He's a Walker!

It's official, Luke is a walker! Two days ago he took about 4 or 5 steps. Then later that evening on two different occasions, he was in the middle of the floor and spotted a toy. He stood up without holding onto anything and just walked over to it. Like a pro! Of course I can't get a picture of him doing it, so the picture will have to wait. It is so fun! He is just beside himself with glee. He grins so big because he has figured out that it is a BIG deal. He has also figured out that he will be able to play with the big boys more if he can walk. Oh no! I'm in trouble.

He also has figured out it is cool to make the big boys laugh. I had Seth in the car with us yesterday. Luke started smacking his head and bopping around. Seth and Aidan cracked up and he ate it up! He kept doing it until he was giggling so hard, he could hardly keep his head up. What fun stuff!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Today as I do my normal Mommy stuff, checking some blogs, I came across the Steven Curtis Chapman website. In a year of loss for me, and a mother of two little ones, I was very moved by this family's loss of their 5 year old daughter adopted from China. I can't even imagine and it makes me teary to think about it. But what an amazing story they have! Their faith in God and His plan moves them daily to continue to serve Him and to get up each day.

Today is Veteran's Day. I must admit I don't give much thought to it. I don't give much thought to the fact that I can write on a website about my own faith. I don't give much thought to the fact that I can teach my boys about Jesus and not one fear crosses my mind. It is the bravery and service of these veterans that allows me to move through my day without any real fear. I am thankful, and often list these things in my prayers, but on such a miniscule level. I have grown to expect freedom and forget that it costs many people and families much more than I can imagine. I'm happy to sit in my safe world and take it all for granted. Today I pray for forgiveness and for the heart that is much more grateful.

Back to Steven Curtis Chapman...he wrote a new song while visiting the Bethesda Naval Hospital recently. He met a man who had just returned from Afghanistan a couple of weeks before and had just the day before Steven's visit, had part of his legs removed. You can hear the song on his website, after you sign up for the newsletter. It is called Thomas McBride. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to link stuff yet. It all just reminded me that if I do nothing else, I can have a grateful heart and look for ways (other than at Christmas) to minister to those serving us and protecting our freedom.

Our church is very active with the local military in San Diego and I have absolutely no excuse! One cool thing that they do is send a letter (via volunteers like, hmmmm, me?) to military men and women who have just accepted Jesus as their Savior. Just a note of encouragement and welcome. Ok, that's not that hard to do, but I'm sure it has a great impact. I've got to start small, huh?

So now you know how my heart really looks....is there someone you need to thank today? God bless!

Happy Halloween

We had a great time last night at our church's harvest party. Luke did very well with his lion costume....mane and all! He was in the stroller to start off, but we went inside to where they had things for smaller kids. He took off and wanted to "walk" around. He is so close to walking. The blog post will be coming soon, I am sure. Aidan loved being called superman. He got this cute grin whenever we'd say superman instead of Aidan. Our church has moved into a big new facility and they went all out! There must have been 10 different inflatable things. I had never seen a few, but the best was the foosball inflatable. There were ropes across the sides and kids were belted to the ropes. They could only move sidways, like foosball. Then of course the necessary bounce houses, an obstacle course and the slides. Aidan only played one game...fishing. He is too smart! They put the fishing rod over the wall and pulled out candy clipped to a clothes pin. Right away, he asks, "what's back there?" They were gracious and let him look over, although I'm not sure he saw the person because when I asked, he said there was candy back there. They told him to keep it a secret, so the person must not have hidden. There was also an animal show. They were just putting away the alligator when we walked in. That was all Aidan could talk about...until they pulled out the boa constrictor. They had 5 kids come up and hold it! I'm not into reptiles! On the way home, Aidan said he wanted to hold it. We told him he probably had to be 6.

We didn't come home with an obscene amount of candy, for which I am thankful. Although Aidan did have nerds and hot tamales for dessert after breakfast! Daddy told him he could pick two. He's so great! I would have told him one. I have made one thing of smarties last all week. They were in the goody bags from Luke's party. Aidan doesn't get much candy, so he had no idea most people eat the whole thing of smarties at once! I know, I'm so mean. I figure I better enjoy it while it lasts.