We Be Jammin’

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you know by now that Rob got me an acoustic guitar for Christmas.  I did get it early so that I can start learning and I am having a BLAST with it.  But I am not the only musician in the family.  Cade is our rapper, I play the piano, Rob…well he wants to learn to play something, and then there’s the Grace!!!  She is our newest band member with her Paper Jamz guitar.  The kids got those for Christmas at a family get together, and they are the best things.  They like them even better than the cat!

Here is SaraGrace and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot!”

She really is destined to be a star!  That really concerns me…

Now Cade has one too, and he loves to jam.  I wanted to video him, but he had just gotten out of the shower and didn’t want to put anything on other than his underwear. He said he didn’t need any clothes on.  Well, I’m sure he would have rocked it like nobody’s business, but I convinced him to wait until he was clothed.  So stay tuned….maybe we can get the Streaker Jammer to get dressed and play for us.

Little SassyPants

This little girl knows she is sassy!  The problem is, sometimes she is so darn funny that it is hard to get on to her.  Here are some of the funniest things she has said this last week.

We were driving in the car on the way to school.  She decides to tell me,

“When someone is mean to me, I don’t trust them anymore.”  WHAT!?!  How does she know what trust is?  I said, “who is mean to you?”

She said, “You and Daddy.”

“How are we mean to you?”

“Sometimes you spank me.”

“SaraGrace, did you know that Jesus tells Mommy and Daddy in the Bible that they have to discipline their kids?”

“Jesus said that?”

“He sure did!”

“Then I don’t trust him anymore either.” 

 

Last night we went to Bethlehem Live in our little town.  SaraGrace was so excited to go to Bethlehem and see Mary and “Jofus” and Baby Jesus.  She said, “I can’t believe I am going to see the real Baby Jesus.”

I had to explain to her that they were going to be some people pretending to be Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus.  She was a little disappointed because she really wanted to hold Baby Jesus.  When we got ready to leave, she said, “Mommy.  I want to go tell all of the fake people bye.”

There is never a dull moment, that is for sure!

A Little Christmas Cheer

I love Christmas, yet I know this one will be a little tough.  But the Lord has been so gracious to provide us with so many blessings this Christmas season.  I wanted to share with you a couple of fun and sweet things that have happened in the Vaughn house, lately.

The kids got their first Christmas gift.  They have been BEGGING for a pet, and Rob was not about to give in.  Then, I guess he got into the Christmas spirit and told the youngins they could have a hamster if Momma would take care of it. HECK TO THE NO!!!!!  I am not going to take care of a rat.  So I was the immediate villain because I had crushed their dream of having a pet.  In an effort to justify the pet, SG decided they should get a “penny pig”.  That is just an overgrown hamster.  I finally talked Rob into the unimaginable…

 

Here is…wait for it…..Miss Kitty!  I thought we should name her Jingle Bell, but Kitty won.  She has been a lot of fun, and has tried to wreak havoc on my Christmas tree.

 

On another note, SaraGrace had to write Santa a letter in class.  She told the teacher what to write.  I have to tell you she made me so proud!

I think she may be a little disappointed because I don’t think there is a horsey in her future:(  But how sweet is she!

Christmas has come to mean so much more to our family than just a family get-together and fun gifts.  I have always been taught the true meaning of Christmas, but to experience it is a different story.

Many people have asked how we are doing this season.  Honestly, we are doing very well.  Of course, there are moments when it’s hard to imagine Christmas without our child, but it is in those moments I am reminded that she wouldn’t leave Heaven to come be with us for one second!!!  She is well taken care of. 

Earlier this week, my dear friend Ashley brought something to me.  It was in a silver box.  She told me the story before I could open it, and it goes like this….

Ashley and her husband were in Lowes looking for some paint.  Spray paint to be exact.  As they were looking through the paint, the silver box caught her eye.  It was a Christmas ornament sitting ALL BY ITSELF.  Keep in mind that the paint section and the Christmas section at Lowes are in completely different locations.  When she looked at the ornament closely, she said her eyes filled with tears because she knew that it was a God Wink.

It was no coincidence that this particular ornament sat all by it’s lonesome in the middle of the paint section.  I know it was Jesus reminding me that He is still here.  He still knows my heart.  He knows my hurts.  And He loves me so much! 

