Toothpaste, Chubby Babies, Memphis Zoo,and an Unexpected Blessing

Anna is now three months old! She is growing like a little weed and we just love her to pieces and now I can finally say that Brock loves her that much too! He gives her kisses and when we are getting ready to go anywhere he always asks if we are going to bring "Baby Anna" with us, too sweet! Man, this girl is chubby! I love those little rolls and big pot belly!
So, we are now passy free! That's right I bit the bullet and we threw the pacifiers away, actually Brock threw them away after I cut the tips of them off and he didn't like it, it's been a week and a day and he hasn't asked for it in about 5 days, I would definitely call that success! Although now that he doesn't have a pacifier naptime has become playtime and the other day I thought that he was snoozing away in his room, I went to check on him and this is what I found! He had covered my entire room, walls, windows, bedspread, pillows, pictures with blue gel toothpaste! I walked in and all I could say was "Oh" and he turned around and said "I'm painting!" He was so proud of himself that I couldn't get onto him, later on in the day I talked to him about it and asked him what he did with my toothpaste and he sweetly responded, "I make a big mess" and I then told him that we don't do that and he said, "Mommy cleaned it all up!" Oh I couldn't get mad at him with that sweet innocence! He had no idea he did anything wrong, gotta love two year olds!



The pictures just don't do the amount of toothpaste justice, I could smell toothpaste all the way down the hall and in my room for the next two days! Also, my bed was made and no I don't keep my blinds like that, that was also done by my new bedroom decorator Brock.

He has been wanting to take toys with him everywhere we go and this is what he decided to take the other day, three tennis balls and his milk, don't ask me!

We were in Memphis about a week ago and I took Brock and his cousin Max to the Memphis Zoo along with some of our other family, we had a blast that zoo is much better than the Little Rock Zoo by a long shot!

These polar bears were just beautiful to watch swimming, they looked like they were floating in across the water!

Brock thought it was pretty cool!

Brock, Iwalani, Kawika, and Max looking at some fish.

I think they look so cute squished in this little picture hole!

I got a really big suprise while I was in Memphis and I just can't believe how blessed I am. My mom and dad are buried in Millington next to my cousin who passed away when he was 16. My mother and father have no headstones on their graves because of two reasons, one was the cost of them and second is because it is such a finality that they aren't here anymore. I've been thinking that I have been ready to purchase them but just didn't have the money for them. Well, a while ago, through Facebook, I reconnected with an Elder that served in Arkansas when I was just a little girl, he spoke at my father's funeral and we kind of lost touch after the funeral, anyways he sent out an email to a whole bunch of former missionaries from back in the day and they all pitched in and raised more than enough money for us to purchase the headstones. I am just beyond excited and humbled that so many people loved my parents as much as I did to help us pitch in and pay for their headstones, they will never know how they have touched my life. I went with my Aunt Malisa and we picked out the headstones, we were able to get vases on each headstone and on my mom's above her name we put "Until We Meet Again" and on my dad's above his name we put "To Know Him Was To Love Him. They will be in around April 21st and we are going to have a little memorial service the day that they are finally put in, it's a bittersweet thing because I'm so grateful for the thoughfulness of people who loved my parents as much as I did but on the other hand I would just love to be taking my children to visit their grandparents and not a slab of concrete, but I just have to remember how many blessings that I do have and not to dwell on what I don't!