The Parade at 15th Avenue

I sent Josiah up for his rest time the other day and the instructions for rest time that day were to get into his bed and read books quietly. I went up about 20 minutes later to check on him and how his rest time was going and this is what I found.

He described at exactly like this - 'Mom I am having a parade!'


A total shot of the 'parade'


Beg of parade

Middle of parade

End of parade

And he was supposed to be READING quietly in his bed - I can understand why he wasn't in bed as I could barely find his bed but still a far ways apart from READING...

Lexie's New Chair :)

The boys both have their own chairs which Lexie realized and was starting to try and take ownership of from time to time. So for her birthday, Lexie rec'd her own little chair from Grandpa and Grandma Pitcher.

Finally she has a place to call her own!

Cutter Boy

My oldest son Josiah has been diligently learning how to use the scissors himself at his 4K school. And so the requests starting coming at home for him to start using scissors here too. This just started about beg of last week. And soon enough, as is consistent with Josiah's personality, the child was completely obssessed with his scissors and cutting. Everywhere I looked up in his learning room, there were new evidences of his cutting work. And granted, he's done remarkably well in trying to cut on the lines of the drawings of what he is cutting out.

A special surprise for Mommy the other day was this - I had bought the boys a $1 transformers coloring book from Target. Within 2 days, Josiah had colored in all 30 photos of the book (again showing the personality of this kid!). 2 days after that, he proceeded to cut out every single transformer that he colored from the book so the coloring book as stands looks a bit pathetic in it's current shape - nice colorful outside and NOTHING inside. All of his cut outs were neatly displayed across the bed so that I could see and admire each and every one of them. At first I started to laugh at his adaptability in arranging a meeting between his latest coloring book and the scissors - or more a date with destiny? I guess it was only a matter of time. And then the realization kicked in that he didn't ask permission to do this latest feat and the wheels started turning in my own head of just what else could have been cut. I was then thankful - but am beginning to be ever wary of when he wants to 'cut' things, I am starting to conjure up all manner of things around the house that could be cut. I've even started to remember stories of children with scissors and infamously cutting their own hair - we've had many talks about this with him so far though. With Josiah though, as bright as this child is, it will be a mental effort to stay 1 step ahead of him with the newfound responsibility of learning how to cut.

And now we have a drawer full of cut outs - everything that he colors he then wants to cut.

Quite the budding artist this one is!

Quote of the Day

I came across this and gave me great encouragement as a Mom and really in every other sphere that I daily interact with - from Helen Keller as follows;

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."

So yes that's right, here is encouragement once again that there is great worth in the every day mundane details of life and carrying those out with excellence!

Fighting for a Generation

I was recently reading in a book titled, "Equipping the Younger Saints" written by David Walters. Now with any books that I read of this nature I do prepare myself to take some but also leave some parts of the book behind that don't necessarily line up with where my faith or vision lies.
So here is a quote that stuck out to me from this book as follows;

'Unless our children receive a real vision of God, Who He is, What He is done for them and what He has destined them to become, we will lose them. It has been stated that 80 percent of all church-raised kids in the Western world leave the church by the time they become adults. This is the generation that we are fighting to save.'

Breaking this quote apart here, what impacted me the most is what already lines up with my very real experience through life - and that is, growing up in the church that I did - it was a highly religious and very traditional church. We were the product generations later of John Alexander Dowie who founded the holy city of Zion, IL. There is some great reading material about Dowie and all that he endeavored to do with the city and granted, not all of what he did missed the mark - in fact some of it was spot on and testifies to the large amounts of healing and deliverances that followed Dowie through the height of his ministry. To give you a very brief synopsis of what Zion was founded to be like;

1) there was no gum chewing
2) there was no spitting on the streets
3) Zion itself was a 'dry' town and just until about 5 years ago the town still would not have allowed alcohol within city limits
4) most of the streets in Zion are biblical names (shiloh, bethesda, bethel, elim, elisha, elizabeth, gabriel, etc)
5) Zion employed most of it's own people in factories that Dowie developed including the lace factory (very famous in its day), candy factory and others - and as they were developed by the church and run by the church your 10% tithe was automatically deducted from your check! Imagine if the church did that in this day and age, eh?

