There are tons more, but I picked out some of my favorites. And yes, we got ALL the proofs, so there are some really cute ones of Cayson being, well, Cayson!
Now, about last night…we had our annual Family Fall Festival to end our Family Emphasis month at First Southern. We do a Trunk or Treat where we turn our trunks into carnival-type games. Shaun and I decided to do a trunk this year. We made it a pirate theme, even dressing the part! We turned our jeep into a boat, complete with a treasure chest full of candy and a life size cutout of Capt’n Jack Sparrow. We named our boat “The Mini Pearl”. Get it? (On Pirates of the Caribbean, the boat was called the black pearl. Plus, it’s a pun for Minnie Pearl.) I wish I had pictures to show you, but I forgot to bring the camera. Several other people took pictures, so I’ll have to beg for copies. For our game, we used our Nintendo Wii, letting the kids play tennis, bowling, or baseball. It was the big hit of the night. We always had a long line of kids. We even won a Walmart gift card for the most creative Trunk. Cayson dressed up as our little monkey. He was so adorable! And he kept his hood on for most of the night!
Yesterday, I was able to really apply the truths I’ve learned in that study. Normally, getting ready for an event like that I would be totally stressed out. I’m a perfectionist, so if things don’t go the way I think they should I get upset. However, yesterday I was pretty calm. Even when the timeline of building our “boat” didn’t exactly go as planned and we had to leave a few things off (mainly our “cannons”). I give God the full glory for this, as there is no way I could have remained calm and peaceful myself. Also, this week’s study has been on Godly responses and letting our light shine, so to speak. I was able to apply that as well, especially since we had tons of guests. I got to meet several nice families, including one that just moved to Central City. So, all in all, last night was such a huge success…and a lot of fun!
This is the wall where his crib is. And those are baseball pennets on the wall.
Those cords aren't usually there. They are attached to his camara for the video monitor and the lamp. We hadn't found a home for them yet, when I took this pic. And he needs a toybox, as you can see.
That baseball mitt on the wall was Shaun's growing up. His grandfather made it to hold his baseball, glove, and bat. And Shaun's mom made the curtains and his linens.
That wreath was on my door at the hospital.
And this is his dresser. Notice the crooked plaque! HA. I better fix that! Well, that's pretty much it. Sorry about the yellowish light.
The demolition begins! There are 4 layers of flooring. Yuck!
The actual kitchen floor is completely removed. Shaun went ahead and laid the floor in the kitchen area so I would have access to my kitchen. However, when he got to the fridge, he hit a snag. When he tried to move the fridge back into place, it kept moving the NEW floor with it. So we're waiting for some help in moving the fridge before we can go any farther. That was on Monday. But the kitchen looks good. I haven't taken a picture of it yet...I was waiting for the finished product! I'll keep you updated...
Happy Birthday to my baby boy! I can't believe it...this year has gone by so quickly. Today is his actual birthday, but we had his party Saturday. It was a lot of fun. He didn't want to eat his cake at first. We had to put his hand in it to get him to eat it. It was like he was afraid to get his hands dirty. But after that, he really dug in!
turned 11 months, but the minute we walked out the door of the salon, I burst into tears. He looks so much like a little boy now. I miss that long, shaggy hair already! But, he does look cute. Especially in the red pumas shoes we bought him today! Here's the after picture.
Our camara has bitten the dust, so you'll have to bear with us for a little while, until we can get a new one. I'm using my cell phone camara for now, or depending on relatives. We are hoping to get his 1 year old pictures taken sometime this week.| Well, it's been a while since my last post. A lot has happened since. First of all, the reason for my brief leave of absence from the blogging world: we moved! We found a house in Barling to move into. It's only about 5 minutes from the church and about 5 minutes from Fort Smith. We were living in a 2 story town house. It was pretty nice, but we had no privacy and Cayson's room was on the 2nd floor. We didn't like that. This house has a nice fenced in backyard and is all one story. And Cayson's room is right next to ours. Anyway, because we moved, it took almost 2 weeks to get our cable installed. And we got the phone, internet, and cable bundle so that meant 2 weeks without internet. Now, to fill you in on other things that have happened. Cayson now has 4 teeth! And he's walking!!! It's so exciting. He isn't walking all the time yet, but he'll walk back and forth between me and Shaun. And he's learning so much! He can say ball and he knows what it is. I think he said "thank you" today. I've been working with him on it. He's really eating a lot of table food now too. Still nursing, though. I'm dreading the end of that. It's such a wonderful bond between us. I'm just thankful he isn't biting me with those new teeth! My parents are visiting us this week. Today we took them to Mt. Magazine. It was so pretty, but very hot! I think we're going to Branson on Monday. And my brother moves into his dorm at OBU next Saturday. I think we're going to try and go help. And Cayson's birthday party is the next Saturday after that! Yep, my baby is turning 1 in less than a month. Where did the time go??? |
Day 3 (Thursday)
Thursday started out pretty much the same, breakfast, quiet time, small group, and worship. During this morning's worship Dr. Himaya talked about prayer. He gave the kids the ACTS model to help them. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication)
Lunch was grilled chicken sandwiches. It was pretty good. Cayson loved the chicken. At Rec time, we really went all out with our color. We painted faces, arms, legs, hair, and Shaun even painted his goatee! Plus we had all of our pink shirts on. The games we played were the human pretzel (everyone huddles together and grabs someone's hand. Then they have to untwist everyone without letting go), a bubble gum relay, and ultimate frisbee. Our teens didn't do as well with this. They'd never done a human pretzel before and struggled a little with it. Turns out, somehow we ended up with 2 circles! I was very proud of them, though, they never gave up.
