Christmas Goodness

This afternoon, on our way home from being assaulted at the doctor's office (flu mist/shot) and the grocery store (one lady continually ran over my heals! ouch!), we were in the car eating a very balanced and nutritious lunch-McDonalds. All of a sudden, Anna begins to talk. Below is the conversation between the two of us. I didn't coach her with any of this. I suppose it's all from memory. Now, she's only 4 and she's probably just repeating what she's heard. But, I have to tell you that it nearly made me cry and I am looking forward to the day when she can say this and mean it as a committment to her God. We've always prayed, from before their births, that the Lord would grow our girls into women who love and serve Him with everything in them. Seems like He's working on it.

Anna: Mommy, I believe in Jesus.
Me: You do?
Anna: Yes. I believe he died on the cross.
Me: Yes, he did. Why did he die?
Anna: To save us.
Me: Save us from what?
Anna: From our sins.
Me: Do you love him.
Anna: Yes.
Me: Would you do whatever he says?
Anna: Yes

I can't remember a whole lot about the conversation after that point. It was a little overwhelming for me. I guess that the moral to the story is this: your kids listen to every word you say and watch everything that you do. This happens to be one of the good things that Anna has picked up on. Trust me, she's repeated the bad as well. Hopefully she sees more good than bad. I also hope that she can come to know what is now "head knowledge" for her as "heart knowledge." If you don't already know the Truth as "heart knowledge," if you don't already have a relationship with the Son of God and therefore God himself, I hope you come to learn, know, and develop these things. And, I hope that this season of celebration helps facilitate that in your life, not distract from it.

Below are some notes I took during Billy's sermon last week and a few things I looked up on the internet. I hope you enjoy them:

Matthew 1:20-23
An angel is speaking to Joseph in a dream: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afreaid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and ou shall call His name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means "God with us."

Jesus is:

*Jesus- "The Lord is Salvation"

*Immanuel

Regarding Matthew 1:23: "Immanuel," meaning "God with us" carries the implication that God is sovereignly working His purpose in the lives of His people to protect them and work through them. He will fulfill His promises no matter how earnestly men may oppose them (See Ro. 8:31 and following). The reference in Matt. 1:23 teaches that Jesus in His Person is truly God, but it also includes the idea that God’s plan of redemption is unstoppable and that our ultimate security and provision is in the Person of Christ. from biblicalresources.info

"God with us"-
*wasn't an angel
*not subordinate deity
*did not "grow into God" by doing the right things
Fully human-
*didn't put on a "man-suit"
Approachable-
*there was no one in the Bible who wanted to see Jesus but was afraid to approach Him"
^...or touch him, for that matter. I looked up the word "touch" in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, and there are 9 references to times when people sought to touch Jesus in order to be healed. Of the 9, there are 2 references that are the same in 2 different books. But, the 9 references were only for "touch." That didn't cover "touched," "touching," or "toucheth."
Ever present- all of the time
*in your pain
*questions
*problems
*hurts
*loss
*financial troubles
*doubt
*and He's there in His promises
from Billy Edwards' sermon, BMBC, December 14, 2008

My prayer is that everyone can look past the lights, food, and presents. That we can not worry about how perfect everything is, or even who is coming over to visit. Let our focus be on the only true and relevant aspect of Christmas: the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ-the Messiah, the Son of the God, the Salvation for all men, Immanuel-GOD with us. He is the only gift that matters on this side of heaven. He is the only source of redemption, the only way to the Father, our one shot at eternal life with the Creator of the universe. That's good stuff. May your Christmas be filled with Good Stuff :)

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Justin, Keri, Anna, and Laura Kate

Christmas Nostalgia

Anna's first Christmas-2004 (10 months old)

Laura Kate's first Christmas-2005 (2 months old)

First Christmas together! (Anna's 22 months old)

Christmas 2006 (2-almost 3)

Christmas 2006 (14 months)

Christmas 2007- The Mitchells get "elved" and get jiggy

Christmas 2007 (3-almost 4)

Christmas 2007 (2 years, 2 months)

Christmas 2007- Our niece Sara's first Christmas (8 months)

Deck the...living room

This is daddy's and the girls' first stab at assembling the Christmas tree.
The Christmas tree fairy (far right) was an essential component in the process ;)
And there was light
How pretty
Baby Maddie!
Proud aunt :) I think Laura Kate's enthusiasm for Maddie borders on obsession, but I suppose that's a good thing
Big sister Sara
Anna's t.v. face
Rockin' out on Rock Band. I'm obsessed. Someone please save me from myself! (p.s. notice I'm sporting my Third Day concert tee...I'm channeling Mark Lee)

We've Got Another Niece!

Madelyn Grace Kiphen was born Wednesday, December 10 @ 4:11 a.m. She weighed 7 lb 14 oz., measured 19 in., and is as sweet as she can be.

