Little Jordan

Well...we are in Memphis.....again! When I say we...I mean me and the kids. Can I first say...that I love visiting my family. We always laugh and have such a good time when we are all together. That definitely makes our plans completely changing, not quite as disappointing as they could have been. See, Jason is at youth camp this week. He left Monday. I was supposed to be with him. But see, every time I plan to go on a youth trip, something happens...either our kids get sick, their care-giver gets sick, or in this case, their care-giver's child gets sick. My sister, Kathleen, who has 2 children...ages 3 and 18 months....and is 5 months pregnant....wanted to keep my three children (just to remind you...my kids are 5, 4, and 2). Yes, she is crazy....but hey, I had a babysitter. :) Anyway....so Jason and I packed the kiddos up Friday morning and headed to Memphis to drop them off; and Saturday we were supposed to be headed back to Dayton...childless. Well, poor little Jordan has had a little bout with.....well...constipation. It's been awful. Saturday, Jason and I made the decision for me to stay when they battled back and forth whether to take him to the ER. They eventually were told to hold out....but, since then he has been twice....the second time being early this morning which has resulted in him being admitted to the hospital and staying overnight. Bless his little heart....he hasn't slept in 48 hours, and I really don't know when the last time my sister and her husband have slept. Turns out, he was constipated....and also seems to have had some sort of intestinal infection as well, which has caused unbelievable amounts of stomach cramping. We've all felt so bad for him. But, I will say...he's been as cute as a button through it all (when he's feeling halfway decent). Anyway...we are hoping he'll get to not only come home tomorrow, but come home feeling much better. AND...needless to say, I think it was most definitely a good thing I stayed with my children! But I do miss my hubby and getting to hang out with the youth....but who knows, maybe next time....maybe. :)

A Birthday Party in Memphis!

Well, we finally made it in for a tip to Memphis again. My nephew Jordan's birthday is June 15th and Lily's is June 18th. So since we were going to be in on Lily's birthday, and it happened to be the day that my sister wanted to do Jordan's birthday; we just decided to do them together. It was a blast! Lily was so excited about her party! All morning she kept saying, "Really, am I 4? For real?"

Jordan's theme was Little Einsteins and of course Lily's was the Disney Princesses.

This child has been talking for months about what she wanted for her birthday. We started out with "all the princess stuff from Walmart." (At least she picked the cheapest store to want everything from). But eventually we narrowed it to all the princess babies and some accessories to go with them. So since her birthday we've now had to cart baby Belle, baby Snow White, baby Ariel, baby Cinderella, and baby Sleeping Beauty everywhere.

While we were opening presents, someone happened to walk into the kitchen and find this little booger diving into the cupcakes. He had been eying them all morning....so really; it was only a matter of time that he would find his opportunity when no one was looking.

See what I mean? The babies must go everywhere.

Lily didn't know how she felt about blowing out the candles. But Jordan sure knew exactly what to do.

So, my sister and her husband decided to rent this really big water slide for the party. It was awesome. Jordan loved it too, but he didn't last quite as long on it as our kids did. This little truck occupied a lot of his time.

Warning....(this may should have been at the beginning of the blog)....I posted a LOT of pictures.

Paul...

Christen...

The birthday girl got airborne!

Our kids were literally on this thing from about 11am til about 7:30 pm....with the exception of lunch, cake and presents.

Then it was time for the parents and aunts to get on...

Me and my sister, Kristina....

Ellie...

And then the grandparent got out there......

My dad and Austin....

The party was a hit! The kids (and adults) had a blast! Daniel is sitting here with me now watching me post this and he said, "I love that water slide." So there you have it! p.s.....I love visiting my family!!!

Acts 3 - Jesus is the Source

I often wonder how "the church" is going to make an impact in our culture. It's easy to get caught up in the latest children's/youth/young adult/small group ministry ideas. All those things are not to be abandoned by the church AS long as Jesus remains the source of all wisdom, guidance and HE is undoubtedly the foundation. We see Peter proclaim this truth in Acts 3.

