Landon's Overly Tired Laugh

Landon at 16 months

Landon is now 16 months old so I thought I'd post about some things he is doing so I have a record to look back on...

He is a huge people person. It doesn't matter if they're young or old, normal or creepy looking he waves and says "hi" to everyone.

He loves "Signing Time" and is learning a lot of sign language.

He is starting to learn his shapes. He knows: Star, heart, square, diamond.

He is starting to learn his colors. He knows: Yellow, red, blue.

His favorite animal right now is an owl. We went to the library the other week and the librarian found a book about owls for him. When we went yesterday he saw that lady and said, "whoo, whoo" and did the sign for owl. His memory amazes me!

He started going to BSF this year. They are piloting a 6 weeks old and up class and are hoping to make it nation wide in the near future. It's so exciting that he will be learning the same things as me but on a level he can understand.

He loves to dance whenever he hears music.

He's starting to put two word sentences together: "hold me", "sit down" (when he stands up on a chair or something and knows he's supposed to sit), "bobby please" and a few others.

He loves to climb. Yeterday I found him standing on the kitchen table - scary!

Ha grabs my necklace and says, "Mamuel" his version of "Samuel" and kisses it. It just melts my heart every time.

He brings us so much joy and we are so thankful to our Lord for blessing us with a wonderful little boy.

Check out my sister, Rebekah's photography website. I wish I had her talent! It's so fun to have her and April in the family. I love to see the shots they come up with.

Our Little Chatter Box

Sorry, I've been so bad at keeping this blog up. We just got back from Kansas Bible Camp where we spent some good time with family and friends. Now, we are getting ready for a garage sale that we hope to have this weekend (weather permitting).
Our house looks like a tornado passed through it - I see why some people decide to go the Good Will route and not mess with it at all.

Anyway, here is Landon showing a few new things he can say.

Happy Birthday Finn!

Landon wanted to wish his cousin, Finley a very happy 2nd birthday!

M.E.N.D.

I am involved with a support group called M.E.N.D (mommies enduring neonatal death). We meet once a month to help support mothers going through the loss of a child at any stage of their pregnancy. When we lost Samuel there was nothing like this out there. A woman I met at BSF started a chapter in the Tulsa area in April 2008 and it is such a wonderful place for women (or men) to come and find support among others going through similar situations.

We are having our first annual fundraiser to support this ministry. It's going to be a BUNCO BASH Thurs. Sept 17th at 6:30pm. If you want to or are able to attend the cost is $10 a person and potatoes with all the fixin's will be provided. Bunco is a game that they will explain if you aren't familiar with it. You play in groups of four, so if you could get 4 people together that would be even better! If you know of anyone that plays Bunco or would help support this ministry by coming let me know.

Also, there will be prizes, so if anyone would be interested in contributing anything, that would be awesome or if you come, you just might win!

For more information or to register please visit the following website: www.mendtulsaevents.com

Thank you!

Osage Beach

Here is a video and a few pictures from our family vacation at Osage beach.

Pictures of Family Camp

Whirlwind

These last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind and I am left wondering where the summer has gone! The day after our Neighborhood Bible Club, we left for Ozark Family Camp. We had a really good time with family and friends aside from getting the stomach flu. I tell you what, it's no fun being sick and taking care of a sick baby! Thankfully it was just for a day. John Heller ministered to us and it was a really encouraging time all around.

We left Turkey Hill on Friday and headed straight to Osage Beach, where we met my family for our annual vacation on the Lake. We had such a good time together. We felt bad though because we brought the stomach flu with us and out of the 16 of us only 3 avoided the vicious plague. In the midst of the sickness, we really did have a wonderful time as a family. I was even able to water ski (my medication is working!). Landon loved the boat and the tube, but hated his life jacket. One of my favorite times was sitting out on the deck talking about things of the Lord and singing praise songs. It really felt like a taste of what it will be like in heaven.

As sad as it was sad to come to an end, I am looking forward to getting back into the normal routine and it feels SO good to sleep in my own bed after being gone so long.

Many pictures and videos to come...

Day 5 - Kids Club

I can't believe the week is over already! It went by quickly. What a great last day though. We had ten neighborhood kids and eleven chapel kids. Today's lesson really wrapped up how Jesus is OUR perfect Lamb, and how all of our sin was laid upon Him. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE The Lamb book? We gave a book to the grand prize winner (AJ) today as well - he was pretty excited.

