Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Emily is a child of God!

** Emily accepts Jesus as her Lord and Savior!!!
My parent dog Kelsie passed away. Since we had just been up at their house during Christmas time, Emily was quite aware of Kelsie. When I explained to her that Kelsie had died because he had gotten old, Emily referred to it being like when Jesus died. We had spent a lot of time talking about Kelsie dying. A few days later when Rex and Emily were driving in the car, she again brought up Kelsie dying. She talked about how Jesus died for our sins and we need to ask Him into our hearts. Whenever Emily had talked about Jesus in the past we had talked about the need to ask Him into our hearts, but we never pushed the issue. However on this given night, in the car talking about Keslie dying, she told Rex very adamently that she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart so that when she died like Kelsie she too would go to heaven. When asked about why Jesus died so sad "He died for my sins and he doesn't want me to do bad things" There the two of them sat and asked Jesus into her heart. Emily was so excited, she couldn't wait to tell me. She wanted to ask Jesus into everyone's heart (Jacob, our cat Scooby). That took some explaining. Through this whole experience, it was just so heart warming as a parent. I never knew how I would feel if my children wanted to ask Jesus into their heart at a young age, it they really could understand what they were asking, if it was genuine...if it really counted so to say. But in that moment, I knew. I knew it counted. I knew it was for real. Emily, with the true faith of a 3 year old child knew. She knew that Jesus died for her sins and that He wants nothing from us other than to believe that HE is who He says that He is and that He wants her to live her life in His knowledge and will. And that through His grace, she is now saved. HALLELUJAH! We are so blessed. Thank you Jesus!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Getting to Church on Time

One of Rex's pet peaves (he doesn't have very many) is getting to church late. He wants to be on time WITHOUT rushing. He would like to be in the car pulling away each Sunday at 8:30. With 3 kids to get buckled into carseats, this means starting the car process at 8:15 since Emily likes to buckle herself and I have to act surprised each time, Jacob now says "self" meaning he wants to climb in by himself, and Taylor has to get all strapped into the infant car seat ( I have a love-hate relationship with those things). In addition each Sunday it is Jacob's blanket, check, paci: Check, backpack with diaper and sippy cup with label: Check, Taylor's blankie: Check, paci: check, diaper bag with wipes, diapers, change of clothes, burp cloth, bottle with label: Check. Emily's hair brushed: check. Bible: check, (You get the point). This morning we did so good. We were in the car pulling out at 8:32 with EVERYTHING ready. When we got to church Rex was carrying Jacob and Taylor and I was holding Emily's hand and the 2 diaper bags. When Rex handed Jacob off to me to take him and Taylor to their classes we discovered something VERY embarrassing.... Jacob was still in just his socks!!! Being that the ground was wet from the night rain we had to carry him and embarrassing explain to his teachers that we left his shoes at home. I keep almost a spare everything in the car, I just never thought of the need to leave a spare pair of shoes...maybe I need to start. The poor middle child issues have already begun, YIKES!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Happy New Year!




YEAH for 2009!
I can't believe how quickly 2008 went! As we were driving home from Northern California Rex and I were talking about 2008 (highs and lows) and looking forward to things in 2009. It was then that we realized that this is the first year in 5 years that we weren't expecting any major life transitions (no attempts in getting pregnant, no babies being born, no Master's program to graduate from, no baby being born, no licensing to study for, no new job transition, no relocation, no surprise pregnancy, no new house to move into, and no new baby being born). What a GREAT year we are anticipating. To only have to manage the life that we are current;y used to is looking so absolutely amazing to us. We are crossing our fingers that is going to be all that we are hoping it to be.
To ring in 2009 we went to a Rock Band themed pa
rty hosted my our neighbors the Palmer's. We were supposed to dress up like rock stars. Being that I am not of the rock star type I chose to dress up like Britney Spears and Rex agreed to dress like K-Fed (he is such a good sport). We haven't had a reason to get dressed up on New Years Eve since our friend Colleen's 30th b-day party 4 years ago. Last year we were so tired from working to get our house ready for us to move in and Jacob still not sleeping through the night that we gave each other our New Years kiss long before midnight and slept our way into 2008. We had a GREAT adult night away from the kids and again we felt so grateful for our neighbors and the great community that it has offered to us. Rex has played Rock Band with them all on numerous occasions however I am much too shy and insecure to subject myself to such scrutiny...however, I felt brave enough to give it a
 try. Singing, (no way), drums (too many things going on at the same time), guitar (we already have a guitarist in our family) so I had to try the bass. It was challenging to concentrate (I was trying to listen to every one's conversations as I was playing) however if I was able to focus I realized it was actually very fun. What a way to start the year!
Us as Britney and K-Fed





The Girls of Mount Way

Emily's a Star!



Emily's 1st day of Preschool


Emily & Her teacher Mrs. Slankard


Emily started preschool at the beginning of December. 
My baby is officially attending school! It took us a few months to decide where would be the best fit for Emily and for our family and we decided upon Lambs of Faith in Vista. It has been great for all of us. I think for Emily it has given her an outlet where she can keep herself busy and for myself it has given me a break that allows me to be more patient when we are together. I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity that we finally have to allow this to happen. The first week that Emily was in school everytime w
e went somewhere while Emily was at school Jacob would stop at the car and say "Mimi, mimi" in fear th
at we had left her behind. When we are at home he often walks around the house calling her name, it is very sweet to see the relationship that they have and how they are growing so close at such a young age, I hope it lasts forever~
On December 14th Emily was in her first stage pe
rformance. Our family won a raffle for the front pew (YEAH). Which meant that we didn't have to get there early to save seats (DOUBLE YEAH) and that we were able to have a good seat to take pictures and video. The pew was ENORMOUS so we were able to share it with our good friends the Jarrett's (TRIPLE YEAH!). I was so nervous of how Emily was going to act while she was on stage. I figured that she was going to get so shy she would just smile and watch everyone else, but to our surprise she was waving a way and was super excited when she saw us in the audience. She sang along and based upon her per
formance I think " We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was her favorite song. After the show we went to Chili's for dinner with the Jarrett's in celebration of our babies on stage! Way to go Emily, we are so proud of you!


Walking in for the show

Our little angel

Emily and Malachi after the show