Anna's first driving lesson

Anna is quickly outgrowing her little Barbie quad vehicle. So she's opted to give Ian's "Jeep" a test drive on Friday afternoon. She caught on to using a pedal instead of a button pretty quickly but her driving is a visual whiplash for everyone involved. The steering wheel is a bit tough for her to turn yet but she was trying. She only had a few incidents, one that involved a bird feeder on a shepherd's hook and one where she nearly drove the Jeep into the swing set frame....but no injuries were reported.

Ian attempted to give her a few lessons from the passenger seat but he quickly got frustrated with her inability to follow his directions. It was a bit comical listening to him say things like, "Annaaaaa! I said turn LEFT not RIGHT. You aren't listening to me. I give up! Move over. I'm driving." I got a glimpse of him as an all-knowing sixteen year old driver with a crisp new license in his wallet and it was entertaining. Once Ian went to the front yard to assist Mark with mowing, Anna took the wheel and caught on pretty quickly...with me running along side of the Jeep to keep her on course.

I'm just waiting for the day when she tries to convince her adoring Daddy to buy her a cute little sports car instead of the ultra-safe vehicle he will want her in. Thankfully, we have years to work on her logical and practical side. God help us. Ha!

Buckle up...it's road-trip time

I stumbled across this information about car seats and travel tips for all passengers and thought I'd share since road-trip season is upon us. Some of this information I had NEVER heard before and it made me really think twice about pushing for that next car seat milestone we're always so eager to reach as parents. For anyone who buckles and totes a child in their car - listen up!

Check out the full article about 11 safety errors of car seat use at:
http://www.parenting.com/gallery/car-seat-laws-requirements-installation?pnid=318433

- AAP now recommends that all children ride rear facing until age 2.
(Rear-facing is 5 times safer for 2 year olds)

- Never use the LATCH system AND the seat belt to anchor the car seat
(Use one or the other only. But always use the tether with rear-facing seats.)

- Only one finger should fit between the child's collarbone and the strap. And the chest clip should be worn at armpit level.
(The impact of a 30 mph crash is the equivalent of falling from a third-story window. If children are not harnessed correctly, they will feel the impact in their brain, spine and other areas.)

- Always use the tether and clip it to the proper spot - not a cargo anchor.
(“Using the tether decreases how far the child heads moves forward by four to eight inches with a properly installed car seat,” says Dr. Baer. “That doesn’t sound like much, but it could keep your child’s head from hitting the back of the front seat, the door frame or window in a crash, and that’s the key to decreasing your child’s chance of having a brain or spinal cord injury.” With an improperly installed seat, the benefit of the tether is even greater, says Dr. Baer.)

- Moving kids from booster seats too early.
(Seat belts are designed for a person who is 4'9" tall. This might not be until your child is 10+ years old. A seat belt that doesn't fit properly can do serious harm - piercing internal organs or causing severe injury to the head.)

- Make everyone in the car buckle up!
(“If you have an unbelted person in the backseat, the other people in the car who are belted are two to four times more likely to die in a crash,” says Dr. Baer. And when you look at the physics, it makes sense. A typical 30-mile-an-hour crash may have 20-25 Gs, (G is the force of gravity), which means the weight of a 100-pound person would be magnified 20-25 times. If you were hit by that person, it would be equivalent to being slammed by someone who weighs 2,000 to 2,500 pounds.)

- Flying the friendly skies? Take your car seat on board!
(Tips on how to fly with your car seat)

Food for thought...60% of crashes involving children happen within 10 minutes of home, more than three-quarters of them happen when the speed limit is 45 mph or less, and almost all of them happen when the driver is familiar with the route.

Seven years ago at high noon



April 2011

Seven years ago today, Mark and I were married at Strawbridge United Methodist Church at 'high noon' - as Mark liked to joke. Mark looked so handsome in his tuxedo and I...well, I could barely breathe in my fitted gown but I sure did feel like a princess marrying my prince. Not a day goes by that I don't notice the collage of wedding photos on our bedroom wall and smile. It was an amazing day.

