Making up songs

Zach has been in to making up songs lately and tonight he was working on one of his favorites, "The Friend Song." He often sings it and wants us to sing along with him. Tonight, knowing he was on camera, he improvised and came up with a new ending. We all got a good laugh.

Another Haircut... and post haircut ice cream

In an abundance of caution and a great desire to see no more lice, we decided to give Zach another haircut this week. We hadn't really seen anything the last few days, but really, we want to make sure. So, we set him up on the back porch and I cut his hair again. Since it had only been a week, this time I had to go with a 1 on the back and sides and a 2 on top. It is really short now, but looks very cute. He was not enjoying himself at all, so about halfway through, Liza and I suggested that we could get ice cream (before supper) once we were done. That helped to perk him up and he was able to get through the rest of the haircut.


Here he is enjoying his own cup of ice cream with sprinkles on top. It was quite tasty.


Isabella got a cup as well.The Amy's Ice Cream is located in the Arboretum close to the cows in the park, so of course, we had to go over an play on them for a while. It gave us a great opportunity to take some great pictures...


Liza and Zach both got on this cow. By this time, he was no longer interested in smiling for the camera...
They like to ride every cow, so Zach and Isabella got on this one together.

This was the last picture before we had to go. It was getting dark and I love the way the light plays in the trees behind Zach and the colors. This is one of my favorite pictures from that day...


We keep checking, but haven't found anything else on him at all since the last haircut. Hopefully we won't have to give this haircut to Isabella... :-) We haven't seen anything on her at all in the last week, so hopefully we have vanquished them.

The word "Nitpicking" has a new meaning for us...

Liza wrote before about finding Indiana lice in the hair of our kids. Now we've been trying to get RID of them. :-) Isabella has done well sitting still to look through her hair, but Zach just couldn't hold still for very long. Liza tried tying his hair up in sections to look through it, but it was about impossible.

So today he got the radical hair cut. It turns out that a shop won't cut it if there are any signs of lice at all, so I went and got some clippers and had a grand ole time. :-) Zach was not enjoying it much, but in the end it looks OK. Next week we will probably cut it again and then have a pro fix up the rough edges.


Both Zach and Isabella got a new treatment tonight that is all organic. It is a combination of lots of different types of oils that people swear by for killing the little critters off. They had to have it put on then leave it on inside a shower cap for an hour. Zach got the treatment after the haircut and Isabella got it tonight (with no haircut.) We are praying that this will get them out of the hair and we are spraying, washing, and cleaning everything else. Oh what fun!

Bubbles!

Zach received a bubble machine for Christmas from his Aunt Kim. Once we got the batteries for it, we got it going and the kids really love it. Here are a few pictures of them playing with it in my mom's driveway in Houston.




It really puts out a lot of bubbles! In the picture below you can see Indiana sporting her new haircut and watching the fun through the glass. She was out with them, but she kept chasing them (the kids, not the bubbles) and Isabella didn't like it.

one other thing...

Isabella is spending the night at another house, so when Zach asked me to lay with him for a little while as he was going to sleep, I was happy to oblige. Especially after his patience with everything we had to do to him today. He even gets to listen to his favorite music this bedtime--usually he chooses at nap, and Isabella chooses at bed.

So precious to lay next to him, and hear him sing himself to sleep with "Amazing Grace." How I hope and pray that he understands how truly amazing that grace is at an early age. Thanks, Lord, for that precious moment.

What a day!

I didn't realize how behind we are on blogging until I looked at the previous post.

We have been in Houston this past week working on support. We have been so encouraged by the people we have met, and the potential for raising new monthly support.

However, the last few days we have noticed that Zach has been scratching his head alot. Now, when we were in Indiana before Christmas, a couple of nieces came down with lice. But we never detected any in our kids, even after checking for several days in a row.

Finally today, we found them in Zach's head. Zach and Isabella have slept at almost every relatives' house in Houston in the past week while Chris and I were in Ft. Worth for our winter conference. So I made the dreaded phone calls to the other two houses, and at Chris' mom's house we began the process of washing all of the bedding, and scrubbing the heads. Non-washable blankets and beloved dolls have gone into a month of quarantine, and I spent two and a half hours going through Zach and Isabella's heads this afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow's check will not uncover more...

I am thankful that cousins on both sides of the family have gotten lice, so I could put the call into the mothers to ask them what to do. And thankful that everyone here is able to not take this too seriously. Thanks Kelli, Kim, and Mom!

Playing in the snow

The kids had a great time playing in the snow up in Indiana. The first day we got there it snowed, so the kids went out the next day. It was in the upper 20's. On Friday it iced and then got down to -3 on Sunday with a windchill of -26. The kids were not nearly as excited to stay out in it for long though Liza did discover that the sled goes a lot faster and further when the snow is coated with a thick layer of ice. :-)

Here are some pictures from their fun in the snow....





The ice made the trees look beautiful, but it took down lots of power lines including Liza's brothers' houses. They were out of power for 16 hours the first day and then off and on for the next couple of days. Thankfully, Liza's parent's house did not lose power so they had a place to come and warm up.

Living in a Mac home

There are so many posts we need to make about our trip to Indiana. You can check out my sister-in-law's...she does such a better job at it.

But this one made me laugh--Last week in Indiana was freezing. I'm not sure if the temperature got above 10 degrees. One day I was getting Zach and Isabella ready to go outside and play (they were completely undeterred by the cold weather, thanks LaDawn for rounding up the snow clothes!), and Isabella had put her scarf on.

Zach looked at her and said, "You're a PC!"
Isabella: "I am not!"
Zach: "Yes, you are."
Isabella: "PCs are what people laugh at! I will not be laughed at!"

You can tell we live in a Mac house...later Zach declared he was a PC also when I put his scarf on him. Chris will post the pics to let you see how cold it really was.

Let it snow!

Last Tuesday, when I arrived back in Austin after a long trip home from New Zealand, it was snowing in Austin. Liza was at her annual staff Christmas party and got this picture of her and Erin trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. The next morning the when the kids got up they were SO excited to see even a dusting of snow on the roofs and play scape.

Kid Theology

Last night when we were getting the kids ready for bed, Isabella was praying for people we know who don't know Jesus. Then she said, "I believe in Jesus!" To that Zach said, with conviction, "I don't believe in Jesus!" Liza replied, "Why not?" "I believe in God!" he replied. Isabella then retorted, "Well, Jesus IS God" but he would hear nothing of it. :-)