december pictures

here's what we've been up to. more to come later i'm sure. just click here.

we elfed ourselves

you have to check it out, i promise it will be worth your time.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1569731738

Say What?! Wednesday

matt's brother andrew is a drummer, and really might be the reason that isaiah loves the drums the way he does. they have had a special connection from the beginning. andrew plays the drums at the church he attends...it's a church of 9,000 people. lincoln brewster is the worship pastor and so often andrew plays with him. going to church at bayside is a rock concert for isaiah.

bayside has planted several other churches over the years. every other year the churches rent out arco arena and get together for one huge worship service. this year there was about 17,000 people in attendance and andrew got to play for the event. papa and gg filmed the event and then put it on dvd for isaiah to have. can you guess what movie isaiah always wants to watch?

one morning he asked for the 'uncle andrew movie' and so we put it in. grandma was in the room and isaiah said, 'grandma, did you know my uncle is playing the drums?' 'yes,' she replied.

we started to watch the fog, the lights, the huge choir just to the left of andrew. after a few minutes isaiah pointed to the choir and said, 'grandma, did you know those are all my uncle's girlfriends?'

needless to say we all laughed hysterically. i guess isaiah's even got the rock star/girlfriend thing down too.

blaze of glory

so it's been a few days. any guesses why? yes, we've all gone down. little alaythia started it, isaiah continued it, mommy fell, ashley fell and this morning we woke up to find grandma sick in bed, home from work. the adult men in the family seem to be holding strong. partly due to the fact that grandpa has been in alaska for 8 days...and matt, well he's just superman. at least so far. this seems to be extremely contagious so we'll see how he does.

i thought mommy's were supposed to be the strong ones. the kids can get sick but somehow mommy stays well....i guess i haven't learned that part yet.

a little fun

grandma took isaiah out for some fun yesterday since we were home being sickies. this is what they brought home!

perspective

i went to a meeting with my cousin ashley last night. i got home late, but was amped. not like a mother of 2 late at night. i heard my mom still stirring so i went upstairs to debrief the day and it eventually led to gearing up for the next. all the things we both had to do...christmas is fast approaching and time is running out.

i'm not sure what got into us, but all of the sudden at midnight, we were downstairs eating cereal together continuing our random burst of energy. when we ran out of steam i went to bed but something in me was telling me to go check on the kids. i got up and walked into their room to find sweet little alaythia, head popped up and resting on the side of the crib.

i walked over to her, happy to see her face, cause i had missed it in the few hours i had been gone. but when i got over there i saw that she was sick, very sick, and covered in her sickness. i stripped her as fast as i could and ran to the bathroom where she could continue to get the bug out. when she was done i disintegrated into tears as the picture replayed in my head of my content sweet baby girl, quietly laying in her throw up.

she continued through the night and into this morning. funny how all my really 'important' things to do for christmas quickly became so trite. a good reminder to me of what really is important.

(she's doing better this afternoon, we'll wait and see.)

no baby left

as near as i can tell there is no trace of baby left in isaiah. as of last night he's not wearing diapers at all. he's been potty trained for a while, but still wearing diapers to bed. i was hesitant to pull the trigger...not wanting to deal with a wet bed. but he did it, just fine.

not wearing diapers to bed, and getting the toothpaste that you have to spit out, not swallow, were the last things. three months shy of 3 he does everything i do. to my shock he even asks me to leave the restroom when he's using it....do you realize i've been wiping your butt everyday for almost three years? oh well, i guess you do need privacy now.... my 'baby' is no more.

growing up, becoming more and more independant of me...it's been happening since he was born, just feels different today for some reason.

(as i'm typing he just picked up the phone and said my cell phone number.....pretending to give the car shop my number because we were 'bonked'. can you tell what i've been dealing with?)

Say What?! Wednesday

when grandma comes home we all love to hear her stories of the O.R. that day. we sit and listen, isaiah too. most the time he loves to bring back old stories from previous days like, 'grandma, did that guys nose get fixed?' and 'did that doctor say NO! again?'

so last week grandma walked in the door and isaiah promptly asked her if she had done any surgeries that day. she said, 'yes i did a vitrectomy. can you say vitrectomy?'

'no......sounds like truck-to-me!'

tidbits of life

life has been crazy of late. even now i have runny noses and poopy diapers waiting for me. but here's a few things of interest in the last few days.

--yesterday after much arguing, isaiah finally finished all of his lunch. it wasn't until last night, when i went to straighten the table cloth for dinner that i found oranges buried in there....i guess he didn't eat it all.

--alaythia says ma-ma, kind of. isaiah didn't say mama until he was 16 months old. it took me going away for a few days to knock some sense into him. but my sweet girl is saying it already.

--matt helping me take some cold medicine late one night. he said, 'don't worry they are chewable. just make sure you have a drink ready for afterward.' i check the label before i partook and sure enough it said, 'do not chew, let disolve in your mouth.' and it also threw in 'do not take a drink for 15 minutes before or after you take.' that is THE LAST time i take advice from matt on how to take drugs! through our laughter he said, 'you're going to blog about this aren't you!' sending me into more hysterical laughter.

--we set up the tent, t.p. and tunnels. alaythia crawled through first off. i remember isaiah being tentative for a while, waiting to go through the tunnels. alaythia had no hesitation. matt says they will be like him and laura. laura always did everything first and he only did things after seeing his little sister have no fear.

