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!

Cuddle bugs

Faith is such a sweet sister. She is able to hold Julia and get her to stop crying. She loves to kiss her on the cheek and feet and hands. It is so fun to see them interact.

4th of July weekend

We had a fun-filled weekend this 4th. The girls were all dressed in their red, white and blue, to celebrate.






Jason spent all day putting together a play house for Faith. My parents got this for Faith...and she LOVES it. No one seemed to think Jason could put it together though. My mom, dad and sister all commented on how Jason may not be able to put it together. It was a complicated structure with tons of parts and Jason isn't super handy. But, Jason set out to prove them all wrong. I am pretty impressed. He didn't have any problems at all and Faith had so much fun "helping" him.



Here, I caught Faith, "measuring" her car.



Here is the finished play house--and Faith showing her appreciation for Jason putting it up for her. She is such a little love bug:) Afterward, our neighbors Ella and Claire came over and played in the playhouse with Faith. She was so proud to have something to share with some of her friends.




Later, Faith and I went over to our neighbors for a firework extravaganza. We had so much fun. Faith loved the fireworks, but was still a little scared and had to cuddle with me when they went off.
On Saturday we went to a splash park. There were huge xylophones at the park too. Faith had fun making music. Here are some pics from that.




Meanwhile, Julia slept away in her stroller.

Faith's shoes

Ok, so Faith put on her shoes by herself the other day. I was pretty impressed. However, they were put on the wrong feet. It made me wonder...don't most kids seem to put them on the wrong feet? I wonder why...these are the things I ponder as an overtired Mommy with a newborn who likes to wake up several times at night:)