A Heart-Wrenching Moment

This past week, I learned a major lesson from my children. When A.J. had his seizure in the doctor's office, and they were working on him in the treatment room, they asked me to leave the room. I sat in the outside area (crying, of course) and became very angry at God. I have never felt that before and have never felt it since. I kept thinking, "You asked me to surrender my life to ministry, and now we moved to a town I did not want to be in. You can't take my child, too." Of course, that is something I have repented from and really come to grips with since then.

When Abigail laid on the ER table, and I could feel those feelings come back again, I immediately decided I would not be angry at God. I was just so thankful to have her. Instead, I decided to sing praise choruses to her. I have always sang "Sanctuary" to my kids, and I started to sing, but halfway through I realized I was singing "Lord I Life Your Name on High." That is actually a song I don't like, and I started on the part I hate most, "You came from heaven to earth, to show the way. From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay. From the cross to the grave..." Then it hit me.... how can I be asking God to save my little girl and spare her from pain when he gave His son to die for something He didn't even do. Wow! What a moment for me.

God has taught me so much through my children, but now, I think I am finally understanding Christmas. God sent His innocent Son to die for my guilt. What a gift. I am so blessed to have children at all and every day I have them is one more day of a gift He has given me. Of course, I pray for God to keep my children safe and healthy, and in these moments, I realize that is more than I can ever ask! I am so blessed.

Abigail's Christmas Program

Abigail's preschool held a Christmas program for parents a couple of weeks ago (I am a little slow posting this one). At the beginning, they did the ABC's of Christmas. Abigail's line was "G is for God who sent down His Son." Here she is saying it with two classmates (Cameron and Alexia).

They also did a number of songs and word rhymes. Here is my favorite one (and the translation for all of you who don't speak preschool).

"What Can I Give Jesus?"

What can I give Jesus, small as I am?
The shepherds gave Him a baby lamb.
The three wise men gave Him precious gold.
The angels sang of His glory untold.
Mary and Joseph gave Him their loving care.
But, what can I give Jesus? My heart to share.

Christmas Tree Wars

For several years now, Allan and I have had a battle of the Christmas trees. My tree (the pretty one) is located in the main living areas of the house. It always has all white lights, family ornaments, and large beautiful ball ornaments. It is draped with gold beaded garland and has a nice large bow on top.

Allan's tree, on the other hand, we call the "Tacky Tree." He always has colored lights (the bigger the better), shiny and glittery ornaments, fuzzy garland, and whatever tacky ornaments he can find. He has a shiny star on top. The past two years, his tackiness has spread to the entire back porch with lights and a singing wreath!

This year, we hosted an open house for our church family. Everyone who came voted on the tree they liked best, and I am very sad to say... Allan won by 2 votes. Here are the two trees... what do you think????

Don't Try This One

In our quest for new and exciting Christmas traditions, we decided to teach our children the legend of the candy cane. In doing so, we decided to make our own candy canes.... BIG mistake. Just take a look at the finished product. I think next year we will just teach them the story with a big box of store-bought ones!

Thank You

I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for the prayers for Abigail. As I am sure all of you know, Abigail suffered a seizure this week, requiring a short stint in the hospital and lots of testing and worry! She is doing great, and we are truly blessed to have such a beautiful daughter. Please continue to pray with us that this is an isolated event and won't happen again. We thank God for holding us up during this time.

And... I promise to put some new blog entries up soon. We have had so much this week, that there has been simply no time. I have some great video and pictures to share, so check back soon.

We love you all!

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Each year, our church has a "Hanging of the Greens" service to finalize the Christmas decorations and light the tree. Abigail wanted to sing a solo at the service, and we convinced A.J. to help her out. It is very cute. I bet you watch it more than once!

Family Traditions

I am very fond of family traditions. As a matter of fact, next week at work, I am doing a presentation for families on CHRISTmas Traditions. I am very excited to be teaching the mothers I work with about the importance of Christ in the holidays. This year, in our family, we are using the devotions and some of the activities from the book The ADVENTure of Christmas. For the first devotion, we read about the meaning behind Christmas trees.

