All I want for Christmas is...

my 2 front teeth! Andrew pulled out the other one! Thread (minus the door) has become our method of choice when it comes to tooth pulling. Here's how it started...

Not too brave yet.

It's not how you start but how you finish that matters!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanks to my hard working wife, we had a GREAT Thanksgiving. I am still recovering so all I managed to do was lay there and rest. But Sandy, the boys and the girl cooked and cleaned. One person did more than the other 3. Take a wild guess who that might be?It wasn't him.That's right. It was her. I'm very proud of my wife for cooking her first ever turkey too. And it was DELICIOUS! She brined it the night before. If you don't know what that means, it basically means to moisten through the process of osmosis (for real!). It's similar to marinating. I just learned it yesterday.Sandy laid out quite the beautiful spread.The kids got all dressed up.I managed to get vertical for a moment and carved my very first turkey. Thank God for youtube. What can't you find instructions for on there?We had our friends over from church. The kids got their very own special table.It was such a fabulously good meal that it really knocked out Zephaniah!

It finally happened

I got sick. My throat starting hurting last night and got progressively worse. I slept in today and managed to get around a bit and even move a piano today - more thanks to the help of friends than anything I did. But my throat is killing.

This is a HUGE improvement from last year though. I got sick more than 1 month later than last year and don't feel too bad. I just can't talk. It gives me one more reason to apply the sermon that I preached last Sunday. In good times and in bad, in financial plenty and in financial want, in health and in sickness, hope in God. Who else can you hope in?
But as I rest, at least I get entertained constantly. They are saying, "The meegles" which means long in their pretend language. For some reason it's funny.

Another tooth

8 months after tooth #1 came out, 2 teeth came out in 1 week! And who knows what next week will bring...Emery asked mom to put ribbons in her hair for church today. After which she said proudly, "my hair sure is FANCY today!"

And on a separate note, Emery and Matt had a conversation today about Sunday School. Matt is in the 4's and 5's class which is upstairs and Emery is in the 2's and 3's class which is downstairs.
Emery: When I turn 4, then I'll go upstairs to Matt's class, and I'm going to be SO excited.
Matt: Emery, when you come to my class you have to obey the teacher.
Emery: Do YOU obey the teacher ALL the time?
Matt: Yep.
Emery: AWESOME!

Fall leaves

The leaves are finally pretty much down off the trees. Thankfully, the weather is still wonderfully mild - high's in the 50's. I guess mild is relative. But so far, I have felt pretty warm. Last year at this time, I felt like I was FREEZING! And I had already been sick 2-3 times. So far, praise God, I have been healthy. I've also gotten vaccinated with the seasonal flu (twice), the swine flu, the avian flu, the bovine flu, the canine flu, the feline flu, and every other animal flu that fit in the ark...

Here's one last fall video before winter strikes!

The tooth is out!

While Sandy and Emery were away, I decided to take care of some unfinished business with one of the boys. Andrew has had a loose tooth for many weeks if not months, and I decided it was time for it to come out. His adult tooth had fully come out behind the baby tooth, but he was not too ambitious when it came to shaking that baby one out. He didn't want me to pull it either. So we decided to use some thread and pull it. It was either me or him so he insisted on doing it himself, and this is what happened. (Excuse the picture - how did that happen?!)

2 done, 18 to go...but a couple more are loose (insert dramatic evil sounding laugh). Unfortunately for Matt, he's a little too short to be in the video and a little too short to see anything!

And on a completely different note, Matt asked me this question tonight:
If you get bitten by a poisonous spider, will you die or turn into Spiderman?
He's going to grow up and do great things...

Welcome home!

Sorry, it's been a while. Sandy and Emery left for California thanks to a gift from someone at our church. Apparently, I can't blog without them!We decided to bake them some welcome home cupcakes. Don't look too closely at the cupcakes! I think this is the first time I've baked anything since we've been married. Needless to say, I really surprised Sandy. And I didn't think to take the picture right away. So we lost a few letters. The "z" is part of Emzy. I didn't have enough cupcakes to spell out Emery.They went to the beach. Emery LOVED the beach.It looks like they had a good time. But we're glad to have them back home in Kansas.

Bibliology

Andrew pretty much has his bibliology verses down - 2 Tim 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21. Now I can teach him about verbal plenary inspiration. :)

Try not to be distracted by Emery in the lower corner. I think she's bored to tears.

Proverbs 1:7

It's never too early to teach our kids about the benefits of fearing the Lord.

It's amazing how easily memorizing verses come to Emery.

While mom's away...

we play. Well, not really. But Sandy went to Bible study...So Matt did a 25 piece puzzle all by himself. He was really proud of his accomplishment and actually so was I. I hope he continues to like puzzles when he grows up because I like to do them too.Everyone took baths. Although I have to confess, I was a bad father tonight. As Emery finished up her dinner, she asked for some oranges. Everyone had already finished and eaten their oranges, but because I was washing the dishes and didn't want to bother cutting up an orange, I told her not to eat an orange and to wait for popcorn. So what did she say?

"Dad, I don't want to eat popcorn because it's junk food. I want to eat an orange." Of course, after a second or 2 of thinking about, she said, "Actually dad, I changed my mind. I'll have popcorn." Thankfully, Sandy hadn't left yet and cut up an orange for her.
And we all had popcorn and a movie night! It's good to be dad.

Books

I'll be honest. I've been a bit burnt out in my reading. So I turned to book #4 in the Left Behind series for a bit of light entertainment to give my mind a break and have some fun. It was exactly that.I also read another Christian fiction book - Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. I must say that it was very well written. I think it has to be the most poetic and colorful book that I've ever read. I think everyone loves this book and while I liked it, for some reason, the story didn't move fast enough for me. I think I want to read about explosions, battles and mysteries in my fiction.

I set a goal to read 12 books this year. So far, I'm at 17. I think I may hit 20 by the end of the year. Amazing! I've never read this much in my life.

Go Lakers!

Last night, I took the boys to see the Lakers play the Oklahoma City Thunder in Oklahoma City. I was blessed with a free hotel night coupon and gifts from my mom and my wife to make this happen. It was a really fun guys night out!I guess Matt was a tad too young to truly appreciate the evening. The highlight of his night was getting the free program.Andrew went to the game undercover because he said, "The people in Oklahoma won't like it if they see my Laker's jersey." So after the game started, he revealed his Laker allegiance.Wouldn't it be funny if Matt grew up and was as big as this guy?We also stopped at the Oklahoma City federal building bombing memorial (remember that in 1995?). The tree in the background actually survived the blast though its limbs were blown off and shrapnel was embedded in its bark.

Costumes

The boys and girl went to a friend's birthday party on Halloween. If this looks familiar, it's because it is (see last year's picture). Our fairy princess got to do what every little girl dreams of...Hit a skull pinata with a bone.

1 John 4:7 & Romans verses

Here's the latest verses for the boys and girl:

1 John 4:7 "Beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."

Andrew's working on classic Romans verses - Rom 5:8; Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23