The Snake Beach

Today we took our tree down. And although Nathan "tried" to help, we found it much more "helpful" fo him to play with play-dough. After I finished I joined him and cleverly showed off my skills by making a little man lying on a sandly ocean beach on a towel, beach ball at side. Pretty good I thought. Nathan, on the other hand decided to embellish my art by telling me that the man on the beach also had ten pet snakes, scratch that - make that fifteen - with him. Hmm, okay, I thought. So, this picture shows the results of that.

Speaking of the beach, normally we go to the beach about this time for a few days, but because of the busyness of this particular season, we've decided just to stay at home and chill. We may try to get away at some other time in the future.

I hope all reading this had a great Christmas, and best wishes in the new year. Oh, and by the way, it's raining today (pretty hard), so I've got to say thanks to the Lord for that blessing as well today.

Santa Happened Here!

Well, today was the big day. We were awakened at 8:30 a.m. (a respectable hour, I might add) by Nathan, who burst into our room and proclaimed "Santa Claus happened here." Obviously Nathan's mastery of grammar and verb usage is not perfected yet, but I think he got the point across. Well stated. Santa had indeed "happened", and Nathan was spoiled, er I mean blessed, by several gifts, including receiving probably the biggest Transformer he had ever seen (Primus), which he really loved. Also amongst the loot was some new books, clothes, a few miscellaneous GIJOEs and Spider Man figures, too. Chris & Sharon were blessed as well, too. Later in the day we went to Chris' mom & dad (aka Memaw & Pepaw's) for some festivities there and with cousins. We also as a part of the weekend visited with Sharon's mom and family a few days prior. I've included a few obligatory pictures.

Here's hoping you and yours had Santa "happen" where you were. Merry Christmas!

The Snowman Couple

Being that I was a bit too swamped to do much in the form of Christmas decorations outside, Sharon took the lead. We usually just do some simple garlands and lights, but this year, Sharon spotted this cute snowman couple on sale. So, although it's just a few days from Christmas, we added this late entry into the fray of other neighborhood holiday displays.

Oh, see if you can spot Nathan in the picture!

"Aside" not "Inside"

We spent the day with Sharon's family in Salisbury exchanging gifts and playing games, and generally having some holiday merriment. It was a good day! Nathan got two new Transformers today that he was anxious to open when he got home. So, I made a deal. The deal was: I'll let you open them and take them to bed, if when you get home you agree to go straight to bed! And pretty much he played by those rules. So, after pajamas were put on, we read Rudolph, and for the first time, "The Night Before Christmas." All was going very well until we got to the part which says "and laying a finger aside of his nose." I must confess, I giggled because I nearly misread "aside" as "inside," or at the very least had the juvenille thought go through my mind. Nathan looked up at me quickly and caught on very fast. He laughed too, and then slowly tried to put his finger up "inside" his nose, laughing while doing it. The rest of the tale was spent giggling and playing this little game. Also, Nathan also tried to emulate the belly jiggling like a bowl full of jelly too - very cute.

The treasure trove

A minister of music's desk drawer is a treasure trove for the inquisitve toddler.

Oh, That's Not Good!

Unfortunatley, Nathan hasen't got really excited about reading Bible stories at this stage in the saga of bedtime reading. However, I convinced him to allow me to read "The Christmas Story" (Thomas Nelson Publishers version - It may be out of print, but you can click here and visit Amazon to find out about the book). I hadn't read this particular book before, but it was really a good retelling of the story (although the illustrations were so-so.) The reading level was probably aimed a little more toward younger elementary, but Nathan seemed to enjoy it (or at least endure it for his dad). The highlight of the night was when I read that King Herod wanted to kill baby Jesus, to which Nathan exclaimed "Oh, that's not good!!!" All it takes is the threat of violence to really perk up a story for a young boy. Sad, but funny.

Incidentally, while I was writing this, Nathan (who's supposed to be in bed) came in and told Sharon and myself we were making too much noise). I'm not sure how sitting in a quiet room typing is "too much noise", but I'll try to keep it down. :)

Train ride with Santa

This weekend Nathan and I (Sharon) went to the Spencer Transportation Museum to ride the train and see Santa. Nathan had a great time and loved the roundhouse. He had milk and cookies too. There was also a Christmas story read by one of Santa's elves. Some of Nathan's cousins were able to go as well, so that made the trip extra special.

