The Zooks

Phil's best friend from college was able to swing through Kansas City on his trip to see family at Thanksgiving.






The kids enjoyed playing together while the adults caught up on life.

Childlike Faith

" God loves us and He wants us to care about people and help people. And He loves us even if we make mistakes, even big ones," Kristen told me today on the way to bible study today. She continued to inform me that "God lives in heaven. With Jesus. And MY Great- Grandpa. Soon we'll be in heaven too."



Kristen's Great-Grandpa died last week and she traveled with her family to St. Louis to attend his funeral.
















The trip there was pretty rough,with lots of crying from Audrey and lots of whining from Kristen. But it was nice to be able to show our respect and love for Grandpa Schwane. And luckily the girls slept most of the time on the return trip back to KC.








Kristen really enjoyed meeting Cousin Tim and staying at his house. We were very thankful for his hospitality. Kristen understood that he is Daddy’s cousin, like Charis is her cousin. Sarah Poertner was there, too, and Kristen talked about how Daddy has two cousins.




Actually there are a ton more, but we’ll save those intros for a later time.









Kristen and Audrey both loved seeing their Mimi and Papa.















And their aunts and uncles.









I asked Kristen what else she knew about God, and she said, " Jesus loves us anyways. Even if we make big mistakes, even if we make little mistakes. If we say we are sorry, He forgives us and He loves us even when we make mistakes. And He wants us to share and be nice to good people and bad people."



I asked her what she meant by the 'bad' people and she said, "like Edgar" (from the Aristocats... he stole Madame's cats) She continued by saying, " If Edgar says sorry, Jesus will forgive him and teach him to be nice and care about people and to not take cats anymore."




I think my little three old summarized the gospel pretty well. Accept Jesus and his love and grace. And in response, love and be graceful to others.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Uncle Bryan and (future) Aunt Aimee on their engagement



“Who’s Aimee?” asked Kristen as she and I viewed Uncle Bryan’s new set of pictures on Facebook. I explained to her that Bryan had met a beautiful girl who was very nice and fun and now he wants to marry her. Kristen's face looked blank and I could tell she was confused. So I tried to clarify. I said, “ You know how Daddy calls me his woman ?” and Kristen nodded her head, so I continued, “well Aimee is going to be Bryan’s woman.” Kristen again looked confused and said, “But who is Bethany?” After a brief outburst of laughter, I regained my composure and explained that Bethany was Bryan’s sister, not his woman. Kristen smiled and then said, “Like Audrey is my lil sis. And Aunt Sam is your lil sis.” I agreed with her and then she continued to name several of her friends and their corresponding siblings. "Like Ava is Emma's sister and Whitney is Ethan's sister."



After she was done recounting almost every sibling pair she knew, I pointed to the picture on the computer and said, “Aimee will soon be your Aunt…” She interrupted me by saying she already had an aunt, Aunt Sam. I agreed with her and said, "Yes, Samantha is your aunt and so is Bethany and Andy..." and before I could finish the list, she said with gusto and a huge grin “And Aunt Erin!” I continued explaining that Bryan was going to have a wedding in the summer and we would go to a pretty church to watch Uncle Bryan and Aunt Aimee get married. Aunt Aimee would wear a pretty white dress and they would promise to love each other and take care of each other and then they would kiss and we would clap. She giggled and clapped and then asked, “What will Uncle Bryan wear?” I told her he would wear a black suit. “Like a swimsuit?" "No," I explained, "Uncle Bryan will be wearing a different kind of suit, one that had black pants and a black suit coat." She responded, “ Not a swimsuit?” and after a few seconds of pausing, she continued, “ A swimsuit is for when you go swimming in a pool.” And then she walked away from the computer to go play.



Not long later, Kristen was playing Little People, and she had Uncle Bryan in a little bike racing with Aunt Bethany and she asked, “Where’s Aimee?” Luckily I knew the proposal was in the works and had bought a Little People figurine at a thrift store a few weeks ago. I told Kristen I would go get her, and I went in search for the figurine’s hiding place. When I came back with “Aimee,” Kristen said, “Oh, there she is,” took the doll and placed her in the car with Uncle Bryan.




So anyways, Congratulations Bryan and Aimee ! Welcome to the family.



My girls are so excited to meet you. They think aunts are the best thing in the whole world and now they have another one to love on them and spoil them. Yeah !







See this post for more about Kristen's Little People.

"What ? "

Kristen loves the phone. She loves pushing the buttons and listening to them beep. (so does Audrey.)

She loves pretending to call people. My favorite thing Kristen says when chatting with her imaginary friends is "Okay, okay, yeah, well, I gotta go. Talk to you later." It cracks me up how she has already learned phone phrases like that.

Recently she has really enjoyed calling her relatives and talking to them. Leaving a message is lots of fun too.



The other night, Phil and I sat on the couch, laughing hysterically at our little three year old chatting with Mimi ( her Grandma O'Neal) At one point, Kristen used her shoulder to hold the phone in place so she could use her hands to put her baby doll in the stroller and push it while still talking. Such a grown up thing to do. And the other thing that really sticks out is how many times and how loudly and with such gusto that Kristen said, "What ?" to Mimi.

And usually Kristen does not stop at one phone call. As soon as she is done (and sometimes the other person has not even hung up yet) Kristen says, "Who else are we going to call ?"

Playing Dress Up

Beauty Sleep

A new pillow for Audrey.






Maybe the message on the pillow will induce sleep.