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

He's Makin' a List and Checkin' It Twice

Last Friday night we had a visitor at our house. We were sitting around in the living room and there was a pounding on the front door. I sent Emily to answer the door and would you believe that Santa was in our front yard! When she saw him I heard her make a slight gasp under her breath. After Santa came inside and passed out chocolate and candy canes, he had Emily write down her Christmas list on a piece of paper for him. She was so surprised and excited that she couldn't even think of what she had said she wanted. When I told her some of the things she had told me she was asking Santa for she said, "Yeah, right." When Santa asked Emily if she did a good job keeping her room cleaned up, she was honest and said, "not so much" but she promised Santa that she would keep working on it. Eli would not sit on Santa's lap at the mall the other day, but he wasn't scared at all when Santa was at our house. When Santa asked him what his name was he answered, "Eli Christian Adams". I guess he didn't want Santa confusing him with any other Eli. Well, tonight is Christmas Eve, so we will be getting Santa's milk and cookies ready (Emily has already baked them) and getting the reindeer's oats ready. Then we will hang our Santa key on the front door before we go to sleep. (Emily says she staying up all night, but she says that every year). Everyone have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

The best thing about the snow and ice is seeing how excited the kids get over it. Tuesday Eli and I watched it snow huge flakes all morning. The last time it snowed it was only a little bit and it didn't last very long. When it melted away Eli was mad. ha-ha! So he kept asking me if the snow was melting and I had to tell him we had too much snow this time to melt away for awhile. We had to get out in it at noon to pick up the kids from school due to their early out. Of course Eli had to walk through the deepest drifts from the van to the school doors. That was the only logical thing to do. Then Wednesday night Michael, Emily, and I went caroling with our chruch. It was a little cold, but the response we got from those we caroled warmed our hearts. Then we had hot chocolate and donuts at the church afterwards, so I stopped by home and got Matt and Eli so they could go with us to that part. When we got home that night I took these pictures of the kids on our deck before we came inside. I only wish the temperature would warm up a bit because it's just been too cold to let them play in it for very long. Hopefully this weekend, we can get the sleds out!

The Missing Blankey

When Eli was a baby he never took a pacifier and as he's gotten older he's never become attached to any stuffed animal. It's just his blankey that he can't live without. When I was weaning Eli, Matt found this soft, fleece-like "Lightning McQueen" blanket and Eli instantly took to it. When he sleeps he has to have the two silk tags in his hand. When he was younger, he would wake up in the middle of the night saying, "Where's my tags?" and I'd have to go into his room and give him his tags. He has slept with his blankey every night for the past two years...until last Saturday.

While Emily and I were at Monkey Cove with Girl Scouts, Matt, Alyssa, Michael, and Eli went to visit at Grandpa Calvin's house. Saturday night when we were putting Eli to bed, it was discovered that his blankey was missing. You guessed it...it was left at Grandpa's house which is an hour drive one-way. Eli didn't understand that part...he wanted to go to Grandpa's and get it right then. I told Eli we would find him something else to sleep with for one night and I took him into his closet. I got down some of his blankets from when he was born. Each one I showed him I got the same response, "That's for babies." Next I moved on to his pile of stuffed animals that he ignores. Each one of those I showed him I got the same response, "That's for girls." Finally I found the stuffed brown bear that he got on his first visit to the Omaha Zoo. He actually took it and hugged it. I thought, "Hmm, this might work." I covered him up, gave him his bear and as I turned out his light and walked out of his room I heard him say, "I don't want this" and then I heard "plop" and the bear hit the ground. The only thing that saved us that night was that Eli had a head cold and I had just given him medicine right before we discovered the missing blankey. If it hadn't been for his drug-induced sleep, we may have been up for a long night. On Sunday after church Matt went to his Dad's and retrieved the lost friend. When Matt returned with it, the look on Eli's face was pure happiness as he gave blankey a huge hug.

Girl Scouts Weekend at Monkey Cove

Emily and I spent the night at the newly remodeled Ramada Inn in St. Joe Friday night. We were there with 250 other Girl Scouts. The Ramada
now has an indoor water park called "Monkey Cove." Friday night we got to swim in the water park, participated in a scavenger hunt throughtout the hotel, made crafts, and learned line dances. My favorite part of the whole weekend was watching Emily do the YMCA. And I'm not talking about just the letter parts, but the whole dance. And she also learned the macarana. I was laughing so hard. During the freestyle dance, she was breakdancing...I still don't know where she learned that. I told Emily she was taking after Aunt Melinda with her trendy dance moves. These two together are sure to be the life of any party! Saturday morning after breakfast we swam another 4 hours before going to McDonalds for lunch and then heading home. Oh, I almost forgot about the water slide. It was very tall, enclosed, a corkscrew, and dark inside. After Emily started up the stairs, I went over to the end of the slide to watch her come out. I kept waiting and waiting and finally I turned around and there she was coming back down the stairs! Oh, well--maybe next year!