--we went in to the kids room before we went to bed last night. we found isaiah upside down...feet under his pillow at the head of the bed. and we found alaythia at the bottom of her crib, feet and one hand hanging off the side. they had a lot of fun together before falling asleep.

happy birthday adam

today adam turns 25. half way to 30. i remember that being a hard birthday for me. for most people it will be hard to believe that adam is ONLY 25. he's always been so mature. here are a few things and reasons why I LOVE MY BROTHER.

he is a compassionate, strong, articulate man. an amazing blend of truth and grace. wise beyond his years. he has an amazing voice and musical talent. he uses it to re-write old hymns, play guitar, teach others and lead people to the throne every sunday. he is a faithful friend, not afraid of the hard times, rejoicing in the good. he is long suffering and diligent - true to his word.

i do not say it flippantly -- am proud to be connected with adam. i'm proud to be his sister.

the pit of despair

i'm sure you've seen 'the princess bride'. the pit of despair is where wesley is taken with the man that has the double chin that shakes when he talks.... extremely disturbing for a young girl.

anyway, the pit of despair is what i've come to call the time from when i lay down in bed, until i drift off to sleep. this time should be one where i can finally relax, mull over the day, talk with matt without interruption. and that's what it is. but once i relax and i have space to think about the day...that's when i start the downward spiral into the pit.

'i shouldn't have said that to isaiah.' 'i should have done this when he asked.' 'i didn't look at alaythia's face enough today, tomorrow she'll be bigger.' 'the house is such a mess, i can never get caught up.' 'i suck at this thing called motherhood.' 'i suck even more as a home maker.'

and so it goes until i fall asleep. sometimes i say things out loud, so to take them out of the darkness and try to have matt speak light into it. (cause i know i'm tired, and trying to solve the world's problems, or even my own problems, that late at night is not a good idea.) and he does speak light, but the pit often times has already sucked me down so far that the lights is just a faint speckle.

my own mother has often said that she did the same thing as a young mother. and now, she matter-of-factly looks me in the eye and says, 'you know that does no good.' but still, i go there, just about every night.

so many of my other mom-friends, that are in the throws of raising young kids, feel the same way. we long to be away, to have some time to ourselves, we get away and then feel guilty about it. we choose to stay home and give our lives to our children, but still we're not doing enough. how do we, how do i, let the gospel reach into the pit and redeem this? how do i live the gospel despite this thick guilt that seems to consume me? how can i stop the tape that runs in my head and replace it with truth?

i obviously don't have it totally figured out. but for today what i want is grace. over and over again i must remind myself -- grace. today i want to cling to it. the fact that apart my Savior i'm bound for the pit....in more ways than one.

not my words

"When huge pain comes into your life—like divorce, or the loss of a precious family member, or the dream of wholeness shattered—it is good to have a few things settled with God ahead of time. The reason for this is not because it makes grieving easy, but because it gives focus and boundaries for the pain.

Being confident in God does not make the pain less deep, but less broad. If some things are settled with God, there are boundaries around the field of pain. In fact, by being focused and bounded, the pain of loss may go deeper—as a river with banks runs deeper than a flood plain. But with God in his firm and proper place, the pain need not spread out into the endless spaces of ultimate meaning. This is a great blessing, though at the time it may simply feel no more tender than a brick wall. But what a precious wall it is!"

...you can read John Piper's whole article here.

(HT: Todd Bolen)

random assortment

i'm sure you've heard that it's been the biggest storm in 80 years up here the last few days.

on monday, when the storm was at it worst we found ourselves together in a warm home...with random people along. it was a lot of fun trying to 'brave' the storm. cooking, baking and being together. here in vancouver we're fine, so maybe that's where the romanticism comes from. i know there are those who don't feel that way about the storm.

i had made plans for our friend bev to come over on monday. every so often she takes a day off work to come be with us. some friend, i know. she's one of those friends where you're baffled that you've only known them for 2 years....seems like she's always been in our life.

on sunday my cousin ashley came to stay with us while she's in between houses. it's been so great to get to spend time with her and get reacquainted. i'm sorry to say that it's been many years since i've even seen her.

jake heard that ashley was around and was in the portland area cutting down free christmas trees for everyone he knows. so he decided to come and hang out. but one exit from our house his flatbed truck that was carrying 20 christmas trees broke down. he and his friend chris had spent the morning cutting down christmas trees. yes, in the biggest storm in 80 years. in jake's words, it was the wettest he's ever been in his life. they were wet, cold and broken down on the side of the road.

once everyone was dry, fed and at the house it was quite fun. bev, ashley, jake, chris, mom, dad, isaiah, alaythia, matt and me. a random assortment of people together on a blustery day. soup, mom's famous cornbread and chocolate chips cookies....sometimes the severe weather can create a cool memory...like it did on monday.

Say What!?! Wednesday

i pulled the family together on friday afternoon to go get a christmas tree. it doesn't feel like christmas until the christmas tree is up. so we all piled in grandpa's car. even moses came along in his crate in the trailer. we went down the street to a u-cut farm. we were bundled and walking through the trees. grandpa would ask isaiah, 'how is this one?' 'no, not that one.' he would say. we walked for quite some time and not one tree was working for isaiah. finally i said, 'isaiah what kind of tree are you looking for?' he said, 'we need to get one with lights!'