A very happy 100-week birthday to our dear sweet precious gift from God, Rebecca Grace. Becca’s come a long way since Nov. 2009. I always get a little choked up when I look back at pictures from Becca’s birth. God has truly blessed our family with Becca. He spared and protected her life, and we thank Him every day for giving us our little girl.

We recently had a friend, Diana, over for dinner. Diana is a linguist with SIL International in East Asian. We enjoyed hearing about Diana’s work (and Becca enjoyed wearing the “lampshade” hat that’s worn by villagers where Diana works).

Becca continues to love going to the library and reading her weekly book picks. She has an excellent memory with stories. Some mornings (if she gets up too early) I let her read in our bed, while Josh and I have our morning prayer time. It’s really cute to hear her “reading” books.

I’ll close with a few pictures of some of our home decor.

The photo on the left is of our dinning room picture wall.

The scene on the right and below is from one of Becca’s favorite books Can’t Catch Me. I bought the animals at Hobby Lobby and designed the “set” from construction paper.

And here, left and right, some of Becca’s art, entitled “Spring Hands, Summer Hands, Autumn Hands” & Winter Hands”. Becca loves tracing her hands (which so far doesn’t come out looking much like hands), so we decided to take advantage of it. Just above Becca’s art are pictures for our 3 Christmases together. Black cardstock and clear contact paper make great frames.

Our first fall in Texas I prayed for a pumpkin and God used the Bixbys to answer my prayer. This past weekend, Josh bought a pumpkin for us and it’s a reminder to me of all the prayers God has answered while we’ve been in Texas. As I look at our real life pumpkin – Becca – I’m reminded of how many blessings God has given us in her. She’s the “pumpkin” I look at this fall as I pray for other requests, knowing that God answers in His time and in His way.

To celebrate the first day of fall, Becca and I made a little project for our apartment door. I think I saw this craft idea for a Christmas wreath in a Highlights magazine when I was a little kid. Becca loves tracing her hands, so it was easy to get lots of hands for our autumn wreath. Add a little glue, cardboard, and contact paper and presto!, you have a wreath. Becca loved working on the project with me. I think her favorite part was playing with (eating) the glue!

Friday night we took our yearly visit (2008, 2010)  to the Hall Pumpkin Farm with René, Yani, and Amaris. Going through the corn maze was a little different with 2 toddlers. They both loved running around the maze, as well as riding tractors, sitting on pumpkins, and riding in a wagon. I think Becca’s favorite part was pushing Amaris in the wagon . . . she mentions it to me every time she remembers going to the pumpkin farm.

“I need you to get some things together for Becca, she’s going  home with the Rodriguezes. We’re going on an overnight date.”  What a surprise! This is what Josh told me when I came home Sunday afternoon from a church bridal shower. René and Amaris had dinner with Josh and Becca while Yani and I were at the shower. A little while after Yani and I got to our house, we were sending Becca off on her first pajama party sleepover.

My sweet husband had planned a little getaway – hotel, museum visit, babysitter – all without my knowledge. We stayed at the The Fairmont Dallas, located in the West End of Dallas. He strategically planned our hotel location so we would be able to walk to our Monday field trip.  We enjoyed walking around Sunday and Monday. It was lovely to spend some relaxed time together.

For dinner we decided against eating at The Heart Attack Grill (“Over 350 lbs? Eat for free!”) and ate at the original Spaghetti Warehouse. The restaurant was filled with antiques. After dinner we walked around a building that had fountains all over the place. It would be a really neat place to play in warm weather, if they allowed such things.

Monday morning we visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum. The museum exhibits center around events that took place on April 19, 1943: the start of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the Bermuda Conference, and the day of the attack on the 20th Transport train from Mechelen to Auschwitz by three men armed with one gun, a lantern, and 4 wrenches (over 200 Jewish deportees were able to get off the train).

We had a wonderful time on our little vacation. My man is so sweet to plan the trip for us. I’m thankful for the thoughtful, loving man the Lord has given me as my husband. And for those who are wondering, Becca did great on her first pajama party. Yani gave the girls a wonderful time together!

This past weekend Grandpa and Grandma Jensen came for a visit. Grandpa knew exactly what to do to warm Becca up to him . . . he brought her a new “Flopsie” bear. The panda is a Rinconada – “carefully hand-carved and detailed in fine grain earthenware ceramic material.” Becca is delighted to have her new “glass Flopsie.” Becca also enjoyed reading and playing games with Grandma. It was fun to see her interact with her grandparents.

On Friday Grandpa & Grandma took us to the Dallas Zoo. It was the perfect day for being at the zoo – great weather and not many people. Becca’s favorite part was walking (“Becca walk!“) around the zoo. The animals Becca really enjoyed were the giant lizard, the elephants, the giraffe, and the fish. Becca was quite worn out after our day at the zoo.

Saturday we went the Fort Worth Stockyards, where we saw a little bit of the western Texas. The rest of the visit was chatting and just enjoying time together. On Sunday both Grandpa and Grandma spoke at church for our missions emphasis Sunday. We had a great visit together and now Becca has some fresher memories with her grandparents J.