Sunday morning...

On Sunday morning Jason got to preach both of the morning services at our Wyckoff campus. He continued on the topic of "What On Earth Am I Here For?" He is very comfortable being on the platform speaking. I don't know if my husband ever gets nervous, not much bothers him. Unlike me who would be sick to my stomach for a week if someone asked me to speak. I love how we balance each other out.

I am so proud of my guy that I of course had to share, you can click on the link above if you want to see him speaking. I thought I would also throw in a picture of him because he is so handsome.  I am blessed that he is MINE.

 *credit goes to my girlfriend Amanda for the picture.

Sarah stretches...

Sarah has been working on her stretches. She has a goal to be able to do the splits. Why? Because she can. She showed off some of her limberness yesterday with her sidekick in tow.

Girl Time...

Sarah and I got some girl time this afternoon and went shopping. I love spending time with my favorite girl. She had some gift cards she wanted to use, as well as some cash to spend and we covered a lot of stores in a short period of time. In 2-1/2 hours we went to some of Sarah's favorite stores - Aeropostale, Gap, Abercrombie, P.S. Aeropostale, Claire's, Francesca's, Hollister. We had a great time and Sarah made some great choices.

We left Brayden with Grandma, since Brayden isn't the shopping lover like his big sister. A BIG thank you to Grandma for giving us some girl time.

Sarah had off school Monday and Tuesday for a short winter break. Brayden gets the whole week off of school. It has been a nice break for us as a family. It is a wonderful treat for this mommy not to have to worry about getting everyone up and ready for school, not to mention having my kids with me for the day.

Happy Valentine's Day...

from Our Hearts to Yours

Braydenisms...

My sister appropriately named Brayden's quotes from my previous post "Braydenisms", so that is what we shall call them.

I have another one to share with you all from driving to school. I just can't keep some of his thoughts that he shares with me to myself they are to funny.

Brayden: So, we don't go down in sewers?

Mommy: No, bud, we don't go down in sewers. Sewers are yucky. When people go to the bathroom and flush the toilet all that stuff goes down in the sewer. Nobody goes down there. Rats, other animals and insects live down there. Sometimes people might have to work down there to make sure everything stays clear, but we don't go down there.

Brayden: But the Teenage Mutant Teenage Turtles live in the sewer.

Mommy: They are a cartoon though. Remember the other day in the episode when they thought it smelled down there. It just isn't some place we go.

Brayden: Well, when you die I am going to go down to the sewer!

Are you detecting a theme along with me?

Mommy: So are you thinking if I die then you can do all the things that I tell you that you can't? Like eat dessert everyday and go down in the sewers?

Brayden: Yes

Mommy: If I die though you won't see me anymore. I wouldn't be able to give you hugs and kisses everyday. Wouldn't you miss me?

Brayden: Yes.

Mommy: Well, I am not ready to die so you will have to just wait a while to go down to the sewer.

Brayden: We aren't taking the short cut to school are we?

I was cracking up inside.

Can you take a lighthearted picture of it with me now? I am laying on my death bed and Brayden is in his late 40's-50's, married with children and owns his own successful electronic consulting business. He says to me "Mom, I love you and will miss you. You have been an amazing mother. You never let me eat to much sugar or go to places I shouldn't. To celebrate your life and how much you meant to me I am going to eat dessert whenever I want and I have a week's vacation planned in the sewers. I love you Mom."

I have to say I have mixed emotions on the subject. I am thrilled that he wants to honor and obey me with what I tell him no on. However, not so thrilled that he associates me dying with him getting to do whatever he wants.

Oh, the mind of a 5 year old little boy. Darn those turtles in a half shell for making the sewers seem "totally awesome".

Best Buds...

Jason spent a couple hours in the afternoon blowing and shoveling us out, his body is feeling it today. Thank you honey.

Brayden was ready to go out the moment Daddy said "outside". I believe Brayden's exact words were "I want to throw snowballs. BRING IT ON!" I really think his vision of throwing snowballs is the scene in "Elf" where Buddy and his stepbrother make and throw them at other kids in the park. Ha! Ha!

So much fun!

Making snow angels with Daddy

Who will throw first?

A fort? A clearing? A place to rest. Daddy's tired.

Best Buds

Brayden was desperate to throw a snowball at me. He kept coming to the back door knocking and teasing me that he was ready to come in, but had a snowball in his hand.  Tricky boy.

24 Hours Worth...

Here is a progression of our snow over the last 24 hours...

Friday 8:00 a.m.

Friday 12:00 p.m.

Friday 5:00 p.m.

Saturday 8:00 a.m.

We were all snuggled in at home by 2:00 p.m yesterday. I had run some errands in the morning while Brayden was at school and by the time I picked him up at 11:30 a.m. and went to the library for some movies the roads were starting to get bad. Sarah had an early dismissal at 1:15 and Jason came home early too. 

We enjoyed a quiet evening in our cozy house. Chicken Pot Pie was on the menu for comfort food. I worked on my 2011 digital scrapbook. Jason worked on setting up a Twitter account (@jay_james7) and a few items for our new campaign at church What On Earth Am I Here For? Sarah watched almost the entire Star Wars Clone Wars Season 3, finishing up this morning. Brayden did a little bit of everything from iPad to drawing to playing with the massive laser gun, backpack and sword balloons he got at Fuddruckes the night before.

