I think I see a shark......no wait it's a whale.

We took the kids down to Houston today to visit some skateboarding parks there.  On the way there we passed by a lake and Jonathan, my 4 year old said that he thought he saw a shark in the water.  When I explained that there more than likely were not any sharks in that lake he said...."wait, it was a whale that I saw".  
A stump in the water can be just as much to a four year old as a stick can be in their hands.
When I was a kid a stick could be a gun, a sword, a horse, etc.

The kids had a lot of fun on their skateboards.  Joshua was brave enough to try going down the half pipe twice.  I was doing good just to ride on the flat surface.  I managed to strike up several conversations with several people who were there.  There were some kids there who were extremely talented at doing flips on skateboards and bicycles.


Jonathan and Hannah were real proud of their scooters.  They rode all around inside of the skate park, back and forth.  I can say that I am thoroughly convinced in the benefit of knee and elbow pads.  I only fell to the hard surface a few times.  There were some young kids who would wince at my catastrophic skateboarding.  When I fell the earth would shake.

We have been studying the book of James together as a family and we are in the middle of chapter 2 right now.  James is a great practical book, that always gets quickly to the heart of the matter.  My desire for my kids is to grow up having that type of wisdom to draw upon.

Dead as a door knob

Elijah giving his baby a ride. 

I was cutting up some meat this evening and one of my younger kids had said that the meat was "as dead as a door knob".  It is funny what kids say.

Elijah was learning some colors this afternoon and got stuck on the word burgundy.  He was going around the house repeating "burgundy" in a cute baby voice, over and over again.  

In the picture, Elijah was giving his baby doll a ride in his dump truck.  Elijah's baby always has a smile on it's face.  He loves having his picture taken.  If you pull out a camera, you must take his picture quickly, because he immediately wants to see the screen and look at the picture.

Wow, one week of the new year is officially gone.  It is truly amazing how fast time flies by.  It is my prayer that we all may use our time to great ends in this current year that we are in.

A week in the life of.......

This has been a crazy week.

Monday my car engine seized up.  I had not driven the car during Christmas break and when I got in it early Monday morning it started making the most terrible noise after I left out.
We had been studying the book of James as a family in the evenings.  We talked that evening about how God uses trials in our life to produce patience.  I had asked the kids how it could be that my car engine could totally ruin but I could still be content that God would work everything out in his time.  Joshua said that I could be content because I still have feet.  :-)

 Tuesday we hit a skunk on the way home from Karate class.  No more commentary is necessary on this one.  :-)

Wednesday I found a wonderful deal.  At Wal-Mart they had several real bargains on the reduced rack.  I bought about 70 cans of pringles at 33 cents a can,  Kool-aid brand packets for 5 cents each,  bags of marshmallows for 25 cents each and sugar sprinkles for a quarter each.  The checker looked at me like I was crazy, but I have snacks for work for about a year.

Thursday I had a couple of kids on my bus arguing about which of them looks more like Elvis.  :-)

Friday was extremely busy.  No rest for the weary.  The kids have really been enjoying working on Khan Academy.  It is a great website that will track your progress as you watch educational videos and work on problems.

Today we had a great workout this morning at Karate class.  I am about to go and cook a homemade pizza for the kids.  :-)   Later today I plan on helping the kids finish their Ocarina kits that they got for Christmas.  Their kits are coming along nicely.  They already have them assembled and glued.  Now, all that is left is sanding and finishing.   I will post pictures when they finish them.

It has been a great year!

   I can look back and account for all of the wonderful things that the Lord has done. 
    We are in the process of beginning this new year off right.  This morning we started with kicking 1000 kicks in Karate class.  We had shared in class the things that motivates us to keep going.  It is a blessing to be around so many others who are wanting to focus their time and energy to good purposes.  After Karate class we all went out together to eat at our family's favorite restaurant.  The kids had a great time and we had wonderful fellowship with others.  This afternoon the kids and I had a great time putting together their Ocarina kits that we got them for Christmas.  After that, we had popcorn and a movie.  This evening I plan on bringing in the new year by getting to bed at a reasonable time.  Ok,  I think I am already past that.  However, I do believe that 2012 will be a great year to serve the Lord and see Him working in our lives. 

My first Blogger post

My wife and several others had asked for a long time for me to start a blog.  Well, here it is.  For a long time I have been reluctant to put a blog up because of time restraints.  My time is still very limited, but I thought that I would begin this year better documenting random events as they happen.  My Wife is a wonderful writer and is able to quickly write down her thoughts, while I tend more toward the oratory side of things; Which means that I am sometimes able to produce quick wit in speech but labor at scribing down my thoughts in a permanent medium. 

Whatever the challenges that there may be, I plan on putting interesting events on this page throughout the year.  So, until next time.