John 1:1-3...

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

(John 1:1-3 ESV)

our little singer...

Josiah LOVES to sing.  And I love, love hearing his little voice sing so unabashedly.  Here is Josiah singing one of his favorite songs:  Rise & Shine.  I will often hear him belting this out when he wakes up in the morning or gets up from his nap.

It's also been neat to watch Josiah catch on to many of the Christmas songs.  Joy To the World is one of his favorites now...

someone's about to turn 5!!!!!

In a couple of days, my William will be FIVE!  5!!  I will save my thoughts for him on his b-day, but here are some  highlights from his Word World birthday party.

 This year, instead of playing games, Mom helped me to plan some activities for the kids.  This way there wouldn't be any winners or losers.  This went SO much better compared to last year.  Since we had a Word World theme, the kids were making name bracelets.

 It was great to see everyone engaged and seeing the kids get excited as they finished their bracelets.

 For another activity, we hid letter puzzle pieces around the room and then asked the kids to find them and put the alphabet puzzle together.

 It was funny to watch them look for the letters.

 Happy birthday, my sweet William!

 I don't think William has ever eaten a cupcake all by himself before.  He seems to be watching Joshua's technique on how to peel the baking cup off.

Other than his sticker books, this was William's favorite present from Mema and Papa.  It was a cash register!  Gotta love the educational gifts!  =)

William really loved being surrounded by his family and friends!  (I'm sure the presents helped a little.)  We are so amazingly blessed to have our big boy in our lives!!  Love him to pieces!

scripture memory...

William and I have been trying (trying being the key word here) to do some Scripture memory during our breakfasts and lunches.  William has been doing such a great job soaking in God's Word and hiding it in his heart.  I am always amazed at how easily he can memorize things.  Kids really are such sponges at this age!

It has also been neat to see the Lord bear fruit with Josiah from these times even though he's not "required" to participate.  I have him do as much as he's willing, but focus the time with William.  Here's Josiah reciting Ephesians 6:1  "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."  His first memory verse!

reading!!!

Not only has William started writing, but he's also started reading on his own!!  We have not done anything with him except read aloud to him.  We are absolutely stunned at how well he is doing, totally by God's grace.  And we pray this is only the beginning of a love for reading, especially God's Word.

The following is a clip of William reading from Josiah's toddler Bible.  William  is VERY familiar with this Bible, but it is still very neat to watch him embark on this journey of learning and reading.

And here's our Yai-Ya "reading," too.  =)

otters...

My brother sent this video to me a while ago and I thought it was SO adorable...

you are more...

Since we're on a song kick...  Over the last few weeks, I have been struck by the words to the song "You Are More," by Tenth Avenue North.  I love, love, love the reminder of who we are in Christ and that we are FORGIVEN.  More specifically, God's forgiveness supersedes any and all the mistakes we make (or will make)... and is sovereign over even the problems we may create for ourselves because of our sin.  Our worth is not rooted in what we've done or failed to do.  It is found in who we are because of what God has done for us.  God is good, isn't He?  Here are the lyrics...

There's a girl in the corner 

With tear stains on her eyes 

From the places she's wandered 

And the shame she can't hide 

She says, "How did I get here? 

I'm not who I once was. 

And I'm crippled by the fear 

That I've fallen too far to love" 

But don't you know who you are, 

What's been done for you? 

Yeah don't you know who you are? 

You are more than the choices that you've made, 

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, 

You are more than the problems you create, 

You've been remade. 

Well she tries to believe it 

That she's been given new life 

But she can't shake the feeling 

That it's not true tonight 

She knows all the answers 

And she's rehearsed all the lines 

And so she'll try to do better 

But then she's too weak to try 

But don't you know who you are? 

You are more than the choices that you've made, 

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, 

You are more than the problems you create, 

You've been remade. 

You are more than the choices that you've made, 

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, 

You are more than the problems you create, 

You've been remade. 

'Cause this is not about what you've done, 

But what's been done for you. 

This is not about where you've been, 

But where your brokenness brings you to 

This is not about what you feel, 

But what He felt to forgive you, 

And what He felt to make you loved. 

You are more than the choices that you've made, 

You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, 

You are more than the problems you create, 

You've been remade. 

You've been remade 

You've been remade. 

