Christmas with our Families

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church for its annual Christmas Eve service. I had the privilege of singing one my favorite Christmas songs in a quartet - In The First Light. I have wanted to sing this song since I was in college, so I was extremeley happy when we put it together. The ironic thing - we almost didn't get to do it. Our piano player and fifth voice was too sick and couldn't be there, but by the grace of God it all came together.

Please take a minute and read these words and remember the true reason for this season:

In the first light of a new day

No one new He had arrived

Things continued, as they had been

While a newborn softly cried

But the heavens, wrapped in wonder

Knew the meaning of His birth

In the weakness of a baby

They knew God had come to earth

As His mother held Him closely

it was hard to understand

That this baby, not yet speaking

was the Word of God to man

He would tell them of His kingdom

but their hearts would not believe

They would hate Him and in anger

They would nail Him to a tree

But the sadness would be broken

As the song of life arose

And the firstborn of creation

would ascend and take His throne

He had left it to redeem us

but before His life began

He knew He'd come back, not as a baby

But as the Lord of every man.

Hear the angels as they're singing

on the morning of His birth.

But how much greater will their song be

when He comes to rule the earth?

Here are a few pictures of our families from this Christmas.

The Tilden Family

Front: Selah, Lesa, Adam and Amanda.

Middle: Valerie, Mike, Kira and Liz.

Back: Jamie, Richard and Deborah.

Cousins

Even Noel got a present, which she played with the rest of the night!

The Meyer Family

Front: Adam, Selah, Lesa, Kira, Kaitlynn, Anthony and Liz.

Middle: Linda, Dennis, Amy, Phyllis, Mandi and Ken.

Back: Mike, Chris and Vince.

Cousins, sort of...

Merry Christmas!

Here is the Christmas letter. It wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't have my annual "Printer Fiasco." Let me just recommend that you never purchase an Epson printer. They have programed the printer to quit working and demand you replace the printer cartridge after a certain amount of prints. I guess I'm naive to think you shouldn't have to replace your cartridge until you're actually out of ink.

Anyway... here is our Christmas letter. You should be able to click on it to see a readable-size copy. Hope this finds you well! BTW - I'll be snail-mailing these on Monday.

Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong...

My dad, Lesa and Selah spent a couple hours one Saturday morning ringing the Salvation Army Bell at Price Chopper in Bonner Springs. They were pretty excited when a man came up and put a 20 in the bucket. By the end of their shift, their bucket was full.

Guy Trip 2008 - "Play Ball"

For several years now Mike has gone on a "Guy Trip" with his friends from high school. This year they traveled the Midwest to watch four baseball games in as many days. They went to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.

(from left) Mike, Clem and Mike Stoker

Stoker, Mike and Clem

Wrigley Field in Stoker's eyes...

Giordano's Pizza

Mike, Clem, Stoker and Josh at Giordano's.

Clem, Stoker, Josh and Mike

Notice the KeyBank logo in the back.

He can't get too far from the place...

Miracle on Main Street

This weekend the kids participated in our church musical, "Miracle on Main Street."

All the kids were so cute the first time they saw the set. "Ooh, Ahhh...," was the common response. We had such a talented set crew!!!

Toward the end, the preschoolers/Kindergartners set up the Nativity scene while the big kids narrated and sang behind them. Kira made a cute shepherd the first night and was a great wise man the next night.

Selah belted out her solo "I Believe." Watch out Natalie Grant...here comes Selah!!!

Lesa (pictured right) was the hippy wife who tried to brush off the carolers who were asking them to allow their Christmas pageant to be allowed in the town square. She wanted to laugh so bad when everyone responded to her costume, but she did a great job keeping a straight face. She was also a narrator later on in the show.

Adam played as Blake, a caroler trying to convince the town to allow their show to continue. Let's just say we got lots of comments on Adam's enthusiasm...

All of the church kids worked hard on this production, as did their directors, the helpers and all the staff. It was a lot of fun!

