Camden's Prayer

I just wanted to share this short prayer with you. Camden says this prayer 99% of the time at night before bed. You'd think it would seem repetitive but he says it with such sincerity and volume that you can't help but smile.

Camden: "God is great. Dear God, help us help mommy and daddy and all my family are great. In Jesus' name. Amen."

Thank you Jess for writing about the 7 x 7 prayer goal. It is something that I desire to become a habit for all of us.

Sweet Elijah

I had one of those "gulp" moments today. Most of you probably have another name for it - like "aha moment" or "the light went on". I describe it like it feels to me. Let me go back in time a little bit so you can understand where this came from.

About a year ago, Elijah and I started clashing. It seemed like any button he could push with me he did. This has continued and I have felt really guilty about some of my thoughts. I actually had a conversation with Paul one day and said, "I love Elijah - deeply and beyond words - but I don't really like him right now. I don't think we would be friends if he was our age. He is always loud, insensitive, selfish and whiny."

Okay - if you remember, this is also the boy who also says things like "I love you - wherever you go I go" and "I am going to live here forever." The latter of which he said today - while I was in the bathroom. I told him to wait for me outside the door just so I could have a little privacy (who am I kidding?) and he wouldn't budge. I asked him why he wanted to stay and never leave. His simple response, "Because I love you."

It only took a few minutes for those two scenarios to mesh together, and I gulped. I realized that is what God goes through with us every day. I can be selfish, whiny, unteachable, ungrateful - did I say selfish? The list could go on. What is amazing is that God loves me. He wants to be with me and never leave. I don't even deserve it and could never measure up, but He doesn't ask me to. All I have to do is love Him back. I know this and am beyond thankful, but I was grateful, yet again, for a child's love to put things in perspective.

My Team

Well, here's the whole team. I figure I better start calling them "team members" now so they are prepared when Paul hands them all jerseys, balls, bats, racquet's, etc. In this picture the boys are building with play-doh. They might tell you that yesterday was a near perfect day - playing outside with ice and dirt, warming up with hot chocolate and playing with play-doh. I would have to agree because the messes were fairly minimal! The only small disaster occurred when Grayson decided to mix the black, white and green play-doh colors together and Elijah was devastated to learn that it could not be reversed. I calmed him down by saying that now they had a really cool new color that no one else had. That will only work for so long!

Now, for the shocking news. For those of you who have so diligently teased Paul about his McDonald's addiction, and there are many of you, your work is far from over! He had a physical last week, which was great, and the doc had no concerns. Just today he got his lab results and they, too, were fabulous - too fabulous??!?? His cholesterol was only 141!! Now, I had mine tested a couple years ago and it was 162; a number that the doctor was completely thrilled with. So, while I am greatly relieved that my husband is a healthy man, I have to say, "go figure"! Before he ended our conversation on the phone this morning he said, "Well, I guess I need to go celebrate." We all know what that means.

I am ending with a request for help. I am trying to add music to this blog and can't seem to figure it out even though all the sites say it is sooo easy. If you can help, let me know. Thanks!!

What We Like and What We Don't

You probably can't really tell from the pictures but Kaiya and Reyna LOVE waffles. Last night I decided to give them one because they were still hungry but not wanting anything else that was mushy and gross. The waffles were gone in about 5 seconds but the mess took much longer to clean up! It was great to see them so smiley. What they don't like is the baby gate. I put in up in the doorway of their room in the morning so when I'm changing one and getting them dressed, the other doesn't crawl out the door and fall down the stairs. You would think I was closing them off from the whole world. They see me get it out and start screaming. If I leave the room to get something, they both stand there pounding on it. I'm guessing that Paul's plan to keep them sheltered in our basement until they're 30 is not going to work.

The Cardboard House

Elijah and Camden really wanted a box house this morning so we went to the basement to find just the right one. Elijah insisted that it have "two windows and a big door". After cutting those out to his liking we decided to "decorate" the inside. I drew some pictures on the wall. Elijah drew an oven with pizza and macaroni inside. Then we looked for a small box to use as a DVD player. His last request was to get mail, so we made some cardboard letters. Home sweet home! The funniest part was watching Camden. He threw everything that Elijah brought into the house out the windows. Needless to say, Camden didn't stay very long!