On the Banks of Jordan

More Pictures

2008-01-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

I love this picture - he looks like so big because he's sitting up, but he's still so little! He weighed in at around 14lbs at his 6 month (about 5 weeks ago). He's just like Joshua was: 5th% weight, 75th% height. He has finally figured out how to do the "real crawl" on all fours and not just the scooting.

I love this picture because it shows Emma in her true "femaleness" :) That girl loves some chocolate (I guess she gets it honest!) She has been asking for candy every morning since we put up our countdown calendars on Dec. 20th. She asks often throughout the day and whenever my answer is "no", she always replies "aaaaawwwww".

This is mostly what we did on Christmas day:

the kids got scooters, so we pulled the cars out of the garage and let them ride around in there - it was COLD (about 20 degrees as the high)

the 2 guys who spent Christmas day with us, watching (our new) Scooby Doo shows with the kids

Daniel napping :)

We had a GREAT day - it was so relaxing and fun. We missed being with family but we still had a wonderful holiday.

Daniel took Joshua today to try skiing for the first time. Daniel has really taken a love to

skiing (he got a season pass for Christmas) and he has been wanting to teach Joshua. J was really excited, so we'll see how it goes! It was supposed to snow 10-14 inches up there today and the winds were pretty strong, so hopefully they can stick it out!

Time Goes By

2007-12-24T06:59:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one that feels like time is flying by so fast that I don't know where it's going? Probably not. It's amazing to me that with each child I feel like the time goes faster (maybe it's just because I'm getting older with each child!) I really feel like we just came home from the hospital with Eli a few days ago; but, he was 7 months old last week. Crazy!!

Anyway, I'm going to post a few pics from the last 5(!) months since my last post.

In September, we took a marathon 3-week trip down south. One of the weeks we spent at the beach, which we all thoroughly enjoyed!! I'm so glad my children are growing up loving the beach as much as I do.

Halloween: Fairy, Spiderman, and warm baby:)

Our first big snow (about 8 inches):

And our best present this year (who started to crawl/scoot last month and LOVES being mobile):

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Siblings

2007-08-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Emma started to "play" with Eli while he was in his swing. She was pushing him and talking to him and this is the response she got:

Then she decided to show him some toys and "read" him a book:

Then Joshua came over to join in and they started to fight over who could play with Eli. They were fighting over everything yesterday, so why should their baby brother be any different?

Once they finally decided to entertain him together, this is the smile they got from their baby brother. Being the 3rd child has it's definite advantages (mainly that he comes into the world

with 4 people in his family who already adore him!)

Our Beautiful Children

2007-08-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

Just some recent pictures:

He loves his Daddy!

Look at that smile!

One of only 2 times that she has wanted to "hold" him.

Do we have beautiful kids or what?! :)

Are they kids or teenagers? :)

Gotta love playing in the rain! Especially when this is the most rain we've seen since we've lived here!

New Church Building

2007-08-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been waiting until I get a chance to take some "after" pics before I post the "before" ones, but it's taking me too long - so here are the pictures of the building before the sod was put down. I'll post some final pictures of the new yard with the finished sign, etc. as soon as I can, along with some of the inside of the building now. We have our first service in the new building this Sunday, August 12th and we are very excited!!! Please pray that it would be a good turnout and a great start to reaching the surrounding neighborhood.

Here is the building from just a few weeks ago:

4th of July Parade

2007-07-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Our church participated in the West Jordan 4th of July Parade for the 2nd time this year. Again, they handed out cold water bottles (this year we gave out over 2000 of them!) And this year, a man in our church, built an amazing caboose for the kids to ride in. They had a blast! I don't have any pics of it because Eli & I stayed home - it was too HOT for him to be out there for so long, but there are some great pics of it at the church website.

Cookout & Open House

2007-07-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

We had a cookout for the neighborhoods surrounding our new church building last night and we had a great turnout! The mission team hosted it and took care of all the details so we could could meet and talk with the visitors. Here are some pics from the event:

Our neighbors Nate & Anthony (brothers) entertainig our Georgia friends:

This Week

2007-07-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

We've had a mission team here this week and my kids have had a great time playing with the "big kids". We've been refering to them as "the team" so the other night, Emma says, "I want to go to dinner with the baseball team." We thought that was so funny. I'll post some pics later of the work they did at the church building, but here are some of them with our children.

That's Joshua playing Twister with 4 big teenage guys - he loves being right in the middle of everything!

