A Rock Star

My kids love NickJr. Most days it's on at some point. There's a kids band on there and they show their videos during commercials. The one that they are playing REPEATEDLY these days is, "Just Like a Rock Star."

My kids love it. They know most of the words and they jump around and dance every time it comes on. Innocent enough right? I'm constantly striving to be aware of what my kids are absorbing and learning, from the things around them and from what they watch on TV.
So I got to thinking.
What are they learning if we learn to want to be just like a rock star by today's society's definition?
A few things that immediately come to mind:
Rich and famous.
Entrenched in worldly things.
Entrenched in material things and priorities.
Selfish.
self absorbed.
possibly a substance abuser... and the list goes on and on..
I'm not saying this is the message of the song. The message of the song seems to be about having fun and working together with your friends. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with having fun in of itself. I want my kids to have fun. But I don't want them to be just like a rock star if we're talking about a rock star in this day and age.

So I took a bit of liberty and defined it in a different way.
What does it mean to be a rock star?
Jesus is THE rock of my salvation. His banner over me is love.
And upon this ROCK, the church was built. He is our solid foundation. When we stand with him, we can not fall.

Lets be honest. Our lives here on earth do not even amount to a grain of sand when it comes to the grand scheme of eternity. This earth is not our home. Our citizenship is elsewhere. (Phil 3:20) And I pray that I teach my children that. It's so easy to get caught up in our every day lives and forget this. It happens to me all the time.
Call me a religious extremest or fanatic. Maybe you think I'm over analyzing it. And maybe that's true. But it really doesn't matter. What matters is that my children learn to love and please their Heavenly Father.
I'm not a perfect person or parent. I'll be the first to admit that. It's very rare that when I pillow my head at night that I'm not asking for forgiveness for getting so frustrated, for not being patient, for not being as kind as I should or for yelling. I'm not proud of any of that.
But I'm thankful God loved us enough to provide a reconciliation through His Son's blood.

We've just celebrated Christmas. A very large part of the population focuses on our Savior in a manger at this time of year. I'm thankful for that. But I also hope and pray that we focus on our Savior on the cross, every. single. day. of our lives.
Knowledge of him is power. Living for and shining for him makes someone a Rock star.
So do I want my kids to be just like a Rock star?
You bet.
It's one of my daily prayers.

These Pics Leave Me Speechless (Almost)

So sweet.

So not a morning person.

Such an entertainer.


I. Love. My. Kids.
I just can't hardly even look at them without my heart melting.
Every single time.

They frustrate me.
They make me want to pull my hair out.
They humble me.
They teach me.
They help me grow.
They make me smile.
They make me laugh.
They remind me of the Greatest Love of All. (John 3:16)

I. love. My kids.
Happy Saturday!

It's March!

I don't like going a whole month between posts. Will try to not let that happen this month.
Recent pics of the kids:

Helping me make a cake for Daddy and Uncle Alan's Birthday:

Enjoying a beautiful day outside!

Let's Be Real

I have a bit of a weakness when it comes to taking pictures of my kids. I want them to be perfect. Or maybe not so much perfect, as I want them to look cute. And that's all fine and dandy (they ARE great at looking cute), but it doesn't show the whole picture. And if I'm using pictures and this blog to document our life, then we need a few more "real" pictures around.

I have been known to get the kids dressed out of their pj's and brush their hair, just simply because I wanted to take pictures of whatever it is we are doing around the house. Let's face it. If we aren't going anywhere for the day, 99.99% of the time nobody makes it out of pajamas. Less laundry. Right? So yesterday morning, when the girls were doing their usual, I thought about how I needed some pics of "the standard", and I grabbed my camera.

Both the girls love dressing up. But Abigail, does this thing where she doesn't put the dress over her head. She just sticks her arms through the arm holes and the dress drapes down the front.
Case in point:

How about that pink camouflage t-shirt? And she was watching Cinderella. Touche.

And Natalie. She has discovered the world of PBS and Nick Jr. on the computer. She loves playing the games on there. It's kind of a catch 22 because I don't want her to spend hours upon hours on the computer, but yet all those games are quite educational. I have a feeling she's going to be reading sooner than later. She already knows how to open up the browser, type "p" "b" "s" in the address window and pick the correct url from the dropdown list that comes up.
And it doesn't get any more "real" than this, with the crazy hair, and the completely cluttered desk.

And now that these pics are on the world wide web, I'm sure they will thank me later. Like 10 or so years from now. Kind of puts a whole new spin on breaking out the baby pics for boyfriends.

And just because I can't leave the boy out: Talking to daddy before bedtime.
I TOLD you my kids are great at being cute. ;)

The Story

It's been 2 weeks and 1 day since Jonathan joined our family and it's already hard to imagine life before him.

He arrived 4 weeks early on Wednesday the 18th, with some minor breathing issues and had to be admitted to NICU. They give them a 4 hour transition period before deciding whether they need to be admitted to NICU or can go to the well baby nursery. After this amount of time had passed they decided he needed to be admitted because his respiration count was too high. (Normal is 30-60 per minute, and he was jumping around from 90-120)
Later that afternoon they took him out of the oxygen dome and he was on regular room air. Not much changed over the next couple of days. He continued to have a high respiration count but was able to stay on room air. I didn't get to hold him until the day after he was born. John snapped this picture the first time I finally got to hold him.

I was released on Saturday and the NICU Drs. were anticipating that he would need to stay just a few more days. We knew he was borderline jaundice which could possibly set us back a day or two. On Sunday morning his billirubin level was high enough that he had to go on the photo-therapy light. After being on the light about 24 hours it came down enough that we were able to bring him home on Monday afternoon. Here he is coming in the door and Abigail's first time to see him other than in pictures.
So the past week and a half we've just been getting used to the new normal around here. Actually I guess we're still a few weeks away from being back to some sort of normal. Our house is a total wreck, and while this does bother me I'm trying to be ok with it. I know I'm still recovering from the C-section and up half the night feeding and it'll all still be here for when I do get around to it! Besides I'm enjoying sitting around holding and hanging out with all 3 of my kiddos too much. (Even if the older two have decided to fight like cats and dogs lately and totally test their new boundaries.)