kaci turns five today

Happy, happy birthday sweet Kaci! We love you so much!

Christmas party

We had a great time last night at our homeschool Christmas party. Twelve eager (?) volunteers delighted us with some holiday humor about homeschooling! Hope you enjoy!

update

Well the blog has been neglected lately. Not much I can do about that. I have been busy with photo orders and trying to get everyone's cards before the holiday rush begins. Just wanted to post a quick hello and let you know that things will be back in order soon. (at least I hope!)

Here's little man, posing for the lens I am trying out.

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My favorite Christmas song! It has been playing on a regular basis in our home over the past couple of weeks. How beautiful! We got to see Andrew Peterson in concert in Louisville on Friday evening and had a wonderful time.

happy birthday, baby boy

Our baby is one. Let the celebrating begin!

background

[Chorus:]
I could play the background
I could play the background
Cause I know sometimes I get in the way
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
And I could play the background, background
And you could take the lead

[Verse 1:]
It's evident you run the show, so let me back down
You take the leading role, and I'll play the background
I know I miss my cues, know I forget my lines
I'm sticking to your script, and I'm reading all your signs
I don't need my name in lights, I don't need a starring role
Why gain the whole wide world, If I'm just going lose my soul
And my ways ain't purified, don't live according to Your Word
I can't endure this life without Your wisdom being heard
So word to every dance, a foe, a pop star
'Cause we all play the background, but mine's a rockstar
Yeah, so if you need me I'll be stage right
Praying the whole world will start embracing stage fright
So let me fall back, stop giving my suggestions
'Cause when I follow my obsessions, I end up confessing
That I'm not that impressive, matter of fact
I'm who I are, a trail of stardust leading to the superstar

[Chorus:]
I could play the background
I could play the background
Cause I know sometimes I get in the way
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
And I could play the background, background
And you could take the lead

[Verse 2:]
I had a dream that I was captain of my soul
I was master of my fate, lost control. and then I sank
So I don't want to take the lead, 'cause I'm prone to make mistakes
All the folks who follow me, going end up in the wrong place
So let me just shadow you, let me trace your lines
Matter of fact, just take my pen, here, you create my rhymes
'Cause if I do this by myself, I'm scared that I'll succeed
And no longer trust in you, 'cause I only trust in me
And see, that's how you end up headed to destruction
Paving a road to nowhere, pour your life out for nothing
You pulled my card, I'm bluffing, You know what's in my hand
Me, I'm just going to trust you, You cause the dice to land
I'm in control of nothing, follow you at any cost
Some call it sovereign will, all I know is you the boss
Man, I'm so at ease, I'm so content
I'll play the background, like it's an instrument

[Chorus:]
I could play the background
I could play the background
Cause I know sometimes I get in the way
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
And I could play the background, background
And you could take the lead

[Bridge:]
I know I'm safest when I'm in Your will, and trust Your Word
I know I'm dangerous when I trust myself, my vision blurred
And I ain't got no time to play life's foolish games
Got plenty aims, but do they really Glorify Your name
And it's a shame, the way I want to do these things for You
Don't even cling to you, take time to sit and gleam from You
Seems You were patient in my ignorance
If ignorance is bliss, it's 'cause she never heard of this

[Chorus:]
I could play the background
I could play the background
Cause I know sometimes I get in the way
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
And I could play the background, background
And you could take the lead

[Chorus:]
I could play the background
I could play the background
Cause I know sometimes I get in the way
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
So won't You take the lead, lead, lead?
And I could play the background, background
And you could take the lead.

fall in love with the orphans

"Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend that they are not real until you hold them in your arms. But once you do-everything changes" -David Platt

home school blues

my kids had a photo shoot

I never seem to take enough photos of my kids so yesterday afternoon we pulled it off. The light was perfect around 5:30 so I asked Taj if he would be willing to help. He said he would even though there was a baseball game on. (what a sweet husband) We ran out and accomplished our goal within 30 min. Yeah! Wyatt was very fussy and wanted to eat so we didn't get any photos of him alone but that's okay.

go into all the world

Tears of the Saints from AsiaLink HistoryMaker on Vimeo.

horses

Grazzin wanted some photos of horses for his room so we took the family out driving around this evening and tried to get some shots. It was so fun! Never really tried to photograph animals before so I enjoyed the challenge. Can't wait for Grazzin to see them tomorrow. Now to figure out a unique way to display them in his room. Any ideas?
















