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The kids got invited to their first birthday party.
Their new friend Sara just turned two. It was a farmyard theme party with bounce house, petting zoo, pony rides, and barbeque fare.
I got to use the song from the Bounce program from PBS Sprout, "Its a Birthday Party"
click on the pictures to enlarge
The kids are just learning to swing on a big kid swing
This boy could do a catalog
He was having the best time on this swing and in the bounce house
Sometimes you can see what this girl will look like in a few years
Whoever invented the bounce house is a genius and must be a billionaire
Sara and her parents were so nice
You might say my kids kind of took over
and I really should have stopped them
but, no one really cared, they thought this was fun
Look how well behaved those boys were being
just watching the girls have at that frosting
And here another great scene as Sara's Dad is cutting the cake
He was being so patient and cautious. He is a military man.
We just ate around all the demolition.
You're two years old just once in your life.
Gosh its nice to let kids be free once in awhile.
See what else the kids have been doing this summer in their web album
Since I have internet at home but not much time to actually use it, I check my email and facebook and that's about it.
I love my purpose driven life devotionals so much that I like to put them here.
Looking back, its been flooding this journal.
So, for the next post, it's a story about a very fun birthday party
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www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove
:: Detoxifying Parental Guilt ::
Are you plagued by guilt whenever you fall short of
your parenting ideals? Such guilt may seem a natural
response, but it's not... It's *cultural*.
Our culture conditions people to believe that their
worth depends on their behavior, so that when your
behavior is "wrong" you doubt your self-worth, i.e.,
you feel guilty.
But if you knew absolutely that you *are* worthy of
love and respect -- *unconditionally* -- you'd never
feel guilty. You'd simply feel "off" whenever your
behavior was out of alignment with your values.
That "off" feeling would be a welcome sign that you
need to adjust your course. And with your self-worth
beyond dispute, you'd be confident in your ability to
get back on track.
So next time you feel parental guilt, say to yourself,
"This has nothing to do with my inherent worth --
that's a given. I made a mistake, but I can learn from
it. I got a little lost, but I'm finding my way."
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THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove
:: "Scare City" ::
When you buy into the *scarcity* principle, you live
in "Scare City": a place where you're always afraid of
coming up short.
In Scare City, you can't enjoy what you have -- you're
too busy worrying about what you *don't* have. All the
cups in Scare City are half empty.
Somehow, young children are largely immune to the
distressing effects of living in Scare City...
* They enjoy the abundant *now* while their
parents worry about the lack of time.
* They transform their homes into magical
worlds while their parents worry about the
lack of order.
* They give and receive love endlessly while
their parents carefully ration their limited
supply.
To live the Good Life, you have to leave Scare City
and go to a *dance* -- a joyful, magical, healing
dance where you release your fears and *shake your
booty* like nobody's watching: a-BUN-dance!
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| Jesus knew this was coming and did it anyway in perfect obedience to His Father. Because God loves His creation that much. To come to us, bring us back into fellowship with Him, then go through a most torturous death to pay the price of our sin. Then He rose from the dead! Victorious over death! To make sure we know who He is. To promise to us eternal heavenly life with Him when our time comes. How great, How awesome is He! | |||
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I think of my mother when I'm examining myself and what makes me me. I compare the kids with myself to see what traits seem like they come from me?
Jenna likes to spend time on her own, doing her thing, keeping herself occupied. She loves to read and to draw. She is quite expressive in her words, gestures. I can see her acting or singing or dancing.
Jacob likes one on one attention. He looks so much like me, especially when he was in his crawling months. He focuses well on things that interest him: cars, wheels, tools, puzzles. He's so orderly, he often lines his toys up in rows and he's really good and appreciates putting things away in their certain places.
Jacob likes stuffed animals but given a choice, he loves cars. I think its the wheels, because at first it was motorcycles. There are quite a few motorcyclists in our area. What boy wouldn't love the sound of the motors?
The kids don't play with their toys much here at home. I only keep a few things out I know they like and the rest I have boxed up to take out when we need something to do. I heard about that trick early on and have kept rotating toys that way.
Most of what the kids have are gifts, we've been so blessed by family and friends that want to love on the kids. I couldn't do this without the support. In this season, we're better off but at least we don't have to skip on a bill just to put a new shirt on the kids. We've also been in winter and they were all set for winter clothes. I think this weekend I'll look through their spring wardrobe to see what we'll need. I do a load of laundry everyday. So I can get by with three sets of everything: shirts, pants, jammies, sweatshirts, dresses, shoes.
I've started collecting training panties for Miss Jenna. She has sensative skin that burns easily, so when we get home in the afternoon, she hangs out in cloth for the rest of the day. I have a stock of cloth diapers too that we use. We're potty training this summer! They use the potty, I just haven't enforced it yet.
I've started collecting training panties for Miss Jenna. She has sensative skin that burns easily, so when we get home in the afternoon, she hangs out in cloth for the rest of the day. I have a stock of cloth diapers too that we use. We're potty training this summer! They use the potty, I just haven't enforced it yet.
