Welcome to the Family of God, Emily

Emily accepted Jesus as her personal Savior during an evening service of our revival in April and her baptism was this past Sunday. Although baptism doesn't give us our salvation, it is the first step of obiedence when we make public our decision to follow Christ. When Brother Dorr asked Emily what Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord..." means she said "It's when you just can't take it anymore and you have to tell people about Jesus." I can't describe what it feels like to know that my child has secured herself a place in heaven. It's a feeling that I've expierenced twice before and I can't wait until I get to do it again in a few years.

A Banquet, a Horseback Ride, and a Gravel Pile

We have had a busy April and May with all those "end of the year" activites for church, scouts, and school. Here is a picture of Alyssa and Michael at our church's Teen Banquet. They had a catered meal, a chocolate fountain, a Christian band, and a speaker for the evening activities. People from our church volunteered for roles as meal and hors d'oeuvres servers, valet parking attendents, and escorts. There was an awesome turnout of youth and our kids had a great time.

This is Emily on Laredo, her horse for the afternoon at the Winding River Girl Scout Equesterian Center. We were there for a mother-daughter horse fun day. Emily has loved horses for as long as I can remember--long before she ever rode one. And the more she rides, the more she wants one of her own! When she was little she never understood why we couldn't have a horse while living in town. We have one more Girl Scout ride set up for this summer and she's also going to take a few private lessons at Camp Woodland in Albany.

Matt is in the process of digging a trench to get our gutter downspouts buried underground and leading to the ditch. So for part of that he needed some gravel, so he had a pile of it delivered last week. Climbing on the pile and playing with his dumptrucks in it has been Eli's favorite thing to do lately. Well that and helping Dad dig in the mud...good thing he has gollashes! Oh and with every few shovel fulls of dirt they overturn a night crawler. Tell me how this boy can be so scared of tiny bugs (including lady bugs) but has no trouble picking up worms! Go figure!

Happy Earth Day 2009: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I took speech my junior year of high shcool and for one of my topics I choose the environment. Since then I've looked at our Earth so much differently. I proudly refer to myself as a tree hugger and I haven't thrown away a plastic or glass bottle since 1993. Being "green" really has a trickle down effect. Also because of that speech, my Mom started and still recycles. Since Grant City quit recycling, she saves and hauls her recyclable items down to me so I can recycle them for her. We use our "green bags" when we go to Wal-Mart to avoid using one of those terrible plastic bags. All my kids take their turn helping unload our items at the recycle plant here in town. I've taken my Girl Scouts there as well and recycling and being green are topics we cover every year. How appropriate that Disney Nature's new movie, "Earth", comes out today. Emily told me if we buy tickets and go see it this week, a tree will be planted in our name. And even Eli has jumped on the "green" bandwagon. He's the fist to tell me when he sees a light on in a room and no one is in there. And when his Dad was letting the water run in the bathroom sink, Eli told him, "That costs money, you know." He made his mama proud!

Science Project: Recycled Valentine's Day Box

I apologize for the lack of blogging lately. I didn't realize until now that it's been almost a month since I posted. I was going to email this picture to a few of you, but decided to blog about it here instead.

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The 2nd graders Valentine's Day box is a science project this year. The students had to make their box out of recyclable items that they had at home. Parent's were not allowed to buy new items for this. And if the box has at least 7 recycable items, then the project receives an "A". Emily said she wanted to do a cat (and all her cat's have to be black because that's just the way she is, so Matt spray painted everything black). The body is a shoe box and the 4 legs are mini aluminum pop cans. The head is a cardboard box. The ears are plastic chocolate milk bottles from McDonalds. The tail is 2 closepins. The eyes are buttons and felt. The nose is a pom-pom and the mouth and whiskers are pipe cleaners. And no, we did not cheat, as we already had all these items.

