Christian Fathering Skills

I was having a random conversation with my little man and he asked me if I had the ring his daddy gave me on my finger still. I said that I did and he grabbed my hand and was examining my engagement and wedding ring.  Then he went on to inform me that when he gets grows up he is going to buy a ring like mine with "that white thing on it" (the diamond).  I told him that when he grew up he would have to get a job to make money so he could save for things like a ring for whatever girl he wanted to marry and a car.  He interrupted me and said,
"for my son?  So I can buy a car for my son?" then he went on to ramble and tell me, "if I grow up and up and up, I will buy my son toys and cars and he will like them and he will play with them. I will tell him he can't watch BAD movies and he will be sad and I will say I love him. He will go to his room to pout and I will put him on time out." He said this so matter of fact and I was impressed that he wanted to parent like us and he is sure his son will do exactly what he does and like exactly what he likes. I guess the thing that makes me happy is that he said he will tell his not to watch bad movies, instead of saying he will let him do whatever he wants to do.  Maybe he is understanding that we do what we do because we love him and not to hurt him.  I love how his brain works and when he has moments that he rambles about things, I feel like a get a glimpse of what is really going on in his little mind, a hint of how he is processing it all. :)

Christian's Kindergarten Harvest Party

For Christian's Harvest party we had so many mothers' helping and a lot of them had kids on Christians soccer team.  The moms all donated food and we had SO MANY snacks that there were left overs to make snacks for the class for weeks to come. We started off with our food and snacks and then played some hot potato and hula hoop relays games.  Below is a shot of Christian posing with Jaden and Lexi, before starting on the games.  While playing Bingo, which was a huge hit, the prizes were a hit too.  Anna won a Bingo prize and she was very proud.  We also helped them make a photo frame they decorated themselves.  Then we got a group picture so the kids would have something to put into the frame and hang on their fridge.  Christian was blessed to have a great Kindergarten year with many of his friends in his class.  Anna Sullivan, Jaden Davis, Lexi Lawson and many more.  It ended up being a great first class party for the kids. 

Kindergarten was a fun year for little man.  We got to see him grow up so much and yet he still had so much further to go.  ;)  He did have a day that he actually punched a girl because his chair fell and she laughed and he thought she was laughing at him, so he punched her.  We had to have him write a note the girl (ended up being a girl named Emily) saying he was sorry for punching her.  He got a slip of paper home from school making us aware of what had indeed happened.  :(  The funny thing was that when we confronted him and tried to find out who he hit, he said, "um, the girl with the white squiggly hair."  We thought he was talking about Anna, so we immediately contacted the parents and were apologizing only to find out that it wasn't her. :)  What an event.  Kindergarten is quite the experience for us and Christian. :)

Ava's 1st Grade Harvest Party

 Harvest Class Party for 1-4. . .Ava's 1st Grade Class. The kids were very excited!!! They couldn't wait to see what they were going to be doing.  When we got there, we started with a fun craft where they put together a foam turkey on a paper plate.  The kids loved this activity and Mrs. Brubaker was still there to help because she hadn't gone on maternity leave yet.  Above Ava is getting assistance from her favorite teacher, Mrs. Brubaker.  The finished product turned out great.  Then they went on to do a dance line around the room to get rid of some of their energy.  They were practicing cheers and break dancing as a class too.  The girl sitting across from Ava at the desks was her best friend Jennifer.  Jennifer was in her Kindergarten class and her first grade class. :)

 We did manage to capture a group picture at the end of the party.  The kids were so funny and were all too busy to catch them all looking at the camera at once. :)  They did have a good group this year though.  Kylan and Trevor were the two boys that loved to fight over who was going to marry Ava.  She told them they had to bring her a ring before she would agree to marry them.  They both chased her at recess too. :)  Ava's Best Friends in Frist grade were Jennifer and Uriska!

 

Christian's Short Stories

On the first day of school, we got a special note from the teacher and she was saying how she had to make a small correction with Christian that day.  Apparently, he was in the front of the line and while in the hall, he turned around to yell at the kids behind him to "GET IN LINE" She thought this was kind of cute but had to correct him, so she asked him who was in charge here.  He looked at her so seriously and said, "ME & YOU". . .she said she was trying not to laugh as she had to correct him and tell him exactly who was the teacher.  The next morning, before he went to school, we asked him who was in charge.  He said, "Mrs. Boward."  Then he said, "I tried to be the teacher, but she told me to get in line!" :)

Christian - "mom, I got my star flipped today."
Mom - "Christian, what did you do?  Why did she have you flip your star."
Christian - "because I had to throw the pieces across the room."
Appears to me that sometimes the compulsion of doing what you want to do even when you know it is wrong, is worth the consequences because you just have to do it!  Hopefully he learns his lessons before he grows up. :)  He knew his star would be flipped but for some reason it was a necessity to throw those pieces.  Sorry Mrs. Boward.

At the kitchen table one morning, Christian and Westin were having a conversation.  Westin asked Christian why Ava didn't like school.  Christian said, "Well, Ava is just SCARED of school."

