Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Little Spirit! And her family. :)

The Twizzlers were her favorite present we think.
A "Fur Real" Puppy
Mom trying to get her to pose

Christmas Photo Snapshots

Dear Santa

We were watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special tonight. Spirit went and got her little Magna Doodle out. She was watching Sally write a letter to Santa and began "writing" her own. It was adorable. She went on for a few minutes changing it up and starting it over but this was the gist of it...

Dear Santa Claus,

I want a toy. Please, please, please bring me a toy. Why don't you bring me a toy? I need a toy. I am three. I want a toy. I want a cookie maker. Please bring me a toy.

Love,

Braxtyn

Another funny One Liner

A couple of weeks ago at church I was walking Spirit to her classroom. We were walking through the small gym in our dress shoes when she said with a huge smile and excitement, "Mommy! Our feet our Giddying Up!"

Ok, ok Mommy, let's Talk

As I was driving us home last night, little Spirit from the back in the dark said, "Ok, ok Mommy, let's talk." I said sure! (She will periodically say, "let's talk" and then rattle off some 3 1/2 year old conversation that may or may not relate to anything going on at the time but apparently is something going on in her head. Anyways, She proceeded to tell me: "Mommy's and Daddy's should not give spankings because kids don't like spankings, so you shouldn't give spankings." I thought this was hysterical because she had had a really good evening and was not in trouble at all. So I explained to her that little kids aren't supossed to like spankings they are to help make them listen to their mommy's and daddy's. She again stated very matter of factly that kids don't like them so parents should stop. I told her that I too had not liked being spanked but that it made me remember to listen to my parents when I was little. I asked her what she could do different to stop getting spanked. Then I tried to lead her to the point of doing what your parents ask you to the first time and you don't have to get spanked. She apparently cannot fathom this part of the equation yet because she changed the subject and would not put herself in the senario of obeying so she didn't have to get spanked. :)

Someone told me the other day that she has the strongest will of any child they have ever met. Which I laughed off and thought well they don't even work with children. But then I forgot, oh, they did for about 10 years at a dance studio they owned. :) Don't worry folks. I take that as a complement. Because while it may or may not be true, (the est part at the end of strong, I have no doubt she has a strong will), God has an amazing plan for her life that some more compliant type personalities would not be able to complete. I can't wait to see what he has in store!

Natalie and Nick are Home

It is with great sadness that I write about Nick Nischan and his little friend Natalie passing from this earth into the arms of their heavenly father. Natalie passed away within the last week and Nick passed away yesterday around noon. Please pray for these families that I wrote about several months ago. If you would like to read more please to go http://tammynischan.blogspot.com/ .

Nick touched so many lives and will continue to do so. Please pray for this dear family that has already been through the loss of one child.

3 year old Check up, 5 months late

Do you ever notice a pattern with my entries??? Late. My husband would agree that is the theme of my life. But I'm not ALWAYS late. Just a lot. I started a post a couple of weeks ago about our fall but dumb blogger wouldn't let me upload pics at that time so I stopped. But I thought I would fill you in on her Doctor's appt this morning for her 3 year old Well Child and maybe a few other random thoughts before I forget....

She weighs 34 1/2 lbs and is 39 1/2 inches tall. 75th% for both. Which is a far cry from her 5th% weight and 75% height when she was born. She is wearing a 4T but I noticed those jeans are getting to be a bit on the high water side today. Long legs and torso I guess. Her shirts are always too short too. They fit her everywhere else but then have trouble meeting her belt line.

She was so good at the Doctor. She got through their eye exam which they said most 3 year old cannot do because they don't get how to follow the instructions. She told the doctor some numbers on the paper and answered her questions. She kept laying down on the table for the doctor and pulling up her pant legs to show her booboos I guess, I'm really not sure. It was pretty cute though.