More Pumpkin Pictures

I forgot to post these pictures that I took of Eli before we carved our pumpkins. After Halloween we set the carved, rotting

pumpkins out by the road with our trash. When Eli heard the garbage truck coming he ran to look out the window. And he was not happy to see the garbage man putting our pumpkins into the back of the truck. In fact, he was not happy about for several days. Just when I thought I was going to have to go buy more pumpkins, he seemed to forget about it. He's past pumpkins now...we've moved on to jumping in the leaves.

God Bless America

In last week's presidential election our country had a chance to stand up for God. We had a chance to cast a vote for the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on and that our forefathers fought to preserve. We had a chance to vote our Christian convictions and say "yes" to faith, to family, to life, and to truth. Although I do not understand why God allowed the election to turn out the way it did, I do know that God allowed it to happen for a reason. The following true/false quiz was an e-mail I received a few days ago written by Pastor Wyman Richardson from First Baptist Church of Dawson, Georgia. It really put things into perspective for me and I wanted to share it with everyone.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, 'Jesus Is Lord' will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control. _____________________________________________________

That e-mail really got me to thinking and now that the election is over we must move forward. The best thing we can do now is pray. In order for our country to return to the righteous nation that God wants us to be, we need to be praying for our elected leaders. You can visit the website presidentialprayerteam.net to join others in praying for our president-elect and other national leaders as well. It will give you specific concerns to pray about. And we also need to be praying for a spiritual awakening among believers of Jesus Christ. God has the power to change the hearts of people and with prayer, I believe it will happen. We must unite and stand up for the truth of God's word and continue to vote our Christian convictions. God Bless.

Thank You, John McCain: A True American Hero

"I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.

And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history, we make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much."

A Cheetah, a Tiger, & and a Hot Dog

For a long time Emily has been wanting to dress up Melinda's dog, Jessie, like a hot dog for Halloween. So when I found this costume, I had to buy it. Emily was a cheetah and Eli was Chase Daniel. In the picture Eli's making his football face. He's showing off his muscles. He was so excited to get his face painted with those two black lines under his eyes. He said next year he wants to be an alligator. This was Maysville's second year having trick-or-treating with the businesses around the square, so we did that. It's nice because it's before dark and it's neat seeing so many kids walking around the square having fun. That's where we took Jessie and she and her costume were a hit. There were people wanting to take her picture. Melinda said it was the most Jessie had ever walked at one time. By the time we finished she really was a hot dog! After we got home, Emily just wanted to stay and hand out candy. So Eli and I took the wagon and trick-or-treated around our neighborhood. After a few houses he said, "Mom, I'm gettin' a litte bit tired." I'm not sure how since I was the one pulling him in the wagon.

Country First Jack-O-Laterns

We decided that our yard signs and bumper stickers we're enough support, so we added our McCain-Palin Jack-O-Lanterns to the mix. Matt did Governor Palin, Alyssa did McCain-Palin, and Michael did Senator McCain. I wasn't able to help much because I was too busy roasting pumpkin seeds, making caramel apples, and hot gluing my thumbs together in an attempt to make Emily some cheetah ears to go with her Halloween costume. But the political pumpkins were my idea and I did find the patterns and took all the pictures. Eli was so cute running around outside tonight saying "McCain-Palin" while I was trying to take the pictures. Happy voting!

Pickin' Pumpkins at Hunt's Orchard

We took advantage of the beautiful Saturday God blessed with us earlier this month and went to Hunt's Orchard, North of St. Joe. Here we are on the tractor pulled hay ride that took us from the general store up to the pumpkin patch.

Here is Eli in the middle of the patch. Too many pumpkins to choose from! This was one of the few times Eli wasn't on the run and I was able to snap a picture. After we choose our pumpkins we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. The orchard volunteers put on a short skit about the Beverly Hillbillies, but none of our kids would do the hoe down with Granny.

