Tickle Time

Surprise!

Sunday I turned the big 3-0.

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It all started Wednesday night after Growth Group when Nikki pulled out this incredible chocolate peanut butter cake covered with peanut butter cups that she made for my birthday. Wow! The peanut butter icing was AMAZING!!

Then Saturday night...

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Thinking that we were just there to drop off Zachary so Dane and I could go to dinner...

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This is my surprise face when I walked into a house full of friends to help me celebrate my 30th birthday. Krista, my sister-in-law (on the left), threw this party for me and totally pulled off the surprise!

Wow, that's a lot of candles!

Thank you Krista for throwing this party for me and thank you to everyone for coming! With the money I received I was able to get a new camera!! I love it! Thank you all so much.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

Cheryl, one of the PhD wives, is having a boy and I am in charge of cupcakes for the shower. After enlisting the artistic help of Melissa and Jenn, these sports balls actually turned out to be easy and adorable.

Genesis 1:1

This is Zachary practicing our family verse of the week.

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Lovin' the Library

It has been so cold (-18 on Jan 16!) that we've been finding creative ways to spend our time indoors. We've been enjoying the section of our library where you can check out puzzles. These are Zachary's lastest accomplishments and he's very proud! You gotta love fun and educational!!

Snow Snow Snow

It just keeps coming - I love it!

We've gotten over 14 inches in the last 5 days!

Big Boy Bed

The change was necessary.

Zachary had been jumping out of the crib!

Temporary fix.

I got this bedrail from Freecycle. Victory dance for the arrival of the big boy bed!

It's here and Zachary is doing really well staying in bed...so far

The BEST Children's Bible!

Recently we were having dinner with the Haugens when Zachary came out of their son's room with this Bible. As I randomly flipped to a story at the beginning called The Terrible Lie I quickly realized what a gem I was holding. Not only did the Bible tell of the Fall (as many Children's Bibles don't seem to include), but as the subtitle states "Every story whispers his name." EVERY story points you to Jesus. This is a Bible where GOD is the hero and it tells the wonderful true story of how He comes to rescue us!

Here's just a sample of what I read that night:

Adam and Eve lived happily together in their beautiful new home. And everything was perfect - for a while.

Until the day when everything went wrong.

God had a horrible enemy. His name was Satan. Satan had once been the most beautiful angel, but he didn't want to be just an angel - he wanted to be God. He grew proud and evil and full of hate, and God had to send him out of heaven. Satan was seething with anger and looking for a way to hurt God. He wanted to stop God's plan, stop this love story, right there. So he disguised himself as a snake and waited in the garden.

Now, God had given Adam and Eve only one rule: "Don't eat the fruit on that tree," God told them. "Because if you do, you'll think you know everything. You'll stop trusting me. And then death and sadness and tears will come."

(You see, God knew if they ate the fruit, they would think they didn't need him. And they would try to make themselves happy without him. But God knew there was no such thing as happiness without him, and life without him wouldn't be life at all.)...

You'll have to get this fantastic book and see for yourself how God's heart breaks when his children believe the terrible lie and eat the fruit and how he sends them from the garden because he loves them too much to let them live forever in their sin hiding from him and...well, here's the end of the story...

And though they would forget him, and run from him, deep in their hearts, God's children would miss him always, and long for him - lost children yearning for their home.

Before they left the garden, God whispered a promise to Adam and Eve: "It will not always be so! I will come to rescue you! And when I do, I'm going to do battle against the snake. I'll get rid of the sin and the dark and the sadness you let in here. I'm coming back for you!"

And he would. One day, God himself would come.

This book has been endorsed and influenced by Tim Keller's teaching. It is, as Keller says, not just for kids. I am learning tons as I read through this with Zachary. The Bible I had before this one is totally moralistic and actually tells kids to be like David - implying that if you just try hard enough and be "good" then you're ok. Isn't that the exact opposite of the gospel?? I'm not ok. I can't try hard enough. Christ had to come to do what I can't - save myself. I'm so grateful to have found this book now while Zachary is young and can grow up hearing how the entire Bible is one big love story of God rescuing his children.

I encourage you to buy a copy here (or 3 to get free shipping and give 2 away!)