Lately we've talked about our anniversary with disbelief. 'Has it really been 7 years of marriage? Have we really known each other for 10 years?' we ask with a smile. The time truly has gone by so quickly. Within months of getting married we had the opportunity to move back to Mark's hometown and we have been quite happy here ever since. We were blessed with our first child, Ian, about a year and a half after our move. And then two and a half years after Ian's birth, God brought us Anna. Now here we are two years after Anna's birth, marveling at all that has changed since April 24, 2004.

Before marrying Mark I knew he would be a devoted, faithful and loving husband but he has certainly impressed me with how those traits as a husband have also been true as it regards fatherhood. Our children respect and adore him - as do I.

Life is a bit wild at times....but it is so good! I look forward to seeing what amazing plan God has for our marriage and our family in the next seven years.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter holiday this year. God blessed us with some greatly needed rain! We celebrated with Mark's family out at his sister's home on Saturday. The kids hunted for a million eggs (okay, so it wasn't one million...but close), jumped in the bounce house, colored eggs, and just joyfully ran wild with their cousins.


We attended church this morning and it was a spectacular service. Ian decided to join us for "big church" and he did great. Our church started two new traditions this year. The first was to bring bells from home to ring along with the music being played during worship. So we took two bells from my Grandma Bricker's collection that she'd saved for me and Anna to have. Sadly, Grandma passed away very recently so taking "her" bells to church to ring on Easter was very special way we could honor her life of joyful service and care for those she loved. Her heart was full of the Lord and we could certainly feel her presence today. Ian calls her our "angel in heaven".


The second tradition was called the flowering of the cross. Each person was to bring fresh cut flowers from home to place on the cross during the opening music. It was amazing seeing the entire sanctuary come down and place one or even an entire bouquet of flowers on this enormous cross. As the congregation sang "Revelation Song" they stood the cross upright and it was a gorgeous sight. Full of color and life! It made the lyrics 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. Who was, and is, and is to come' seem that much more powerful.

What a blessed day. There is no greater freedom than to know that our heart is spoken for. The Lord is risen!

Dancing in the park

Music and dancing have seem to become a theme in our life here lately. Today the kids and I, with my sister-in-law and her two boys, and mother-in-law went to the park after school where we got to enjoy a free "concert" by a trio of college students who were practicing in the park. The sound of drums, guitars and singing drew Anna and Braden away from the playground with curiosity. Once we got near, the kids were loving it! And the band got a kick out of the idea that their audience was a handful of toddlers.

Here are some videos of Anna and her cousin Braden enjoying the sounds in the park.

(I took the videos with my phone and because of the wind and low video quality, the audio is a bit choppy.)

Dance party...then and now

Both kids have absolutely loved music since they were babies.

For those of you who don't know, one of Ian's favorite shows from age 18 months to 2-1/2 years was The Lawrence Welk Show. I know that sounds super strange but he would just get into a trance when it came on. He'd "conduct" the orchestra along with Lawrence and would dance to the music as the performers did. He would follow it all with a big bow and clapping for himself. He cracked us up. Every Saturday at 6pm we'd be in front of PBS watching Ian and Lawrence perform together. I'll be sure to share that story and the videos with his wife someday...and then explain to her who Lawrence Welk was! Ha!

Anna tends to love dance/electronica music (like her Mama did in her 20s) and 80s pop music, along with any songs performed by young kids. This past Sunday we were picking up lunch after church and she got upset because she was so hungry and tired. All my usual tricks of distraction - reading her a book, singing, playing a game, etc. - were not working. So I pulled out one of my old dance music cds and put it in the player. Within seconds she was dancing in her carseat and laughing. That cd saved us! We often see her bobbing her head in her car seat to whatever music touches her. I don't remember Ian singing as a toddler but Anna sure does if she is feeling it.

Ian prefers rock music and both kids absolutely LOVE it when Mark plays Rush for them in the truck. They rock out like they're at a live concert. It's pretty entertaining.

So here are some videos of our living room dance parties....now with Anna and years back with Ian as the star of the show.

Anna and I had a brief dance party this morning before lunch and I finally captured a few good videos of her dancing.

And here is Ian at 2 years and 2 months old tap dancing along with the LW show.

