A White Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday morning, the snow started falling! It was beautiful to watch! The children were all very excited. The most excited of all was Heath!!! He loves snow! He loves cold weather! He just wishes we lived a little closer to some ski slopes!

After Heath came home for lunch on Wednesday he played outside with us for a little while before returning back to work for the rest of the afternoon. Once he did return home, Kaitlyn begged him to let her go back out in the snow again. She was sure that when she woke up the next morning the snow would be gone, just like it always was when we lived in the mid-south for the past 3 winters! Heath assured her that the snow would still be there tomorrow since it is much colder here than where we used to live!

Heath was right...we got to enjoy more snow time today after our Thanksgiving meal!

I just asked the children what their favorite part of our Thanksgiving day was. Kaitlyn said, "eating pumpkin pie." Tyler said, "playing in the snow." I know the children love playing in the snow. But, I also think they love the hot chocolate with marshmallows mommy always gives them once they come back inside:-)

Tyler's Salvation and Baptism

Tyler prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior and Lord on August 18th, 2007. We were all downstairs in the basement. Tyler asked me if he was a Christian. I asked him if he’d ever prayed and asked Jesus to be his Savior and Lord. He then asked me if I’d go in to the schoolroom so we could talk in private.

I asked him why he wanted to become a Christian. He said, "so he could tell more people about Jesus." He then started asking me all kinds of questions about China. Such as, if there were people in China who do not know about Jesus? What would the Chinese emporer do if he found out he was there telling people about Jesus. He then talked about the times he's told his cousins, Millie and Maddie, about Jesus.

Tyler also asked me what would happen if he didn’t stop sinning once he became a Christian. I explained to him how Jesus holds on to us once we’re saved and he will never let us go. Jesus will always forgive and never stop loving him. Ps. 32:8 “I will instruct you and teach you, in the way which you should go.” This was a verse we did in our homeschol Bible curriculum last year, and it was a crucial verse during our conversation. Tyler needed to understand that God is here to instruct us and teach us how he wants us to live, where he wants us to go, or not go. We will still make mistakes, but God is always going to be there to help us get back on the right path. When you’re sinning (going the wrong way) Jesus will show you the right way to go. Tyler then said, “Mommy, you’re not sinning like you used to. You don’t get angry and yell at us like you used to.” Then, I shared how God helped me go the right way.

He asked about Heaven and Hell. He understands Heaven is for Christians and Hell is for people who are not Christians.

I then took Tyler through the ABCs (Admit, Believe, and Confess) of becoming a Christian. Tyler understood he’s a sinner and quoted Romans 3:23, and admitted he was indeed a sinner. Tyler believes Jesus is God’s son, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and He rose again. Tyler's prayer was so awesome as he confessed his faith in Jesus as his personal Savior and Lord!!!

I asked him if he wanted to pray and ask Jesus to be his savior and Lord…At first he said “no…I’m alright.” So, I thought to myself...well he just had some questions and wanted some answers...so we'll leave it at that and trust Holy Spirit to continue to soften Tyler's heart and reveal the truth to him. But then, something clicked in his little head…and he realized that if he never prayed to receive Jesus…he’d have to go to Hell. So, he wanted to go into the homeschool closet and pray. He prayed aloud and he prayed on his own. This is what he prayed (to the best of my memory).“Dear Jesus, thank you for everything you made. I’m sorry for all the bad things I’ve done. Please come into my heart and be my Savior. Please help me to grow up to be more like you, Jesus. In Jesus name, Amen.”

I'm really not a big fan of those "repeat after me prayers." I was amazed that a little boy who had just turned 6-years-old 11 days earlier, was willing to pray such a prayer. I will never ever forget the last line of Tyler's prayer that day...."please help me to grow up to be more like you, Jesus." Oh, how we should all have that desire...the desire to be MORE like Jesus!

Heath (Tyler's daddy) started talking to him about baptism. It took a few talks to help Tyler fully understand why we should be baptized. But, we told him once he understood and wanted to be baptized, to let us know. Baptism does not save you. He understood he was already a Christian, but baptism is simply a symbol of showing others we now belong to Jesus and want to live our lives for Him! So, on Sunday, November 18th Tyler was baptized. I think it's kind of neat that it was exactly 3 months after Tyler's salvation! Another cool thing is that his Daddy got to baptize him.

After his baptism, I was helping him dry off and get dressed. He said, "Mommy, I'm so happy! At first I was excited, but then I got a little nervous." I assured him being nervous anytime you're in front of a lot of people is normal. He also told me he saw a lady wipe tears from her eyes and he wanted to know why she was crying. I let him know her tears were not tears of sadness, but of joy. She was happy because she saw a young boy who has committed to live his life for Jesus!

Since I was pregnant with Tyler I've prayed a prayer something like this for him, and all our children. "Lord, please help Tyler understand at a young age that he's a sinner, like all of us. Help him understand how much he needs you Jesus to rescue him from his sin and be the leader of his life. May Tyler walk closely with you all the days of his life."

Thank you Lord, for answering my prayer. Tyler is indeed young, and he belongs to you now and always! I continue to pray that Tyler will walk closely with you all the days of his life.

Birthday Princess

My daughter, Kaitlyn, turned 5-years-old on November 11th. I cannot believe how quickly time passes! About one week before her birthday she and I went on a date. We picked out her birthday cake, purchased party decor, goodie bags and filler, ate lunch, visited Starbucks, and did some grocery shopping. Oh, and she got a haircut. Her hair is a little shorter than I wanted it...but she said she wanted it up to her chin! We made an ENTIRE day of it!



A special "mommy date" around their birthdays is something I started this year. Tyler got one in August for his birthday. Kaitlyn couldn't hardly wait for her turn to come in November. Lauren will get her date in March! It is really fun and special to get that one-on-one time with the children.

Kaitlyn chose to have a princess party. She wanted a pink princess cake and pink princess punch. So, for the first time in her life another baker, besides me, baked and decorated her cake. She just couldn't resist the beautifully decorated cakes from the bakery any longer. She really wanted to be able to go to the counter of our local Hy-Vee and pick out her own cake. But, I did make some amazing pink princess punch. Since this was a royal affair, I drug out our beautiful punch bowl and cups. The little girls thought they were so grown-up and special to be able to sip from such beautiful punch cups!

We decorated tiaras, painted fingernails, colored in our very own princess coloring books, played pin the lips on the frog, and a variation of duck, duck, goose that we called princess, princess, fairy.

The only downer to having such a girly-affair, is Kaitlyn's older brother did not want to participate in much of the fun! But, he did manage to find his way upstairs once the cake and punch was served. He also came up while we were playing princess, princess, fairy. We asked him if he wanted to play and he said, "no way!" But, we asked him if we played duck, duck, goose if he would join us girls. He said, "sure." He's such a funny little boy! He wanted no part of the princess girly stuff whatsoever!

I am blessed to be Kaitlyn Rebekah's mother. It is hard for me to believe she was born five years ago. She is a sweet little girl. She loves to sing about Jesus...who He is...and all He's done for us. I pray daily for her to understand how desperately she needs the Jesus she loves to sing about. I pray one day, and one day soon...she will ask Jesus to come to her rescue. She, like all of so desperately needs saving.