It Crashed

This will have to be the last post for a while -- our computer just crashed, and Brad is working on getting it fixed again. A few days ago, it gave us the infamous computer blue screen of death. Not good! It is definitely dead. What I'm especially worried about is the pictures, because ALL of our pictures are on the computer. Brad is trying to get the important information off the hard drive right now, and I sincerely hope he is successful! Yikes. It could turn out very badly for us and the fate of our pictures (and other documents)...

Klynt & Marie's Wedding!

Last month, my brother Klynt got married to a great girl, Marie. On the morning of the wedding rehearsal, Mom put on a tea party for all of the girls invovled in the wedding. My mom loves to do tea parties and is great at putting them on!

The bridesmaids, Marie the bride, Marie's Mom, my Mom, Kelli and I (as Mistresses of Ceremony), and then Kelli and I's kids and the flower girl were all of us that were there.

The little girls' table. We were all supposed to wear crazy hats, and you can see December's cousin Emilia wearing a particularly bright and fun one

I wish you could see our crazy hats up closer to get a good look at them. The one I'm wearing looks like I hacked off a piece of Big Bird and put it on my head. I loved the hat! From left to right is me, my sister-in-law Marie, my Mom, my sister Kelli, and my sister-in-law Maria.

Rehearsal dinner. Marie and Klynt got first dibs at the dinner table. The dinner was at my parents' house, and we had a BBQ with all kinds of great side dishes, and then we played some pretty crazy, fun group games, and then had ice cream sundaes for dessert. It was a blast! It was also western-themed, which was fun.

I love this picture of my brother Karl.

My three year-old neice, Emilia.

My December Marie. If she was a western bandit, her name would be Sweet Cheeks Marie, which is a name I got off a video game last year and have fun calling her it as a nickname.

Kelli and I on the day of the wedding

My brother Klynt and my Dad, hanging out while it's picture time for the bride and bridesmaids

Klynt and my Mom, who looked beautiful!

Where the reception was held. Very pretty!

Klynt, my nephew Markus as the ring bearer, as well as the groomsmen and ushers.

Klynt and Marie. They make quite a nice-looking couple!

Marie with her Mom and her new Mom-in-law

Marie with her bridesmaids.

Klynt and Marie taking a break while Klynt plays Marie a song

It's a bit blurry, but here's my entire family!

Children Talking About God, Part 2

I just had another conversation with December, about God. Ha ha! I love hearing kids' ideas about how God works as they learn more about Him. This time, I had just put December to bed and closed her bedroom door. A few moments later, she had run to the door and opened it again.

"Mommy," she said, "I do not like to be left alone."

"I know you don't, but it's bedtime, December," I told her.

"But Jesus is with me?" she asked.

"Yes."

"And God is with me, too?"

"Yes. And you know what? The Holy Spirit is with you, too."

"The Holy Spirit, too?" she sounded happily surprised.

"Yup."

"But then, Mommy, if everyone's with me, who's going to be with Isaac?"

Ha ha! I laughed at that, and then gave my best shot at explaining the omnipresence of God, which ended with me saying, "God is special. That's why He can do that."

Children Talking About God

Yesterday, I was on-duty in the church's nursery while Brad was running the morning service, and I overheard a conversation between December and two of her little friends who are also around three years old -- and I just had to share it with you!

The nursery is equipped with one of those speakers that broadcast the church service, so that the nursery workers can listen to the sermon as well. We came to the part of the service where Brad started his sermon. As soon as Brad's voice began broadcasting through the nursery, I felt a tap at my leg. A little three year-old boy named Dominic was standing in front of me with an eager look on his face.

"I hear God!" he told me excitedly.

I started laughing. "Oh, do you?" I asked.

He ran to the next nursery worker and earnestly told her, "Hey -- I hear God!" He started running around to anyone who'd listen to him, telling them.

At that point, little Reagan (another one of December's friends) spoke up. "No, God doesn't talk from there [meaning the speaker over our heads]. God talks from our hearts! He's always in our hearts, and He talks from there!"

"No," Dominic insisted, "I hear God."

At this point, December interjected, "That's not God...that's Daddy!!"



PostScript from Brad:

This is a great story to illustrate a point. When the little girl said that he couldn't be hearing God because He speaks from inside your heart, she was speking the same way that most Christians today would speak. In fact, the boy saying that he was hearing God in the preaching was actually more correct, because it is in the gathering of God's people and in the preaching where He comes to meet with us. We should all be able to listen to a sermon and say, "I hear God."

Us, in Stick People

This picture I'm putting up especially for my Mom -- these little families are everywhere in California, on the backs of mini-vans and other family vehicles. I really wanted one for our family, so I had told Mom I was looking for one. And here it is! I ordered it on eBay, one of my favorite places to shop. :o) Brad put it up on the back of our van, and I love it!

Family Pictures

These are some family pictures that my sister-in-law Tarena took for us, and she did a wonderful job. She gave us a cd of over two hundred pictures, so I picked out my favorites to show you...

Try This?

We usually have some pretty rough nights with Isaac. He does not sleep very well and usually gets up, at the very least, three times a night. Maybe we should try this Dad's trick! We saw this clip on America's Funniest Home Videos a while back and just loved it. I couldn't find the clip all by itself, so this video has other clips attached to it. If you fast forward to 1:31 (1 minute, 31 seconds into the video), you will see what I'm talking about. It's great!

Fun in the Sun

This is the only picture I have from Brad's sister Rebekah's wedding, which happened the day after we arrived for the summer. It's rough not having a camera!

Yee-haw! We're at our church's Stampede Breakfast, which happened right at the beginning of the Calgary Stampede. This is my sister-in-law Erin with my neice Cayleigh, my good friend Justyne, and me.

Sweet Isaac had too much Stampede excitement. We actually did go to the Stampede and had fun (and got drenched from a torrential downpour), but, again, since we didn't have our new camera at the time, I couldn't get any pictures of it!

December and her cousin Caden (in the white shirt) playing in the sand that the church had for the kids.

The church always holds the Stampede Breakfast on the Saturday after the Vacation Bible School week. Brad and I were both really involved in that -- Brad ran the Games center, and I was the leader for the 1st & 2nd grade combined class. What fun! I had about 20 kids each day, and they are at my absolute favorite age. They're so sweet and loving, and I received many little drawings and art projects as presents from them. They're so cute!

December was in the pre-school class, and Isaac was in the nursery. Here the kids are, performing the songs they learned during the week. December is up there, too, but she's hard to see. I'll try to describe where she is. If you look at the man with his hand on his head in the foreground, look right above his wrist area, and you'll see a purple balloon. December's holding that balloon, and you can see her blonde pigtail out the back of the white-shirted girl.

Brad put his hat on Isaac. He wears it well, don't you think?

Me cutting up December's pancake (one of her favorite things to eat)

Isaac with his cousin Cayleigh, who is almost two months older than him

Little cutie-pies

Since this pictures was taken, they have both learned how to crawl. I've noticed that Isaac likes to follow Cayleigh around as she crawls to different things

Caden and December playing together

Isaac just loves the grass...

This pictures makes me laugh. There's something so sweet and cute about it.

Caden giving December a kiss :o)

Digging a hole in the ground with a stick.