I was helping in Christian's class the other day and his teacher asked him why he had an ice pack in his mail box.  I listened as he explained it was from the nurses' office.  She reminded him that he was not to take the ice packs home and where to put them so they would get back to the nurse.  When we got home, I asked him why he was at the nurses' office?  He said he fell on his butt while running at Recess so he needed to get "fixed up"  I started questioning him and here come to find out he must visit the nurses' office frequently.  Anyone who knows Christian very well knows he ALWAYS has some sort of boo boo or reason to "need to be fixed up." as he calls it.  So what I realized is my son, the boy full of ailments, goes to the nurses' office for band aids and ice packs quite often.  I love that boy!!! I tried to explain it to him, that if he is not bleeding he or something isn't broken, he doesn't need the nurse but I am pretty sure that when I am not there to help him make those judgement calls, he will feel that anything warrants him the right to the nurse. :)

Christian's teacher pulled me a side the other day and asked me if I had issues with Christian paying attention, and if when he was asked questions did he give appropriate responses that made sense. I had to chuckle as I shared that yes this was an issue for us too.  I told her he was easily distracted and by that I meant, when carrying a toy from the living room to his room on a mission to put it away, he may stop and be distracted multiple times on the way back the hall.  :)  She said okay and that she was wondering if it was just with her or when he was in trouble.  Then she went on to share with me that the other day, she moved him to the front of the carpet so he wouldn't be distracted by the kids in front of him, but she thinks he may have seen it as a privilege. I laughed and told her that yes, he did think it was a privilege because he came home so excited and said, "mommy, Mrs. Boward moved me to the front of the carpet!! Aren't you proud of me?!?"  :)  Micah says at least we know he will be easy to please for his employer someday!!

Ever since school started Christian is working so hard at learning.  He LOVES learning which I wasn't sure whether he would or not.  He gets mad when Ava has homework and he doesn't and he cries when we have a day off.  We actually have found that the most effective threaten of punishment is to tell him if he doesn't stop, we won't let him go to school the next day.  It works every time!  So different than his sister.  He had his first sick day from school the other day and he cried because he didn't want to stay home with us, he wanted to go to school with Ava. :( He makes me smile all the time.  He is simply HIM!!

Tresure Hunt With My Pirates

Hurricane Sandy gave Ava and Christian two days off school.  This was fantastic for us since we didn't get home from Hilton Head until really late Sunday night.  Pappy spent the night Sunday into Monday which was exciting in itself but then he had to go home and make sure Grandma Hunsberger was taken care of, so we spent the rest of Monday hanging out as a family and just cleaning up and unpacking after the mini vacation from Andy and Michele's Wedding.

So, needless to say, the kids had lots of energy and playing outside wasn't the greatest option at the time.  We decided to play pirates and make up our very own piratey adventure.  We started by making a flag for our ship (Christian's bed was our ship) and by making a Treasure Map.  We even burnt the edges and corners a bit of the map to make it look cooler and more realistic.

 

 

We started off in the BOAT and our goal was to find the Treasure!  There was a pirate after us, a Mean one and his name was Pirate Petey.  While we were out on the water, we came across a message in a bottle.  The message in a bottle lead us to a clue in the tub, "mossy alligator swamp" and there we found a clue that took us to the Pirate Snack Shack where we had golden NUGGETS (tator tots) Ava read all the clues and Christian helped us figure them out.  Finally, the last clue was behind one of the deer heads hanging in Christian's room, (the enchanted forest) and as it read, it lead us to God's Word which was daddy's Bible. 

The kids knew right where daddy kept his Bible so they ran in and there was the final part.   A bag of Treasure and a piece of paper that is pictured below.  There were some golden coined candies and some mints and other piratey treasures.  Then as the kids were eating their hard earned treasure, we read the verse about storing our treasures and talked about where God wants us to store our treasures.  This was such a fun activity and as you can see, the kids were most def. in character. :)  We had so much fun.  After dinner that evening, the kids performed a small dinner theater as they walked Grandma, Pappy and Daddy through the adventure and lead them to the treasure. Every clue we found, Christian would try and read out loud like Ava had earlier but he kept saying in a loud voice, "and now find daddy's bible!"  This made Ava so mad cause he was "ruining" it for her.  So funny.   At the very end we asked them what they were thinking, if they wanted treasure on Heaven or Earth, Ava wanted treasure in Heaven, but Christian said he still wanted candy for now!!!!  We did have so much fun though. 

 

 

Hurricane Sandy - Frankenstorm

We have never had a storm that has hit so hard as the storm that hit this year, October 2012.  The name she went by was Hurricane Sandy (some called her Frankenstorm) and she was said to be 800 miles WIDE!  She was a raging storm and we had days to prepare, not knowing what exactly we were preparing for but knowing it was going to hit hard.  The predictions were so huge that the schools across a rather large region closed on Monday and Tuesday of that week.  We were away for Andy and Michele Burge's wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina when we first were warned of the crazy approaching storm.  We considered staying an extra day because we were afraid we were going to be traveling through the storm to get home.  However, we decided to leave on Sunday and take our chances.  The weather was rather nice for the first 10 hours of the trip and then we did manage to run into some rain but nothing more than we have driven through on a regular stormy day.  The one thing that we were told by numerous people was to grab some extra jugs of water and non perishable food.  They were calling for power to be possibly out for days, so while we were traveling we stopped in Virginia to get some water at a local Wal-Mart.  The water aisle was bare. . .  .leaving only a few seltzer waters on the shelf.  It was a little alarming to see that but then we were told the local Rutter's up the road form our house had water still. 