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I, of course, burned my fingers while hot gluing on the pipe cleaners. This is something I do often (refer to my October post about our Halloween pumpkins), so no one was surprised when it happened. But a few moments after that, my hot glue gun burnt itself. I had just started a new glue stick and I was really leaning in close to it as I was pushing hard on the new stick, when right in front of my face the glue gun sort of exploded. There was a loud pop and I saw a ball of fire inside the gun. Lucky for us, I was on the last two whiskers, so I had enough heat to finish. Later I tried to turn on the light above the sink, but it didn't work and neither did the garbage disposal. It turns out that the "explosion" burnt up the electrical outlet box in the kitchen and Matt had to replace it. So the point of the Valentine's Day box project was to make something out of nothing for zero cost, but in our case it cost us a new hot glue gun and a new electrical outlet! I'll have to send Mrs. Scott a bill. :)

Build a Bear Workshop, Willie's Kansas City and The Harlem Globetrotters

As part of Emily's Christmas from us, we got her a gift card to Build-a-Bear Workshop. She has been wanting to go for a long time and Alyssa has been wanting to take her. (Alyssa has two; a monkey and a rabbit) We had tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters and arrangements for Eli to stay with Grandma, so we thought it would be the perfect time to go to BABW while we were already going to be in Kansas City. Emily chose a black lab and named him Oreo. She was quite the bargin shopper when it came to picking out clothes that were on sale for Oreo. But the cloth, fold up dog house she bought made up for all the money she saved on the clothes. BABW is quite an expensive activity, but if Oreo keeps Emily from thinking about how she wants a real, live Yorkie-poo for awile, it was well worth the money!

Before the Harlem Globetrotters, we ate at Willie's Kansas City. We hadn't eaten there yet and since it sits right beside the Sprint Center, we thought it was a good time to go. Eli was not with us, but this picture is a perfect one to represent Willie's, so I included it. Doesn't he look like a future Tiger? The kids didn't know we were going to stop at Willie's and Alyssa was the first one to see the sign when we drove by. She asked if we were eating there. When we said yes, she screamed, "I'm getting hot wings!". That girl could live on Willie's hot wings; well, actually, she could live on just the Willie's hot wings SAUCE. She puts it on nearly everything. We'd been out of it at home for awhile, so she was pleased when the waitress finally produced a bottle for us that we could buy. She thought they were out, but someone found one for us. Emily had chicken strips and said, "This is the best chicken I ever ate!". I'll send the compliments to the owner. ha-ha! She did have one request, though. She thinks that one of the TV's should play cartoons. I'll have to e-mail Lance. :)

The Harlem Globetrotters put on an awesome show! Everyone should go see them at least once. I told the kids that before the game was over, someone would probably lose their pants and I was right. Two Globetrotters covered their faces like ninjas and army crawled all the way to the free throw line and pulled down the pants of the Washington General player who was trying to shoot. And of course the auidence got a couple of buckets of water thrown on them. Big Easy, who is in the picture with Emily, autographed our ball after the show. Big Easy said he had three brothers: Over Easy, Speak Easy and Mac and Cheesey. ha-ha! Emily is still talking about Big Easy. Doesn't Emily look so small next to him? He is 6'9". It was funny when the Generals started to cheat. We were sitting right behind their bench and behind the scorekeeper. So when the Generals' coach changed the score to put them in the lead, Emily was worried. She couldn't understand why the referee didn't change the score back. I told her not to worry, that the Globetrotters would be able to catch up despite the Generals' cheating and it would make their win much better. I'm sure we'll attend another Globetrotter show when they come back to Kansas City. The players had such awesome ball handling skills and were so much fun to watch.

"This Is The Best Christmas Ever!"

The words of a three year old summed up the Christmas season for us this year. It's funny how Eli said, "This is the best Christmas ever!" since this is the ONLY Christmas he could possibly even remember. We did have a blessed Christmas as we got to spend it with our family over several days.

One of the few good pictures I ever get of these two together. I'm sure there was some bribing with candy involved in order to get Emily to look at the camera at the exact moment Eli was sitting still.

It's always been our Christmas tradition to let the kids open one package on Christmas Eve and it's always new pajamas. That way on Christmas morning they are wearing them in the pictures.

It was Emily's idea to pose with Alyssa in the above picture. So when Eli saw them, guess who he wanted make the same pose with?

The nerf dart gun was the most popular of gifts in our house this year. (Unless you asked Alyssa and she would say it was Dace Dance Revolution for the Wii) Eli is getting pretty good at his aiming. One really does need to watch his/her back around the house now. On Christmas night the boys had a "Nerf war" and the funniest part was seeing Eli running around with a gallon ice cream bucket on his head which was covered with suction cup darts!

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delievered And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them." Luke 2:1-12