Summer

As we creep, and suddenly RUN, to the end of our little one's first year we are left with the feeling of so many emotions. The time has never seemed to pass so quickly than since we have welcomed a child into our midst. It's hard to believe so much has happened since July of 2008: The birth of a son. A first hiking trip. Thanksgiving with Nana and Grampa. Christmas with Gramma and Uncle Joey. Uncle Rusty's graduation from BMT in January. Our 4-year wedding anniversary. My parents 25th Silver Anniversary...where has the time gone?
I am learning that motherhood is no longer about me and what I can do. It has become a time of learning. I have learned that even if I know I am selfish, I will do anything and give up anything for this precious life that God has blessed us with. I finally understand the concept of the "momma bear". I found out that no matter what I SWEAR I will do (or never do), that I am not in control of all things and that sometimes those things will happen. I am not super-woman; but I have strength I've never known. I am not a beauty queen; but I am the most precious and lovely person in our son's eyes! I found out that I am a worry-er...that's a bummer.
As I plan Collin's 1st Birthday Party, I look back on the past year as it is so bitter-sweet. God has introduced Chris and I to a love we could never know as husband and wife. We continue to build the center of our husband/wife relationship around God (he IS the center after all!) and He causes our love for one another to bloom and mature. But this new love we have found as Mommy and Daddy - no one can understand until they are there. We want so much for Collin, but we want him to be the individual he was created to be. All we can do is be the role models for our little one and let God do the rest!
I will certainly try to post photos after this One-Year celebration. This is certainly one year to CELEBRATE!!!

Spring

Spring brings along with it a sense of newness. For me, it really hits me on Easter. It brings me to the realization that I am nothing and yet Christ paid the price for all my "nothingness". How humbling to know that in the midst of my sin, he paid the price so long ago. All I can do, is praise Him and know that he is Lord and Savior in my life.
We want to tell Collin about how God loves him so much, that He gave His one and only Son for him. Oh the excitement I get, to think about the choice Collin will hopefully make to choose righteousness! Our ultimate goal for our son is not necessarily happiness, but eternal life (and amazingly enough - a wonderful, unspeakable JOY).
Collin's first Easter was this year! I began to wonder how to celebrate "Easter" with a little boy. My Easter memories are filled with dresses and hats and white gloves and shiny white shoes...not exactly something I can do for a boy. But I was not going to bring him to church on Sunday morning in old clothes! So we went shopping for a special Easter outfit (sorry Babe, it really is an outfit. I know boys aren't technically supposed to wear outfits, but this is the exception). We (I) decided on a classic sweater vest and slacks with an embroidered Whinnie the Pooh on the vest and pant leg. Very cute I must say! AND we got shoes!!!! For those of you who know me at all - I love shoes; and little baby shoes are the BEST.
Along with the memory of clothing, my parents would also get us the basket (with the understanding that the bunny did not do this for us - it was Jesus!) There would be candy of course and eggs and the "big" gift could be a stuffed animal or something else. I especially recall getting a curling iron by request! I know, what can I say? So obviously, Collin needed a basket as well. There were three children here on Easter so their baskets contained the following: Angel (age 9) got the candy assortment and a Hannah Montana purse. Jordan (age 2) got the candy and a MRS. Potato-Head. Collin ended up with organic baby food and a plastic green frog that covers the bath spout! I really didn't want a stuffed animal that would be tossed out or in our next garage sale, so I went with practical. Besides, I really wanted the frog b/c it was just too cute!
Anyway, that has been our season so far. I'm sure I'll have more adventures to add to this soon!

Growing Up

Well our little Collin is growing up so fast. I am sitting at the dinner table, watching Chris feed Collin his desert...prunes. Now I know what your first reaction may be, "Prunes? Yuck!", but he LOVES them. They are the first food I ever fed him. My intention was to feed him the organic rice cereal that was to be his first food...however, Collin would have non of it! The prunes were for...well, you know...and he gobbled them up! But my reason for blogging today is NOT to tell you about prunes.
Our little bundle of joy is now 7 months old. Very exciting for both of us as we get to see the new personality of a boy who is himself. We can't fit him into this little cookie cutter and have him turn out to be a copy of anyone else. Both Chris and I are working like crazy to help shape and mold Collin into a young man of character. We don't want to make him into a puppet, but instilling morals and character is our responsibility as parents. God has entrusted us with a little one and we are to take care of him.
I have gone through many baby clothes as I try to put away the things Collin is outgrowing. Sad, but also a bit exciting too! Do you know he is almost 17 lbs? When we brought him into the doctor for his 6 month check-up, I found out he is only in the 25% for his size...a little disheartening to me. I don't understand why he isn't bigger (and I honestly wonder how big he is actually supposed to be) because he is a fat baby! He has rolls, people! But I guess he should be bigger, but he is happy and healthy for now and that's what is important.
This is all for now! Dinner is over and now we get to PLAY!

