handsful

Our sweet Lainey made a decision tonight…

One that she’s been working on for a while now. She’s been asking lots of questions about Jesus and heaven lately. Tonight she asked if she would live in heaven one day. I explained that everyone who asks Jesus into their heart will live in heaven one day and when she was ready to talk about what that meant, her daddy and I would love to. A minute or so later she whispered to me “I think I’m ready right now”.

So, her daddy and I sat down with her and shared the wonderful gospel story with her…she knew some of it, and seemed to really understand the gift that Jesus gave to us – his life and our salvation.

So, heaven rejoices tonight because our little girl asked Jesus to be her savior! Oh, she was so happy, grinning from ear to ear with her adorable squinty-eyed smile! We ran downstairs for her to tell the big kids, and there were hugs all around.

Parenting isn’t always the easiest job in the world, but tonight…it was the very best job.
God Bless you, Lainey girl!

It’s birthday party time for our Lainey-girl and it’s a Princess theme…she was instructed to come all dressed up, so we obliged.

She found this gown in the dress up box. It’s got some age, but she couldn’t care less. This has been through Abbey and Marley, so I love that she’s now wearing it.

I made the mistake of telling Lainey about the party a week ago. She’s talked nearly non-stop about it since then.

How many night nights till the party?? What should I wear??? Which princess should I be?? When can we go shopping for her present?? Can we wrap her present now??? How many night nights again??

I’ve learned my lesson. She’ll get maybe a 2 day heads-up next time.

It was raining tonight, so Payton whisked her to the van quickly. Asian hair curls just fine, but it doesn’t stay too long and I worried the rain/humidity would immediately straighten it!

When I picked her up, her curls were just about gone but her smile wasn’t. She had a wonderful time being treated like a princess.

Our very own goofy Princess Lainey

* Since I’m off FB for awhile, I’m noticing that status’ pop into my head regularly. A sign I was on it too much? Perhaps. But, I can honestly say I’ve not missed it like I thought I would.

* Chocolate and tea, I’m missing. In the mornings, I’m substituting hot water with fresh squeezed lemon and a little sugar. It’s not bad, but it’s not my tea.

* Payton and I also did a Daniel Fast together last week for 3 days. No meats, dairy, preservatives, breads, or sugars. We survived on things like brown rice, fruits, veggies, natural peanut butter, nuts and lots of water. In the future, we’ll spend more time preparing for it so we can pull together some tastier recipes. It was a humbling experience, helping us realize how spoiled we are with the huge variety of foods that are readily available to us. My rumbling stomach reminded me to thank God for his love and provision. And, it also helped to stretch both of us a bit, in finding foods that we wouldn’t normally eat – some of which are new favorites (have you tried the 100% fruit leathers at Trader Joes?!?)

In other news…

* Sometimes a GPS doesn’t even know where it’s going, which is bad for this directionally-challenged mom.

* I need about a week with NOTHING to do so I can catch up on all the books I’ve started and not finished. Like that’s gonna happen…

* Just when you think you have all your ducks in a row, they suddenly all break out of line. Last Wednesday was one of those days.

* Today was a good day for the ducks.

* I’m stretched thin most days, with a crammed full schedule. But, I love my life.

* Waiting is hard, I don’t care who you are.

* But, the wait can be extremely rewarding. More on this soon ;)

The youth pastor at church asked if we’d host a middle school event at our house. We said yes.

About 20 teens ~ board games, snacks, polar bear antics, charades, and football

Here’s the day ~ in pictures

We love hanging out with these teens…

Before we headed home from FL last week, we had to make a quick stop to have breakfast with friends.

Dylan’s BFF, Hope, lives in Orlando so we met at a breakfast place to eat, talk, and hang out with friends we all wish lived closer (hint, hint Amy…)

In the past, Hope has been a little hesitant about hugging Dylan, but this time she met us at the door (after her mom said she called out “it’s my Dylan!”) and gave him an immediate squeeze. Suhweet!

Dylan grudgingly ate most of his breakfast quickly, and then headed off the play. They were all over that play place.

There were lots of requests for posing…

Even for the moms, in this shamefully blurry photo.

Despite the approximately 9 hours between us, we WILL find ways to get these kiddos together…every chance we get. :)

Dog crate in family room (not usually…)
Kids find a creative use for metal rings and clippies
Timed to see how long it takes them to get out
Marley doesn’t let playtime keep her from finishing her writing assignment

I walked in on this one
Payton was involved with the making of it…surprise

I love my crazy kids

Our church, each year, encourages us to join in corporate fasting. Last year, we had only been home from China for about 3 weeks…jetlag was only slightly a thing of the past, we were still getting used to being a family of 8, I couldn’t even begin to think of adding something new.

But, when I heard about it this year, something clicked…I felt called to this, as I never had before. But, how? And, what? Fasting isn’t just giving up food for a set time period, but it’s the process of giving up food (or some other “idol” that’s taking your time away from God) for a spiritual purpose. It takes your focus away from worldly comforts, and puts your focus on God…hunger for food is replaced with hunger for God. The bible talks about “when we fast” (Matthew 6), not “if we fast”. My goal is to grow closer to God, be more aware and intent on listening to God, and spend more time with God.

This past Sunday, our pastor talked about having idols in our lives. Not gold covered cow statues, but things that steal time away from the time we would be giving to God in bible study, prayer, etc. TV, internet, hobbies, even other people can be idols in our lives.

When I decided to join in this fast, I prayed and asked for clarity as to WHAT to fast. I came up with these…

Facebook – chocolate – hot tea

Ouch. I’ve felt for a while now that FB absolutely takes up so much time. Even if you’re just “checking it”, you can get sucked into reading the news feed, watching a video, clicking over to an article…and, suddenly you’ve been sitting there an hour. I’m going to miss it, I won’t lie. But, I’m glad I’m doing it.

