Life as a Leach

Tonight, Caleb and Abby performed in their first official musical.  Theater was an important part of my life growing up, and Matt and I still really love going to see shows.  I love being able to share this with my kids now! Caleb was thrilled to have a great speaking part in the play.  His character is a Star Wars lover who turns every line into something from one of the movies....type casting?!?!  He has worked so hard and did a really great job! Abby was one of the little angels and did a great job singing and sparkling on stage.  She learned every line and every word to every song (thanks to having the entire musical on CD so that Caleb could practice with it!), so it was pretty cute to watch her mouthing the lines along with the different characters.  When she wasn't on stage, she was quietly cheering Caleb on and proclaiming that her brother was doing a great job! My boy was a bit glum after the show was over because he wanted to do it again! ...

I have known Mrs. Livingston practically my entire life.  I grew up with her oldest son (who now works at our church!), and she was the youth choir director.  I went on countless trips, performed in countless plays, and sang countless songs under Mrs. L's direction.  She was a big influence in my life and I have lots of great memories with her! Mrs. L moved to North Carolina a few years ago, but she was sweet enough to mail Abby a beautiful quilt that she made!  The quilt blocks are Fancy Nancy scenes--a little girl who loves  tutus!  Embroidered in the middle is "Keep Calm and Wear a Tutu!" with Abby's full name and birth date at the bottom.  Needless to say, Abby LOVES it!!

Last week was vbs at our church!  It was a fun (but exhausting!) week of exploring other countries and learning about the missionaries that work there.  We traveled to Chad, Indonesia, Japan, the Ukraine, and then discussed how we could be missionaries in our hometown.  It was a pretty cool idea and a great way to connect the kids with the missionaries our church supports.   Caleb loved the music and learning about the culture of each country.   Abby's favorite part was dancing to the music we sang! I was a "mission mom" (group leader) along with my sister, and we had a good time...but like I said, it's exhausting! :)

The little lady had her last day of Mom's Morning Out last Friday.  This one-day-a-week program at our church is not technically a pre-school program, but the teachers do a wonderful job of doing all kinds of fabulous learning activities!  I have shared pictures in the past, but I really am amazed at all of the great experiences Abby's teacher has given her this year. They do a very informal closing program on the last day.  I may have gotten a little teary eyed at the sight of my girl sitting up there on that stage... My girl right before the program started Before their Bible story, Ms. Valerie gives all of the students a little cup of Cheerios to keep them quiet so that they can enjoy a little snack while they listen.  For the closing program, she showed the parents how the Bible stories are done in their class. Look how happy she is!!  In the beginning of the year, she wouldn't eat the Cheerios at all.  I think they usually ended up ...

It seems like everybody does baptism a little differently.  Some sprinkle, some dunk, some go backwards, some go forwards, some go under once, some go under three times, some do it as infants, some do it upon profession of faith. I'm not looking to get into an argument about the nitty-gritty differences of different denominations.  Honestly, I don't think the how  is a big deal at all.  It's the why.    Our church believes in a believer's baptism as a way to publicly proclaim that you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins.  (We dunk 3 times forward, in case you're wondering!) :) My sweet boy knows that he has Jesus in his heart, so he decided that he wanted to be baptized so that he could tell everybody how much he loved Jesus.  We went through a little book that our church gives to kids who want to be baptized, and we also had him meet with our head pastor so that he could talk with him as well.  We went step-by-ste...

As promised, here are a few pictures from our Christmas Eve service.   Abby was a pretty cute little mouse, if I do say so myself! Caleb was an awfully handsome shepherd! Anna got up on stage with the group and immediately ran across the stage.  Amy had to chase her and bring her back.  Turns out, she listens to her Sunday school teacher better than her mom!  :) Abby's headband kept falling down.  Darn glasses! Caleb was supposed to be sleeping in the field with his "flock." His little sheep likes to sleep on it's shepherd's neck, apparently... He did a great job singing! Sadly, we got no pictures of Abby's epic fall into the poinsettias.  Matt didn't even realize that she had done it!  Oh well...that's one for my memory!  :)

Dale....a former youth of ours from when we were a newly married couple serving at our first church.  He's...in a word...special.   :) He has made me shake my head in resignation more times than I count.  He's the one person in a large crowd of people to stand up every single time  during "God Bless the USA."  I've been forced to experience various bodily functions on multiple occasions.  And, I'm not proud to say that I had to confiscate finger rockets from him after he shot them at me during a national youth conference. Turns out, he was quite disappointed that I did not write a blog post about his potty accomplishments like I did about Abby the other day.  He feels that his efforts should be celebrated just as much as hers.  So... Way to go, Dale!!!!!! I am SO proud of the way you have gone "potty" for the last 21 years.  Although it has been a looooooong time coming, you have finally mastered the fine art of flushing the to...

I keep forgetting to blog about the church service last Sunday. I must remedy that immediately! The worship team at our church performed "Our God" as a special music selection. You may remember that we have adopted that as our family theme song and our worship leader knew it! He shared a bit of our story with the congregation, then let Caleb introduce the song in his own way. We had a video of Caleb singing "Our God" that my sister took, so they played that on the screen before the worship team started singing. Watching Caleb sing was enough to make me cry (in all honesty, I cried wayyyyy before that even started...), but the whole thing was just a really sweet gesture of love and support to our family. Looking around at the faces of people in the congregation and the choir, I think it meant a lot to everyone else as well. After all, so many of them have been traveling this journey with us! If you want to listen to "Our God," check this out!  It's ...