Cleaning or Playing

I could be cleaning...

I could have been cleaning the house this morning because the bathrooms certainly needed it. But when the kiddos are looking this cute it's easy to be distracted. There are days when I feel like a referee in a WWF match, but then there are the days when the kids play so well together I just have to sit back and let the sweet memory sink in.

This is our smiley girl, who as you can tell puts up with alot from her siblings.

This video is a little coaxed but does represent Brooke very well.

Oh Christmas Tree

Our Tree

I read in a blog recently that a mother decided to not tempt evil and put her tree on the front porch away from harm's way. Ashamedly my first thought was, "I'm glad my kids are more obedient than that." I'm experienced after all. This is my 5th Christmas keeping a baby or a toddler from touching the ornaments. A few hand swats and an occasional spanking and by day 3 or 4 the tree has been reasonably safe. But then came number 3 and suddenly putting the tree on the porch doesn't seem like such a bad idea. After fishing broken ornaments out a certain young mouth I decided I wasn't dealing just with an obedience issue, but a safety issue. My strategy, however, is not as drastic yet as putting the tree on the front porch. I decided just taking off the first row or two of the ornaments and moving them upward would fix the problem. We'll see if this works. If not, there may be an addendum to this post.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Church

All Dressed Up

Saturday evening I had the kids clothes all laid out for church the next day. This is not a completely normal occurance, but if I'm on top of things it's on my Saturday to do list. However, Sunday morning when I went to dress Brooke I realized the dress I had gotten out for her was too small, so I went with plan B. When I handed Elias his kacki's there was a huge stain on it (from a melted crayon) that I hadn't noticed the night before, and therefore had to find something else for him to wear as well. After was all said and done I looked at the kids and myself and realized we were all dressed in black and white and ready for church early. I guess Alex didn't get the memo because he had a blue shirt on. But he changed to a white shirt and we thought we would try and get a family picture at church. It didn't work so this is all we got. Sometimes I plan and plan and things never go as well as when I see God's hand perfectly orchestrating things.

Dressing up

Elias loves dressing up and pretending. These are a couple of his latest opportunities to dress up. These are all church activites so instead of Halloween costumes we dressed up for "Harvest parties."

Watch out there's a new sheriff in town. For Calvary kids the kids dressed up like something on a farm and had a little parade at a convelescent home. Elias's favorite part were the spurs.

For Awana they had to dress up like a Bible hero. After putting my bathrobe on him for inspiration I came up with the idea of adding a crown and voila, we had a Kind David outfit. Elias is always running around our apartment keeping us safe from giants so this was a perfect idea. Thankfully my son does not have high standards in the dress up department and is quite content with whatever his mom throws together.

Autumn in California

It's pumpkin time!!

In California we like to pretend it's fall. Even though the temperatures are in the 70's and 80's Emma insists on wearing her sweater. One of the ways we pretend that we are not in urban LA is to visit the Underwood Family farm. Right now it's the closest thing my kids know about animals and gardens. The kids loved being able to choose thier very own pumpkin and loved climbing on the giant pumpkins.

This pumpkin was too big to take home.

But this one was just right!

It took a little coaxing but the kids loves feeding the donkeys.

Look Mom, "No wheels"!!!

My baby is growing up.

June 22, 2006

The above picture is over a year old, but is the beginning of this story. A few months before Elias's 4th birthday Alex was throwing some things away in our dumpster when he found a bike. A picture of my husband dumpster diving would have added to this post but I'm sure there is no way I would be able to get my husband to reenact his dumpster diving for a picture. But back to the story... Alex couldn't figure out why someone would throw a perfectly new bicycle away. It still had all the wrappings and obviously had never been ridden. After bringing it inside he realized the chain wouldn't stay on. Alex got out his tools and was able to do some adjustments and fix it. I'd like to say we gave it to Elias the next day, but being the economists that we are we hid it until his birthday. And so yes, one of his birthday presents came from the dumpster, but to our credit it was not his only present and we did spend money on at least one of his presents.

October 24, 2007

Elias loved his bike, but eventually one of the training wheels broke and since then has been riding it with just one training wheel. Today the kids were out riding their bikes and on a whim I decided to take the remaining training wheel off. I didn't have much hope that he would learn to ride without it today, mostly because it's quite hot and I didn't envision myself running up and down the sidewalk. However, it only required me running up and down the block 3 or 4 times and he quickly got the hang of it. I think I'm going to start training him for the Tour de France next week.

Watch out for those corners.

