Out of the mouths of babes...

Psalm 8:1&2:

O LORD, our Lord, 

       how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

       You have set your glory 

       above the heavens.

You have taught children and infants

      to tell of your strength,

   silencing your enemies

      and all who oppose you.

Last night after tucking Asher into bed late after HOPE Group we heard him singing this...

"Be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher..."* (each "higher" his voice got higher.)

...alternating with this...

"We're singing for the glory of the Risen King! Jesus, shine your light and let the whole world see!"*

over and over...

until we finally walked in his room and knelt beside his bed to worship with him.

*These words come from two Apel family favorites that we sing often around here: 

Stronger

and

Mighty to Save

both by Hillsong.

Asher recommends that you buy them and put them on your ipod.

5 Years Ago

Five years ago today, I asked Kirby to go out on a (double) date with me (and two other people...obviously). This is not a picture of that day or that date. Just the closest one I could find to that time in my limited resources.

Anyways...
After seeing and talking with her at Island Party that weekend, it takes me almost three days and plenty of encouragement from friends to get the guts to make a phone call that went a little something like this:

K: (Hmm. I've never seen this number before.) Hello?

C: Kirby?

K: Yes?

C: Hey! It's Charlie.

K: Hiii, Charrliee...(Charlie who?)

C: Hey, I was wondering, if maybe sometime, that you and Cate might like to go out on a double-date with Ryan (Thompson) and me? You know...you being my date and Cate being Ryan's. (This was obvious. Ryan and Cate had been dating. Doof...real smooth and can you just taste the confidence...a real man!)

K: Sure, that be great! (WHOOOO HOOOO! I GET TO GO ON A DOUBLE-DATE WITH CATE!!!! I should really find out who Charlie is.)

C: Well, I will talk with Ryan and we'll get back to you on a date and what we're doing. OK?

K: OK...that sounds great.

C: OK, well...I guess I'll talk to you later. (Get off the phone before she changes her mind.)

K: OK, bye!

C: Bye! (My heart is beating too fast...I'm going to puke.)

And that was it. Cate cheated for Kirby and invited me over for some pre-date studying a few days before our scheduled date. And as they read and took notes (business school type studying), I hammered stuff together for one of my projects on their front porch (architecture school type studying). Again, real smooth.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that those days are over — for so many reasons. I do like reminiscing about how 'in love' or infatuated we were with each other. However, I much prefer this deeper love (which still includes quite a bit, if not more, infatuation) that has developed and matured through our relationships with Jesus and the trials and immense blessings that we have been through together over the years.

Another reason is that Kirby and I have learned so much in the past five years about dating and relationships that we would have done this so differently knowing what we know now. We love sharing what we have learned with our younger siblings and family members and with the college students that attend our Hope Group. The college students are probably the ones who have taught us the most, or, at least, given us hard questions that we've had to seek biblical answers for. And we're so thankful for the mentoring relationships that we've had with Aaron and Heather and others in our church. The Hendricks tend to help us with the answers to the bulk of these questions. They are so much further along in both dating research and their marriage.

So...our advice?

Love Jesus first.

Be involved in your church.

Have mentor/discipleship relationships (this is older than you, farther along that you, same-sex people that you see doing things very right) in place during 'dating' that both challenge you to holiness and accountability and protect you in the same manner.

Happy Day-Charlie-Asked-Kirby-Out-for-Their-First-Date Day!

Sweet, sweet Asherboy...

We're at the point where we can actually carry on a conversation with Asher!  Everyday, I realize just how big he's getting.  My sister has always told me "this age" was always her favorite stage with Reid.

I'm pretty sure I agree.

He has been saying the funniest things lately and I need to write these down so I'll never forget.

Here are just a few instances that have happened in the last week:

Ever since Sunday afternoon, he's been asking me to go retreive one of his horses that he left in the car after church. I've unintentionally made several broken promises...thinking that I'd walk right out and get it in and the next thing I know a phone is ringing or dinner is boiling over the stove. So, FINALLY, Wednesday afternoon...Asher walks out in the livingroom, with a horse in hand and says, "I'll just go get it Mom..." as he begins to unlock the front door...my poor sweetboy...had been ever so patient with me. (Did you read what he called me? MOM! MOM!? How sad is that...I hope this phase ends quickly and I return to being referred to as Mama or even Mommy. He just thinks he's SO big calling me that three letter word!)

