Shake our Nation

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of going to the Jeremy Camp concert with some very dear friends of mine. It was the beginning of a string of four Christian concerts that I get to go to between now and April. I am so excited (and blessed)!!

I had never really listened much to Jeremy Camp before (surprisingly!) but I am a huge new fan!! I love his new CD, and God truly touched my spirit through his music and insights.

Something else that touched me, and pleasantly surprised me, was the opening act -- Jake Hamilton.

Wow, this guy is being used by God in amazing ways!! I was struck by so many thoughts while watching him perform. First and foremost, he is close to being the last person you would expect as a Christian worship leader. He is young, loud, rough around the edges, and a total rocker. His music is actually a tad more in the "hard rock" genre than I normally like for my own personal taste....but despite that, I really enjoyed his music and his message. It all just completely hit home for me.

One of his songs called Anthem was absolutely AMAZING. He had all of the kids in the venue come up on stage with him during the concert and he had each of them, one by one, sing these lyrics:

I am royaly

I have destiny

I have been set free

I'm gonna shape history

I'm gonna change the world....

All I can say is WOW!!!!! I can't begin to tell you how powerful it was to hear little voices singing such BIG words, and making such HUGE claims. I can only hope to instill these ideas and beliefs in my own children!

Another part of the song that really resonated with me was this:

Wake up child, it's your time to shine

You were born for such a time as this...

This is the Anthem of our generation

Here we are God

Shake our Nation

All we need is your love

You captivate me

I think this is what it all comes down to for me - Shaking our nation. And I am not exempt from that. Sometimes I feel like it's so easy to worship God at church and practice Christianity here in the US. And that is a HUGE blessing. But it also comes with the price of remaining stagnant in our faith. I am very thankful that this song, and the enitre concert, really impressed upon me the desire to be "shaken" by God.


Here is a video I found of the song. If you like contemporary Christian music you should really look this guy up. His other songs are just as powerful. What an inspiration it is to see such passion in someone that doesn't fit the usual mold....

Then again, God doesn't have a mold for who He chooses to use according to His purpose. Sometimes it is in the least likely person, or the seemingly unqualified, that God chooses to use in the most amazing ways!

Hayden's turning THREE!!

Hayden, my little sunshine girl, is THREE!! Wow, this has been a month so full of celebrations!

So......What are you up to these days baby girl??

• You are smart and sassy and full of energy!
• You make us all laugh with your funny jokes and faces
• You never stop talking or singing or laughing....I really don't think there's five minutes that go by when you are awake that I don't hear your voice....and I love that about you!
• You love Dora, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• You love going to Disneyland, and your favorite ride is Small World
• You are still a big daddy's girl, but you always want your mommy when you are sad or not feeling well:)
• You are tougher than any three year old girl I know, and can completely hold your own on the playground!
• You are strong willed AND stubborn -- I can't wait to see how God uses you and your awesome personality for his Kingdom!
• You LOVE life, and you do everything 110%
• You are very coordinated and can ride bikes, scooters, and pretty much anything that moves!
• You are enjoying Barbies these days, and love playing with your new Barbie house
• You are very sweet and loving to your sisters
• Your favorite game is Just Dance on the Wii, and you love dancing to "It's Raining Men!"
• You truly inspire me each day with your happy and energetic disposition, and I can't imagine my life without you, sunshine girl!

We had such a great time celebrating your big day!

Here is a fun video that Deda made in your honor. You had a Yo Gabba Gabba party and all of your BFF's there to help celebrate with you. You were in heaven, and your mommy and daddy were sooooo proud of you. We loved  seeing how happy and excited you were to turn three!! Love you baby girl!!

Dance party!!

Today, two of my very best friends, Lianne and Amy, came for a visit to celebrate Logan's and Hayden's birthdays and just spend the day visiting. We had such a great time together, as always.

We were struck today with the knowledge that it's literally been over 20 years since our friendship began. And how weird it is to look at Logan and know that we all met around the same age as she is now!

It is a little surreal.

The best part of having such lifelong friendships is the unmatched comfortability that we all have with one another. I love how we can talk about anything without ever the fear of judgment or condemnation....even when we are dancing to the Wii in our 30's, forgetting somehow that we are no longer teenagers!! :)

Check out how competitive these two friends of mine still are - it's like re - living Orchesis days all over again!! I loved every minute of it!!

And just as a disclaimer before viewing this video, Lianne's little girl Carden was actually laughing while Lianne held onto her and made her dance along!

I love you girls! You rocked this dance party!!!

Logan's Birthday Month!

(This is Logan after her "make-over" - she usually does NOT wear make- up)

Is that my little girl who is turning 11 this month?? Really?? When did that happen????? I know they always say that time flies, and it goes by way too quickly....and it is entirely true. I can hardly believe my baby girl is growing up so fast!!!

In honor of your birthday, Logan, here is what you are up to these days.....

You continue to bless our lives with your kind heart, sweet nature, and loving commitment to your family. You are the best big sister anyone could ever ask for, and we are so blessed to have you as a daughter!

This year you have accomplished so many things!

