Piano lessons

The boys and girl are all taking piano lessons now, from mom! Sandy has been teaching Andrew for almost 2 years. And now Matt and Emery have joined him. It's super cute as those 2 have asked for lessons.

Emery is progressing quite well. Matt is still working on his finger coordination, but he's getting there.

Number 3

Since we live in a desert in ABQ, there are a lot of lizards. And I guess they give birth in the summer because there have been a lot of little baby ones lately. Matt caught two outside, and we tried to keep them as pets.

The first one died before we got a picture. He was named Lizzie. This one is the second. We were debating about names and then he died. The first one had a funeral and everything. I'm not sure what happened to the second.

Now this is the 3rd. I caught this one inside the house. Because of that, I think I've taken a little more ownership about trying to keep this one alive.

The boys and girl are so used to these lizards dying, they haven't even tried to name this one and are openly expecting it to die any day now. But I still have hope. We've learned not to drown them or freeze them. That's progress.

Adults only please

I'm a little biased, but Sandy always has such a wonderful sense of style. Whether it's my clothes, how the boys and girl look or our house, she does a fabulous job, and she does it on a tight budget. She likes to have our living room be an adult escape, for "mature conversations."

Here's the old living room for comparison.

And voila - the new living room. Quite an improvement, eh? I think so. She hasn't quite completed the rest of the room, that is the dining room area. But this section is done. It's been great having people over and sharing spiritual conversations and good times together here.

Matthew 6:33

Bible memorization. The advantages are tremendous - a protection against sin, strength to do what's right, encouragement to trust in the character of God, a guide to live by, peace and comfort just to name a few. We've been doing this for about 5 years with Andrew I think. I feel like I'm running out of time! There's just so much more to memorize.

Here's the latest - Matthew 6:33. I remember as a kid that I got a plaque with my name and this verse on it. This is one of the first verses I memorized, and it has stuck with me all these years.

Romans 12:10

I was hoping that I could get a ton of verses done over the summer with the boys and girl before all the school work starts. But alas, I think we did 2. Here's Romans 12:10.

They memorize verses every week during school so it's somewhat difficult though not impossible to also do verses at home. I think the key will be having them memorize just 1 verse at a time as opposed to whole passages.

Can you hear Matt? Sometimes I wish he had a volume knob. Today, he asked me in his own words - Why does God allow people to do evil things if He's sovereign? He didn't use those exact words, but that's the gist of the question. We had a fun dinner conversation as I tried to answer his question in words and illustrations that a 7 year-old could understand. He sorta got it. Andrew says he got it, but Emery said, "I have noooo idea what you're talking about Dad." Won't be the last time.

The 1st Day!

The boys and girl started school today! The summer went too fast. With the moving and the trips, the summer was way too hectic. Way. I had all these plans of doing some discipleship with Andrew including reading assignments, memorization and studying the Bible together. Oh well. There's always next summer.

As summer was coming to an end, the boys and girl were not looking forward to school. But once it actually started, they were excited! Today was a good first day. Emery and Matt are in the same class - 1st and 2nd grade combined. Andrew is in the 5th grade. I have been stressing the importance of glorifying God in their schoolwork and their attitudes. May they do all to the glory of God!

The Marshalls

Chateau Lee was filled to capacity this weekend! We had the honor of hosting the Marshall family. It was so great to get together again. We explored Albuquerque and visited the Aquarium, the Open Space Visitor Center by the Rio Grande River and checked out a concert at the zoo.

All the kids loved the music and had a blast on the grass. The weather was so pleasant in the shade too.

I wasn't expecting too much, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good these musicians were. Scott and I were both impressed.

You can't lose when mom brings ice cream, Capri Sun and Glo-sticks!

The moms both did good and managed to relax and have some fun too.

We had such a good weekend with the Marshalls. Thanks again so much for coming out to see us! We were so blessed with sweet fellowship, great conversation and tons of fun. We all loved having Brooke over too. It was great to have a "baby" in the house again.

