Oh the things that kids say

Here's a recent quote from Joshua:

'Lindsey is my favorite girl in the whole world. I found her and I love her.' - Joshua Dunn referring to Lindsey at our church (she is married but I guess we'll cut him some slack)

Also periodically Josh will just look at you with his little charming smile and say he loves you. And if he's really working it he'll say he loves you 'this much' (holding his arms apart as far as he can).

This has been the season of performances for our kiddos. Yesterday our Spring MDO program at church came to a close and the kids performed their grand finale for a sea of parents and cameras. We are now entering the phase where we are trying to creatively capture both kids performing at the same time. It so happened that Emily and Joshua could be captured in the same shot....whew. Last night we were needing some assurance that the earth was once again not going to be destroyed by flood and so right one cue God sent us a beautiful full rainbow right over our house. Emily happened to spot it out her window right after bath time so we all rushed out there to check it out.

Joshua chimed in with some commentary and his opinions on the rainbow.

As usual our weekend was overflowing with activities. On Friday night we had Emily's pre-school fundraiser. Emily is pictured here with the other Emily in her class. They are known as Emily Grace and Emily Hammer to their classmates to distinguish them.

Emily participated in our church children's musical, King of the Jungle. She was in quite the dilemna with her fractured arm. At times she would try and do the hand motions with just her uninjured right arm but then most of the time she just threw caution to the wind and waved her little arm and sling all over the place.

That was then......



This is now...

Yes our sweet little daughter has now officially racked up broken arm number two before turning the ripe old age of 5. The first time she broke her arm she explained to us that she was trying to jump off of the chair in our bedroom like a frog. This time she joined in with some of the other neighborhood kids for a little game of 'let's jump off of the above the ground sewer lid." Well she was doing great and then took a little tumble. After a trip to the pediatrician and orthepedic doctor her official diagnosis is a radial head fracture in her elbow. Thankfully this is a pretty common break and she will be in a sling for about 7-10 days. On top of all this she started throwing up over and over again (I think about 6 times total) and we're not sure why. She finally seems to be feeling better.

Lastly, I just want to pause and give some thanks. First of all I want to thank our incredible neighbors Ted and Shelly and Tommye and David. Tommye and David took care of Joshua today for about 5 hours or so and fed him lunch and offered us some gatorade for Emily. Ted and Shelly brought over gatorade as well and constantly helped us with medical questions and care. I am so thankful for our extended neighborhood family that is always so selfless and supportive to us. God bless you guys!

Also, I want to express thanks to a mystery person who blessed us a couple of days ago. You know who you are and thank you for being a blessing to us!

Well we had a really nice anniversary. The kids got to do a sleepover party with Hailey and then Jay watched them that morning and then Ted and Shelly (across the street) watched them into the afternoon. The kids built a fort on Friday (the perfect cure for the rainy day blues) and they determined that as soon as Hailey walked in the door they were going to hide in their fort until Hailey found them. Well, the doorbell rang and the kids scrambled into position. But as soon as Joshua heard Hailey's voice he couldn't contain himself...he squeeled with boyish delight and burst out of the fort and jumped right into Haley's arms. We stayed at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott and dined at the Cheesecake factory. We had a nice time walking around the river walk area and had fun checking out the new grocery store, Hubble and Hudson right across from Tinseltown. We tried some pecan butter grinded right out of a little machine and well it tasted like crushed up pecans. Through the course of our night and morning we ran into 8 different people we knew (I guess that's what we get for staying in the Woodlands, oh well). The hotel was great until we discovered that we were so lucky to be rooming next to a wild party that went on till 3 Am in the morning which included random door slammings, really loud drunk guys telling stories and laughing, etc. We knew it was going to be a long night when we were out on our balcony and looked over to our next door neighbor balcony to discover a stockpile of beer.

Overall though it was refreshing to spend some time together just the two of us and it reminded us that we need to be doing this on a much more consistent basis. We were just about washed away this weekend by the rain so we've included a few pictures of some of our activities when we got back home with the kids.

Joshua enjoying being outside again after the rain finally blew over.

Emily and Daddy enjoying some time together (and a snowcone) out on the back patio

Joshua held Bo's hand and it appeared to be a pretty sweet moment and then we realized that he was actually dragging Bo into the gulley filled with water. Well, the water proved too much for the little kiddos as Joshua, Bo, and Emily went from touching the water with their hands, to sticking their feet in, to plopping down into it, to complete immersion. It was a one-way ticket to the bathtub when we got back in the house.