I am just so thankful to the Lord for bringing the kids out and providing the help to make this happen. The Friday before the club, Rachel and I went out and invited people to the club. I had felt pretty discouraged about the contact (or lack of!) and didn't see how any kids would come. It just shows that when we are weak, the Lord is strong and it is HIS work and not ours. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

Matthew 19:14
"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"

Please continue to pray for these little ones.




Schedule of Today's Events:

Kids Arrive - Name Tags, decorate paper bags that would be their treat bags.

Songs - Do You Know About Jesus, Salvation, ABC... Jesus Died for You and Me

Memory Verse- John 3:16

Lesson - The Lamb chapters 9,10

Review Game - Watermelon Memory Game

Prizes - The winner got a backpack with the Lamb book and other little things, second and third got some toys I picked up at Walgreen's for cheap and everyone got a bubbles pack (they were only .50 each at Walgreen's). They all seemed to like their prizes.

Outside Game - Obstacle Course in the back yard - the kids really enjoyed this. It involved throwing a football through an inner tube, pulling a wagon, blowing a bubble, getting a ring out of our pool (while the sprinkler was soaking them), and running under a rope to tag the next person on their team.

Snacks - Pizza Party, Snow Cones (thanks to Rachel letting me borrow her machine!) and Kool-Aid

Day 4 - Kids Club

Today we had a great turn out. We had five new neighborhood kids come and three that have been coming most of the days. There were also twelve chapel kids. All the kids listened really well to the lesson and enjoyed the activities. Can't believe tomorrow's the last day. This week has flown by!












Schedule of Today's Events:

Kids Arrive - Name Tags, toss a volleyball around

Songs - Do You Know About Jesus, Salvation, Extra Good News

Memory Verse- Romans 6:23

Lesson - The Lamb chapters 7,8

Review Game - Baseball Review Game

Outside Game - Steal the Bacon using big inner tube

Craft - Popcorn Pictures

Snacks - Oreo Worm Cups and Kool-Aid

Day 3 - Kids Club

Today was another good day. Three kids from the neighborhood came, but two of them had to leave early again. Then, we had twelve kids from the chapel. It was a lot of fun. The kids love the water balloons! Keep praying, the next two lessons really get into the gospel and how Jesus is our Lamb who born our sin on the cross.







Schedule of Today's Events:

Kids Arrive - Name Tags, 20 Questions

Songs - Do You Know About Jesus, Salvation, Extra Good News

Memory Verse- Romans 3:23

Lesson - The Lamb chapters 5,6

Review Game - Watermelon Memory Game

Outside Game - Water Balloon Battleship

Snacks - Cookies and Kool-Aid

Day 2 - Kids Club

Today was a little bit crazy, but a lot of fun. Twelve kids from the chapel came. No kids from the neighborhood were able to come at first, so we went on with the songs, verse, and lesson. Right after the lesson, seven neighborhood kids showed up. It was so exciting! We played a lot of water balloon games. After the games, I taught the verses to the kids that showed up late. They all learned the verses quickly as we had a little song to go with each. I find that it's much easier to learn a verse when it's put to a tune.

Here are some picture (as promised) of todays events:




The Bystanders


Landon REALLY enjoyed his Bomb Pop


The winners of the water balloon toss!



Schedule of Today's Events:

Kids Arrive - Name Tags

Fruit Loop Necklaces - This went over very well!

Songs - Our God is so Great, One Way, ABCD... Jesus died for you and me

Memory Verse - James 2:10

Lesson - The Lamb chapters 3,4

Review Game - Baseball Review Cards

Outside Games: Water Balloon Hot Potato, Water Balloon Relay, Waterballoon Toss

Snacks - Bomb Pops and Kool-Aid

Day 1 - Kids Club

The first day went very well. We had five kids from the neighborhood come and five from the chapel. Three of the neighborhood kids had to leave early which they were very disappointed about. We had a good time though and the kids listened very well to the lesson. I thought I would show our schedule in case anyone reading this is interested in doing a club in their neighborhood.

Kids Arrive - Decorate name tags

Play Balloon Charades - This was fun, the kids had to pop a balloon to see what they were to act out - they all loved it!

Sing songs - Our God is So Great, Can't get to heaven w/out Salvation, God Loves You

Learn Verse - Genesis 1:1

Lesson - The Lamb chapters 1,2 - This is a REALLY good book that I think all homes with children should own. It explains the gospel very clearly from the very beginning.