The kids got so tickled about this horse. Looked like someone stuck him inside the building and he was begging to get out. Taj was talking like he was the horse and the kids lost it!

the gospel

photos

it's been a busy week..

on women, divisiveness, and hobby horses

excellent article by Rachel Jankovic, author of Loving the Little Years.

"We all know that women are pretty much the worst at getting tangled up in heated, personally charged arguments about things (things being pretty much everything pertaining to children). Someone comes along to say that breastfeeding is the way the truth and the life, and people start throwing stink bombs. Someone barges through saying that epidurals are the only answer to the problem of pain, and before you know it, churchwomen will be driving cars with “Ban Sally from Mothering” bumper stickers. Some poor woman makes a comment at a baby shower about how she is scheduling her baby’s feedings to try to get more sleep, and women will begin making pointed comments about baby wearing and co-sleeping, and when the next la lhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeche league meeting is. People start using words that are too big for the situations and start alienating Christian sisters over whatever they have decided is a monumental issue...

But have you gotten so involved in an “issue” that you cannot fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters who think it is silly? Are you so caught up in teaching your kids phonics while they are in the womb that you need smelling salts when someone laughs about it? Does it stress you out to see a “christian” mother feeding her children easy cheese? Do you long to pelt her house with copies of Nourishing Traditions with important parts highlighted? Are you the wrath of God as pertains to birthing methods, educational systems, and nutrition?"

Keep Reading ...

just a reminder

twins

These little guys were absolutely adorable. They cooperated perfectly for their first photo shoot even though they were already several weeks old. Sweet, sweet, sweet. I wanted to keep them (until I thought about the middle of the night feedings!)

Congratulations to the Knepp family!

first twin session

yeah for the weekend

gold rush

Mia loved her week at VBS! Our theme was Gold Rush from Answers in Genesis. Today we were busy putting away the decorations from "out west" when she decided she wanted to do a little photo shoot with some of the props. I was thrilled! (She never wants to take her photo)

Motherhood Is a Calling (And Where Your Children Rank)

An excellent article by Rachel Jankovic


"Everywhere you go, people want to talk about your children. Why you shouldn’t have had them, how you could have prevented them, and why they would never do what you have done. They want to make sure you know that you won’t be smiling anymore when they are teenagers. All this at the grocery store, in line, while your children listen.

A Rock-Bottom Job?

The truth is that years ago, before this generation of mothers was even born, our society decided where children rank in the list of important things. When abortion was legalized, we wrote it into law.

Children rank way below college. Below world travel for sure. Below the ability to go out at night at your leisure. Below honing your body at the gym. Below any job you may have or hope to get. In fact, children rate below your desire to sit around and pick your toes, if that is what you want to do. Below everything. Children are the last thing you should ever spend your time doing.

If you grew up in this culture, it is very hard to get a biblical perspective on motherhood, to think like a free Christian woman about your life, your children. How much have we listened to partial truths and half lies? Do we believe that we want children because there is some biological urge, or the phantom “baby itch”? Are we really in this because of cute little clothes and photo opportunities? Is motherhood a rock-bottom job for those who can’t do more, or those who are satisfied with drudgery? If so, what were we thinking?

It's Not a Hobby

Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for.

Christian mothers carry their children in hostile territory. When you are in public with them, you are standing with, and defending, the objects of cultural dislike. You are publicly testifying that you value what God values, and that you refuse to value what the world values. You stand with the defenseless and in front of the needy. You represent everything that our culture hates, because you represent laying down your life for another—and laying down your life for another represents the gospel.

