Then I proceeded to have both of my kids in the winter.

But!

Then I moved to Arizona, and now having a summer birthday is the kiss of death, and having a winter birthday is the bomb-diggigty!

We opened presents right away in the morning per Micah’s request.  That is Savannah’s bedhead for ya.

Opening presents!

We got Micah a new Bible for his birthday and started reading through it front to back on January 1st!  We just finished last night, and he is insisting that we go buy a new, different Bible to read.  I guess reading the Bible in one year is not hard when it is the children’s version.

I wanted to make Mica’s cake, and he wanted a garbage truck cake.  So I decided to stick one of his toy garbage trucks on an oreo road.  Writing with frosting is not one of my great talents.

Our birthday celebration also included going to Peter Piper Pizza, which has become one of Micah’s favorite places on earth.

Coming soon . . . Savannah’s birthday!

Disclaimer:  These pictures weren’t actually taken today, but they were taken sometime this month so we really are swimming all “winter” long.  There are worse places we could have moved for sure!

I headed to Etsy to find something unique, and inexpensive and I found just the thing.  I think that I like it a little more then he does, but he was touched by the thought (I think).

So it is from an Etsy site that I can no longer find, but there seem to be similar things for sale on there.  In case you don’t know, Etsy is a website where individuals can open a “shop” and sell all sorts of homemade items or vintage finds.  It is a great place to look for unique and inexpensive gifts.  You can also find expensive gifts if you want!

So basically this artist in Paris (yes, Paris, France) takes pages out of very old French magazines, paints the goldfish on them and then adds your names at the top.  I love that you can tell how old the paper is, and that it is a really painting.  I didn’t want to spend money on a frame, so I took a frame I already owned that was obviously too big, and used some fabric that I also already owned to matte the picture.  It makes me smile whenever I see it.

So there you go, maybe that is an idea for a valentine’s day present for you!  This one cost $20, but it did take about a week and a half to get here.  It had to go across a whole ocean, you know!  Plus the guy was on vacation when I posted the order

Micah was a little scared in this picture because there is a picture of a rattlesnake on the wall behind us and he thought that meant there might be snakes that could get us.

Working hard at the little exercise stops they have along the path!

They have a little Mexican town along one of the paths.  No passport required.

This zoo might have lions, elephants, camels, and baboons at this zoo, but one of Micah and Savannah’s favorite thing is the goats at the farm.  Something that I think is pretty unique that they do is that the goat area here is not for feeding goats, it is just for petting them.  Because these goats have never gotten food from the visitors, they don’t crowd around you frantically looking for food.  They just calmly walk or lie around letting the kids pet them.  So fun!

Peek-a-Boo!

Every Christmas we make sure to get a family picture.  Next year there will be another family member!  No not me.  My sister is due to have another girl in June!  If that doesn’t deserve a summer trip to the midwest, I don’t know what does.  To add to the excitement, it’s possible that a little side trip to MN could be involved in that!  No promises.

So now that I have people clicking from there over here I figured I better write something so that the most recent post isn’t a month old.  I don’t know why, but blogging just hasn’t been something I have wanted to do lately, and so I haven’t.

But now that I am here let’s catch up on the Gores family.

In the last month, LIFE180 Church has started meeting weekly, we have start a twice a month prayer gathering, Micah has shot up and sort of out grown all the 4T pants I just bought him, Savannah started talking in almost complete sentences some of the time, and I started working again.

Whew!  No wonder I’ve been tired. Yeah, staying up late watching shows on Hulu has nothing to do with why I’m tired.  What?!  No I’m not in denial about how I contribute the most to my own exhaustion level while I seek some moments away from the kids instead of going to bed at a decent hour!  Look, now I’m so worked up you’ve got me writing in run on sentences!

Just kidding.  I work myself up just fine.

I’m not even sure what to address first.  How about my job.  I just started seeing clients at Living Hope Counseling.  It is wonderful and a huge challenge for us as a family at the same time.  I am going to be working Mondays and Thursday nights, and while at my job in MN I saw mostly kids, here I will be seeing mostly adults.  I am excited and scared to be stretched out of my comfort zone in this way.  I am also super fortunate to have a boss who is an amazing counselor and really wants to mentor me while I stretch my therapy muscles into some newish areas.  For those of you following my licensure drama here in AZ, where it stands now is that they have granted me a temporary license while they review my application for full licensure.  For those of you unfamiliar, I have a license in Marriage and Family Therapy in MN and am working to have it transferred here to AZ, my new home.  There is a lot to love about AZ, but how the government and social services are run is not one of them.  That is not even a political opinion.  It is simply a fact about their inefficiency, and crabbiness.  But in spite of all that, I am very thankful to have this temporary license and to be able to start to see clients again.