Wow, how my little boy has grown. Looking back at the above pictures I realized it looks like Elias doesn't have much of a wardrobe. I assure you ,however, the Lord is very gracious and Elias has more than one t-shirt.

Ready for Church

Ever once in a while things go right and Sunday morning isn't rushed. Yesterday was one of those days and we took the opportunity to get some pictures of the kiddos.

Look out, von Trapp family. Ok, so maybe they won't win at the Salzburg singing festival, but I love hearing them sing. This particular day "At the Cross" was the favorite of the day.

Cubbies

The long awaited day has come. All summer Emma has been waiting for her time to come to start Cubbies. Until last Wednesday she didn't know exactly what she was anticipating, but she was excited to be the one who gets to wear the blue vest and carry her Cubbie bag. Something she had watched her brother do for the last two year. Elias had been telling Emma all the fun things she could expect to do at Cubbies ie: snack, singing, dancing and exercising (and here I thought I was sending him to Bible memory program).

Emma's verse that she needs to memorize for next week is 1 John 4:10, "God is love". She has quickly memorized that verse and Elias's verse John 3:16. I am continually amazed at the difference in speech levels between girls and boys. The name Motormouth comes to mind. No, I'm not calling my little girl names. It's the word my 4th grade teacher used to describe me on my report card. Emma is often practicing her verbal skills and once in a while has to be told not more talking. Lately she's run out of normal words to say and makes us her own.

First day of School

Calvary Kids

Calvary Kids is a mommy and me preschool at our church that Elias and I are doing this year. Elias loves the one on one time he has with me. Several times he stopped his craft to turn around and give me a hug telling me how much he loves coming to Calvary Kids. He's learned his days of the week by antipcating Friday and being able to wear that bright yellow shirt and go spend some time with mom.

All I want for Christmas

It's going to be a long wait if he has to wait for Christmas to get his two front teeth.

Heatwave

I can water the plant but I have to trust God with the fruit.

This year we decided to try and grow a cherry tomato plant on our balcony. I have never been able to keep a plant alive so I had very low expectations. But miraculously I remembered to water it and it was thriving for a while. When our first little tomato turned red we cut it into fourths and Alex, Elias, Emma and I had a little feast. We later got a couple more and at one point I counted 50 little green tomatoes. I started getting very excited about our future crop and was beginning to think that maybe my brown thumb was turning green. But the picture above is NOT my fault. I have been watering it, even twice a day lately. For the last week our highs have been in the 100's and it has not got below 80 in almost a week. My poor little plant is baking. There is nothing more I can do but to wait on the Lord to change the weather. I am very thankful that I don't serve a mysterious god above to whom I have to put a bowl full of cookies out on my balcony to try and earn favor with. But I serve a very loving God, who graciously reveals himself in His word. It is this very loving Father that controls my weather and the one in whom I place my hope resting in the knowledge of Romans 8:28. And I'm glad that all things working for good doesn't mean a plant full of lots of red tomatoes, although it may. God is working all things to conform me into his image, and boy is there alot of work to be done. He can use a cherry tomato plant and a scorching heatwave to turn my thougthts to Him and to praise Him for his good and sovereign ways.

A five year old's camping trip.

Last weekend Elias had the fun opportunity to go on a father son camping trip with Alex. He came home covered in dirt and full of stories. Because of the dry weather they were not allowed to have a campfire, which meant no roasted marshmellows. However, it was Elias' first camping trip and he didn't know what he was missing and had a great time.

Look closely and you'll notice a pile of rocks in front of the tent. What is it about little boys and thier rocks. The other day I found stash of pebbles hiding behind our phone - not just two or three, but about a dozen. Elias later informed me that is where he puts them when I tell him he can't play with the rocks inside and to get rid of them.

Some of the other boys played in the mud, but Alex tells me that only Elias got so dirty. I guess he had to make up for our non-backyard, apartment living. He now has one less pair of white socks and an extra pair of brown socks.

Our jumping bean

This is our little jumping bean. Brooke loves life. She is always on the move and smiling the whole time. She is not content to watch and let life go by. She wants to be in the fun.

Swimming on a hot summer day!!

Today's high was 100 and we were very thankful for the opportunity to go swimming. It was Brooke's first time in the swimming pool.

The members of the AB club

These are the cute members of the ABclub whose membership has been sovereignly appointed by our gracious creator. By order of induction, Elias (5), Emma (3) and Brooke (8months). The adorable members will most likely be the subject of most of our posts.