Let's see, what else is she doing these days... My friend Lyric who keeps her 2 days a week says that she is starting to negotiate with her. B that is. B will make Lyric a proposal to get what she wants. For example, B told Lyric that she would use her manners and be nice if Lyric would buy her something at the store. She tried this with me the other day but I wasn't really listening to her and forgot about it until Lyric told me her story. She was negotiating for some candy. Perhaps politics are in her future. :)

She loves preschool and has her favorite friend Noah. He adores B and that is pretty much who she plays with as far as she reports.

She has adjusted to me working full time. And as much as I hate it, I think the stress of taking care of money matters going away has made that part of all our lives easier.

She is fiercely independent and enjoys spending the night with grandparents and her beloved Courtney. At the same time she has become quite the Daddy's girl. They are best buds nowadays and she looks forward to every minute she gets to spend with him.

Spirit is very empathetic and will ask out of the blue how my day at work was or if I'm feeling ok. She remembers if someone has been sick and asks about how they are doing. She understands apologies and a bit about forgiveness and is very sad when she messes up and knows she is in trouble.

Her love of reading continues to flourish. She makes up stories with me verbally and can be quite creative. She likes such a variety of books. I was trying to think of her favorites but she really picks different ones all the time.

She loves to dress up in costumes and has recently gotten into taking care of her baby dolls and doing a lot of role playing. She switches items in her bed each night that she sleeps with. And always wants a book with her as well.

She continues to be her Spirited self and is oh so strong willed. We just keep praying for it to be channeled in the right direction and for wisdom to know how to parent her. We are often weary at the end of the day with our busy lives and busy busy girl who challenges us every step of the way (or at least every other) but we are ALWAYS thankful for the opportunity to love this little gift from God and are thankful for our healthy, happy family. Sorry for a post without pics! I will get some on soon!

3:40PM Sunday-3:40AM Thursday

"Let there be Light!" Finally. We have been some of the lucky ones that have been without power since Sunday afternoon somewhere around 3:40PM. This morning at 3:40AM the lights came back on. Its been a pain in the neck but I really can't complain. I've been off work all week including today which means having power at home and not having to work so that is a great bonus. I've been trying to record our time without lights in pictures so I could blog about it. Here are bits and pieces of how its gone for us...

Our neighbors actually had much more damage than us.

Since we only have a couple of trees in our yard, this is all our damage amounted to.

Spirit was sad about the electric and phone line situation.

One of our finely grilled meals in process.

We finally found some friends with power and headed over there for a TV fix.

We loaded up our electronics to charge them up too.

But in the end, Spirit just wanted to use the cool swing and hanging broomstick outside.
Spirit with her buddy Lyric.



Woah, she loves this but it gives me a bit of a heart attack.
All in all we had a ball but are so thankful for the power to come back on!

And Here It Comes!

Finally, I found the cords. Hope these were worth the wait. She is so big!

The Best is Yet to Come

My title has two meanings. Both having to do with today, both having to do with the fact that my little Spirit is officially a Preschooler as of this morning. She has officially embarked on her school career and I know it holds so much more than her first day in the "Three's" class at her Preschool. The best is yet to come. She is so bright and creative, I can't wait to see what her future in education holds. She did wonderfully when her Dad and I left her. Though we found out later she cried a little bit. (There was a wailing boy in there that the teacher said had a contagious affect on the others). Her buddy Aiden from church and his mom helped her feel better.

She reports that she read a book about a raccon with her teacher. There was a boy she really likes but doesn't know his name. They worked on making a necklace together. She fed some birds and colored a picture with clouds in it. They ate cheerios for snack. I would love to compare with her teacher as to what the day actually looked like. :)

And my final paragraph brings me to my second meaning behind my title. I have the cutest pictures of her with her huge Dora backpack and cute outfit that she picked out and her beautiful curls. But they are on my camera. Because my camera cords to hook up to my computer are missing. I'm pretty sure my husband who has been Mr. Mom and helping with lots of housework lately since I've gone back to work full time put them somewhere. And I could get mad at him but I misplace stuff too when I'm cleaning so I guess I have to give him a break. Sorry, the best is yet to come with this entry because the pictures are so much more fun than the paragraphs! Hopefully I will get them on here soon!

Please Pray!

