Ella's Dedication

Today Ella was dedicated to God formally in church. Of course, I feel like I gave up control over her and dedicated her to God before she was even born, but it was a sacred time of publicly acknowledging that she is God's and not ours. A big thanks to Randy and Michael for praying with us.

Then we had lunch with some friends and family and asked them to write down traits of a Godly woman on a rock. Then we put all the rocks in a vase that we will have Ella keep forever and she can read the rocks to teach and remind her of what it means to be a Godly woman. Bea had a great post about it on her blog. Check it out here.

The service in church today was incredible. I will post more on that later. I was proud of our church today.

New Year's Resolution

Could my New Year's Resolution be for my kids to sleep in past 6:30am? After being up until about 12:45am it was not pleasant to wake up this early.

We had a mellow New Year's Eve night with a delicious feast of fondue. A classic Swiss fondue with Gruyere and Emmenthaler and then a Pub Fondue with Extra Sharp Cheddar, Mild Cheddar, and a little beer. We dipped with bread, apples, carrots, steak, chicken, Louisiana hot links, and Chicken & Apple sausages. Kevin and Michelle (Bea's sister) came over and we enjoyed the feast and then the boys dominated the girls in a game of Scene It Squabble edition.

Happy New Year's Everyone!! Enjoy the parade and football! We are going to have some Swedish pancakes and relax while watching the parade and playing with the new Christmas presents.

Happy Hanukkah!!

Last night we celebrated the fourth night of Hanukkah and Shabbat with some great friends. Some good friends of ours are Jewish and I love sharing the Jewish traditions with them and with our children. It seems to me that most Christians forget that everything we believe about God has been through him working through His chosen people, the Israelites or Hebrews or Jews.

First Marilee lit the candles of Shabbat or Sabbath because it was Friday and shared a prayer and we broke Challah break and passed it around and drank the fruit of the vine. They do an incredible job of bringing Christ into the Jewish traditions and rituals. It's almost hard not to bring Christ into it because it's so obviously pointing straight towards Him.

Then Matt shared the Hanukkah story with all of us, including the 10 kids present. Then they lit the servant candle representing Christ who then lights the other four candles which represents sharing the Light of the World with others. Then we enjoyed some tasty latkes and other great food. We also learned about and played some dreidel games. Hanukkah is a great story of God's faithfulness to His people and to preserving the line of Christ who is the Light of the World. Awesome. I love that myself and my family have friends like this with whom we can celebrate the richness of this tradition.

See Erin's blog for pictures of the kids. She took the pictures in this post.

I Love Mr. Rogers

Grace and I watch Mr. Rogers in the morning. The guy is awesome. I watched him when I was a kid and now Grace is watching the same thing. Learning about sharing, kindness, what to do when you are angry, feelings, exercise, identity, pretend vs. real, and how things are made. The man was a genius. He was a minister before he started in TV and you can see the fingerprints of Jesus all over his show.

Who else loves the man who changes shoes and sweaters every day?

Headed to Simi

We are leaving tonight to Bea's parents for Thanksgiving. We are going to hang out there until Saturday night. I'm looking forward to just relaxing and chatting and watching football. The boys are going golfing on Saturday which should be really fun. It took Kevin and Michelle 4 hours to get to Simi Valley today when they left at 2:45pm when it normally only takes a bit over an hour. Hopefully leaving at 8pm should be better.

We switch off every other year which family we go to for Thanksgiving. My family does crazy stuff and spends Thanksgiving in Joshua Tree. We eat the whole meal outside after bringing it in containers that keep food warm. We scramble around on the rocks. We have a spot where we know some caves to go spelunking in. Then we make a campfire and everyone smokes a cigar around the fire - even the ladies. It's pretty awesome but totally different. So I also love going to Bea's house where it's the super traditional meal around the table and we all watch football and hang out at the house all day. It's a pretty good arrangement.

