He's Here!


The Light of the Whole World

So Long, Moses...

from Justin Taylor's blog:

A song from Behold the Lamb of God:

It was a Labor of Love

Jill Phillips, from Behold the Lamb of God, with scenes from the movie, The Nativity Story (lyrics to the song posted at Justin Taylor's GC Blog):

Are you looking ahead yet?

While I don't want to bypass anything about Christmas, I want to get you thinking about something...

If you're like me, you probably don't make many New Years Resolutions.  However, this past year, I chose to aim at reading the entire Bible through in a year.  I'll confess now that I often struggle with plans like this due to the sheer volume of reading and the lack of time I have to simply sit and read.  As a result, I often give up... like I did this year (Ahem.).

I want to let you in on what I'm going to do instead in 2011 to keep my mind fixed on Christ and on knowing Him through God's Word. 

In the mornings, I plan to read a short daily entry in the book I shared with you recently:  Parenting Moment by Moment.   I will reflect on it and the additional verse(s) for the rest of the day.

In the car line at Caleb's school, where I have about 30 min. to sit, I plan on reading a short daily entry in another book I'm excited about:  The One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament, by Nancy Guthrie.  I get all excited when I see evidence of the meta-narrative (or Big Story / unfolding plan from the beginning) of God's plan of Salvation.  It helps me immensely to remember that all the individual characters and their life experiences/stories are united, not disjointed -- that, as my kids'  Jesus Storybook Bible reminds us, "Every story whispers His name."  It also reminds me that as a redeemed, adopted child of God, I also get to play a part in that grand story.

At another point in the day, probably bedtime, I will read a short New Testament passage in a Bible Reading Plan I adapted from a friend of ours, who copied it from a friend of a friend to use with his own church.  You can find and download it in PDF form here.

This way, with 3 brief readings, I'll get a chance to reflect on 1. The Gospel and its continuation in the New Testament,  2.  How God was planning to bring Jesus to give us a chance to be reconciled to Him from the beginning of sin's entry into the world,  and 3.  How I can better use Scripture that I'm encountering to train my own children God's Way.


I don't know about you, but that seems much less daunting to me than a daily reading plan with 4-5 lengthy passages.  Join me on January 4 (Gives you a few days to get into routine)?

Have another reading/study goal for the new year?  Share it in the comments below!

Advent is here!

I love this time of year!  We have 24-ish days to use strategically to turn our families' hearts and minds toward the Reason for the season...  What special traditions do you have with your family?  Share them in the comments!

I'll share some of ours soon, and I'll pass on some great ones from others as well!

For now, check out the Hubble Telescope Advent picture feed from Boston.com and keep this in mind...

God, who created all the fantastic unimaginable things you'll see in each day's picture,

• loves YOU and desires a relationship with you
• and even though your sin, my sin, all of our sin keeps us from Him,
• He provided a perfect, substitutionary sacrifice to take the penalty of our sin
• by sending His only Son, Jesus, to be born of a virgin,
• live a sinless life
• die on the cross as penalty for sin
• and defeat death by rising again from the grave
• so that the relationship God intended us to have before sin entered the world can be restored with those who believe, giving us firm Hope and Eternal Life!

These are not the droids you're looking for...

Caleb decided a week before his 7th birthday that having our normal family party would not be sufficient. :)  So, I organized a quick Star Wars party with the help of some ideas from my friend Tonya and the willing participation of a handful of Caleb's school friends.  


I'm thrilled at how the party turned out, and I think Caleb had a blast as well!


The kids built Lego droids/robots as they arrived.  Then, we went outside with their lightsabers and played some games.


First was the Help R2D2 beanbag toss.  (washers board and an awesome R2 courtesy of my brother)

Then, the boys practiced their pilot skills and tried to successfully make the Kessel Run with some Millenium Falcon frisbees I whipped up (thanks to Google Images and a trusty Sharpie)

We followed that game with a timed relay that mixed Star Wars and Star Wars: Clone Wars elements to make them all-around Jedi Masters.


1.  Safely disable the thermal detonators.

2.  Use your lightsaber to take out all of the training orbs.

3.  Rescue the baby Hutt (aka Stinky), avoid the obstacles, and safely deposit him on a pedestal without letting him fall.  (personal sized watermelon covered in shaving cream)

We retreated into the air conditioning for some Pin the Ammo Belt on Chewbacca.  (kudos to Uncle Bryan again!)

