Lettuce...

Bradyn: Do you want to know why I like lettuce on my sandwich?
Dad: Yes, I do.
Bradyn: Because it makes me feel grown up. And it is crunchy, too.

I don't know what to say...

After a Bible time after lunch, we read a passage of scripture and then asked the kids what they got from it. Bradyn said, "I don't really know what to say, so I am just going to say something."

Smiling is my favorite...

Laziness

It's 4:59 p.m. I just returned from an afternoon of errands and grocery shopping....(by myself!) I rushed in to try and get everything put away before Steve and the girls arrived home from their afternoon adventures. I opened the Christmas cards and decided to tape up the new pictures that we had received. As I was taping them up Bradyn said, "Mom, are you being lazy?" I said, "Lazy, why would you say that I'm being lazy?" She replied, "Well, cuz you haven't even made dinner yet!" I'll try to work on not being so lazy in the future.

Soooo sweet!

Tonight in some confusion of a phone call and kids going crazy, I (Steve) accidentally ate Stephanie's big plate of noodles (I can't eat gluten which is ever kind of grain except for corn and rice.) After Bible time, Stephanie asked Bradyn if he would pray for Daddy because he ate the wrong noodles. She prayed for me and then I got them ice cream. But while I was trying to find out what Bradyn wanted on her ice cream, she ran off into the back room. I didn't know if she was sick or what, but her face looked pretty upset. I went back to look for her and found her laying face down in bed. I asked her what was wrong, and she started crying, saying, "I am so sad for you that you ate Mommy's noodles." Such amazing empathy for a five year old girl... Not sure what will happen to me and my tummy. This is only the second time in 12 years that I have had gluten unknowingly only to find out afterwards that I had eaten gluten. And this was by far the most I have eaten... My prediction will be nausea and a really tired, tired, slow motion day... I'll keep you posted!!!

That's a good idea...

I caught Bradyn jumping on our bed tonight which is definatley a no-no in our family, and so I gave her a timeout to think about what the consequence should be. After a little bit, I went in and asked her why she was in trouble. She named her wrong behavior and then we talked about what the consequence should be. I don't normally do this, but I was kind of in a mood that I wanted her to realize that bad choices bring consequences... So, I asked her what it should be and she says, "I have one, but I don't want to tell you. How about no dinner?" Well, I didn't jump on that one, but I did say how about no dessert. She immediatley freaked. After a bit we both came back and I said how about you get only one of the two cookies, if you accept the discipline well. She said, "That's a good idea." (You really needed to see her face when she said that...)

So much of the umph of blogging is lost becuase you can't see the faces of the girls..

A star...

Kamryn is in a church Christmas play. She has one of the five speaking parts. One day while we were at church, she sang to herself outloud, I am the star of the Christmas play. Stephanie and I had a talk with Kamryn later that day about how it wasn't good to brag and a bunch of other things. About four days later at the doctor where she were getting our blood drawn. She was understandably a little aprehensive and so to get her mind off of the fact that she was going to get her blood taken, I told the nurse that she was going to be a star in the upcoming CHristmas play at our church. My little distraction worked, and away we went. The next morning at breakfast, Kamryn said, "Daddy, you know how you told me not to say I was the star of the Christmas show." I said, "yeah." She continued, "Well, then why did you tell the nurse that I was the star of the show?" I laughed and told her that I used it as a distraction to get her mind off of the shot. She then said, "Well, I can't get my mind off of it."

Star Sleepers

This morning Julia got up at 6:30 am and came into our bed and proceeded to toss and turn, talk, basically keep us awake. Kamryn came in at 7:00, and Bradyn slept in until 8:30. When Bradyn came in she said, "Mommy, I'm a star sleeper." I said, "Yes Bradyn you're a star sleeper." Then, Julia chimed in with, "I'm a star sleeper too." I said, "No,Julia, star sleepers stay in their beds until 7:00." Then Kamryn chimed in, "I'm a star sleeper." I said, "Yes you are a star sleeper. Bradyn is a super-star sleeper and Kamryn is a star-sleeper." Then, Julia said, "I'm a rocket ship star-sleeper." We're not sure where she got the rocket ship idea but we all thought it was pretty funny.

Preaching it up!!!

If you want to hear Steve preach on the parable of the sower and share with his church about Africa, you can!!! Just go to:

http://www.northlakeonline.org/index.php?page=messages_sermons

You can either download or listen to online!!!!

No pressure, you know, it's not a big deal if you don't, because it won't bother me if you don't, it's not like I have installed a tracker which shows me who you are and if you don't click the link above and I am not like going to keep track of that on an excel sheet so I know who doesn't care about me or anything like that. I just thought that, you know, some people might actually care enough about me to want to hear me speak and so I thought I could just at least share this with you so you could have the option to go there if you wanted too...

Oh, and if you do listen, which again is just an option, I want to make sure you know that to your right, (my left) is a .pdf file of a bunch of verses, some which are on this sermon and others which are not which basically share all the verses in the Bible about the Bible. It is a cool little doucment. Just click the link and follow instructions... You'll be blessed;)

:)

Have a great day!

Oh, Christmas Tree

Notice Mountain Baker in the back!!! 

Nothing like a little snow...

Thought you would like this picture taken during our Christmas Tree Adventure... 

Our 2006 in Pictures... Just click on the picture below!!!

It's a winter wonderland...

- A 12 inch ruler at its 12th inch... A lot of snow!!!


Nothing like swinging in the uh, snow...

Kamryn at a friends house reveling in the snow!