8046 Conference & The 111 Project

Today was the 8046 Foster Care conference and it was simply amazing. I feel so blessed to have been able to attend and be witness to the awesome movement God is leading in the hearts of Oklahomans as it regards children in the foster care system. It was shared that when the conference was being developed the creators hoped it would draw about 60 people from the local Church community. Praise God there were over 300 people in attendance today!

We heard testimonies from two former foster children who were touched by the Lord through caring foster families and who grew to be successful adults, a pediatrician who was lead by the Lord to give up on a dream of being an ER doctor to instead be a physician and advocate for foster children in the shelters and through her own clinic for foster children, several foster and foster-to-adopt families, and ways each of us can either get involved with a foster care ministry or gain the tools to start our own local ministry with the help of countless nationwide resources and our church home. It was inspiring and gut-wrenching at the same time.

I will keep this post fairly brief because as much as I enjoyed today and all that I learned, it was a truly draining and emotionally taxing day with A LOT to process. I'll post more of the details in coming days but a few things I wanted to mention tonight are below.

The 111 Project (ONE Church ONE Family ONE Purpose) is a pilot program in Oklahoma created to get the Church involved with the foster care community. Their goal is to recruit 111 additional Christian foster families (or Bridge Families) within the 2011 year. The statistic was noted that there are about 6,100 churches in Oklahoma. There were 8,046 children in the foster care system as of January. If one church committed one family, we'd make huge strides towards placing all foster children in loving, Christian foster homes. The purpose of this program is to leave no Oklahoma child without a father or a family.    See the 111 Project Video.

Lastly, a quote from Andy Stanley's sermon series titled One, Not Everyone... 'Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.' - Andy Stanley

Gorillas Like Pudding

April is here and the weather was absolutely gorgeous today! I anticipated about 70 degrees but my car gauge read 77 at 2pm today and I think I might have a slight sunburn on the back of my neck and shoulders. Oops! Guess it's time to put the sunblock in the bag. After days of gray skies and cold temperatures, spring has sprung and we love the sunshine. So we got out to the zoo with a friend from Ian's class and his mom to enjoy the beautiful day God gave us.

It was one of our best zoo days yet. The kids enjoyed exploring the animals together, playing on the playground, jumping in the bounce house, and eating lunch together by the lake. We went through the children's zoo area and the goats were a big hit with all three kids. Although the boys had lots of fun balancing and jumping off the block walls like wild monkeys.

We had a fun encounter with the Daddy gorilla in the Great EscAPE exhibit. We chose a spot in the viewing window of the indoor exhibit to watch the gorillas while we enjoyed a pudding cup snack.


Daddy gorilla was way up on the hill watching us and before long he slowly made his way down the hill and settled right up against the glass and stared at us and down at our pudding cups as if to ask, "What 'cha eating?" He was so close I could look right into his eyes and you could see his breath as it fogged the glass.

The kids were scared at first and backed away from the glass but I attempted to be brave and stay in my spot. Wow, this guy was just enormous (or "hughnormous" as Ian would say) and it was very intimidating to have such a powerful, wild animal just inches from me and the kids on the other side of protective glass. The gorilla just sat there very still, watching us and our food.

After a few seconds the kids decided to return to the bench and started talking to the big guy. Then things turned really cute. Anna offered her Monkey and her pappy and Ian was showing the gorilla his zoo key. At that time more people came into the exhibit (it had just been the three of us and the gorilla for a while) and everyone was in awe of the gorilla at the glass. It was entertaining that he was curious about our food but quite unnerving at the same time thinking of how I'd possibly protect my babies from such a large animal in the event that something went wrong.

We then moved on to see the elephants and were excited there were still seats open at the "show" they have daily. So we got to learn about the elephants and see their "tricks", which are really their exercises and ways in which the trainers are able to safely get close enough to check their health on a regular basis. They bowed, balanced on stumps and logs, "clapped" their ears, waved with their trunks, and more. The kids were pretty amazed by the show and I was too!
We ended up spending five hours there today and the kids were such troopers. They really hung in there and we all agreed it was one of the best zoo trips we've had yet. It was so much fun sharing the day with friends!