Teaching

I have been praying lately with a friend. I usually pray at night after my kids are in bed and last night my friend had to do something else, but forgot to tell me. So, she called today to let me know that she forgot and boy did she call at a good time. I shared with her some struggles that I am going thru right now. It was not a good time to pray because my kids were running around, but she told me that she would call me back while Katie was napping. When she called, I told Stephanie that I was going into my room to pray. This set her off with the questions..."Why are you praying? What are you praying about?" I tried to explain the best I could for a four year old. (I should have just left her alone and she would never have noticed I was gone!). Anyway, I went into my closet(yes, literally the closet so that she couldn't find me). In the middle of our prayer time, I hear her come in and start calling my name. She proceded to call my name throughout the whole house and then outside. After I hung up the phone I had to be gentle with her and try to explain the situation to her. Here is how I explained it...I told her that there would be times when mommy wants to spend time with God and I want to do it with just God. Just like when she and daddy or she and mommy go out on a date. I asked her why mommy and Katie couldn't go with her and daddy and she said because they wanted it to be just them. I think maybe a small lightbulb came on.

• I just hope that she understands. I don't often steal away to prayer during the day because I generally have my quiet time early in the morning or late at night. But today I realized that it is just as important sometimes for my children to see me praying, or even crying. I want them to know that we don't just pray at night or at meals, but that knowing God is about talking to him all the time, even when it doesn't quite fit into our routine.

God's word to me

Today we completed our Bible Study by Beth Moore, 'Stepping Up'. I have to say that the video today spoke more to me than any of the others. I'm not sure if it is because I wasn't as attentive the other days or the message was just aimed right at me. We've been studying the Psalms of Ascents and during the videos we have been studying about the 3 Feasts that the Israelites(pilgrims) journeyed to each year. Today we focused on what we need to do to make our pilgramage to Zion the most satisfying. Of all the times to hear this, today we focused a little on Hebrew 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us."Heb 12:1 I think that many of us have heard this time and time again, but today we did not focus on 'the sin that so easily entangles'--this is what most of us focus on. Today, we talked about the 'everything that hinders'. Beth made a statement that 'We cannot do a thousand things to the glory of God'. Wow! What a powerful statement for me. I am struggling so much right now with the busyness of every day life. You know, all the good things we do that keep us so busy...I am sure I am not the only one in this whirlwind. I am just thankful that today God chose to speak directly to me about an issue that has been so pressing on me in this season of my life. He speaks always, but today I was listening!

Stephanie's First Carolina Game

This is Chris writing the blog. Yesterday was a special day for Stephanie as I took her to her first Carolina game vs. UAB. I promised her last year that I would take her to a game this year. I felt she was finally old enough to make it worthwhile. I have to say I was as excited as she was.

The afternoon started out interesting. As usual, our pregame meal was at Rush's off HWY 378 in Columbia. Stephanie had a JR. BBQ sandwich and I had my usual burger combo. Unfortunately, I was carrying Stephanie and the tray of food and dropped one of the milkshakes which exploded on the floor onto me, Stephanie, and a lady nearby wearing a white shirt! She was very gracious and even offered to go get someone to mop it up. I will remember this next time I get food or drink spilled on me on accident.

From there we went toward our parking spot off Bluff Road. I went the back way on purpose so that Stephanie could get a good appreciation for how big Williams-Brice Stadium was. She was amazed at the size and all of the people wearing garnet and black walking around.

As we proceeded toward the stadium, we had great timing and ran into the band. Stephanie loved hearing the band up close and was ready to go in to cheer on the Gamecocks.

I was hoping to have time to get a picture with either Cocky or the cheerleaders for Stephanie but time ran out on us. We were able to get the Gamecock painted on her face. She was adorable if I must say so myself!

The game went well. She of course had a lot of questions and tried to answer them the best I could for a 4 year old. I told her that football was based on two major principles. First, the team with the ball was trying to get where the letters are. Second, the team without the ball is trying to stop the team from doing that and going for the ball themselves.

The fans around me were great. They just loved the fact that it was her first game and she was so into it. Cotton candy and water help! She was great and very well behaved. I left in the 4th quarter mainly to beat traffic and get back in a reasonable time because sunday school/church were in the morning. She was upset and said "Daddy-the game isn't even over yet". Diehard gamecock fans would be proud. Especially her daddy.

'Fireproof'

Chris and I went to see the movie 'Fireproof' tonight. It was again a great movie just like Facing the Giants. It was a down to earth movie that spoke about real issues that we deal with in marriage. For those of you who don't know, it was produced by a church out of Albany, GA and is the same church that did 'Facing the Giants'. The actors did an excellent job and the script was right on target for what today's culture needs to hear. I am short on words to really describe the movie without giving it away. I do want to encourage everyone to go and see it. Regardless of whether you are married or not, we need to support this movie. Our families are suffering greatly in this day and age. We need to let the world know that we still believe that the design of marriage set up by God is not to be taken lightly. I pray that many will enter this movie just because it looks like a good movie, but will leave with a changed view and most importantly a changed life. Please, please support this movie!

