The Middle of the Story...

What a pleasure to share Isaac's Christmas service with Grandpa and Grandma Balyo on Wednesday, December 17th.

Isaac could hardly contain his excitement for the evening and wanted to make sure we left Scotty's Pizza Restaurant in time to make it to his classroom at 6:00 pm! Phew! We made it with plenty of time left over! He was so proud to have learned both a Latin song and a German song.

Isaac, with some of the other 1st and 2nd graders

It was really neat to participate with the students, in the Liturgical service. Although I wasn't familiar with all of the songs they sang, and there was a lot of kiddie background noise, it was very reverant.

Sometimes during the Christmas "season", I feel like we (or at least, I) get stuck thinking only about the sweet human baby part of Jesus and forget that the baby Jesus is still God, Almighty! And the plan of Jesus coming to earth as a human baby was not even the beginning of the end of our miraculous salvation, but more like the middle highlight!

I always imagine that since God is not limited by Time and Space, He sees all of earth's happenings like a big collage, whereas we see events on a timeline. I find it fascinating and awe-inspiring that Jesus was not an afterthought (an "oops, the kiddos down on earth messed up...didn't expect that!") but this plan of God's Salvation (baby Jesus, that is) was in the works from the beginning!

Adam and Eve's sin didn't surprise God; God didn't have to come up with something new to fix the situation; the end result that He is Ultimately THE King of Kings and THE Lord of Lords has always been the plan. He has always had our well-being in his merciful and yes, just, heart!

Jesus, coming as a baby, for the sole purpose of being sacrificed as THE Passover Lamb, is like the glorious middle chapter in a page after page, glory-filled book of Good News. And thanks be to God for his Glorious Gift of Christ Jesus, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and is now set down at the right hand, of the throne of God!

Our homemade Christmas contribution was... a good, old-fashioned package of oreos!

Scott (acting as our gracious coat-rack), his mom, Lynn, and Zane.

Friday, December 19

Because of the wild winter weather in the midwest, Scott's parents were able to stay for a couple of extra days and they graciously volunteered to stay and play with Ian, Colby, Zane and Oquirrh so I could spend Friday's Festivities with Isaac. And, I loved it! It was fun to have some one on one with Isaac, driving him and some of his classmates to the senior centers, eating lunch with him at the school afterwards, and even enjoying some of his class party and "puppy chow".

Isaac was a big hit with the ladies!

After singing at two senior centers, we returned for lunch, recess, and a Christmas party. Goodies included (but were not limited to) a huge pile of "puppy chow", a huge, frosted cookie from "Eileen's Colossal Cookies", a cupcake with a huge mountain of frosting and a juicebox! What a fun celebration of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ's birth...the middle of the story!

A Happy Birthday From A Chef In The Making!

God has given Isaac extreme creativity. You can almost see it oozing out of him! Yesterday (December 23), he had it in his head that he wanted to make something all by himself for us to eat, so he wrote out a recipe (see below) and worked it out for the most part by himself. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but it turned out to be like what we imagine the hard tack sailors, pioneers and explorers carried.


Isaac was thrilled with the results and said, "I can't believe that my recipe turned out to be a success! Now we can make it and take it hiking and you can make it all the time, if you want!"

December 23

This morning (December 24) for my birthday, Isaac made me a very special "breakfast in bed" featuring his very unique recipe. He woke up at approximately 3:00 am, made a coffee for me, and perused the other breakfast options. He is still sick with croup so, understandably, he went back to bed for a couple of hours and then got up to finish a special breakfast plate for me. On my plate he had arranged a waffle that he found in the refrigerator, one of his "dough bread" stars and one of Zane's biter biscuits (He also brought the coffee he had made (at 3:00 am) all by himself to me!). Isaac, Ian, Colby and I enjoyed this very thoughtful and delicious breakfast together while Scott also enjoyed his own complimentary cup of coffee made earlier by our little chef in the making!

Mini Architects

We were so glad that Scott's parents were able to fly out from snowy Michigan to windy Wyoming for some pre-Christmas fun this year...

December 14, 2008

The boys had a grand time making a gingerbread house with Grandpa and Grandma...

Three super-excited and proud Balyo architects, full of gumdrops, frosting and peanut m&m's...no problem going to sleep tonight!

December 16, 2008

We waited and waited and waited (for 2 very long days!) to eat this delicious looking sculpture...

And now, it's a bit of yummy memory...

Out On The Town

December 12

Who doesn't need a nap after a big meal!?

Thanks, Mom!

Isn't this the neatest tree skirt?! My very talented mom made this for me as an early birthday present. I have wanted a tree skirt for years...

