Merry Christmas!!!

We have a White Christmas in Iowa and it's so beautiful!!! We had a long trip getting here...stayed over 1/2 way on Saturday night, so we didn't have to battle the ice & snow in the night. It was so nice to sleep in a bed, rather than the in the car. Of course, only 1 out of the 4 of us really slept...that would be the one with the tonsil issues...Brooks. He snored so stinking loud, the rest of us didn't stand a chance to reaching snore-level sleep!!
We were so glad that we stopped when we did. The next day, we drove about an hour and ran into the terrible wind and roads partially covered by ice and many cars/trucks in the ditch. All in all, it was a good trip and God granted us safety!
We were greeted by Gpa and Gma Bower and lots of snow!!! Yeah!!! They have a some GREAT sledding hills in their yard, so we couldn't wait for cousins to arrive to sled with us. When they arrived after their trip from Dayton, we had ourselves a great turkey dinner complete with homemade fixin's. Brent's mom worked hard and his dad did the turkey in the fryer. That's a first for me. It was pretty yummy!!
All we heard that day and night was...."When do we get to open the presents...Where's my present...why does so and so have more presents than I do?" We know what's important. Glad we covered that topic.
More sledding on Christmas Eve, a little shopping (which is much easier in a small Iowa town to fight their "crowds"), some George's pizza, the family photo shoot and then...the presents! The kids had a great time and received some fun stuff...so did we!
More sledding today...it's perfect, almost too warm to be bundled up and sledding. Lunch and playing together, and now we're ready to head to my parents. Wish we could stay longer here and I'm sure we'll feel the same once we get to my parents. Glad we're making great memories while we're here. Gotta run and help pack the van!
Merry Christmas to all! More pictures to post later!

Up on the rooftop...

Tonight the boys just could not settle in to sleep...they were anticipating a visit from Santa tonight. Or maybe it was the effects of 4 sugar cookies smothered in red-food coloring & sprinkles that was the issue. Could have been the "footsteps on the roof" or the faint jingle bells that Braden kept hearing. (A friend shared that her dad threw a basketball on the roof to simulate Santa's arrival...guess what we used at our house tonight?) Whatever the cause for the hype, we WILL be opening our presents as a family in the a.m.

"I'm not going to sleep, b/c I want to wait up for Santa!" - Braden (He couldn't hold up and is sawing logs now...I should be too!)

Brooks doesn't remember much about the whole process from last year. But he did have fun throwing "reindeer food" on the patio before bed. That was quite comical. Braden came up with all sorts of ideas of what might happen if the reindeer are too busy snacking when Santa is ready to move on. He really looked scared, as though we might cause a delay in the travel plans.

Santa was not a part of Christmas in our homes, as we grew up. And we were okay with that...although we grew to think he was pure evil and it was our mission to spoil many kids' ideas of something fun. We've grown to understand that anything can become "evil" at the holidays, when it steals our focus. We, the ones that buy & give the presents, can lose our focus and make it more about ourselves than the celebration of Christ's birth. Our overindulgence and commercialism seems more evil than the jolly 'ol man in the red velvet suit...some with scraggly, cotton beards too! :-)

So Brent and I have decided that in our household, as long as it lasts, Santa surprises with stocking stuffers, while the presents come from Mom & Dad. Good thing we established that early, b/c Braden saw us wrapping the presents last year and called us out on it this year!

The focus of Christmas does remain on the miracle of Jesus' birth. We experience more excitement in setting up the Nativity scene than the stockings. Jesus is the reason for all that we do and celebrate this time of year. Braden decided to "send a message" and keep Jesus at the forefront of Santa's mind too...he left him a cross cut-out cookie in the CENTER of the cookie plate tonight. Thank goodness He helps us keep our focus!

Faith of a child

Yesterday I was cleaning the boys' fish tank and noticed a sickly fish. He was really struggling to keep swimming. To top if off, while I was cleaning, I accidentally sucked his head up in the junk-sucker. (true accident) I squeezed him out of that, only to see him struggle harder to even stay upright. After a few seconds, he turned upside down and began to "rest." You could still see him move, but I was convinced he was a goner.

I felt so horrible and told the boys that one of their fish might have died. I apologized to them, because I helped him along in the process. They were full of curiosity and wanted to watch him. Braden still had faith though. "Mommy, he's still moving!!"

"Yes, honey, but he's floating upside down."

It challenged me to teach the boys to pray for this seemingly small (and stinky) issue. "Dear Jesus, please heal our fish and save him. We don't want to flush him." (I think the boys secretly DID want to experience flushing a fish. They thought he might get flushed to the ocean, thanks to Nemo)

Don't you know that Jesus answered!!!!!

When Daddy came home last night, we reported our fatality to him and he went up to look. He said that fish is STILL alive! He looks healthier than when I started sucking his brains out yesterday!
Amazing that Jesus cares about our stinky, small fish that was ready to be flushed down the toilet. I LOVE that my boys can witness Jesus caring so much for our needs...not to mention teach me a thing or 2 while He's doing it! Thank you Jesus!

oops

I don't know what I've done...well, yes, I do. I've messed up my blog alignment. I decided to try and change some of the template margins by doing some HTML editing. (Yes, I really have too much time on my hands. Can I offer some of mine to any of you?!?) Hopefully I'll figure it out soon and everything won't be crammed over to the left!! Maybe I should leave it there...after all I usually am partial to the left side of things!

Calling me out on it

Tonight we were frantically trying to get out the door to a Christmas musical at our friends' church, Vista Community Church - Dublin. My friend had mentioned what a great service it was going to be, so we did not want to miss it.

