Asa's Birthday

It was a month ago already, but Asa turned 6!  He'd been counting the days until his birthday (quite literally) and even had the gift of multiple birthday celebrations.  It was such a joy for our Bubba to celebrate his birthday with family this year!

First things first: the cake.  He picked out a chocolate cake from the store and requested that I put a dragon on it.  I decided to raise the bar and put two dragons on it.  He was rather pleased!

I just love making my boys happy with their birthday cakes!  They look forward to it every year and I'm glad it's become a tradition.

My parents and my sister's family came over a few days before Asa's birthday to kick off the celebration.  There's nothing like grandparents and cousins to make a birthday all the better!

The weather on his actual birthday was perfect and we took the boat across the lake to get pizza.  That's the other thing about Asa's birthday - he always wants pizza.  He recently declared that his favorite food is Domino's pizza and his second favorite food is non-Domino's pizza!  Well, Lake Inn doesn't serve Domino's but it serves some pretty amazing breadsticks and pizza and our boy was pretty happy.

Also, Asa got this telescope for his birthday.  He's used regularly it for going on adventures, which makes me smile every time.

We continued the celebration at a cabin in Wisconsin with Eli's family, in which all the fall birthdays were celebrated together and lots of presents were opened at once!  Also, more time with grandparents and cousins is a sure win for a birthday!

We are so thankful for this boy.  He is a ball of fun, a total ham, and a true snuggle bug.  Just this morning he crawled into bed to snuggle with me, give me a smooch, and asked if we could tell each other jokes!  Oh how we love this little dude.

Asa is our most expressive kid, our most outgoing, an extrovert to the core, and extremely brave and courageous.  He loves to go on adventures and particularly likes to play games that involve weapons.  He has an imagination bigger than the sky and the sounds that accompany his imaginative games (think blasters blasting) have become the soundtrack of our life.  He loves dinosaurs and dragons, Star Wars and sea monsters.  He loves to play games and loves to tag along with his big brothers any time of day or night.  He hates being left out of anything.  He is strong and independent, yet a total Mama's Boy and I love him fiercely for it.  He still needs his snuggle blanket every day and I love him for that too.  He doesn't sing as much as he used to, but when he does I always stop and listen to his angelic little voice because he's usually singing about God.  Asa loves the Lord and is learning more about Him all the time and wants to know where to find all the stories in the Bible.  His prayers encourage us and we are so incredibly proud of this child of God.  We couldn't be more blessed.

Happy Birthday, Asa!

Small Group Reunion and the Fellowship of Believers

I cannot begin to express how important this group of people is to us.  Not everyone is pictured (including my own husband) but it's a representation of our Small Group from the years we lived in Chicago, a group of friends who are like family to us and who are a constant source of encouragement and love.  I wish everyone could have a group like this in their lives.  Their friendship is a slice of heaven on earth.

This morning during a Bible lesson with the boys we talked about how important it is to grow in our faith, to grow in maturity in Christ and to remain firm.  This topic was in relation to the disciples and how they grew in faith during their time spent with Jesus and then remained firm after Jesus ascended into heaven.  Of all the ways we do this (reading Scripture, praying, listening to God, etc.) we particularly emphasized the importance of fellowship with other believers.  We told our sons that no matter where God takes them in this life, it is extremely important for them to find other followers of Jesus and to do life together.  Having other Christian friends who are also committed to loving the Lord with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength is tantamount!  We can mutually encourage each other and hold each other up in a world where it is far too easy to live a nonchalant faith.

The first example we gave to our boys was this group of people that we met in Chicago.  When we moved there for the medical school years, we didn't know anyone else.  We had to start all over with making friends and the first thing we did was look for other faithful followers of Jesus.  This group of people is who the Lord put in our path and we couldn't have been more blessed.  They have remained very close friends through the years, and they have strengthened us and encouraged us and challenged us and edified us more than words can say.  What a gift it has been!

Eli and I have been blessed with Christian fellowship in every season of our lives.  In every place we've lived the Lord has provided us with faithful followers of Jesus to do life with.  We had to do our part by searching and reaching out and responding in turn, and God provided.  It's not something to forego or give up on.  Living our faith in isolation is a recipe for nonchalance at best, so we are teaching our kids how important it is to have Christian friends as a way of growing in their faith.

Our Small Group from Chicago consists of lifelong friends who have always helped us grow in our faith and it was an absolute joy to spend Labor Day weekend with them.  This group has had a reunion every year for the past ten years, and it's always a highlight for us to join them whenever we're back in the States.

This year we went to a YMCA camp in Indiana, which was amazing because the facilities catered perfectly to our large group size (which includes a bucket load of kids now!) and because there were activities included in the weekend: swimming, rock climbing, archery, nature walk, and campfires.