With a heavy heart I share an email from Nick's mom. Nick and his family need your prayers. Continue to ask for his healing here on earth as it is just NEVER in God's plan to take a child from His family. Yes, it happens with sin in the world and makes us long even more for eternity but I wholeheartedly believe He is more than able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine so lets give it a try! Here's Tammy's email...

Dearest Prayer Warriors and Jericho Marchers,

Today was the first time in the surgery waiting room where after Dr. Kosnik came out to talk to us we all just sat numb and speechless.

Basically, they didn't do the hip surgery today. The orthopedic surgeon here did not feel that he could place a pin in Nick's hip and wants to talk to us about it later. (They didn't even make an incision to try, so Nick won't have any recovery in that area at this time.)

Dr. Kosnik removed us much of the cancer in Nick's brain as he could, but he gave us the impression that there was quite a bit he could not get to. Because of this, he did not put in the chemo wafer. He said he didn't want to make Nick any sicker than necessary. He also said that he left one bone of Nick's skull loose to help with pressure from the tumor.

We are at a place in this journey that we have never been before. A place of fear and uncertainty incomparable to any we have ever felt.

Yet, with this reality we are also very aware that just as in every other situation along the way, GOD IS NOT SURPRISED AT OUR NEWS.

Somehow, He has already gone before us smoothing ways we don't even yet know that we will walk.

He promises that His mercies are new every morning.

He promises to never leave us or forsake us.

He promises perfect peace to those who trust in Him.
So, as we wait to see Nick in recovery, we will hold our heads high knowing that we have a Great Physician who will lead us to a Rock that is Higher than any place this hospital can take us. He will lift us from the slimy pit, set our feet on a rock, and give us a firm place to stand. He will put a new song in our mouths, a hymn of praise to our Lord!

And as the Psalm continues, "Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord!"

We love you all.

We thank you for every prayer.

Keep marching!

Every night!

Remember to check around in Grayson for the final days marching time. It is either 2:30 in the afternoon or 8 at night. I'm not sure.

Oh, we love you all so much.

Turn to God for us. Not with complaints, but with praise for He has a beautiful plan! We are going to keep taking one more step and one more step so that we can walk from strength to strength!

Pray for Nick's speedy recovery and for his spirit.

You are our messengers to the throne.

Please keep pleading on Nick's behalf!

Love, tammy and tim

My Family Specializes in Cute Girls

I'm not sure how we got so blessed but I just think my girl is amazingly cute and my nieces I want to squeeze to death they are so adorable! Take a look at pics my SIL just posted on her facebook....

Here comes trouble!

OOps! I forgot to post this last Sunday!

We are playing along again with Who Says 8 is Enough over at http://bouffard11.blogspot.com/ with her theme for today... Here Comes Trouble! This is not a difficult post for me AT ALL though I don't have that many pics of her actually getting in trouble because of her being so in tuned to things I usually hesitate to take pictures of it. But here are some that I did capture. Enjoy!

This is about 5 months old. Just before she was mobile (she crawled at 5 1/2 months). Look at trouble written all over that face!

Barely mobile and into everything.

She was upstairs at a friends house being "watched" by their Jr. High Boy. I hadn't heard her for a while and knew he was on the phone so we called up to him to check on her. I think we heard something to the effect of "Holy Cow" and we went up to find this. Click on it to see the full effect. Way to go Trent! Don't hire him for babysitting lol! :)

This spilt milk was because of Ms. Wiggles at the table.

No "trouble" here. Just my silly girl dressing herself up.

This is the kind of rolling eyes face we get that could only have come from spending 9 months in a girls group home with us and 10 teen girls. I didn't fully capture it here but you get the idea. She brings this out when she knows she is in trouble but not serious trouble. Serious trouble immediately results in tears from her. :)

And this, well this is her cute adorable face that helps her weasel out of trouble at times. I can't believe that was taken almost a year ago! Where does the time go?

