Brothership

Instead of a post on June, you get a post about Brothership. (This is due to the fact that I uploaded all of the pictures I have from June into this post without realizing I didn't have any more pictures from June.)

What is "brothership," you might ask? It's a term Nathan coined. Brothership: It's like friendship, but for brothers. So here are some pictures of brothers having fun!

Sorry, Zach. No brothership pictures with you yet. But don't worry, they will come soon I'm sure!

Breakfast cookies

Y'all. I just made some really good things I found on Pinterest called Breakfast Cookies. Click here to be redirected to the blog with the recipe. I used dried cranberries in place of the coconut (because I didn't have any coconut) and coconut oil in place of the canola oil because it's better for you, and I like the taste of it A LOT. They would be really good if you added chocolate chips. :)

Brilliant Idea!

*Note: The scenario is not 100% hypothetical.*

Scenario: Woman has baby in early fall. Woman needs some new winter pants because never having had a baby so late in the year, she doesn't have any postpartum pants that fit. Woman buys one new pair of pants. A few weeks later, pants are slightly too big--still OK but a smaller size would probably be better.

Brilliant Idea: Stores that encourage weight loss by letting you exchange a larger size for a smaller size (within a certain time frame)! For example, you buy a pair of pants. If you need a smaller size within, say, 2 months, you can return them to the store for the smaller size. Obviously this makes no financial sense, but it would be a great encouragement to people to get healthier (if they need to lose weight to be healthier).

I have a lot of good ideas that will never make me one penny, much less be a get-rich-quick scheme! If someone rich wanted to fund my good ideas, I would forever grateful. :)

Flying a kite in Forest Park

One evening back in June we took a family picnic (of pizza) to Forest Park, a huge park here in the city of St. Louis. It was a windy afternoon so we took the opportunity to fly a kite. It was fun! (And I was pretty gigantically pregnant so I was the designated photographer.)

This boy loves his costumes

Remind you of someone?

If this doesn't automatically remind you of someone in particular, check out the bottom picture of this blog post from May 2007.

May 2011

I am not going to do a whole post about April because I just don't remember much of it! But, on April 28, Isaac turned 3 and that's worth noting. We are so thankful for our sweet Isaac. He is a funny boy, always marching to his own drummer. Recently, Isa

ac was praying for supper. "God is good, God is great...God, thank you for our church, for the bricks in our house. Thank you that we can go robber hunting and that you give us a forest for robber hunting. Thank you for our food. Thank you for wild animals and our cats. Mommy doesn't like dogs so we decided to get a cat. Amen." That prayer exactly sums up Isaac. When he wants to do something, like pray, he's very thorough but does it exactly how he wants to do it. Isaac, we love how God made you and are so thankful you are part of our family!


May started with me having a really, really bad ear infection. I thought children were the only ones who got ear infections. WRONG. Mine was actually an outer-ear infections, also called swimmer's ear. My whole ear canal got swollen shut. I'm pretty sure it was from using a q-tip. Q-tips, if you stick them in the ear canal, can cause little tears in the skin in which bacteria can grow and then cause the infections. Believe me when I tell you that you do not want an outer ear infection. The whole side of my face and neck was swollen and sore. Ugh. I'm so glad that's over.

During said ear infection, I also turned the big 3-0 on May 3rd. I had actually been looking forward to my 30th birthday for a while. For the past several years (since having Isaac, probably), I have felt like I was in my 30s, whatever that means. So I was glad to finally arrive and be among "my people." Jimmy is still lagging two years behind, but he'll make it! Jimmy threw a little dessert party for me for my birthday which included my favorite desserts. It was great because I was pregnant and felt like I could indulge in whatever I wanted. Plus, my ear hurt and I'm a huge pain wuss so I self-medicated with lemon chess pie and chocolate eclair cake!

May 17th was cute little Toby's first birthday.

That boy is definitely full of life! We get comments all the time about how cute he is, how friendly he is, how much he smiles...it's very contagious. He's been called a "charmer" more than once by totally different people. He's got wonderful dimples and he is always laughing so they come out a lot! Toby, we are so glad God gave you to us!

After the big birthday there was looming ahead like a giant wall of water about to crash down.....GRADUATION. Graduation is usually a joyous event. But this year it was also very sad as we had to say goodbye to some of our closest friends. Many of the families with whom we entered seminary graduated after three years while we're on the four-year track. Graduation was May 20th and we were so proud to see our good friends receive the degree they'd worked so hard for. The next week was challenging as we said goodbye to many friends. May 28th was not only Jimmy's 28th birthday, but also moving day for two of my closest friends. I cried a lot that day, but I know God has good plans in store for them and for us.

Those are the May highlights. It was a month that was packed full of birthdays, Mother's day (Oh yeah! Jimmy bought me a beautiful corsage for me to wear to church on Mother's Day), graduation and moving. It had some very high emotional highs and some very sad lows. But we can see God's hand through it all and that makes us excited about what he's still got in store!

A May trip to the zoo: (As always, if you click on the picture you will be able to see a bigger version.)

End of Maternity Leave

I have not blogged in 8 months and 10 days. It's time to remedy that. I've got too much fun/exciting/scary things going on in my life that I don't want to forget. Maternity leave is officially over now that Zach is three months old (tomorrow). I will start by doing a post for each month that I didn't blog. They will be short and to the point, but they will come. If you're still reading, that is.