Review Game - Build Ice Cream Cone - Each time a child would answer a correct question from the lesson, they would put a felt ice cream flavor on their teams ice cream cone. The team with the biggest cone at the end wins!

Outside Inner Tube Relays - Two teams put on an inner tube and run around a tree and back to their team and pass off the inner tube to the next team mate and so on. They enjoyed this - it was a little hot for it though!

Snacks - Rice Krispy Treats with spinkled animal crackers glued on with frosting. I bought the colored marshmallows and was thinking that they would be colorful rice krispies... stupic me, realized while I was melting them, that the colors melt together - oh well they still tasted yummy! We also had Kool-Aid to drink.

I don't have any pictures from yesterday, but I'll post some tomorrow of today's activities. Today we're doing a lot of things with water balloons - should be fun!

Neighborhood Bible Club

Today starts a week long Bible club that I will be having at my house. In the past I've just done holiday parties, but I've never done an entire week before. I am very excited about it though. It will just be two hours a day, so it shouldn't be too much.

This morning Landon decided to try to help when I was in another room and I forgot that the sign was in the room with him... The pictures say it all. Oh well! I wish there was such a thing as a white marker... I'm planning on trying white-out to lessen the mess.






"I just wanted the balloon mom..."



Also, there are great deals at Staples this week. I did this scenario. You can buy ANY backpack and get however much you paid back in Staples rewards. Can you guess what the prize for the week will be at my club? Yep, I found a backpack for $20 that is really nice and gender neutral for the winner. The best part is it was free :)

Please pray that many kids would come out and the gospel would be shared clearly and understood by these young ones.

Cloth vs. Disposable Diapers

I was running low on my disposable diaper stock so I decided to try using cloth diapers until a good sale came up. It surprisingly was not that bad. I just had a bunch of the prefold style cloth diapers that I had used as burp rags, the old school plastic pants, and snappis. I always thought cloth would definitely be cheaper, but then I decided to try to figure out which was in fact a better deal. I found I used more cloth diapers in a day than disposable, so I thought I'd compare the number of disposables in a day vs. the one load of laundry that I do when I do the cloth diapers.

I looked online and found that the main cost in a load of laundry is heating the water heater which runs about $.39 a load. Electricity and water are a few pennies as well. I use homemade laundry detergent which is a couple pennies a load. So, around $.50. I usually hang my clothes on the line, but if for some reason I can't, the cost of drying is probably somewhere between $.25-$1.00 (can't find online how much exactly). So, roughly $.50-1.50 which doesn't include the investment of cloth diapers, pants, or snappis. In my case, I went with the cheapest route - got the cloth diapers as gifts, pants were 4/$5 at Wal-Mart, snappis were 4/$10 on ebay.

This week I got Huggies on sale for 2/$20. Used two $3.00 Huggies coupons, a 3 off $10 coupon for a new Walgreens opening up, and received a $5.00 Register Reward for my next purchase. So, roughly $3.00 for each pack of 40ct. Which works out to be .08 a diaper. Landon uses about 6 diapers in a given day so the cost would be about $.48 a day for me this week. Now, I can't always get diapers this cheap, but I try to shoot for around $4.50 for a Jumbo pack which is about $.11 per diaper or $.66 per day.

All things considered, I think for me it is a little cheaper to use disposable diapers, but it is not really good for the environment. So, I think I will do a little of both to make my disposable diaper stash last longer and not fill those landfills quite as fast :)

Landon loves crackers

Not What These Hands Have Done

This hymn encouraged me today:

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers, or sighs, or tears can ease my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, my Savior, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

I am so thankful my salvation rests on Christ's blood alone and not on what I do or don't do.

1 Pet 1:18,19
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

14 Months and National Cow Day

Today, Landon is 14 months old - wow how time goes fast! Since Landon has been doing better the last couple days, we decided to venture out for some free food. Landon is wearing the same outfit he did last year - he just fills it out a little better this year ;)

Free Chick-Fil-A

Tomorrow (7/10) is the annual dress like a cow get free chicken at Chick-Fil-A. If you dress head to tow in cow attire you will get a free value meal or kid's meal. If you have any cow accessory you get a free entree item! We did this last year and got two free meals. A pretty sweet deal if you ask me.