Jacob loves the movie, Cars! He asks to watch it all the time and its really only good to watch when they're awake. I use movies to ease into naps and bedtime. That's a good one for "get out of the kitchen, mama's cooking dinner or cleaning the floor". He has collected some McQueen and Mater cars. Mama also got him the sweatshirt and shoes. I've seen that Mack that you can put other cars in. He likes to put smaller things inside bigger things. Like the trunk of his big wheel bike. Got to be a boy trait. He doesn't build with blocks all that much. We have the large legos that he doesn't seem to care about at the moment. The boy is all about cars right now. When I take him to change or sit at the table to eat, he panics about not having a car. He brings them into the bathtub. He brings them to the car. He brings them to the park. His latest thing is to bury a car, then drive it out from under the pile. Trains would be an interesting different thing that's similar. I see him lining up his cars and trying to push them along together like a train. We have Thomas movies he likes to watch.
Jenna just wants to hold as many babies in her arms as she can. She likes to take their clothes off and wrap them in blankets. She loves animals. I can't figure out which animal is her favorite yet. She says "kitty" and "doggie" often, but I don't think that's out of preference because she lights up the same with all animals. She has a doll stroller she likes to take outside and push along for walks. I think she'll like dressing babies soon, especially putting diapers on. She likes to take babies to the potty to sit with her. One of her babies can pee. She'll get into feeding them too. I've been meaning to spend time with her doing a whole routine with a baby. Changing, feeding, playing, putting to sleep. When we go to stores, I let her hold stuffed animals or babies and when its time to go, we put them to bed: say night night and kiss and lay down. It totally works to get the toy out of her hands at the moment. Or we just switch it with a snack or drink. She's not really a girly girly just yet, but she does love shoes and jewelry. She always points out people's shoes and jewelry. I haven't decided yet when I'm getting her ears pierced, but not just yet. I can see her turning into a fashionable tomboy, kind of like Emma Watson, the girl who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter movies.
We do watch a lot of movies. I get a new movie every week from the library. And we have a small collection: all the Shreks, Harry Potters (they can only watch one and two and even then I skip most of it), Lord of the Rings (they don't watch those unless I'm sick and can skip through all the yucky scary stuff), most of the Pixars - nemo, cars, toy storys, madagascar, monsters inc, wall-e, ratatouille, narnia (more skipping the battle scenes), not very many Disney - lion king, I have to think or go look, okay so only the Disney Pixar ones. I'm so fired. We get them from the library though. And we have the Fantasias. Those were the first movies they have seen. Simple, good music, nothing scary or disturbing, relaxing.
What have we been wanting to get:
Bambi
Bee Movie
Antz
Robots
The Land Before Time (only the first one - the rest are dumb)
Bug's Life
American Tale
101 Dalmations
Brother Bear
Little Mermaid
Jungle Book
Lady and the Tramp
Robin Hood
Fox and the Hound
Despereaux
see a theme here: they like animated movies with creatures
those prince and princess ones will come later
I cut my hair so I don't have to do anything with it but blow out the front. I don't wear makeup because I'm kissing and playing with kids all day. I go to my closet everyday and pick out jeans and a shirt. Mr Daniel is no fashionisto either. Jeans and a polo or button down shirt. Head buzzed short or bald. We live in tennis shoes.
We'll probably get a shot of us for Easter. We were starting to take a picture in front of the Christmas Tree every year, I somehow missed this year. We took a picture for the church directory and one from our night at Gilroy Gardens. Here's the lastest one with me and the kids. There aren't enough mama and kids pix. Yeah, that's a problem. We'll fix that this year. Looking at the lady I was when I first met and married Daniel makes me want to look like her again.
2 years ago - month 3
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GROWTH CHART
| JACOB | JENNA |
| 22Dec2006 BIRTH 5lbs13 1/2oz 18 3/4in | 22Dec2006 BIRTH 6lbs13 3/4oz 19 1/2in |
| 24Dec2006 hospital discharge 5lbs7oz | 24Dec2006 hospital discharge 6lbs2oz |
| 26Dec2006 PEDS 5lbs7.8oz 19in | 26Dec2006 PEDS 6lbs3.4oz 19 1/2in |
| 1/1 Marshall Hospital 5lbs8.9oz | 1/1 Marshall Hospital 6lbs3.5oz |
| 1/2 WIC consultation 5lbs12.8oz | 1/2 WIC consultation 6lbs6.3oz |
| 1/8 B&B consultation 6lbs3 1/2oz 20in | 1/8 B&B consultation 6lbs13oz 20in |
| 1/10 PEDS 6lbs12 3/4oz 20 1/2in | 1/10 PEDS 7lbs5oz 20 1/2in |
| 1/15 Marshall Hospital 7lbs2oz | 1/15 Marshall Hospital 7lbs7oz |
| 2/11 Marshall Hospital 10lbs | 2/11 Marshall Hospital 9lbs9oz |
| 3/2 PEDS 11lbs13oz 23in | 3/2 PEDS 10lbs14oz 23in |
| 4/20 PEDS 15lbs3oz 25in | 4/20 PEDS 14lbs4oz 25in |
| 7/6 PEDS 19lbs1oz 27in | 7/6 PEDS 17lbs12oz 27in |
| 1/11 PEDS 23lbs 32in | 1/11 PEDS 22lbs 31in |
| 5/20 PEDS 25lbs | 5/20 PEDS 24lbs |
| 7/22 PEDS 25lbs8oz 2ft 10in | 7/22 PEDS 25lbs8oz 2ft 9in |
| 8/10 PEDS | 8/10 PEDS 26lbs8oz |
| 3/10 PEDS 30lbs2oz 3ft | 3/10 PEDS 31ibs4oz 2ft11in |
Serving from the Heart
by Rick Warren
From now on if you listen obediently to the commandments that I am commanding you today, love God, your God, and serve him with everything you have within you, he'll take charge of sending the rain at the right time ~Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (MSG)
Repeatedly, the Bible says to "serve the Lord with all your heart." God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve him and others.
