Christmas Tree Farm Fun!

We ended our trip to the Christmas Tree Farm with a roasted marshmallow, a trip through the tunnels... we had one very happy toddler :)  
 
 
 

How Lovely Are Your Branches

And then, the perfect tree was found. Daddy used his strong muscles to chop it down, and then Zanna helped lug the winner back to the tractor. And, a happy family (with a bad close-up shot by mommy) had their Christmas tree :)

 
 
 
 

O Christmas Tree...

Then there was the walk to the trees and the all important measuring and choosing...

 
 
 
 

Oh Christmas Tree....

First there was the hayride... 
 
 

Hamburger Slam 2010!

 
 
 
 

The Day After Thanksgiving, we had a "Hamburger Slam!" with our family friends, the Geislers. Everyone was in charge of creating two delicious hamburgers for the rest of the group to sample and judge. We had some stiff competition.... Ingrid and her boyfriend Marty made the "Mighty Fine Burger" (they didn't even know there was a Mighty Fine restaurant in Austin!) complete with avocado, green salsa and a 'secret blend of spices'. Cay and Dorian (1 of the mom/son teams) made the 3-legged Zebra, which had mayo cooked on the patty (they learned this from Alton Brown) avocado, and cheese and goodness. Then, there was Jeremy and Mom's team who made the "Razzle Dazzle Apple" with roasted apples and bacon, and then Cam's and my team who made the "Dirty Allen" ( a take on the Dirty Sanchez taco at Torchy's) with a fried poblano pepper, pickled carrots and avocado. Man, it was good eating! We did judging in two ways: every team was judged by the other teams and then we did individual judging as well. I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2010 Hamburger Slam was none other than....... (drumroll please!) THE DIRTY ALLEN!! We won both the team and the individual contest. It wasn't long after all of the hamburgers were consumed that people were plotting for their next year's hamburgers..... a tradition has been made. Yum.

Happy How-ween!

 
 
 
 

"Happy How-Ween!" Zanna is still saying that!
We had a busy and extremely fun Halloween week. We spent the week leading up to Halloween at MO Ranch at a Couples in Ministry Retreat which was FABULOUS. There were 9 children 4 and younger, all PK2s (preacher kids squared) and we had plenty of time to enjoy being a family, a couple, and also learning more about the seasons of marriage and ministry. It was awesome. We came back and then had the 6th annual Wurstfest Adventure with the Ukropinas... it's always the case that the "best times are the WURST times". Eric and Zanna were so loving towards each other and absolutely loved to dance with each other. Then, came Halloween... Zanna, as you can see, was a cowgirl! I even snagged some awesome boots at Goodwill for $3.99... she won't take them off now- wears them with everything. We had church that morning, and then Zanna and I went with the youth to Emeritus Nursing Home to sing hymns, play balloon volleyball (yes, really!) and then to take a halloween treat bag to every resident. I can safely say that Zanna and the residents fell in love with each other and that by the 40th door we'd visited, Zanna had perfected saying "Hi... Happy How-WEEN!" and walking in to the person's room to give them a hug and a smile. It was sweet to watch her interact with the residents and wonderful to watch their eyes light up and then for many of them to share stories of their own grandchildren and greatgrands.

After visiting with the folks at Emeritus, we headed over to HBC where Zanna goes to Mother's Day Out to meet Daddy as well as Godmother Allison, and Jenny, Sean and Josephine for a Pumpkin Party! Zanna LOVED it! Jenny has some hilarious pictures at her blog, http://www.thelittlestcowpoke.blogspot.com, of Zanna riding a motorcycle (eek!) and of the girls playing basketball in their duck and cowgirl outfits.... As always, seeing Josephine was a blast. We even got to meet a new friend, Dragon Julien and his mom Stacy and enjoyed that as well. Then, before we could call it quits, Allison, Zanna and I did a little trick-or-treating down the block. Our neighbors are all very gracious and Zanna enjoyed ringing doorbells and saying "Tick-o-teat" at each door..... And, mom enjoyed the candy :)
Shew! Happy How-ween everyone!

Chicken Dancing Cuties!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

 
 
 
 
We love the pumpkin patch at St. John's United Methodist Church! Cam laughs at me when I say it's a tradition, but hey, we've done it both years of Zanna's life... that sounds like tradition to me :) Zanna had a blast running around and picking up the pumpkins by their "sicks" (sticks). There were some bumpy ones and some smooth ones, and of course we had to touch them all! Also, I got both of these adorable halloween-ish outfits handed down from a friend at church and was excited when the calendar finally hit October so I could pull them out. Happy Fall!

All Creatures of our God and King

 
 
 
 

Last weekend our church hosted the "First Annual" (love those :)) Blessing of the Animals service. As the pastor of Children, Youth and Families, of course I was the pastor in charge :) of this event. We planned the service around the Feast of St. Francis on Oct.4 as he's known as the patron saint of animals. Even though I had nightmares prior to the evening of cat/dog fights and chickens being eaten by great danes, the event was much like Isaiah's vision of the peaceful kingdom, with the lion and the lamb (or in this case the cat, dog, snake and chicken) lying down together in harmony! It was extremely meaningful and also a ton of fun! Each of the pastors had an opportunity to lay hands on the pets and to bless them. We used the blessing from Numbers 5:24-25 for each of the animals. We also sang "He's got the whole world in his hands" and "All Creatures of our God and King." Most interesting animals were definitely the two chinese chickens, Harriet and Souflee, dressed up like a devil and an angel. We also had "Green B" the garden snake (Someone else got to bless him:)) and Helen the eye-less cat who is just about as trusting and sweet as it gets. All God's creatures showed up, about 75 animal ones and more than 100 humans, and we had a blast. And, maybe my other female minister friends will appreciate this, I got to wear my cowboy boots and match my stole to them :) (yes, the two male pastors made fun of me for coordinating my stole with my cowboy boots, but I was proud :))

Tradtion, Tradition!

 
 
 
 
The adorable baby in this picture with Zanna is Noah. Noah and Zanna have a long family history of friendship. Noah's grandparents actually had their first date at Zanna's grandparents' wedding back in the 70's where they were all best friends in college. 20 years later, Zanna's mommy (me) and Noah's daddy, Matt, re-met one another at church camp at Mo Ranch and became life-long friends. Then, another lifelong friend, Sarah, and Matt fell in love.... Fast forward a few years of highschool and AC, and Noah's daddy, Matt married Noah's mommy, Sarah.
Anyhow, the meeting of Zanna and Noah was a momentous and much-talked-about time :) Noah will be 1 next week and Zanna and Noah had a blast playing together this past weekend. Long live the Kinard/Demarest tradition of life-long friendships. May this be the first of many many reunions to come!

Night Night Babies

 
 
 

The other day, Zanna put many of her lovies on the couch to take a "map" and go to "seep", so she kissed them all and told them night-night and put on their 'bake-ket' so they wouldn't be cold. Also, as a bonus, there's a shot of her with her new chef's hat from Grammy and Poppy. Pooh bear was wearing one too (that Grammy handmade) but he had removed it just prior to the photo opp. Thanks Grammy!

Mom and Daughter

 
Here is another one of the shots from our family photo shoot the other day. She did a great job capturing Zanna's personality in this one- what a silly girl :)