Thanksgiving 2009!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Our family spent Thanksgiving in Yakima with Dustin's family. His Uncle Gary & Aunt Jolene had the entire family over for a big feast today.

We all had a great time & ate way too much.

The highlight for Josiah was seeing Uncle Todd's family. He loves Todd, Shelly, Justin & Cody. He was so happy that all we got all night was cheesy smiles from him.

Cody took some time out to read to Josiah. Here they are reading "A Plump & Perky Turkey." This is Josiah's favorite Thanksgiving book.

Josiah also loved getting lots of attention from Daddy's brother, Uncle Todd.

Josiah & all the boys (both big & small) got into a fun wrestling match...

that seemed to go on for hours. Josiah was covered in sweat by the time they were done & his hair looked like a chia-pet (this is why we always gel it down).

We ended the night sitting around talking, eating dessert & watching the boys play pool together...even Josiah.

We had a great Thanksgiving 2009!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast!

Today was Josiah's Preschool Thanksgiving Feast! He has been excited about this for weeks.

Josiah's class came out on stage & sang a "Fat Turkey" song. It was so cute. The children sang & did the actions so well.

After they sang, Teacher Bonnie (the director) prayed over the children & the meal.

We then congratulated Josiah for singing so well. Josiah, however, was preoccupied with baby Jillian. Jillian is Bella's (left) little sister.

Here is our table enjoying the feast. We sat with Isaac, Bella & Alyssa's families.

A lot of parents came out to enjoy the feast with their children.

Josiah was so excited to give us a Thanksgiving card & a place-mat he made.

Here is Dustin & Josiah enjoying the yummy food!

We all had a great time together feasting away at Josiah's Preschool Thanksgiving Feast!

Our 11th Anniversary!

Today, Dustin & I celebrate 11 years of marriage. It is hard to believe that we have been together that long. It is amazing, though, because we love each other much more today than we ever have in 11 years!!!

Dustin's parents came to town to give us a date night on our Anniversary!

We began our date night by going to an afternoon matinee. We saw the new movie, "The Blind Side." This was an AMAZING movie that I would recommend to anyone!

After leaving the movie theatre, it was time to eat some yummy burgers at Red Robin. We know it's not great for us, but we have really come to enjoy eating here.

We had a wonderful night out together on our 11th Anniversary!

I love you, Dustin!

Josiah's Special Day!

Today was Josiah's "Special Day" at Preschool. Each child has about 3-4 special days a year at Preschool. This is the day Josiah gets to bring the snack...bring an item for Show & Tell...he gets to do the calendar & the weather...he gets to be the line leader...etc.

Josiah, as you can tell from the above picture, was SUPER EXCITED! He chose his four dinosaurs as his Show & Tell item (plastic bag). He also chose apple sauce & Ritz crackers to go in the special snack basket that he got to bring home. You would have thought the child won the lottery or something...he was on top of the world.

He was so proud of his snack that he took this picture of the apple sauce inside the snack basket.

At the very end of the school day was when he got to have Show & Tell. Teacher Nicky invites the parents to come in at the end of that day to see their child share. He was so good. He laid out each dinosaur on the chair for everyone to see.

He then pointed out each one & told the other children their names. "T-Rex" (Tyrannosaurus), "Tricep" (Triceratops), "Brachi" (Brachiosaurus) & "Appy" (Apatosaurus).

Once he had told the class all about his dinosaurs, he passed two of them around the circle for each child to hold. While each child had a turn they would count to 5 making dinosaur sounds. CUTE!

Josiah came home today & asked me, "Is tomorrow going to be my special day again?" I said, "No. Someone else gets a turn!" He said, "Bummer...it really was a special day!"

Let the Serving Begin!

Holy Seed Community Church has been praying about & discussing beginning a "Servolution" for months. Servolution is an idea, philosophy & book written by Dino Rizzo.

It didn't seem to matter what scripture or topic was discussed each week at church...somehow serving continued to come up in conversation. So, we began realizing that part of the heart of our church was serving. Once we realized we are all wanting to serve, we began brainstorming ways to serve our communities & families.

We began our Servolution today by taking a group of our people to visit & minister at a local senior living center in Lynnwood. We first split up into teams & went knocking on doors to reach people one-on-one. Josiah was my partner today & he did GREAT! I was a little nervous about how he'd handle the situation, but he did better than expected. He was the first one in the room each time. He went right up to the people & shook their hand & introduced himself. He waited patiently while I talked with them & then he would say, "Bye! God Bless You!" It was as though we had it scripted, which we didn't. Who knew that even a three year old would have a heart for serving others.

As we visited the people in their apartments, we invited them down into the lobby for singing & a devotion. We had around 20 residents come to the lobby. The manager told us that was the greatest attendance they've ever had at something like this.

Dustin first introduced our group & thanked everyone for coming down. Then, Tad introduced each hymn we were about to sing & gave some background on each song. Dustin then led everyone in 3 different hymns that were typed on paper for the people to sing along.

