Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve morning...traditional breakfast with our best friends, the Grove's.
Christmas Eve dinner...Grandma & Papa's house, lotsa food, lotsa gifts, lotsa fun.

Christmas Morning...kids woke us up at 7:30am. Gifts from Santa were waiting under the tree and gifts from Grandma & Papa (from the night before) were carefully set up and displayed on the couches for the kids to see when they reached the bottom stair. (Mark stayed up with us last night to help set everything up, since this was his first year knowing that Santa isn't real...now he gets to be in on fooling his siblings!) The time is 8:20am and Daddy and Mommy are heading back to bed!









"Don't bother me...I'm playing with my new dollhouse..."

The Town of MEville

Ryan, Mark & I had the opportunity to be a part of the MEville presentation...a fresh, creative, & dramatic way to tell the Christmas story. It was written, Dr. Seuss-style, by Calvary Church's very talented Children's Pastor...Pastor Michael. Ryan played the role of the Town Rep, I was spoiled, bratty JayME, and Mark was one of the Oompa-Loompa-type King's helpers. Here are a couple snapshots of the castmembers at one of our many rehearsals.

Here are some of the townspeople of MEville.

Here are some of the kids from MEville.

This is LucyME (the town villain) & JayME (the spoiled brat).

Ryan and me...after the Saturday night performance. We had two more on Sunday. Both Sunday services were packed. Praise God! Our prayer was that the whimsy and creativity of this production would be the tool that would tug at people's hearts and remind them of God's gift to us at Christmastime.

"It's a Wonder-Full Life"

I'm finally catching up on my blogging!

We are so proud of Mark! Once again he auditioned for the school play, and this time he landed the lead role! Here's the little guy in action!








Here is Mark with his teacher, Mrs. K. She is one of his very favorite teachers!



I apologize for the poor camera-work. Mommy was trying to film Mark, while handling an antsy 3yr-old Marina. We plan to purchase the professionally filmed dvd for our keepsake...but here's a little taste of Mark's solo from our own (shaky) camcorder.

A Life of Glamour

This video so accurately describes a mother's life!
Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMhuAtyFCrw

ps: I emailed this to some of you directly. Sorry for the double dose. Altho, I think it's worth a second play. It's so stinkin funny!
xoxo

Riding the Polar Express!

On Saturday, we were invited by our good friends Vicki, Kennedy, and Talon to hop the Polar Express train to the "North Pole" to meet Santa Claus! It was quite an adventure! We had so much fun. And so many laughs along the way. Thank you girls for inviting us! xoxo

Jingle Bells

Rina: "Jeeter Bells, Jeeter Bells. Jeeter all dah way!!!
Jeeter Bells, Jeeter Bells. Jeeter all dah way!!!
Jeeter Bells, Jeeter Bells. Jeeter all dah way!!!"

Reese: "No, that's not how it goes! It goes like this...
Jinger Bells, Jinger Bells. Jinger all dah way!
Olay fun it is to why in a one horse open sleigh!"

Stolen Markers & Sharpened Pencils...

Yesterday was quite an eventful day for my two boys.
First, Reese came home from school...strangely hobbling off the bus in front of our house. When he stepped inside the door, he had the look of mischief in his eyes. He said, "Mommy, guess what I have in my shoe." Um...I can only imagine! "What Reese?" At that point, he whipped out a fat, black dry erase marker. "I have a marker!" he declared with a smile. Normally a marker wouldn't alert my mommy senses, but the fact that he had sneakily brought it home in his shoe caused my suspicions to surface.
"Who's marker is that, Reese?"
"Mr. Hayek's"
"Did you take this from Mr. Hayek's desk?"
"Yes."
"Reese, when you take something that isn't yours, that's called stealing. How do you think that makes Mr. Hayek feel?"
Suddenly Reese's face transformed into one of sheer despair!
"Does it make him feel...SAD?"
"Yes Reese, it makes him feel sad."
He burst into tears, and I felt like the rottenest mother ever for pushing my sweet, naive boy to tears. Especially when this was one of the darlingest thing he's ever done! But true to my role as mother, I helped him close his eyes and tell Jesus sorry for stealing. Then I instructed him to give it back to Mr. Hayek tomorrow, and tell him sorry for taking his marker. Again, Reese busted out crying, "But I want a marker!" OK, he obviously wasn't getting the concept. So the issue was dropped, and I swept him up into the tightest, kissiest hug I could give him. He is my sweetest child!