10 Years ago today....

10 years ago today Whitney and I stood in a small white church called Piney Grove Baptist in Georgia and that little sanctuary was packed full of our family and friends who had gathered to watch these two little naive youngsters exchange wedding vows. Larry, an amazing pastor, co-officiated with Grandaddy, Whitney's grandfather (an amazing man of God), and they led us through the ceremony. Joe McKinney was there (with mullet and mustache) and sang for us (thanks Joe, wow all the way from Texas). I had a little more hair then and was looking a little better as I was in top honeymoon shape. You know we had no idea what we were getting into...we only knew we were in love and that we couldn't imagine spending the rest of our lives with anyone else.

Since then I've moved my sweet bride out to Texas, we've been through a couple of moves, years of youth ministry, countless road trips to Georgia, a couple of kids, challenges, struggles, job position changes, losses of loved ones, lots of late night heart to heart chats, and so forth. I think of all the ways that I have opened my big fat mouth when I shouldn't have, when I was passive and I should have been active, when I dropped the ball countless times, when my actions were careless and insensitive, etc. And yet, Whitney having endured all of that, still will look me in the eyes and tell me she loves me. In marriage we can tangibly experience grace and unconditional love. In marriage I begin to understand in a deeper way how someone could know me (the good, bad and the ugly) and still embrace me and love me. In marriage I understand the power of forgiveness....when I've hurt the one I love and I carry that burden of guilt around like a big weight around my neck and then for that person to look at me and forgive me...that's powerful.

It's a shame that so many couples give up on marriage right before God is wanting to take them to a deeper level of understanding grace and forgiveness...right before they experience the purifying fire of God forging His character into their lives in a deeper way. Thank you Lord for 10 beautiful years with my bride where You have been faithful and You have gotten us here and will continue to lead us on.

Emily stopped for a moment at ballet practice to pose with her number one fan. She has been a busy bee polishing up her 'spoon full of sugar' routine for her recital on May 9.
Back in December Whitney snatched up some Disney on Ice tickets. Last night was the big show and so we journeyed down to Reliant Stadium to behold Aerial, The Lion King, Peter Pan, Lilo and Stich, and of course Mickey and Minney Mouse and Goofy (who tripped and fell a couple of times triggering laughter from our children). The kids both said their favorite part was when Peter Pan asked everyone in the crowd to clap really loud to help Tinkerbell recover from accidentally drinking some poison milk. So they were clapping their little hearts out and sure enough Tink recovered.

Kine Cone!

The other day we stopped by a park in the Woodlands which is one of our favorite family activities. We spotted some wildlife (aka 'a squirrel) and the kids and I started foraging for some nuts or something that we could use to entice the little furry creature down from the tree and into our hands. Joshua and Emily were unable to find nuts but did find some nice pine cones or 'Kine Cones' as Joshua so lovingly refers to them. Joshua is doing his best to beckon the squirrel to come down from its safe haven in the trees and eat from his little pudgy 2 year old hands. While his efforts were noteworthy they were of no avail as the squirrel stayed put.


Emily made a new friend in the park 'Jacelyn' and they played together and ran around and had a great time. Joshua was trying to keep up but lamented to me that he wanted to make a new friend too.
Joshua had fun riding on the little animals on a spring.

Easter 2009

It was a good full day today as we celebrated the day that Jesus did what He said He was going to do. The day He defeated death and removed its sting forever. Apparently Joe McKinney and I were on the same wave length as we both spent our early hours reading all 4 accounts of the Resurrection. Joe was sharing this morning some interesting insight in John's account. Mary Magdalene gets to the tomb to find the stone rolled away and begins weeping as she thinks that Jesus' body has been stolen or taken away somewhere. A strange man is there and begins speaking to her. This man addresses her as 'woman' and she assumes that he must be the gardener. Then the man looks at her and says 'Mary' and the blinders come off and she realizes that it's Jesus. She didn't recognize Him until He called her by name. That's kind of how Easter is. If Jesus is just like a strange gardener to you than it's really not a big deal and is pretty much just an Easter egg hunt and a trip to church. But the day He calls you by name and opens your eyes to who He is changes you forever. What an amazing thought that as His child He knows my name and one day I will rise just like Him and that same resurrection power will fill me with life eternal and the Bible says that His Spirit fills me with resurrection life even now. Here's a few pics from our day:
A rare moment was caught on video by Whitney yesterday as we coerced Joe McKinney into dancing and kicking his legs out in a semi-rythmic fashion during the end of rehearsal on Saturday. I love being a part of our creative arts team as we love worshiping Jesus together and we also love enjoying each other and cutting up a bit. I must say that our youth worship leader, Brent Call on left, brings out some intense goofiness in me.