Our culture is simply afraid of death. Laying down your own life, in any way, is terrifying. Strangely, it is that fear that drives the abortion industry: fear that your dreams will die, that your future will die, that your freedom will die—and trying to escape that death by running into the arms of death.

Run to the Cross

But a Christian should have a different paradigm. We should run to to the cross. To death. So lay down your hopes. Lay down your future. Lay down your petty anhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnoyances. Lay down your desire to be recognized. Lay down your fussiness at your children. Lay down your perfectly clean house. Lay down your grievances about the life you are living. Lay down the imaginary life you could have had by yourself. Let it go.

Death to yourself is not the end of the story. We, of all people, ought to http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifknow what follows death. The Christian life is resurrection life, life that cannot be contained by death, the kind of life that is only possible when you have been to the cross and back.

The Bible is clear about the value of children. Jesus loved them, and we are commanded to love them, to bring them up in the nurture of the Lord. We are to imitate God and take pleasure in our children."

To finish reading ..

Rachel is also the author of a new book, Loving the Little Years. You can buy it here.

fall in love with the orphans

Pray that God will give you a love for the orphans. Then adopt one (or two, or three) or help someone else adopt!

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction.." James 1:27

This article was written by Steve Burchett. I thought this was an interesting thing to read as we head into VBS at church.

Five "Do's"

Do use curriculum that is biblical and precise with the gospel. Ask yourself, "Is this curriculum simply about morals like 'Be nice to your sister,' or does it deal with the Bible and what it says about the character of God (even His wrath), the sinfulness of man, and the cross of Christ?" For a solid example of this, visit www.childrendesiringgod.org.

Do make sure that every teacher is precise with the gospel. You may have excellent curriculum, but if a teacher doesn't handle the Bible accurately, the truth will be distorted. We don't want our children to hear a false gospel, do we? Remember Paul's sobering and stern words in Galatians 1:8, "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!"

Do sing appropriate songs. VBS is not primarily a gathering of believers. Therefore, it is inappropriate for the children to sing lyrics like, "Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you, so let's just praise the Lord." Instead, sing songs that speak about God's character and the saving work of Christ. For examples of songs like this, visit www.sovereigngraceministries.org.

Do send gospel literature home with the children. A large number of the children at VBS have unbelieving parents. Sending home a sheet summarizing the day's lesson with a few Scriptures for the child and parent(s) to look up together is appropriate. On the final day, send them home with an evangelistic book (like Pursuing God or The Eaglet, available at www.ccwonline.org) and a note encouraging parents to read it with them.

Do listen to and laugh with the children. There must be times of seriousness—We dare not treat the gospel trivially! However, children need to know that we care about them and that serious Christians also have a sense of humor.

Five "Don'ts"

Don't confuse the children concerning what is the necessary response to the gospel. The proper response to the gospel is not raising a hand, walking an aisle, or even praying a correctly worded prayer. The necessary response is repentance and faith (cf. Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21).

Don't constantly tell the children how great they are. Even if the children obey perfectly all week, apart from Christ they remain enemies of God, and they need to know this. The "self-esteem" teaching of our day, if embraced by VBS teachers, actually works against the children recognizing their need for a Savior. Commend them when appropriate, but don't shield them from the truth about their sin nature.

Don't expect to know for sure if even one child was saved. Certain denominational newsletters highlight the number of children who are supposedly saved at VBS in their respective churches, but how do they really know? They are probably basing their statistics on hands raised, aisles walked, or prayers prayed, but we can't really know that a child has been saved until fruit appears. In John 10:26, Jesus said that a characteristic of His sheep is that they "follow" Him. Is it possible to know, by the end of VBS week, that a child has definitely become a follower of Christ? Keep preaching the gospel to the children beyond VBS, look for ongoing repentance and faith, and forget about denominational fame.

Don't seek to assure a child that he or she is a Christian. We can give children the biblical basis upon which they can have assurance, but the Holy Spirit alone grants assurance. "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16).