Then, Mr. Mark came home. He was beaming so bright, he could power all of New York City. What was his secret joy?? He waited until Daddy arrived home before he spilled the beans...apparently, when Mark had entered class that morning, he saw that Grace (his 3-year crush; his dream-girl; the one whom we incessantly tease him about. hehe) was rummaging through Mark's desk. "Grace, what are you doing?"
"Oh, I was cleaning up your desk for you. And I sharpened all your pencils."
Sharpened all his pencils?!?! Oh my! You'd think she'd declared her love for him! He melts into the floor everytime he thinks about her sweet, thoughtful pencil-sharpening skills. And, of course, Ryan and I see it as fresh, new material that we can use to tease him! (Mark laughs his head off when we tease him about Grace. And his face gets beet red. It's great!) So, before bed, when we brought the subject up again, we told him Grace must really like him after his amazing performance in the school play. He had the funniest reply! "She just can't resist showing me how much she likes me!" Oh please!!!! Someone please pop that big fat head before it explodes! LOL.

The Dusty Magazine

I don't usually read "motherhood magazines" because I find them awfully dull and redundant, and usually pretty cheesy. But, today I decided to take a moment to flip thru a Christian Women's magazine that my sis had sent to me last spring. It's been collecting dust next to my bed since then. (Sorry Lindsey!) Immediately I was riveted by the wisdom saturating the articles. One phrase totally struck me...like a wooden 2x4 smacking me across my thick, stubborn skull. "When our faith is secure, we will be touched by circumstances, yet governed by the Holy Spirit. This we decide every day, with every issue."

Wow! A simple, timeless message. There is so much truth packed into these few short words. It starts with our faith being secure in Christ. But how do you just come up with secure faith? I think it starts with a decision. "Lord, I choose to trust You. Period." Then, we go about our business and find ourselves touched by circumstance. Okay, that hits home with many of us nowadays. So many circumstances are swirling out of our control lately. But our response to the circumstance is governed by the Holy Spirit. I love that they chose to use the word governed in this sentence. I think this requires a constant interaction with Him. "Lord, how would you have me respond today? What should I say? How should I feel?" Then, the part about, "this we decide every day, with every issue," suggests that it is a continual battle within us to do what is right; to respond with faith. And through this repetitive cycle, I truly believe that we will be brought back to the initial concept: SECURE FAITH. When we allow Him to, He proves Himself faithful. And our faith has a chance to grow.

Alright, Lord. How I've blown it, even this week, by responding to circumstance with ugly attitudes or hurtful words. Thank you for another kick in the pants. Today I choose to start at the beginning: Lord, I choose to trust You. Period. Help me live a life governed by you, at every circumstance. And may my faith continue to grow more secure in You.

And thank you for cheesy Women's Magazines.

"The Talk"

The dreaded "Talk."
It's enough to incite every ouce of anxiety in a parent, right?

Well, we had "The Talk" with Mark on Sunday night.
Ryan and I thought the time was right because Mark will be entering 5th grade next year. And he will be attending public school. Plus he has lots of guy-friends on his football team and in his wrestling club. With all these other influences, we wanted to make sure WE were the ones to tell him the details, before he heard a distorted version from his friends. And we suspected that once we started probing, we'd find out that he already knew more about the topic than he'd let on.

Sure enough, as we began the conversation by asking questions, Mark spilled the snippets of info he'd heard from friends here and there. It wasn't much, considering the conversation that unfortunately permeates average boys' dialogue these days. But, it was still more than we'd realized he had ingested. So, we took the opportunity to fill in the gaps and explain things the way we wanted him to hear it.

Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as horrible or terrifying or weird as I had envisioned all these years. When Ryan and I approached it in a very casual, informative way, it helped Mark to stop writhing on the floor with fits of nervous laughter, and he was able to look at us face to face and finish the conversation very comfortably. Of course, I'll never forget his initial response: "Eew! Why would anyone wanna do THAT!?!"

It ended up being a very sweet, special conversation. And we were super proud of some of the wise conclusions he drew without our intervention. An example is when we explained to him the way many guys in our culture view sex. They think it makes them cool and macho if they've been with several girls. Right away, Mark looked horrified and said, "But, that's cheating!" To which we responded, "Yes. That's cheating on your future wife." We discussed the importance of choosing your dates wisely; girls that hold the same values as you and have a common desire for purity. Again, he thrilled us when he decided that he wanted to start praying for his future wife, that she will make right choices, just like he is going to do. What a sweetie!

After it's all said and done, I think we accomplished our goal: to explain the basic mechanics of how it works, to reiterate that it's God's plan for marriage, and to reaffirm the fact that when people don't remain within God's rules for sex, they open the door to ugly consequences. Now, I'm pretty confident that when he hears kids make ignorant comments on the topic, he will be equipped with the truth. I also realize that this conversation isn't the big climax that I thought it would be! It's simply a stepping stone. A prerequisite to many more conversations. And hopefully he will always remember that he can talk to us about ANYthing! Lastly, we drilled into his head that he may NEVER tell his friends or siblings about the things we had just discussed. It is the job of each parent to engage their own child in "The Talk."