Little Annette

Children sometimes have a way of making us aware of exactly what we say and do. For a lack of a better statement, they say and do exactly as we say and do. I often find myself listening to a 'tape recorder' and hearing verbatim what I know that I have said myself. The latest is this..."Katie, I can't hear you. You are mumbling" or "You have to speak up" This was the conversation that went on in the car tonight on the way home from church. It is so funny to listen to her say it back(although I do have to get on to her for trying to be the parent), but it definitely isn't funny when I am having to say it myself.

Birthday Girl

This was the birthday girl's picture that I took on her birthday. I have really struggled with this birthday. Something about turning 3 just means that you are no longer a baby anymore. I have often asked Katie to 'stay just the way she is' She tells me that she will, but when she turned 3 I asked her about is and she just told me that she had to turn 3, but she would still stay the way she is. I just love this age and I hate to see it pass so quickly. But, I know that I am not the only one that feels this way. I love you Katie Bug!

Katie's party

We had Katie's party on Saturday and I think that everyone had a good time. Since this was a 3rd birthday party, many of her friends had never been to a birthday pary so this was a first. We had some that clung to their mommies, but all in all everyone particpated and had a great time. Katie's most favorite present was a package of Dora panties. She opened them and took off running. I assumed that she was going to change into them, but instead she headed straight upstairs to put them in her drawer. She left all the rest of the presents and all of her friends right there in the floor. I guess she figured it was her party so we would all wait on her. She was right. Katie was joined on the table by L.C. as we all sang Happy Birthday to her. Just as it was time to blow out the candles, L.C. did it for her. It was funny for all of us, but not so for Katie. I was exhausted after the party, but everyone said that they thought it went really well. I sure hope so because I felt like it was just chaotic. But what's not chaotic about a birthday party, especially for a 3 year old.

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Build A Bear

We took the girls to Build A Bear on Thursday night. This was part of Katie's birthday present, but we had to go early because our coupons were only good until today. We let Stephanie get a new bear too. Katie did much better this time than last year. She really got into it and I think that both of the girls are really attached to their new critters. I say critters because Katie's is actually a cat and not a bear. As for their names... Well, Stephanie named them last year. Katie's was named Kaylee and Stephanie's was named Emily. So this year it was Stephanie's idea to just swop names. So we now have 2 Emilys and 2 Kaylees. We are so original. The girls have slept with them every night and I am so glad that Katie likes hers this time because last year she never did really like hers. I guess it was just a little much for her at 2.

Stuffing

Rubbing their hears to give them lots of love

Giving them Baths

Dressing them

Proud as can be!

Forward Roll

Here's the pictures of the forward rolls that Stephanie taught Katie how to do. I thought I got some pretty good action shots!! I guess I didn't do too good actually getting them going forward though. Sometimes I really hate that digital camera delay!

Gymnastics

Stephanie started gymnastics yesterday. She is taking a 7 week course at the Y. I wanted her to try and see if she liked it and then let her choose between gymnastics and ballet. I'll put her in some place close to us once we know what she will take. She did really well yesterday and enjoyed it. Her teacher wanted to know if she had ever taken before and said that she could probably move up to the next class. I'll keep her where she is for now since we are just trying it and this class is the best time for us. I was very proud of her though. I'll post pictures later of her doing her 'forward flips' and showing Katie how to do it. Katie was very upset when she realized that she couldn't stay at gymnastics too. She had already taken her shoes off like the rest of the kids and was ready to stay. I felt so bad. She cried for 5+ minutes. It is so tough being the little one.

A day at the park

We went to Brookfield Park today with M. from church. Our first stop was her house. The girls had asked in the car if we were going to get to go into her house. I had told them no that we were just going to meet her there and then she was going to follow us to the park. Well, M. immediately asked them if they wanted to come in and see her 'nest' The didn't know what that meant, but they were very happy to go in her house. M. gave us the grand tour and then the girls were satisfied and ready to go to the park after convincing Mrs. M. that she needed to change from her tennis shoes into flip flops. We arrived at the park and I was very happy to see that the water fountain was working since the last time we went it was broken. The girls said that water was cold, but that didn't stop them. They ran around and had a ball and then Katie had to have her usual fall. She fell right on the concrete and scraped up her cheek. She cried briefly and then was fine. We went to the swing and the girls were happy to be able to swing. Steffie can now swing completely by herself and Katie was happy to have M. push her. We ended our day at the park with picnic lunch and then said goodbye to Mrs. M.