Our first

2007-07-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that with a non-stop, wild, full of energy 4 year-old boy, that our first black eye would have come from our little girl? Well, it did. Emma & Joshua were riding in their motorized jeep and Joshua drove over a big bump and she hit her eye on the dashboard. We weren't even home when it happened - the babysitter was here. She put ice on it and Emma never complained about it again. It looked awful on the 3rd and 4th days, but she said it never hurt. Anyway, here is a picture of it from the day after - doesn't look too bad. It was over a week ago and it's almost all the way gone now. Sure this is just one of many to come...

Now we have three baseball players!

2007-06-06T12:03:00.001-07:00

Introducing...

2007-06-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Elijah "Eli" Carlton McKinney

Born May 19th, 7:15pm

5 lbs 14oz, 17" long

Welcomed by big brother and sister!

We are all adjusting well!

Bryce Canyon

2007-05-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made our first road trip in Utah. There are so many amazing place within a reasonably short drive or Salt Lake City, but we just haven't had the chance to visit any of them until now. (FYI: Utah has more national parks than any other state in the US) Bryce Canyon National Park is in southern Utah (about 4 1/2 hours south of here) and we chose it because it is one place where you can see the sights without having to hike the trails to see everything. You can drive through the park and stop at "viewing sights" to see the canyon from different points. There were a few easier, shorter trails that we walked on (with me stopping and sitting while Daniel and the kids went a little farther). It was HOT! It is a desert, and man, did it feel like it. I was so glad to have A/C in the hotel and the car (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I'm 9 months pregnant:) It really was beautiful and we hope to go back, next time to camp. Here are some pics of the park and the kids:

Funny Story of the Day...

2007-05-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

So, Joshua's at school and Emma's watching a video while I'm doing some stuff in the kitchen. She comes in and says, "Mommy, I saw a kitty cat." I, assuming she'd seen one on tv, said "You did? Where?" Then she, just as calmly as if it happened every day, said "It just went downstairs." I said "What?!!" We went downstairs and, sure enough, the neighbors cat was in our basement! We retrieved him, told him bye, and sent him on his way back home. :)
[In case you're wondering how he got in, I had been out in the garage earlier and had left the door open for a few minutes and he snuck in while I wasn't looking.]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.....

2007-04-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the temperatures here have finally gotten to the high 80s and (yes, we are spoiled) we escaped to the mountains yesterday afternoon for some relief. It was so nice - we found a little place right off the road with a stream and lots of shade. We all felt refreshed and much happier (especially me!) We walked along the trail and the kids played in the stream. Daniel and the kids went off-trail quite a bit for little "adventures" (I stayed on the flat parts, since my balance is a little off these days:)

This is Emma after throwing a rock in the stream. She thought this was the most fun thing and she threw rocks and then laughed with glee after each one for at least 20 minutes!

Joshua & Daniel crossed the stream on this log - Joshua was very proud of himself for making his way across and back!

Super-Dad:

Joshua climbed up the side of this rock (with only a little help from Daniel, really just a little guidance) all by himself - it was about 15-20 feet high. I see a rock climber in our future!

T-Ball

2007-04-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

This has been a lot of fun! We've had 3 games so far: it's a 4 & 5 year-olds team; there's no score or outs, just learning how to play. It is so cute! There has to be a dad at every base to tell the kids when and where to run and several dads in the outfield when it's our turn to tell them where to throw the ball when they get it. My two favorite things so far: Joshua slides every base; and when the kids are sitting in a group waiting for their turn to bat, he has the best time laughing and being a 4-year-old.

Here are some fun pics:

How about that view in the background of the ball field? Can't get much better than that, huh?

PINK EYE....

2007-03-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well, pink eye has hit our home...
I have never had the virus and neither have our children. I have no idea where Emma got it from, but she woke up this morning with a crusy, very pink eye. We went to the doctor this afternoon and got drops and antibiotics. We've been washing hands like crazy and I'm really hoping we don't all get it, but I guess we'll see...
As a side note, I started potty-training Emma this morning (before I realized for sure that she had pink eye). Things can never be easy, can they? Hopefully this won't slow down our progress with that - she doesn't seem to be having any discomfort yet. They chaos doesn't slow down for anything, does it?

The sweetest thing...

2007-03-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

I do think this may be one of the sweetest things I've seen as a mom yet. Joshua is sick today and is upstairs in his bed. He called down to Emma because he wanted her to come up and see him. The next thing I heard was her shutting the door and singing "You are my sunshine" to him (this is the song I sing to them every night before bed and he likes to hear it whenever he is sick or sad). How sweet is that! Then, when she finished, I heard him say "sing it again, Emma" and she's been singing it over and over for the last 5 minutes. It is times like this that outweigh the fighting, whining, screaming, etc. They really are the cutest kids ever!

