Preschool Christmas play

Miss Peggy has the preschool do a Christmas preformance every year. Timeri and Slater were so excited to sing their songs that they had been practicing. I think once they are on stage they were a little shy, due to all the parents standing with either cameras or camcorders. It was like the paparazzi. I think they did great ! Afterwards, they had a Christmas party. They ate, exchanged presents and had a surprise visit from Santa. Slater spotted him come in and he walked right over to him. Santa gave the kids a little present. Caden had missed school this day because he was sick. He was a little sad Santa didn't have something for him. I explained to him it was just for the preschoolers. He is a little wise cracker, becasue he said "I know that isn't the real Santa...he looks like Miss Peggy's husband."
(push pause on side music to hear video)

TVCS

 

Today the Caden and Davin had their Christmas prefromances at their school. Caden was hysterical... he came out with a red beanie on. I think he was a little overwhelmed seeing how many people were in the auditorium. He proceded to pull the beanie over his face and over his nose. He looked like the character from "Fat Albert". I know he was embararrssed and being shy. I love Caden and understand his uncomfortableness. Davin did his usual and hide in the back. He always manages to hide out in the back, where I can't get a picture of him.

 

Davin and Austin

 

Caden and Davin's Christmas debut

Caden

Davin

The legend of the candy cane

Look at the candy cane, what do you see? Stripes that are red, like the blood shed for me. White is for my savior, who's sinless and pure. "J" is for Jesus My Lord, that's for sure! Turn it around, and a staff you will see. Jesus my shepherd, was born for me.
Many years ago, a candy maker wanted to make a candy at Christmas time that would serve as a witness to his Christain faith. He wanted to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. He began with a stick of pure white hard candy; white to symbolize the Virgin birth and sinless nature of Jesus; hard to symbolize the solid rock, the foundation of the church; firmness to represent the promise of God.
The candy maker made the candy in a shape of a "J" to represent the name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. He thought it could also represent the staff of the Good Shepherd, with which he reached down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs, who, like all sheep, have gone astray.
Thinking the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received, by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life. Unfortunately, the candy became known as a candy cane, a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the true meaning is is still there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Christmas card

Well, here is this years Christmas card. I am sure everyone has received it in the mail by now. Willy Wonka, Veruca and the Oompa Loompa's wishing you a Scrumdidilyumptious Christmas. I hope this won't be the last year that the kids allow me to make our traditional silly/creative Christmas card. I have to put my thinking cap on for next years, if they let me do it. Merry Christmas to all !! Jesus is the reason for the season.

The "dirt jumps"

Now that Slater is riding his bike without training wheels, he is wanting to try his new learned talent at riding the "dirt jumps". So we took him. He can do it. He definatley was born with some extrodinary talents. He was dribbling basketballs at 12 months. Now at his age of 38 months and 12 days he is riding his bike without training wheels. UNBELIEVEABLE ! He definatley has been blessed with Erin and my athletic abilities. When I told my dad what he was doing, he said that is how he and my mom felt when they saw me at 3, water skiing behind their boat. Erin says he remembers fishing with his dad at 3. The daring Slater was riding down slopes and over bumps with no problem. Some of the steep slopes he wanted to ride down, had more than a 4 foot drop. I told him no. He has no fear. He keeps up with Caden and Davin. They had fun riding bikes over all the jumps and then Erin discovered a part of the mud that had dried and was all cracked. He told the kids it was an earth puzzle. So they played in the dirt for awhile. So much fun being a kid, especially seeing things through their eyes. And that is what we all are, a bunch of kids just trying our best to have fun with what God blesses us with. Our next goal is to get Timeri riding without training wheels.

Our little daring one...Slater

Today was a very exciting day ! Slater came in the house and said "Dad, can you take the training wheels off my bike?" My first thought was....NO ! Erin went ahead and did it. He told me what's the worst thing that could happen, he'll probably crash. Well, the wheels were off... he wheeled the bike through the house got on the bike on our front porch and he was off. He rode away, WITH NO HELP! After riding for about 5 minutes, he asked if he could go to the dirt jumps. I can't believe it. What happened to my lil' man. He is all grown up.

