I forgot Jesus

In my Christmas day recount, I forgot to mention that we did celebrate the true reason of the day. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, I wanted Philip to be fully aware that the holiday is in rememberance of Jesus' birth. I would tell him Christmas is Jesus' birthday and we celebrate by having a birthday party for him. We exchange gifts to show each other how much we love each other and think about how much Jesus loves us. Therefore, on Christmas afternoon I made Jesus a birthday cake. We ate it with ice cream after dinner that evening.



(I know the writing is a little sloppy. It was time to decorate the cake and I realized I was almost out of writing icing so I was pinching the tubes with all my might.)

Our Christmas Festivities

The long Christmas "weekend" began on Dec. 24th with a wonderful Christmas Eve service at church followed by a special time with friends. Our good friends Kim and Bobby had several families to their house for a time of fellowship and Christmas cookie decorating.

Oops! We forgot to tell Philip that the cookies were for Santa and not for him. Yum!

Christmas morning came and we had told Philip to come to our room before going to the living room. Matthew read us the Christmas story from the Bible and then it was time to see what Santa had brought and open presents from Mommy and Daddy. Braewyn went diving for her stocking first.

Our little chocoholic ate FOUR chocolate bells before even opening one present...

but I suppose it gave her lots of energy to do so!

Philip was very excited to spot a new Batman plane and Buzz Lightyear toy. Just what he had asked Santa for while on top of that firetruck!!

After seeing the unwrapped gifts from Santa, Philip and Braewyn began distributing the gifts from us out from under the tree.

Who is that Caped Crusader? Philip has so much enjoyed his Spiderman and Buzz Lightyear suits, we thought he'd have fun being more of his favorite super heroes. Batman and...




Iron Man!

Braewyn did receive a new baby and stroller from Santa. Here she is giving her baby a Christmas kiss!

Iron Man and the little mommy exchange words in the hallway.

Matthew was surprised to receive a new router from the kids. It should help continue his new found hobby of woodworking (he made his mom a table for Christmas).

Braewyn had fun playing with her new Mrs. Potato Head. Mommy had a hard time figuring out how to store all the parts in the box!

Ruth Ann, "Grandma", came over after lunch and tried her hand at stockcar racing with Philip on his new Disney Cars Wii game.

Christmas dinner was at our house this year. The table was full but the atmosphere was loving. There were the four of us, Ruth Ann, my parents, Aunt Liz, Aunt Elise, Uncle Arden, and Grandma Mary.

Braewyn, Matthew, Ruth Ann and I sat in the "peanut gallery" section as I called it. Hey, we were all in the same room this way.

Braewyn snuggled up to Aunt Elise and Uncle Arden in the new bathrobe they gave her.

My Mom, the sentimental one, has kept my childhood baby highchair all these years and presented it to Braewyn this Christmas.

She gave it a fresh paintjob and added the cute bird. Braewyn has fed her new baby and learning puppy in it this week.

Saturday was a yard work day for us. Philip helped move some leaves in his new heavy duty, Tonka truck from Great Grandma and Grandpa Diemer (Mom's parents).

On Sunday, we traveled to Matthew's great aunt and uncle's house (45 minutes away) for a large family Christmas gathering and baby shower for his second cousin. I love going there as it's the house Grandma Mary and her siblings grew up in. Her sister Amy and brother-in-law Melvin own it today and we always feel extremely at home there. This photo is during one of the baby shower games.

Here are the expectant parents, Melinda and Brian, opening presents and receiving some unrequested help from an experienced gift-opener, Braewyn.

One of the best things about visiting Amy and Melvin is that they own 34 cows!! It had just rained and so the cows were wet and curly standing around in thick mud. How cute!! We had a wonderful Christmas week and I feel so blessed to have spent it with our dear family and friends.

My Christmas Letter

(Just in case I didn't get to send you an actual Christmas card, here is this year's photo and letter.)