There was also a hay maze that the kids loved to crawl through. At first Eli was scared to crawl in, but once he did, he didn't want to get out. We had to send Michael in to keep track of Eli. The picture of Emily was taken in the very center of the maze. After our hay ride back to the general store, the kids spent a little time in the petting zoo and Emily and Eli took a train ride before we headed home.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Eli Christian

Here's a picture of Eli with one of his presents. Don't you just love the shirt he's wearing? Since I'm the one who writes this blog, I get to point out such things. :) It's really hard to believe that Eli is already 3 years old. He is definitely all boy--loves tractors, bulldozers, monster trucks, dinosaurs, and is always getting hurt. His latest scare was shutting the automatic sliding van door on his hand by pushing the button. Nothing in his hand was broken and now the button is disabled whenever he is in the van. ;)

I gave Eli a few choices of what he wanted on his birthday cake and he chose bulldozers. Jen, the girl in town who makes the kids' cakes, didn't have a bulldozer pan, but she has one of the icing printers and she can put any picture on a cake. So, Eli and I went to the Catepillar website and picked out two pictures for his cake. After we printed off the pictures, he couldn't wait until morning, so he could take in his pictures to the cake shop. He proudly presented his paper to Jen and then asked me everyday for a week if it was time to go get his birthday cake yet.

MIZZOU-RAH!! Missori 69 Nevada 19

Despite the rain, we had a great time at the Missouri-Nevada game on Saturday. Lance met us at the gate and made sure we had everything we needed. We ended up sitting on the 50 yard line with Uncle, Chad and Jiggs, so the kids had a great view of the field. MU's fake punt that resulted in a touchdown happened right in front of us; what an awesome play! It just doesn't get any better than that!Here's Chase looking for a receiver. Chase was 23-28 passing with 405 yards. Coffman and Maclin put on quite a show for us as well with 127 yards and 172 yards receiving.

Mizzou on the ground: 132 yards rushing with 80 of those belonging to Washington. After Mizzou had put the game out of reach, we got to see Chase Patton take over at quarterback. He had 72 yards passing and he rushed for a touchdown. This kid could have been a starter on a different football team, but being raised in Columbia, he knew from the time he was a little boy that he wanted to be an MU Tiger. He chose to join a team where he knew he would play back-up because being a Tiger meant that much to him. Wow, what a guy!

Homeward Bound: Here are Michael and Alyssa wearing their Daniel jerseys that Lance bought them. The look on Michael's face was priceless when I told him that Lance knew Chase and the rest of the football team. I didn't realize that Michael was unaware of that little bit of information. He's already wondering if Lance can get Chase's autograph for him. Michael will be a "rock star" among his friends with the autograph of the next Heisman Trophy winner. Go Mizzou!

Back to School

There's nothing like the smell of new textbooks and pencil shavings, unless you're a Mom who really isn't ready for school to start again. I really enjoy having the kids home over the summer and I'm always a little sad when they start back. Here is a picture of the first day of school (another one of my picture taking traditions that they'd love to skip, but I won't let them).

Alyssa is a Freshman... yeah, I know that one slipped up on us, too. She is really enjoying the year so far and all of her classes, except shop. She's going to make us a footstool, but she said it might take her the entire year to get it done. I think she'll get the hang of it before too long. We've have four extra girls at our house all weekend as they were making t-shirts for homecoming. I'd forgotten what a big deal a first homecoming is to a freshman. The girls are so excited. We really enjoy Alyssa's friends...they are a great bunch of girls. Emily and Eli especially like it when they come because the girls always play with them.

Michael is in 7th grade and it's an easy guess as to what his favorite part of the year has been so far--FOOTBALL! This is his first time playing and he has been giving 110%. He gives us detailed recaps of every practice. And he has all A's and A-'s in his classes. His coach has been preaching what Mom and Dad have always preached--school work first. Somehow he seems to be listening to coach, which is fine; we're just glad it's all coming together for him. He's plenty smart, he just didn't want to do the work, now he realizes if he wants to play football he has to do the work.

Emily is in 2nd grade and of course she loves everything--except PE. Same as every other year. As much as I hope she will eventually like sports, I just don't know. Her favorite class is art. She says looking forward to art is what "keeps me going". I laughed when she told me that. I keep forgetting to tell her art teacher, I know she would appreciate hearing that story. Emily has blossomed into quite a reader. One night she was sitting on the couch reading an article in my Reader's Digest magazine titled, "41 Things Your Doctor Knows, But Doesn't Tell You." She told me she didn't think doctors should do that, so she read the article. What happened to reading Dick and Jane?

Eli misses the kids when they are at school. He asks me repeatedly throughout the day if it is time to go pick Emily up from school. When we get there, he showers her with hugs. Ten minutes after we've been home, he fights with her. Go figure!