Anna and I built a cool snow fort tonight (a little daddy-daughter snow time). When cars would come by, we hid inside. Anna always said, "They SO didn't see us!" Then we were playing tag in the snow, and I spotted some rabbit tracks. I asked Anna what animal she thought made them. I was expecting her to guess squirrel or rabbit, but she said, "Maybe it was a Palaeobatrachus." After I googled "Palaeobatrachus," I realize she may have had the size right. Kids these days. What will she be like when she's four?

All Caught Up!

Well, it took us awhile to recover from our trips and then we got really busy with February activities! I really didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging, but now we're all caught up again. (Be sure you have some time now to read about all our February events!) Other--not picture-worthy--things we've been busy with:
*Matt's got his candidacy paperwork finished--YEAH!!!
*Matt's studying for his oral comprehensive exams on March 16
*Anna's already busy planning her 4th birthday party--plans change daily
*I'm trying to figure out how it can be time for my daughter to be having a 4th birthday!
*We are enjoying the few days of sunshine in February that we've been getting, but are ready for the snow to stop.
*Matt's had some preaching opportunities in Ludington and Traverse City. We've been able to make some of these into family weekends--staying in a hotel overnight and getting to swim.
*We pray every day that God is preparing a place for us in ministry as He is preparing us for that place.

The First Haircut

Anna got her first haircut Saturday morning. I'd been talking to her about getting her hair cut for a few weeks now, and decided Saturday would be the day. Anna was a little hesitant, but did agree. I offered her the choice of going to a hair salon or having me cut her hair. She chose to have me do it. Pretty much once I got started, I decided I'd not give her that option again--we'll just go to a hair salon next time!
Here's three years and 11 months of Anna's hair!

Anna did a fair job of sitting still and not moving her head too much. I'm pretty sure she was worried that it would hurt to get her hair cut. I was very nervous about getting her hair cut straight without having to cut off too much in the process.
Don't look too closely! Even though I don't really want to do that again, it turned out pretty cute and I'm glad we did it! She's looking more grown up now and (even though you can't see it here) has some of her curl back.

Valentine's Day

We had a really nice Valentine's Day together!
I'm not sure if it shows in the photo, but I think Matt's heart is actually melting in this shot!
Anna decorated bags for a few of our Valentine's goodies.

Jumping!

We joined a ton of people on February 12th at the Seminary pond for the big jump. It was a beautiful evening, but really cold.

A bunch of the faculty and board of Calvin took their turns first. Brrr!

Anna watched for a little while, but was mostly interested in playing in the snow! We had a lot of fun, but were very glad to be bundled up and DRY!!

Arizona in January

Visiting Grandma in Arizona in January was absolutely wonderful! We loved the warm weather and sunshine! Anna LOVED being able to swim almost everyday in Grandma's heated pool. She's a little fish in the water.

Another thing we loved was all the fresh fruit growing in Grandma's back yard! One day we picked two grapefruit (the huge one from the neighbor's tree), oranges (from a different neighbor) and lemons! We ate oranges and/or grapefruit everyday!

Anna loved spending time, playing games, and playing with playdoh with her Arizona cousins.
We went back to the Phoenix Zoo during the day with Grandma, Aunt Karen and Jake. We didn't have much time there, but were thrilled to see real live elephants! It was very cool!

Uncle Dan gave Anna a good view of airplanes at the Phoenix Airport. We were headed to Nebraska with Grandma. My brother David got married and we went for the wedding.
We were able to spend some time with my niece, Shannon, and her family. It was fun for Anna to play with Julia and baby Elijah. (Anna will insist that Julia is her cousin and not Shannon. Shannon can't be her cousin because she's a mom!)
My brother David and new sister-in-law Anne got married on January 16. We had a nice time getting to know Anne and some of her family.
Anna got to be a flower girl at the wedding (as did all the young girls who attended). She was so excited and had so much fun with her new friends!
Anna got to sit up front with her fellow flower girls during the ceremony. That part she didn't find so exciting!
Chilling with Uncle Dan at Uncle David's house before we left. She doesn't look too happy does she? I think maybe she just didn't want her picture taken.
Back in Arizona after the weekend, we got to spend more time with Uncle Dan, Aunt Karen, Erik, and Jake. They thought it would be great to meet Grandma, Anna, and me at the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. They even got a table near these cool elephants. Unfortunately, Anna was petrified even before we entered the restaurant! She clung to me pretty much the whole time we were there and only opened her eyes briefly no more than 3 times.
I had warned Anna to be sure to stay well away from the cactus near Grandma's driveway. She took those warnings very seriously, so we didn't have any problems. We were quite amused, then, to see that the birds really don't have a problem with the cacti!
We picked a few lemons and grapefruit to take with us before we headed home. We were going to miss all that fruit!

We were going to miss Grandma and the warm & sunshine in Arizona, but we were excited to get home and be able to see Matt again. (He's got a few pictures from his trip to Turkey and Greece up on Facebook if you're interested in see them.)