Faith's first snowman

Have we mentioned that we LOVE it here in Boise? Even though I (Janel) love warmth, I can't complain too much, because we have had a pretty mild fall and winter so far. The sun pretty much shines every day, and I have never experienced so much sun anywhere else I have lived. It rocks! And now that it is getting colder, we have some snow! How fun! Here Faith is building her first snowman.





What is cute is that today, when Faith and I went to get the mail, we discovered that the snowman's rock eye had fallen out. I told Faith we could put it back on. So, as I tried to put it back on, the snowman's head fell off. You should have seen the look of horror on Faith's face. She was so sad and frightened about it. It was cute. I had to hug her and tell her that I could fix the snowman. So I put his head back on, and everything was much better:)

Julia' s first haircut and 6 month pictures

Julia was born with a good bit of hair, not as much as Faith, but she did have some. It was also all different lengths. Now that she is 6 months old, I decided it was time to rid her of her mullet. I cut about 2 inches off of random strands that she had growing in the back.



Julia had some professional pics taken of her, but we don't have them back yet. So, I took some of my own. Here she is at 6 months old! We love to see how her little personality is emerging. She has lots of toothless smiles, lots of kicking and playing and high pitched squeals...what a little girl baby! I can't believe how fast this time has gone with her! I love you sweetie!

Silly, love dove girls

Here are my two super silly girls. We had friends over the other night, and Camille (our friend) made this hat for Faith out of our napkins. Faith loved it and had to wear it for breakfast the next morning. I put it on Julia and she seemed to like it too.



Julia has been into kicking a lot while on her back. Faith wanted to do it with Julia and at the same time as Julia.



They just adore each other. Faith is a complete cuddle bug and loves to cuddle and kiss Julia. One day I let her get in Julia's crib with her.




One more picture of silly Julia with Strawberry Shortcake glasses on.

Faith's first video

Faith got sick today, so I decided to cheer her up by watching videos. Then we decided to make our own. There's one portion of the video where Faith begins giggling and can't stop. Please make your guesses in the comments section and I'll let you know the answer ...

Julia can sit up!

So, Julia just turned 5 months, and I am amazed that she can balance and sit up for 10 seconds or so. Here is a video clip of one of her first times sitting up unassisted. Next time, I will put some pillows around her!

Pumpkin fun!

There are so many interesting things you can do to a pumpkin. I realized how cool they were just recently. I mean, you have all the pumpkin flavored food in the fall and for Thanksgiving...pumpkin pie, pumpkin banana bread (my own recipe...pretty good!), pumpkin lattes, etc. We decorate or carve pumpkins for the fall. And of course, it is an event in and of itself to visit the pumpkin patch. They usually have mazes, hayrides or wagons and we get to pick out our own pumpkin.

Faith and I decided to make some fun out of a pumpkin we had picked from the "punk patch". First we cut the pumpkin open and took out all of the seeds. Faith thought it was a little slimy and would talk about it being "dirty". Here she is picking seeds out.



So, we took the seeds, cleaned them off and roasted them in the oven. Did you know pumpkin seed are also known as pepitas? You can put all sorts of flavors on the pumpkin seeds. Here are just a few types.

Italian Style Pumpkin Seeds -- Italian Seasoning Blend, Parmesan Cheese, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper

Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin Seeds -- Cinnamon, Ground Ginger and Pinch of Nutmeg, Butter

Greek Style -- Lemon Pepper Seasoning Blend, Oregano, Salt, Olive Oil

Buffalo Wings Pumpkin Seeds -- Butter, Tabasco Sauce, Salt

We did the Italian style. Faith loved them, as you can tell from the picture.



Then we took the pumpkin and put it in the oven and made some homemade macaroni and cheese and served it inside the pumpkin. Apparently you can put many things in the pumpkin...soup, stew, meatloaf, etc. The mac and cheese was good, but next time I probably will put something else in the pumpkin....Jason thought it looked like the pumpkin had worms in it!:) Here is Faith ready to eat one of her favorite foods!

The pumpkin thumb sucker!

When tragedy strikes, what do you do? Well, for this little pumpkin, her thumb came to the rescue. She was sitting up in the leaves and all of a sudden, she tumbled over into the leaves. No crying, no screaming...everything was ok, because she had her thumb!

Kisses

Faith is such a sweet girl. Yesterday she asked me to close my eyes. So, I did, trusting that nothing bad would happen. When I did, I got a big kiss right on the lips from her. I opened my eyes and she squealed with delight. Here are some kissing pics of Faith.





Julia knows Faith is coming in for the big kiss...when they are sick, it is so hard to keep Faith from kissing Julia! She loves her little sissy so much!

Our Anniversary--6 years!!!

Jason and I celebrated 6 years of marriage with a wonderful day exploring Idaho. Jason got a babysitter for Faith all day on Saturday, while Jason and I and Julia took off on a fun exploration day of hiking! It was almost like when we didn't have kids, except Julia was there:) She was a trooper! Such a good baby. We love getting to do stuff like this, but it has been difficult since we started having kids. So this was a real treat for me! Thanks, Jason, for the idea and for organizing it! As you can see from this first picture, we started out on a trail that, well, wasn't quite a trail. What you don't see are the two guys "guarding" the entrance to this hike with their high-powered rifles sitting on their 4-wheelers. After hiking on an extreme uphill grade with underbrush and fallen trees, we couldn't find the trail. We decided this adventure was best done without an infant in tow (it was slightly dangerous)!


We all had burrs all over our clothes and socks...even baby Julia had burrs on her socks!




We decided that we would head to the Sawtooth Mountains. We heard they were breathtaking. On the way, we stopped to take some pictures of the clear blue water of the south fork of the Payette River.




And, wow! Here are the Sawtooth mountains! Isn't God creative?





We had heard so much about a city called Stanley, ID, and were really excited to see it. I thought it might be like the north Georgia town of Helen. We were surprised to find out that it had a population of 100 and very few stores ... and no paved roads except the state highway running through it. Why more people don't live here is beyond me though. It was awesome. Here is a picture of one of the stores. In these parts, stores aren't "closed"; they are "shut".


We stopped for at a pizza restaurant for a snack and then headed on our way to do a "quick" 4-mile hike (before sunset).




Here is a collection of baby Julia pictures. She is a wonderful hiking partner!





















































































Our hike was beautiful and easy...here is the end of the hike (it could go on for a few more miles, but the sun was setting very quickly, so we needed to hustle back.



A mountain lake...and reflection.


Driving home...

Faith & the Horse Track

Now that we live in Idaho, Faith thinks that seeing horses should be an everyday occurrence. And, well, those aren't really unrealistic expectations either. Despite living just inside the Boise city limits, we can drive one mile in every direction and find farming landscape, some of which is dotted by cows and horses.

However, there's one place Faith knows she can find horsies ... the horse track. Faith's enthusiasm reaches a boiling point where that's all she talks about. Sadly, there are only two more weekends of horse racing here in Boise, so we had to get in at least one more trip to the track.


Faith gets very excited about going to the horse track that she tries to get into the car all by herself.



You can get so close to the action at Les Bois Race Track. Faith likes to sit on the railing and watch the horses thunder by.


And down the stretch they come ...


And we have a winner!


Little Faith had a ton of fun, especially when she made her fish face!