The Quiver is FULL

This afternoon at church was Baby Dedication. Baby Dedication is a way of affirming in front of our family and our church that we as parents will do everything in our knowledge and power to raise our child up in a Jesus loving home, teaching the Bible, and the love of Christ.

It was a BIG baby dedication with 31 babies being dedicated. Mrs. Angela called each family up and Pastor Tom prayed over each child the verse their family chose for them. Cruz's verse was not really a prayer for him or a challenge for who we hope him to become, but more of what his place means in our family. He completes our "quiver" and has blessed us tremendously. Our verse was actually just verse 5 because I did not want to be a preacher hog (there were 31) but the rest is appropriate and have been verses we have used with all our boy blessings.
Psalm 127:3-5
3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.






Thank you Nommie, Gandie, Gran and Papa for sharing in our day. Thank you also Alicia or Summer for taking some pictures for me. I do think that some of my friends should have said something to me about the look I was trying to pull off... thanks PT for letting me hide behind you in the pictures.

Citizenship

Today at school Baylor received the award for Citizenship in his class. He was hoping for the Reading or Math award because he really is a high achiever, but we told him how proud we were of THIS award. It speaks so much more to the kind of person he is wherever he goes.

His teacher had let me know that the awards assembly was coming, but to keep it a secret from him. He knew as soon as he saw me there that he was getting a reward. When his name was not called for Mr. Stephenson's class, he just knew he had the Reading Award. He was poised and ready to jump at it, until they called someone else's name. I love his confidence. The only good picture I got of him was of him taking off on his leg of the relay race. When they receive a reward, they make it fun by having all the award recipiants run a realy. It gives them a little more focus than just walking up to get an award.

I wish my brain had an off switch...

This morning I was up feeding Cruz. All the lights were still out, and all the other kids were asleep. It was so dark, that as a bus drove by (middle school or high school)I could see the safety light on top of it flashing so I started thinking... I am going to hate it when my kids start middle school and further along. The older the school, the earlier the start time. Right now I really like not having to get everyone up until 7AM. I also like not really having to get up and get ready before them if I am not going anywhere. While thinking all of this, I could not get it out of my brain who would be in school when and where. So I sat down and physically made out a chart for the next 12 years to see where we would stand (this is the part I would like to turn off, I could not let it go until I did it). The first year that all my kids will be in school will be in 2014. That is when Cruz will start Kindergarten. Baylor will be in 8th, Callan 6th, Silas 4th, Eliza 2nd. I also went as far as when I would not have kids in elementary school any more. It will be 2020. Baylor will be a Sophomore in college (at Vanderbilt playing baseball he says), Callan will be a Senior in High School, Silas will be in 10th, Eliza in 8th, and Cruz in 6th. Counting all of this up... just made me stress more. AND, it made me sad because I enjoy this life, I enjoy the here and now, I like my kids at these ages, and they like me. I do not want to fast forward to the day when I am just a dummy, who doesn't know a thing and is too uncool to spend time with. Not to mention that one will be out of the nest and one on his way out the door.

Okay... that's enough... as Forrest would say "that's all I have to say about that". Or it is going to bring on the ugly face cry.

A Christmas to Remember

Long story short... unknown to us, our 9 year old has been praying for a chance to go to Nicaragua with his dad. We told him that the church's rules are typically that you have to be 12 years old, but that did not stop him from praying and asking his Sunday School class to pray that he would get to go.

Well, who am I to say no to a door that God opened for my little boy who had his prayers answered. Brent and Baylor have been invited by the staff at Chosen Children's Ministries to help throw a Christmas Party at the orphanage in December (also where we sponsor 2 kids) and to deliver much needed meals to the local villages through the churches that have been planted by CCM.

Am I scared, a little... but more in awe about my son getting to see God answer not only his request to travel and do missions in another country, but also to see how God uses this trip in my little boy's life. He will never be the same!


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Get In Shape

The third grade had their yearly musical performance at school. The program was written by their music teacher. The title was "Get In Shape" and all the kids were involved in showing the ways you could get in shape. Baylor picked to be on the football team where during the football song he went down with the other players and did a few football moves. (It is hard to catch them and gym pictures never turn out so good). He also got to close out the show by thanking everyone and giving the dates for the next performance. He was excited to get some mic time. He wanted a solo, but Mr. L told him he couldn't give him one because he had a main part last year. It was a cute performance!

Baylor is the first one on the top row (to the far left) almost hidden by the curtain. =) We tried!

Wordless Wednesday

Photo courtsey of Mrs. Anna

Tool on Tuesday

Here is another "Tot School" tool for you. I went here (on advice from my friend Tonya),printed the cards, laminated them and cut them out.(I purchased a personal laminator a while back because Baylor and Callan both have had their picture in the paper and I wanted to save it without it getting messed up or torn... it has been an awesome investment already). This was the first time Eliza played with the cards. It has a name card with a color block on it and 5 picture cards with something predominately of that color on it. We laid out the name cards and had her lay all the picture cards on top of the corresponding color. Silas and I helped her some and she did great. Even if she was not sure what color it was, when we helped her, she knew where to put it. It was a great way for Silas to help because he thought he was TOO BIG to work on colors, so instead he helped Sissy. By the end he was asking to "do a few for her".