Paul here - sorry, but you'll have to put up with my lower quality blogging (what blogging was actually created to be) - Kelly has really turned into quite the author while chronicling our lives, hasn't she?!
Summer and I have been looking forward to our "Daddy / Summer Date" for a number of weeks - deliberation on outfits, matching ties, jewelry, etc were a constant topic of conversation (okay, not just for Summer either...)!
Today that day finally arrived! We had an absolute blast on our date to Paris!
I love my Summer and couldn't wait to spend this time together. She is
such a little sweetheart and really is a joy to be around. It's hard to
believe she's already 4.5 years old - it's gone so fast! I jokingly
tell her all the time I'm going to squeeze her, hug her, sit on her to
stop her from growing! But each day of seeing her grow is also a true
privilege and honor that God has bestowed on us as parents. I love each
of my kids equally - I really do - but it is fun experiencing these
"firsts" with her and I look forward to seeing the woman that she will
become (but...playing songs like Cinderella and Butterfly Kisses at the
dance was totally not fair...this guy may have teared up as she rested
her head on my shoulder and we slow-danced...obviously I must have had
something in my eye - luckily it went away after those songs and we got
back to our swing dancing!)
Traditional pre-date picture by the door
Summer was working on her elbow-out stance - apparently all the cool kids are doing that (?)
We were given a passport to guide us and have stamped at the various activities.
We made it!
Summer thought it would be fun if we both had mustaches since neither of us can grow them in real life.
Punch! (pink, of course)
More elbow-out posing - and snacks - she picked goldfish, yogurt, and fruit snacks. If you're interested, I also chose fruit snacks (nom nom nom...)
Addison was there (sorry, couldn't get a pic of the both of them actually looking with all that was going on)
Entranced by the dance floor!
Decorating our picture frame!
Summer's favorite part - decorating her cupcake.
We took a short trip down the road to the Eiffel tower.
In addition to making a teddy bear doorhang-thingamajig, we received a boa, made a necklace, and also made an intricate bracelet (I guess they wanted us to be our daughters heros, as those little pieces were not easy to thread...)
Riding the princess-led train!
Apparently my big finger was in the way, but this gives a glimpse of the perma-smile that was glued to this girl's face.
Round and round we go!
Back home to show off our boa (and our acquired hip-bend pose)
And now for a series of video highlights from our date:
Learning the chicken dance:
The Hokey Pokey
Loves the food...
Later on...still loving the food...
Dancing "selfie" style
Energy (or cupcake) to burn!
This girl has the moves!
The train
Dancing with the princesses...
More fun
One more, I promise.
Thank you, Summer Tenleigh, for not only our amazing date, but for everything that God has packaged into the little body of yours! I love you!
Summer has termed today, "A Day of Praising", and that is exactly what it is! Today, February 2nd, during breakfast, Colton made the decision to ask Jesus to forgive his sins and invite him to come live in his life and help him make right choices. This in an answer to a daily prayer I have prayed since before Colton was conceived!
Colton's Faith Story
Colton's journey to understanding his need for a Savior began early as we read his Bible daily and followed-up his disobedience with prayer for forgiveness. This past year of being two he has really understood his sinful nature! ;)
His sister Summer has had a huge impact on him as well, as she is very excited and exuberant about her own decision to ask Jesus to forgive her sins and enthusiastically tells lots of people, including her brother! She has asked him multiple times in the past year if he wanted to "ask Jesus to forgive his sins and go to heaven", to which he always replied "yes". Summer would get excited each time, and then I would share with her that he needed to get a little older to understand more ;). I wanted to wait until he understood what he was doing and chose to receive Christ's forgiveness on his own, unprompted by his sister. Whenever we would discuss going to heaven or asking Jesus to forgive us, Colton would say "I already did that" when asked about it! Nevertheless, I didn't feel he fully understood.
This past Christmas (age 2.5) was a huge learning curve for him, spiritually. We really focused on the Christmas story in the month of December (see videos at end of this blog post) and read it often. He loved the story and we talked all about Jesus being the only one who never did anything wrong. He would ask to read the story over and over.
He has also been saying/memorizing and discussing our verse of the week with us for over a year. We memorize one verse a week, posted on a chalkboard by our kitchen
table and say it at mealtime. Colton started joining in around 21 months by just repeating the words after me (see videos #1 and #2 ). Within a few months he started memorizing larger phrases (see video). He currently can say most of the verse (last weeks two verses video) by himself. Saying and discussing the meaning of these verses has prompted many spiritual conversations. One verse about heaven that we memorized last summer (see video) has come up quite a bit in conversation since then and will be referenced in a later video in this post.