On to LIFE180 Church.  Planting (starting) a new church has its blessings and its challenges (and then some more challenges).  Ben is busy, busy, busy and sometimes that feels like all there is.  Right now it doesn’t feel like we go to LIFE180, because neither one of us is ever in the service.  Instead we tell people that for now we work at LIFE180.  Someday we’ll be able to do both.  We recently started a twice a month prayer/fellowship gathering called First and Third (it meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month).  Ben and I decided to take turns going since it runs smack dab in the middle of bedtime for Micah and Savannah.  Tonight I got to go for the first time, and it was so wonderful and so refreshing.  It was the first time that I have really felt like part of a community called LIFE180.  Honestly it was the first time I have been to a LIFE180 thing that was meant for the whole church when I haven’t been in the nursery.  I left encouraged by the love from the people and God there.  This Sunday we are having a LIFE180 Superbowl Party, and I am so excited.  We left a church family back in MN that we loved dearly, and tonight I got a taste of the church family we will get to experience here for the first time.  God is good!

Micah and Savannah are as cute as ever, of course!  I don’t know.  When I try to think of what to write about them, I kind of draw a blank.  There are so many things.  They are always doing or saying such funny or sweet (or sometimes disrespectful or naughty) things that it is hard to pick what to say right now.  Micah did tell me the other day that he is really excited for when he gets to grow up and be a daddy, so that I can be a grandma (I guess I’m glad he’s excited about that.)  Just when I thought he was being so smart for understanding how I will be his child’s grandma, he added, “But that makes me really sad too, because then you won’t be my Mommy anymore.”  When I tried to explain that I would be both at the same time, I could tell the idea was blowing his mind.  After a minute, he assured me that I was wrong because that couldn’t happen unless I wanted to be half and half.  Since my life plan for him doesn’t involve him becoming a daddy for many, many, many, many (etc) years, I don’t think we need to worry about that yet.

Savannah is sweet.  She just is.  She is spunky too, but she has this really sweet heart.  Lately she has been wandering around the house saying, “I wuv you tooooooooooo!”  in a sing songy voice.  No one has to have said it to her first, but it is always accompanied by a hug.

So that has been our month in a nutshell.  It feels like we have been in a time of transition since Savannah was born two years ago.  One challenge has seamlessly morphed into another, and sometimes they have even overlapped (yay! – sarcastic yay there for ya).  However, we have seen God’s grace abundantly in our lives during this time.  Ben and I had the opportunity to hear some great speakers today at a little conference about marriage and ministry.  There were so many great things that we heard, but one that stuck out to me is this:

Sometimes we don’t truly understand that Jesus is all we need, until Jesus is all we have.

If you’re going to write a blog post, you need to have a picture!  Here are Micah and Savannah with their cousin Aubrey at Christmas.  The only one not smiling is the only one looking at the camera.  Go figure.

December was a wonderful and crazy month for us.  I’m sure it was for most people.  We had Micah’s 4th Birthday,  LIFE180′s first Christmas Eve services, Ben’s parents in town the week before Christmas, and my family in town the week after Christmas.  Then we all got sick.  Isn’t that how it goes?  Once all the busyness is done, the sickness finally sets in.  We are getting better though.

So basically I need to post pictures of all those things.  I don’t have most of them loaded on the computer yet, but here is a cutie to tie us all over while I get that done.

This was taken by my mom in the goat pen at the zoo the week after Christmas.

Yeah, the girl knows how to chill.

What happens is you lunch at Chipotle.

What happens when all this transpires at nap time?

Well, apparently if you’re Savannah, you just don’t let that stop you.

Look at that face!  When Micah gets upset he shows it through anger.  Savannah makes faces that beg you to rescue her.

The almost finished product.

Thanks, Brianne!!

]]> http://zepetitemama.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/savannahs-first-haircut/feed/ 0 zepetitemama IMG_2490 IMG_2496