During free time, there was a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Our guys entered it and made it to the semi-finals. Apparently they did really well. They were beaten by Isaac Improv, the camp comedy guys, who went on to play Pottersfield, the band, in the finals.
Dinner was tacos, which were pretty good.
I didn't get to stay in worship time because Cayson was getting pretty tired. But I do know that Dr. Himaya preached on Rahab, the prostitute that helped the Israeli spies. He had the sermon on CD so we bought it and I listened to it on the way home. The gist was that God can save anyone, regardless of their past, and that He uses unlikely people to do His work. Rahab ended up being Jesus' great-great-great-great-great-etc. Grandmother. And one of our girls, Logan, got saved! The change in her and the 2 guys, who were twin brothers, is amazing!
Day 4 (Friday)
Same thing, breakfast, quiet time, small group, worship. Dr. Himaya gave the students a detailed definition of a quiet time, which is a period of time you consistantly set aside to be alone with God, usually in the morning, to talk with Him, and to listen to Him as you prepare to be used by Him that day. He also gave them a plan:
1. Begin with prayer.
2. Read the Bible.
3. Write down your insightw, application, and final prayer.
4. Be realistic.
Lunch was BBQ brisket sandwiches! Very good! LOL.
During rec we played Kickball, Knock 'em, and Nuke 'em. Kickball was standard, except each time your team came in to kick, the rules for kicking, running, etc, changed a little. First time was normal. 2nd time, kick backwards. 3rd time run backwards. 4th time you had to skip to base. We won! Knock 'em used 2 exercise balls and a hug basketball goal. Basically everyone lined up. The 1st person shot the ball. If they missed, they had to get it in the basket before the person behind them could. If the person behind them beat them, they were out. And Nuke 'em was dodgeball, except on a volleyball court.
During free time our kids (and Shaun) played in an ultimate frisbee tournament. We won the first game, but lost the 2nd. Mainly because we had to play 2 games back-to-back and the other team hadn't played yet.
During worship, one of the staffers kept Cayson for me. It was such an awesome message. Probably the most relevant and applicable "camp message" I've ever heard. The text was Matthew 4:1-11 where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. The gist was we often use prayer as a fix-all, when sometimes we need to go straight to the Word. Dr. Himaya challenged us to find some "It is writtens" in the Bible for us to use when we are tempted. He called it fighting the battle before you run the race.
During the invitation, Dr. Himaya challenged the guys that are willing to stand up and be warriors in their student ministry to come forward. He had them pray in a concert of prayer, committing themselves to it. Then he had the girls pray over the guys. What an amazing picture this was! Then he had the girls admit that they were beautiful, since that is an area that the devil loves to attack. And he had the guys pray over them. It was so amazing and awesome.
Day 5 (Saturday)
Today we loaded up the vans and went down to the lake to watch the kids being baptized. Shaun got to baptize Logan. The twins wanted to wait until Sunday to be baptized, so their mom could be there. It was so awesome seeing teen after teen publically admit they'd committed their life to Christ.
After the baptisms, we went home. Plus, we had a wedding to get to! Our children's coordinator/ministry assistant at the church was getting married!
This camp was life-changing for so many of our kids. The change is awesome. I just pray it lasts. I know how mountaintop camp experiences are. But Shaun and I are starting One on One with God with several of the kids and I had already started a girls Bible study.
Pray for us as we continue to get in our kids' lives and encourage them in their walk with God!
Lunch was hot dogs. Cayson ate a whole one, without the bread!
At 1:30 was Rec. Each church was given a color. We were the pink team. We were competing against the other churches in the areas of team spirit, encouragement, and servanthood. Our rec games for the day were dodgeball, broom ball (like hockey, but with a kickball and brooms), and flicker ball (like ultimate frisbee, but with a football and in the endzone there was a target with a hole in it that you had to put the football through.) We swept all our games for the day!
Free time was 3-6 pm. During free time, campers could swim in the lake, which had some amazing "toys", or climb the rock wall, do the zip line, etc. Check out the website to see all the neat stuff.
Dinner was fried chicken, I believe. Cayson ate all Shaun's green beans.
We had small group time before worship. Each church divided their kids into groups of ten for this (and rec as well). For us, we brough 12 so we were a small group anyway. During this time, Shaun talked to the kids out of Jeremiah.
In worship, Dr. Himaya preached on the cross. For several years, he's been studying medical books, history, etc to found out the medical side of Jesus' death. This was such an awesome message. It is really a blog post in itself. This is the night we had 2 of our kids come to know Christ.
After worship we had church time to talk about the message, etc. Then we had fireworks over the lake. (This was on July 4.)
Ok, I realize this has gotten to be a long post so I'll break them up. Stay tuned for accounts of day 3, 4, and 5!
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