Making the Aiken Rounds

We went to Aiken on Monday and met grandad and Uncle J. for lunch. After leaving our 2 hour lunch at Ryans(the girls were excellent) we headed off to visit Mr. and Mrs. J. We hadn't seen them since Chris's mom died last year. They hadn't seen the girls since Katie was just a few months old. We had a great visit with them. The girls and Mrs. J were fast friends and before I knew it they were at the table doing 'crafts'. Before we left, Mr. J. commenced the visit by restling and playing with the girls. We all had a blast and vowed that we needed to visit again soon. After leaving there we headed over to D. & T's to see their new house(not so new now, but I hadn't ever been there). The girls were good there too, but we were all getting tired. Chris reminisced with Pumpkin Head(a nickname for a friend from high school) while the rest of us just sat around and beared with the conversation. The conversation was rather one sided as Pumpkin Head and can talk with the best of them. D. and Chris never really did get to talk because Pumpkin Head was so long winded. We finally left Aiken around 7:45 and headed home. It was chicken nuggets in the car for the girls and then off to bed. I tried to put in a slide show. Let's hope it worked.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Chris is 32 now. He has been gloating the last month and a half that we are the same age. I am glad to say that I am younger now! We really didn't do much today which was nice. We went to church this morning and then off to Captain D's for lunch(Chris's choice). We didn't have church tonight because of the holiday(our church usually gives us two Sunday nights a year to be with the family). We had a friend over tonight for dinner. He is a pharmacy student and Chris met him thru BSF this last year. We had a nice time and Chris and I just ate it up...(we love having the ability to help out a poor college student) Enough of that side note. I was acutally able to surprise Chris for his birthday. I always struggle with buying gifts ahead of time because he watches the checkbook like a hawk so I could never pull anything off without him at least knowing I was spending xxx amount of money. I pulled it off this time though. I bought him a new LCD tv. I waited until yesterday while he was at work to buy it and I hid the receipt and hoped that he wouldn't check the online transactions until today. It worked. He even asked me after he opened it how I managed to keep this one a secret. I was very proud of myself. Daddy & his girls Chris & I(we are too excited that our Steffie can now take our picture-maybe now we'll have more of the two of us) The girls intently watching daddy.

Daddy giving Katie a kiss after opening his card.

Still eagerly waiting on daddy to open presents...they did really good keeping 'the secret' for 24 hours! I was proud of them.

Happy Birthday Babe! I love you.

Cooking with Mommy

Stephanie and I made Chris's birthday cake yesterday. She was quite the helper and stayed with it the whole time. I tried to throw in a few math lessons while we were doing it. I really enjoyed the time with her and I think she had a good time too. Sifting the flour

Adding the butter

Adding the flour

Watching the mixer do it's thing!

The chef! I let her lick the bowl despite my usual insistance that she can't have raw eggs(Chris almost died from salmonella poisoning when he was younger!)

Enjoying the fruits of her labor...

Every last lick!

The final product(iced by me of course)

We're making progress

I have really made a concerted effort over the last 2 months to make sure that we are eating more meals at home and less out to eat. I have also really been trying to cook decent meals instead of sandwiches etc. I have done a pretty good job and am even cooking for myself and the girls when Chris isn't home for dinner. I have noticed that the girls are becoming increasingly easier to eat dinner with. They don't complain nearly as much about the food and then don't take as long to eat. I have steadily been increasing their proportion size because I have noticed that they will not eat seconds when offered, but will eat it if it is already on their plate. Well, tonight we had a record breaker. I made this concoction tonight with squash, zucchini, noodles and spaghetti sauce. The girls ate every bite of their very decent size proportion. There was not whining or complaining and I didn't hear one word about how they didn't like squash and zucchini. As a matter of fact, they both exclaimed that they love squash and zucchini. I am not quite sure that they 'love' it, but we are certainly making progress and I don't feel like I am cooking just for it to be wasted by my two munchkins.

Sisters

When I went up to tun the lights out last night after the girls 'quiet time' Katie was a little fussy and started to cry. I told them goodnight and went on back downstairs. I was hoping that she would just stop and go on to sleep. I knew she was tired because she hadn't fallen asleep until 4 pm for her nap and then I woke her up at 4:30. I assumed that she had indeed fallen asleep because I didn't hear anything else out of her. When Chris got home last night he went upstairs to kiss the girls goodnight and this is what her found. I guess Katie had started crying and so Stephanie asked her if she wanted her to sleep with her. Obviously this is what Katie wanted. There have been several occassions that they have mentioned something in the morning that made me think that they had slept together or at least been in each other's bed at some point. I always brushed it off, but I guess now I know. I thought it was so sweet that Stephanie would comfort Katie like this. She got kuddos for this this morning.