However, Brent was trying to get our dryer fixed and our wonderful handy-man neighbor came down 30 minutes before we needed to leave to help Brent with the task. And I was trying to catch up with a friend on the phone for a few minutes, but received about 10 calls in the meantime (NOT an exaggeration...usually no one calls us!). I was questioning whether we'd even end up going to the musical and if that was what we were supposed to do for the night. Maybe we were supposed to stay home as a family and get the dryer fixed.

So can you imagine what a freak I was being, deciding that we were still going to make it to the service. I wasn't very nice to the boys while I was getting them moving, as I knew that we were going to be late, and they wanted to lolly-gag getting ready.

Finally, we're all in the van. That's usually where everything erupts if it hasn't gone well in the house. Of course, I took advantage of the situation and fell in my "venting role." Soon, Braden piped up, "Mommy, are you going to act like that at church?"

Oh...my...word...!!!! My 5 year did NOT just call me out on my sin! Yep. He did...and he made us all laugh so hard, but also see the reality of my sin. (Brent laughed hardest) I told Braden that God gave him to me just for that moment. Had Brent said that, it would not have gone well at that point, as much as I needed to hear it.

I have certainly been trying to work on peeling away that junk...
#1 not acting like that to my family b/c I think I can.
#2 Not going to church and acting like it's all good.

God is so good to give me that challenge....through my son. When my kids can see right through me, why would I think anyone else couldn't? The Christmas service was so awesome & moving. I could post on that alone and may just do that! I needed to surrender that anger/frustration....SIN...during the service. I pray that see me handle things appropriately next time I'm overwhelmed.

Quotables

We know people highly suggest leaving thoughts of your kids at home while you're on a date with your spouse. But we just can't help but quote the boys when something reminds us of their funny comments. They give us a lot of material to laugh about while we're taking a breather from them. Can't completely get them out of our heads!

Last week I was making treats for big brudder's preschool class. I asked him, "Do you want me to put chocolate chips in the rice krispies, or do you want sprinkles on top?"

He answered, "Hmmmm, chocolate chips or sprinkles? That's a hard decision! Now if it were peas or chocolate chips, that would be an easy decision!"


Tonight we were watching a commercial for the "healthy" Curves cereal. The women in the commercial are portraying how much energy the cereal will give them...they're jumping really high in the air with huge smiles on their faces.

Big brudder broke the silence..."Mommy, do we have Curves?"
I was kind of in a daze, not soaking up the content and thinking the boys weren't either. I just knew that cereal does not find it's way into our cupboards. "No, why, do you want to get some Curves?" I asked.

"No."

"Does that cereal look good or something?" ...still trying to figure out why he asked if we had some.

"Will it make us jump really high?"

Whew!!! I was worried that he was checking out the older women in the commercial! :-)

And one more for the post...more to come later, I'm sure!

My boys have been spoiled by fast food for sure. Last year, I had a hard time getting home after preschool without a request for the Golden Arches nearly every time. One day I responded, "No honey, God didn't make our bodies to eat at those places all the time. It's not healthy to eat 'fast food' every day."

"Well, mommy, I'll eat it really slow. Will that be healthy for me?"

Hmmmm, I think he's on to the latest diet scam!

Back to the Bikes

I mentioned in an earlier post about bikes and what a great time we have on family bike rides. We have been so blessed by my brother, who has graciously hooked us up with bikes & accessories over the past several years. He is an amazingly, creative guy whose profession is designing graphics on bikes, helmets...all sorts of accessories. The coolest part is that he works for what we think is the best bike company in the world...TREK! (Did I mention he designed the graphics on Lance Armstrong's bikes & the racing team's identities? That's our mom's favorite detail to add in when she brags on his work) My parents can brag all they want though...they've seen his talent since he was a young guy, obsessing over and re-creating on paper his favorite bikes and semi trucks. We're glad he chose the bike industry over the 18-wheelers...we couldn't fit 2 of those in our garage!

So we have the ultimate hook-up with some great quality, American-made bikes and they happen to be sporting graphics that my own brother designed! I won't do justice for his amazing design work and talent...he does a quality job in everything he does though...most importantly being a family man for his wife and girls.

Then, to top it off, he hooked us up with a bike trailer to pull our kiddos in. Braden graduated from the trailer a couple years ago, when we happened upon a TREK Mountain Track bike at a garage sale. We snatched that tag-along up so fast and have by far recouped the $10 we paid for that gem. Coolest part about it...it is the exact color of Brent's bike and looks like it was bought as a pair!

Brent & Brooks going for a ride

For this summer's adventures, we've took family rides to the ice cream shops, we rode on some awesome trails in Fairfield, Iowa (where Brent grew up) and took the whole set of bikes on our 1st Labor Day camping excursion. We gave nearly every kid in our camping group rides around the campground and Brent managed to sneak away on some trails with a couple of buddies. Apparently the trails were quite narrow and the trees jumped out and grabbed Brent's toe. He is still suffering tonight and thinks it's probably broken. Thankfully our friend, Maria, was with us and she put her nursing skills to work and taped up his bum toe.

Brent getting some TLC from everyone at the campsite.

Regardless of the outcome of our rides, we think of my brother and are so grateful every time we hook up the bikes and ride off together for some q.t. The boys could ride for hours and we're given the great chance to get out and explore the great outdoors!

Thanks a bunch for the hook up! We'll keep saying it..."We LOVE our bikes!"