OVEN ON FIRE!!!!!

Its never a great day when your babysitter calls and through tears and panic informs you that your oven is shooting out flames!!! My wonderful niece was attempting to make cookies with Ava and Addy while Kendra and I were working at church. She came upstairs because of a weird smell and flames were shooting out of the bottom of the oven and smoke was everywhere!! She wisely grabbed the girls and took them outside and called me at work. I rushed home and the whole house and garage were filled with smoke and my two girls and Ashley were huddled on the back porch under a blanket!
Turns out that Addy (I am picking on her because she can't defend herself and Ava of course is telling me it was her) had decided to use the broiler under the oven to hide a few books, dolls, and stuffed animals. By the time i got there there were only hot embers were there once were stories of green eggs and ham. I cleaned everything up and managed to get the girls to go near the oven again without Addy crying and thanked God for keeping them safe.
Great job to Ashley for the quick response and sorry for the drama, you are certainly earning your 2 dollar and hour family rate:)
for all you parents of toddlers, make sure you check the oven for a possible toy stash!

I forgot to mention that when they were outside, Ava was praying to Jesus to save her toys and informing Him that when her daddy got there he was going to put that fire out!!! Its always great to be the hero:)

WHOOMP HAIR IT IS!!!!

I knew it was time to blog again after my mom scolded me for the possible offensive content of my last post. In the interest of keeping this blog family friendly, I have decided to blog about the hair in my household. I have entitled this post "whoomp hair it is" because I feel that would be be a dynamic name for a salon somewhere with tag team music playing in the background. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnrLloO7nFQ

Anyways, my beautiful daughters have some of the curliest hair around (from their beautiful mother) and when it is freshly out of the bath, it is a vision of loveliness. However, as the photos show, even after one night, it can easily become a tangled mess that dad has to deal with on fridays when he plays mr. mom. In order to remedy this and focus all of my attention on Ava and Addy's locks, i went ahead and removed all of mine!!! Not super popular right away with the girls of the house ( I came home to a "what did you do?) but i think, pardon the pun, it is growing on them:)


More christmas posts to come...........

what to get the wife who has everything?

In my continued Christmas search for the ultimate gift for Kendra, I ran across something that will no doubt be a focal part of our love for years to come. this is none other than the "couples" toilet. I can just imagine Kendra and I sharing time after a hard day in this most intimate setting. We could both see what each has been eating, and I could occasionally surprise her with corn the day before. She could talk to me during times of constipation, maybe even hold my hand and sing to me. Anything to encourage my intestines to relax so that our time together is the best it can be. I hope you will share my passion for the couples toilet this Christmas, this is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

freedom in Jesus

I found this article in a british newspaper, and I know it is super nasty to look at, so I apologize in advance. It is the story of a Jehovah's witness who suffered from a rare blood disease that caused a slight deformity in his mouth, but because of his unwillingness to receive a blood transfusion, it is now over 12 pounds and threatening his life. I couldn't stop thinking how sad it would be to serve a God who wouldn't want you to get a blood transfusion, but would allow you instead to deal with this. How could he not see how much more God has for him? How could you go through life with that on your face?!!! It made me so grateful for the freedom I have in Christ, but it also made me think about my own life. How often do I allow little things to fester in my heart like unforgiveness, pride, lust, or bad attitudes without seeing how ugly they are to God. Am I walking around with spiritual tumors that I don't realize I have? Or am I just not letting God operate on them? What will it look like if I do nothing?

Galatians 5:13 "for you have been called to live in FREEDOM, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, instead use your freedom to serve one another in love"

Thank you Jesus for setting me free, and now may I serve you by serving others.

Ava's first church christmas program

We had been practicing for weeks!!! Even Addy had the motions to away in a manger down pat!!! kendra and I were so stoked for Ava's time to shine during the 3-5 year olds christmas program at our church (www.rlc.info) Anyways, as i sat in the front row with video camera in hand, i notice Ava walking up the steps with both her nasty (i say that in a loving way) blanket and her juice cup! To make it worse, she never opened her mouth during any of the songs! She was content to stand there with her finger inserted into her mouth like a permanent fixture. My heart did melt slightly when after words she asked me if Daddy was proud of her:) I love her to death even if she did get a little stage fright:)

pictures for last post!!!

forgive me for being inexperienced (terrible) at blogging. I wanted these pictures of my girls to be on my last post, so hopefully i do it right this time................

Imitating our Daddy!

Because I am a cheesy dad, I often make my two girls Ava and Addy wear the same outfit.  I can't believe how different they are, and yet so much the same.  Addy wants to do everything that big sister does and Ava is already picking up on so many of the little things Kendra and I say ( I know, scary:)  It really makes me so aware of my words because if I say something is stupid she is in my face telling me that stupid is a bad word Daddy.  

Ephesians 5:1 say that we are to imitate God because we are His dearly beloved children. 

My prayer is that as an earthly dad, i will look so much like my heavenly Father that as I imitate him, and Ava imitates me, and Addy imitates Ava, All of us will look like Jesus!!

I see so much pain in young peoples lives, and I want to do every earthly thing I can to position my girls to receive all God has.

"you are only as limited as your ability to believe God, and your willingness to consecrate your life to Him"