On My Own

Yesterday at about 1:00pm my lovely wife, Bea, left for a Lutheran Teacher Conference in Palm Springs for three days. She gets home on Tuesday evening. We had our small group last night which was cool but I was nervous about trying to manage the kids and lead the small group. But Kevin and Michelle come to our small group and so they helped out a ton with the kids.

I'm taking the next couple days off work to just hang out with my sweet daughters. It's funny because I know how to take care of my kids and I love being with them, but I had this mild sense of foreboding as these days were coming.

My biggest fear - doing Grace's hair. She isn't going to look as cute as normal.

The Ultimate Date Night

Tomorrow night will be an amazing date night for Bea and me. I can't wait. Kevin and Michelle will be watching the kids overnight. We are having dinner at Pizzeria Mozza in LA which is an incredibly delicious and fun restaurant owned by Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton. I had the best bread and caprese salad of my life there. Then we are heading to see Wicked with decent orchestra level seats. After that we are staying at the Renaissance Hollywood and Highland Hotel and enjoying some Hollywood nightlife there. Then we will have a nice breakfast at the hotel and hang out and shop in LA for the day. We don't have to be home until late afternoon on Saturday.

It's going to be amazing!! Thanks Kevin and Michelle. You rock!!

Dan in Real Life

Bea and I had a wonderful date night last night where we had a nice dinner and then we went to the movies for the first time in FOREVER. We went to Dan in Real Life because it looked good, Bea didn't want to see American Gangster, and Randy wrote a great review of the film. We didn't know much about the movie ahead of time. We just knew it had Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, and Dane Cook. We thought it would be indie style, but on the lighter side.

We were wrong.

I literally had tears streaming down my cheeks during this film. Without giving too much away, it's a story of a man with three daughters whose wife died four years earlier. They are at a big family reunion of sorts and an awkward love story ensues. Anything that has to do with daughters ruins me because I love my girls so much.

It was fun to watch their family interact. I want to be a family like that. They were honest and fun. They played charades, took walks, played football, ate big meals together, and went bowling.

This was a great film, but don't think of it as a comedy. It's a crying movie.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking up at Los Rios Ranchos yesterday. It's always some good old-timey country fun. We picked Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious, and Double Red Delicious apples. We also got to pick pumpkins off the vine in the pumpkin patch. Then finally we picked raspberries off the bushes. It was a super fun day. My sister, Leslie, came with us. We never do anything with just my sister so this was fun to be with her for the day. We also played the washtub bass, spoons, and the washboard with the bluegrass band that plays by the BBQ. We enjoyed the tri-tip, bbq corn, and apple pie. AWESOME!!

The crazy thing was that one year ago we were up there apple picking two days after we found out that Bea was pregnant. During the day, Bea had some spotting and we freaked out because we felt like the pregnancy was such a miracle after a previous miscarriage and tons of difficulty getting pregnant again. It turned out that the spotting was nothing. We enjoyed the day yesterday being there with Ella - our sweet little baby that was just about 6 weeks developed last year while we were there. God is good!!

Pictures coming...

Sick Family

Bea took Gracie to the doctor yesterday and it turns out that she has bronchitis and laryngitis. The laryngitis is a bummer for a little girl who never stops talking. She can still talk, but her voice is really scratchy. It's so sad seeing your little girl so sick. The chest cough is pretty bad, but they took an x-ray and it's not pneumonia. We would appreciate any prayers for our daughter.

We have all been fighting colds in our family which is just a hassle. The sad thing is that our trip to Los Rios Ranch to go apple picking, pumpkin patching, and raspberry picking will be postponed to the next weekend. I was seriously looking forward to going up to Oak Glen and doing all the country stuff like picking fruit, playing silly instruments with the bluegrass band, and eating tasty BBQ. It's an amazing place that you should definitely check out if you are in SoCal.

BEA HAS A BLOG!!

My amazing, intelligent, beautiful wife, Bea Wakeling, has finally started a blog. I am so happy it is beyond words. Her blog is called Vanishing Roads which is from a poem about choices we make in life and how the roads that we don't take vanish. She will explain it better, but I think it's a pretty sweet name.

