Behind the pictures

So here's the real story:

 Daddy went out to the garage to start the grill for dinner, and Munchkin wanted to go with him. She was in socks with no coat or hat, but this was when she discovered it was snowing. Naturally she wanted to run into it, but Daddy caught her, while Mommy ran to grab a coat, shoes, hat, and coat for Daddy.

My little snow bunnies

 Then she started doing this

 "Munchkin are you pooping?" "No"

 ... she was...

But look, pretty snowflakes! 

 Discussion about where we go potty.

 Just one more minute before I have to do diaper?

 Daddy's newest discovery on letting Munchkin be independent. He holds on to her hood, she doesn't have to hold hands. They went to the mailbox like this that day. 

 Toddler chasing- it's diaper time

 Got her!

 Or not...

The next day it was about 20degrees, but we were ready for an activity. So we went to the zoo. It was awesome, warm and cozy inside, brisk outside.

 These are the baby lions I was telling you about the other day. 

 The whole family was PASSED OUT! hahaha similar to most families with 6week old newborns. 

 Then Munchkin started to droop. It was nap time, but she was a trooper and never fussed. We went through the jungle AND the aquarium before we left.

 Watching the fish

 Trying to find the turtle while Daddy figures out the flash

 A smile

 Mommy figuring out how the F-stop works on her camera! WHEE!

Baby Dedication

This has been a long time coming. We wanted to do a baby dedication with Munchkin in which we were able to publicly declare that we were committing to raise her in a Godly home and partner with the church to do so. Well, we've kind of been in transition for a while, and we could have done it, but we didn't feel like we actually had partners in this. I am thrilled that now we feel like we do. We debated for a LONG time over Godparents for Munchkin, before she was born, and we came to an agreement that we really wanted a Godparent to be someone who could assist us in raising her spiritually and have an active role in her life the same with that my Godparents did. We debated a lot of people, but felt like all of the people that we considered would be more symbolic because we were so far away they would only see her a few times in a year maybe. Anyway... point is... we were pretty excited to finally feel like we had a spiritual support system in a way that allowed us to do a baby dedication. Here is the video:

It's definitely iPhone quality. My favorite part is when our pastor is talking about how Munchkin will be watching our daily life and she turns and looks at her Daddy. hahaha Then he talks about how no one is listening to him they're just looking at how cute she is. Since you can't see very well, here is Munchkin's church outfit:

1 Corinthians 13:7

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

February's first week has been FULL of life and love and grief and celebration and hope and support. It feels like we could have fit a month's worth of experiences into this week at least. 

First of all, I am so glad that God placed us in Papillion, Nebraska. It is very clear that this is where we are supposed to be RIGHT NOW. I don't have ANY clue where we are supposed to be next year or next month even, but we are loving where we are at. This week, I got to meet a family that is experiencing first hand, the love and support of a small community. This is the story in the paper about my sweet Emma- Community bonds with #emmastrong - Omaha.com. (You do the math on our relationship) God has overwhelmed this family with support in small and HUGE ways as they journey through an unthinkable diagnosis for their sweet baby. God gets full credit for getting them to the places they needed to be to receive the medical care he designed to take out a tumor that took up about 1/3 of her brain. And He continues to watch over them and pour out love and support through the people around them, and I'm so honored to be a part of that. 

Happier things: I forgot to share this video of Munchkin sharing her snow play with Dash. Good thing Lady's not a germ-a-phobe! Story later, but Mister and Lady got to go to a class that they were able to pick out of 4 books that included parenting and marriage resources, and I am thrilled to say that we have a copy of 50 Dangerous Things you should do with your children coming our way! :) 

Next up, celebrating New Life:

We have a couple in our Life Group from church that are expecting... and moving... next week. Yikes! They had their ultrasound to see the gender moved up a day so that they could celebrate at their final Life Group meeting. Naturally, Mister & I made cake. Have we mentioned how much we like making cakes to celebrate with people? Well, we do- it's our specialty- no really, we love it. Anyhow, she sent us a text message that day at lunch and we promptly dyed icing in the appropriate color in order to reveal to group what gender their sweet baby would be!

 See how I tricked them with the blue sprinkles and red icing? 

Valentine's Day is approaching and Munchkin has been sporting her V-day heart jammies already from Nana. 

Today she got a card from AhHa, always exciting!

And I hear there are treats on their way from Gramma! What a blessed girl!

P.S. AhHa, Dash tried to call you the other day:

... and by "called" I mean: Munchkin put him in a headlock and put the "makeup mirror" to his ear and said "HELLO DASH HELLO!" "Munchkin, who is Dash calling?" "AhHa". Naturally.