Here's some fun posts on Spirit's best trouble days--aww, it was fun looking through them. She is such a pill!!!...

http://lifewithspirit.blogspot.com/2008/02/and-it-begins.html

http://lifewithspirit.blogspot.com/2008/03/day-in-life-of-spirit.html

http://lifewithspirit.blogspot.com/2008/03/hair-spray-inspired-pigtails.html

http://lifewithspirit.blogspot.com/2008/03/take-deep-breath-everyone-just-take.html

Gummy Smiles

Check out my post below (from yesterday) for info on Nick Nischan and the March for his fight against cancer!


I am playing along with a blog that I keep up on over at... http://bouffard11.blogspot.com/ . She is doing themed days on her blog and invites others to do the same. So here are a couple of my favorite smiling pictures of little Spirit. Smiles for pictures were sometimes rare with my (Stubborn) little girl. The old ladies at church used to talk about how she never smiled. Umm, it was only because even then, that little strong willed streak was coming through. They were trying to make her smile and laugh, so she would just look at them with the straightest poker face ever. The memory of it cracks me up!






This was her last smile before getting teeth. If you look close enough you can see it coming in after having JUST broken through. This was at almost a year! Love her!

Nick & Natalie and the Wall of Jericho

Do you ever feel like your worries in life are so trivial? Do you ever feel so overwhelmed with thankfulness that your child's worst issues are tantrums in the middle of walmart? Yeah, me too. I want to share with those of you that read my blog about Nick Nischan. Nick is the 13 year old son of one of my professor's from college, Dr. Tim Nischan and his wife Tammy. I went to a small Christian College (which I highly recommend to ANYONE!) I had this professor for Accounting and by the skin of my teeth, I ended up passing. :) We weren't particularly close as I was with other professors and their families but he was and is a caring Christian man who takes his teaching and leading of young adults seriously. His family has had heartache in their lives including losing his 6-week old daughter to SIDS in 1992. He also would be the first to say that he has had so many blessing in his life including his 5 children, one of which they adopted from India. However, right now their family is going through a battle with their son Nick who has been battling cancer for the last 6 years. To my best understanding, he has had some periods of relief but for the past year his poor little body has been continuously under attack by one brain tumor after another and now he has cancer in both of his legs (in addition to some other tumors) and has recently broken his hip due to this. Nick needs a miracle and I serve a God who is in the business of making those happen. I know that many of my readers do too. (If you don't, feel free to let me know I and would be happy to fill you in. :)

This brings me to the Wall of Jericho. Beginning on Monday, August 18th, many people will be joining in a march in efforts to remind Satan, the creator of death and awful things like cancer, that we serve a risen God who yes, allows these awful things to happen in our lives, because otherwise we wouldn't have a choice in choosing to love and follow him, but who also is much, much stronger than any little cancer cell--or big ones for that matter! This involves 7 days of "marching" and praying specifically about Nick and his situation. In typical unselfish fashion for the Nischan's, they have joined in an effort with a little girl named Natalie who also is struggling with cancer for this march as well. This way, those who know about Nick, and those who know about Natalie will be covering both in prayer. If you would like to join in the march, please take a look at Tammy's blog found here http://tammynischan.blogspot.com/ . If you know you won't be able to, please take a moment right now and pray for Nick and Natalie and for those who will be Marching against Satan and his forces that come to kill, steal and destroy.

Its crazy how you know before you have a baby that you just can't imagine what it would be like to have one until you have that little amazing creature. And then after you have the baby its hits you so fully how you just didn't have a clue. I truly didn't have a grasp on how that would mean the thought of your child being sick with something awful could make you instantly disolve into tears. My heart goes out to the Nischan's and to Natalie's family. I know many of you know people who have had children walk through this awful disease called cancer and some of you have gone on this journey first hand. No matter where you are in life, pray. Our father loves to hear the prayers of his children and listens and answers them. He has Nick and Natalie in his lap, loving on them like only a Father can do. His heart is broken over their pain. His words in Psalm 121 are still as true today as they were when they were written, "The Sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life, The Lord will watch over your coming and going for both now and forever more!" I can't wait to see the walls crumble! PRAY!