As we get closer to Christmas day, I find myself not dreading it.  This is because the Lord has spoken something so clearly to me.  Yes Christmas is a time that you spend with family, reading the Christmas story, exchanging gifts, and really counting your blessings.  It is particularly hard when you are missing a family member, and one of your greatest blessings is spending Christmas in Heaven.  But what makes Christmas so exciting for us this year, is knowing that because of Baby Jesus born in a manger, we have the hope of seeing Faith in Heaven.  That hope would not exist if Christmas didn’t exist.  So this year, I am so much more thankful for the gift of Jesus, because I know that my daughter has received the gift of eternal life in Heaven, and that I will one day join her.

Don’t miss out on this precious gift of Jesus.  He has done all of the work.  He was born in the flesh, endured much suffering and even death to offer us the greatest gift ever!  He is alive today and wants nothing more than for you to accept His gift of salvation.  Celebrate the REAL meaning of Christmas and give Him the gift of your heart!

Star Panda

It has happened!  SaraGrace has finally received the coveted “Star Panda” award in her class.  Now, she has been expecting this award for quite sometime.

You see, SaraGrace had a little bit of a hard time staying on “Green” the first part of school.  But, she has done a marvelous job and has been on GREEN every day for nearly the last 2 months.  Every day when we pick her up, she is so proud to show me the color she is on.

I was really bragging on her a couple of weeks ago.  I was telling her how proud we all were of her.  And she said, “Well, no one else is proud.  I haven’t even got the Star Panda.”  She named off EVERY child that had gotten it, and her frown got bigger with each kid’s name.

As Star Panda, you get to decorate a panda bear and fill out a little fact sheet about yourself.  She has worried me to death about decorating that panda, so without further ado, I present SaraGrace’s STAR PANDA:

Heaven help us with all that glitter! 

We are so very proud of her, but not quite as proud as she is of herself!

What Have the Vaughn’s Been Up To?

It seems as though it has been forever since I blogged.  There really is no good reason except that we have been SUPER busy.  This is a catch-up post with many random photos and a really funny video.

First things first:  Last weekend, we went to the Hun-Tin House.  I watched another 8-point walk by and then may have had a little “hunter’s remorse” because I didn’t see anything else until….

Late Sunday afternoon, I hunted ALL BY MYSELF.  No Rob, no kids.  Just me and my gun.  I was just a little proud!

We have also been decorating for Christmas!  This is the first year that we have had outside lights.  Partly because Rob doesn’t get real excited about them.  But the Lord did a great work in him, because he was so motivated to get them up.

 

 

This one cracks me up!  He is now remembering we need to trim the trees.

But the finished product looks AMAZING!  Our kids  squealed with excitement, and Daddy was so proud:)

 

Our Christmas Tree:

My favorite part is my new tree skirt.  Kiss had her mother in law make it.  It says “The Vaughn’s” and has all of our names on it…including Faith’s.  It is very special!!!

The stockings were hung…

Every Christmas, we each get an ornament that represents something from the past year.  We started making them a couple of years ago.  We aren’t finished, but this is what we have so far…

SaraGrace has fallen in love with cheerleading, so it was only PERFECT we made a cheerleader.  She said, “It looks just like me Mommy!”

 

  Since Cade killed his first deer, he got a deer ornament.  I shaped it and baked it, but he painted it.

His annual football ornament with the team and number.  He painted this one too.  He was really proud of it:)

 

Speaking of Cade, he has been getting breathing treatments the last  couple of days.  These things take FOREVER, and Cade just can’t sit still.  So, he has started singing to entertain himself.  I caught him rapping the other night.  Once he saw me recording, he really turned it on. 

He may not be Busta Rhymes, but he sure is BUSTA BREATHER!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I promise to be a better blogger next week.

A Faith-filled Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving weekend was a great one.  I have some hunting stories and pictures to share, but I wanted to share about our first Thanksgiving after losing a child.

It’s no surprise that holidays bring a whole new dimension of grief.  It’s just a reminder of what could have been.  I can remember at every Thanksgiving as a child, we would go around the table and say what we were thankful for.  As I thought about what I would say this year, I had mixed emotions.  Of course I am thankful for Jesus, my family, and all of the other standard answers.  I am truly thankful for my husband and my children- all three of them.  I am thankful for the joy and the wonderful blessings that Jesus gave us through Faith’s life.  And I am being very honest when I say I am thankful for the heartbreak that came as well.  We have grown so much through every aspect of this experience, and I am so thankful for that. 

