September 2, 2011
8:10 am
7lbs
18.5 inches

My Guesses
7lbs 7oz
19.5 inches

PICTURES COMING SOON!

Yes.  I blogged.  Now that we are all over the shock because of my recent track record, here’s what’s up.

Despite the fact that I haven’t written here in quite some time I wanted to make sure I didn’t leave out my newest little one.  In just a mere 32 +/- hours we will be holding 2.0 in our arms and officially clueing everyone into Jessi Girl’s little sister’s name.  We are quite excited about her arrival and are very ready to get the pregnancy part over with.  And now the time is here!

The pregnancy has flown by (yet still been quite miserable in the hottest summer ever…seriously…like Pompeii hot).  I’m sure a lot of the time passing so quickly is because of Jessi.  She keeps us extremely busy now and it’s a blast.  So just in case you are lost and don’t know what’s going on with us (and actually care) here’s a short rundown of our lives.

Jessi is almost a year and a half old.  She thinks she is about 6.  Her vocabulary seems to be expanding by the hour.  She is an amazing little girl and has already started dabbling with the terrible twos.  Good times.  Jack is still here.  He still loves to sleep and be lazy and loves to sleep near Jessi (as long as she isn’t awake too).  We as a family are doing great and excited to welcome 2.0 into our lives.  I haven’t blogged much in the past 6+ months because I have a rare opportunity to spend some crazy quality time with my girls.  Even if I wanted to write Jessi would not have it.  I would be sitting too still.  Trust me.  When you have one of the most adorable little girls slowly walking away looking over her shoulder saying “dada! chase?  chase?  dada!  chase?” you can’t keep doing whatever it was you were doing.  It’s just not possible.

So tomorrow our family will become a full blown family of 4.  I’m pretty sure I will have some chasing to do in the hospital, too.  Thank you for all your prayers!  Come back tomorrow to find out all about 2.0!

Last night I had the opportunity to start a tradition with my little girl (and give mommy a break).  I expect we will make this a weekly thing (as it should be!)  As soon as I got home from work, me and the little one took off for a night on the town.  Granted she is only 5 months old so for a while we will be a tad limited on our options for what she will enjoy so for now we walk and talk and bounce and play peek-a-boo and fly and such.  Good times for sure!  Thought you might enjoy a couple pictures from our night at the beach.  (PS – They are all of her.  I’m not good at the self portrait thing.  Plus she is WAY cuter!)

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to Alaska.  We are excited to get home and see our dog (who we haven’t seen in like 10 days)!  We are excited to get back to our bed!  We are excited to get back to our beach and weather!

But, we are sad to see the end of vacation.  Sad to say goodbye to all of our family again (still haven’t convinced them all to become Californians yet).  Sad to see me get beat out of the Spades tournament yet again.  Sad that Jessi Girl won’t get to see her aunts, uncles and grandparents for a while.  Sad that I won’t get to see my brother for several months.  Sad that my wife and sisters won’t get to hang out and have girl time (whatever that really is).  Especially sad that I have to use Delta again.

It has been an amazing trip.  I think I have gotten to do everything I wanted to do (except for a few things that need a different time of year).  Alaska is beautiful and fun, but my family is way better.  I can’t wait until family vacation next year!  The location isn’t quite as pretty but it will be hot and there is a lake and boat involved!  I’ll have to teach the little one how to wakeboard (15 months old isn’t too early for wakeboarding is it?).

But for now it is back to our real lives.  We are flying back to Orange County today so please pray for safety and a happy baby (she doesn’t like the descending part).  Family, I love you all.  Thank you so much for another amazing vacation!  Mom and dad, thank you so  very much for everything.  We absolutely couldn’t have done this without you!  Love you guys!

Our Alaskan vacation is nearing the end, but we are still staying in the “I Can See Russia From My House” state for a few more days.  So that means that today those of you at Kingsfield will be jamming with Colton again!  Today for me, though, offers a couple firsts.

In the morning we are hitting up the Big Wild Life Runs (giggle) 5K in downtown Anchorage.  I have never done a run (although we are gonna walk) like this before and I have never had the desire to do so.  But, for some reason my wife has a run like this on her Bucket List so we are gonna get it knocked out with a bunch of family!  Then after we have settled our Lance Armstrong (minus the bike) adrenalin down we will be heading out to Alyeska for our first night away from our 4 1/2 month old daughter.  It will be weird not having her around for that long and we will definitely miss her a lot, but it will be great to get some time away and to ourselves.  Doesn’t hurt that Alyeska is beautiful and we might get to touch a glacier.

So since I am gone again from the normal Sunday morning at church, here is a little bit of the expected soundtrack to my Alaskan Sunday.

All Manner Of Disney Songs (because that’s how my family rolls)
Spamalot (if my sister, Reagan, goes on the 5K with us)
Bon Jovi (pretty much a staple)
Foo Fighters (if we actually run some of the 5K)
John Mayer’s Album Battle Studies  (because that’s the only CD that’s been in my wife’s car for months now and I am not sure what a road trip would be without it now)

Every year for as long as I can remember, my family has taken a vacation together.  And for as long as I can remember we have taken that vacation with a few other families, recently dubbed the Family Fun Network.  We have been to the mountains, the beach, the lake and many other random places in between.  We board, ski, hike, climb, camp, cook, play Spades, play Hearts, play ladder golf, hang out, make fun of each other and love each other.  Not bad if you ask me.