Dear Family and Friends,

I pray this letter finds you and your loved ones healthy and well during this Christmas season. For some of you reading, this is our only interaction during the year. I do think of you each personally as I envelope each letter and pray that 2009 will bring many of God’s blessings to you and your family.

Each year I eagerly anticipate writing this Christmas letter and yet when I sit down to do so, I’m not exactly sure where to start. To sum up the year in one word, I am picking “Fun”. Philip turned 3 years old on January 22 so we started the year with a “Go, Diego, Go!” party. There was Philip and seven little girls at his party!! We had invited boys but they were all sick. Everyone had fun anyhow. I am amazed at how Philip’s vocabulary and imagination have grown this year. We can be going somewhere in the car, and he will tell me a story spanning the entire drive time! I love listening to him, but the problem comes when he wants ME to play with him and that means reenacting an episode of Spiderman, Batman or Bibleman he has watched. Oops, Mommy wasn’t really watching all of that show while folding clothes! I can’t wait until he learns to write and can get these stories of his down on paper.
Our daughter Braewyn started life with a strong voice and it hasn’t let up yet. She had her first birthday on May 2. She’s a beautiful child inside and out, but there’s just a very strong will backing that beauty up. Braewyn holds her own very well against her big brother. They do play very well together for the most part, but when she has something he wants and he takes it, boy do you hear about it! There were days when I would say, “Braewyn is gonna give us a run for our money as parents.” Now, I try to focus on the strong, godly leader she can become by using her personality within the right parameters. She does also have a sweet, nurturing nature as she recently has begun taking care of her baby dolls with little bottles, spoons and bowls.

Matthew celebrated his 10th anniversary working at QS/1 Data Systems this year. I am completely thankful to the Lord for providing this wonderful job for him which in turn allows me to stay home with our children. His company produces the computer software for small, independent pharmacies. In this trying financial time, people are still always going to need their medicine so I believe QS/1 will be a solid foundation for us.

I continue to enjoy attending Bible Study Fellowship and MOPS as have gained so many dear friends through each ministry. This year at MOPS, I am the Discussion Group Team Leader which means leading a monthly meeting for the Table Shepherds (discussion leaders at each table) and creating the discussion questions pertaining to guest speaker’s topic for each MOPS meeting. My days are filled with doing laundry, washing dishes and teaching the kids to love God and each other. It gets tiring and sometimes mundane, but I remind myself everyday what wonderful blessings I have.

Just because the future of our country appears to be very uncertain, yesterday morning you really didn’t know what today would hold either. Someone once said, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow.” My God has told me, “For I know the plans I have for you, …plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). My prayer is that if you do not know Jesus Christ personally, you would seek to do so this year. He knows what tomorrow holds for each of us, and no matter what that is, I am grateful to know He will be with me. If I leave this world tomorrow, I’d be meeting Him and so excited to be doing so. Would you be? I’d be happy to talk with you more about Jesus or you can always call 1-800-NEED-HIM.

Merry Christmas! We love you!
Matthew, Kim, Philip and Braewyn

Pre-Christmas Pictures

Before I share photos from our wonderful Christmas day, I didn't want to pass up on all the fun we had from December 1-24. This has been a fun month with decorating the house, attending Philip's first Upward basketball practice (he's on the 4-6 year old team and will begin games in January), celebrating with Aunt Andrea, Uncle Mike and Holden at my parents' house, watching the kids being their silly selves, and our annual visit to A Return to Bethlehem. We definitely want to keep Jesus' birth as the focus of our month so we've gone for three years to a drive-thru live nativity which includes a dozen "scenes" winding through Bethlehem leading up to Jesus being born in the stable. Live animals are brought in from a near-by zoo but I can never seem to get a decent photo of the camel! This year we stopped by Krispy Kreme for doughnuts afterward. A fun night!

We live with a screamer!