He's growing up...

2007-03-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

It is so hard for me to believe sometimes how grown up Joshua is - these 4 years have passed so quickly and he amazes me almost every day. Here are some recent events in his "growing up" :

1. He has started school. We found a Montessori preschool that just opened in February and enrolled him shortly thereafter. It is called the Dancing Moose Montessori School and it is great! We have been very, very pleased with it so far and he loves it. He goes 2 mornings a week and it is just right for all of us.

2. He had his first friend sleepover (yes, I am crazy for those of you wondering). His friend (and our neighbor) Trevor spent the night a few weeks ago. Joshua had been asking me since Trevor had to miss his birthday party if he could spend the night sometime. And then the other week, he started asking me when he could spend the night. Well, we picked a Friday night, asked Trevor's mom, and had him over. It actually wasn't too bad. The boys play together better than almost any two kids I've seen. I never have to intervene and they include Emma really well too. They didn't sleep as much as Joshua normally does, but they had a blast! All that said, I don't think we'll be having any more sleepovers anytime soon :) Here's a pic of the 3 kids together from last fall.

3. And finally, we've signed him up for t-ball! We are all excited about starting that up in a few weeks. I think he is going to love it! He and Daniel have been playing ball in the yard in the afternoons lately and they are both loving it.

I know it all goes by so fast so I am trying to enjoy it while it's flying by. It's sometimes hard to remember that in the chaos and the tiredness of the everyday - but I do want to try to enjoy and live the moments as they come.

Birthday Party

2007-01-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

This year we had a joint birthday party for the kids (we don't know that many kids here, so we decided to invite them all for just one party). They agreed on a dinosaur theme - yes, Emma wanted dinosaurs, too. So I searched for a dinosaur cake pan and went for it (Joshua very specifically wanted a scary T-Rex cake, which I thankfully found). Here it is:

The kids had a great time: we had lots of balloons (something my kids love), games, and cake and ice cream (Emma's favorite!)

Our New Year

2007-01-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

This is pretty much what the first week of our new year looked like: my kids watched so much tv when they were sick, that I think they got their fill for the year 2007.

Sickness, Snow, & Siblings

2007-01-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

Sickness: Well, the stomach virus has now attacked the third member of our family (it hit Daniel during the night last night) and I'm praying that it stops there and doesn't hit me. This is a crazy virus - it lasts for 5 full days, has a "relapse" during that time, and passes to the next person 2 days later. I am very tired of bodily fluids and germs floating around!
Snow: The snow started again today as well. It melted about a week ago (the longest we've been without snow covering the ground in a month), but it's been snowing steadily all morning. I'm glad - I haven't gotten sick of the snow yet - and my mom is coming next week and she was anxious for some snow.
Siblings: It really has been amazing to me to watch my children's relationship as brother and sister develop. I was not close in age to my sisters, so it has been fun to see how close they are and will continue to be. Sometimes they can make each other laugh so hard and they can have the best time together; but other times, they can drive each other crazy. It is hard for me to believe that they both (even Emma) already know how to push each other's buttons and that they do so for the pure joy of seeing the other's reaction! Some of my favorite things they do together: sometimes at night after we put them to bed, you can hear them talking, singing, and laughing together for quite a while; when they watch tv on the couch, they practically sit on top of each other, even though we have a large couch; when Emma gets falls down or gets hurt, Joshua helps her up and when Joshua gets hurt, Emma gives him a kiss. They really do love each other dearly, for which I am so thankful. It makes the times when it is so hard and tiring worth it when I see moments like those.

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T15:18:00.000-08:00

Whew! It sure has been a few busy months (I can't believe it's been 4 mos. since my last blog). Since my last entry: we traveled to South Carolina for my sister's wedding (which was beautiful and a fun time!), which Joshua and I were a part of; the kids and I stayed for an extra week or so and got to go the beach and visit with family quite a bit; I left the kids behind with my parents and joined Daniel to go to Hawaii for his ordination exam before the presbytery; we had a wonderful week there - Daniel passed his exam and we had some great time together just the two of us; meanwhile, we found out we were pregnant again (we were very excited to find this out and have since found out we're having another boy!); we had family and friends come into town for 3 weekends in a row, starting with Thanksgiving and going through Daniel's ordination service weekend; Daniel's ordination service was Dec. 10 and was a huge event for our family, our church, and the PCA (he was the first PCA pastor ordained in the state of Utah) - we had lots of family and friends in town for the occasion and it was a great visit; then, of course, came the holidays and you know all know how busy those are. But now, life is calming down a little bit and we don't have any major plans for the spring. My mom is coming to visit next week and we are traveling a little, but other than that, it should be relatively calm.

