So Long Ordinary

Okay, I hate to beat a dead dog (snort) but these pictures Sean got of our rooster and Duke just really make me laugh. Yes, I know Sean already blogged about this but this is just...ummm...I don't know. It's kind of like a bad accident. You just can't look away. Animal psychologists - what in the world is happening here?! I mean if it happened once, I'd understand. But over and over and over again? Tell me these pictures don't remind you of the movie "Kung Fu Panda." May I introduce Dog and Rooster? They are best friends. Or worst enemies. I'm not sure. But to watch them is just hilarious. What do you make of it? And while the rooster may look like he's winning... We all know what could happen in the end.

Bubble Bath Beard! Paige discovered that this made me laugh and just kept dipping her chin into the bubbles and giggling. She's growing up way too fast. Paige is 10.5 months old now. I can't believe it. How is it possible that my baby is nearing her first birthday?! We tend to always add an " eee " sound to the end of Paige's name. We all do it and it occurred to me the other day that she may not know that her name really isn't Paige-y. But to call her plain old Paige just makes her sound too grown up. She's our sweet little punkin for Pete's sake! When she's 16 we'll tell her what her name really should sound like....maybe. Paige-y is pulling herself up to everything and walking along the furniture. Won't be long 'til she's walking. As much as I want to allow her to grow up, I'm also really feeling the sadness of seeing her become less and less of a baby. My mommy heart is having a hard time! I look at pictures of Mad

This video says it better than I could. This is what God has been, and is doing in our hearts. I love the commentary at the end of the song. Not because works are more important than faith but because faith - and true worship - is COMPELLED to help and love the lost and hurting of this world. How could we possibly know and be in relationship with Jesus and not hurt for the lost? We sing words of praise, adoration, and worship to Jesus....how do those words translate onto the street? What does worship look like outside of the church service? I honestly don't know all the answers to those questions but God is challenging my thinking about what it means to be called "Christian." One thing I know - He is Holy, He is on the throne. And my heart's desire is to bring Him Glory and honor in all that I do.

Well, I mentioned that we were in Idaho for a special reason. Here's a clue.... That is a Quest Kodiak. It's a new airplane....very cool and I'm really not that into airplanes. But we didn't go to see the Kodiak. The Kodiak is tool. It's a special airplane - the first to be designed and built for bush flying....mission flying to be more specific. And that would be one of the first Kodiaks to be used in the field by Mission Aviation Fellowship . That particular airplane is, I believe, on its way to Papua, Indonesia. Which brings us to the real reason we traveled to Idaho. We were at MAF headquarters. Rejoining MAF. That's right. Sean and Becca are at it again! We're MAF missionaries once again. And it couldn't feel more right . After much (much, much, much) prayer, we came to an important realization. We're called to foreign missions. As wonderful and truly blessed as our past year back in the States has been, we now know that God didn't

Well, hello! I've been gone a long time. We got back yesterday from a long ten-day road trip. There was one big reason for our trip, and news about that is forthcoming but I just wanted to share some pictures from part of our adventure. We drove to Idaho (for said "special" reason) and spent several days there before returning home. On our return trip, we decided to take a couple of extra days to drive through Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. It was an awesome time! Though we really only got to spend one day in the parks, it was a great family time. Our girls were incredible travelers. I'm a firm believer in DVD players and Redbox rentals when traveling long distances. Seriously. It just made our trip so much less stressful since the girls were entertained the whole way. While I attribute much of the calm and peace in the car to theatrical distraction, I must also note that the girls were also just simply very good. We didn't get out the DVD playe

I blogged about Maddie on her birthday. She continues to be our little ornery cuss. She's always going on all ten cylinders! (Unless, of course, she's sick.) So what about her sisters? Paige is getting around very well crawling. She loves to go after things that she shouldn't be playing with and is bored silly with plain old baby toys. Paige is also far more vocal about her needs than she used to be. We're working on getting her to go to sleep on her own. It isn't going so well. The second we lay her down in her crib, she's getting herself up again. I go in to her room about every three minutes to lay her back down. She's usually standing there holding on to the edge of the crib hollering. I have a feeling Paige will be walking sooner than her big sisters did. She is pulling herself up to things already. Makes it that much harder to keep things out of her reach! Brooklyn is doing really well in school. She improves every day on her reading. She

As I mentioned before, Wednesday was Maddie's third birthday. Poor thing really was pretty sick that day and the party with grandparents and cousins had to be postponed. We did our best to still make it a special day for her. She spent the majority of the day simply sitting in the recliner watching movies. (Now that I've had the bug too, I understand why she didn't feel up to much else. Bleck.) Opening a present. After a very rough night, this was the first smile I'd seen on the poor baby's face in quite a while. She loves her new pony who sings and eats and talks and sleeps. Wearing her new birthday outfit (purple is her favorite color). Her hair is messy and she still looks very pale - she just broke our hearts! She was trying so hard not to be sick on her special day. But she spent the whole day right there in that chair.....

Well, I've stayed away from this blog about as long as I could stand. Honestly, the past couple of weeks have been more about surviving than anything else. Our house was hit pretty hard with a terrible stomach bug. Okay, the house wasn't hit...we humans were. On Saturday night and Sunday, Sean wasn't quite up to par. He complained about tummy aches and achey-ness but basically was able to go about his business. On Tuesday night, Madison began throwing up. I spent the night on the couch with her, helping her reach her bucket when needed. Poor thing. Wednesday was her 3rd birthday. All our plans for a big party were dashed. We did let her open her presents from us and that helped some. At least she had something new to look at while she sat in the chair all day. She choked down some birthday cake for dinner. It was sad and pathetic. On Thursday morning I woke up feeling like I was getting a cold. It wasn't until about 9 a.m. that my stomach started feeling