Happy February! I've been inspired by Tiffkin and Sarbro blogging and thought, "I should blog too!" And since I don't really have anything to blog about, I've posted a few pictures. The above picture was taken yesterday by Artbeat at one of our many parks. Ever since Claire started walking, well, that's all she wants to do. Cody is on the slide behind cousin Sarah, being the caboose on the train. And little Cooper is in the sling where he seems to be content (at least until he learns to walk!). It's not really the best picture of anyone, but they don't sit still long enough to get a good one. Plus it shows how active our days are lately!

This picture was taken at Sarah's birthday party. She was so happy to wear her jacket that matches Claire. They are so sweet together. Claire loves for Sarah to get in her crib with her and pretend to sleep. This is a wonderful age - Cody is so fun to be around and tells me crazy stories. Claire is really starting to show her personality. I'm blessed!

I wish for . . . world peace.

prayer

I want to share a story, but it requires background information.

1. Cody is quite imaginative. He often likes to be called different names and gives us names as well. The most recent one for me is Big Bad Wolf and the one for Art is Rusty (my sister's dog).

2. Cody is also in to substituting words and making jokes. Instead of saying good-bye, he says hello. Instead of please and thank you, he says Rusty.

The other night I was putting Cody to bed and it was time to pray. Normally I pray because he doesn't want to. So I started to pray, "Dear God, thank you for making us a family..." and I hear Cody, "Dear Rusty, thank you for Rusty. Rusty." Amen. I hope God was as humored by it as I was.

Claire is so close to walking on her own. I can't believe she's approaching her first birthday. She loves reading books, trying new foods, and holding my fingers to walk.

Yes, I have already purchased Claire's halloween costume. Above is a picture of the world's cutest butterfly.

And as an added bonus, you can see Cody taunting her with a sticker in this picture:

We went to the pool tonight and had a great time. Cody and Claire both enjoyed splashing and watching the other kids. Toward the end Claire and I were sitting on the steps when I heard a hymn being sung in Chinese. I looked over and realized that 2 women were about to be baptized. Which I thought was really cool. But then I felt uncomfortable swimming in the pool where they were about to be baptized. So we moved to a different pool (there are actually 3 different pools). And it was memorable to get to be a part of their baptisms, even though they were and still are strangers.

Cody was "working on a project" (his own words) earlier today. It pretty much involved raisins and my dishwasher. Who am I to squelch creativity?

Cody and I made banana bread together. He is so fun these days. Instead of mushing up the bananas he wanted to bury them.

He's really into Dora and often wants to be called either Swiper, Grumpy Old Troll, or Fom-ka. I'm Dora and Claire is Boots. If you're not into Dora then this loses much of the meaning, but maybe you can imagine.

We had a hat party last week. Actually, I put the hats on Claire and she took them off and ate them. I can hardly believe she's 8 months old! She's crawling, pulling up, babbling, and eating everything she can get her hands on. She's also tons of fun, good-natured, and persistent.

Next week we have family coming for a visit - actually all of my family - and I can't wait for them to see how much my kids have grown!