Braeden's First Big Digger

The first big "digger." Every kid has one. Emerson had one when she was one and a half and now Braeden has had his turn. The kids stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's last night and my parents brought them home this afternoon. When I got home, I saw this :
















I guess he was at a full run out front of my parents' and turned the corner on the sidewalk and took a faceplant. According to my dad he didn't have time to even put his hands in front of him to lessen the impact. You can see the bruise and a little scrape on his nose, but what isn't so clear is how big the bruise actually is (down to his eyebrows) and how big of a knot is protruding from his sweet forehead. Poor baby. Hopefully no one will think I abuse this poor kid!

For fun, or at least an awww, here is a picture of Emerson's first big digger when she fell off the step on the porch of the Archer's house a few years back in 2006 - Note the similar bruise on her forhead and the skinned lip! Thank goodness our kids are so resilient!
















Updated : Ok, I was reminded that this was not Braeden's first digger, but a major one, anyway. :)

Just had to share the happiness...

This is a video my sister showed me today and it is possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They seriously have some awesome friends and what a fun day!

Bedtime things...

So, I think one of my most favorite things in the world are the talks that occur when I'm putting my kids to bed at night. Every night before bed we have a ritual of singing songs and praying together before hugs and kisses goodnight. Lately, for fun, I've been asking them, "Who loves you?" and it's been fun naming all the people we know that love them and then finishing with who loves them the absolute most - God! (Dad, if you read this, the first person Braeden ALWAYS names is you!)

Since we've been mentioning how much God loves them, I've come to think that Emerson has been exploring in her own mind how big God is and His love for us. I think this because she's begun to "number" our love. She tells me that she loves me 102, to which I respond, I love you 500, and she says, I love you 525, and it goes on. When she numbers God, though, it's this great made up number like one-thousand, three hundred and four, one hundred, twenty-two, three! Or something like that. Isn't that awesome? I'm glad that, for how little she is, she gets that God's love for her is huge!

Another thing I love is singing with my babies. Both of my kids have their favorite songs and I hope I remember the moments of hearing their little voices sing with us at night. Some of their favorites are Oh Holy Night, Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, She'll be Coming Round the Mountain, I Love You Lord, and my favorite, Emerson's made up song of the day (most of the time it's a song we already know that she's replaced the words to and it's usually about love).

And last, their prayers. They both like to pray and when they do, it's always in their own unique way. Now, when Braeden prays, we usually have absolutely no idea what he's saying. He whispers the whole time and when he's done, he gives a big AMEN! I love it, especially because he usually makes it really long. So long sometimes, that we have to encourage the AMEN part a little early. Emerson, on the other hand is short and sweet and almost always consists of asking for us to have a fun day and praying for great-grandpa, granny, great-grandma, and grandmommie.

These are the things I hope stick with me forever. And until they get too old, I will always keep doing our everyday "bedtime things."

Kate

The other day on twitter, I was clicking through someone who knew someone else who knew someone else and saw a tweet that caught my eye about a little five year old girl named Kate. After following the link on twitter, I learned that her family was getting ready to go to a waterpark on June 29th and noticed a tremor in her hand and took her to the doctor. After a CT scan, the doctors pulled her parents aside to break the news that she has a malignant tumor on her brain and they needed to operate right away. Since then, I've been following their story on their CaringBridge site (click on CaringBridge to be taken to their site) and maybe because my daughter is so close in age, it made my heart ache . My heart broke just imagining if it were Jon and I in this situation and fighting for the life of our sweet little girl.

After reading a little more, I realized that their friend, Brian Wurzell (who is a worship pastor at a huge church in Chandler, AZ), began tweeting and created a youtube video about Kate and began a humungous wave of followers. Word of this little girl has spread so far and wide that people across the world as well as all of the Women of Faith speakers, several Christian artists, and even Dr. Phil is twittering and posting their video on their blogs and sites.

And then after another short time of following a link and finding another and another, I found a song that was written by Audrey Assad specifically for Kate (whom I love the sound of her voice and I plan on finding more of her stuff). She said God had laid the lyrics on her heart one night and shortly after He gave her the melody. It brought tears to my eyes. I tried to embed the song on my page, but I couldn't. Instead, you can follow this link to listen to the song. http://www.myspace.com/audreyassadsings . It's just beautiful.

God is surely using this little girl's life to bring about His glory. I will continue to pray for this sweet little girl and follow their journey. You can, too, at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate .

The funniest word you ever heard! Grrrr!

Pizza Pizza! Usually the slogan for Little Ceasars pizza, but the other night it was the funniest word ever! At least to Landen (see video below!)

And then check out Landen's newest trick. If you growl at him, give him a second and he'll growl at you back. Probably one of the cutest things Jon and I have ever seen!

As for the rest of us, we're doing well! We've been enjoying swimming, running through our neighbors sprinkler on our bikes and we just returned from Sheridan for the 4th where my Grandpa Gorman lives with his big puppy, Max (not really a puppy, but that's what the kids call him). We were able to catch up with an uncle and cousins, too. It was really wonderful to see my grandpa light up with the kids. He is 96 years old now!

Hope you all had a good 4th as well and enjoyed your time with family and friends. We sure did!

(P.S. Sorry the pictures and videos are so random, I can't figure out how to correct that and put them in order!)