Love is in the AIR!

Many things have happened this past week. Collin and I were able to take our first trip without daddy, down to San Antonio to see my baby brother graduate from the Air Force training. I can not describe how proud I was to see him standing there with all the other young men who have decided to help defend our country! Seeing him in his uniform was such a sight...there really is something special about a man in uniform! I was able to see a confidence that has been lacking since I can remember. There was an attitude of "I am someone" and it showed in all of his actions. No longer the little boy who was uncertain of who he was. Now a man who knows his purpose! Seeing him march in the graduation parade and walking in sync with the other airmen was such a joy. I am not a prideful person, but the "pride" that arose in me was overwhelming.
This graduation was only one major milestone in the life of my little brother. Another event that I was able to witness was a proposal to my future sister-in-law! My brother is GETTING MARRIED!!! She is such a sweet girl, and I could see the love and emotion she was feeling as he knelt down to present her with her beautiful ring! She of course said YES with tears in her eyes.
This was my week and it was quite memorable!

The Baby Blues

Not the kind that you automatically think of. I'm not depressed by any means! I LOVE this stay at home mom thing. What I am talking about is this...
Collin has been an excellent baby since day one (ask anyone!). However, in the past week, he has decided to test some boundaries. Napping. I usually put him down, he fusses a little for about 5 minutes or so and then drifts off to sleep for about an hour or two. But NOOOO, he suddenly has been fighting sleep for all he's worth. He screams, literally. The only thing that I have found that will console him is to pick him up, sit in our chair, and nurse him to sleep. This is not in the schedule, and he is really not hungry. He just wants to be comforted, but I don't want him to get in the habit of nursing to sleep, ya know? So this morning I had to draw a line in the sand. I let him "cry it out". It was torture. For both he and I. I think he cried for about 45 minutes. But now he is sleeping peacefully, and I did not nurse him to sleep!
The "baby blues" I'm referring to are his eyes. They just looked so pitiful, like I broke his heart. I sure hope he doesn't hate me right now...I guess it's a good thing that he is really too young to "hate". I just know how much I love that precious little boy and I just want what is best for him. Naps are not an option, they are a necessity. I know this b/c when people comment on how sweet he is, or say "He's such a good baby" it's because he gets his rest. Believe me, he NEEDS his rest.
Anyway, I just needed to let this out. Perhaps to let others know we all have our "moments" and this was mine.

The Twelve Opossums

Someone emailed this to me a while back and I just had to post it!

The 12 Opossums

The following is from a lady in Oregon. It is priceless! The Bible explained by kids - truth has been redefined!


One of our favorite jobs has been leading junior church. We try to do more than baby-sit our church's beloved little ankle-biters during their time in our special junior church facility. We aim to give them a solid background in biblical history. At the end of each year, we give them pencils and paper and ask them to chronicle what they have learned. This assignment never fails to elicit some intriguing responses. In case you're a little foggy on your biblical history, let our junior church students help you with this complete overview of the Bible, compiled from
their essays:



In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, Darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one,'but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did. Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty
soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids
was kind of a ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then He gave them His top ten commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's bottom (the Bible uses a bad word for bottom that I'm not supposed to say But my Dad uses it sometimes when he talks about the President). Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua, who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 Porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore.
There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the
Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven, but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the
book of Revolution.


There! Now you understand it.

What Are We Doing It For?

Christmas is only three days away! It's exciting for us because it will be Collin's very first Christmas. We may have overdone it a little on the gifts for him...especially since he's not even AWARE of them...but we still want this to be a memorable one. This time in our lives open us up for many possibilities. Will we read the Christmas Story evey Christmas Eve? How about the traditional Christmas jammies? Pop corn? Hot Cocoa? Movies? Will we spend the holiday with Gramma or Nana? Will we still do the Live Nativity? Oooo! We could go look at the Christmas lights! Excitement is filling the Slegers home these days. Perhaps the new life that has been brought to our home is why we can look at things in a new light. But as we prepare for this first, what are we doing it for? How will these things bring glory to the Reason for the season? Hopefully as we all get caught up in the "hustle and bustle" of these things, we can stop and make sure we are not trying to replace what this day was meant to represent.

You are all loved, and we hope you have a very, very Merry CHRISTmas!