After a week of waiting, my sister Kayla finally had this baby! She didn't have to be induced, which is what we were all praying for. Kayla is doing really well. She sounded great on the phone and looked good in person. She's a little sore, but didn't really seem tired. Both mom and baby are fantastic, which is wonderful. Little Maddie is so pleasant...so far ;) I got to hold her for quite a while. The girls were intrigued. Anna was a little nervous and didn't want to touch her. Laura Kate was ready to hold her and take her home. As a matter of fact she even asked Kayla if we could take Maddie home! Anna just wanted Maddie and Kayla to have dinner at Chick-fil-A with us. I think both of my girls have a little bit of baby fever. Both asked for a baby as soon as we left Kayla's room. If it were only that easy :)

Not a whole lot has been going on other than waiting for Maddie's arrival. The girls and I did some Christmas shopping on Saturday. We had a good visit with my friend Tena on Monday. Maddie was born today. And my dad should be here on Friday. Looks like every other day we have had/will have something going on :) Fun stuff.

Oh, and check out my Twitter Updates on the left side of the blog. I'll probably update these a lot more often than I actually post. This way, you'll get to read about what we're doing minute by minute or hour by hour!

Beware: LOTS of photos!

Well, it's been a while. Usually, when it's been this long between postings, there really hasn't been much going on with the Mitchell clan. Not so this time. We've had a busy last few weeks. We've had the opportunity to enjoy time as a little family unit and with our larger, extended family as well. And, of course, we got to go see Third Day (the crowd erupts into applause and chanting)!
Our time of adventure began November 16. Justin came home from a weekend at the deer camp. After lunch he decided that we all needed to go back to the camp and spend a few days. So, we feverishly packed some clothes and headed out after dinner with our small group. We arrived at the camp around 10 p.m. It was COLD, let me tell you. Justin didn't want to use the central heat for fear of using up all of the propane, so we slept with space heaters on. We froze. The next night was a lot better, though.

Here is the campsite. Behind the big awning is a little pop-up camper, and to the left another big camper. We stayed in the one you see.

This is the inside of Steve's camper. Steve is the brother of Justin's friend Matt. He told Justin he could make himself at home...so he did. This is the view from the back of the camper looking toward the front. A bedroom with two bunkbeds and the bathroom were behind me.

Justin prepares breakfast in the campsite's state-of-the-art kitchen on our first morning at camp. The biscuit bottoms burned, but the bacon and eggs were perfect.

Anna enjoyed the comfy accomodations.

After breakfast, we went on a walk. We had intended on getting as far as Justin's tree stand. A little over halfway there, Laura Kate grabbed onto a small cactus. I didn't see it happen, but Justin said it was like slow motion and he couldn't do anything to stop her. He had just pointed out several types of cactus for the girls to avoid. You can rest assured Laura Kate won't make the same mistake twice. We rushed back to camp to pluck the hair-fine spines from her hand. You can see in the photo above that she's still favoring her left hand. We decided to drive through the pasture after that.
This is the first of many "sparkly" rocks Anna and Laura Kate collected. Ever since my friend Tena brought the girls "purple sparkly" rocks from Terlingua last year, they've been obsessed with rocks in general. We may have a couple of future geologists.
Touring the pasture by truck, we spotted three deer. One buck ran out in the open just long enough for us to get a good look at him. Laura Kate spent the two days that we were there worried about "bucks." Every questions was related to bucks. She was afraid of them for some reason.
The girls very favorite pasttime was throwing rocks into the little tanks just a few yards from the campers. They would stay our there for hours if we let them. It was good that they enjoyed it so much, because there wasn't much else to do while we were there.

