earrings!

Annalee has been asking for months to get her ears pierced.  You never know how serious a child's request is until you realize they've been persistent through your attempts to blow it off.  At first I didn't think she was serious or knew what it entails; so a few weeks ago when she was asking for the 50th time since last spring, I sat her down and explained what the process would be like.  Afterward, when she said she still wanted to do it, I knew it was time to talk to Lee.  We agreed that she is old enough to handle the responsibility, so I told her we'd wait and do it on the weekend, mainly because Claire's only has 2 workers on the weekends and you HAVE to get both ears done at the same time.  I gave it a 50/50 chance she'd chicken out, but the closer it got, the more excited she got.  She never once asked to delay or not do it.  And she was so brave and tough!  Not one tear.

before...

during...ouch!

after!

Happy Birthday and re-birthday, Addie!

Addie turned 4 on Sunday, October 10th.  I'll talk more about that later, because something even more special happened to her 5 days earlier...

October 5^th, 2010

We were driving to Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday morning.  Out of the blue, Addie says, “Mommy, I really love God.”  I said, “That’s great, but why do you love God?”  She answered, “Because I get to go to heaven.”  I asked, “How do you know you get to go to heaven?”  She said, “Because I’m nice to everybody.”  I explained that doing good things isn’t what gets us into heaven.  Then I said there is just one thing we have to do to get into heaven, and I asked if she knew what it was.  She just sat there, and I didn’t want to just give her the answer, so I gave her a hint: “You have to believe in something. What is it?” She immediately shouted “GOD!”  I added, “And Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe He died on the cross?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why He did that?”

“To save us.”

“From what?”

“Our sin.”

We talked about what sin is.

“So do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you and that He came back to life?”

“Yes, on the third day!”

“Well Addie, then that makes you a Christian!  You’re a Christian now!”

“Yay! I’m a Christian! And Annalee is too, right?”

“Yes, and Mommy and Daddy too.”

“And Dawson and Brady?”

“No not yet, but hopefully someday.”

“Mommy, do you believe in God?”

“Yes I do.”

I still vividly remember the day Annalee believed in Jesus (you can read her salvation story here), and I know I'll never forget the day Addie did.  One of my kids' favorite things to listen to is our set of "Psalty" CD's, which teach kids about God's word with cute stories and songs. In one of the CD's, a couple of kids believe in Jesus and the other kids call it their "re-birthday", referring to the Christian term "born again" as starting your life new in Christ.  I'm so thankful that both of my girls now have eternal security in heaven, and that nothing can take it away from them. 

On to the birthday party!

We had a full house...my parents, Lee's parents, the Voskamps, Carter & Mason, and Luke, Lindsy, & Joe all came over for pizza and cake. 

The cake: Addie requested a spaceship with the alien toy from Toy Story, so here's what I came up with...

Having it as a centerpiece on the table turned out to be a bad idea. Brady got to do quite a bit of quality checking by the time we caught him...

Presents!

memorization

I can't believe how much of a sponge kids' minds are.  I'm getting to see another level of this with Annalee's school work.

Part of Annalee's daily homework is a set of phonics flashcards.  I've learned that doing them at mealtimes is the best time for us and also the easiest.  (I'm all about multi-tasking.)  As you will see, Addie and Brady love to do them with her.  In fact, if I skip one of them, they will quickly let me know so they can have their turn.  Let me do a quick set-up for this video.  On the front of the card (the side they see) is a picture and the letter that object starts with.  On the back side (the side you see) is the answer; they are supposed to say what the picture is and then pronounce the sound the first letter makes.  So if the front side is a picture of a monkey and the letter "m", they are to say "monkey, mmmm." 

This is a picture of Annalee's first ever graded assignment.  She had to memorize this poem and then recite it in front of her class.  She has never liked being up in front of people, so we were so proud of her for doing it!