I will try to blog more often and keep everyone updated more on the kids, our life here, etc.

Here are some recent pics:

Daniel's ordination:

Hawaii:

We had snow for about 2 weeks before Christmas - we enjoyed our 2nd white Christmas ever!
If any of you want to come enjoy the snow or the skiing, come out and see us - you've got a free place to stay!

Finally, a moment to catch my breath...and to blog

2006-08-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, life has begun to get back to normal (whatever that means - I actually don't think our life is ever really normal!) around here. For any of those who don't know, Daniel spent five days in the hospital a month ago (the night before the kids and I were supposed to fly to South Carolina for a beach trip) - hence the lack of time (and energy) to blog or do much else this last month. He was found to have blood clots in his lungs and was put on blood thinning medication and is doing much better now. He still is not 100% and probably won't be for a few more months (at least) so he's just trying to be patient with himself (a hard thing to do). It was a crazy week around here, but thankfully my mom was able to come stay with the kids so I could spend most of my time at the hospital. The kids visited almost every day too.
Otherwise, things have been going well. The kids are growing like crazy, as you can see:
note: tried to post pics here, but couldn't get it to work - will get Daniel's help when he has time.
Emma is just getting prettier every day, which is hard to believe. And she talks so much now. She imitates almost everything we say, especially Joshua. This week their thing has been pretending that they are dogs - Joshua is Spot and Emma is Sally. They crawl around barking and Joshua builds them a doghouse out of our couch pillows and wants me to play fetch and throw him "treats" for doing tricks. It really is funny. Tonight, after we put them to bed (ha, ha - you want us to sleep Mom & Dad?), they were up in their room calling Copper out the window (Emma just as clearly as Joshua), they were making rooster sounds, and talking and laughing for hours (yes, I said hours!). It was fun to listen to, even if they were supposed to be sleeping. They are enjoying each other more and more all the time. Emma follows Joshua around and wants to imitate everything he says and does. And today, Joshua must have asked me ten times if we could wake Emma up from her nap because he was ready to play. I am so thankful for their love and enjoyment of one another.
We're still enjoying life in Utah - the mountains are still beatiful, the weather is incredible (the humidity today was only about 10% - sorry to those of you in the South and St. Louis), and we really continue to feel called here. Life is good for now.

Things We've Been Doing

2006-07-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would tell you about some of the things we've been doing here for fun. Today we went to a place called Bouncin' Off the Walls. As you can guess, it was a great place for Joshua (since he bounces off the walls wherever he is anyway:). It is a warehouse full of inflatable slides, bouncing houses, etc. This morning it was only open for ages 5 and under and their parents. So it was great. Daniel and Joshua had a blast playing together. Emma, my more hesitant child, refused to get on any of the play equipment. I guess she doesn't like the idea of not standing on solid ground:) She had a great time just running around the rooms and watching all the other kids bouncing.
Yesterday, we went to Red Butte Gardens with our friends Karen, Braxton, & Wyatt. The kids had a great time running through the garden paths and looking for all the dinosaurs (there are huge dinosaur statues place throughout the gardens this summer - they were really cool!) It was a nice getaway and I always enjoy seeing so much of God's beauty in the flora he's created.
Other places we have visited that the kids have loved (and that Joshua often asks to return to) are: the Children's Museum (which had an actual cockpit of a Boeing airplane for the kids to climb into - very cool!), several farms and petting zoos in the area, the Salt Lake City zoo (nothing like the St. Louis zoo, which I have come to determine is one of the best zoos around, especially because it's free), and the City Library (the most amazing library I have ever been in and it has an entire floor just for kids). There is a huge playground set up like an old west town that we love to go to - I'll have to take some pics of it the next time we go. You won't believe it unless you see it. And one of Joshua's favorite places (believe it or not) is Cabella's, the outdoor store. You'd have to experience it to understand why - it's not just a store, it's a morning's entertainment. We've actually gone there more times than any other one thing. They love it and it's free!
That's a lot of details that you all might not want to read, but it gives you just an idea of the fun we've found around here. As you can probably tell, this city if VERY kid-friendly, so there are loads more things that we have yet to experience. I'll let you know as we do.