You've been remade.

petting farm…

In God’s kindness, we were able to take a much-needed family outing to Clark’s Elioak Farm where they also have a petting farm. We tried to see if William wanted to take a pony ride or a hayride, but the answer was nay. Our boy is not a very adventurous one. =) So we decided not to push it since it was our first time there. But he LOVED seeing the animals there and being able to feed some of them. Josiah just seemed to love being outdoors and picking up sticks. It was a gorgeous day. We had an awesome time spending time together as a family, and it was refreshing being able to be out with each other. Here are some highlights…

In the pen with some animals… I didn’t think William would go in, but he did. He really enjoyed being able to see the animals up close, but wasn’t willing to touch any of them. =) A cute miniature donkey… Our monkey has a stick in his hand. =) An adorable little lamb… Love this pic! Here's a video of Josiah trying to feed the goat his stick. =) Love this pic, too! And he still is holding his stick. And no, I’m not pregnant! This pic cracks me up. Josiah was trying to figure out how to get to us. (The sky looks amazing, doesn’t it?!)

walking!!!

Can't believe Josiah is taking his first steps!! We were wondering when this monkey would start walking! We're hoping to get a better video of him doing his thing, but this will have to suffice for now.

random josiah videos...

crawling... for real!

We were SO excited to see Smiles begin to crawl for real!!!

crawling!

can't believe Smiles is crawling already!!! where has the time

gone?!

yummy to my tummy!

Josiah LOVES his rice cereal now. He's always so happy when it's time to eat. =) It's the cutest thing ever! And I love feeding him.

staycation ‘09 (part 2)

Dutch Wonderland

The first part of our staycation was a short, 2-day trip to Dutch Wonderland in PA. We decided to spread it out into 2 days since we weren’t sure how big the park was and would rather take our time going through it than to have to travel there and rush through the park in a day. It helped that we were able to purchase 2-day flex passes, and the boys were able to get in for free.

We made a pit stop to each lunch on the way up. And here we are at the McDonald’s playground for our 2nd pit stop. We had to stop again to feed Josiah, so William had some fun while Josiah was feeding. Not very good planning to make so many stops, but we had plenty of time. The drive actually went by pretty quickly. When we finally arrived at the park, the first ride we saw was a train, so we hopped on. It was great b/c it took us around the park so we could get a glimpse of what was there. William even got to feed some ducks! Throughout the park, they had food for the ducks in bubble gum machines. For 25 cents, you could get some food to feed them. William kept trying to walk up to the ducks to give them the food and had a hard time understanding that all you had to do was toss it on the ground near them. It was cute watching him try to approach the ducks, but they would just run away. There was also a Thomas show, which we thought William would love, but he actually wasn’t too interested in it. =P One of William’s favorite rides… Waiting in line with Uncle Jimmy… Here we are in line for the monorail… the last ride of our first day at Dutch Wonderland. All I can say is thank God for easy babies! Josiah was able to just go to sleep whenever he was tired. We never would have been able to do this with William! It was a long wait for the monorail, so William decided to stick a sticker on Josiah’s cheek after he woke up. Here comes the monorail… finally! My mom decided to sit this one out… and catch a little snooze. =) I was astounded by the sheer number of strollers that must have been there. It literally looked like it had rained down strollers. At every ride, people would park and leave their strollers. For some of the rides, there were even parking areas for people to leave them. Initially, we took our strollers with us on rides if we could… or one person would stay behind with it, but we quickly learned to follow suit, just making sure that we didn’t leave anything valuable. I was amazed at how trusting people were.

After leaving the park, we made our way to a pho restaurant to grab a quick bite for dinner. Then we hightailed it the motel since it was getting late. It was our first time staying in one big room with the boys, so we already had been a little anxious about how it would go. Arriving there late, beat, and tired didn’t help our situation. We were hoping that they would just crash.

When we checked in, the boys were already sleeping in the car. We still had our luggage and the pack-n-plays to unload and set up, not to mention changing their diapers, changing them into their pjs, feeding Josiah, and then putting them both to bed. When we drove around the motel to our room, there was a family sitting around, hanging out outside one of the rooms smoking and drinking. Inside the room, there were a bunch of kids watching tv. When we pulled up, we discovered that 2 of the adults were having an argument. Great… this is our stop, too, we realized. We had to go up the stairwell near them to get to our rooms. So we quietly unloaded our cars and discretely made our way up the stairs, trying to avoid the domestic conflict that was occurring outside this late at night.

When we got to our room, it was nice and big, but stinky. It seriously smelled like someone had urinated in there or something and housekeeping didn’t do a great job of covering up the stank. But since it was tolerable, and it was getting really late, we decided to just put the boys to bed as quickly as possible. So we started unpacking, set up the pack-n-plays, got them both ready for bed… and then we noticed that there was water dripping from the ceiling onto our bed. What in the world? We considered just moving the bed, but for some reason (can’t remember why now), were unable.