I just love that my mom made this and I just love that she put the Christmas story on it. It will be treasured for years to come!

Ten Months!

Ten month old Zane is on the move! This little man loves opening cupboards, climbing stairs, walking with the vacuum cleaner and dropping any item, any time, anywhere! His brothers adore him and love to entertain him and he adores them in return. He has no problems consuming vast amounts of food (please don't eat that piece of carpet... Ewww, don't eat that dead fly... that paper is not for you... sorry, no rocks for you today!) and is now sporting a cute little pair of top teeth to match the bottom two!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
How steadfast are your branches!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!
How steadfast are your branches!

Your boughs are green in summer's clime
and through the snows of wintertime...

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
how steadfast are your branches!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
what happiness befalls me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
what happiness befalls me!

When oft at joyous Christmastime,
your form inspires my song and rhyme
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.

(umm...yes, that is Mary, Joseph, Jesus... and Colby's favorite Dirt Track Lightning McQueen...reminds me of a song I learned in High School "Give of your best to the Master, give him first place in your heart; Give Him first place in your service; Consecrate every part. Give, and to you shall be given. God His beloved Son gave; Gratefully seeking to serve Him, Give Him the best that you have.")

That constant faith and hope sublime
lend strength and comfort through all time.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
your boughs can teach a lesson!

Turkey, Ham and 8 Boys Under 8

A lot of ham...

Eight little turkeys...
(Zane, Lucas, Cameron, Brendon, Andrew, Colby, Ian, Isaac)

and some pumkin pies!

Was Thanksgiving already a week ago?!?

Revenge of the Laundry Monkey!

I knew there was a lot of laundry build-up, but I didn't know it was this much...

A Big Helping of Pumpkin Pie!

Three Little Pumpkins...

...and a Jack-o-lantern!

Westmont College Fire

My sister-in-law,Rebecca, sent this prayer request (yesterday) and update (today) about the fire situation at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. (a sister college of Taylor University). Until a couple of months ago, Rebecca was the women's soccer coach at Westmont. Carter and Rebecca have since moved to the cornfields of Indiana, but have friends, colleagues and students who are and will be affected by the fires.

I, personally have a special place in my heart for Westmont, as 1) it was one of my top college choices, 2) my music teacher and my best friend convinced me (for approximately 18 agonizing hours) that I had been requested to give my testimony to their entire student body for chapel, and 3) I was personally sung to by the Westmont Ensemble! :)

Will you pray for them?

Nov. 14

Hey all,
Some of you have heard, but a fire started in Santa Barbara that hit Westmont pretty hard. Because of sun downer winds coming over the mountains (70 mph gusts), there was not time for Westmont students to evacuate. Fortunately, Westmont has an emergency fire plan in place and all students made it to the gym for refuge. One of the dorms was burnt (half of Clark hall) and the Science building. Some other buildings burned down, but they were all going to be demolished by the end of the year (Westmont is in the process of building some new buildings.)

One of the sadder things that happened is that 14 faculty members lost their home. Westmont has "Faculty housing" that only faculty at Westmont can buy. Three of my former coaching colleagues lost their homes, along with 11 other faculty members that I worked with. I am sure they are devastated right now, and would appreciate any prayers. Below is a link to a "post fire" video that shows the Science building. This is the building that had a GREAT view that I would take recruits to at the end of our campus tour. Anyhow, I am just sure they would all appreciate prayers in this hard time! I know they are all thankful that there were no deaths, but it is still a large pill to swallow.

http://disaster.westmont.edu/www/system_status/

Nov. 15

Things seem to be settling down at Westmont, as all the danger of fire is away. Westmont has posted pictures of the aftermath on campus if you're interested...

http://www.westmont.edu/

...seeing these pictures were a good reminder for me to continue praying despite the danger being gone.

Love,
Rebecca

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time!

On Sunday, a certain 7 1/2 year old attempted to make a plastic character fly by placing it on the handle of a shovel and stepping with all of his might on the head. It worked...sort of!

It's Good To Be Three!

For a special "half-day of school/Veterans Day" surprise, I took Colby and Ian to Eileen's Colossal Cookies store before we picked up Isaac from school yesterday. The cookies there are fantastic...as well as huge! Ian and Colby (surprisingly) chose red cookies and picked a blue one for Isaac.

Salute to our Veterans!