Asher can count to eight...well, he counts to six... skips seven...and then eight. When reading or playing with blocks or toys we'll often practice his counting. Well, do you wanna know what he counted the other day? (My "pimples"-as he so innocently refers to them!) "One pimple, two pimple, three pimples..." AWESOME. If it'd been any other fingers ever so sweetly touching each blemish, I would have slapped them. For some reason, he's just captiavated by them. PERFECT. Can't wait for the day that he points out someone else's pimples...WHAT will I say then?

My favorite things he is saying these days (which I hope to get a video to post with these soon) are "Oopsy Daisy" when he drops something or "No big deal..." if he spills something or can't quite complete a desired task.  So precious in his little bitty voice!

Asher loves to help me "mix & make" (cook.)

Probably because he often gets to taste whatever it is...

He also loves to color...outside or inside.

Here he is coloring at Great-Grandma Apel's.  (I think this was she had just been testing him on his chalk colors...the little smartypants...after she finished  he pointed to her hair and said, "White!"  She got a kick out of it...sweet Grandma!)

He's very serious about playing guitar.  Aaron Hendrick (our worship leader and good friend) is one of his most favorite people.  Anytime Asher is in the service with us during the worship music, he'll stare at Aaron (the whole time) and strum his chest right along with him.  He loves Thursday night Hope Group because JP is sweet enough to let him play with him while he plays worship music for all of us.  And he LOVES to "lead us" with his guitar during Family Worship!  He knows most of the words to Jesus, Name Above All Names, The Doxology, and My Chains are Gone.

Here he is jamming out....lefthanded.  He's lefthanded (like his dad) ONLY when it comes to guitar.

He loves playing outside. He spends MUCH time exploring...digging...climbing...jumping...driving his new truck:

I love that sweet little comedian, artist, muscian, wild man.  I can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use his gifts for His Kingdom.  

Who does she think she is?!

In just a short 8 weeks, McKlayne has gone from:

sitting up

to

planks

to

crawling

to

waving

to

pulling up.

I am so not okay with this. My baby doesn't seem like much of a baby anymore.

And she definitely doesn't look like much of a baby with all this crazy hair.

We never know what we're going to see when she wakes up in the morning.

What 8 month olds do you know that can have their hair frenchbraided?

My sister showed me this blog, so we've been trying different do's! Look through all the labels on the left. They're so cute!

This one's for you, Blaire!

Seriously, you have to sign up!

Okay, you guys may have already read about this Swagbucks thing when I posted about it a back in November and brushed it off...but don't!

 Sign up now!

I have already bought a $50 GAP giftcard and a $50 Southwest giftcard! I've earned $100 in giftcards just for using Swagbucks as my search engine rather than google...and it's powered by google!

BUT...to earn a ton of Swagbucks...I've earned a total of about 900 so far...you need to either post a referring link on your blog or send out an email to your friends and family to have the sign up under your referral. Please use my referral to sign up yourself, and then have your friends sign up under you. (I won't be getting any of their swagbucks...the chain stops at the first level of referrals.)

So, Heather, if you did this...with like all of your HUNDREDS of readers a day, you could seriously be giving away $50 giftcards for Christmas presents next year to your WHOLE family. No joke! You really wouldn't have to be doing ANY Christmas shopping with any of your own money, if you signed up for this. Once you post this on your blog, I want to know how many swagbucks you've earned in a month!

Here is our previous post:

So, there is a really cool site that you can earn gift certificates and actual prizes from your favorite stores.

Here is a re-post from the site we learned about it:

Not sure what Swagbucks is? Well, it is an online search engine, powered by Google and Ask.

But, instead of just pulling your search results back like Google or Yahoo, you have the potential to earn Swagbucks with each search. And, quite frequently I win. At least once a day, and sometimes more.

Now, I honestly can tell you, I only use Swagbucks when I am doing a search online anyway. I never use Yahoo or Google anymore, because Swagbucks gives me a chance to win while I search. I have it saved as my Homepage, so this is the first screen that comes up everytime I log onto the web.

I DON'T sit there and try to randomly search to earn extra poins...because it really doesn't work. In fact, here is the exact wording from their site.

Tip #8

Doing a TON of searches, or clicking on sponsored links, will not help you win!When searching the web, the best way to win Swag Bucks (and the only method we endorse) is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Our technology is designed to award users who search naturally — simply utilize our engine the way you would with other search providers.

Anway, back to how it works. Once you accumulate enough ( approx. around 50 ) you can cash in for prized. There are gift certificates, merchandise, etc.

Currently, when you win, we have all been geting 1 to 5 Swagbucks.

