the neighbors.

I know I've talked some about the sweet little one, Breanna, but her Mom is also just something else. She just knocked on my door to give me this:

Oh yeah. It's an ice cream maker. Cracks me up. She probably thinks I'm somewhat obsessed because of my little ice cream trips with her daughter. When I opened the door, she said:

Breanna told me that you have made ice cream before

and that you enjoy it. So here is

a gift for you.

{The only time I have ever made ice cream is with Mrs. Barbara [Scott's mom] the VERY FIRST time I came to their house to eat dinner with the family. She handed me the recipe and said it could be my job. We laugh so hard thinking about it because she now knows how much I didn't know about cooking. I was terrified. I love those kind of memories.}

Oh, and Ben... here's to you:

You say you need to see some more of us, so i figured this face should last you a while. This is the one he does to make me laugh so hard. He crosses his eyes and it's just too much. I hope you've seen this side of him.

this weekend:

the one year anniversary.

oh happy day.

update on number 2.

Breanna and I had our second ice cream date yesterday.

It was lots of fun. We have Haagen dazs in our club house. She got vanilla. I got strawberry. And we sat and talked. Just like little girls do. She told me that she didn't have a very good day because she was busy with ballet practice and class. What would she rather be doing?

"Skipping"

A simple little thing she is.

This time she didn't bring along her grandparents, so I'm thinking she is getting more comfortable with it just being the two of us. She's precious. Let me introduce you:

[yep. cold enough to wear a little sweater. finally.]

And because I just can't resist, here's the little brother on the playground.

a little bit of this. a little bit of that.

What in the world have we been up to?

missing snow [not me. but scott]

.:learning about prayer.

booking flights.

[These two are visiting over the holidays. yay!!]

spending time with university students.

[this is my friend, Cecilia]

[picture from our conversational english class that we help out with on sundays.]

running. playing basketball. soccer. blah blah blah.

and i bet you can't guess what happens in lots of our free time.

[hint. hint.]

reading through this book of the Bible as a team.

[thank you stevens family for this commentary. scott is loving it.]

missing random expressions that can only be found in spur of the moment kind of things.

[I was dying for a perfect time to put this one up. You can thank mom.]

pressing repeat

[shane and shane's new album]

asking scott to get off of repeat.

[Our thanks can usually go to my Joyful Noise Maker right here if we ever have a song stuck in our head, whether it's a normal song or not. So this is the face he usually makes at my reaction -- my sweet, patient reaction -- to his repetitiveness. Of course repeat is in his very nature. He just can't get enough.]

dreaming of rocking babies.

[I met a woman who does this weekly at an orphanage near where we live. I asked her how many babies were in the room last week, she replied 18. Really? Yep, 18 little babies waiting to be rocked. Tell me that doesn't make you want to just pack your bags and head over here...]

peace

Chinese.

.. It's gone from his eyes to his hand ..

and don't you want to just pinch those dimples.

reminisce

I love to do this through pictures. It's a slight obsession of mine. Old pictures, old memories. I can't seem to get enough. My sister makes fun of me and my mom for this. Our conversation usually looks a little like this:

Hey Sarah, remember that time when...

[I'm usually holding up a picture when saying this]

That's usually when Sarah inevitably uses these particular bunch of words:

Memory Lane is closed.

[then that's usually followed by a "go away"]

It's true, I love looking at old pictures. So, yesterday I was going through this old album and stumbled upon what might be the first picture of me and Scott. It's hilarious to me.

We had just landed in Swaziland, Africa and got on a this little bus with our team to head toward the place we would be staying. I happened to sit by this guy named Scott. Of course the whole time he was singing [to HIS OWN tune] and making noises, the very things that absolutely drive me up the wall. I remember us being some of the only ones who didn't fall asleep on that bus ride, so we took this picture.

And because I just can't stand to not show you some more, here the few I had:

It was the most unexpected trip of my life.