The list could go on and on however I think this is driving the point across - Zion was to be a utopia of sorts, let no evil in and let no evil abide within the town.
So the reason I'm going backwards through this history - these people that were originally in the transplant of Dowie followers from Chicago all the way up to Zion were people that experienced God in many ways that most of us have not. They did see the miraculous occur on an every day basis! And so yet here I was generations later, a by-product of families that had moved up to Zion following Dowie. The church at this age no longer encountered miracles and in reality, did not experience the presence of God as originally they had. What went wrong? I would be a theologian to answer that question in entirety which I dare not - but I would say my point in all this is to open up awareness of why a real vision, an every day real vision is what we need. It is not enough to try to ride it out on other's experiences of God as that well goes dry, time and time again. And so in looking at this quote and thinking of how we are raising this next generation of saints of God, I am in full belief that our children must have a real experience with God, a daily real expereince with God that they can personally call their own. They must 'own' this for themselves.
And to testify to this personally, I myself did leave that church later in life - right after high school - why? Because again, my experience wasn't real, it was tradition, it was just not life changing enough to me to shake me to the core and capture fully my heart in living my life out for Christ. I did not have a true awareness of what Christ's death and resurrection meant for my life - I didn't know the cost of it either and so took certain things for granted. (quick disclaimer here - for the church in mention, this was at least 15 years ago and I have no idea really where this church is at today with these things!!)
We will endeavor to teach our children as often as possible what Christ has done for them and to usher them into the presence of God on a consistent basis so they grow up with opportunities to experience God. And through all of this, completely trusting God for their salvation and their care. Above all, proclaiming that His Will be done for them in all of life.
This quote may spark fear in some of the 80% that do leave the church or rather it can raise within us a fighting spirit on their behalf to commit ourselves to let these children have real experiences with God. I am confident of this - that these boys and girls that grow up experiencing God throughout their lives will never be able to escape Him. In fact they will be ruined for everything and anything else having tasted His Goodness and His Mercy and His Love.

Amen and so be it in the name of Jesus!

Psalm 23

So I am endeavoring to walk the boys through the 23rd Psalm and the goal is for them to memorize it completely (we are using the ESV.) Tonight at the dinner table we got stuck on vs 1 - as each of the boys repeated the 1st part of verse 1, 'The Lord is My Shepherd' we got into a yelling match over the fact that each one believed that no, the Lord is not Your Shepherd but 'The Lord is MY shepherd!'. Back and forth, back and forth each claiming HIM as HIS shepherd. I tried to explain that the Lord is all of our's shepherds but that didn't go over so well and the next argument started out like this -

'Well give me back My Shepherd!'

'No you give me back My Shepherd!'

I do think that even though they were arguing about it that Jesus Himself could laugh at their antics!

I then started to laugh at them myself...

When we have Nothing Else to DO!

This is a snapshot of what Larry and I do when we are bored out of our minds and really can't possibly think of anything else to do with ourselves...

And then this is what the boys dear Auntie, Auntie TaDa does! :)

Dear Auntie TaDa, please don't be mad.

Love, Josiah & Noah (apparently, this was all their idea?)

Apple Holler Trip

A smaller group of us from the Mom's Group at LLCC all headed out to Apple Holler early this morning for a Johnny Appleseed tour. The first time that I have been there on a tour like that (aside from just eating there which is always yummy!). The 'tour' included a performance on who Johnny Appleseed was, a hayride (the mystery to me there is that there was no hay?) and the children's opportunity to pick their own apple and mini pumpkin.

The show provided dear Josiah the ability to practice raising his hand to answer questions, however he usually didn't have an answer to any of them! I would imagine he's learning to raise his hand at his 4K school which is a good thing - but the performer eventually looked beyond him when she was looking for answers as he really didn't have anything to say! And there I am the MOM of it all trying to tell him not to raise his hand anymore and so then he moved on to kicking the stones all around on the floor - which is better, by far the hand raised with no answers forthcoming.

Moving on, Josiah was picked to be the bee in the performance which I wasn't completely aware of this, but a huge job of apple trees blossoming and producing apples is in fact the bee's sole resposibility to pollenate. Pretty interesting what those pesky insects are capable of - next time I am bothered by one I will kindly instruct them to relocate over to Apple Holler and focus on some pollenation there so my honey crisp apples are produced well.
After the show, we had the hayride (minus the hay). I do think that Josiah was confused about this and wondered just where the hay was. Noah could care less. He was happy just to ride! The ride was definitely COLD and started to sprinkle at the beginning and mid-way through - but then lessened up and it was a great trip. The boys had a great time, stopping out in their apple orchard to pick their very own golden delicious apple from the tree - they were a perfect height for the boys to reach and pluck off and they were so delicious! (no play on words intended there).

Noah happily settled into the rest of the ride chomping away on his apple.

With the hayride over, we got to the funnest part of the event for the children - free playtime in kid's corral - the children were hard pressed to leave after that but finally convinced them when their tummies started to get hungry.