In the first part of Acts 3 Peter and John are used by God to heal a lame man. The people respond with amazement. Peter quickly turns the attention to Jesus.
-He begins by asking a question about the source of power (3:12).
-We see in verse 16 that faith in Jesus changed this man's life.
-Jesus is the fulfillment of all prophets in verse 18.
-THEREFORE (since Jesus is the fulfillment of ALL things) we are to repent and return.
*Repent from sin toward Jesus
*Return to the presence of the LORD!
-In verse 36 Peter declares that Jesus was sent as a blessing to us by turning us from our wicked ways.

In Acts 4:1-4 we see the results of Peter proclaiming Christ...a great movement of the Holy Spirit.

A summary of Acts 3 - Acts 4:4

1. Christ Proclaimed (3:6)
2. A Life Changed (3:8)
3. God Praised/Glorified (3:9)
4. A Movement of the Holy Spirit (4:4)

The faithfulness of Peter to point others to Christ should stand as an example to us all. May we boldly proclaim Christ to the nations!

VBS Family Night

Well, Vacation Bible School has come and gone. It really was a blast this year! The 6th grade class had so much fun and so did our kids. At our church, we have Family Night on Wednesday night. The preschool kids performed some of the songs they had learned so far. Here are the kids waiting with their classes.

These are a few of our youth. The two girls were the helpers for the preschool music (my kids).

Lily was extremely interested in the girl behind her.....almost the whole time.

Here's a shot of the whole group.

There's our baby girl making us proud!

You can tell that our kids really got into it.

These were a few of the awesome 6th graders we had this year. Except for Yee Won (the girl on the far left). Her and Danielle (she's not pictured) are some of our youth. They are awesome. They led the music for the 2nd-6th graders and were up on stage doing all the motions for the kids during open assembly. Our kids think they are rockstars. Which...btw...Yee Won actually was recently on a show called Vanished which aired Monday night on Lifetime. She played the small asian girl who's child disappeared. That's right...she was on TV!!! We are so proud of her! So, saying all that to say...she really is a rockstar....or really a movie star! Anyway......so here are our 6th graders...

Meanwhile, this little cutie sat with us. I think he really enjoyed the music!

Or he at least thought about enjoying it.

All in all, it was probably one of the best weeks of VBS we've had. Oh, and btw...the 6th graders rocked with the pranks. We rolled a few rooms (and offices), silly stringed the 5th graders, and many more fun things. Like I said, they're awesome!

Aquarium

Hello people! Just thought on this cloudy afternoon I'd post a few pics from the aquaruim a few weeks ago. We bought an aquarium membership this year, and we have most definately gotten our money's worth. I think the weekend of Memorial Day we went 3 times. I am thinking these pictures are from that weekend.....the time that I took the 3 kids by myself.....and took pictures. But I'm not proud of myself or anything. :) Here Lily is trying to get a butterfly to land on her finger (in the Butterfly exhibit room). One of our trips she did get to hold one, and really liked it....however that same trip one landed on her shirt and she absolutely lost it. You would have thought someone had just cut her finger off or something. She's so funny.And of course baby Snow White had to join us.

Oh yeah, and I was carrying Austin at this point too because he had fallen asleep on the way down there.

The creepy spider crab tank has a little place where the kids can crawl under and stand up, so it looks like they're in the tank with them. The spider crabs really are pretty creepy too. They always look like they're trying to get you.

Taking a little nap...

They brought a few of the turtles out for the kids to get to touch their shells.

Taking the looonnnng escalator up to the top floor of the River Journey building.

There were some divers in the water, so the kids were waving at them.

This rattlesnake is quite mobile. Almost everytime we've been he's been moving around. The kids could sit here for hours and watch the snakes move......as long as they stay behind the glass.

This is some huge fish that the kids like looking at.

What better way to finish out the day than with some icecream!

We love the aquarium!!

Bi-Bi-Bi......Big Apple Adventure!

Well, Vacation Bible School is in full swing here at First Baptist, Dayton! It's kind of a tradition at our church for the youth minister (and his lovely wife) to teach the 6th grade class each year. So Jason and I are in charge of these awesome 6th graders (soon to be 7th graders....aka...soon to be youth) each day from 8:30 til noon. We have had a blast with them. Our room is decorated like a New York coffee shop. We named it Central Perk. Usually the two of us aren't the most creative people in the world, but somehow, this year we've really been able to run with the whole coffee shop idea. It's been really fun. Maybe...just maybe....I could put some pictures on here another day. Also we have a little rivalry going on with the 5th grade class this year.....nothing big really. Just simple things like: us stealing their fountain; them stealing our candy; us locking them out of their room with an eviction notice posted on their door; them sending us a letter addressed to Jason with baby powder in it.....you know, the usual things that happen during VBS week (Charlee...if you are reading this, you would love it!).