Phew! One kid down...2 more to go...

Little Star

Mark's comment this morning, regarding his school play tonight, in which he landed the main role: "We HAVE to go out for icecream with everyone else afterward. For the first time in my life, I'm popular!"

Christmas Pics

Here are some snapshots that we took after church today. I think some of these will be going on our Holiday cards this year!

Goofy Girl!

"I see two Mommies!"







"Hee Hee"

RaNdOm ObSeRvAtiOnS

1. Ryan may never be able to get out the door for work, without first giving a demanding Rina "kiss and lub (love)."

2. When kids are invited to come forward for prayer during Kid's Connection services, the line that the kids form in front of Ryan is 3 times longer than any other leader...and is mostly made up of starry-eyed 5th grade girls. lol. Ryan is such a hunk!

3. I think it's about time for Reese to get a haircut.
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4. I think the water has been altered...because a ton of my friends are preggy all at once! Katelynn, Nicole, Jill, Julie, Tasha, Angie, Caroline, Rebecca, Natalie, Rachel, Megan, Jen...and I'm sure others that I can't remember at the moment. Just the thought of another pregnancy makes me fatigued. I'll be investing in bottled water for the next few months.

5. We are obviously experiencing a recession in our economy. But, lately I've been finding out about close friends and neighbors that are becoming hugely affected by this national burden. A neighbor that I've lived down the street from for 6yrs has been laid off and will be suddenly moving out of state in a month. Another friend (from church) said her husband has lost 30% of his income, and they may lose their beautiful home. (The home I admit I've secretly envied from time to time). WE have been the family that has lived much more modestly than our acquaintances, but now we are the family that still has a job and a home. Ryan's job, as unglamorous and perhaps 'dead-end' as it sometimes feels, is very secure and unaffected by the current market. Wow. How grateful we need to be. And how ashamed I feel when I think of the times I've complained or been dissatisfied.

6. I think I am employed by Mr. & Mrs. Smith. You know, that movie about the couple that looks like a typical suburban pair on the outside, but ends up being undercover special ops or something. Yeah. I think I work for them. I've provided childcare for their child for 3 yrs. And as time has gone on, I've picked up on little details here and there that blow their cover as 'teachers.' Like yesterday, Mrs. Smith let slip a minor detail...that her husband was an FBI agent before becoming an elementary school principal. And that he ranked #1 in the nation for physical and mental testing. Um...yeah. How do you go from that to becoming a district 204 principal? I kinda wonder if my house is under surveillance now...like undercover agents are hiding in trees and peering thru binoculars, making sure that Mr. & Mrs. Smith's one and only daughter is safe. If that's not enough to make me paranoid, I don't know what is. Yet I LOVE this family. They have been so amazing to me. They are like family. But, yes, Ryan and I are so very intrigued by this mysterious duo. We want to make dinner plans with them over the holidays (we've done this once before) and hopefully get the low-down on their story. "What is it that you reeally do?" ;)

Prepare

This past Sunday, Ryan spoke in Kid's Connection about preparation. He recounted the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth's encounter with the angel as they were told they would give birth to a son, John. And then Ryan explained to the kids that John the Baptist's life's purpose was to prepare the hearts of people for Jesus' ministry. A whole lifelong effort of preparation in order to usher in Jesus' short 3-year ministry. Wow.

As I examine my life, I realize the importance of preparation. Being prepared for daily divine appointments. But also being prepared for a more intricate purpose that God has planned for my future. That's really something to chew on. A familiar concept. Yet it takes on new meaning as I feel the Lord revealing pieces of that 'future plan' in my life. It will take preparation. Today. I heard a preacher once say that every minute spent on your knees in prayer, and every moment spent studying God's Word, is not done in vain. But, it's tempting to think these practices are trivial. Or not as urgent as the thousands of other tasks at hand.

I want to defy the temptation to procrastinate. I want to prepare. For whatever task He has for me. Perhaps speaking into the life of a hurting neighbor. Or wisely exhorting my growing kids. Or even greater things than that, if He so chooses. In any case, it's not about me. It wasn't about John the Baptist. Or the apostle Paul. Or anyone else that He used. It's always been about God's purposes. And His plan to rescue lost hearts. Wow. Christmas has taken on a new meaning this year. At least it has for me. ;)

First Snow

Today we enjoyed the first real snow of the season. The key word here is 'enjoyed' because by next week, this fun, fluffy white stuff will be the object of my greatest frustration! Shoveling, cautious driving, and muddy puddles on my kitchen floor will turn the winter magic into a season-long curse. At least that's from my point of view. But, I'm sure the kids will continue to 'enjoy' the snow all the way through spring. And I admit...that's just what children should do. ;)