Check her first post out at http://beawakeling.blogspot.com or use the lovely link I made her on the right.

First Day of School

I just had a full-on "OC Soccer Mom" experience. I drove Grace in the new Sequoia to her first day of her second year of pre-school. I walked in with Ella in the stroller and then left. Now I'm at home until I go to work at 11:30am when Bea is done teaching.
This first picture is from "Meet the Teacher Day" yesterday. She has Mrs. Gish.

The next pics are from today outside of her classroom in her pretty new dress.

Zoo Today

I took the day off work today and took Grace to the zoo with my sister and here three adult kids and my brother, his wife, and their three kids. It was a pretty awesome day. We were there from 9am-3:30pm and saw a bunch of amazing things.
This picture below is Grace and her cousin Lindy. They are great friends.

This next one is of the first highlight. We saw a black Jaguar being fed a leg of lamb on a rope. The jaguar had to attack and "kill" the leg of lamb before being allowed to eat it. AMAZING!

Then we saw a white wolf being walked down the path and the zookeepers told us to watch out. I don't have a picture of that though. The next highlight was of the gorillas. I liked this picture. Very dramatic.

This next one is by far my favorite picture of the day. The polar bears were so active and fun. I got a bunch of shots of this one playing with his ball - this was the best.

The last photo highlight was of this rhino eating leaves. Funny lips.

I love the zoo and I love family. Today was a great day. But right now I am seriously pooped.

Fireworks

We had some fun doing fireworks with the Krusiewicz's on July 4th. I hadn't done them myself in a long time. The pics are just us playing with sparklers, but we did a bunch of other stuff too.

10 Wonderful Years!

Today marks our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary. On July 5, 1997 we were married at Ocean Hills Community Church in San Juan Capistrano, CA and enjoyed a beautiful reception in the Dana Point Harbor.

I love my wife more today than I did ten years ago. She is an awesome woman and I'm blessed by God to have her in my life. I don't know if I would have been able to picture the way our lives are now on that day ten years ago. Today we are truly thankful and will celebrate at The Melting Pot tonight with some yummy fondue.

I Feel Weird...

because I should be here right now.

I really should be at home with my family, but there is something in me that is missing being up at Hume Lake Christian Camp with all the Jr High staff and students. I pray that God is blessing their time and transforming their lives in incredible ways for these next few days up at camp. Happy 4th of July Campers!!

Back to Work Tomorrow

My last normal day in the office was Monday, June 18th - the day before Ella was born. I ended up preaching last Sunday but that was my last normal workday. I go back tomorrow. I just go back for a a half day because Ella has her first immunization doctor appt tomorrow and Bea wants me to be there. Then there is the Independence Day Holiday on Wednesday. So I'm only going to work 2.5 days between now and Sunday.

But I'm still not wanting to go. It's not that work is bad or boring or anything like that. It has just been so fun to live in the fairy-tale world of slow mornings and hanging out around home as a family since we came home from the hospital on June 21st.

Calvary Church, here I come!!

The Delivery Story

Baby Ella turned one week old last night at 6:48pm during Grace's soccer game. I said I would tell the story of the delivery. Here it is...with some pictures.

We left the house at around 6:15am to go to South Coast Medical Center in Laguna Beach where Bea was going to be induced. First of all, it's weird having an induction because you know that you are going to go and have a baby. It's a crazy sense of anticipation - very nerve wracking. Here is a picture of Bea's belly on the morning we left the house. Yes, there is a seven pound baby, two liters of extra water and a few pound placenta inside that belly. I have a picture of the placenta but Bea won't let me show it.

Then we checked in at the hospital and filled out paperwork and got checked into our room and they started the Petocin drip (that's the drug that starts inducing labor) at about 8:15am. My parents took Grace to breakfast at Ruby's. Then Bea's mom came and hung out with us. We were in a smaller room to start but then they checked us into our main room at around 11:00am. This room was beautiful and big and had an amazing ocean view. That's kind of their schtick at South Coast - "Have your baby with an ocean view!" They even give shirts to the baby that say that. Here is a picture of the view.