Princess Dance Party

We have been so blessed to have the Marshalls come by for a visit. It's been so great to talk old times and what the Lord is doing in our lives now too. Emery and Addy have finally gotten to spend some girl time together!

The princesses have been doing a lot of dress up - ballet, fairy and standard princess looks have all been explored.

They also put together a princess dance party for all to enjoy!

New eyes

I've noticed that Andrew's hand eye coordination has never been the best. I thought it was just simply some bad genes (don't worry Cacun - I'm thinking my side, not Myung genes!). However, it seemed like he couldn't quite see the ball until it got a bit closer when he tried to catch it. Then, the other week, he mentions how certain words looked blurry. We made an appointment with the eye doctor asap.

His eyes didn't turn out to be too bad. But glasses were warranted. He likes them so far.

Here's his studious - I'm going to get a 4.0, 2400 on my SAT and full scholarship to Harvard look. Did I read into that a little?

The Lawson's

One of the good things about living in so many places across the country is that we have been blessed to have so many good friends in Christ. Our dear friends from our Maryland days came by on their way across country last week.

We've known the Lawson's for about 12 years. In fact, we babysat Charis when she was just 1 years-old. I think she is the first child Sandy and I ever took care of. She's on the right.

Our boys have a ton of fun together too. We usually only see each other about once a year, but it is always so encouraging and refreshing to hear what the Lord is doing in their lives and to hear good wisdom from them too.

They are on their way back to Maryland, planting a church in the Baltimore area. Our thoughts and prayers are with you brother - preach the Word!

2nd Quarter Update

For my 2012 goals, I started the year off great - click here for my 1st quarter update. I was ahead of schedule with 3 of my 4 goals! That never happens. But alas, after moving for the 2nd time in 8 months, my goals have been shattered. I'm even a month late with this update. It's a good thing my salvation and God's love for me is not based on achieving goals but on the perfect merit of Christ.

1. Read through the Bible

• This goal is the only one that has remained steady all year. Despite the trips and the moving and the changing summer schedule, I love reading God's Word. Currently, I am in the Psalms. Always so refreshing, so comforting, so inspiring and so true.

2. Memorize Philippians 1 & 2

• Thankfully, I was way ahead on this one earlier this year. Now, I'm about to fall behind. But I think I've weathered the chaos of the summer and am about to get into a groove as far as my schedule goes. I hope at least. I'm working on 2:9-11 right now with 19 more to go after that. This one is going to be close.

3. Run the Duke City Half-Marathon in under 2 hours

• This one also got lost over the summer. But thankfully, my trip to Flagstaff and running at an even higher elevation saved me. I'm now right on tracking and have started my training. I've got my first long run tomorrow - just 5.5 miles. I'm starting to get excited about running this race.

4. Read 20 books

• I didn't get too far on this one. I had high hopes this summer to do a lot more reading, especially on our trips. But I only managed to finish 4 books. I still have to write up a recap of my last one. Every evening lately has been spent putting up pictures or otherwise organizing the new house. But I think we've gotten the majority of pressing things done. In fact, the last few nights I've gotten back to reading some books. We'll see.

All in all, it was a humbling quarter. But these are good for me to renew my faith in the Gospel for my sanctification and to give me greater inspiration of God's glorious grace in my life. My identity is not in what I can do for God, but in what He already did for me in Christ. That is so freeing.

Camping

I recently took the boys and girls camping with our church. The kids have been dying to go camping for a while. I was a little bit leery of the idea since it was a father / children campout, and I wouldn't have Sandy to help me! But God was gracious and it went very well.

We had a big fat tent with more than enough room. The boys and girl were actually very helpful in setting it up.

We went on a hike together through some beautiful woods. The elevation was over 9,000 feet.

We skipped some rocks on a pond. Everyone managed to do it at least once, even Emery.

If only everyone slept as comfortably as Emery looks here, if only.

It was definitely a great campout. Maybe the best part was - no chiggers!