When I was growing up, my mom always gave us a new ornament each year. The ornament would symbolize something about our year or an interest we had during that time in our lives. It is a tradition I have passed down to our children. This year, we incorporated it with the reading from our devotion book and gave the kids the ornaments the night we put up the tree and read about Christmas trees.

Here is a video of the kids getting their ornaments:

They get to hang their ornament on the tree before all of the others. I convinced Abigail that her HUGE princess ornament had princesses on it that wanted to see out the window (hence, it is on the back of the tree... I know... I am terrible).

Christmas Time!

Sunday morning, Abigail wanted to wear a Christmas dress to church. She had a new one Nana bought last year, and she was very excited to wear it (not so much about the tights, though). As we were leaving, I realized A.J. had on sweater that matched, so we grabbed the camera. Apparently, Emma (our music minister's daughter) was also in the Christmas mood. Here are the pictures (including some of Abigail being silly).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. You are able to enjoy family, food, and fun, without the stress of gift-buying and hoping everyone is happy with the gifts you did buy! I love this holiday.

This was our year to be with my family, and here are a few pictures from the day. I really am not good at getting pictures of everyone, and I happened to miss Grandma and Pa, as well as Christian. But, they were there, I promise! Thank you Grandma and Pa for opening your home to all of us and hosting a fabulous meal and day... especially the fun of Uno!

Here is Aunt Lesli attempting to read a Thanksgiving book to A.J., Abigail, and Emily. However, I think that proved to be a difficult task. Thanks Aunt Lesli for trying!

I took about a dozen pictures of Emily and Abigail, and this was the best one. It is very hard to get a 2 year old and a 4 year old to smile in unison!

Granddaddy came down from Atlanta for the holiday. We don't get to see him often, but Abigail really gravitated towards him and acted like she sees him daily! He enjoyed playing with his great-granddaughter.

Thanksgiving at A.J.'s School

A.J.'s class had a Thanksgiving party that Abigail and I attended. They made cornucopias by putting trail mix in waffle cones (smart idea, I thought). They also made turkeys out of paper, and when you flipped them over, they were Indians (another cute idea). Here are some pictures from the day.

And yes... Abigail had a performance at her school, too, but this mom forgot her camera! As soon as I get pictures from the director, I will post those, too.

Cupcake Turkeys

As I was making turkeys for A.J.'s class, I was thinking about how it is nice to only work part-time and have time for "mom" things, such as making turkey cupcakes for A.J.'s class. Then, I realized... when I was working full-time, I still did these things, just much later at night! So, here are this year's Thanksgiving treats. We have done Oreo turkeys in the past, but I am currently in a cupcake phase, so we changed it some. And, thank you to my wonderful husband for helping! Don't you just want to eat one????

Merry Christmas... I am already tired!

For those of you who think I plan way too much... stop reading now. The following may hurt your eyes!

I realized our Christmas calendar was already filling up... way too fast. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet, right??? We already have 12 different events to attend. We have several family traditions I was afraid would get left out (building our gingerbread house, delivering sweet treats to elderly church members, etc). I also have a new Advent devotion book I wanted us to read each night and do some activities from. So, here it is... my solution... (this is the part where you un-planning type people quit reading):

I made this calendar and hung it on our back door (which happens to be magnetic). The red are places/events we have to attend for church related activities. The blue is things I have for work. The purple is school related events. The green is our special family projects, and the orange is the devotion we are reading for the day. So, are you impressed or overwhelmed???

I do realize there will be more added as we actually get into December!

And... if you are wondering about the Advent devotion book, it is called An ADVENTurous Christmas by Lisa Whelchel (you know... Blair from Facts of Life). You MUST get it. It is awesome. You can get it on her site (where she will personalize it for you) or Amazon. It is a must have for the Christmas season.