Part of me will be so thankful when 2011 is in the history books, yet the rest of me will be sad.  We will leave behind the only time we had with her, and that will be hard.  But I wanted to share a couple of ways that Faith was sprinkled through our Thanksgiving holiday.

Early Tuesday afternoon, I got a text from Christina with a picture of a turkey flower they took to Faith’s garden.  It touched me so much that they remembered her.  We went and visited her “garden” and this is what was there.

 

While we were there, we ran into Mrs. Patti and some of her acteen girls.  She said that they were there to pray for the families that are grieving this Thanksgiving.  She was truly a God-send that day.  A God Wink that He still cares:)

Later Tuesday night, as we were putting up our Christmas lights (now that’s a post!!!), Cade wrote a letter he wanted me and his daddy to read.

 

This kid amazes me by the way he shares his heart.  Yet my heart breaks for him because he is still trying to understand.

Thursday was hard, and Christmas shopping on Thursday night was really hard.  I thought about what we would be buying Faith for her first Christmas.  But I knew I couldn’t dwell on it.  I just prayed and asked the Lord to help me through the weekend, and He certainly did.

Saturday morning, I got this picture from my best friend, Amy.

She had been to Faith’s garden and left a Christmas tree plant.  I truly have the BEST friends a girl could ask for.  And I know that they are a gift from my Heavenly Father.

Sunday morning, out of the blue, SaraGrace asked me, “Mommy, how did Faith get out of your arms?”  I looked at Rob with a puzzled look on my face, as I tried to understand exactly what she was asking.  After a little prodding, she was trying to understand how Faith left my arms and went to Heaven.  The whole earthly body/heavenly spirit concept is a little too deep for a four-year-old, so again, I asked the Lord to fill in the gaps here.  I just explained, “Well, Jesus took Faith’s heart to Heaven, and gave her a new body that was perfect, so now she doesn’t hurt anymore.”  She seemed satisfied with that answer, so we left it at that.

And finally, last night, Rob was talking to Cade about all of the things that  Jesus has done for us.  Cade told his daddy that one of the best things Jesus ever did for him, was to make his video game work even though it was scratched up really bad.  Rob asked him what was the BEST thing Jesus had ever done, and his response was nothing short of the Lord showing us that He is in control, and that Cade would one day understand why his sister went to Heaven.  He answered, “The best thing Jesus ever did was to take Faith to Heaven so nothing bad could ever happen to her.”  It was at that moment, that I was truly able to be thankful for all that had happened this past year.  To have my eight year old make peace with something that has hurt him so much over the last year was something to be truly thankful for!

Weekend Roundup

We had a busy, but fun weekend.  It started with SaraGrace’s Thanksgiving feast at school.  Her class dressed as Indians, and they were so cute!  Here is a video of a song they sang:

Here is our little Indian with her cute little Chief:

These two are something else!

Then it was time to head to the Hun-Tin house. 

We got to hunt on Saturday morning.  I have nothing to report, other than seeing a bobcat.  However, I would like to show you how high class of a hunting camp we have.  In the woods, there are many trails.  I would get lost if Rob didn’t drive.  It all looks alike.  To solve this problem, my Dad came up with some jam-up trail markers.  This is how we roll:

Literally!  We mark the trails with toilet paper.  What a marvel idea! 

Saturday afternoon, we had an exciting time.  We about got ambushed by some hogs walking to our stand.  When we finally made it there, these boys came out to keep us company.

They stayed for quite some time.  Then we saw a spike, a couple of does, and then….one ambitious little buck.  We didn’t even notice him until we heard something sniffing the leaves under our box.  Rob looked in the reflection of the window, and it was a 4 point.  He was looking for something.  He hit his horns on the outside, so it scared him.  Here he is walking away from the box.

Bless his little heart, he tried all afternoon to get some attention from the ladies, but they would have nothing of it.  Give it some time, young man.  Your day will come!

It was a great weekend, and I can’t wait for this one.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorites!!!