Rest in Peace

We say goodbye to our friend and doctor, Dr. Royal Benson, today. He became suddenly ill a little over a week ago and left us for eternal life today at age 56. He was a wonderful, prolife, firecracker of a man. He will be missed by many. Please pray for his soul and for his wife and daughter left behind.

What a weekend

We had lots of fun. Pawpaw took the girls shopping Friday, and they came home with kites. So we had a grand time with neighbors and all flying kites all weekend!

A story with Pawpaw

 Kites, kites, kites

 

 For the first time in my life, I was able to fly a kite to the point that it hit the high altitude wind and stayed up by itself. I never could get it as a child!

 And a nice birthday dinner for Jared with Jake visiting too. So great to see those guys!

Of course it wouldn't be complete without a game of chase with Pawpaw the monster. She loved it!

Big smiles!

Guess who is here

And she remembered them this time!

On a side note, we did our three Dec/Jan well checks yesterday. Anastasia weighed a little over 19 lbs. and was 30 inches tall. So she is 10% for weight and 60% for height, which of course makes her look really skinny (said the doc)! Stephen officially passed up Gloria in weight, weighing in at 34lbs. Gloria is 33, but she is still taller. Stephen was 75% on weight and 90% on height. We have to have some overachiever in the family, right? ;)

It's official

She walks. She stills scoots rarely if she falls and is having trouble getting back up. But gone are the days when I could place her in the next room with a few toys and run to the kitchen to get something done. Oh, no...she follows me so quickly now that I can barely even get a photo of her walking towards me...

See?

And we only have two pairs of pants with holes in the rear after all those months of scooting...not bad. :)

And we pause...

to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming. We began Lent yesterday but pause briefly to celebrate St. Valentine today! We went to the park with friends and had a great time! We actually need to pray to St. Valentine more these days since he was martyred for defending Christian marriage in a pagan society! ;)

 Decorating bags (we practically had to drag them out of the woods!)

Yummy treats

Mrs. R makes the. best. cupcakes.

 Mmmmm

And a special delivery from Lito and Lita! Now that is some popcorn.

Fake out

Anastasia is really walking now. She still goes between things but can make it all the way across the room and even change direction! Life is getting exciting...she was pulling books off the shelf all over the library this morning! :p Here is a video of her faking out Austin by changing directions. :)

Our Mummy

We are moving through world history, and after reading a book about Ancient Egypt, we decided to make a mummy. Mariana graciously volunteered to be our model. :)

Lito visit

We had a little surprise visit from Lito this weekend. We all really enjoyed seeing him. Gloria and Anastasia even wore their Aggie dresses to mass this morning in honor of Lito! (Stephen really enjoyed seeing him too but missed this photo somehow...I think he was still eating breakfast).

Baby photos

Several family members and friends have asked to see baby photos of Austin and I in hopes of figuring out who our children favor. I finally got around to scanning them, so here goes...

 Austin at 4 months

Austin around 2yrs

 Austin around 4yrs

 Kristen at 9 months

Kristen at 2yrs

 Kristen around 4yrs

So there ya go! Your guess is as good as mine. ;) Although I do think the chunky baby figures came from me and the more petite figures from Austin!

Twinkies

I remember playing "twinkies" or twins with my friends growing up. We would fix our hair alike, give ourselves rhyming names, etc. These two buddies are getting an early start! Actually we just needed somewhere to contain them so they would eat lunch. ;) So cute!

One man's trash...

We raided the neighbor's trash (with permission, of course) after they cleaned out their backyard and came home with some fun stuff!

The "flintstone" car is always in high demand...now we have two, and the "new" one is a convertible. ;)

Stephen is always after Gloria's hotwheels "birthday" trike (she received it for her 2nd birthday from Pawpaw and Manah). Now he has his own...except that the color schemes would work better if they traded. But at least he has a spot for his sippy cup!

And the best find of all is this playhouse. They have all really enjoyed it!

Happy Baptism Day, Anastasia!

As a special treat, we made a little side trip to Shipley's on our way to piano and saved Daddy some. He just had to share with her on her special day! ;) Don't they look guilty?

Broccoli Harvest

We have broccoli plants, compliments of a sweet friend (we were not even going to attempt a fall garden this year), and we had our first harvest this evening. We enjoyed it fresh with dinner tonight (no ranch dip required...it was delicious) and will cook the rest tomorrow. Yum! It is the one vegetable that every family member likes!

Total relaxation