Once we sang the songs, Josiah walked to the front, sat down in a chair & sang "Jesus Loves Me" for everyone. We just mentioned it to him that morning & he was so excited to get to sing. There wasn't ANY stage fright at all. We were so proud of him.

Dustin then led the group in a devotion about "A Father's love for His child." He used Josiah to illustrate his message while he spoke.

We had a wonderful time ministering to the people at this senior living center. We pray it blessed their lives.

After we left, everyone came back to our house to snack & reflect on our act of service. We all had such a wonderful time that we spent the next 2 hours talking about how wonderful it was & how much it meant to us. We had such a good time talking & hanging out that it didn't seem like anyone wanted to leave.

We can't wait until the next time we serve as a group. Until then, Dustin has challenged us all to begin serving as individuals. He typed a list of some of the ideas we thought of as a group of ways to serve as individuals. So, let the serving begin!

Josiah Loves His New Room!

We just finished Josiah's new room at 8pm tonight. Before we began the painting & decorating we told Josiah that he was getting a new big boy room, but he couldn't see it until it was finished. He obeyed & didn't look inside until we told him we were finished. What a good boy.

Dustin & I stood inside his bedroom with the door closed. Dustin had the video camera & I had the digital camera. We both wanted to capture this moment. Then we said, "Ok...you can come in." Josiah walked into the room, smiled, dropped his mouth & was speechless. I couldn't have asked for a better response.

He noticed every detail of his room. He pointed out everything! It made me feel good about the time & effort put into it.

Then, as any boy would, he grabbed his cars & put them on his new bed for a race.

Once the race was over, he pretended to sleep in his big boy bed.

Then, back to more crashing.

Once all of the excitement was over, he put on his pajamas & was ready to sleep in his new bed. Dustin & I loved that we could crawl in with him to read his Bible at bedtime.

Then we tucked him in, "Snug as a bug in a rug," prayed & said goodnight!

I waited a while once we put him to bed to sneak back in & take a picture. He was so happy & peaceful asleep in his new bed.

Thanks to Uncle Chris...we wouldn't have been able to do this without him.

We are so glad Josiah loves his new room!

Josiah's New Big Boy Room!

Josiah's new room is now FINISHED!!! I'm so excited. Here it is...

Josiah loves cars! So, I found these Vintage Car sheets at "Target" & loved them. I had already picked out a duvet & shams from "The Land of Nod" months ago, but they were too expensive. They were marked down 50% off & because I bought them on Labor Day I got another 25% off. I got great deals in this room!

In order to save money I bought all unfinished wood products (frames, shelves, artwork). So, I painted every frame on his dresser myself. I also did the puzzle artwork hanging on the wall. Josiah loves jigsaw puzzles & I found unfinished pieces at a craft store in town. So, I bought the pieces & painted them, put them together, painted a car on top & now he has a puzzle painting in his room. Inexpensive, but a lot of work!

Two new model cars.

I painted these wooden frames as well to match the decorative pillow on his new bed.

I painted these navy shelves on the wall to save money, too. Shelves pre-painted in a store were $60 each. I paid $15 for all three total.

A tire & a corvette to match the sheets.

Two cars that we hand painted ourselves. I painted the brown & orange one. Dustin painted the white & navy one. They actually roll for Josiah to play with.

Picture of Josiah & his best friend, Grady.

We love Josiah's new room. It was a lot of work. It took three months of secretly painting shelves, frames, puzzle pieces, letters & a rocking chair to pull this off. It worked, though. Josiah had no idea.

We are about to show Josiah his new big boy room!

Josiah's Last Night in his Toddler Room!

For a while now I have been wanting to move Josiah out of his Toddler Bed into a Big Boy bed. He was just getting too long & wasn't having much room to move around at night. Well, Josiah's crib turned into a toddler bed. His crib headboard & foot-board are also meant for a Full Size bed.

So, I began selling lots of old toys & things on Craigslist to get the money to buy his new bed, bedding, etc. I sold so much stuff & raised so much money. The bad news is that we had to use every penny to pay bills instead. That was heartbreaking for me. I didn't tell anyone else...at the time...I just prayed about it.

A few months later, my brother, Chris, came to me & told me that he felt led to give me some money for "A Mother's Heart!" I immediately began crying & explained the situation to him & told him I knew exactly what I was going to do with the money.

So, I spent 3 months shopping, painting & planning for Josiah's new room. I got EVERY single item ON SALE! I was so excited!!!! I even talked one lady into changing my 10% off one item coupon into a 40% off every item coupon just by asking. So, God was with me as I shopped. I got such a great deal.

Dustin & I finally set a date to re-do the room & it has finally arrived. This is Josiah's last night sleeping in his Toddler Room. Look how peaceful he is.

Josiah has no idea that he is about to get a new room. It is going to be a complete surprise. So, he is sleeping so peacefully right now & will have a new room in two days!

I am so excited that it is FINALLY Josiah's last night in his Toddler Room!