Lessons from a Child

Well, we almost made a trip to the Emergency Room today.

I usually let the kids have candy after they eat lunch, and today was no different. A little bit later, Selah came to me grabbing her throat and crying. She said she was messing around with Kira and accidentally swallowed the whole mint she'd been sucking on. Once I got her to calm down, I realized she was breathing fine, but obviously uncomfortable. I began having flashbacks of when Kira swallowed three coins...haven't we been down this road before???

This time, things seemed different. Selah was not gagging and drooling like Kira had been. I quickly got on the Internet to see if drinking water and trying to get the candy to melt would be a good plan, or if that would cause more problems. I also tried to call Ask-A-Nurse, but just got put in a holding pattern. It was then that my darling Selah thought of the most important thing we should do..."Mommy, can we pray?" she asked in her sweet voice. Pray? Why hadn't I thought of that? Of course we can pray, and pray we did.

A couple of minutes later, she started acting like she was going to puke. Ahh...now this was looking even more like Kira's money fiasco, so I quickly had everyone jump in the van and wait for Selah, who had gone to the bathroom thinking she was going to hurl. Before we got everyone loaded, Selah came bouncing down the stairs declaring, "My throat doesn't hurt anymore! Mommy, I think it's gone." Before the words could even cross my lips, my 8-yr-old quickly said, "Thank you, God!" and thank Him we did...

"And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' " ~ Matthew 18:3-4

Special Day of Baptisms

On the Thursday night of VBS back in June, Lesa was riding in the van with me and said, "Mom, I gave my life to Jesus tonight." Of course I was excited, but I wanted to make sure she really understood what that meant. After talking about it awhile, she then said that when our pastor, Matt, was talking, she kept hearing a voice saying, "You need to get saved. You need to get saved..." With tears rolling down my cheeks, I told her that was the Holy Spirit nudging her to give her life to Christ.

It was sometime after that she asked us to baptized, so here are pictures of Lesa making her profession of faith on Sunday. Since Mike is a deacon, he was able to baptize her. What a special father-daughter moment!!!

What some of you may not know is that my father also was baptized on the same day. For some time he's been unsettled, but it finally took a health scare for him to confess his sins before God and accept Him as his Savior.

The change in him has been remarkable. He can't stop telling people what he experienced! Here is his public profession of faith...

What a blessed and miraculous day!!!!

Disappointment

Several times since last Tuesday (Election Day), I have walked down our steps to find my plaque turned around backward. I would turn it back around, only to find it backward again a few hours later. This happened for several days, so I finally asked who keeps turning my flag around.
Selah, age 8, piped up and said, "I've been turning it around, Mom." Relieved to find the culprit, but also amused by the game, I asked her why she kept turning it back around. She said, "Well, with Obama as president, we'll no longer be the land of the free..." LOL!

Seriously, though, I think many of you can relate to the feeling of disappointment after last week's election. I really thought that by some miracle the "good" would overcome the "evil," like most villian stories do. (I know, I'm being melo-dramatic.) I have reminded myself often, though, of Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." I know God was not surprised by the outcome of Tuesday's vote, nor will he be surprised by anything that will happen in the next four years. He is in control. That's why He's got the job, and not me.

Adam's Birthday

Adam turned 7 on Sunday, Nov. 2nd. He began celebrating almost a week before when Grandma Meyer took him shopping to choose his presents. Then, on his actual birthday he opened his presents from us.


We had a church group over that night, so he had lots of people singing Happy Birthday to him as he blew out the candles on his cake. Then, this last weekend, Adam had his "friend" party with a sleepover (or "farty party" as Mike calls 'em). The next morning, we went bowling at Retro Bowl in Liberty.

What a crew - adam, daniel, clint and colby.

He always sticks his tongue out when he's really concentrating. :)-

The boy also has quite a competitive streak in him. Even during the bowling party, we had to remind him to be happy in others' successes.

Spare!!!!

My boy is so big now.

