Jonah is 7 years old!!!

Jonah's 7th birthday was on February 7th...making this his GOLDEN birthday! :)

We knew it had to be special. We've been hearing that this one was coming up for a looooong time. Jonah woke up to a smiley face of fruit on his special birthday plate...

...followed by chocolate chip pancakes that he helped make. So fun!

We had a great morning. A little while after breakfast, Kelly and Jordan and Matthew came over, we all piled into the van, and we headed to Dallas. The first stop was for lunch at a mall. The kids picked McDonald's and Kelly and I ate from Chick-fil-A. I loved having a food court and options...the kids loved having a 3-story mall!

Our next stop was this place:

Great Wolf Lodge (a really fun wolf-themed hotel with an indoor waterpark)! Jonah had asked if we could go there for a night for his birthday, and since it was his golden birthday and all...of course we said yes.
The first thing we did was toss our stuff into our rooms, slip on swimsuits and head to the water park!

After a couple hours of fun swimming, slides, and playing in the water, we were ready to dry off for a little bit. Grandma Austin and Jim had bought Jonah a magic wand and a magiquest game (which is an interactive game played throughout the entire hotel). We played for a while and finished a number of quests before realizing it was time to start thinking about dinner.
So Kelly, the kids and I headed down the road to a Steak and Shake for dinner. It was a fun place to eat, with paper hats and cardboard cars to entertain the kids while we waited on our food. The kids were a little disappointed that we wouldn't order them the huge, fancy, signature milkshakes, but we had a special surprise waiting for them back at the hotel.

Sam and Jon had worked that morning, met up and drove together to meet us at the hotel! They had stopped at Costco on the way and grabbed an ENORMOUS (no joke, it weighed 10 pounds!) chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. YUMMY! Jonah was super excited.

We sang to him, tried our best to finish off big pieces of the yummy cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. It was SUCH a fun time.
By the time we were done it was really too late for more swimming, so we played a little more magiquest and then headed down to the lobby for storytime. The hotel puts on a great show with singing and moving trees, then the story teller tells a fun adventure story--although these guys might put on a slightly better show...

After the story hour, one of the wolves came out to take pictures with the kids. Of course, ALL of the kids wanted to have their picture with her:

Henry and Jonah were a little concerned that they might not be able to handle sharing a bed, since they usually don't sleep together. Turns out they didn't have a problem with it at all!

The next morning we had bananas and instant oatmeal, and watched cartoons during breakfast! It was Jonah's ideal morning.
We had lots more fun swimming, sliding, tubing, playing, and exploring the waterpark. We also took time to finish the magiquest game and thought it was one of the most fun parts of the visit.

One of the best things Jonah got for his birthday was a shaving kit...which altered Jonah's mornings dramatically. Now every morning, the first thing Jonah does is head into Sam's bathroom so he can shave with his Dad. (This might be my favorite thing!)

We got to celebrate with Grammy and Grandpop a few days later too. Grammy knew how much Jonah loves to help in the kitchen and had made him his very own apron! She also made him a photo book from his time at Grandkid's Camp last summer...both gifts were so special and are treasured by our little Bear.

Happy Birthday Jonah! We are so thankful that God gave us you. You are a special boy with loads of creativity, gentleness, compassion and friendliness. It is so fun to have you in our lives. :) Love you! :)

Kids (the baby goat kind)

2012 started out with some exciting news at home...our goats all had kids!  We suspected they were pregnant but we weren't quite sure when they would give birth.  So imagine our surprise when the kids and I came home one afternoon to find this in our front pasture:

 We were so excited!  The mama (named Nancy) was standing kind of nearby, making lots of grunting noises and half-heartedly licking her new babe clean.  I wasn't sure what to make of that. 

  I immediately texted Sam to tell him what was going on, and then I called my friend Robin.  (She lives nearby and I knew she and her kids would enjoy the miracle we were witnessing.)  Sam suggested I grab some towels and try to clean the kid, and Robin said she would be right over.

Well, I thought that Nancy was ignoring her new baby, so we got him all cleaned up.  We were all just amazed by this new little critter, helplessly trying to stand up.  Meanwhile, Nancy was giving birth to a second kid!  Just moments before Robin showed up, the second one was born, looking a lot like his brother but with spotted ears. 

Nancy took turns cleaning up her kids and was quite protective of them.  She actually turned out to be the best of our mamas, and her babies were the sweetest of the bunch!  We named the first one "Don" and the second one "Diego."

It was such an incredible day!  When we got up that morning we had not idea we would get to see the miracle of birth...in our own front yard!  What a special surprise.

Our kids and the goat kids had so much fun together...the goats liked to suck on Bridget's hair (I think they thought they could nurse that way!) and they loved to climb up on the kids backs.  Having goat kids was one of the best experiences we've ever been a part of.  :)