The rooms are LDRP rooms which means you do everything in them. L - Labor. D - Delivery. R - Recovery. P - Postpartum. Here is a picture of Bea waiting in the Labor phase. She got the epidural at around 1:00pm. It was pretty scary for her, but those things are amazing. She is such an amazing woman. So brave and so strong. At this point Bea was only at 3 centimeters and we thought we were in for a long road.

Then at 4:30pm the nurse examined Bea and she was at 5cm. Then I enjoyed a delicious Ruby's Beach Burger with bacon and Bea was very jealous because she couldn't eat. Then at about 6:25pm, Dr. Tran (our OB), came in to examine Bea. We thought this would just be another check and we would have to wait a few more hours. We sent the family out to let Bea get examined in private. So then Dr. Tran says that she is at 7cm, but that her cervix is very flexible and soft. The next words out of Dr. Tran's mouth are, "Let's try giving a push on the next contraction." WHAT???? SERIOUSLY??? Then Baby Ella was born at 6:48pm so you know that this process was very very very fast. Here's the first picture I took of Ella all covered in the gross white stuff.

Here is our new family with Dr. Tran.

Then Bea has to get stitched up and cleaned up before we can let the family come in. They were shocked when I said that they baby was born. They thought it was just another routine examination as well. Crazy. Then we spent the crazy two nights in the hospital with some great friends and family bringing tasty meals to us from Ruby's, Coyote Grill, and a yummy New York pizza place. We were so happy to come home. With Grace we were scared to come home. This time I couldn't wait.

Here is a darn cute baby at our home.

A Crazy Day

To start this off, when Grace was born four years ago I took two weeks off from work and we didn't leave the house for two weeks. We were so overwhelmed it was unbelievable.

With Ella I am still taking about two weeks off, but because she was born a bit early I had a couple things I had to do this weekend and we have a four year old. So it's definitely not the same.
1. On Thursday, the day we came home from the hospital, I coached Grace's first soccer game.
2. On Saturday I left for an hour to go to go to a wedding rehearsal.

Then the crazy day came on Sunday.
1. I preached in Elevation. OK this is a huge deal for me because usually I completely obsess about preaching in there. I usually prep for hours and try to have it finished by Wednesday so I can practice it out loud and then make refinements that day. Then I practice it once on Thursday, Friday, and again early Sunday morning. That wasn't going to happen this week so I studied ahead of time, wrote the whole talk on Monday morning, and turned in all my PowerPoint and Bulletin information by Monday afternoon. Then I didn't think about the talk until Friday. I looked at it on Friday and sent a couple PowerPoint edits in to Nicole and Trevor (they make everything look good). Then I practiced it once on Saturday and about half of it on Sunday morning. Then I preached the sermon while having "newborn exhaustion" from lack of sleep and it was OK. I don't think it was great. I was a bit slow in my mind. There was a cool live art piece being made on stage too. It was awesome, but it's always weird when everyone is looking at the art and not at you. The service ended up being really great even if I wasn't great. That's my prayer every week. It goes like this, "Lord, if I suck today may it bring you glory and if I'm awesome today may it bring you glory." I seriously pray that every time I preach.
2. I went home and crashed for a couple hours.
3. I performed the wedding ceremony for Brock Buoniconti and Deanna Herring. It went really well. I thought there was a good blend of humor, fun, and a sense of sacredness to it. So I got home from that at about 8:00pm and hung out with Bea and Ella while Gracie was sleeping.

So it was definitely a different sort of first few days after Ella was born compared to Gracie. But now I am really off for the rest of this whole week. 7 days of no responsibilities and just being together as a family. I love it.

Ella is born!

WOW!! We got home yesterday from the hospital and everything is great. We are exhausted, but feeling pretty good. The baby and Bea are super healthy and well.
Born June 19th 2007 at 6:48pm. 7.0 pounds and 20 inches long.
I will post more about the experience later. Here are a few pics.