Don't think VBS is essential in the church's life. There are many good churches who have never held a VBS, yet they are abundantly evangelistic! How is this possible? They take the command seriously to "Go and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19), but they spread the gospel through other means. Evangelism is essential, VBS is not. However, God might lead your church to host a VBS. If so, be careful to drive children to the Savior

facebook making you miserable?

Very interesting article by Tim Challies.

"It seems clear that Facebook is exposing something, some ugly little corner of the human heart. Facebook is all about making life seem joyful—we “like” one another’s happy status updates, not the sad ones; we post photos of our parties, not our funerals; we use it to celebrate births and marriages and new relationships, not to mourn deaths or remember break-ups. Facebook is meant to be a happy place for people. But it doesn’t seem to work out so well. We all think everyone else is happy, but we don’t feel the joy.

And it strikes both ways—when we portray ourselves through social media we do so on our own terms. And of course this means that we present ourselves in the way we want to be perceived, whether or not this is an accurate portrayal. So even while we put only our best foot forward, we look at others and assume that their portrayal is more accurate than our own; we believe that we are the only pretenders, the only ones stretching and exaggerating, trying to keep up. We resent another person for being happy—“She has an amazing life and I don’t!” Or we resent her for being falsely happy—“I know her and I know that her life isn’t all that!”

Read the entire article here.

baseball

Our summer has been passing by in a blur! We spent many hours out at the baseball field, cheering Grazzin's little league team on. They had a rough season. Won only two games before the playoffs. But they decided to play really hard for the playoffs and managed to land themselves in the championship game tonight. I have to admit that I didn't think they could win but they proved me wrong! What a surprise to see the Yankees beat the best team in the league.







I asked Kaci to hold up one finger to show that we were the winners. She agreed.



She then tried to tell me that she wasn't one and that we needed to take a photo of four fingers. She's so funny!





Abby and Mia had a great time together and Caleb enjoyed the pop. That was Kaci's favorite as well!





The girls and Wyatt loved being at the games. I usually put Wyatt on a blanket with some toys and he loved it. Many nights he would fall asleep on his blanket (most of Grazzin's games were late). The girls usually ran the entire time - enjoying the playground, new friends,and snacks!





We enjoyed our month of June at the ball field and Grazzin had a great time making memories with his teammates. Now it's on to preparing for VBS! (and editing photo sessions)

the enemy next door

An excellent article by Tim Challies. Here's an excerpt:

"First, the church was not faithful in its calling to take the gospel throughout the world. They preferred to exist in an enclave, safe from outside influences. Second, and ironically, the children developed a fascination with the world. I believe this was, in large part, because access to the outside world had been denied to them and they had never seen the pain and heartbreak that are the inevitable results of forsaking God. The world can look awfully attractive until a person sees the results of giving himself over to it. Third, the parents were prone to ignoring worldliness in their own children. I know that I saw more drugs, more drinking, more disrespect and more awful behavior in the Christian schools I attended than I did in the public schools. This isolation simply did not work. What I saw was that we do not need the world to teach us worldliness. Worldliness arises from within...

"I truly believe, after many years of reflection, that the heart of the problem in these churches was in their attitude towards the unbeliever. The person next door was the enemy; he was a person to be feared for what he might do to the fhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifamily, and the children in particular; he was someone to be regarded with distrust and suspicion rather than with love and sympathy.

The irony is that when we protect ourselves from this enemy, we are prone to take our eyes of the real enemy; we allow him to slip by, unnoticed. We are not waging war “against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). The real enemy is not next door. The real enemy is our own sinfulness and the worldliness that continues to try to manifest itself in our lives. The real enemy is spiritual, not physical. The real enemy, the most dangerous enemy, is within."

Read the rest..

happy father's day

I love you, honey! Praise our Father in heaven that He saved you and gave you the desire to be a family man. You make the gospel look great!

"Family Man" from Trevor Little on Vimeo.

the mission field of mothers

"At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field."

Another excerpt:

"Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them."

You can read the entire article by Rachel Jankovic here.

sneak peak

Another sweet newborn! I just fell in love with this little guy. He was adorable and so sleepy (a photographer's dream)!