To: Our Veterans
From: Ian

Thank you to all who have served our country over the years in times of war and peace! We are proud of you!
Love, Isaac, Ian, Colby and Zane

Grandpa Jay Shaw- Army
Great Grandpa Arnold Shaw- Army (WWII)
Grandpa Steve Balyo- Navy
Great Grandpa Edward Balyo- Navy (WWII)
Uncle Rick Balyo- Navy
Uncle Marlin- Navy (Vietnam)
Ryan Kenneda- Marines
Samuel House- National Guard (Afghanistan)

To: Our Veterans
From: Isaac

Where's John Wayne?

So, Thursday a piece of our dog run blew off. Yesterday...the whole gate blew off in the wind.

The November wind has trespassed!

Crazy wind and tumbleweed infestation! I feel like we are on the set of a wild west movie! :) Here's the updated tumbleweed story from our local news!

http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200811074657.html

Tumbleweed Trouble

Check out this interesting story from our local news...Hawthorne is the next street over from ours! :)

http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200811060247.html

Nine Months!

This month, Zane's new trick has been pulling himself up on anything and everything that could possibly/remotely hold him (including, but not limited to Oquirrh, a moving vacuum cleaner and big brother legs).

Tonight, Colby said, "When Zane starts ta walk, I'm gonna ta build him a house!"...which is going to be very helpful if our house blows down in this Wyoming wind (part of our dog run gate blew off last night)!

At nine months, Zane loves his brothers, baths, the dog, cereal puffs, corn chowder and cars (to chew on) and he has just started thumbing through board books instead of just gnawing on them.

He does NOT appreciate mommy and daddy leaving the room and/or naptime/bedtime but... mommy and daddy sure are sleeping much better now that Zane is sleeping in a different room! It's great to be able to pick Isaac up from school without feeling like I'm going to fall asleep at the wheel!

Sadly, Zane's Hermit crab, one leg out crawl has morphed more or less into a regular crawl. Scott and I will miss that cute little thing!

When is My Check Coming?

Well, the results of the election are in, and I'm sure everyone has different thoughts and feelings regarding it. The article below sums up a good part of mine...

THE "I WANT MY MOMMY" ELECTION

I brought this up several months ago ... a slogan for this election. "I want my mommy." The phrase really says it all. This is not an election where the American voters were looking for someone to protect their freedoms. Instead, it was an election where people were looking for someone to take care of them. Self-sufficiency seems a bit old-fashioned right now. Why work so hard to be self-sufficient when candidates are falling all over themselves to provide the American people with womb-to-tomb or, if you will, cradle-to-grave paternalism. The voters who put Barack Obama into office bear little resemblance to the people who fought for independence 224 years ago. Colonists fighting for our independence actually left their bloody footprints along the icy roads of New York and Pennsylvania while marching to engage the British troops. Today we can't even drum up a decent plurality of voters who will vote for liberty, let alone fight for it.

This has been a "what's in it for me" vote. Are you going to give me health care? Are you going to make sure my job is guaranteed? Are you going to cover my child care costs? You aren't going to make me pay taxes, are you? How about all those evil rich people? Aren't you going to take some of their money away from them and give it to me? After all ... I work for my money, they cheated and stole for theirs. Make them pay their fair share of taxes. Me? I'm tired of paying any share.

The big question for me today is whether or not freedom, economic liberty and self-sufficiency can make a comeback in America. Right now it seems that a dismaying number of Americans think that they are owed a living; that it is the government's job to guarantee their economic security. Can we ever turn that around and return to a time when people accept the responsibility for their own lives and eschew the idea of using government as a tool of legalized plunder?

Several times in the last few day's I've mentioned the concept of "The Tipping Point." I'm using that term in the context of voting and taxpaying. Right now we are at the point where about 43% of American income earners pay absolutely NO income tax. I've been saying for years that if the Democrats ever gain absolute control in Washington we're going to see that percentage climb ... climb to over 50%. That's the tipping point. Imagine a political campaign where the majority of voters do not pay income taxes. Imagine a campaign where the majority of voters actually get a check from the government instead of writing a check to the government. Can you hear the Democrat campaign themes then? "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay income taxes."

In fact ... I've already developed the Democrat campaign themes for the next several presidential elections:

2012: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay income taxes."

2016: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay your own Social Security and Medicare taxes."

2020: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay for your own health care."

2024: "Vote for the Republicans and they're going to make you pay for your own place to live."

Here we are my friends. We're at the point where virtually every voter out there understands that they can use their ballot as an instrument of plunder. For those of you who went to government schools, that means they can use their vote to take money away from other citizens. That would be the difference between a Democracy (rule of man) and a Republic (rule of law).