So Bill went to ask for another room. He spent an hour taking a look at a few different rooms to see if he could find one to fit all our junk. Don’t ask me why it took so long, but between talking with the front-desk man, looking up rooms on his computer, trying to figure out the paperwork, and actually walking back and forth to the rooms, it just did. When Bill finally came back and told me they had another room for us, but weren’t going to do anything to compensate for not having the room we reserved ready for us, we trekked back to the front desk to ask for A DISCOUNT. The front-desk man said that he had the other room he was offering, but could only give us a 10% discount. “Wait a minute. Just $8 off for the extreme inconvenience, smelly accommodations, and the room that we had reserved that was supposed to be available to us, but wasn’t,” I asked in disbelief. He proceeded to tell me that the room they promised was available, but it just had a leaky ceiling, something that they can’t control or account for. So the room technically is available. It just has a leaky ceiling.” I wanted to pound someone. Did I just hear him say that it’s not their problem if the room we reserved is leaking water onto the bed we’re paying to be sleeping on? That did not go over very well, so I asked to speak to a manager, who of course, was not there. So we decided to bite the bullet for now and just take the other room they had available.

We moved all our things down the hall, and thank the Lord this room worked out perfectly for us. It wasn’t as big as the other one, but still had plenty of space. Of course, there was a loud train that went by, which we discovered was right outside our window, but at that point, we didn’t care anymore. Josiah was already konked out in my mom’s arms. But William was awake, very concerned about why we kept coming in and out and were moving things to another room. He was so exhausted at this point that we decided to just let him sleep with us (the bed was humongous) instead of trying to get him to go to sleep by himself in his pack-n-play. We were all worn out from the day that we all just wanted to sleep. And it was nice since it was the first time we also got to sleep with William. We had never shared a bed with him before, so it was nice being able to snuggle next to him and fall asleep, although he did end up turning several times in the middle of the night with his feet jabbing into my side.

The next morning, the boys woke up earlier than I thought they would. Sleeping in… those words don’t seem to exist in their vocabulary. What is up with small children and early risers? As we were all getting ready, William told us matter-of-factly, “Wih-num don’t like sleeping Momma and Dada’s bed. Wih-num sleep in that bed (pointing to his pack-n-play).” Hmmm... So much for snuggling with our little boy. =P

After we were packed, we decided not to pursue anything more with management since they weren’t there anyway. We had ended up getting a cheaper room with the 10% discount than originally planned, so the Lord was faithful to provide, even though I was ungrateful and bellyaching (ok, complaining) and sinning the whole time. I probably should have asked the front-desk man forgiveness for my sinful attitude, but did not think of it at the time. So I said a prayer and asked the Lord’s forgiveness and that He would cover over my sins. Self-control and anger… especially with my tongue and heart… I have much to work on... sigh.

After leaving the motel, we went to Denny’s for breakfast…

Josiah was all bundled up b/c it was FREEZING in there! Bill loved it though.

And here’s our second and last day at Dutch Wonderland…

A group shot (minus Jimmy) at the front of the park… The Chen clan and grandkids… Back on the train… This actually was another of William’s favorites. William went on his FIRST ROLLER COASTER!!! As you can see, he just barely met the height requirement. Seeing him ride this was one of the big highlights of our trip for me. I love roller coasters, so I was very proud of him. Going down the first drop… (We’re in the front of the 2nd car.) Woohoo!!! William loved it so much he wanted to go again… this time with Uncle Jimmy. Jimmy wanted to sit with him in the way back to get the full experience. It’s hard to see, but I love seeing the big smile on William’s face. Of course, Uncle Jimmy had to teach William proper roller coaster etiquette by showing him how to put his arms up. I was quite impressed that he actually did it. Jimmy said he felt a little bad b/c William was flailing around everywhere since he wasn't holding on to anything. I think I finally have a roller coaster buddy. Yay! (Bill doesn’t like riding roller coasters.) Bill and William were waiting in line for the bumper cars… This ride cracked me up b/c William had no idea what he was in for. I think William thought it would be like the roller coaster. William was watching in bewilderment as a bunch of strangers kept trying to bump each other. I think Bill had more fun than William… =) William also LOVED playing Skeeball even though he didn’t have the strength to roll it all the way up the ramp on his own. He also loved watching the balls come back down. William went on a couple of rides by himself… Hard at work… Whew! It was finally time to go home… I love this pic b/c William fell asleep as we were leaving the park with his hand in his snack bag. Guess he was too tired for Teddy Grahams… It looks like he tried though. =)