My baby gave his heart to Jesus...

On Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Hayden prayed and asked Jesus to come into his heart.

Hayden had been asking a ton of questions and talking about it for a while. After me putting him off a few weeks ago while eating Sonic, thinking he was WAY to young to be doing this, he kept reminding me that it would be silly to ask Jesus into your heart while your eating Sonic. I, of course, felt horrible, because the Lord can move at any time so I apologized but still thought he was too young.

On Tuesday morning he began, once again, "Mommy, it would be silly to ask Jesus into your heart while eating Sonic," and that started our conversation. I told him about the time I accepted Jesus and how He changed me, about being a sinner and believing that Jesus is the son of God and asking for forgiveness of sin. Right then he wanted to pray to ask Jesus to come into his heart but I wanted Chad to talk with him and make 100% sure he understood all that he needed to know.

Chad came home for lunch that day and talked with him about 20-30 minutes making sure he was truly understanding everything. Hayden got on his knees and prayed the sweetest most sincerest prayer I've ever heard asking Jesus into his heart.

Right after he asked Jesus into his heart he came out of room and told Parker that he, too, was a sinner and needed to be saved. Of course, Parker didn't understand much of what Hayden was telling him but they got down on their knees and prayed anyway. The next day Chad was talking to Hayden about baptism and explaining what he would say during his baptism (the perks of being the preachers kid) and kind of going through the motions. Hayden went on to pretend to baptize Parker saying, "I baptize you my little brother." It was so cute!

Last night he was baptized...

One of the ladies in our church, who happens to be Hayden's sunday school teacher, made him a cute little baptismal robe, that was just his size. This is Hayden and Parker sitting on the steps waiting patiently for church to start.

Us praying before Hayden was baptized...

Daddy and sonGetting into the water
A hug...Being baptized...Post baptism hug...At the end of the service, Hayden got called up to the front to receive a Certificate of Baptism and his very own REAL bible. He has always had picture bibles but this is a real bible but for kids. It is kind of pirate looking on the outside with a lock. He was sooo excited!After church we had our family come to our house and have cake and ice cream to celebrate.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

More rehabin'...

Okay, I must admit...I'm having fun with the spray paint but really can everything in my house be black? No, I know I must branch out and I will, eventually. Here is my latest spray paint project...

This chair with a gold cushion was found at a garage sale for $5. It was probably beautiful in the late 70's/early 80's and the "bones" were still good. It just needed a little makeover...

This chair goes perfectly in my dining room. I found the fabric at Walmart (yes, Walmart) and when I saw it I knew it would be perfect for this project. Oh, at $3.77 a yard, I found it even more appealing. With a little primer and satin spray paint this is what I've got now...

Another view...

Here's the spending breakdown:
garage sale chair...$5
black spray paint...$3.40 (used leftover gray primer)
material...$4.00

Total investment=$12.40

Next up...my outside swing. I'm thinking RED!

Parenting Lesson #546

Clue your husband (the sweet man who takes our trash to the dump daily) in when you're trying to teach the kids a lesson...

When you get tough on your kids and tell them, "Clean up the playroom or we're putting all your toys in the trash," and then you follow through only to put the toy trash (that was put in a black trash bag like any other trash we have) in the same place the real trash goes, don't be surprised when it is gone just like the other trash.

Oh well, maybe some kids in need will find some really great toys or somebody is gonna making a killing on Ebay.

Outrigger Island...

This week the kids have been attending Vacation Bible School at a neighboring church. This is the first time they have ever done anything like this outside of our church but I was very comfortable with leaving them because we are good friends with the pastor and his wife. The pastor's wife was also their teacher so that was nice.

Last night was the finale night and it was so sweet! I love nothing more than to see all the kids singing about the Lord. This was their backdrop in the sanctuary...The quality of these up close photos are not great but it is better than nothing. The boys all had ukuleles and the girls all wore hula skirts.Parker decided at the last minute he didn't want his ukulele and gave it to the little girl beside him. He mostly stood with his arms above his head like this. Hey, at least he sang, right?I really enjoyed them being a part of this Vacation Bible School. Our church will be doing our Cactus Canyon Vacation Bible School starting August 4 so we are looking forward to that now!

Furniture Rehabin'...

After spending some time reading the blog A Soft Place to Land I was inspired to do a little work with spray paint.I have had this little magazine holder/cabinet since right after we got married (8+ years ago and it's a hand-me down). Notice the ugly brass pull.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So, it doesn't look quite that glossy, it was satin spray paint but I had to use the flash so you could see it. Like my new pull? I love it and for less than $10 it is like I have a new piece of furniture.

Here is the spending breakdown:
gray primer spray paint and black spray paint...$6.78
nickel looking pull...$2.90

Seriously...doesn't it look like the furniture in the front at Hobby Lobby. I'm so proud of it! Now, if I can just get the rest of my furniture looking so good :).

Wanna hear some good preaching?

My sweetie just started uploading his sermons to our church website. The only one up so far is the first in his new sermon series titled "Country Music Theology". You don't have to like country music for these sermons to touch your heart but if you do "BONUS"!

The first song he used was "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim MGraw. I have attached the YouTube video in case you don't know it...




Here is the sermon that went along with it...

CLICK HERE

Enjoy!

Time with Shell Shell...

Last week a dear friend, Michelle, and her kids came for a visit. Michelle (Shell Shell to my kids) and I lived on the same street when our first babies were born. We spent alot of time during those first few years of our children's lives walking back and forth between houses and at each others houses. I have so many good memories of that special time. Since then, she moved off of "our" street and I moved to another town but we have still remained friends. Here are some pictures from our visit...

Michelle with Anderson, her little surprise baby. After her feeling she was pregnant, I talked her into going to CVS to get a pregnancy test. We were going to lunch at Cheeburger-Cheeburger so she went into the bathroom and found out she was pregnant. What? Isn't that how everyone finds out they are pregnant?

Baby Anderson is the sweetest thing! He is so cute and is quite a combination of his older sister and brother. Take note of the faux-hawk!!!Hayden and Alli posing for pictures. The following pictures are "boy" poses and they were being some kind of action heroes. No children were harmed while posing for these pictures.
Alli, Hayden and Parker climbing up the cover over the back porch. They could have been on the roof if we would have let them. I feel horrible! I'm a terrible Aunt Angela and didn't get one picture of little Landon. Parker and Landon were playing together most of the time and I only got one picture of Parker, too. Landon is 2 1/2 years old and definitely all boy. He is so sweet with his little brother and completely funny just like the rest of his family. Here is a picture of the cutie stolen from Michelle's blog ...

Thanks for the visit guys! Can't wait to see you all again soon.