Guitar Hero

Erin brought home guitar hero for the wii. What a riot ! We all had fun singing and playing the instruments. When I was singing solo and the kids were in the downstairs room, they came out and started laughing..."Mom is singing". We all had fun and laughed with eachother at either our singing or our instrument talent. VERY ENTERTAINING ! I liked it best when Erin was singing and I was playing the drums. What I don't suggest to anyone is having guitar hero with kids that like to start playing it at 7:30 a.m. Slater's singing, Caden's drumming and Davin guitar ability can be rather annoying. Yikes ! What a great time for our family ! We had fun !

My lil' 'Backyardigan"

Occasionally, and more often than ever, I see Slater out of the corner of my eye wearing his Backyardigan costume. Grammie Ginger had given it to him a few years ago. He continually puts it on, on his own. He then walks around the house singing the "Backyardigans" tune. Too cute ! I love my lil' Backyardigan.

Creatures in the car

Timeri fell in love with this frog at the park. She walked around with it for over an hour. She swang with it and she slid with it. It was time to leave and I told her she needed to leave it at the park. She begged to take it home and asked if she could let it go in our waterfall in the back yard. She made a big promise saying "I won't let it go in the car!" Why I ever believe a promise the kids make. It has been three days now that the frog has been missing in the car. Erin asked today, if I had started to smell it yet. Not yet. This isn't the first frog that has been lost in the car. The previous one, jumped out of the cage and jumped on Slater's lap while I was driving on the 15. He was screeching at the top of his lungs. I had to pull over to catch the darn thing. Good thing I am not afraid of frogs. There was another time, at the end of the school year last year, that Davin was so excited when I picked him up to show me had a sandwich bag full of black stink bugs. 5 to be exact. His teacher laughed, I thought "Oh great !" Well I had made plans to go swimming at a girlfriends house immediatley after school. We headed over there, swam, had a great time. When we were leaving, Davin ran to the car to check on his bugs. THEY ATE THROUGH THE ZIPLOC BAG!!! I then had 5 black stink bugs roaming in the car. I refused to drive the car. My girlfriend was laughing so hard. It was really funny, however the fear of one of those bugs jumping on me while driving, could possible cause a serious accident. I covered the seat and any gaps with a towel and drove home. I parked the car in the garage with all the doors left open. My dad had suggested a bug bomb. Thankfully, theY crawled out on their own and I never saw them again. Thank goodness !

Laminin - Louie Giglio

This is truly the glory of God in the human body.
(push pause on music on side to hear video)

I Rudolphed my ride

 

Rudolph the red nose reindeer, had a very shiney nose... No need to pimp my ride, I Rudolphed my ride! I went and bought these antlers and red nose for the car today. Timeri and Slater helped me put them on. They were so excited to see the car transform into a reindeer. When I drive or even when I close the door the bells on the antlers ring. I think its pretty funny. I went to pick up the boys from school. When we were walking towards the car, Caden said "What in the world ! I AM NOT RIDING IN THAT CAR !!" I started laughing so hard. He is 8 ! I thought of all people he would love it. I told him "Well buddy, they are staying on, and just think I will be dropping you off at school in the morning and everyone will see you getting out of the reindeer." I think I will pick him up tomorrow and have the back windows rolled down with Christmas music blasting. Too funny ! A few of my girlfriends saw the reindeer and just laughed. They asked if Erin would drive the car with them on. Of course he will !!! He has the best humor of all of us.... and that is why I brain stormed a creative idea... I went back to the store and bought a second pair to put on his car. Of course, he willingly wouldn't put them on. So tomorrow night when he is sleeping I am going to sneak into the garage and put them on his car. They will look great on his Chrysler 300, which I call his pimp mobile. When he leaves at 4:45 in the morning, he hopefully won't notice anything in the dark garage. He will get to work around 6:30 just when there is enough light or maybe when he closes the door the bells will jingle for him. Oh I can't wait ! Fun, fun, fun !!