Friday morning Brayden asked when we were going over to Aunt Susie's house. He had heard us say snow "storm" and he has correlated "storm" with our electricity going out and going to stay with Aunt Susie. Thankfully it wasn't that kind of storm although we do love going to stay with Uncle John and Aunt Susie, always a fun time.

As of this morning we have blue skies, the wind is blowing, but no more snow in the forecast for today. It looks like we got less than a foot, but will measure it when Jason goes out to snowblow the driveway. Who knows maybe our snowman Steve will come back to life today.

A New Favorite...

My new favorite album is Jesus Culture with Martin Smith Live from New York. Love, love, love it.

The album came out in November, but I didn't start listening to it until a couple weeks ago and since then I constantly have it playing whenever I can.  You may want to check it out if you are looking for some new worship music.

Jason and I have been long time fans of Martin Smith, who was the lead singer of one of our favorite bands Delirious, so he is an added bonus to this album. Along with other songs he sings "Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?" which is an older Delirious song and brings back a lot of memories from past years and church services.

Favorite songs on the album - Waiting Here For You, Song of Solomon, Pursuit (which we sing at church), Walk With Me, actually pretty much the whole album. : )

The Next Step...

Today, Jason finished the final process of applying to be an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, the denomination we are a part of. He is currently licensed and was recommended for ordination.

The first step is taking an exam, which he passed in November. The second step is an interview with the NJ district presbyters, which we had today. It was a 45 minute interview, which we both were a part of. They asked different questions about ministry and our personal walk with the Lord. We both felt that it went smoothly.

Afterwards they let us know that Jason was approved from their perspective. The next step is for the General Council in Springfield, Missouri to approve him, which we should hear from in April. The official ordination service would be in the beginning of May.

I am so proud of Jason and excited for this achievement for him. I know the calling that God has placed on his life for ministry and his heart to serve and believe this is just a public affirmation of that.

Third Place Goes To...

SARAH JAMES!!!!

At Sarah's JBQ meet on Saturday she placed 3rd individually for the Northeast region. She was just 5 points away from getting second place, so close. We are so proud of her achievement this year. Last year she placed 8th and has really made the effort in her studying to improve this year.  

Her team, "Team Jason", consisting of herself, James and Ayerim were shocked when they ended up 1st place overall.

Way to Go!!!

Jason and I weren't able to be there on Saturday with her, but she had a great day with the rest of the Bethany Church teams and friends.

In honor of Sarah's achievement, and because we love chocolate, we had chocolate fondue after dinner. Yum! (Jason missed out as he had a dinner to go to.)

On March 23rd her team will be a part of District Finals, so she still has more studying to go.

Brayden quotes and lunch...

Quotes
Our little bear makes me laugh, have to share some of his out loud thoughts with you. A lot seem to be contradictory, you'll see what I mean.

Our church now has 4 different campuses now. Very exciting. Bethany Church. One dynamic church. Multiple locations. Anyway, Brayden loves being able to go to the different campuses when Jason has to be at one of them on a Sunday morning or another occasion. We were talking about our Wanaque campus the other day and he asked if we were going there on Sunday. I said no. He says in his frustrated voice...

"Awww, we never always go to that church!"

Now that he has been taking showers we have to adjust the water for him when he gets in so it is just the right temp for him. When we ask him if it is good, he says...

"It's needs to be hotter colder." Ummm, okay? That helps.

We were driving to school last week and hit traffic because of weather. I tried to get off and take what I thought would be a "shortcut", but it wasn't a shortcut and resulted in Brayden getting to school 15 minutes late. He of course was anxious to get to school knowing it had already started. He doesn't want to miss out on anything. Now everyday he asks if we are going to take the "shortcut" to school. No, Mommy learned her lesson that day. This week he says...

"Ava Sinocchi was big time late for school the day after yesterday. She must of hit traffic."

Sarah and Brayden love dessert. Almost everyday, no actually everyday, they ask if they can have dessert. To cut down on the sugar I have been telling them that they can have something every other day. It is usually right when we sit down for dinner that Brayden asks if he can have dessert. I say if he eats his dinner then yes. Out of the blue in a nonchalant voice he says...

"When you guys die we are going to have dessert everyday." Silence. Laughter. Jason and I look at each other. Really? Dessert is that meaningful for you?

I love to hear his 5 year old thoughts. Sometimes they are precious. Sometimes silly. Sometimes sad. Sometimes frustrated and on rare occasion sometimes mad, but they are his thoughts just the same. He is learning and we are trying to train him in the way he should go the best we can (Prov 22:6). Through them all my favorite thoughts though are the ones that bring a giggle to my day, those are precious to me.

Lunch
This week he decided he wanted to make his own lunch. Now that he can take showers on his own he is feeling some independence. I let him give it a shot. He pretty much has the same thing everyday, so it isn't difficult. Cheese sandwich, pretzels, carrots or fruit. He is in a routine.

He got everything out. I helped put the mayo and mustard on the bread, but other than that he did it. Even peeled his orange. Impressive.

Now I just have to teach him to put everything away and someday put the dishes in the dishwasher, which would make this Mommy very happy.