Who's in Trouble Now?

The timeout kid strikes again. I came out of my office Monday and heard James saying "timeout," and pointing his finger. I asked him what he was doing and he quickly exclaimed: "putting Daddy in timeout!" Well I had to capture that :)

Loot

While in SoCal for Thanksgiving - we were trying to maximize our vacation time so we were looking for fun things to do with the kids. The most exciting thing in the immediate area was Chuck e Cheese and boy was it a popular place - it was tiny and super crowded but the kids had a lot of fun!!!

Haylie assured me she wouldn't be scared on this ride and she wasn't at all. She kept saying over and over again - "I'm not scared Mommy, see I'm not scared Mommy"

Micah had been playing a basketball game for a little while, trying to beat a high score. When he finally beat it, the ticket machine stopped working and he didn't get any tickets for it. He didn't care at all but I wanted him to get the reward for his hard work (what like 5 or 10 tickets) so I ran to find the ticket man - after I told him our dilemma he ripped off a stack of like 250 tickets and gave them to me. Between those, Raider's tickets and Grandma and Grandpa's tickets we had like 500. The kids picked out so many little trinkets they didn't even know what else to pick at the end! Of course if I left it up to them they would have just taken 50 lollipops!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Southern CA with Micah's family. It is always a great time with all the cousins. Haylie had fun making cookies with Gigi and she was especially excited to see her cousin Grant!!

A fun memory about our Thanksgiving trip that I wanted to remember is that it took us 9 hours to get there for what is usually a 6 hour trip. Micah nearly had a nervous breakdown but we all made it:

We left the house about 3:00 on the day before Thanksgiving (about 1 hour after Micah hoped to leave). I had to drop off some prints to a photography client in the area (note - Micah does not like surprise stops!). Once we got on the freeway we turned on the kids portable dvd player, only to find out it was broken. Raider had one in the car too so we pulled over and tried to hook that one up. The cord on it seemed to be missing a piece and it wouldn't connect into the DVD player, so we got back into the car and headed to Target to get a new one. Micah went with a mid-range one about $60-70. We got back in the car and I was trying to get it going but it was defective and would not work straight out of the box!!! In the process of trying to get it to work I was noticing that almost all of the kids' DVD's were completely scratched (I did try an unscratched one and that didn't work either). We had to weigh out if it was worth it to get a player before our trip but the thought of the kids in the car for 6 hours with nothing to do did not seem like a good idea.

So we stopped to pick up Raider from school, and then went to ANOTHER Target downtown. Micah returned the old player, got a new one for $100 that he was sure would work - and I had him pick out a couple new dvd's for the kids. By the time we got that new player up and running it was 5:00 and we were all hungry so we stopped for dinner and then began our 6 hour trip!!

On the Friday after Thanksgiving that $100 dvd player was on sale for $65!!!

I Hope you Dance

Even though I don't particularly want James to dress up in tutus when he's older (and I didn't even encourage it here - he just wants to do whatever Haylie does!) - I truly hope my kids always love life as much as they do now, know how to have a little silly fun and spontaneously dance!!!

Christmas Misconceptions

Thanks to Dora and Caillou, Haylie has developed a little Christmas misconception. We have been doing our countdown to Christmas every day, and when we say, "and then it will be Christmas," she says, "and then it will snow." I keep telling her it doesn't snow where we live at Christmas and she keeps telling me, "well, we'll just wait and see."

So on Sunday when I heard it was going to snow here for the first time in like 10 years I was quietly excited. Unfortunately our little town seems to be the only one in the region that didn't get any snow that sticks! I was very disappointed Monday morning and really wanted them to have the opportunity to play in the snow. So the kids and I quickly bundled up, jumped in the car and headed down the road to a nearby area with some snow. They had so much fun playing around and I had so much fun watching them squeal and run and laugh. Both of hem have really got the hang of snowballs now - the rule was they could only throw them at me (not each other)! Haylie was so excited that it actually snowed at Christmas time and made sure to remind me that she was right.

So - three cheers for childlike hope and let the Christmas misconceptions live on!!

Trying to make a snow angel like Dora:

Timeout

Lately James has been putting his toys in timeout. Well...today Micah caught James putting Jesus in timeout. Lest he lose his salvation, we quickly had a talk with Mr. James to explain that Jesus is the divine Son of God, "He who knew no sin of His own," and more importantly you just don't put God in timeout! :)

Sorry Jesus! :)

Forever Families

Here is the outcome from our event yesterday:

http://www.kcra.com/video/21689501/index.html

It was an amazing time and there were many families who came that were interested in Foster Care / Adoption and simply didn't know where to start. I am excited to think we may have helped even one child find a home!

Raider was put on the spot to share his story at the last minute and he did great. I have never heard him speak about his experience but he did outstanding! Everyone in the audience was crying and all day he heard what a great job he did! It was a real confidence-builder for him and I think it has shown him that despite his trials in life he has a special gift to help others because of his experiences!

The most exciting part of the event was finding a group of people who are passionate to help kids find homes who we can partner with in the future to continue to bring the message to churches in our community!

Ephesians 3:20 - God is amazing - to him be the glory forever and ever!