Braewyn was born and the screaming started. There's no way to sugarcoat it. It took us 8 months to get her to sleep through the night (meaning from 10pm until around 5am but that was exciting when it started). The kids began sharing a room when she was 4 months old. She would get unsettled and begin her "banshe" screaming as we dubbed it and Philip would ask for her to be removed. I suppose I did coddle her a bit more than we did with Philip because she would literally scream for an hour straight even while I was walking her around the kitchen floor due to her being so overly tired.

Flash forward a year. Braewyn's now a beautiful, lively (oh, so lively!)20 month old (on Jan. 2), but still the screaming problem is there. The nights are great now. Philip and Braewyn still share a room and sleep comfortably from around 8:30pm until 6:30am (yes, now we're working on how to keep Philip asleep longer in the morning; he only naps 3 or 4 times a week but maybe that's too much). The screaming happens during the day: when Philip steals her blanket, when I've given her a cup with the wrong drink in it, when I say, "Mommy must brush your teeth first", ESPECIALLY when I "help" buckle her in the car seat (she believes she can do it all herself), when I stop her from doing something she knows she shouldn't be doing. Matthew would like to add to the list: when she's conscious and breathing. And her scream is in comparison to someone blowing an airhorn right beside your head unexpectedly.

I love my daughter completely and feel overly blessed daily. I'm just posting about her screaming to ask others if you have a screamer and what do you do about it. I'm going to get a copy of "The Strong-willed Child" by James Dobson to see what he says. Braewyn definitely falls into that category also. We believe in spanking and with Philip it really works well and helps curb his disobedience. Maybe it's that with two kids, I'm more tired this time and haven't been as consistent in spanking Braewyn. Or maybe she just needs a different method of discipline. I'm praying that once she is fully speaking the screaming will go away. Did it with your kid(s)? Thanks for any advice.

Still Trying to Keep At It...

Yes, I just got back from running (a.k.a. walking with a little running). My goal is still to go to Charleston for the Cooper River Bridge Run on April 4. That's only 3 months away. It's crunch time. Well, today was the first time I've actually gone outside, in running clothes, by myself, to run in about six weeks. All that means I'm starting from SCRATCH again!! The first few minutes were miserable as I had very little stamina, the crisp winter (Happy 1st Day of Winter!) air stung my face and made my eyes water, and the zip pull-thing on my vest was jingling! However, I made a decision to "run" three laps through my neighborhood and wasn't stopping until I did so. It took me 37 minutes (from 2:42pm until 3:24pm) and my cellphone's built in pedometer says I went 3.4 miles!! That's exciting. The CRBR is a 10K race which equals 6.1 miles! If I keep "training", I think the race will go well as I wasn't completely exhausted after running today. I could have gone longer (maybe just a little bit longer), but I need to go to the grocery store before church tonight.

Philip's Bad Dream

Over the last year, Philip has really taken an interest in super heroes. He was Spiderman for Halloween of 2007 and has worn the costume around the house at least every third day since then. Then he and Matthew began father/son bonding time watching "Spiderman" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoons on Saturday morning. He caught a few episodes of "Transformers" and "Ben 10: Alien Force". All the while, I'm thinking to myself, "How do I know which shows to let him watch? What things will be scary to him?"

Today I found out. He entered our bedroom at 6:17am. I told Philip to use the bathroom and go back to sleep. He continued walking closer to my side of the bed. He tells me he had a bad dream. I asked him what was his dream about. (I don't know why people do this because then it just gets the person to again focus on the images which scared them in the first place). Philip says a big brown elephant with eyelashes was in our house...

SNUFFALUFAGUS!!!! Philip is watching all these shows which seem to probably be for older kids and he has a nightmare about Snuffalufagus from Sesame Street. We've not watched that in six months. I reassured him that there were no brown elephants in our house, but he and I went on into the livingroom anyway to start our day.

I know personally my dreams are terrifying until I explain them to Matthew. He and I both wonder what's wrong with me so maybe Philip gets the crazy dream gene from me!