No wonder I never get any work done...

Being that Sharon and "The Libble" (aka Nathan) are visiting in Salisbury this weekend, I'm having a little bit of "me time", which I've been spending, looking at insurance plans on the computer, and some other family financial bookkeeping - exciting, huh? Anyway, even in my moments of silence, I'm still not able to get work done. The other needy members of the household, recognizing their opportunity for some one-on-one time with me, capitalize. Note in the picture how their apparant goal is to gradually make sure I cannot see the computer screen. Oh well, guess that spreadsheet wasn't so important anyway.

My "Instruction Helmet"

Tonight, Nathan told us he wanted to get out his dump truck to play with, so we did. En route he exclaimed "I need my instruction helmet!" It took us a few seconds to figure out he meant "Construction Helmet." I think an "instruction" helmet might be better, though, as perhaps it might help him follow instructions better! Boy, whoever designs one of those will be a billionaire!

Hunter's Morning Job

I thought some of you would enjoy watching Hunter, one of our three cats, as he does his morning duty of waking up Nathan on the mornings he has preschool.

Where's my arms?

In tonight's episode of "Why my child may be scarred for life," We join Nathan as he tries on a pair of mom's jogging pants and fuzzy socks - don't ask. Sigh - Anyway, sometimes you have to put the masculinity aside, and just go get the camera.

We enjoyed watching the Shrek and Winnie the Pooh Christmas specials together tonight while Mommy went to PTO at her school. All in all, a very nice Daddy-Nathan evening.

Keep reaching for the stars

I've been really excited as of late that Nathan has been interested in looking at stars when we've got back home after dark on a couple of nights this week. For those of you who don't know, I used to work at the Williams Observatory (see picture) at Gardner-Webb University during my years there as the assistant to Tom English, the physics professor. One of my main duties was with the Young Astronomers Club, which was a program to teach children about the wonders of the universe.

Well, I oficially proved to myself tonight that I've been away from that job long enough to have lost much of my constellation and planet spotting skills. Nathan was fascinated by a few bright sky objects (which actually turned out to be Mars and Saturn, both not too far from the popluar constellation Orion tonight), which we immediately had to go to Google Earth tonight and look up to verify. For those of you who haven't discovered it yet, Google Earth (downlaodable free here: http://earth.google.com/ ) has a feature now in which you can view the night sky with the constellations, planets, and even deep sky objects mapped out. It's really cool.

Anyway, as Casey Kasem always said (and this really dates myself), "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!"

Nathan Hangin' Out

Everyday after preschool, Daddy (me) makes the long journey (okay it's just downstairs) to pick up the little guy and then go and hang out in my office where we have some transformers and internet time. Here is Nathan making a monster face for the camera phone.

Rock You Slideshow

Create Your Own

What time is it?

Nathan over the past few weeks has been fascinated with time and age. His two FAQs are "What time is it?" and "How old are you?" Since he has just turned four (which he did not actually believe he had done until the moment he blew out the candles on his cake - although his actual birthday was many days before that), he is beginning to develop a very elementary concept of time and aging. The frequent "What time is it?" questions are especially funny, as if a four-year-old has anything on their dayplanner that they're afraid they'll miss.

Nathan had two parties this year, one at Thanksgiving with primarily family, and a second for a small handful of children his age at our house in Dallas. The Thanksgiving party was Transformer theme (he requested a "Kup" cake, who is an obscure TF character from the first TF movie in the 80's). The friend party was Spiderman themed. They were both great.

First Post

Hi all,

I thought I would make an attempt to start a blog for our family. It was becoming increasingly hard to stay in touch with so many people the paths of our lives had crossed that I figured this was a chance to unify our efforts. As a ministry family, and having served in several congregations, I thought this would allow us to share updates on what we are up to. As with any novice blogger, I'm learning as I go along, but I hope I can keep this page somewhat up to date.

In Christ,

Chris