Josh from the youth group and myself volunteered downtown this past Saturday. They were having a food drive on the intersection of 1st and Main, then a reading room sponsored by Starbucks for children to be read to and to get a free book.

I was suprised to get the chance to dress up like Frosty...of course I jumped at the chance!

Here are some of the kids at the "reading room" that was set up in a building that is currently under construction.

Posing with a little guy outside the building...I only had the chance to make 2 kids cry!


I don't think I was prepared for how hot it would get in that suit!

here is Jared (youth volunteer) and his little sister Hanah who is helping with the clean up of the reading room later that day, I got to be out the frosty outfit for this one!

Esther and I snuggling before Amy and I got to go on our date. *thanks to Kenny and Brenda!

Amy and I livin' it up out on the town. It was really nice. We got to use a gift certificate we got to the Backstage Bistro, a very nice restaurant downtown Walla Walla. Then we rented a movie and then got some dessert at Shari's, it was an awesome evening!

I know it is fuzzy, Amy was trying to get a picture of Esthers hair blowing from the vent, but got Esther dropping her fishy crackers...in mid air!

And the tragic aftermath!

Esther and Mama went outside to build a snowman...but as of today it is pretty much all melted away!

I don't know why, but I can't seem to figure out how to permanently rotate my pictures on this mac!? dumb me!

Gracie wasn't as fond of the snow as Esther was.

So Amy and the girls dropped by the Cafe (Youth Room) to help me paint one of the walls... it was fun having them over to help!


Really get to see those two teeth of Gracies in this picture!

Esther peeking over the edge of the tub when her and Gracie took their first bath together.

Amy trying to get Grace to smile in the mirror.

We had a night called the "Ice Eve" we started with ice cream and games at the cafe. then on to the "Ice Chalet" for some broom hockey!

We had a decent turn out, it was a good time, no teeth knocked out...so I suppose it could have been better!

This is Ken, a great guy who goes to the church here, and he has been a huge hand in the Youth Ministry as well. He owns/operates a pedi-cab business downtown Walla Walla. Here he is helping to bus Youth kids around when we were doing some volunteering downtown. He said it handled pretty well in the snow!

Driving out to Yakima to pick up a Honda Ruckus

So we replaced out old Sony after nearly 9,000 pictures...it just wasn't going to cut it for much longer. We went with the new version of our camera, and we like it this far!


She did well for us, just been dropped (by me) one too many times!

Esther waiting in anticipation for the arrival of Grandpa and Grammie. She sat there for what seemed like an hour. Probably somewhere close!

Sorry for the crooked picture, in too much of a hurry to rectify it!

Dad washing his windshield...mm-hmm...

The view of the back of our house, I think we were all getting ready to go to Mr. Ed's for some grub!

Yup, Mr. Ed's is a local favorite...I think Dad or Mom said it used to be an old A & W.

Notice Dad's puckering, apparently it helps Esther to drink her water.

Now dad is smiling to counter-act the pucker tendency.

Esther couldn't wait for some of Grammie's Apple Cake.

The goodbye photo

Esther didn't want them to leave.

Esther and Mama watching Grandpa and Grammie pull away in the Volvo. Thanks for the visit! It was great having you guys, love ya!

Esther had the chance to do some finger painting in her Sunday School class so Amy thought she would let her do it at home. Esther really enjoyed it! And of course I couldn't be more happy, she is really good. I think she understands the elements of design very well.

See her using her delicate touch.

Now with some help from Mama, she is getting a little more aggressive with the paints, really letting the canvas have it!

That is the look of total satisfaction!!

Gracie has started to stick out her goofy little pointed tongue. It's cute, reminds me of Justin's tongue, very "Jabba the Hut" looking!

While Amy was in her Bible study I decided to take the girls out for a bit of a drive. We went out the road called "pikes peak" rd. It was all really nice and fun. As you can see from the above picture we did some rock crawling. Esther really loved it and Gracie would not stop talking because she liked the sound of her voice on the bumpy road.

Esther also really liked the close encounters with the cows

As you can see from this picture we got up pretty high! It was an amazing view!

Not that you can really tell from this picture, but Gracie now has her two bottom teeth in. This picture is a bit old and they are now very visible.