Here are some snapshots of the fun:

What a life-giving weekend!  It was chock-full of the verse we explored with our boys this morning:

"Let us not give up meeting together, 

as some are in the habit of doing, 

but let us encourage one another - 

and all the more as you see the Day approaching." 

(Hebrews 10:25)

Nothing can replace the fellowship of believers.  Nothing else has the potential to edify us in the way we need to stay on course with Jesus.  We are so grateful for every opportunity we have to be poured into by followers of Jesus, and to pour into them in return!

Connecticut and Boston

There is nothing like a malfunctioned camera card to ruin all motivation for working on photos and posting said photos.  I've had a hard time picking up my camera since an SD card went haywire in August and I lost a lot of photos from our trip out East.  I've cried and grieved over the lost photos from our time in Connecticut and Boston - everything from the boys riding a quad in the woods with our cousin to digging with a real digger to our adventures at Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower to half of our whale watching tour.

Gone, all of it.  Except in my memory, which doesn't work well long-term, hence why photos are so important to me and hence why I've been so discouraged in the photo department the past couple months.

But we did have an amazing trip to see family and friends and I don't want to forget it!  So here are photos that were blessedly preserved on phones instead of my actual camera, and then what I was able to capture with a different camera card after the first one went defunct.

First of all, our trip to New England was extremely special for Caleb because he didn't fly out there with the rest of us.  He tagged along with Grandma and Grandpa Horn as they drove all the way out there with their camper in tow.  They came through Michigan and picked him up, then continued on and met us out there.  They stayed overnight in Pennsylvania along the way and took our animal-loving son to a place called Reptiland.  He couldn't stop talking about it for days.

We met up in Connecticut to visit Eli's cousins, aunt and uncle.  We hadn't been out there in years and it was such a joy to see them all again and for the boys get to know them.  The agenda was simple: hang out and share meals together.  The weather was beautiful and we got to swim in their pool and take the quad through the woods, and Kai and Asa got to dig with a digger in the back yard.  It was heaven on earth!

Not only that, but Jen took us to the PEZ factory!  It was such a fun and fascinating place.  Who knew that PEZ had such history, and that there were more PEZ container designs than one could imagine?

We just love spending time with Eli's extended family.  It was with reluctance that we had to leave Connecticut, but also with joy as we headed from there to Boston to see more family.  We made a stop at Plimoth Plantation along the way, which the boys absolutely loved.  I took some great photos and videos of Asa chopping wood and all the boys pretending to blast cannons, but all of that will have to live in my memory.  We also made a stop at the Mayflower and Plymoth Rock, which was really fun too, but alas, that will have to live in my memory also.

We arrived at Eli's aunt and uncle's house and were welcomed by a welcome sign on the door - such a thoughtful touch as we brought our rambunctious boys into their space.  I'm always amazed at the incredible hospitality of people as we bring all our chaos into their homes!

In Boston we had the chance to take the boys whale watching.  It was a cool and cloudy day, but it was so worth it.  I still can't get over the boys' excitement at seeing humpback whales coming to the surface of the ocean.  It was also their first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean, which feels like a milestone.  Their perception of the ocean is the Indian Ocean near the equator, so this was a totally different experience.  Grandma Horn came along for the fun too!

Halfway through the boat trip is when my camera card malfunctioned (although I didn't realize at that point that my photos would be gone forever) so I simply switched cards and kept taking photos.  I'm grateful I have anything from that experience.

Asa kept striking this pose.  I assumed he was trying to use the Force on the whales, but when I asked about it he just said he wasn't doing anything.  I love little boys and their indiscernible imaginations!

And we did see whales!  Lots of humpback whales.  No fancy jumps out of the water, but plenty of surfacing and deep dives with their tails flapping above the surface.  They are such big, beautiful creatures.  I'm so thankful we could see them.

The next day Eli's aunt took us into Boston so we could walk the Freedom Trail.  The boys have learned a lot of American history in Social Studies and it was neat to walk the streets of Boston with them and help them imagine the history there.  They knew about Paul Revere and Samuel Adams and the Boston Massacre and other tidbits.  I love history and it was just amazing to be in Boston again, this time with our boys.  And I must say how proud I was of their ability to walk the whole Freedom Trail and back!

Caleb had to leave a day early to drive back to Michigan with Grandma and Grandpa Horn, so the rest of us had time to enjoy the beach!  Even though I myself don't love hanging out at the beach all that much, it was good to see the boys enjoy themselves so thoroughly.  Kai and Asa didn't waste a moment digging in the sand and having a splendid time.  I cherish these moments of watching our children love childhood!

We are in such a sweet spot with the kids.  They are old enough to do a lot for themselves but are still kids, not running off without us.  I love it.  It makes these kind of trips so much easier than they used to be, and a whole lot of fun.  We are reveling in the blessing of this sweet spot!