Saturday, December 12, 2009

Ginger Bread House

While Avie was napping...or while she should have been napping, we made our very first ginger bread house. Aunt Jillian, I mean Aunt Jin Jin, gave us the kit. Luckily the house itself was already constructed. I'll admit I'm a pretty poor ginger bread architect, so this really is the best way to go. All we had to do was mix the icing and decorate! Haven was really excited. He suggested every few minutes that we start eating it, but I told him we had to wait for Dad to see it. I was really impressed with how patient and careful he was. I had no idea he was capable of such a craft! He did a great job. See for yourself!





Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Exploring and Engaging the Issues of Injustice

Normally, I post fun stories and pictures of my kiddos. but this issue is very close to my heart and I simply can't overlook an opportunity to shine a light on this injustice. So here's your warning in advance...this is not a happy post, but a necessary one.

Over the summer our church confronted an important, often neglected issue that takes place world wide.

The below information is from http://www.iempathize.org/.

"Each year sexual traffickers lure, coerce, trick, drug, kidnap, and sell millions
of vulnerable women and children into the multi-billion dollar sex trade. In
their daily lives victims of sexual trafficking endure unspeakable acts of
physical brutality, violence and degradation including rape by so-called
customers and pimps; undergo forced abortions; acquire drug and alcohol
dependencies; live in fear of their lives and in fear for the lives of their family
and friends; suffer acute psychological reactions as a result of their extreme
physical and emotional trauma; and contract sexually transmitted diseases
which all too often bring life-long illness or hasten death. If they survive, the
physical, psychological and spiritual impacts of these experiences on victims
are devastating and enduring.
As for the traffickers, they are not respecters of international borders, the rule
of law, democracy, or multi-lateral treaties guaranteeing universal human
rights. They have no regard for the economic status of victims or their level of
education. They do not discriminate against their victims based on the color of
their skin, their nationality, or their religion. For all those among the innocent,
Explore the Issue."


After hearing all of this I was horrified. We were told currently iempathize was raising money to build a fence around their community because pimps were stealing children back that had been rescued from the sex trade. Children as young as 6.

As a mother, there is no way I could ignore this. My children, thankfully, are safe, but there are some mothers who don't know where their child is, as their child in being tortured in unspeakable ways.

And don't be fooled into thinking this only happens in other countries. There is child trafficking taking place right here in our country.

Find out how you can help. http://www.iempathize.org/

Monday, August 10, 2009

Hiking trip!

Saturday we went up to Evergreen to take a family hike. We packed sandwiches, snacks and our pack to carry Avie. We hiked over 2 miles total! Haven walked most of the way all by himself! We were so impressed. Avie hiked some too. She fell down every 5 steps or so, but every time she just got up dusted of her hands and continued with a big smile. Both kids loved the hike. When Haven finally reached the end of his strength he got to ride in the pack. He calls it "riding tom tom". We also got to see a horse on the trail. There were flowers everywhere, including my all time favorite, bell flowers. It was a great day!








Monday, July 13, 2009

Jumping, eating and Dancing!

Sunday our church put on a family field day at a local park. They had dunking tanks, field games, jumping castles, music and snow cones! Avie jumping in her first castle and was a trooper even when she got knocked around a little. Haven got his face painted with a lightning bolt! We played...actually they played and we chased. Avie was drawn to the music and spent the majority of her time dancing for anyone who would watch.





The moment below is rare and I nearly missed it! I didn't have my camera. A really nice guy stopped and couldn't resist taking their picture and then offered to e-mail it to me! How nice! Now I have proof they like eachother sometimes. ;)

Happy Birthday Haven!

Saturday we celebrated Haven's 3rd birthday. We had a great time and Haven got a lot of cool new stuff. Avie has had a great time sharing in his gifts. The real question is...does this mark the end of the terrible two's??? Not likely.




Last picture of my two year old.








Our first film shoot

On Mike's birthday we had our first film shoot as Emerald Productions. It went very well. We have one more day of shooting to go for this short film. In case you are wondering it is about SEX....yep...that's right.











Sunday, June 14, 2009

Avie's Nursery!