Jonah

Our children's choir recently did a production on Jonah. It was fabulous! I must say that I have never seen so much work go into a children's production, especially at a small church. Thank you VERY MUCH Vanessa and Peggy for all your hard work. Here are some pictures of A.J., who played the captain of the ship on which Jonah was trying to run away from God.
At the beginning of the program, all of the kids marched in to "The B-I-B-L-E." The preschool choir was able to join them for this song. Abigail was very excited to get to sing with her brother's production. Here is the song:

And, here is a video of one song during the production:

Football Season is Over!

A.J. has been playing football for a few months now. He has loved it! His team, the 49ers, only lost two games (both to the Broncos). They played the Bronco's for the Sugar Bowl (the championship game). The lost, but they were still second for the season. We were very proud of how hard he played and his dedication to his team.

Here are some pictures from the game. A.J. is number 18. In this picture, he is on the far right (almost out of the picture):
Here he is making a tackle on the pile:

They received a medal for the great season:

Of course, Abigail had to smile for the camera, too!

Halloween with the Pierce Family

We love Halloween! It is the first holiday Allan and I spent together before we were even dating. I remember it like yesterday. My roommate, Erica, Allan, and I had gotten a pumpkin to carve. As we sat around the coffee table (yes, we were carving a pumpkin in the living room), Allan said, "You girls draw the face, and I will handle the carving." To some, that may sound sexist, but to me, I thought "okay... he could have my children some day." And guess what... he did!


That night started a tradition for us. Every year, we carve our pumpkins, eat chili-mac with caramel apples for dessert, and watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. This year was no different (except we carved pumpkins a few nights earlier).

Here are some pictures of our Halloween adventures in 2008:

A.J. and Abigail when we got home from trick or treating...

We made ghost cupcakes for A.J.'s class (thank you Nana for the pan), and this is Allan putting on their eyes. It was a team effort...

Here are our finished and carved pumpkins...

Here are some of our friends who joined us for caramel apples and the movie.
Grandma and Pa...

Josh, Ashley, and Emma Grace:

Clay and Karen...

Message for Grandma Ina and Grandpa Wally

This is a special video message from A.J. and Abigail to Grandma Ina and Grandpa Wally. We all miss you very much, and the kids thought this would be a fun way to send you a message. Isn't technology great?? Below the video is a transcript in case you can't understand 4 year old language! We love you!

(A.J. speaking) Hi Grandma Ina, Hi Grandpa Wally. We love you. And next week's our bowl game. I hope we might send you a video clip of it. Love, A.J.

(Abigail speaking) My mommy have Jesus in her heart. And, she love you very much. We miss her (meaning you) so much. We love you. And we love everybody in the whole family: Grandma and Pa and A.J. and Abby. From, Abigail.

And... don't you wish you had rosy lips like Abigail????

We had our annual Fall Festival at church this past Sunday. Abigail originally was going to be a chef (you can see that costume in the post for her Dress Up Party at school). However, a friend from church gave her some fall clothes and in the bag was this Minnie Mouse costume. Once she saw it, there was no more chef! So, now I have Minnie Mouse vs. the Jedi in my home! Oh what fun!

We had Abigail's face painted once we arrived (thank you Mrs. Ashley Earle) and Mrs. Michell had a camera without dead batteries like mine! Thanks Mrs. Michell!

Shrinky Dinks

Amelia, Heath and Chase gave Abigail some shrinky dinks for her birthday. I know you all remember those from your childhood, right? We have already had so much fun with them. Here are some pictures of our first attempt at making them. I was pretty pleased.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Abigail's preschool took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Because A.J. was out on Fall Break, he was able to go with us, too. We had a great time. Here are a few of the millions of pictures I took. You will notice there is no picture of the kids with their pumpkins. It turns out that when carrying two pumpkins for them (which normally Allan would do), I forgot to take a picture, too. Oops.

Here is the three of us on the hayride down to the pumpkin patch:
We attempted to take a picture of the entire group on the field trip. A.J. is in the back, and Abigail is way over on the left side.
Part of the trip was a petting zoo. Good thing the kids didn't see the "for sale" sign by the door or we would have come home with a bunny!

This is Abigail's 3 year old preschool class, with their teacher Mrs. Karen.