Tuesday was our last day at the lease. Bright and early Tuesday morning, Justin took a doe. After her cleaned and quartered her, we went into town for ice and breakfast. We also toured the little museum there in Goldthwaite. It was big, but it had some pretty neat things in it. We left after the final hunt Tuesday evening and had dinner on the way home. Wednesday morning we got up bright and early to take the girls to the Mayborn Museum. They love that place. I've been there a handful of times and manage to find something I missed in the previous visits. Wednesday evening we dropped the girls off with Justin's parents and headed out. We drove a couple of hours to get a jump on our trek to Arkansas. It was pretty driving once we crossed the state line. Once we got to Little Rock, we got out and drove around a little to check things out. We had a little time to kill before the concert.
Ok, so now we get to the good stuff. Really, it was all good, but the concert was pretty awesome. It was held at The Church at Rock Creek. The church was beautiful. The people were really nice. And the opening acts were great. Above is Revive, a group from Australia. I had never heard of them, but we agreed that we needed the CD after we heard them play.
Same story with Needtobreathe. I didn't think I had ever heard of them, until they played "Washed by the Water." I had heard that song on the radio several times and never knew who sang it. I must say, Bear Rinehart (lead singer) can sing...and play for that matter. His little brother, Bo, isn't too shabby on the guitar either. There was one thing that I didn't dig too much. They played a few "fun" songs, as they called them, that I didn't really like. I told Justin that they didn't play enough Jesus to suit my taste, but all in all they rocked.
Aaaaa, to the main event. These pictures really didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. It was either to0 dark or too bright (as you'll see in a minute). Anyway, this is the opening number, This is Who I Am. Love this song.
"Dr." Mark Lee (as Mac called him) on guitar. They may not have Brad Avery to do solos anymore, but Mark can hold it down. I was very impressed.
David and Tai during Call My Name, I think. See, this photo is too bright. Oh well. So the guys played a few songs and then the whole place goes pitch black. When lights come back on, there aren't many and they are coming from a few yards from me and Justin. They weren't at the front the of room, but right in the middle. Next thing you know, Mac Powell is standing right in the middle of this sea of humanity. Brave man.
Here he is playing the first verse of "I've Always Loved You" by himself. It was pretty neat. The other guys joined him shortly to play the rest of the song accoustic.
I believe they did a three song accoustic set, but it's hard to remember. You should be impressed that I even remembered the chronology of these photos :) Anyway, this was pretty awesome. At this point I had left my seat to get a better shot of the band. I was about 5 feet away from them here.

This was one of my very favorite parts of the concert. It was really nice to be able to get close and hear the music with kind of a club or coffee shop feel. Near the end of the set, Mac teased the people right behind him. "Don't you have enough pictures yet?" he said. "You are like the paparazzi!" Funny guy. They all seemed so nice and down to earth, like guys you go to church with and hang out in small group with.

So, we're back. We picked up Laura Kate Sunday in order to take her to Temple for her scope on Monday morning. Good news! She ended up not having to have the scope!!! Dr. Pohl said that he didn't want to torture her if she hadn't been complaining of a lot of pain. She hadn't complained of more than an occasional upset tummy since her ER visit. We spent the rest of the day with my mom in Gatesville. She braided Anna's hair. Anna loved it and has asked me to do it since. Unfortunately, I don't know how to braid. Bad mommy.


Now we jump three days to Thanksgiving. I'd like to say that the highlight of the girls holidays is seeing their family. Don't get me wrong, the girls love their Nana and aunts and uncles, but there are two individuals who make holidays special for the girls. One of those is little Flash. She is Uncle John's corgi and she is a cute as she can be. For a dog who doesn't live with kids, she does really well with the girls.
The other individual is Ayla, their cousin. The earth revolves around Ayla when she is present. She's such a sweet kid and she's really good with her little cousins. Below, she's raking up leaves...



to jump in. They worked pretty hard on this little pile. They enjoyed every minute of it.

After lunch, the girls took a ride in Uncle John's Mini. You can see little Laura Kate's eyes peeking over the side of the car.
Stylin'

And away they go.

Fast forward a couple more days to Saturday after Thanksgiving. We took the girls to the Craft and Children's Fair at Homestead Heritage near Gholson. They had a blast. There was a lot to see and do. Above, we watched a horse-drawn rig plow a field. I believe that all of the fields at the homestead are plowed by horses.

We also watched some dogs work goats. I didn't really get any good action shots, but here you can see this one stalking the goats. The dogs' focus was amazing.

Anna and Laura Kate's very favorite stop was the petting pen. Laura Kate was actually the one to be a little shy during this activity. Anna jumped right in. I know she would have picked up one of the kids if I had let her. She loved them. I'm sure that thrilled her daddy. One of his dreams for them is to raise and show goats. He loved it as a child.

I didn't get a very good angle on this one, but here is Laura Kate dipping a candle. They had to get back in like and do this about 30 times. Laura Kate lost interest after about 10...

but Anna perservered! Her candle was, consequently, bigger than Laura Kate's.

This is the team of Belgians (I believe) that pulled our wagon for the hay ride. They are massive horses, and probably the prettiest I've seen.

Our destination on the hay ride was this bluff overlooking some of the farmland belonging to Homestead Heritage. It was beautiful and peaceful.

The girls really liked this fountain. The water from this fountain powered the gristmill where the residents of Homestead Heritage grind the wheat and corn to make their delicious baked goods. You can buy the flour, mixes, or baked goods themselves, but they're really expensive. They are all natural and have no pesticides or preservatives. Everything, from their livestock to their crops, is grown organically.

This is the last stop we make, the gristmill. I believe the boy inside said it was moved from New Jersey or New York and is over 100 years old. It's beautiful, as is most of their buildings. From what I understand, they've also moved old barns and other buildings from up north and refurbished them. We definitely enjoyed our visit and would love to go back.

So that's what we've been up to over the last 2 weeks. We've had fun reconnecting as a couple and a family. We surely have a lot to be thankful for.