Faith Turns 5!!!!!

Of course, we can't believe Faith is 5! We'll never forget getting pregnant with her. For those of you who have already heard this story, feel free to skip down a few lines or just be reminded of God's goodness. We had tried getting pregnant for 7 months with Faith, which was definitely a surprise since it had been so easy before (always a little unplanned). Because it had been so easy in the past, we really struggled with this issue. During that time, God had been working on our hearts to show that we trusted him with everything, including our money and consequently, we decided for the first time to start to tithe. So on a particular Sunday, we put our first tithe check in the offering plate. The following Friday, after 7 months of trying, we found out we were pregnant! This is one issue God prompts you to test Him on: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. . .Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." (Malachi 3:10)

With every child, you wish you could just put their lives in slow motion so you could take more time to savor each moment. So it is with Faith, especially because she's our only girl! She's finally growing out of the whining stage (thank you Lord!) and now we get to watch as she learns to read and can have her "babysit" Gabie for me while I'm cooking. She wants so badly to read so that she can read her big Bible like the boys do every morning. That motivation seems to be providing some nice progress!
While at our friends in Minnesota, she became very fond of her future husband Matthew's scooter. So, even though we're not big on buying toys, she got a princess scooter. It's been a nice activity to do in our house full of tile floors since it's been too hot outside!
Yesterday, we went to Incredible Pizza place for her party. This is where we took the kids for Dylan's birthday party in February. It's so much funner than Chuck-E-Cheese and it costs the same. Faith and Pete's go-kart car won first place and we played lots of skee ball.
This was Faith while we were in the "dining" area eating. They have a few big rooms to choose from where you can eat. This room was made to look like a gym and they have a big movie screen with a movie playing. Their food is actually really good too. They have an excellent salad bar with all the healthy fixin's we like. They have a baked potato bar and to my delight, they brought out a spinach pizza when I asked where their veggie pizzas were. Good food, good times.

Thank you Lord for this beautiful little girl you have blessed us with beyond measure!