Christmas 2008 in Pictures

CHRISTMAS MORNING AT OUR HOUSE...



Grandma and Shadrach


Uncle Nick and Moriah


Ready to ride my new bike!


Shadrach got a new bike from Grandma!




Moriah got a Cabbage Patch Kid from Mommy, Daddy, and Big Brother.


CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE CUMMINGS'...
Gammy and the Cummings, Heiser, and Salazars


G-ma and Moriah


Shadrach's video game bike


Gammy with the kids


DISNEYLAND O8...
Mary Poppins!


Daddy, Shadrach, and our new stroller (don't worry, Moriah isn't underneath all that stuff)


Grandpa, Manna, and Moriah


Mid-day meltdown in line for Nemo (once we got past this, the day was great!)


Daddy and Shad on Dumbo


The Salazar Boys...trouble!


My Beauty!


GOING TO SEE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS...
Shadrach posing with Daddy and his girlfriend, Dora


Gotta love Elmo! I walked around with Moriah's hat covering her eyes for about 15 minutes, until I noticed by looking at the picture Mark took. Great mom I am, huh?

A Little Bit of Me (Kristi)

The kids are asleep, Mark is at a crazy all-nighter for the youth, and I am home. It's kind of cheesy to reflect on the year in a blog, but I'm going to do it anyway. I know everyone is saying this, but I can't believe that 2008 is over. It has been full of craziness, changes, and steps of faith. But God has been so good to us, as He always is!

Some of you reading this may not know if you even believe there is a God. Or if there is, that He actually cares about what is happening with you. I have been a Christian since I was a kid, almost 20 years. I have spent all that time trying to get to know God better. Sometimes that has happened quickly and easily, and I have seen myself become a stronger person because of the strength that comes from knowing Him. But I can honostly say that although my life has been OVERWHELMINGLY blessed in 2008, there hasn't been a huge effort on my part to know Him more. Yet, I do. Why? Because He has never left my side. He has been patient with me and so kind to me. He has shown Himself to me through the difficulties of: my pregnancy (very sick and on meds the entire time!), living with my dad, being deep in financial debt, struggling with being the wife that I need to be, and learning to discipline Shadrach with love and consistency through his 2's, to name a few. God has also shown Himself to me through amazing blessings: the wonderful husband that I don't deserve, Shadrach who makes me laugh and smile every day, the birth of a healthy new baby, paying off quite a bit of our debt, Mark's new job that he loves, my friends that really understand and love me, our family who is so supportive, 365 new days to wake up and live, and so much more!

I know that the difficuties have strengthened me and caused me to rely on my Creator (He made me, who better to mold and shape me?) and the blessings have shown me that He loves me. The Bible says in the book of James, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father if lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." My favorite part of that verse is that there is no variation with God. He is the same for me, for you, and for everyone, whether they recognize Him or not. He wants nothing but good, and even when things are tough...good comes from it. Many times we don't see that right away. But God is bigger than what we understand. And just the fact that He is God and we are not means that we MAY NEVER understand what good came from a particular hard time. But that doesn't mean He loves us any less!

All this to say...I am committing myself to knowing God better this coming year. And that is going to be from what He does in my life, and by MY EFFORTS of spending time talking to Him, listening, and reading His love letter to me, the Bible. If you want to join me, whether at this point you believe in God or not, let me know. He will show Himself to you just like He's shown Himself to me, I promise!

Love Kristi
princessk1212@hotmail.com

No more diapers! (one down, a couple of years to go)

HI! Just a quick update...Shadrach is OFFICIALLY potty-trained. Four weeks ago we began the process. We spent 2 days locked in the house giving him lots to drink, putting him on the toilet every 10 minutes, and LOTS of candy rewards for staying dry! After that he was in underwear for good, and he's done great! We have only had like 5 or 6 accidents in the past four weeks. Honostly, this went way better than I expected. The past couple of days he has been telling us every time he has to go, so we don't have to ask him about it constantly. Thank you Lord!

Shadrach loves his big-boy underwear. He pretty much never wears pants when we are hanging out at home, as you can see...

Here are a couple cute pics of Moriah too! She's four months old!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Moriah is a roller, as of yesterday. I can no longer set her in a spot on the floor and expect her to be exactly there when i get back. Its exciting to watch her grow and move...but I was hoping for her to remain "infant-like" longer. Three months has flown by, and it makes me realize that crawling and walking aren't that far off! Ahhhhhhh!