We were looking at his scrapbook this weekend. I'm always amazed at how big he has become! I don't know if it's the fact that he's my only boy, or because he was the smallest baby...where has the time gone???

Adam is such a tenderhearted little one. I love witnessing some of those moments - whether it's him spontaneously hugging his sisters, loving on Noel or just sharing a toy. He often comes up and hugs on us. I'll watch him sometimes and try to picture what it will be like five to ten years from now when he's taller than me. Will he still come up to me and say "I love you, Mom," and then give me a big squeeze? Oh, I sure hope so...

Adam's Room.

Adam has his own room now, much to the older girls' chagrin. His room still has purple flowery walls, as we're still trying to finish the girls' room. I'm waiting on an order from Penneys, but once we get the bedspreads and curtains, I'll be sure to post a picture or two. I'm really excited about how the walls turned out! I'm still trying to decide on what to do with Adam's room. I do plan to paint a huge Jayhawk on one of the walls. But other than that, I haven't come up with many ideas. If anyone comes across anything, let me know!

November 4th - Election Day

I soooo wish I'd had my camera with me when I went to vote. I went around 11 a.m., hoping to beat the lunchtime rush. Our polling site, Northland Cathedral, has several districts voting there, so when I arrived, they actually had people directing traffic. I thought, "This is NOT a good sign. I wish I had brought something for the kids to do while we're waiting in line."

But, alas, we were able to bypass the long lines for other districts and walk right up to the Fox Hill District #13 section. The man handed me my ballot, and then I looked around for an open privacy stand, or even a table, but there was none. So, the kids and I found an open area of floor and had a seat. Now you know why I wished I had my camera. Picture this: me seated on the floor with all four kids gathered around the ballot. I started at question one - President/Vice President and went all the way to the end, explaining what the question was about and why I was choosing to vote the way I voted. Sometimes I'd ask the kids how they would vote for a certain initiative before I'd tell them my choice. The whole thing turned into a wonderful "Teachable Moment." (I'm adding another tally mark to the many points scored by Homeschooling.) :)

Forever Friends...this is what I tell the kids all the time. That friends may come and go, but as siblings you will be forever friends. Next to knowing Christ as their Savior, them being best friends is one of our biggest prayers and hopes for their lives. When they often bicker at each other, or say something mean, I always ask, "Would you say that to your friend?" They inevitably reply, "No." Of course, I can't tell you how many times I'm reminded to ask myself that same question when speaking with them or Mike. It's a two-way street, huh?

Malon Boys

as

Daniel in the Lions' Den

Aren't they adorable? Peter and Andrew are twins at our church. Since their older brother's name is Daniel, it only made sense to have Daniel and the Lion's Den for Halloween.


Natalie

as

Spot

Mom, here's the cutie pie whose picture is on my refrigerator.

Can you believe she's one????

Halloween

Tilden Children

Adam, the baseball player

Selah, the hula girl

Kira, the ballerina
Lesa, an angel

This is one of the first years the kids have actually gone trick or treating.

Typically we go to a harvest party at church, but this year we handed out goodies at our house and had food available to anyone who stopped by. Mike and a friend from church took the kids out to our neighborhood. About 45 minutes later, I received a call from Mike saying Kira and Adam's feet hurt and they're pretty far from home. So, I went and picked up the whole group.

Never too old...

... for a bubble bath!

Pumpkin Patch

Each year we go to a pumpkin patch with Grandma. This year we went down the street from their house to Kerry's Pumpkin Patch. There's a play area for the kids, a small corn maze, and a few animals to see.




When you're done with all that, you hop on a tractor-drawn wagon to go to the pumpkin patch, where the pumpkins have mysteriously all fallen off the vine. In fact, there were no vines when we went through, just lots of pumpkins sitting in neat little rows in a field.


When we bring the pumpkins home, each year Mike has a comment about rotting pumpkins. (He's never let me live down the couple of years where December arrived and we still had pumpkins sitting on our porch.) Good times!