Happy 4th Birthday Beniah!

 Four years ago today, Tim and I welcomed our first child,Beniah Mark, into the world.

 Beniah, I love your precious laughter,

I love your creativity,

 

(he was trying to make himself look like a cat)  

 I love your childlike belief and the songs you make up about Jesus.

 (This was a drawing of what God created. Beniah also took the photo.
Day 1: Sunlight. Day 2: Space between water & sky & a ball that Beniah insisted was there
Day 3: Bush, tree, and flower. Day 4: Icky, icky Sun, moon, & stars.
Day 5: Bird for the air & fish for the sea. 

Day 6: Eve riding a lion, a giraffe, and Adam riding an elephant.)

I love how much you want to hug and love on your family and how you say, "Family hug! I love all my family!"

 

 Happy birthday Beniah! We love you very, very much!

Happy Voting Day!

 Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.   ~  Franklin D. Roosevelt


Today is election day.  It has been a much anticipated event in the Whittaker household.  Beniah's favorite show (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) has an episode dedicated to voting which has now caused Beniah to decide that he gets a vote on everything from which team I choose in the family football pool (his guess is as good as mine) to whether or not he obeys me (definitely not ok).  Beniah watched me vote and then watched as Tim read through the voter's guide and decided on how he is voting.  He really wanted in on the action and told Tim that he needed to vote no on a certain ballot measure.

Tim wasn't thrilled with voting no, much to the disappointment of our eldest.

Beniah was finally consoled once he realized that even though Daddy voted "Yes", he wasn't going to be forced to go to a charter school.