Reprinted from Neal Boortz's website. To see the article in its entirety go to http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html

Mommy For President

I voted this morning and took Ian, Colby and Zane with me. They were really good, (partially on account of a surprise I told them they would get if they were good, which was watching an episode of the Backyardigans, my favorite cartoon!) even though it took about an hour of standing in line.

During that time, Colby asked me if he could play in the jungle (a bunch of plants in a corner of the building), Zane fell asleep in my arms, Ian read all the "vote now" signs, and we talked a little bit more about what all the people in line were waiting for.

As we were leaving the building, the boys asked me several times if we were done voting. When I said, yes, we are all done and you boys were really good, Ian then asked in all seriousness,

"Are you going to be president, now?"

I love my boys!

Costume Time!

Every summer, my extremely creative mom lets our boys (or their mama) and their cousins (check out the caringbridge website on my sidebar for Riley and Brenna's cute costumes) choose what they would like to be for Halloween. She then sews all of those costumes, puts together great little finishing touches and sends them to some SUPER-EXCITED grandkids! This time, Grandpa and Grandma Shaw got to personally hand them out to the delighted youngsters!

Handing out costumes- October 16, 2008

Pre-trick-or-treating- October 31, 2008

Aren't these cute costumes? I just love having the boys dress up and pretend. And it is so fun to go around in costumes asking for candy with all the other little ragamuffins from the neighborhood and then spending the next several days and nights sorting and re-sorting it all!

(Now for my soapbox...you can skip down to the next picture if you want!)

But, it really bothers me that Satan is given such encouragement from all of the creepy, scary, inappropriate things that are simply glorifying him. Witches and ghosts and other whatnots opposite of God's goodness are candy-coated to the point that we treat them with excitement, cuteness and fun. But, remember Saul in the Bible? Remember when he went to witch of Endor? Also, check out Deuteronomy 18:10-12

" For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord..." Ephesians 5: 8,9

"...Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Pre-trick-or-treating-October 31, 2008

This year, Isaac and Ian wanted to be knights (also, the career Ian wants), Colby wanted to be a race-car driver and Zane wanted to be a pumpkin! :) It was pretty hard for them to put away the costumes until Halloween, so I think my loads of laundry will decrease, now that they can play with them whenever they want! Isaac and Ian are already outside jousting this morning and Colby said he's going to wear his race-car outfit everyday after breakfast!

Wow! That is a lot of candy (Thankyou, Lord God, for allowing us the privilege of living in America!) for 3 little boys...and mommy and daddy! The boys are excited to play candy store, now...with so many choices, it will be hard to decide what to "buy"!

Fun in the Sun!

I don't know what the actual temperature was today, but wow...it was beautiful! In fact, we were actually hot sitting outside on the patio! What a perfect day for getting together with friends!

Front: Ian, Isaac, Ezekial, Colby
Back:Nathaniel, Josiah

This picture of Colby reminds me of the classic elementary school yearbook line:

U.R.

2 cool

2 B.

4 gotten

Isaac, sitting in the tree

We have this great pine tree in our new backyard and the boys are having so much fun thinking up new ways to ummm... make us look the other way!

They have all kinds of creative plans for making good use of it...from making slides and houses to somehow launching rockets! One day they were actually trying to put a chair up in the tree...

Josiah, standing in the tree

Zane is sooooo loved by his brothers! Nothing makes Ian happier than getting to hold his little friend!

Sunday Surprise!

Sunday was our last day in Salt Lake City and the weather continued to be beautiful!

So, we took a walk/ride through the neighborhood and found...

...Santa Claus!

Did you know that Santa lives in my parent's neighborhood?

What a fun surprise for the boys!

The Whole Shootin' Match!

Saturday, we spent the afternoon in the Cabela's wonderland of live fish, life-like taxidermy, everything outdoors you can imagine, and yes... fudge (quite excellent fudge, I might add...with fun names like "porcupine drool")

One of Cabela's younger customers...

The boys all loved the aquarium with the sunken Cabela's fishing boat!

The shooting gallery and the zoo were the two requests from the boys this time. They had heard what fun Brenna and Riley had had there and were just itching to go. It was great! I'm not sure who enjoyed shooting things up more, the boys...or me! It was a lot of fun!

Ian just couldn't get enough! I think Isaac and Ian probably would have stayed there all day if they could have... boys after Uncle Don and Mr. Sweeney's hearts!

Even Colby got in on the act!

Zane wants to get in on the Mario Cart action with Isaac, Ian (behind the plant) and Colby!

Zane and Great Grandma Shaw

Great Grandma Shaw and four of her exuberant and loving great-grandsons.