• You conquered your fear of flying, and we took our very first mother-daughter trip to San Francisco!!
• You also conquered your fear of heights and rock climbed for the very first time!!
• You have worked hard on your reading goals in class, and are really learning to love literature!
• You tried a new dance class and I was so proud of how you jumped right in! You are very talented my sweet girl!
• You have a fashion sense that I can not even begin to understand - it certainly didn't come from me - but I get so much pleasure watching you shop!!
• You love your Itouch and downloading new music and movies from ITUNES
• You have become a very talented photographer, and can spend hours making picture collages of your beautiful photos.
• You absolutely LOVE taking pictures of nature, and especially birds!! :)
• You have become a huge fan of  your very, very, very distant cousins the Olsen twins! (And I think you look like Mary-Kate)
• You like wearing make-up and doing your nails, over and over and over again :)
• You got to see Taylor Swift in concert for the first time, and it was AMAZING!!
• You have been commited to the Kingdom Seekers group at church, and I have had the pleasure of watching you learn and grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ as your Savior.
• You received an Honor Roll Award at school for your good grades! Nice work!
• You scored Advanced in both Math and Language arts on your state testing! We are so proud of you!
• You dealt with the loss of your best friend moving to a new school with so much maturity, and mommy is very impressed with your willingness to make new friends!
• You have been such a positive influence in the lives of your siblings, and have truly taught them so many things, from potty training.... to learning the letters of their names.....to singing new songs.

And as always,I am so proud of  you, my little Logan. I thank God every day for you, and can't believe how lucky I got that He chose ME to be your mommy!!! I love you to the moon, and back and back!!!

 

 

 

 

We had such a wonderful time celebrating your birthday, Hollywood style!!

My very good friend Stephanie made this adorable Red Carpet cake to celebrate the big event! (Isn't she sooo talented)?

Logan is a party planning queen, and she planned everything! A trip to Yougurtland, then Color me Mine with her BFFs, then a Hollywood make-over, and mock Hollywood awards show....She is so creative, and it was my pleasure to oblige!

Here are the highlihgts:

Kaitlyn's award speech for being the Crazy and silly friend



Logan accepting her Caring Friend award!



Taylor accepting the award for Having a good heart



Kerragan winning the "Kind to everyone" award!



And the girls just loved posing on the Red carpet!!

Enjoying Yogurtland!

Playing with Brenna

At Color Me Mine!



Logan's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

Present time!

Hayden was loving time with all the big girls!

Silly girls!

Sweet angel!

Enjoying the cake!

SLLEPOVER TIME!


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I am such a proud mommy! I love you little Lolo! You are my angel girl!



Witching Hour or Princess Picnic??

Have you ever heard of something called the "witching hour"?? It is defined as the following: the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons, and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective.

Sounds pretty intense, right?

Well in my house, I often refer to the time period of 4-6pm as our "witching hour" -- don't get me wrong --- I absolutely don't think my house is haunted, or filled with ghosts and demons.

But I do think this is the certain time of day when my children turn into something....well..... a bit different.....and they are certainly most "effective and powerful" at being whatever it is that they become during these most dreadful hours.

If you are a mom, chances are you kind of know what I'm talking about.

So, with my husband coming home later and later some nights, I really have to resort to being creative in order to keep sanity in my home.

On this particular night, when I thought I might literally lose my mind, I decided to throw out all of my preconcieved notions of a civilized dinner, at the dinner table, with no TV (my usual boring rule) and told the kids that we were going to eat on the floor, watch movies, and have popcorn with our dinner! You should have seen it! Suddenly, these little girls who were prone to temper tantrums, and seemingly cranky beyond all cranky, became little, happy angels, full of smiles! I was so impressed, and so INSPIRED, that I even took it one step further and decided to make it a Princess picnic, full of dress up clothes and magic wands!

IT WAS A HIT!!!! 

And the best part of all was that these happy little faces reminded me that things don't always have to be "orderly".....and the house can be a mess and food can be on the floor....and the "witching hour" doesn't actually have to be dreadful....it can be fun and full of laughter, just like this.

Dinner tables are overrated anyway, right?

Daddy coming home!!

Once again, my little photo journalist - miss Logan- caught such a great memory! She was taking videos on her Itouch of the girls singing, and she taped this candid moment of Todd coming home. I just love how happy the girls are when they see him walk through the door.

Who wouldn't want a greeting like this??

Prayer Request

Blogging truly makes the world seem like such a smaller, more familiar place. Since I've been a part of the blog world, I have read about so many heartbreaking stories which have truly touched my heart.

Here is Kate:



 Kate was diagnosed with a very malignant, aggressive brain tumor called a supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor or sPNET on JUne 29th 2009. Since then, she has undergone a years worth of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and countless tests. At the end of their treatment plan, Kate was deemed "cancer free" which was such welcome news for her family. It truly was an answered prayer!!

Yesterday she had a routine MRI and they found additional spots on her brain that seem likely to be cancerous. As you can imagine, the news has been devastating for this family. Kate has one sister and one brother, and they too have been so affected throughout this family's ordeal.

My heart sank when I read those words last night since I have following their story from the beginning and have often prayed for healing for little Kate. I can not even begin to imagine the pain and fear this family is going through. They have a very tough road ahead and most likely tough decisions to make. Please, if you feel lead, join with me in prayer for this family.

As Kate's mom put it last night, "We are crushed. Kate is heartbroken. And we need God's miraculous intervention. Please pray. Please ask others to pray for our sweet baby. I know she is one child among many battling. But she is our daughter, and she is a sister, and a niece, and a granddaugther. Please pray that God would spare her from this disease. Please. Please pray that after further investigation they would determine it not to be tumor. We understand the likelyhood of that is slim. But please pray. Please intercede on our behalf. "

If you'd like to learn more about Kate's story or how you can possibly help, here is her Caring bridge link:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate/journal


***As a side note, and just to be clear, I do not know this family and have never met them. I have only read about their story. However, I do know that as a mom, if this were one of my daughters, I would absolutely ask anyone and everyone who would listen if they could pray! So that is why I have chosen to post about this :)