Chocolate? I mine as well give up breathing. That’s enough about that.

And, I just got a new Keurig and boxes and boxes of lovely new teas to try. Which I can’t drink till January 30th. Hot tea in the morning is as routine for me as coffee is to most. Yep, I’ll miss it. But, that’s part of the point, right? The bible talks about bringing a sacrifice of praise to God. Sometimes we don’t feel like praising…it’s been a rotten day, we’re sad about a situation, etc. We choose to praise, even on the bad days. It’s a sacrifice to make that choice to be joyful when we feel no joy. Sacrificing comforts is a sign of our complete trust and dependence on God, despite how loud our stomach growls or how much we’re craving chocolate.

I’m still in prayer over anything else I might do…a short, 3-day Daniel fast maybe? More on that later, if I go that route. We discussed it with the kids, and they’ve all chosen things to sacrifice, too. I loved Lainey and Dylan’s, which they came up with on their own. Lainey is giving up hot chocolate (she loves it…) and Dylan is giving up whining. Ha!

Expect me to be HERE more than usual, since FB is off limits. Oh, and today is Day 1. In case you’re keeping track along with me. ;)

At least that’s what we eventually decided.

Abbey’s good friend from Florida, Angelina, invited her to go to Disney with her family to celebrate her 16th birthday. At first we thought “how do we GET her there”? It’s a long way to FL, and it seemed a waste to have Randy drive her there and back by himself.

So, we ended up making it a quick family vacation to Magic Kingdom. Dylan’s first time, Lainey’s second, who knows what time for the rest of us. We had yearly passes when we lived in Jax, and took advantage of that quite well.

We arrived Thursday night, big kids had a quick swim in the heated outdoor pool, and then we all headed to bed. After a quick breakfast at the hotel on Friday, Angelina’s family picked up Abbey and we all headed to the park.

It was odd, having just 5 kids with us…the group shots are missing something! Or someone.

They still had their Christmas decorations up, and were playing Christmas music. We were told it was the last day for that…

Payton’s favorite attraction

Obviously…same shot we took back in April 2010! I think he’s changed the most since our last Disney trip.

Zurg captured Dylan!

Tea Cup ride…given my dislike for anything that spins (and knowing full well that Randy would spin it as FAST as he possibly could), I took pictures.

Payton does a perfect Stitch voice, so he and the blue guy had a conversation.

I think Lainey has gotten over her fear of characters…finally.

January 2012

April 2010

He almost got it!

I caught the boys doing a little dance to polka music.

Then, Randy found a friend in the Haunted Mansion graveyard. Will the goofiness ever end?

This wall played music when you touched the different instruments…very cool!

Sadly…

I must…

post all…

of the stocks pictures.

And, then it was nighttime.

Electric parade :)

Then, we headed up to Main Street for the fireworks… The castle was so pretty, draped in Christmas lights!

Yes, there’s a big bush in front of the castle. We did the best we could to find a spot to watch. Apparently, everyone in the free world was at Disney that day. So much for lower crowds in January!

The fireworks were put to music…it was really beautiful.

Finally met up with Abbey! Her and Angelina have been great friends for years, I’m glad to see that hundreds of miles haven’t changed that.

All 6, together at last. It was a fun, hectic, incredible, exhausting day. Disney, you really know how to throw a party.

We crashed at the hotel Friday night, and got back on the road the next day. But, not before meeting up with some special friends of ours in Orlando. Pictures of that next…

It’s confession time…

I was reminded today that I over-looked posting one of our Christmas celebrations. I think I missed doing it because there aren’t many pictures of that day.

I did so well in the beginning…taking our camera to everything even remotely “Christmasy”. Then, somewhere along the way, I just wanted to enjoy the moments without looking through the view-finder. Which is why I have ZERO pictures of our get-together with Randy’s extended family last Thursday, and my extended family today.

I’m sure others will share their pictures with me. But if they don’t, I’ll just think back to the moments…Randy and Tony trying to out-do each other with “when we were kids” stories; the conversation I had with my sweet Grandmom as we sat together on the couch; reminiscing with my cousin about a special Christmas present given years ago.

Back to the original problem…I never wrote about my parents coming here to spend Christmas Eve with us. There aren’t many pictures of that day (guess I was enjoying myself…). But, in the spirit of fairness (heh), here goes:

Given we were going to be a bit rushed on Christmas Day, my parents decided to come spend Christmas Eve with us. I roasted a turkey breast and we had yummy sandwiches and fixings for lunch. Afterwards, we passed out presents…

The kids took turns opening first…the boys got a slew of new shirts.

We all loved this sign for Marley – Abbey keeps threatening to steal it.

Can you tell what Dylan opened? A MONSTER truck. This is his best monster face. Payton joined in as well.

She was one happy camper…she forgot totally that she had asked for a HK backpack (to replace her Dora backpack which she now can’t stand!).

Randy got a really cool Steelers shirt. Which he immediately had to smell (have I ever mentioned he LOVES the smell of new clothes??)

Abbey got some shirts, which she loved…she really wanted clothes this year! Sadly, there are no pictures of her. Or me, for that matter. Like I said, I wasn’t focused on the pictures, people!

Granma and Granpa also gifted the big kids with some cold, hard CASH which they quickly pocketed. I know Marley plans to buy some new English riding boots. Not sure what the others have planned. I think Abbey has already spent some of hers on…yep, shirts.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention something on this post, but I’ll take my chances and hit the “publish” button. We really enjoyed having my parents over and hope we can do the same thing next year. Maybe I’ll take more pictures? Or, maybe not.