This morning we were reciting our verse of the week at breakfast. Our verses this week were:
As we were discussing these verses, we were talking about what it meant for God to be holy. God is so holy that he can't be with us when we do wrong things. I demonstrated this by walking into the next room and showing how God had to be even farther away from us than that because he couldn't be near our sin. We then talked about that God loved us so much that he wanted to be with us. He sent his only son (Jesus) - who is the only sinless one - to die on the cross to take the punishment that we deserve so that now God wouldn't see this sin in us and could be with God. We also talked about that the only way to be with God is to accept this present/gift of forgiveness that he gave us is to ask him to forgive our sins. Colton sat wide-eyed, listening the whole time, and expressed that HE wanted to do that!!! (Sidenote: it was adorable watching Summer's whole body respond in excitement as she knew exactly what was happening!)
Colton was very concerned that he would say all the "right words" to God, and I told him that it wasn't about what words he said, but what his mind was thinking about. We discussed a few things that he could say when he prayed but I really wanted him to lead the way. This is a poor quality video because I was discreetly holding my phone but it did capture his little voice praying. Here it is:
Here is the kids saying their verse of the week and I LOVE how Colton gets so excited about his decision at the end!
Here is the video Colton sent to Daddy, Grandparents, and Aunts/Uncles to tell them the good news.
We are all celebrating over here! Summer made Colton this picture as soon as we finished breakfast...
We praise the Lord for his answer to prayer in working in Colton's heart and bringing him to the point of understanding his need for a Savior and choosing to claim faith in Christ's sacrifice on the cross!
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life inChrist Jesus our Lord.
Romans 10:9-10 If
you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For
it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is
with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
We will continue to pray that he will grow in his faith, sharing it with others and becoming more like Christ each day. My prayer for him continues to be that he would be a man of God just like his Daddy :).
Ok, seriously, can someone slow down time?! My baby girl who used to be Larkyn's age will be FOUR AND A HALF this week. How does this happen?!?! Anyway, here is a bit about Summer at age 4.5.
Summer has truly developed a sweet caring empathetic heart. She notices when someone might feel left out and goes to love them. She remembers when someone said they hurt themselves or were sick and asks them about how they are feeling the next time she sees them. She is very appreciative when I stop to help her with something, verbally noticing and thanking me for stopping what I was doing in order to do something for her. He little conscience literally brings her to tears as soon as she realizes a wrong choice she has made and she is quick to apologize. She is extremely perceptive, and will ask me, "is everything ok, mommy?" if I start to grow frustrated about something.
One day when the laundry felt overwhelming and she saw me sigh as I changed yet another set of wet sheets, she looked at me with big eyes and said, "I can help you fold the laundry, Mommy!"
She is so helpful and is an amazing cleaner! She can pick up an entire floor of toys in no time and puts them back exactly where they should go. She knows where everything is, where everything goes, and can find anything (including my slippers I lost or a toy Colton lost).
Here she is helping me get the Christmas cards ready for mailing.
Summer continues to be extremely outgoing and friendly! After church on Sunday she makes the rounds, carrying on various conversations with people throughout the congregation, young and old alike! She greets everyone she meets whether she knows them or not, and will talk their ear off! She makes friends easily and doesn't have a shy bone in her body :).
Here she is at a recent trip to the zoo asking the zoo employees all about the turtles, sharks, etc!
She loves to play pretend,
play dressup,
play dollhouse,
read books,
write notes for people,
"Dear Colton, Don't you love eggs? I love 'em too. To Colton, Love, Summer"
draw pictures,
do anything arts or crafts,
perform for people,
and her favorite thing in all the world is still her "green froggy blankie".
She has the most amazing memory for names, places, and details about
things she has done or someone has said literally years prior! She is also a very quick learner. She is reading, writing, and spelling quite well and has an awesome number sense.
Here she is setting up a math problem...
making a guess, and then counting dots to find the correct answer. She placed a heart at the top of the problem if her guess was right :)
Here is an example of her spelling (she was making a grocery list): eggs, butter, and lemons
We are currently working on telling time. After working on her fives (see this video) she was able to for the first time read a time correctly as seen in this video.
She loves to read her Bible and pray. Sometimes she will sit during her quiet time and listen to her Bible on CD for a full 90 minutes! She has a huge heart for telling other people about Christ's forgiveness for sins and will tell anyone she meets whether she knows them or not! She is a natural leader (which can translate into bossiness!) In the past 6 months, however, I have seen a dramatic improvement in her asking other people what they would like to do instead of telling them what to do! My favorite thing about Summer is how evident it is that she loves Jesus and wants to follow him. As she gets closer to being 5, my prayers for her each night always include that God would protect her physically and spiritually, that she would continue to grow in her kind and obedient heart, that God would help her be a leader in love, that she would not complain or argue, that she would bring glory to God and others into his kingdom, that we would always share the close relationship that we currently do talking about everything, and that God would give her godly friends, teachers, and some-day spouse. We love you to the moon and back, Summer Tenleigh!