Last night we took some time to decorate some hard-boiled eggs. The kids really got into it as they dipped them in food coloring, painting them, stuck googly eyes on them, etc.
Josh was devasted when his little egg creation slipped from his hands onto the floor like Humpty Dumpty. He gave us some world class pouty faces in this video as he tried to communicate for us his great distress regarding his egg's 'boo boos' that he tried to bandage up with some foam stickers.

It was really special as the pre-k and kindergartners came down during our service and led us in worship to the song 'Grace flows down.' Seeing all these kids singing and doing the hand motions was very special.

Emily and Joshua back at the house after church.

We had a big potluck lunch with at our neighbors' (Ted and Shelly) house after church. It was a great time as we celebrated together and visited. We set up a little easter egg hunt in our front and back yard that afternoon for some of the kids. Tyler is quite a bit older (in the back of the picture) so we put a few eggs super high where he had to find creative ways to get them down like throwing other eggs at them to knock them off of high tree branches, etc.

Lastly I'll leave you with a couple of Joshisms before I sign off:

Josh to Gigi 'You have pretty hands...you have pretty eyes...you have a pretty mouth....you have a pretty nose...you're whole pretty'

Josh to Daddy 'I love God...I want to go in the Bible and hug God.'

Emily got to celebrate some Easter festivities with her Pre-school class on Thursday. They made bunny baskets out of an old 1 gallon milk jug as shown here in the picture. She is posing with all of her classmates right before they were unleashed upon the playground for an Easter egg hunt.


Yesterday Emily stopped for a second to talk about the events of Jesus' last week here on earth leading up to the cross. She assumes a pretty relaxed pose on the couch here but starts with Palm Sunday and then mentions the Last Supper, the cross and the Resurrection in a brief summary. This was one of those moments that we felt very blessed to have our children in such a solid children's ministry where what we're striving to teach in our home is so beautifully reinforced and taught at church.

Gigi and Granddad came in yesterday to hang out for Easter weekend. They all jumped on the couch for a second to let Emily share about her new sticker book that she received.

Emily is showing off some new dance moves to a song from Alvin and the Chipmunks. She started off the morning by teaching me about prayer. As I'm finishing up bath time she looks at me and tells me, "Daddy, when we ask God for something sometimes He says 'yes', sometimes He says 'no' and sometimes He says 'wait'" So there you have some pretty good wisdom about prayer. Later on in the day Joshua was asking me about what it meant to be born again as one of the songs they were singing had that in the lyrics. Yeah, try explaining that one to a 2 year old....So I kind of stumbled through how to simply explain that concept and thought I probably should use words like justification or new creations in Christ and so forth. So I talked about asking Jesus into your heart and he replied 'I ask Jesus into my heart last day'. Later on he asked the same question to his sister and Emily did a much better job explaining it than me for sure.

Emily had her last soccer game on Thursday. She has definitely come a long way since the first game where she freaked out about balls being kicked at her by other strange people in uniforms. She actually showed some aggression, kicked the ball, played defense, and almost scored a goal. I think she'll probably be up for another season.Emily and Joshua got some good bonding time in with Gaddy (Great Aunt Debby) while we prepped for our weekend retreat in Wimberley. Here is a little song that she had them singing in appreciation of our dog Wrinkles who now permanently resides on her new Hill Country Estate where she explores rocky ravines, has become an avid river swimmer, takes naps alongside beautiful river bluffs, and has also become a pretty accomplished rock climber.

Praise the Lord we survived our young families retreat this weekend as we had 18 adults and 16 kids running all around my parents property. Brent and Rick spotted 4 snakes and tried to hunt them down unsuccessfully, we had an easter egg hunt, slip and slide, baby pools, lots of food, craft times with the kids (thanks to Caitlin and Rachel), Bocce Ball, bean bag toss, chicken foot, some good husband/wife time, great share times, river exploration, fishing (way to go Derric and Sam - 8 catfish!), campfires and smores, tent camping by the river (Tom, Drew and Tyler), and on and on. My favorite aspects of this weekend were just the times to sit around and get to know these couples in our Married Life group better and Whitney and I had a great time (simply 45 minutes) of going through questions like 'What have been the top 5 milestones we've been together', 'what are the three most important decistions we need to make this next year', 'where would we most like to vacation', etc. It was just refreshing for all of us as couples to have some questions like this to go through with our spouses and connect again like we used to. When life starts going 100 miles an hour and kids enter into the equation it's easy for you to go from husband and wife to roomates who exist to run a complex household.