joshua had his own extreme makeover as they transformed him into a pirate. He was a little in shock during the whole process and didn't know quite what to think but I think he thought it was pretty cool. He also thought it was cool to have a 'moostache' (as he calls it) like Daddy. Right after his transformation was complete we rode 'Pirates of the Carribean' and they told him whenever he got scared to simply yell 'ARRRRR' and he would feel better. So sure enough several times through the ride I heard him yell 'ARRRR' at the scary animatronic pirates and creatures and he seemed to gain courage more and more.

Joshua completed another spring semester of MDO and all the parents showed up in mass force to witness our kids singing some of their songs they learned over the semester. Here's a shot of one of their songs from the performance.

One of our childcare staff, Angela, has made quite an impression on our son. So much so that Joshua has decided to work on his impersonation of her. Angela, with roots in Lubbock Texas, has apparently mesmorized our son with the way she says 'Light' or 'Laught'. Here is Joshua doing his 'Angela' impression.





Emily had her ballet pictures taken last week and she had the royal treatment getting to get a haircut, hairwash, blow dry and a little bit of lipstick (which she thought was pretty cool).




























It was crazy hair day at Joshua's school last week. He definitely went all out for the occassion or maybe Mommy went all out would be more accurate.

Well, it's a been a whirlwind of a month here in the life of the Dunns. We'll begin our tour with our trip out to Tennessee for the celebration of the life of Ira 'Crook' Minton or as we all knew him, 'Grand-daddy'. Here's a a few pictures from our cross-country adventure.

Here's a shot of the grandkids in Tennessee at the hotel.

Here's the kids getting to hang out with their cousins

After the funeral on Saturday we had a chance to go by Grand-daddy's old house near Jefferson City. The couple who lives there now has a small farm so the kids had a great time getting to make some new animal friends.

Josh getting in on the action too.

The kids also had fun feeding the goat as well!

Here's a quick photo tour of the last couple of weeks of our life:

We decided to go to the zoo the Thursday of Spring Break only to discover that thousands of other people had the same brilliant idea as us. So we eventually found a parking space in one of the medical center garages 'kind of near the zoo and began walking and walking and walking.

A good ways into our journey we happen to stumble across a group of people standing outside of UT Medical School and we just happen to be there right at 11:00 for my brother Jay's 'matching' ceremony where all the fourth year med students receive their envelope that contains their residency location. So miraculously we show up right on time to see Jay open his envelope. The kids celebrated with Uncle Jay Jay as he found out that he got his first choice of Ft Worth for the first year and then Houston for the next three for his dermatology residency.

We finally made it to the zoo and met up with Brent and Leslie Call from our church and walked around with them and their kiddos for awhile. Here is a shot during our picnic lunch. They are giving their best monkey pose.

Brother and Sister checking out the animals.

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!