We got home at 11:30ish that Sunday evening and immediately started to prepare.  We all bathed and got all clean so we could be clean to start our week without power. ;)  Then we filled the bath tub full of hot water so we could have water to flush toilets in case the power went out.  I filled a bunch of plastic containers with water and put them all in the freezer so they would freeze and then help pack them around the meat in the freezer so they would hopefully prolong the meat if we were out of power for awhile.  Then we tried to make sure we had flash lights and candles near and off to bed we went.  The next day we watched the news as the storm was rapidly approaching.  We kept waiting to lose power.  Christian finally got tired of waiting with us and went to bed.  Around 9:30 Monday evening we lost power.  The wind was howling around outside and it was making quite the ruckus.  The darkness was so dark and took us awhile to get the candles and flashlights, but then it was fine. 

Micah heard something downstairs so we went over to check it out. I walked around the corner and there he stood at the top of the stairs and he was scared.  He kept hollering, "Hello?" and then I started panicking.  He said, "the garage door is open" and sure enough, the door that went from the downstairs room into the garage was wide open!!!  I grabbed two LARGE knives and down the stairs we started, candles in one hand and knives in the other.  We went through the entire basement and then once we realized there was no intruders, we investigated the door.  Seems the pressure from the outside wind on the house had knocked the not so latched door open.  Made some sense but still rather scary.  After this, we prayed through the house and then went to bed. 

The most inconvenient part was that without power, our noise makers didn't work, so we had no white noise to sleep to. . . .making the wind sound so much worse, as we were falling asleep.  However, the next morning, 13 hours later, the power came back on.  We lost nothing food wise from freezer or fridge and we were so grateful for our power to be back.  We were blessed to also have no damage, but there were many that around us that did and we continue to think of them and try to rebuild.  Crazy when you think that the storms always seem to hit elsewhere and then all at once, they seem to be hitting us here more and more frequently. Grateful God kept us all safe. :)

Aunty One-L Ties the Knot - Finale

When the Limo dropped us off at the church, we had to sneak in the side entrance so Andrew wouldn't be able to see Michele.  They snuck us in, and that is when the little glitch happened.  The one that almost did it.  Michele had been working with her florist for months trying to come up with what they wanted as the bouquets and the centerpieces on the tables.  The flowers were one of her most important details she was worried about.  The florist called her and said she had it figured out and she would drop the flowers off at the church Sunday morning.  The moment I walked around the corner to where the flowers were awaiting us, I knew and so did Melissa.  They were not right and they were NOT what Michele was envisioning.  She was pretty upset and she was emotionally intense at that moment anyway, five minutes before the wedding started.  Gary came back and had a pep talk to with her and then I had my chance. I reminded her that even if the flowers were ugly, and they were not, that it still wouldn't change what was about to happen.  She was about to walk down that aisle to marry her best friend and vow to spend the rest of her life with him and making a life with him.  That was why she was there and that was why he was there and why the rest of us were there to witness it.  She had finally made it!  She was getting ready to see her dreams come true right that very moment and No one and Nothing could take that from her!  We both cried of course and then dabbed our tears and she got ready to walk down the aisle to marry the man she had been praying for and waiting for years!  I was so proud of her and her attitude!  Everything was perfect!

 

 

 

Waiting to walk down the aisle. . minutes before our processional music starts.  Even captured the pep talk from Melissa, Gary and Tyler. :)  Oh, and Andy PRETENDING he was trying to get away. hahah

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew BURGE!!!!!

 

 On our way to the reception. . but wedding picture first.  The ceremony was a beautiful one and very well done.  There was crying, laughing and all the typical wedding stuff.  Then they were announced as man and wife after a long ROMANTICAL Kiss and then off to see them to the limo with their streamers. :)  Everyone else headed to the reception for cocktail hour as we headed off to face hurricane Sandy head on and get our bridal party shots! :)  So grateful for Micah, Brianna and Ryan who took the kiddos on to the reception and entertained them for the hour or so it took for us to get there. The photo shoot took awhile but was actually really fun and we all enjoyed the drama as we were trying to get clearances to get into the one part of the area we were suppose to get pictures done with.  Because of the extra crazy weather, we didn't get everything done we wanted, but we ended up getting some nice shots. :)

 

Then off to the reception!  Finally to eat and give our toasts.  I was really anxious cause Melissa had written her speech out and I had just thought about it a lot but not actually written it down. :)  I winged it but it was fun and I think Andy and Michele appreciated our speeches of how much we loved them and how much they meant to us.

 

What a Great Day October 27, 2012 was. . I saw One-Ls dreams come TRUE!  Yayy! Love ya girl!!!  Congrats to Mr and Mrs. Andrew Burge!