Shadrach is learning his letters and counts to about 15. I say "about" b/c sometimes he skips 14 and goes to 18...but usually its every number to 15. Although I do spell things with him and point out letters often, I think watching Word World and Super Why every morning has helped too. Yay PBS Kids!

He also sleeps in his new "Cars" big boy bed. I was hesitant to make the move b/c he hadn't ever tried to get out of his crib. But 3 weeks ago mommy decided she was ready to let her little boy grow up some. The first couple of nights were a little rough, since he thought remaining in bed was optional now that he was able to crawl out. But now he loves it, and he proudly shows everyone who comes over that he doesn't sleep in a crib any more.

Mark is busy as ever with church stuff. We had our official "Launch Sunday" on November 2nd and we had over 100 people there! Our Pastor is preaching a great marriage series, based on the movie that recently came out, Fireproof. We have already seen many people make commitments to loving their spouse in a deeper, more selfless way, and we are so excited to see how God works in their marriages.

If you'd like to pray for us...here are some things we need prayer for:

-Time management with all the church stuff and family. Its so easy to get overwhelmed.

-Wisdom and guidance in disciplining Shadrach, he definitely has a strong will! :-)

-Protection from sickness this flu season, especially for the kids.

-Finances...we are seeing God provide for us in amazing ways, and we are trying to be faithful with all he gives us. We want to be out of debt by the end of next year!

Pictures!

Happy at 3 months!

Don't I look like my daddy???

The kids' "dress up day" costumes. We have so far decided not celebrate Halloween, but we got costumes for our church's Fall Festival. Shadrach loved being a doctor.

We went to our pastor's sons' pop warner football game. Shadrach enjoy watching the cheerleaders, and playing baseball on the field at halftime.

I've decided that getting them both to look in a picture is impossible.

These are my favorite kind of pictures. I think Mark is glad we had a girl!

Daddy is so much fun!

This is what we do during Shadrach's naptime. I've become one of those people who takes lots of pictures of themselves. Who would have guessed?

When I'm wearing a hat you can't tell I'm balding!

More daddy time. This time for a nap!

This is a picture of Moriah and Sophie, who is about 3 weeks younger. Sophie is our good friends'Neal and Charity's daughter. This is what Neal and Mark would looked like if they were baby girls. These girls both look so much like their daddies!

Cooing baby!

I'll be honost, I kind of dread adding a new post to our blog, b/c it takes me FOREVER. First the typing, then choosing pictures (which is so hard since we take so many), loading the pictures which takes like a year...you'd think they'd have a faster loading mechanism, then placing the pictures where you want them, writing captions, etc. Maybe I just don't know how to use this thing. If you have any advice, please call me and let me know!

Anyway, Moriah is 2 months old today! She is smiling all the time and just started cooing on September 30th (again with the dates...still no baby book to write the info in :-)) She likes to sit and talk to Shadrach, until he talks to her in his Cookie Monster voice which sometimes makes her cry. I tell him to talk to her in a "nice" voice, which he does for about 30 seconds and then transitions back into Cookie Monster. It's actually pretty funny.

Here's a video of some of Moriah's noises. I apologize in advance for the obnoxious fake laughing (it was making her smile and make noises earlier) and the poor video quality. I was using my digital camera to film, not the video one. Anyway, if the thought of watching 2 minutes of video for 5 seconds of cute baby noises and 1 min 55 seconds of an annoying adult doesn't sound super-exciting, please spare yourself. :-)

Mark and I are strongly contemplating potty-training Shadrach. He has taken his diaper off after going #2 a couple of times this week. So he finishes the deed, and comes out of his room naked, leaving the loaded diaper on his floor. Thankfully he gets it off without getting stuff all over. How, I'm not sure. Although it is now VERY clear to him that that is not ok, it seems like its time to tackle the monster. So if you think of it, you can pray for us! :-) We'll keep you posted with our progress!

More pictures!

She loves playing in her pack and play!

This is one of my faves!

Shadrach and Daddy modeling 3-D glasses. We tried to go see the 3-D movie "Fly Me Away" but had to leave after 5 minutes b/c the airplane "coming out" of the screen scared Shadrach.