Warning: Bubble Blower Wands May Be Dangerous!

That is in the hands of our kids!

Christi and I had just gone inside from playing in the backyard with the boys. They were playing as they usually do in the sandbox or running around pretending to be their favorite super heroes. Nathan was standing on the edge of the sandbox claiming to be "King of the Mountain". Brady was pretending to be David battling Goliath and said, "I'm going to knock you down giant!" It was then that I heard a thud and an immediate scream.

Let me give you some background before I tell the rest of the story. Brady and Nathan love stories. Part of our bedtime routine is story time! Daddy tell me a Nemo story! Mommy tell me Thomas story. And my favorite from Nathan, "Tell me a Wiggles Bible story." It is then that we tell the Revised edition of the Jesus calming the sea with the wiggles in Capitan Feather Sword's friendly pirate ship. One of Brady's favorite stories is David and Goliath. He loves watching the story through the Veggie Tales movie Dave and the Giant Pickle . We often re-enact the scene where Brady pretends he is Dave and throws a pillow or something soft at me pretending to be the Giant Pickle. I then fall over on the ground and we start the battle all over.

Back to our backyard. When Nathan claimed dominance over the sandbox this was Brady's opportunity to take down the Giant. One thing to realize is that Brady was about 20 feet away from Nathan. To take this Giant down Brady choose as his weapon a pink bubble blower wand. Now you may be thinking this isn't much of a weapon but this was no ordinary bubble wand. This was one of those huge 12 inch bubble wands that have very sharp ridges and are thick and stiff. As Brady shouted, "I'm going to knock you down Giant!" he hurled the wand towards Nathan. (Mommy was in mid-sentence saying "Brady, don't throw...") The wand flew through the air end over end and preceded to implant in Nathan's forehead just between his eyes. It was a bulls eye.

The rest of the story involves Mommy rushing Nathan to the hospital for three stitches and Daddy talking to Brady about the importance of not throwing things at other people. As I was talking to Brady I was trying not to laugh as I thought of our re-enactments of Dave and the Giant pickle and holding back the thought in my mind of, "Wow Brady that was an amazing throw!".

Of course this one picture says it all: Nathan was a trooper, only cried maybe 3-4 minutes out of everything - getting hurt and stitches included. He was SO brave at the hospital too!

Learning Fun...

The boys are growing it seems every day and learning so much.

Right now, Brady is learning how to draw with his imagination and drew what he called "Thumper" today. It's been alot of fun helping him learn how to picture something and put it on paper. I only wish I could draw more than a stick figure so he could have more help! At the moment too, Nathan is totally addicted to puzzles!! Not the baby or toddler puzzles but the 24-40 piece puzzles!! Once we help him the first time, he does them all by himself from then on out...over and over and over and over again!! It's amazing to watch him piece them together!

More Easter Pics....

We had such a full and fabulous Easter weekend. The boys really enjoyed dying easter eggs on Good Friday at Aunt Jo and Uncle David's, as well as, the Easter Egg Hunt there and at church. We had a yummy lunch at church after the service and then spent the remainder of the hot afternoon swimming in our backyard and playing in the sprinklers! It was a great Easter! (can you tell how hot it was from our Easter picture - the boys just wanted to go inside after the egg hunt!)

Another one down...

Another year has passed in this life God has given me and it’s been one more amazing year of life that God has grown me, held me, taught me, challenged me, loved me, changed me, molded me, blessed me, and made me to be more like him. Most years on my birthday I go through a mourning period. Why, I’m not sure. But it’s always there. A period of mourning the ways I failed the past year and fell short in so many areas. All the could’ve and should’ves just seem to flood my life around my birthday. I should’ve called this person more, I could have served more, I could have given more and sacrificed more; did I really do all God wanted me to do this past year? I evaluate all those things I can change and do better next year. (definitely a good thing to do too). But in all that evaluating I tend to forget the most important thing about my life – being thankful for the awesome grace of God that has given me the life I am so blessed to have. And when I say awesome – I mean spectacular!! This year, for some reason, I’m just feeling different. There hasn’t been that mourning, self-reflecting, judgmental and guilt-ridden experience that I usually have. This year, I’m just SOOO incredibly thankful. The past week – I was just so thankful to tears (many times)! I think it's possible it's because my birthday was on Good Friday and the realness of all Christ did for me has been so prevalant in our day to day life as we're sharing the stories with Brady and Nathan. Thankful that despite all the mess-ups I’ve had in life, all the wrong choices I’ve made, all the ways I’ve fallen short, that the Lord has chosen to give me the most amazing life, family and friends that I could be blessed to have. I could have such a different life right now with some of the choices I’ve made, but Christ in his infinite love for me chose to take me on this beautiful adventure that I’m living today. The adventure of being blessed daily as a wife, mom, daughter, sister, and friend. The adventure of being a woman, created by Him --- beautiful and wonderfully made with HIS very own hands.

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

The greatest gift I could ever receive on my birthday I have already received! It’s by grace through faith I’ve been saved, by His grace I am where he’s brought me…it’s not because of me, but because of Him. And on my Birthday, I just want to say THANK YOU, Lord for loving me, saving me and giving me the wonderful life I have. And THANK YOU to everyone who reads this for being so beautiful to me – YOU are! Although it’s still a little discouraging when I think about my age (just because I remember thinking people my age where REALLY old! haha), I’ve never felt more blessed, honored and privileged to be who the Lord is fashioning me to be in Christ, completely apart from myself! ~christi

Easter Egg Fun!

This past weekend the boys and I headed to my parents to celebrate Grammy's birthday and to enjoy their church's Easter Egg Hunt! (Brandon was at our church's men's retreat) We had a wonderful weekend and even got to celebrate my birthday too! Thanks Mom, Dad and Mike for everything!! The boys wen't to their first passion(type) play at the church on Friday night and did relatively well for sitting still and silent for an hour. Nathan did yell out "JESUS" when he saw him on the cross, and although somewhat embarrassing I have to admit it WAS really funny! He also sang with the solo's and wanted to repeat everything they said too. I think he probably could have just been in the play if they told him what to say!! :) Brady was intrigued the entire time! They also enjoyed a "REAL" Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday with egg's in a pasture everywhere! They were sooo excited!! (especially after the sugar rush kicked in!) Thankfully, I was secretly able to hide most of the chocolate by sneaking it one by one from their eggs and helping myself!! YUMMY!!! Mommy had quite the sugar rush that day too! We had a wonderful weekend! We have a family easter egg dying party & hunt this friday and another one at our church on Sunday so more sugar to come!!! I'm so glad they are just 2 & 3 and as long as their candy is out of site, they forget about it completely! (too bad I always know where it is!!) haha