Bath Confetti and Poison Control!

While on the phone with my mother-in-law today, little Sara came crying to me sticking out her tongue. I swiped my finger across her tongue and got a pice of hair but that didn't seem to do make her feel better, she continued to cry and point to her mouth. I got down on her level thinking I would shine a light in her mouth to find a hair bothering her or something... when I smelled a strange fruity smell. I looked at her curiously and she again pointed to her mouth and cried.. this time she said "flower". I knew instantly that she had eaten something strange and I ran to the bathroom where purple and white flowered bath confetti was spread all over the floor. I found the container (It previously was a tightly screwed lid with plastic shrink wrap around it!! I would have had to use scissors!!) Only about half of it was on the floor... the other half I am assuming went in Sara's mouth. I figured she would be ok, but since she was really upset, I decided to call the poison control to see what would be the best thing to wash it down with. The lady who took my call was very sweet and laughed along with me about my precious little trouble maker. She told me to give her milk and juice and that in the next hour Sara might vomit or have diarrhea. Thankfully she did neither but she did make quite a fuss for about an hour. Never underestimate the power of the Sara Bear!

Community Group!

Within the Kaleo group at church there are several smaller groups that meet weekly, called Community Groups (thanks to Pastor Kent!). My Community Group has been meeting since October. Bethany, Marianne, Kaitlin, and Dulce have been an amazing blessing in my life, and I love them so much! God has blessed me beyond measure by these amazing girls and their hearts for God and His glory. The goals of our group are: affection for one another, discussion about applying the sermons, and accountability (the three A's from Kurt Gebhards... thanks Kurt!)
I find my self constantly referring to verses from the Bible in our group, but I can't always quote the verse exactly and I rarely know off the top of my head where the verse is. It is also hard for me to look the verse up in the moment. I am very convicted by this and want to change. I want to be able to quote God's word with authority from Him, skilfully and quickly. I fully believe that when Hebrews 4:12 says "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." it means we are to activly wield this sword of God's word into our life and the lives of others for God to change us. This is a grusome picture, a worrier with a sword swinging around causing massive bloodshed. However if we look at a different annalogy of a skilled doctor, wielding a scalpel to remove a tumor from a desprete cancer patient, it becomes a differnt picture. It becomes an act of mercy and compassion, an act of one person just trying desperately to use the knowledge and skill God has given him to help another. Extreme effort must be made by the brain surgeon who applies his knowledge during surgery but can come within millimeters of killing their patient with their scalpel. We who are serious about God's Word, must take this same extreme effort in increasing our knowledge of the scalpel of God's word, and our skill in being able to insert it into the lives of others. So, here is my plan:
I am going to resolve to write down every verse I want to quote during group (or any other time) and then keep track of them. Here are the verses from this week that I wanted to quote at our group:
Proverbs 11:14
Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory.

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.

Proverbs 15:22
Without consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed.

I know there were more verses I tried to quote and utterly failed, but I will do better next time about writing them down!! I am going to try to memorize this series of verses about counsel. It is an easy progression, Proverbs 11, 12 and 15!

Start Each Morning With the Lord!

“He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day...A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully."
E.M. Bounds

Thanksgiving at the Shepherd's

Sara having some Grammy Time!

A ferocious game of football including tackles on the concrete!

Kalena's Favorite Food- Drumsticks!!

Play Time With Daddy!

Road Trips and Bodily Fluids!

Our Christmas road trip was quite the experience. We laughed about it then and we laugh about it now. We can't explain all the throw-up, they weren't sick other than having slight coughs, maybe car sickness? I have recounted the yuckey car trip facts below the pictures.  (I had to include these amazing shots of one amazing Dad. At the end of our road trip we took a little time at a Carls Jr. playground... to my surprise, when Sara cried because she was too small to go into the play structure... daddy came to the rescue!! I have a lot of respect for Justin, this structure looked like a claustrophobic nightmare... and you couldn't have paid me to go up there! If you look closely you can see Justin and Sara peeking through the windows! He is sure a super-dad!)

 

On the way to Santa Barbara:

Kalena threw-up twice

Sara spilt milk all over her and I, and all over Carls Jr.

Sara peed while I attempted to deck change her on the back bumper (no luggage affected thankfully, just

       my boots.)

Katelyn Pooped about 20 times.

On the way from Santa Barbara to L.A.

Sara threw up twice (and once in the night while we were there)

On the way to Yosemite:

Sara threw up once (and once in the night while we were there)

Katelyn pooped all the way through her outfit and up her back (and this is all not including the many times she spit up in her car seat through the entire road trips!)

On the way from Yosemite home:

Nothing out of the ordinary!... praise the Lord!!

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We started in Santa Barbara with Jusitn's extended family at the Holly Oaks Estate. Every year this is one of our hilights of the Christmas season. It was particullary fun to have 3 pregnant cousins there! This was also Katelyn's first time meeting a lot of the family. Then we drove to S.D. to spend some time with Justin's family which, like always, was a blast! We ate a ton and had a lot of fun with a book exchange at Justin's Dad's house and a wonderful homemade pizza feast at his mom's (including a christmas poem from 7 year old Myia Lyon, thanks to Michael's brilliance :)... hilarious. After that, on the 24th, we made our way up to Oak Hurst where we spent Christmas swimming in an amazing indoor pool and being pampered by the Best Western Yosemite Gateway Inn. The pool was on one side of our room and a neat playground/BBQ and little forest was on the other. We spend several days swimming and playing on the playground and forest (a toddlers dream) and Justin even cooked us up some amazing turkey burgers on the BBQ. We then moved on a little closer to Yosemite to the Tanaya Lodge. This was fun because it was in the snow. The girls loved playing in the snow! We swam more, ate more great food and even got to go to a "story time" at the lodge, which Kalena loved! It was a great trip, and Justin and I had such fun relaxing and talking about how we can make this year better than last. We made some new years resolutions that we have been faithful to so far. (Ok, its only been 3 days :) 1. To have a family daily reading time every morning that includes Justin or I reading the Bible to the girls. 2. To have a family worship time at least once a week. 3. I (jenny) will not eat anything that is supposed to be dessert except on holidays (including birthdays) and small group nights. (the lemon bar at church this morning was a breakfast food, right?) We really want God to be more glorified in our own lives personally and in our family. I pray God will enlighten us to more new years resolutions that will change our lives in this direction throughout the new year. Yeah 2010... bring it on!!!!

Sara was very apprehensive at first in the pool because she hasn't swam since she was a little baby. She was scared of the water and even more afraid when Justin would go underwater. She would reach for him and cry... asking him "Daddy OK? Daddy OK?" It was so sad!! As you can see in the pictures though, she soon got very used to it and now loves to swim!!

 She didn't even mind having her head dunked!