Mommie's Cafe

Every Wednesday, Timeri, Slater and I go to a playgroup through the church called "Mommie's Cafe". We meet at local parks or sometimes we go on a little outings to a special event or museum. It is great...because it gets a bunch of moms together to chat with eachother while all the kids play together. I think the church classifies it as a 'sanity break for mom's.' And that is what it is ! It is so good to get together with other mom's to chat and share stories, and to build friendships and a support system. Being a mom, can be the most challenging and frustrating thing at times. And then, it can be the most rewarding, as we encounter the most miraculous moments. Being a mom requires patience, responsibility, time management, to have the ability to meet deadlines, to be able to multi-task, to have tolerance, to have the ability to teach training skills to succeed in the world, to have flexibility to gracefully manage all of the children's unexpected surprises and interruptions. Last but not least, being able to have humor and enjoyment at being a taxi driver, laundry specialist, teacher, maid, chef, organizer, referee and all the rest of it preformed on minimal sleep and few showers. What an exhausting and rewarding job ! I think it is great to talk to a mom and hear a story about what her kids pulled that day or week... It confirms that we are ALL going through the same things together day afer day. That helps me find humor and peace knowing that I don't have it so bad on those absolutely crazy days. My mom had always told me that it is so easy now, when they are young, that when they were teenageers I would look back and think of these early years and think, that the load then, was a piece of cake. The teeneage years is an era I am excited about, but know I will be doing a lot of praying. I feel an important part of being a parent is accepting that it isn’t always perfect. There will be bad times, but there will also be good times. The most important thing, is to know that these are God's blessings to me, and they are His children. I always want my blessings to know that I love them immensly, no matter what. Here is a few of Timeri's favorite girlfriends Averie and Gabby. And Slater's best bud Shawn.

Play date with Jillian

Today, after I picked the kids up from school, I didn't tell them where we were going. I just kept driving south on the 15 towards San Diego. Caden was smart enough to figure it out. He has a great sense of direction. Every point we kept getting closer he kept saying, "Can I tell Timeri where we are going?" I kept telling him, "Don't say anything!" We pulled up to the Scripps Ranch Club where Jillian and the kids were waiting for us. I pulled in really slow to the parking lot...the kids just stared at eachother. Then the blood curdiling scream from the back of the car out of Timeri's lungs... "LILY!!" We palyed at the park inside the club for a few hours. The older boys played kick ball. We then went back to Jillian's house for pizza and movies. The kids had a great time. They were all very excited to see eachother. They are like a big group of brother and sisters. I had a praticular good time just loving on Luke. Caden, Timeri and Slater took a liking to him as well. I am sure Davin would have as well, but he was too preoccupied playing with Jack. Jillian is my best friend. I don't know what I would do with out her. I have truly been blessed by her friendship. She is always so much fun to be around. We seem to understand eachother very well and know how to make eachother laugh. She has always been there to give advice, a pep talk or lend her shoulder to cry on. She has always listened to me with her heart and has always been honest with me. She knows all my secrets, and understands my fears and dreams. She has never stop believing in me. I just hope that I am able to return to her what she is to me.

