Another year...

...with my favorite person. August 20 is our eleventh anniversary. I couldn't have imagined loving Benjy more than I did the day we got married, but I do. Sound cliched? Love tends to do that, even for someone good with words. He still treats me like a princess and I would rather be with him than anyone else in the world. When we first met at ages 13 and 14, respectively, I knew even then that he would make a wonderful husband some day. Yes, we both needed to grow up--a lot--but his core character qualities were already evident. Looking back, I couldn't say it was love at first. More like instant infatuation. In my immaturity, I loved him in a he-can-make-me-happy sort of way. I didn't even think what kind of father he would make, even though I hoped to have children someday. If the thought had crossed my dazzled brain, I think I would have realized he would make a good one, but I couldn't have dreamed what a fabulous dad he would be. I can't imagine anyone else being king of my home and father of my children. Happy anniversary, Sweetheart! You're still the one.

Happy Birthday, Judah!

Photo credit: James Worley

 August 3 was Judah's second birthday. Since Benjy's parents were coming down the following weekend for Zion's dedication, we decided to have Judah's birthday party then. He is still obsessed with anything with wheels, Thomas the Tank Engine being a favorite. Months ago, we decided that his gift was going to be a train table. Benjy built the table, complete with trundle drawers for storage, Nana and Papa contributed the  buildings and engines, Auntie, a conductor's outfit, and Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Jeremy also gave him engines. We set it up the night before the party, after Judah was in bed so the whole thing would be ready for play. The fact that he is two influenced this desicion, as I could envision the temper tantrums that would arise from having to wait for buildings or engines to be opened or train tracks assembled (He's so impatient. I can't imagine where that trait came from.)

We let him open all other gifts before taking him back to the playroom for the train suprise, as we suspected he wouldn't be interested in any other presents once he saw the train table. We were pretty much right, but watching him open gifts was hilarious. He is the only two year old I've ever seen who had a pile of gifts and wanted each book read to him or wanted to dress up in each animal dress-up outfit as soon as he opened it, neglecting the rest of the gifts. It took him forever to open 4 or 5 packages. Of course, the fact that we had the party after church in place of a nap had him almost delirious from exhaustion and may have slowed his progress a little too.

As you can see, the theme was Thomas the Tank Engine, which in and of itself nearly caused Judah to go apoplectic. We had hummus and chips with salsa and guacamole, veggie tray with cheese ball, and wonderful watermelon and cantaloupe.

For Judah's cake, I made gluten free vanilla cupcakes filled with chocolate ganache and topped with butter cream frosting. Oh, and about the frosting...I use natural food coloring from plants, and try as I might, I could not get any primary colors. The green was army fatique green, the blue, grey, and the red was pink. I used nearly a whole bottle of the "red" (snort) color, and the icing was still pink. Being two, Judah didn't care.

 Mommy and daddy with our favorite two year old!

Judah's reaction was a little disappointing...he didn't even register surprise when he saw the train table for the first time. He solemnly walked into the playroom and began moving the trains around as if the table had always been there. It must have been the lack of a nap, because he made up for his lack of enthusiasm over the next days, playing with the trains for hours, and hustling into the playroom first thing in the morning to get his train fix.

Photo credit: James Worley

Happy Birthday, Judah! You light up our lives!

Zion Joel's Dedication

Even though this post is about Zion's dedication, it is so rare to get good pictures of Mercy that I had to include these that my father-in-law snapped of her before church.

We had Zion dedicated to God on August 8. All the grandparents, aunt and uncle, as well as friends came to the service. Poor Zion should get a "do-over." Brother Alvin was out of town (we love Brother Greg very much, but we would have liked Brother Alvin to be there as well, since he's dedicated the other children), and we couldn't change the date because it was the last weekend Benjy's mom and dad were available before school started. When we went up front for the ministry to lay hands on Zion and pray over him, Judah had one of those why-did-I-think-wanted-children meltdowns. I have no idea what precipitated it, except that Mercy and Judah both were gaining momentum down the slippery slope of behaving as badly as possible to prove to family and friends (and ultimately, the entire congregation) how inept we are as parents. Anyway, my mom had to whisk Judah out of the sanctuary, so we are missing both Nana and Judah in the pictures. But then, our photographer, who shall remain nameless, apparently didn't realize the camera had  zoom function, so the pictures are so far away that you can't even see who the subjects are (love you Jeremy!) Try to imagine it:

 We did manage to get one (out of about three thousand tries) decent photo, between Mercy's consistantly uncooperative scowl and nearly having to tie Judah down to keep him from running away. The outtakes would be funny if Benj and I weren't the ones being irritated. I really am resigned to decent, as opposed to ideal or perfect, pictures most of the time...they're babies. But every once in a while my compulsive perfectionist roars to be let out, and I get really irritated at how difficult they are. Today was one of those days. At least we're all in the same frame. Sometimes that doesn't even happen.