For my big bub

Dear Malachi,

Today you and I had a talk.  About life and death, and about Jesus.  My one greatest hope as a mom is that my children grow to love God and want to serve Him,  and I wanted to write this so that maybe someday you could look back and see how even at 3 years old, God was tugging at your heart.  So here you go...

       It started when I was folding laundry and you were using my massive pile of clean clothes as your hideout.  In the pile was a quilt that was given to me in memory of my Grandpa Koch.  I told you about him...

"Hey Bub, this quilt was from my Grandpa Koch.  You never got to meet him, he died when I was young, but you would have loved him."

Malachi: "He died?" (tearing up) "Why did he die?"

"He was very old, and had gotten sick so he died.  But he knew Jesus so he went to Heaven!" 

"He's in Heaven??  Heaven is up there (motioning up), and the Devil is down there (motioning down)?"

"Yep, he had Jesus in his heart so when he died he went to Heaven."
                    
"Well how do you die?"

"Your heart stops working."
                               
"Your heart stops working!?  But how does it do that!?"

"Well our bodies aren't perfect, they can get worn out and very old and stop working."

Malachi is tearing up again, "But I don't want to die!  I want to stay home, this is where I'm happy!"

"Oh sweetie I'm glad you're happy here, but Heaven is WAY better than home!  The Bible says that Jesus is preparing a mansion for us in Heaven - do you know what a mansion is?"

"No!"

"It's a house bigger than you could EVER imagine!  And nicer than you could ever imagine too!  Jesus has a place for His children to come and be with Him forever!"

"Forever?  But what will we do when it gets dark?"

"It won't get dark - ever!  In Heaven there isn't day or night, and you know what?  There's also no pain, no hurting, no crying EVER!"

"Ever!?  You mean no aches in my legs??"

"Nope, no aches in your legs!  And if you were to bump your head it wouldn't even hurt!"

"Well what if we get thirsty?"

"Um, I don't think we'll ever be thirsty or hungry bub - our new bodies won't ever feel hunger!"

"Well will there be stories in Heaven?  Like the stories in my Bible??"

"You know what bub? God IS the Bible!  So when we're in Heaven we won't have to read the Bible because we'll be with God!  So He can tell us stories!"

"Wow!  Will our new bodies be small??"

(laughing) "Well bub I don't actually know, the Bible isn't completely clear on what our new bodies will look like."

"Well I'll go get your Bible so we can find out!!" (runs and gets it and comes back)

"Sorry hon it doesn't say exactly what our new bodies are going to look like, just that they'll be perfect and work perfectly!"

"Well Mommy are you going to be in Heaven with me?"

"Yes bub, I'm going to Heaven when I die.  Do you know why?"
          
"No!"

"I'm going to Heaven because I believe in God and that Jesus died for my sins.  And I've asked Him into my heart!"

"Mommy will you help me ask Him into MY heart?"

"Of course!"  (sitting down beside him on the still unfolded massive pile of laundry...) "All you have to do is pray, so just say what I say okay?"

(taking my hand in his) "Okay Mommy!"

(He repeats after me line by line) "Dear Jesus, please come into my heart.  Forgive me of my sins and help me to live the way You want me to. Amen"

(Thinking for a second...) "So how do you go to the Devil?"

"Well bub, when someone doesn't believe in God, when they die that's where they go.  And it's AWFUL there.  It's dark all the time, it is extremely hot, everyone is crying and weeping - it's horrible.  That's why it's so important that we tell other people about Jesus so that they can be in Heaven with us too!"

(Opening my Bible to the maps in the back) "Look Mommy!  Heaven is right HERE!" (pointing somewhere near Israel)

(laughing) "Oh really?"

"Yep!  Will you read to me about David and Goliath?"

"Sure sweetie:)"  (so I take a seat next to him and read his favorite Bible story).

....

Bub you asked even more questions than that but that's the best I can remember.  You have such a sincere heart, and you are constantly trying to learn and understand.  You talked about death with tears in your eyes and you couldn't imagine anything better than being home with your mommy and daddy.  I pray that through your sweet, sincere words that Jesus has taken root in your heart and will mold you and shape you to be an amazing man of God.  And no matter how many questions you ask, or how many times you want to pray, I will always do my best to answer them and will always pray with you.  Love you bub.

A Day at the Park

It was a hot hot day in central Kansas. The dust had become so bad that we wore wet handkerchiefs over our mouths to help us bre….oh wait, that was the dust bowl. I guess it hasn’t been quite that bad;)

But despite the heat I decided the boys and I needed some play time at the park behind our house. So off we went! (We have to cross a church parking lot directly behind our house to get to the playground, and not gonna lie it felt a bit like the Sahara…)

Malachi walked Sirius for me:)

 

 Hot dog.  Ha.

 

 

Brothers!  They are so sweet together.

 



 

If I had an audio clip for this picture it would sound something like, “NA NA NA DA DA DA EEEEEEEE!!!!”

 

 

Breaking sticks. Yep.

 

 

Melting my face off.

 

 

Malachi loves slides!

 

 

Love the way he looks at his big brother:)

 

 

So my child has fangs. His bottom two middle teeth came in, followed by his fangs on top – or snaggle teeth as we like to call them:) I’ll be a little sad when his top middle ones come in lol

 

 

Still loving the slides

 

Have a blessed week!

 

 

It's so hard!!

Jericho is SO close to crawling!  I mean seriously - for about 3 weeks now, SO close!  ::Sigh::  I feel bad for the kid, this has got to be the most frustrating stage.  He works and works and then launches himself forward aaand....face plant.  He crawls backwards extremely well, and can roll his way pretty much anywhere.  But traditional crawl? I know it's gotta happen sometime...eventually...(or not Avery;)  Here are some visual aids for your enjoyment:

 Malachi enjoys "helping"

And what would it be without video...

Keep up the good work Kiddo.

On another note, Malachi starts preschool two weeks from today!  He's excited, I'm excited - I think he's going to have a blast.  When I was filling out the paperwork for his enrollment the last question was something like, "Is there anything you would like us to know about your child's personality, learning style etc.?"  Lol I wasn't sure where to begin...I hope they're ready for him! 

I feel like I might be more excited about his 'first day of school' picture than his actual first day of school...normal? 

Have a blessed day!

I Have a New Computer!!

Oil and water.  Popcorn and jellybeans.  Socks and sandals.  Kids and naps (for mom).  Toothpaste and orange juice.  Me and technology.

Getting the picture?

We don’t get along.  At all.  My dad and sister have this insane ability to make things work – and not just work, but do whatever they want them to do!  I, however, did not inherit that gift (much to the frustration of my hubby and myself).  I tried to warn Aaron before we got married that I was cursed, that anything electronic I touched was ultimately doomed and should be given their last meal request form.  He laughed.  Six years later, the laughing has stopped. 

Since 2007 I have had a computer that has made my.life.miserable.  I’ll spare you the gory details but that keyboard had experienced more baths in my tears than Brett Favre has thrown touch down passes.  Or retired.  Not sure which is more. 

But finally, today, I have experienced redemption:) A brand new computer that has (hesitantly) restored my hope in me and technology having an amicable relationship!  So here’s to being able to get online in less than 2 minutes, updating my blog in less than an hour and a half (you think I'm joking), and uploading pictures to fb without an emotional breakdown (Wisconsin vacation 2012 – those who were there, I apologize)!  And since I have yet to transfer all of my pictures/videos from my old computer to my new one, I’m just throwing in my absolute favorite family pictures we’ve ever taken, courtesy of my amazing seester Ginger Skillen:)

…so I still haven’t learned how to format my pictures so they look pretty…one step at a time.