Anyway, my biological children (sometimes I feel like the youth are our kids too) are involved in VBS too! It has been really cute to see both Daniel and Lily actively participating this year. They are having a blast as well. The videos each day have (as Daniel calls them) pizza super-heros in them; which couldn't be more perfect for him. Daniel prayed last night after our bedtime Bible story time: "Dear Jesus, Thank you for VBS. I love VBS..." Btw...I love prayer time each night with the kids....it's too cute. And one of the helpers in Lily's class is Great-Grandma! So that works out good for her first year of participation. Each day, I ask them what they learned about. Their initial answer every time is either "God" or "Jesus." But, I love asking them to tell me what about God or Jesus they learned....and they remember! It's so sweet hearing a 4-year-old (almost) say, "That woman wiped Jesus' feet with her hair!" I have taught VBS almost every year since I was a junior in high school, and seen children learn....but there's nothing like watching your own kids learn the Good News of Scripture!

Well, I could ramble forever....especially about my kids, but I'll stop here for now. Hopefully later in the week I'll have some pictures of VBS and maybe an update on the whole "Operation 5th grade Prank." Say Y-Y-Y-Y-YES to V-V-V-VBS!

Big Boy!

This is our handsome little boy Daniel. Isn't he sweet? But our little Daniel is growing up so fast! He is involved in preschool choir at church and just finished Mother's Day Out/Preschool 2 days a week at our church to help prepare him for Kindergarten next year.....well, August. Two months and my oldest child will be in KINDERGARTEN! I can't believe it! Anyway...his preschool choir just preformed for the church a couple of Sunday nights ago. Here are a few pictures of Daniel singing.

We were really proud of him! I love watching the kids choirs sing....especially when my child is involved. :) So the Thursday following this little program, his Mother's Day Out had their end of the year program. This one was really cute too. Here he is getting ready to start.And singing...In between each of the songs, the older kids took turns saying what they wanted to be when they grow up. Here Daniel is waiting in line for his turn.But, the poor little guy choked. I guess he just couldn't bring himself to speak in front of all those people.Bless his heart. So his teacher stood up and saved him and told everyone that Daniel wanted to be a baseball player when he grows up. After they finished singing, the teachers called each child and presented them with their little diploma. So our little Daniel has officially graduated preschool and is ready to head to Kindergarten! I can't believe it! We are so proud of him!

Thomas the Train

Each year, this event called "A Day out with Thomas" comes to the Tennessee Valley Railroad in Chattanooga. We went a couple years ago, but didn't get to go last year. This year, with Austin being a little older and extremely in love with trains, we thought the kids might really enjoy it. We were right. It really is a lot of fun. They have a tent with a little play station with train tables for the kids to play, a petting zoo, putt-putt, a moon bounce, and many other things for the kids to play on before or after their 20 minute train ride on none other than Thomas himself! Here is Thomas railing by while we are doing some of the other activities.Here the kids are showing off their tattoos. Daniel got Harold the Helicopter, Lily got Rosie and Austin got James.Then it was time for a little bouncy in the Thomas moon bounce.Then we decided to play a game of putt-putt. I think this is the first time the kids have ever played putt-putt. We will definately have to do this again soon...they really enjoyed it, and Daniel was really good!

Then we headed over to the petting zoo. That one wasn't as much of a hit for the kids. They went in there and all, but as you can see...Daddy is the one feeding them.We also let the kids play around on the other trains and train tracks while we were waiting our turn for the train ride. They really had fun doing this.

And here we are....riding on Thomas! I just couldn't resist this picture. I mean really...how can you not want to just kiss those cheeks!And a picture of me and my wonderful husband on the train ride. The kids wanted to sit on one side of the isle with Grandmaw...so we were stuck sitting by ourselves on the other side....bummer. :)All in all, it was a really fun day! I love doing fun things with the kids!

~Kammy~