But, now....they have announced on their blog that they will be issuing some Mega Bucks soon. This means, you can now potentially win 10, 20, 50 and 100 Swagbucks...woo, hoo! They plan to launch the Mega Bucks this week, although I am not positive of the date. You can click here to read their announcement.

Now, that gets me excited!

In addition, when you get your free gift, if you take a picture of yourself with it and submit it to Swagbucks, they will also issue an extra 1 Swagbuck for your account. So, I plan to do this, too. Click here for all the details.

Finally, if you use Swagbucks, make sure to tell all your friends..email them your links, etc. If they sign up thru your referral, you win everytime they win. Up to 100 Swagbucks! As you can imagine, your Swagbucks will accumulate much faster.

SOURCE: moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com

So we want our Swagbucks to accumulate faster, too. So we don't care if you use this or not. HOWEVER, if you are going to try it out, please click one of the links in this post or on the side of our blog so we can 'refer' you.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Today is my amazing wife's birthday. She's 25. She believes that your body shuts down after 25. I love her.

Kirby, no matter how dramatic life gets (jeans come to mind), I love the passion that comes along with your drama. You are passionate about Jesus...

about your husband...

about your son...

about your daughter...

about our families...

about your friends...

about discipling our home...

about Her Hands and discipling other women...

about saving us money...

about Round Top...

about SO many things. You put your whole self into everything you do and every person in your life. You convict me so often by your generosity, by the thoughtfulness of every gift and how you KNOW the people in your life. I'm learning from you.

I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do in a normal day. After having the kids for a few hours or a day, I know what a feat it is when I come home to clean house or if anything else is done outside of you three surviving. It is so important to me that you are at home and you do it with such humility, grace and eagerness.

You're the best friend a person could have. And I know they'll be many who'll echo that on this post as well. You're an amazing helper and so good to your needy husband. I love confiding in you and depending on you. I love reading with you, jean-shopping with you, Wizard-of-Ozzing with you, Round Topping with you and doing all of life with you.

Don't even get me started on how beautiful you are! None compare, Kirby.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

What's been happening 'round these parts...

As far as Asher is concerned, this first picture pretty much explains it. This kid LOVES horses. And cows. And pretty much any other animal figure that he can line up...but his obsession all started with horses around September.

On Christmas morning, the first gift from his stocking was probably his favorite. A 6-pack of cows that cost $4.99. We could have stopped there and Asher would have thought it was the best
present ever
day EVER.

As soon as the cows were out of their package, he sprawled out on his belly and began to play-completely oblivious to the rest of the living room. Cousins, aunts, and uncles tore through their gifts and were already off to their respective corners of the house, before he even looked up to realize he was the only one left with a pile of unopened gifts and trash surrounding him.

If, Charlie and I were smart, we would have taken half of the gifts and saved them for his birthday to open. Grandparents (we're thankful, but you) REALLY overdo it...we knew that would be the case, so we only bought him two gifts: a toolbench and and a children's bible to use during family worship. (And we LOVE this...this was a recommendation from the Duty's...if you're looking for a children's story bible, this one is so neat because rather than just being "moral" it gives you the "big picture" of God's sovereign plan since creation.)

The following are a bunch (sorry, this is more for the grandparents...I know that a lot of them look the same, but they don't want to miss any move this precious boy makes!) of pictures over the last month of Asher playing with all his animals:

He's so serious when he lines them up...I'm predicting a perfectionist like his Daddy.

Pleased with his alignment.

Finally caught me taking pictures.

The funny thing about all the "line up" is how each horse comes out one at a time-usually from a room on the opposite side of the house. Asher will start with a pile of horses in his room, and bring a horse into Uncle Jo's (my brother lives with us) room, line him up, and then say, "One more," as he holds up a finger and runs back to his room to retreive the next horse. This process continues until each horse is perfectly placed in his spot...everytime.

He's so busy.

One morning I noticed that his nativties were having an "unsegregated" block party...you know, two Joseph's at one nativity, some "Little People" animals at a non-Little People stable...all the same, so perfectly lined up.

(This might be my FAVORITE.) Later that afternoon, I watched as, one by one, the horses found my vintage nativities.

Each horse on his own spiritual pilgrimage to pay their respect.

I love you, SweetBoy. And love how you love those animals of yours.

I hope it never stops.

(Disclaimer: Asher just received a whole lot of attention in this post, but this cutey girl has been busy doing her own tricks, too! I will update more on those soon; for now I will leave you with a few pictures.)