Austin loves to sing. It's so funny when he sings the ABC's because he can't say all the letters but he sure tries! Here's a clip of him singing along with one of his toys.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Little book worm
Austin has such a love for books! I hope it sticks with him as he gets older. Here he is piling them up getting ready for nap time. Once he spotted me with a camera he hid behind the rocker but I still got a cute picture.
Sick day
Kaylee was not feeling well this morning so we gave her a choice to try and go to school or stay home for the day. She decided to go to school. I got a phone call at about 10:00 and she was in the nurse's office laying down so I went and picked her up. She was working on homework when I checked on her after lunch. What a good girl!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Happy Birthday Kaylee
I can't believe Kaylee is 14 today! We had a wonderful time celebrating her birthday. She had her friend Lydia come over and I made some of Kaylee's favorites; swiss steak, twice baked potatoes and lemon meringue cake. (Thank you Patty!) Kaylee got a snowboard from us this year so we took her snowboarding. She's really good! Kaylee might even be driving by the end of this week. Stay off the sidewalks, people!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Get off the couch
Duke thinks he owns the place. Look how I found him sleeping on one of my couches. I can't tell you how many times a day I have to tell him to get off the couch. I even put Austin's toys on the couch to keep him off. The noisy toys work best. As you can see a pillow does not work!
Bye, Bye
Austin loves to go for a ride in the car. We must have made 14 trips back and forth from the house today. Does Austin care how many times I have to bundle him and un-bundle him? Not at all! Here are some cute pictures of him going bye, bye!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Our Purpose
I received this in an email. You have to read it! We all need to be reminded sometimes.
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for..
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease..
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having 'wealth' from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren, 'Purpose Driven Life ' author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:People ask me, What is the purpose of life?
And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for..
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems:
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain.' But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease..
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
Monday, January 12, 2009
My neck...my neck and my back
I had to dig us out of the driveway today since we got more snow this morning. We made an emergency run to the store for baby wipes. Here's Austin observing me breaking my back while shoveling the snow. I need to learn how to use the snowblower!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Loving it
Kaylee is loving more than anything right now her Nintendo Wii Fit. I am also loving it!
Austin is loving Curious George. He can't get enough of CG even on the computer!
Ryan, well, Ryan is loving his goatee. Shane calls it his trash 'stache. You can kind of see it in this pic, not really. Love ya sweetie!
What are you loving right now?
Austin is loving Curious George. He can't get enough of CG even on the computer!Ryan, well, Ryan is loving his goatee. Shane calls it his trash 'stache. You can kind of see it in this pic, not really. Love ya sweetie!
And I am loving it that I got the house cleaned and the tree taken down last week!
What are you loving right now?
Monday, January 5, 2009
Can't get enough
I'm sharing a couple slideshows below of our Christmas with both sides of the family. Unfortunately I forgot my camera when we went to Patty's house Christmas night! Here's a darling picture once again of niece Maddy with Mom. Molly took the picture. I just can't get enough of her sweet baby face and cute clothes!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Happy New Year!
Hope you had a great New Year's Eve! We took our Kay Aus to the Jolly Holiday Lights and out for dinner. We had lots of fun playing Rock Band too! Ryan and I watched 'A Christmas Story' at midnight. How romantic! Here's my romantic guy with niece Maddy. Aren't they adorable?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