"Borrowed" Thanksgiving Photos

Our family and Mom, Ruth Ann, had a wonderful (minus my day of a stomach bug) Thanksgiving weekend with Matthew's brother Jonathan, his wife Lori and their adorable girls Hannah and Madeline. Thanks to Lori's timely uploading of photos, I'm posting her slideshow here. I'm going with the excuse that I didn't take my camera the day we visited Jonathan's children's museum (he's the director) and therefore you would never see most of these photos. The first few photos are at their home and I just really wanted all of my friends and family to witness our Braewyn in pigtails! She won't keep a bow in her hair for more than a few minutes at home, but she lasted a good 15 minutes while feeling "positive" peer-pressure of her cutely, styled cousins.

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Too Much Throw Up and A Lost Lamb

Well, I'm to the point of wondering if what I post should only be headline-type breaking news, just thoughts off the top of my mind or a random something just to say I've posted at least once a week. Today, I'll just say thank you, Lord, that the four of us appear healthy today. A week ago Saturday (Nov. 22), I threw up in the bathroom of Sam's after eating "something's not right about this" chili from Wendy's. Philip shared my chili and so yes, he threw up in his bed (tough being a kid) that night at 2am (tough being a mommy because I slept on the livingroom floor the rest of the night as he slept on the couch).

Sunday, Philip and I rested while Matthew and Braewyn went to church. Monday came and went and we seemed well (even made a stop by Target). Early Tuesday morning (around 2:30am), Braewyn began to cry and even said "Momma." My normal routine if she cries is to get up, use the bathroom, and check on her if she's still crying. Well, she stopped crying so I went back to bed. Philip and I were up around 7:00am, and by 8:00am I went in to get Braewyn up from her crib. My heart sank as there she lay, peacefully sleeping away, her and everything in the crib covered in throw up!! Philip had come out of their room himself or else I would have smelled it earlier. Yuck!!

Well, my plan to make it to BSF that Tuesday morning derailed as I had to wash and change her crib bedding, and still run several errands before leaving at 5:00pm for our Thanksgiving visit to Lori and Jonathan's. I chalked Braewyn's throwing up to my using old ("When did we open this?") spaghetti sauce as part of our dinner on Monday. Everything came together, and we were headed up I-85 that evening with Ruth Ann, our stuff and her stuff. We walk through the door of our usual dinner stop, Moe's at Exit 58, and Braewyn throws up all over Matthew's arm (he was carrying her). Yuck again!!

Well, we finally arrive at Jonathan's (I'm praising God Braewyn didn't throw up in the car as THAT would be an awful thing to smell for four hours) and again everyone seems well. Wednesday was fun (a whole post about the trip to come later), but around 3:00pm, my stomach started to turn on my again. Several trips to the bathroom for me (I'll spare you the details), and I began apologizing for bring sickness to their home and praying desperately that no one else would get it (especially toddlers and preschoolers who don't always make it to the bathroom).

Thursday came, and thankfully Lori had planned to serve the Thanksgiving meal in the evening. This gave me all day for my stomach to settle and appetite to return. A huge blessing was that no one else did get sick during our visit. Monday and Tuesday of this week, Lori and her girls have been a little under the weather and Braewyn ran a fever all day yesterday. Let this please be the end of it.

Now you might ask, what does a lost lamb have to do with anything? Well, I mentioned a quick visit to Target on Monday afternoon and yes, that's where Philip's beloved Lamby spent the night. I did remember Lamby being in the cart upon our arrival at Target, but that was the last of my memories. At bedtime, Philip asked us as always, "Where's Lamby?" That began a search to no avail. We then recounted our steps of last seeing Lamby and the Target boys' pajamas section is what we believe he left us. At 9:30pm, I called Target and the Guest Services girl said that yes, a little Beanie Baby lamb was in the Lost & Found box. I thought Philip would be glad to hear Lamby had been found, but he actually cried harder knowing that Lamby was so far away. Lamby was picked up Tuesday morning (albeit after washing the throw up crib sheets) and Philip was a happy boy. Our new rule: Lamby stays in the car. We should probably change it to: Lamby stays at the house.