How do you know when you're serving God from your heart?
The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you're doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you, or challenge you, or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don't need rewards, or applause, or to be paid, because you love serving in this way.
We've all heard people say, "I took a job I hate in order to make a lot of money, so someday I can quit and do what I love to do." That's a big mistake. Don't waste your life in a job that doesn't express your heart.
Remember, the greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money. The richest man in the world once said,
"A simple life in the fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches"
~Proverbs 15:16 MSG
Don't settle for achieving "the good life," because the good life is not good enough. Ultimately, it doesn't satisfy. You can have a lot to live on, and still have nothing to live for. Aim instead for "the better life" - serving God in a way that expresses your heart.
Figure out what you love to do - that which God gave you a heart for - and then do it for his glory! That's part of our purpose - to do what we are created to do in worship to our Creator.
© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. |
Ministry: Shaped to Serve
by Rick Warren
God formed every creature on this planet with a special area of expertise. Some animals run, some hop, some swim, some burrow, and some fly. Each has a particular role to play based on the way they were shaped by God. The same is true with humans. Each of us is uniquely designed, or "shaped," to do certain things.
We often ask children what they want to be what they grow up. We all have a desire to have purpose in life. For God's people, its our ministry.
Before God created you, He decided what role he wanted you to play on earth. He planned exactly how He wanted you to serve Him, and then He shaped you for those tasks. You are the way you are because you were made for a specific ministry.
"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works"
Ephesians 2:10 NIV
David praised God for this incredible personal attention to detail God gave in designing each of us:
"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous"
Psalm 139:13-14 NLT
Not only did God shape you before your birth, He planned every day of your life to support His shaping process. David continues,
"Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed"
Psalm 139:16 NLT
This means nothing that happens in your life is insignificant. God uses all of it to mold you for your ministry to others and shape you for your service to Him. By identifying and understanding these factors you can discover God's will for your life.
1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?
not at all
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?
technically, no; I was all of two weeks pregnant at the "altar"
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?
shock, fear, excitement,
4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?
no way
5. HOW OLD WERE YOU?
29
6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?
had a hunch and took the home test and doctor test
7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?
my husband, then my boss
8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX?
yes
9. DUE DATE?
19 dec 2006
10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?
all day nausea that went away after eating
11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?
lots of food - mostly fruit
12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?
where I lived, the dead end jobs we were in, having to pee too often
13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX?
male and female - twins
14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?
thank God I got both
15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?
65lbs
16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?
yes, we had two showers
17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?
i knew
18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?
none whatsoever up until time to deliver when my cervix wouldn't open
19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?
they were delivered by ceasaren in placerville, ca
20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?
never went into labor
21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?
the husband daddy guy
22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?
daddy was the only person aside from the room full of doctors
23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION?
ceasaren
24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?
yes, the epidural
27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH?
5lbs 13oz
6lbs 13oz
28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ?
9:57 22 dec 2006
9:58 22 dec 2006
30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?
Jacob Scott
Jenna Valerie
31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?
they are 2years 2months
jan2k7
Ghanchi is an Indian
surname, originating in the state of Gujarat
. The name is of Hindi
origin, and means a producer and seller of oils.
The Album Cover Game (in which you get to be creative twice!)
1) Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
On the top left nav bar, click on "Random article" three times. The article title is the name of your band.
2) Go here: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php
The last two to five words of the last quote on the page is the title of your first album.
3) Go here: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interestin
The third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover art.
4) Use photoshop or similar to put the pieces together.
5) Post it to LJ with this text.
6) Your friends comment to guess what type of music it is and where your band is from.
1) Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
On the top left nav bar, click on "Random article" three times. The article title is the name of your band.
2) Go here: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php
The last two to five words of the last quote on the page is the title of your first album.
3) Go here: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interestin
The third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover art.
4) Use photoshop or similar to put the pieces together.
5) Post it to LJ with this text.
6) Your friends comment to guess what type of music it is and where your band is from.
2 years ago - feb2k7