What a Day!

Today did not start out so good. Well, let's just say yesterday didn't end so good and it continued to today. Stephanie fell in the driveway yesterday and banged up her knees, elbows and her big toe. This commenced with about 45 minutes to an hour of crying and of course fussiness the rest of the night. For those of you who don't know, Stephanie is definitely my drama queen. I tried to be really sympathetic and held her for about 30 mintues. I offered a wet paper towel, ice pack, bandaids, medicine, phone calls to grandma---you name it I offered it and nothing was good enough. When I asked her what she wanted she said that she wanted me to hold her. So I did! For about 30 minutes I was okay with holding her, but after that I was ready for her to be over it and let me up...I had things to do you know. Okay, so Chris got home finally and she did finally stop the major whaling(sp). We had dinner and then her friends came over and she bounced right from the dinner table up the stairs to play. I announed it was time for the friends to go home and for her and Katie to collect the trash to which Stephanie announced she couldn't because she was hurting. The next battle was the shower. I proceeded to make her get in the shower despite Chris's insistance that we should just let that one alone for tonight. I insisted she had to have a shower because she was filthy and her hair was terribly sweaty from all the crying. Needless to say, I put her in the shower and left only to hear her screaming of how badly it hurt. I need to add at this point that despite my patience wearing thin I was a bit sorry I had done this. So, I turned the shower off and got her out and proceeded to sponge bathe her since I was certain that going to be dirty was not an option tonight. I bathed her on the counter and then proceeded to wash her hair in the bathroom sink. Chris walked in and said how uncomfortable and awkward we both looked. Stephanie looked at him and said "I'm just fine with this!" We all just laughed and decided that at least the ice was broken at this point. The rest of the night went well and she went to bed without any trouble. Okay, Stephanie wakes up this morning and is at the top of the stairs crying and whaling again at how bad her knees hurt and she can't walk. (you know the stiff feeling of a scraped knee). I carried her down the stairs with the hope that eventually she would stop her fussing. So, she watches tv while I get dressed and then we proceed to the breakfast table all the while she is still moaning and groaning off and on. After breakfast I tell her that I will give her Motrin. I am still calm at this point and carrying her around and catering to her. We get upstairs and I brush her teeth and go to give her the Motrin. She tells me how nasty it is and I tell her to drink it anyway so it will make her feel better. I even gave her a glass of water to chase it down with! Well, we end with her spitting the motrin in the sink and me spanking her and then putting her on the floor and hitting the counter with the wooden spoon out of great amounts of frustration! This of course makes her more upset and she continues to whale. So, I do what I do not want to do and I call her daddy. I hate it when I have to admit that I can't handle a situation. So, daddy calms her down and as he says he pulls out his bag of tricks and tells her if she will take the Motrin that I'll get her milkshake. May I add that I by no means think that she deserves a milkshake at this point. We proceed thru the rest of the getting dressed routine and I carry her downstairs and get her shoes on and put her in the car. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I had to go to Bible study this morning and I am a facilitator so I was trying really hard to to miss it or be late! We get to church and I think that I have found my child again. She proceeds to get out of the car and says that she can walk now! Phew, she's back! Not so quick. We get into the church and I proceed to drop her off. She gets very upset because I had told her that she and A. would be coming with me because I didn't think that they would let A. go in the nursery since she was not registered(I was watching her today while L. was at a meeting). Stephanie, begins to whale again and pitch a fit. Thankfully, I go to church there and the nursery director just helped me push her in the door and then I tried to regain my composure to walk into Bible study. God is gracious though. I was refreshed and renewed when I left Bible Study. Stephanie stopped crying within 5 minutes and by the time I picked her up she was running down the hallway. I was glad to be over this part of my day. We'll see how bath time goes tonight!

Precious Babies

Just thought I would share this pictures. Chris took these the other night while they were sleeping(obviously).

Pre-K

Stephanie's first day of Pre-K was today. She woke up on her own at 8:30 this morning. I could tell that she was excited. She was extremely cooperative getting dressed this morning and didn't even finish her cereal, which rarely happens! When we got to school today, while I was signing her in, she went straight into her class. I had to ask her to tell me goodbye! Have I said lately that I really think she is growing up too fast!!

When I asked her what she had learned she told me that she had learned about the circle and that it goes around and around and never stops. It is so nice to be at the place where you ask them something about their day and they actually remember it! She must have had a good time because when we got home she was anxious to color one of her pages and do a few other "school" related activities. She even said while sitting at the table that she loves school. Chris and I both did too, so let's just hope this attitude keeps up!