At one point, a friend of mine asked me where Lexie was and I immediately started to panic and thought, 'oh no, where is she?' and the questions started to happen in my mind, did she fall asleep in the car and I forgot her there? Did she fall out of the wagon? - then quickly realized oh yes, I had dropped her off to my Mom's house that morning so I could just have some time with me and the boys. Funny how my immediate reaction was panic though! I've not forgotten the children yet thankfully but I remember the story of my parents who left my older sister Karen behind when we were little one day after church. I would BET that was because Karen was busy TALKING with someone and got distracted with talking vs following and so got left behind. She might think it a different story though.

Anyways, here's a few photos from the day :)


Noah in the hay mazes


Yes you can barely see him but that is Josiah



Dancing a little jig...learned from...?

I have no idea.

Josiah's 1st bee pollenation performance

Lexie's 1st Birthday Party

I wanted to include a few photos from the very special 1st birthday party that Lexie celebrated on Sept 16th. 1st birthdays always strike me as such a monumental day - as there is so much that happens within the course of that 1st year, it's amazing to me still that just 1 year ago they were just a newborn babe. And very shortly after Lexie's 1st, she's walking! (or stumbling like a drunken sailor, you take your pick).

The Birthday Girl

(does it look like it's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to?)

Lexie & Daddy

The CAKE! :)

Hmm...now what do I do with this?

I think I like it...

Oh Yes I definitely LIKE IT!

Messy, Messy

Now let the Clean me up begin...

Birthday Weekend

This past weekend was filled with celebrations to honor our little Bean turning 3 years old. On the day of, Friday, Noah woke up to head out for a donut with Daddy and his big brother. The donuts were back home and we placed 3 candles on his donut for him to blow out.

Later that evening Larry and I planned to take him out on a special date for ice cream. You would have to know Noah very well to understand that he gets VERY excited for dates. He loves to go on dates with people! So out to Coldstone we went and of course I myself was very happy to oblidge his ice cream choice.

The next day Saturday was filled with a morning of 12 2 to 4 year old boys running around our house - the comments I heard as parents dropped off, 'God bless you!'. Well we survived and very well, the house survived as well (we have ALL hardwood floors everywhere for a reason here!). And I believe the boys all had fun. We had a Transformers themed birthday party and so also had a pinata of Optimus Prime for the event. When Larry broke out with the real Easton baseball bat for some of the older boys to swing around with, I did start to get concerned for everyone's safety but we made it through and the boys all got hyped up on sugar and then we sent them home, ha! Not that bad really but still was great fun for Noah and Josiah to have all of their friends over and play around. The rest of that day was very low key to recover of course.

And then Sunday was Noah's family party - Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Grandpa Jim, Auntie TaDa, Uncle Gary, Auntie Karen, Toby, Gabe, Great, Great Aunts Florence, Frannie, Helen and John (Josiah's new best friend!). It was a very nice and relaxing party / get together, if you can say that. We had so much pizza left over that I've been trying to dish out leftovers to whomever comes through the door. Noah was wiped out as well as the rest of us from the weekend and needless to say I did not make it to jazzercise Monday at 5.30AM!

Remembering Noah's Birth...

