From the mouth of a child??

So yesterday I was puttin the girls in their car seats. As I was buckling El in, she said to me...

"Mama, I want to ask Santa next time for a Bible."
I said "really? Ok!"
Then I walked around and got in the car. When I sat down, I said to El, "ya know, you don't need to ask Santa for Bibles. You can ask mommy and daddy for a Bible."
"Oh ok---then Mommy, I would like my own Bible" she said.
"Why would you like your own Bible El?"
"Because I want to study it. And I don't want to just look at my kids Bible because it's just stories about Jesus. It's not a real Bible."
"Oh uh.....ok El. I will get you a real Bible that you can study!"

So...I mean for real? Of course there is nothing cooler than your (almost 4) year old asking her mommy for a Bible so she can sit with me on the couch and study. On the other hand, I am praying so hard that God is developing in her heart in a REAL way a passion to know Jesus and not have it be just a "family faith." I want Jesus to be something my girls talk about because they love Him, are changed by Him, and have seen the effects of Jesus in a real way in their lives. I don't want Jesus to be just a religion, or just "the way I was brought up."

So there you have it. A pretty cool thing for me to hear from El. And a good reminder to continue to pray for that heart of hers.

Speaking of praying---we have our winter retreat this weekend at Sawmill Creek in Sandusky. Pray for our time together. We have 46 women coming and I'm super excited for this time. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Winter (and Workout) fun!!

It's been a pretty fun weekend. The snow here in Toledo accumulated to just over 10 inches!! I think it snowed for about 29 hours straight. Crazy!! And although it caused us to stay at home, it was beautiful AND we actually thoroughly enjoyed the time to relax and play together a bit. :) In addition, however, my husband has fallen deeply in love with his new toy. Our neighbor gave us a snowblower (needed a little work but now it's hoppin) and I think since Friday night he has done our driveway 5 times. I think we have the smoothest, cleanest, prettiest driveway on the block. Ha! Men and their gasoline powered toys...

Anyways, Kiki came over yesterday for our annual snow man building day. Unfortunately, the snow was not pack-able and so we made a "sea turtle" instead. Creative, huh? But miss El PROMISED her Aunt Katie and I that next year the snow will be better and we can make a snowman then. How funny.

(**hilarious---just looked out the window and it's snowing again. For those of you not in Toledo--you're lucky!!)

RD and I enjoyed a night of nothing last night. Literally--I planned out the meals I'm gonna make for the next two weeks, we watched a TV show, chatted a bit and went to bed early. I didn't even clean the house which is a daily task for me, so I was proud of myself!! Now TONIGHT---season premiere of 24----yahoo!! We are addicts...

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Ok so this last pic RD just took of us today. Yeah- I was finishing up my workout on the punching bag and YES that is El "coaching me"--she STILL does it everyday. Yes folks, she still comes down and yells "faster faster/harder harder" during my workouts. RD heard this from upstairs and had to catch a picture of it.

MOAN FAMILY PIC

Moan Christmas re-visited

My sister in law Sarah sent me some pics she took on Christmas. Even though that's come and gone, they are too good not to share! And for anyone bummin that they had to go back to work today (ok, I AM)- then it's fun to re-visit the day and time with Fam anyways. Enjoy!!

Kiki and her boyfriend Dave--cute pic, huh?!

Our dog Telli was depressed as we were opening gifts. We caught

her peeking around the corner, craving some attention!!

Jackson and Uncle J

Dinner time!!

The good-bye hug between El and Jack. This picture makes it look like

they got along all day though- HA, yeah right. :) hehe....

Seriously this stuff IS magic!!

So I have two sick kids. Random--came upon us fast. I went in to kiss El before I went to bed last night and thought it smelled kinda funny. I told RD to go in and see what he thought. He came out of the room and was like, "um yeah I think El puked all over her bed. Look at my hand!!" Poor Daddy got puky on his hand. hehe...

But I can't make fun of him cause he was a CLEANING MACHINE last night. While I cleaned El up, brushed her teeth, and changed her PJs, he "cleaned," changed sheets, etc.

3:30 AM came around and Ems woke up screaming. She was hysterical actually. We both went in her room and as RD said, (this is gross--beware) she was covered in her own cottage cheese. UGH!

So once again I cleaned Ems up--she actually had to have a full blown bath--while RD changed sheets and cleaned up her bed and the carpet.

Ok so here is the point. While I was going on a CLEANING SPREE today (disinfecting my entire house, washing/bleaching sheets, vacuuming, etc.) RD asked me if I noticed that the "mysterious dots" in the carpet by Ems door were gone. I said yeah and wondered when in the world that happened. 3:30 AM he said...with this stuff called Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap.

It's used for anything, seriously, anything. We clean our bathtub with it, wash our hands with it on occasion, you can wash your dog with it, use it as laundry detergent--and apparently you can clean carpets with it. RD not only got the puke out of the carpet with no smell left behind but he also got the "mysterious dots" out of her carpet that have been there for 5 months!! (I guess he just got motivated in the middle of the night).

Well, all day Ems hair still smelled horrible. 3 baths later with Johnsons body wash, and I still couldn't get the stench out. RD then said, "let's try BRONNERS." We did---and finally she smells good again! It's amazing.

Try this stuff people- it's worth the money. I washed off dressers and other things today with it too. Forget the Pledge! :)

HELP?

Anyone know of how to print these blogs into books? I have been looking into several different sources, but just haven't found one that works or is all that great. I want to print my 2008 blogs!
Any suggestions or input are welcomed! Thanks.

NEVER will I whine again

I bet people are saying that same statement today as I am...some saying never will I "WINE" again (post new years eve) and some saying never will I "WHINE" again.
I just had the most humbling 40 min.

On our drive home from C-Bus this afternoon, I whined to RD about the few extra pounds i'm carrying around. I told him that it's so hard for me to be incredibly consistent working out with little kids. I said if he would be willing to pick up one extra household chore each week, I could feel more "justified" working out during Em's afternoon naps---knowing some of the household stuff would get done with RD's help. I complained about how I need him in my corner and that it's "not fair" that he just gets to workout whenever he wants to, with no kids around.

So we get home. I got changed to come down here in the basement and workout. For some reason he accompanied me. Yeah----as soon as I got on, he said "I'm in charge of your workout." It began with 26 min. of the stinkin HARDEST workout I've ever done on the elliptical. I felt like I was gonna puke. It then moved to the punching bag. I was wanting to cry but laugh at the same time because ALL THIS TIME, El was down here too. Both her and RD were holding the punching bag for me yelling "faster faster, harder harder." I mean c'mon- my 3 year old is yelling "10 more seconds" at me.

The funniest thing is that every once in awhile she would feel really bad for me and just go and hit RD in the leg and say "stop being mean to mommy!"

I then moved to some abs stuff, to some push-ups, then back to the punching bag. My push ups were SO PATHETIC that both RD and El were holding my shirt and literally pulling me up after each time I pushed down. Um yeah- humbling.

You'd think my oh-so-generous hubby would give me a helping hand to get me off the floor when I was done. He said "nope, get up yourself. You don't need a gym membership---you've got this basement. So welcome to your entry workout. El, tell mommy good job."

She said "good job mommy. you can puke now."
Oh crap.