Our Christms tree

Each year, in December, families all across our nation gather together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. One of the most visible symbols of this holiday season is the Christmas tree. This evergreen tree is placed in a position of prominence in our homes and decorated with lights and ornaments as a part of the festive nature of the Christmas season.
However, this tree is a far cry from the original "Christmas Tree." For you see, the first Christmas tree was not a beautiful evergreen found in some quiet spot in the woods. Rather, it was a piece of rough-hewn wood with no natural beauty whatsoever. Its sole purpose was to bring misery and pain and eventually death, and its only beauty was in the purpose for which God was using it.
Instead of being decorated with lights and ornaments, upon the two limbs of this tree hung the Light of the World. His body beaten and bruised by the Roman soldiers responsible for his punishment. Beneath this tree there was no skirt of soft white cloth representing snow. No, the ground beneath this tree was stained crimson red by the blood being shed for the remission of the sins of the world.
When we stand around the tree and sing Christmas carols, those standing around this tree were hurling insults and blasphemies. The bible says they mocked him, and said "If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matt 27:40) Even those who were being crucified with him showed him no mercy.
Nowadays we place gifts under our Christmas tree, but tradition has it that in the past small gifts were tied to the branches of the tree for children to search for and find. This is the only similarity between our Christmas tree and the true Christmas tree. The greatest gift of all time was "tied" to the branches of the tree on Golgotha. There, Jesus died for our sins that we might be able to be reunited with him for all eternity. This gift was freely given, and unlike the gifts we give one another, this gift is still active and available today.
As you look at your Christmas tree this year, don't let your gaze stop at the lights and decorations, look "through" it to the true Christmas tree.
Today, our family bought our evergreen Christmas tree. This was definatley the earliest we ever put it up. We went to the Christmas tree lot and happened to find the perfect one. I think Erin and I claim that we find the perfect tree every year. Well, this year I think we did. It is by far the greenest evergreen tree we have ever had and the most moist. We also knew this was the tree for us , when we noticed two lady bugs on it. (Timeri has sense claimed one as her pet...hopefully, she will let it go in our yard.) We brought our beautiful evergreen tree home and spent the rest of the day decoating it. I also decorated a smaller tree in honor of my mom. I put handmade oranments on it, that she had made me for me, from years prior. It is my little angel tree in honor of my mom, Monya. I miss her dearly. It is extremely hard, since this was her favorite time of year. The time to celebrate our king's birth. In addition, it is almost her two year anniversary to entering her dwelling place in heaven with the Almighty. I love you mom with all my heart, and continue to look forward to feel your warm embrace. I am greatful you prayed for me and our family. I joyfully embrace the truth that you endeared to me.

Merry Christmas !

Thanksgiving

What is Thanksgiving ?
We have all made attmepts to make Thanksgiving more exciting. Buying Thanksgiving decorations and then there is always the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special. Sometimes it seems like the only purpose of Thanksgiving is to eat turkey, watch football, and let it be the kick off to the Christmas shopping season. Sometimes people even call Thanksgiving “Turkey Day.”
Thanksgiving, to me is so much more than this. Thanksgiving is all about God and thanking him for the gifts of life, love, joy, and more. Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful and having an attitude of gratitude. Yes, we get to see family and friends and we get to eat a great meal. But our central purpose should be to give thanks to God.
I want to be a model of thankfulness to my children. This means being thankful no matter what our situation in life. Thankfulness means that we are aware of both our blessings and disappointments but that we focus on the blessings. On the path of life, it maybe hard to be thankful, like when the children are squabbling and tattling on each other, or a job that is over working you or underpaying you, or a dear friend that you have lost touch with. At times it may be hard to be thankful. I want my husband and children to know that I am thankful for them, for our home, and for the other good things that we are blessed with in our life. I am thankful for all of my family and good friends. I am also thankful for our wonderful country we live in and that we have freedom. Also, that we have wonderful teachers educating our kids, which happen to be the most underpaid employees. I encourage our kids to give thanks to God at Thanksgiving and to set aside time each day to pray and give thanks to Him for all the things He does for us.
This Thanksgiving, our family spent the day at Grammie Ginger and Papa Bills'. They invited us to partake in their familys' Thanksgiving. The kids loved going there, especially knowing that they would be able to go swimming in their pool with their cousins Cole and Chloe. We were all greatful for their hospitality. I greatly appreciated Grammie Ginger's friend Inge setting time aside for me to teach me how to knit. The food was great and everyone participated in the "Tree of Thanks". Which intailed grabbing a leaf and expressing what you were thankful for on it. Thank you for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation 1863

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the LORD.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to, feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

--Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863