Some surprise snow...

goin' crazy

Having fun with the new dresses that Daddy brought back from his Zambia trip!

Some father-daughter bonding...

Kamryn and Daddy snorkeling at Mauna Kea Beach!

yeahaww

We are roughing it in Hawaii, riding horses today... From left to right...
Steve, Stephanie, Stephanie's brother Shawn, and Sister in law Erica!

The Two Towers...

I had to share this moment of fun in the bathtub.  

Hugs...

It is so cute to watch how our girls watch us when we hug. They just kind of do this stare thing, sometimes they hide their face in embarrasment. Other times they come join the party. Other times they just stare. I have heard it said that the best way you can love your kids is to love your wife. I can do that.

Our family pictures!!!! AHHHH!!!

 

Steve in Africa-teaching at a conference

 

The pumkin patch

 

More Kamryn Jokes

What do Cow's like to do when they go on a date?
They go to the Moooovie!

Why do seagulls fly over the sea?
Because if they flew over the bay, they would be called 'bay'gels.

A Boggies joke...
What snacks do Ducks like to eat?
Quackers.

A fun weekend...

After telling a story to my kids tonight, and kissing and hugging each one, I said to Bradyn, "We sure had a fun weekend, didn't we?" She said, "Yeah..." "We had a movie night and popcorn on Friday, we spent the day at Boggie and Bumpa's (Steph's parents) on Saturday and then went to kara's birthday party tonight." Life often moves so fast for me and Stephanie that I think it is good to just stop for a moment and reflect, appreciate and be thankful. And so, I was and am and thought I would just pass it on. Thanks for reading.

Julia is 3 on her birthday...

Julia had this little saying for the month before her birthday. When asked how old she was going to be she would always say the same thing... "I am 3 on my birthday." Over and over we heard this and it never lost its cuteness. On the say after her Sept 28 birthday, I asked her how old she is going to be on her birthday. And she said, "I am three on my birthday." Then she paused, thought, and exclaimed, "I am four on my birthday." Kamryn and I laughed when we heard it and then she said, "Let's put that in the blog." So, here it is for the world and you to enjoy!

so cute...

 

Julia and her friends...

 

Making the cake and eating it too...

 

Julia's birthday oatmeal!!! She is 3 on her birthday!

 

The kids running with Stephanie and Jenny

 

Look Mom, no training wheels!!!

 

More of the cutie...

 

Kamryn Upside Down

 

Stephanie and Jenny run the Fairhaven 15K

 

more cute Julia pictures...

 

If you are an agent, please email Julia at...

 

My camping models

 

Clean cars, clean kids

I don’t know if the cars ever got clean, but Julia did!

Future Planning

We went to Hovander Park the other night. Hovander is somewhat like a Kelsey Creek park....farm animals. On the way out, Kamryn said, "I want to work here when I'm older. Mom, what do I need to do to apply? I could be a veterinarian to make sure that all of the animals are healthy. What should I be doing to get ready for that?"

Advertising

The other day we were in the car and we passed one of those dancing advertisers...this one happened to be advertising for Domino's pizza. Nothing was said, but a few minutes later Kamryn said, "If I'm ever a shopkeeper I'm not going to use advertising. Because when you advertise it's like you're saying, "ooh, look at me, I have lot's of customers....I won't use advertising. I'll just let people come if they want to come, not force people to come. Isn't that right mommy?"

Heaven

Tonight I was reading a book on Heaven called In Light of Eternity. Kamryn came out and asked me what was so interesting about my book. I told her that I was learning about what heaven was going to be like. She said, "you can't know what heaven is going to be like." I told her that we can't know all of what heaven is like, but that God has told us some things about it in the Bible." I asked her if she wanted to know some of the things God tells us. So I began to tell her that there will be food, animals, (horses), a river, fruit, beautiful buildings, streets of gold, and that we would have perfect bodies. She then asked if we would go to heaven as little children or grown ups. I told her I wasn't sure and she said that she hopes we go as little children because when she gets there she wants to hop up on Jesus' lap.
How precious! I told her that she could hop up on his lap no matter how big she was.
There's a reason why children are so precious to Jesus!

a joke Kamryn made up

What do people eat in the desert?
sand-wiches.

Get it?
SANDwiches

Smells

Today the girls were helping me sort the laundry. They were pulling out things from their laundry basket and toward the bottom we came across a pair of Julia's pajamas that still had her pull-up from the night inside. (This had probably been in the laundry for at least 4 days so it was smelling nice and ripe.) Kamryn said, "OOh, that smells like the bathroom on Segue." She has a good sense of smell reccolection since she hasn't been on Segue for over a year. (Segue was the name of my parents boat)

the pat

Julia is pretty cute. On many occasions, when I, daddy, pick her up. She will put her head on my shoulder and begin to pat my back. When she does this, she then sighs and says, "I love you, daddy."

Overhearing conversations...

Yesterday, Kamryn lost her 3rd tooth. Tonight we are putting it out for the tooth fairy. Stephanie asked me as we were putting into the tooth fairy pillow if I had the phone number for the tooth fairy. I looked at my cell phone and said, "Yep, there it is." So, tonight, I called the tooth fairy tooth fairy outside her room with the door closed. After I "hung up" we heard the girls giggling like they heard a conversation they wren't supposed to. It was cute!

What?

Our daughter Julia is too smart for her own good. She has learned how to prolong or get out of obedience by asking "what?" after our directives. "What? What? What? I can't hear you!" especially as she is walking away when she is supposed to be coming toward us.

One of four houses we built in Tijuana!!! Great time!