A Boy and His Dog

2006-06-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, we got a dog. I know many of you, like my mom, are thinking that I must be crazy. I have thought that about myself many times over the past week, but look at this face:

How can you resist? Plus, Joshua absolutely loves "his dog" and would take him everywhere if we could. He named him Copper (from the Fox and the Hound, even though he's not a hound dog). He is a sweet dog and I think if I can make it through the somewhat trying puppy stage, he will be a great dog for our family. Emma really loves him too.
For those of you who want to know, we got him last Friday (a week ago). Daniel and I were out on a date and as we were leaving the restaurant we passed a lady selling puppies (we were in a major intersection of stores, restaurants, etc.) and said "oh, let's just stop and look". Well, as you can tell we didn't just stop and look. We bought a puppy, went to PetsMart, and came home with what turned out to be the equivalent of a new baby (well not really, but almost!) He is now living outside and has a fence of his own, Daniel & Joshua are doing all the work for him, and he is learning to obey - so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

Visitors

2006-06-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

We have had the privilege of hosting two families from our church in St. Louis as they were traveling through the West. The first were the Craws - they were moving to California and stopped on their way out for one night. Their kids are 9 and 5 (two are twins) and our kids had a blast playing with them. This is all of them zoning in front of the tv so we could all get some peace and quiet for a few moments :)

Then, this week, the Andersons made our home one of the last stops on their 16-day "tour of the West" trip! We were so glad they decided to include us and were so impressed with the fact that they all still liked each other by the time they got here:)
Their kids are 17, 14, and 11 and they were so sweet to our kids. They read them stories, played with them, and just loved on them. Joshua and Emma just ate it up. We really all felt "loved on" and refreshed after they left. We took them to Temple Square and then went hiking at one of the ski resorts (they open the resorts in the summer for hiking, biking, etc.). Then Steve and the kids went to watch Daniel's softball game. We had a great time just hanging out with them and telling them about our lives here. They were so interested in us and encouraging about our work here. Thank you Andersons!
Here are some pics from their time here:

Friends

2006-06-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you that have been praying for friends for me - thank you! The Lord is so faithful and gracious. He has given me two women my age with small children to spend time with (just within the last week). They both have little boys that are in between Joshua & Emma in age , so that has been fun for the kids to have some new "friends". We have spent time with both of them over the last week and have made more plans with both as well. I am so thankful to the Lord and to all of you who prayed on my behalf.
Here is a pic of the kids playing at one friend's house. We got out the sprinklers - Emma had a blast. And Joshua and his friend "mowed the lawn".
Today, they are coming to our house and I think we'll get out the big play tent for the yard. We're all looking forward to it.
Next time, I'll try to write about some of the fun things we've been doing around town.

The Mountains

2006-06-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Definitely one of the highlights of living in Utah is the daily sight of the mountains. This is the view from our back deck.

It's also the view that greets me every morning (at least the mornings I get up before the kids) when I sit down to drink my coffee in the big chair and the peace and quiet. One thing I have grown to love and look forward to is the changes in the mountains that occur both throughout the day and as the weeks and seasons pass. The beauty is constant but is also constantly changing. As the sun moves across the sky, the change in light changes the mountains. As the weather warms up, the melting snow changes the mountains. (This picture was taken in early April while the mountains were white; today they are darker, almost gray, with just a few of the highest peaks still showing white.) If the sky is sunny or cloudy, that changes the mountains. What that means for me is that I look forward to seeing the mountains throughout the day and as each day passes - sometimes they are vibrantly contrasted against a brilliant blue sky, other times there is simply the outline of them as they start to blend into the twilight of the evening. I know this is a lot of writing about mountains, but if you could only see them - their beauty is worth many more words. I am so thankful that my children will grow up daily faced with the gigantic beauty of God's creation. And on many mornings, as I sit down and think about the difficulty and overwhelmingness (?) of my life, those mountains bring me face to face (literally) with the Creator, the Most High God, my God, who is bigger than everything in the world around me and who gave his son Jesus to redeem my life and my soul. That is why I love the mountains.

Life in Utah

2006-06-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

I have finally decided to join the world of bloggers. There are so many of you that are a part of our lives, but not with us every day. This blog is just going to be a way to let you in on our daily life here in Jordan - especially from the point of view of our family. I hope to include lots of pictures and regular updates on the things our amazing children are doing:) Thanks for wanting to know more about us, for loving us, and, especially, for praying for us.