I didn’t know that this wasn’t normal until college when I started meeting people whose families had never done anything like that before.  I didn’t know how blessed I was to have such a large family around me that would sacrifice time and money in order to get together like that every year.  I’m so thankful that we do since we don’t live near them anymore and don’t get to see them very often.  The families are growing larger and larger and we can barely fit everyone together under one roof, but it seems the more the merrier!

This year in Alaska has been no different than years past.  We are only halfway through our trip and it has been amazing.  I think that if God could pick the model for family community, this would be it.  Totally loving and supporting.  Take some time today to thank God for the family He has placed around you and pray for them.  If you don’t have family around you, pray that He will help you find it.

As some of you may have noticed this morning, I am on vacation and therefore not at church!  My gorgeous family and I have trekked up to Alaska to vacation with the Family Fun Network (or so it has been named) for family vacation this year.  We are only 3 days in and we are having a blast.  So since I’m not there and I don’t have setlist for this morning, I thought I would give you a few songs that I’m loving right now for you to check out!

We Will Shine – Nick Thurmond – Not Alone
Beautiful Things – Gungor – Beautiful Things
Wake Up My Soul – Andy Kirk – Wake Up My Soul
Our God – Chris Tomlin – Passion: Awakening

Last night we got to surprise my dad with meeting his first grandchild.  He has Skyped with her before but never been able to hold her.  Poor guy.  Last night he finally got to.  We were originally scheduled to arrive in Anchorage, AK for the start of our vacation on Sunday, but my wife found a pretty cheap way to get us there a few days earlier!  So we worked out all the details (including keeping my dad out of the loop) and then boarded the plane on Thursday instead!

After a couple flights, a pretty good baby (only had issues on the decents because her ears were popping and hurting her), one plane ride in the front row, one in the back row, a smelly neighbor (couldn’t possibly have showered or brushed teeth in the last week) and popping ear drums we finally arrived to play a game we like to call Show Off Your Daughter!  Her Poppa was definitely not expecting the bundle of worn out, tired, hungry and probably a bit overwhelmed.

So now here we are.  Vacation has come a few days early.  There is no snow on the ground but there is one happy Poppa eagerly trying to fight off the hounds (my mom and sisters) so he can hang on to Jessi just a little bit longer!

If I had a dollar for every time I have heard a pastor use the example of a family fighting on the way to church only to walk in the doors and act as if everything was sun shining, birds chirping, angels singing perfect, I would have a whole bunch of money!  It’s always the perfect example.  Most of you speakers out there are taking your shoes and socks off right now because your fingers weren’t enough to count the times you have.  It’s ok.  We still love you.  Now I’m gonna use it.

Recently I was watching a bonus feature on a DVD of one of my favorite shows.  It was a reading of the script for an episode with all the cast, crew and writers in one small room.  The clip was about 45 minutes long.  No fanciness.  No quality transitions.  No music.  No sound effects.  Just a bunch of people all reading the same stack of papers and speaking like their characters.  It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world and I even realized toward the beginning that I had seen the episode so it wasn’t even keeping my interest because it was new.  But despite all the scaled back-ness I was drawn in.  As a matter of fact the longer I watched the more I liked it.  I started liking the writers, the characters, the narrators, and everyone there.  If possible, this behind the scenes view was causing me to like the show even more.

Now back to the fun and totally not overused example of the arguing family going to church.  What if there was a camera around filming your behind the scenes?  If the average person that you are selling your appearance, attitude, lifestyle, beliefs, etc. saw the behind the scenes bonus feature of your life would they still buy?  What about your job?  Would people still want to use your company if they saw what it was like when the customer isn’t around?  What about your perfect-at-church family?  Your marriage?  What about your church?

Most of us have learned the ability to hide the behind the scenes.  We have deleted it as an option from the DVD of our lives.  But what we don’t realize is that many times the behind the scenes view is actually there.  Maybe not in a feature but it’s there.  We show little signs of what it is like behind the scenes without intending to or even knowing it.  Fortunately as the words to a Shaun Groves song called Welcome Home so accurately describe, our loving God wants to be a part of all of our lives and not just the face of it all.  He is there to help repair, clean and provide that TLC that many of our behind the scenes features need.

How’s your behind the scenes?  Does it draw people in or make them run for cover?

Last night the wife and I were out on a date and walking through a park around a lake when all of a sudden I was assaulted by a woman question.  All the guys know what I mean.  It’s the hypothetical question that tend to have a major impact on the rest of your life.  That kind of woman question.

So as we were walking through the park and enjoying the sunset with a happy child squealing away, my wife hit me with the question.  So if you could choose, would you want a boy or a girl next?  Would you want a boy then a girl?  A girl then a boy?  A boy then a girl then a boy?  Granted, since we are married and already have one this question isn’t quite as difficult or out of left field as it would have been 3 or 4 years ago.  It’s also not as bad as many others, but still.

Am I just not normal or am I just a guy?  I don’t plan these things out.  Sure I’ll take a boy next, but I don’t really get much of a choice.  And the sequence?  Beats me!  Guys don’t really sit around and talk about these things.  I don’t remember the last time I was sitting at the poker table with several other guys and one of them asked me how many kids I wanna have and what order they would be in.  Might as well ask what I’m gonna name them, where they will go to school and what they will do when they grow up!  Guys just don’t work that way I guess.  Who knows.  Maybe it’s just me.

I wasn’t real sure of my answer.  So what about you?  If you haven’t had any kids, do you consider these things?  If you already had your kids, did you plan it out?  Did it work out that way?