All that activity made for hungry Jedis, so they refueled with hotdogs and some dee-lish cookie cake.  

(what a ham!)

Gifts and more fun followed, as Pawpaw led training runs on the 4-wheeler Republic Attack Shuttle, and the Jedis climbed trees.  Even our two little Padawan Learners had a blast.

(Thanks to C, B, and D's Dad, Jeff, for helping me with photography.  I think with two cameras ready, we got some great shots!)





We're so proud of our big Seven Year Old!

• He has a clever sense of humor.
• We love to watch his tender heart around Abby (Anna, too, but she's close enough in age for him to really pick on... hee hee)
• Caleb has learned all of 1 Corinthians 13 this year, as well as Ephesians 6:10-18.  Caleb, keep hiding God's Word in your heart!
• He loved playing soccer in the fall and learning Upward Basketball in the spring!
• He has learned to have a love of reading and was one of the high point earners for first grade in their school's Accelerated Reader program.
• Caleb will gladly tell you anything you ever never wanted to know about Star Wars, Super Mario Brothers, or Penguins of Madagascar. 
• We crack up when Caleb watches one of Anna's favorite tv shows and comments, "Can't they stop singing and solve the mystery already?"
• His self-proclaimed favorites this year were:  Food = Salmon, Color = Red, and Subject at school = Computers.

Easter 2010

(While you can find past Easter pictures from 2007, 2008 and again,  2009 by clicking those dates, you can also find posts about Easter here, here, and here)

This was Abby's first Easter!  We attempted a quick family picture on the way out the door to church (Scott was already gone), and managed these quick pics... immediately after which, Caleb let go of Abby to see the picture on the camera screen!  :)  Luckily, she caught herself on the concrete without a single facial scrape!  Whew!  (In front of our neighbor who was mowing, I might add!)

That evening, we enjoyed dinner at Mimi and Pawpaw's along with Lee, Alicia, Nick, and Andrea, who are couples in Mimi and Pawpaw's lifegroup.  It was all great fun and fellowship!

(I have no clue how we didn't snap pics of Nick and Andrea, especially when somehow one tackled the other... Ha!)

Merry Christmas

Ok, so I know this is the day after Christmas, but seeing as this particular one has been particularly wonderful, I've been away from this particular mode of technological communication. :)

So, from our family to yours... Merry Christmas!

Twice as old...

For the only year of his life, our strapping young boy is twice as old as his sister! That's right, Caleb turned six this May!

It was a momentous day! We began the day with birthday breakfast and ended it with special day at school!

Caleb was quite expressive during breakfast and present-opening time!

Then Anna and I met Mimi and Pawpaw at Caleb's school to surprise him with lunch! He was able to choose 2 classmates to eat with us at the special table. We had lots of fun!

Cute boy, yikes Mama put on some makeup.

Caleb and his friend "E", Caleb's cheesy smile

Caleb and his friend "K", again with the cheesy smile

Isn't she a good little helper?

My sweet girl is 3!

We celebrated Anna's birthday in mid May with our traditional big birthday breakfast of the birthday girl's choice. We followed up the festive feast with gifts galore and playing with presents.

Then our tri-year teenybopper, her big brother, and proud papa were plumb tuckered out. We had another family fiesta in the works for the afternoon, so it's a good thing the group grabbed some zzzz's. Upon arrival at the glad grandparents' home, they got to give our girl more gifts: terrific training wheels/trike and a jolly reversible jigsaw puzzle. We capped off the day with a delicious dinner and a cute chocolate chip cookie cake.



'Twas a mighty magnificently memorable moment, my friends. :)

T Party

(updates from the past... We've made it to the end of April!)

Not tea party (as in previous post) but Tparty - we had a wonderful opportunity to have a visit from our Tennessee/Kentucky clan: Travis and Licia!

Their visit just so happened to fall in conjunction with Travis' birthday, so, of course, we wanted to celebrate our favorite Uncle-in-law! :D There was good Italian food (fitting!) and more importantly, great company!

These first pictures are my own, but later on, you'll see some pictures by my two budding photographers who love, love, love the chance to take and see digital pictures!





Photos by Caleb:






Photos by Anna (with a little assistance):





Then some post-dessert silliness:

She's on the loose!