Grace and Austin's Dedication

A Song of Ascents, of Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They shall not be ashamed, When they speak with their enemies in the gate. 

Psalm 127:1-5

So today we had the kids dedicated to the Lord at church. It was a great reminder that our children are in fact gifts from the LORD! Adam and I both understand that dedicating our children to Christ does not save them. They both will have to accept Christ as their own Savior when they come to an age of understanding. We acknowledged, as parents, before the body of Christ, the following:

• We will raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord
• We will pray for and with them
• We will keep them in the house of God and with God's people
• We will be faithful in our home life to Christ, as we live it before them
• We will do our utmost personally to lead them to a saving knowledge of Christ at an early age

It is such a wonderful feeling knowing that our church family will be there to support and pray for us on behalf of raising our children. They have already proven that prior to this dedication. We have been truly blessed by our family at Immanuel.

God Bless!! 

Nichole

Parkin' It

Well, the weather has finally broke above 40 degrees around here! In fact, this past week has been gorgeous! Took the kiddo's to the park on Thursday and it made it into the upper 60's. Austin wanted to wear shorts and a tank top of course....I remember those days!! I always wished I was that girl at school that had her shorts on in early April because it was 70 degrees out! So, I empathize with him, but like myself, he won't be wearing them for a while yet! Ha-ha!!  He made due with a "sweatshirt" for his jacket!

I of course picked a day to go to the park when all the town kids were out of school early, so it was nice and busy! Oh-well, gave Austin kids to play with, which he enjoyed! First thing he hit up, same as always, was the merry-go-round thing. That thing always makes me a nervous wreck, but he was on it alone that day so it wasn't too bad! I'm always afraid one of the kids are gonna go flying off....I know, I know...he is a boy!

 Miss Grace had her first ride in a swing! She wasn't too sure what to think of it...she didn't know if she wanted to scream or not, so she just sat there in a trance. I think it was actually making her really sleepy!!

So, now that we all have spring fever REALLY bad, it is supposed to snow tomorrow!! Oh-well....spring is right around the corner!

Museum Fun!

Monday I took Austin and Grace to a little boy scout museum. They had a traveling Abe Lincoln exhibit that I wanted him to see. He really enjoyed it, and to my surprise, we both enjoyed learning about the origins of the Boy and Girl Scouts!

Austin standing with W.D. Boyce, one of the founders of the Boy Scouts who lived in Ottawa, IL.

Austin doing some "scouting" of his own!

 It took me back to my days as a Brownie!! I never made it to the next level, Girl Scouts! ha-ha! Anyway, we are going to take a week and spend it learning a "little" about Lincoln and the civil war. He is starting to take an interest in history. History was one of my favorite subjects to study in school, although I can't say I remember studying it in 2nd grade, so I don't blame him too much for the lack of excitement surrounding history. He is definitely a hands on kind of boy, so this museum brought history to life for him a little bit.

When we got home, we read Just In Time, Abraham Lincoln. He really thought that was cool! 

Next up, I wanna take him to Medievil Times, since we just finished studying the middle ages. He should get a kick out of that, if anything it'll be fun! 

Austin's Bible Relay - 2nd Place :)

This past week, Austin had is 2nd Bible relay. He goes every Wednesday night to Children Desiring God at church. They get a scripture verse every week to memorize and then after so many weeks they have a relay. I didn't get to go see him this time, because little miss Grace is sickie poo, but he did great again! I'm so proud of him. This kid has a great memory, it's very impressive. He got 2nd place and won himself a $5 Dairy Queen card!! 

His favorite verse from this last relay is this:

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness." 

1 Peter 2:24a

Way to go Austin!!! :)