Finally....it is finished. She is nearly 18 months, but who's keeping track? I completely love how it turned out and it was totally worth the wait.





















Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The joys of mothering....
Today we officially started potty training my son. He has been resistant and frankly the whole potty training thing is a little daunting to me. We had introduced him to the potty, bought a little potty, bought books, talked it up, etc to try to get him intrigued with no luck.
After considering it, we decided he just doesn't care when he's wet or messy. So the solution was...get him out of diapers and into underwear so he is more aware when he goes. Makes sense....right?
So I went and bought him underwear with his favorite movie characters on it. Starwars. He has Luke Skywalker and General Grevis plastered across his rear end. I'm getting excited about this tactic now. He's thrilled, I'm thrilled....and then we have our first experience with diaperless weeing.
First lesson....cover the couch with plastic trash bags covered with sheets. Explain to child we do not pee on Luke Skywalker or mommy's couch...we go in the potty.
We continue about our morning. Suddenly my son runs up to me in his fresh pair of undies and asks me for a diaper. hmmm.
Instead I suggest he sits on the potty. His response is "No". Ok...if you sit on the potty and go pee I will give you a marshmellow. He instantly complies. He pees in the potty no problem. Now I feel like he's been outsmarting us for awhile. I reluctantly give him a marshmellow.
I go back to cleaning when Haven runs back to the potty (not 3 minutes later) and pees again. This time he just sticks his hand out for his marshmellow. I tell him what a great job he is doing and give him another marshmellow. As I'm cleaning out his potty again he asks for it again. Sure enough he sits down pees AGAIN and asks for another marshmellow. I'm starting to think this reward system is faulty.
After the 5th time of peeing I try to explain he is doing so great, but cut it out for heaven's sake. I'm tired of emptying your pee can so you can have a marshmellow! I tell him to wait a little longer and we will go again when I'm done cleaning.
Ten minutes later he is pleading for a marshmellow. So being the clever mother that I am, I up the stakes. I tell him if he goes poop in the potty I will give him one of the big marshmellows. So he quickly agrees and sits down. I wait, expecting him to demand a big marshmellow any minute. Instead all I hear is grunting. I ask him if he is ok. He says "It's stuck Mom!".
And that is our first day of potty training. Tomorrow I will be sure to have orange slices on hand for rewards, plenty of clean underwear, couches covered in sheets and a hubby at home to clean up the messes. Now who's smarter?

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

We found a great new place for lunch!



We spent today at Red Rocks. We were "location scouting" for one of Mike's new movies and we decided to have a picnic while we were at it. Avie was very curious and brave. Every time we turned around she was into something or headed straight for a cliff. Suddenly I understood why some people put theirs kids on leashes. Haven ran...and ran...and ran, but luckily repeated how "careful" we all needed to be. Haven and Avie had a great time and I could get use to this being our new job. ;)







Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Ready, Set...Jump!

After a lot of prayer and consideration Mike and I have decided to start a Christian Production Company. We will be partnering with long time friends, Kevin and Lillian under the name Emerald Productions. We have a long, busy road ahead of us as we prepare to market ourselves to churches and religious organizations. We will be providing production services to churches that want customized visual media as well as writing and producing our own short films to sell as ministry tools. We also will be pursuing the production of feature length films to minister to the mainstream. We very much believe this is the path God wants us to take, so we are surprisingly at peace even though Mike's last day at a job with steady income will be May 6th. We ask our friends and family to pray for us during this transition. Right now there is a long list of things to do and a lot more questions than answers, but we are very excited!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Easter Eggs!

For the first time Haven colored easter eggs. His said his favorite eggs were the purple ones. We even managed to do it without getting die everywhere! We did break an egg...or two.






Cozy Cows!

A few weekends ago we went to Cozy Cow farm in Greeley with Grandpa Spain. We got to see them milk several cows and we saw other animals too. Haven and Avie fed some goats. Avie thought it was a little gross, but Haven loved it. We bought some fresh chocolate milk and took home some delicious steaks. We spend the rest of the day with Grandpa Spain. What a fun weekend!