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 :)

The Demarest Fam

 
 
 

All of the siblings were together a few weeks ago for Stevie's going-away party, so we took some long over-due family photos. The last photos taken of us as siblings were at my wedding and Jeremy was only 9 (he's about to start driving in 2 weeks and has grown about a foot or more since then!) These are some of the faves!!
By the way, you can read about Stevie's adventures as a missionary in Tucson here at her blog: http://www.desertwindsyav.blogspot.com.

Fun with "Ga-cie"

 
 
 
 
Zanna and Gracie, Ga-cie as Zanna calls her, had a blast together in Little Rock. They ran around the Varns' house chasing each other, played hide and seek, and generally enjoyed one another's company. Gracie, having an older sibling, is much better at "taking turns" than Zanna is, so she taught Zanna how to do this without tears. Thank you Gracie! :) The mommies had a blast giving the two girlies a bath one night and kept trying to catch their sweet kiss on camera. We finally got a near-kiss that's just cute enough to save till they're roomies in college one day!
Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't just the babies who had fun... the parents loved our time together too! We had a blast catching up, playing goofy board games after the kids went to sleep, and even getting treated to a date-night while Aunt Hailey watched the babies. Britton and Chris are king and queen of hospitality and made us all feel right at home. Britt and I are plotting what Cam and Chris call "the cult", a community of all of our college friends and their babies (yes, like a commune) somewhere beautiful where all of us can just live together in harmony and peace.... no koolaid.... doesn't that sound glorious? :)

Labor Day in Little Rock!

 
 
 
 

Back in January, Britton and I schemed to get our families together, and came up with "Labor Day in Little Rock!" Britton (and sometimes Chris :)) was my college roomie and has continued to be one of my closest friends. Our baby girls are just one month apart, and they had met back when Zanna was just a month old and Gracie 8 weeks, but not since then. We couldn't wait to have them meet and play together! Gracie's big brother, Riley, is 4 and was SO much fun to play with! We drove to Little Rock on Friday and played hard the whole weekend! These pics are from our trip to the Farmer's Market by the River, playing on the River Playscape, and then playing in the fountains at the river. More pics to come! What a blast it was to be with these fabulous friends. I wish Little Rock and Austin were closer together!