Author Archive for julespaq
31
Aug
10
Ella’s date night music video
29
Aug
10
Falcons!
Rilyn had her first cheer ‘scrimmage’ on Saturday. Because it was only a football scrimmage, the girls wore only their practice outfits and not their real game-day cheer clothes. Rilyn was bummed about that, but everything was A-OK when they let them use their poms-poms!
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| sheer joy |
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| You can see that the cheerleaders even have their own cheer chairs to rest in! |
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| Football game behind them and the cheerleaders trying to pump up the crowd! |
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| Rilyn giving us a high kick! |
Authentic.
Like a brother.
Bear each other’s burdens.
Ties that cannot be broken.
As many of you know, one of the main reasons we moved to Austin was to live in community with our friends whom we met in college. Here we are 12ish years later, MANY kids later, and minutes away from each other. What a blessing to raise our children together, and an added bonus was James, Halim, and Jeff all having little boys that are within 9 months apart. We all visited each other in the hospital room the day they were born and have watched them grow into preschoolers now! (In a couple of weeks they start! Praise the Lord!) 
I can’t wait to watch their friendship grow as they become young men! (Malachi still prefers to play with Ella over Asher!) I had the three boys at my house yesterday and miraculously, (it helped that fruit snacks were involved!), I got a decent shot of them sitting together!
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| Caden Richardson, Malachi Suh, and Asher |
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| Asher’s BIRTH day and 6 month old Malachi with proud daddies, James and Halim |
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| newborn Caden, and 3 month old Asher |
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| November 2008- Asher and unhappy Malachi |
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| The three boys swinging this past spring |
And you know how I love to show old-school pics! Here is Jeff, our college friend Carson, (who was apparently very tired), James, and Halim on New Years morning 2001.
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| January 2001 |
26
Aug
10
the wheels on the bus
This is Rilyn’s third year on the bus! Selfishly I L.O.V.E the bus. It drops her off right in front of my house everyday! I sit on my front porch rocking bench and just chill and wait for her. This year she doesn’t want me coming up to the bus door to get her. Now that she is a big first grader, she wants me to stay on the porch and she will walk to me by herself! She is so grown-up these days! 
Here she is going to preschool in fall of 2008:
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| fall 2008 |
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| field trip in 2009 (I actually did not take a picture of her first day on the bus in kinder!) |
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| end of her first day in first grade! |
24
Aug
10
First day of 1st!
Big day today for Miss Rilyn! Today she started first grade at Manor Elementary!
Last night, we did our family night ‘back to school style’ to get prepared for her big day. I got the idea and printable from here, a Back to School Survival ‘kit’ with scriptures. So fun and so easy! (Example: Rilyn pulls out an eraser from the bag and we talk about that the eraser reminds us that everyone makes mistakes at school and it’s okay. We then read Genesis 50:15-21 about how Joseph forgave his brothers.)
This morning was great! Rilyn was a little nervous because she keeps thinking about getting ‘graded’ this year (versus ‘S’ for satisfactory or ‘E’ for excellent like last year). We prayed and once she saw her old friends she was great!
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| new backpack from grandma! |
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| Manor Mustangs! |
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| Her teacher, Mrs. Stein! |
I got the idea for making this speech bubble in the top two pictures right here. (Thanks Kristy for finding this!)
23
Aug
10
dancing
We got a new Flip video cam and James was playing with it the other day. He made this ‘music video’ to show a day in the life at our house! A certain little boy who loves jumping off our furniture, a messy-prone girl with marker stains on her dress, toys all over the floor, a certain 6 year old picking her wedgie in front of the camera, and one boy who loves spinning until he falls down dizzy!
22
Aug
10
photo shoot
I dream of mine one day, off in the distant future, would be to have a little photography business. I’m starting to learn about lenses and love creative photography. I did a little photo shoot at Mayfield Park yesterday with my brother and sister in law and their adorable son, Caden. I thought I would post a few of my favorites!
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| lily ponds are always gorgeous scenery! |
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| secret doors |
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| peek a boo |
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19
Aug
10
cheer practice
Rilyn started cheerleading a couple of weeks ago! She is with Pop Warner and they are serious about cheerleading! Rilyn will be cheering for Manor Falcons flag football. She had to complete 20 hours of ‘conditioning’ (stretching, running), before she even could start actual cheer practice. Of course, I had to take a couple of pictures of her first ‘real’ cheer practice!
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| This is called the “clean position” |
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| This sweet older cheerleader helped out Rilyn so much. |
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| oops-Rilyn is supposed to have her legs closed! |
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| Maybe one day she can get her legs as high as the ‘big’
girls! |
14
Aug
10
‘the talk’
Last month I was blessed by visiting with my dear friend from Houston, Marisa. She is a pastor’s wife from our old church in Katy, Kingsland Baptist. I always love talking with her because of her passion for the Lord and her spunky tell-it-like-it-is attitude! She has a 6 1/2 year old son and one of the things she told me that night was, “I just had the sex talk with K.”
Whoa.
I knew that sending Rilyn to public school, I would have to do ‘the talk’ sooner rather than later, but THIS early?!? And her son is homeschooled! So, naturally, I wanted to hear all about ’the talk’ with her son.
When I got home from coffee that night I talked with James and we really felt that God used Marisa as a vessel to remind us “now is the time.” I had already heard stories of moms telling me their kids had heard about sex during playground conversations at public school in first grade so I did have it in the back of my mind that we should prepare Rilyn.
There are these awesome books out there, called God’s Design for Sex series (4 books) that Marisa used. The first book you read to your child is written for children ages 3-5!!! Then the second book you read from ages 5-8, third book age 8-11, and fourth book age 11-14 years. We bought books 1 and 2. I love the forward in these books, “Why start early? (teaching your kids about sex) Because if you as the parent are not teaching your kids about sexuality, they are learning distorted lessons about it from television, the Internet, and playground conversations. If you stand silent on sex while the rest of the world is abuzz about it, kids come to the conclusion that you cannot help them in this key area. If you start now in teaching godly, truthful, tactful, and appropriate lessons about sexuality, your children will trust you more and see you as a mother or father who tells the truth!” Wow.
The first book is entitled, The Story of Me by Stan and Brenna Jones. The second book is called Before I was Born. The first book discusses the growth of a child inside a mother’s body and the birth process. The second book discusses the growth and change as boys and girls become men and women and a tactful but direct explanation of sexual intercourse between a husband and wife.
So today, I took Rilyn for the day shopping and out to lunch for a mother/daughter date and we had ‘the talk’. I read to her both books. The second book is way more graphic in detail than the first and honestly, it was hard to read to my baby girl. ‘The talk’ went well. She didn’t ask too many questions, so I plan on reading it to her again next year and the next…She did at one point cover her ears and when I asked why, she said “Because you are about to talk about privates.” (She saw the picture.) We talked about that everything I was reading to her is only to be discussed between mommy, daddy and her (or her doctor) and that’s it. One day she can talk to her husband about it. We also talked about if she hears things at school, she can always tell me.
I feel at peace with today knowing that God means for Christian parents to be the primary sex educators of their children. And first messages are most powerful; why wait until your child hears the wrong thing and then try to correct the misunderstanding? Sexuality is a beautiful gift; why not present it to your children the way God intended? Why not establish yourself as the trusted expert to whom your children can turn to find out God’s truth about sexuality?