As I often do on the children's birthdays (maybe this is a hint that I'm getting more sentimental as I grow older?), I reflect on their actual birth. And to be perfectly honest, there was nothing really pleasant to remember out of Noah's birth experience ASIDE of course from the end goal of HIM!
Noah's birth went like this - at the end of my pregnancy, on the due date, no sign of Noah coming, the dr mercifully agreed to an induction date. My 'perfect plan' involved a breakfast at Frank's (the infamous garbage plate for Mr. Finkler) in the morning, checking into the hospital, getting hooked up to pitocin and then on to the epidural, watching Lord of the Rings and laughing all the way, ha, ha.
How it actually went then is a different story - we did get out to Frank's in the morning after dropping Josiah off and did greatly enjoy our breakfast. We happened to let another customer there know that I was going to be having the baby that day and true to hollywood style, he was then nervous that I would be having it any minute there at Frank's! After Frank's, continued to the hospital to get checked in, a dose of antibiotics started and then got pitocin hooked up around 11ish. All going well and easy to that point, watching Lord of the Rings together. Nothing progressing for me AT ALL, so they turned up the pitocin around noon, right after lunch. Finally got some good contractions starting around 1PM. At that point, with the few hard ones that I had had, I ordered the epidural! My knight in shining armer, oh blessed epidural. Do you notice how much hope I have in it even now? I know that pain in childbirth is part of the curse however I also know that God gave wisdom to man to create many painkillers and basic medicine for our good THEREFORE, I feel completely free to take full advantage of those painkillers. As the contractions started flying, closer and closer together, harder and harder together, well I was in high discomfort then. Larry would later say at that point that 'I went somewhere in my mind' - he does not know where but he was still faithful in helping me get through the contractions. And I believe I left a permanent bruise on the nurse's arm that was helping me through them as well. Throughout the intense labor portion (which the hard contractions lasted about 1/2 hour or so), I kept on asking everyone that came into the room, 'When is the anethesiolgist coming?' and 'Where is he?' - to which the response was in trying to comfort me, 'He will be here soon'. Finally around 3PM, the anethesiolgist walks in. At this point I'm telling the nurse, 'It's so much pressure, I feel so much pressure, I have to start pushing!'. She checks me and I'm 10cm, all the way ready to get this kid pushed out. But as I'm 10cm, no longer a chance for the epidural. If I could have cursed that man, I would have! Larry puts on his best face for me and encourages me that I can do it, all natural and that we are almost through this. The nurses had a shift change right at 3.30, they were in no way ready for me - as the Dr later says of me, 'I close like a freight train', and so amidst the scrambling of the hospital staff and a Dr rushing in I start to push this child out. 3 pushes later he is out and I am holding my precious Noah for the first time. Another noteworthy part of this story - the Dr said during the pushing that his heart rate had dropped and so she in a Dr sort of freaking out way, proceeded to YELL at me, 'You're not pushing fast enough!'. Hmmm....in what world do you think that would EVER be helpful? We did not have her deliver anymore babies for us!
But back to the Noah bean, his heart rate was fine, his birth was done and over with and even though I still had a lot of animosity in my heart towards that anethesiologist (and Larry says shot daggers at him when he came in too late and backed out of the room apologizing over and over), I was so thrilled to have him birthed and finally see him!
We did not know the sex of this child but knew from what God had prophetically spoken to us before he was conceived that we were to have a son and his name was to be Noah.
Noah was born then October 9th, 2006, weighing in at 7lbs, 12oz and 20 3/4 inches long.
The paws on this kid at birth were impressive!
I'm attaching a few photos of the newborn babe...


Beautiful hat that Nana knit for Josiah, passed on to Noah!

This one minutes after birth!

Happy Birthday Noah! We love you so much as you are a precious gift from God to us.

The Cousin's at Play

Recently Gary & Karen were out of town for some much needed R&R, we had the fun privilege of helping to care for their boys some of that time. Josiah and Noah GREATLY enjoyed their time with them and couldn't understand once they got back home why Toby & Gabe weren't coming over again, day after day. Here's a few photos of the bunch...

Poor Poor Lexie!!

I'm not quite sure what Josiah is up to here...

Quote of the Day

We went to the Jerry Smith's pumpkin farm today for Josiah's 4K field trip - unfortunately we were late and missed the hayride (due to a rental need arising...) - anyhow we still made it in time for the magic show and of course plenty of time to spare for the playground and running around in the hay maze.

Lexie spent the morning at Grandma's and thankfully so as it would have been much more challenging to try and enjoy the time with my 2 boys with her along and in desperate need of an AM nap!

So once we arrived back at my Mom's to pick up Lexie, Noah sat down with Grandma and annouced a game...it goes like this, 'I'm thinking of something that starts with an O Grandma, it starts with an O.' (envision the "O" sound long and drawn out there)...and Grandma tries a guess and then asks what it is...Noah proudly annouces...

ROCKET Grandma, ROCKET - starts with an "O".

We have a lot of work ahead of us...!

Jesus and the Sausage continued....

So this bit of further information in on Jesus and the Sausage. In honor of Noah's 3rd birthday coming up this Friday, I asked him what he wanted to eat...you guessed it sausage, but not just any sausage - sausage just like this -

'On Friday (because everything happens on Friday these days in Noah's world), Jesus will send the sausage. And we'll roll it up like a taco and PB&J.'

The other thing that Noah has consistently been requesting as his birthday food is SOUP and not just any soup but he is wanting ORANGE SOUP.

Anyone have a good edible recipe for orange soup then? Hard pressed to figure that one out...

Josiah's Future Profession

So just a small tidbit here - Josiah announced at the dinner table this evening (completely out of nowhere other than the honest DESIRE in his heart) that when he grows up....

he's going to deliver candy to people.

I then asked him, 'SO then...you know if you deliver it you can't eat it, right?'

His response - 'well I can eat one piece!' - thought about it some more and - 'No, I'm just going to eat all the candy.'

Funny how these things come up out of nowhere but are truly what these little guys long for at this stage of life - quite simply to be a candy delivery man and enjoy the bounty of the candy he's delivering!!