Simply Youth Ministry Conference- Chicago

I had the opportunity to go with Aaron to his youth ministry conference this year. Aaron LOVES to soak in new information at these conferences, and always comes home from telling me all the fresh ideas he has learned. It was SUCH a joy to get to attend this conference with him, and talk about everything God was teaching us at the same time. Aaron and I went to some sessions together, but for some smaller sessions we went to different seminars that interested us. For instance, I went to a 2.5 hour seminar one day called "Raising your kids while in youth ministry." Oh my word, I was in a room with 100 women in my exact life situation. It was awesome. We had lots of small group discussions around our table, and it was so cool to see what all we had in common. We all had husbands in youth ministry and small children. We had SO much to talk about. I learned a WHOLE lot from some older women who were at my table. They will never know just how much they encouraged me! I really feel like God used them to speak some BIG words of truth to me that I needed to hear that week. I also went to a seminar on "Girls ministry and mentoring." I sometimes feel inadequate as a youth worker now that I'm so busy being a mom, but I was very encouraged through that seminar that even though I may be chasing Korben around at youth events, I can still mentor girls by taking advantage of every small moment to try to be a loving, godly influence on their lives. I could write a small book about everything God taught me and reminded me while at the Simply Youth Ministry conference in Chicago.

It wasn't just the conference that was awesome. Just getting away with my man was awesome! It was truly QUALITY time together! The sight-seeing in Chicago wasn't so bad either! It is actually one of the coolest places I have ever been. I love all "downtown" areas, but I have never been in a downtown that was quite this enormous and busy as well as beautiful, clean, and safe! If you go, you have to have Giordano's pizza. Of course, Chicago is known for their deep dish pizza. We tried the three biggest competitors, but Giordano s was so good that we had it two more times. Best pizza I have ever had!

We actually skipped out on our Sunday morning conference session and drove to visit Willow Creek church in Northern Chicago. Willow Creek is one of the largest churches in the nation, and it was educational in its own right to see how they operate there. We learned a lot from attending their worship service as well as the youth service that morning. Unforgettable experience.

And some more added perks for me were going to the gym in the morning, having unlimited hot water, and maid service. These are all silly things that I would have never cared about a few years ago, but I consider them all luxuries now. Ah, seasons of life!


Here are a few pictures!



Whether you agree with anything Oprah has to say or not, there is no denying that she is an American Icon. Her studio was in a convenient location, so I had to get a picture in front of the Harpo sign. Her show has been on the air as long as I've been alive. Crazy.
































The "magnificent mile" at night. Truly magnificent. Endless stores that are several stories high. Christmas lights in the trees. Just magical!
















Yes, we did attend the conference! :) There just weren't very many things to take pictures of while we were there!









































Gotta be careful!



































The coolest thing about downtown are the waterways that just go all through the middle of the city. I wish my pictures captured how beautiful all of this really was!




























In Millenium Park


















This is called "the cloud gate." It is an amazing architectural structure that is basically a big mirror of the city. I think I could have walked around it and stared at it for hours...maybe if it wasn't ridiculously cold!
















Pretty little skating rink. Didn't skate. Too cold. Gotta keep on moving!































Millenium Park Amphitheater. Obama gave his acceptance speech somewhere out here.


























































The Field Museum. I've been a dinosaur lover (nerd) since I was a kid. This is "Sue" the largest, most complete, T-Rex in the world!


























Me with my very favorite type of Dinosaur. The Brachiosaurus. They eat plants, not people!































On the steps of the Field Museum with part of the sky line behind us! So pretty!






















Aaron insisted on taking this picture outside after we saw the Diamond exhibit at the Field Museum. Y'all, this was a very cold moment. I have never been so excited to get in the car away from the cold wind!























The trip was perfect. I got to enjoy being with the man God made for me, while enjoying His beautiful creation. In the meantime, the Lord taught us how to better minister to His people. Awesome.

The Birthday Boy's Big Day!

My baby boy turned 2 last Wednesday! I have a zillion new stories I need to share, but for now I only have time to post pictures of his very special day. I will also post pictures soon of the birthday party he had last weekend when I can, but these are just pictures of "A day in the life with the birthday boy."




8:00 a.m. Woke up and played the drums (from Poppy) until Mom got breakfast ready!





































































8:30 Big breakfast and Birthday Cupcake #1







9:00 Played with tool set from Uncle Dustin and tent from Uncle John and Aunt Tommie Sue














































9:30 Outside in the gorgeous weather! Played in the swing, wagon, and then went on a 1 hour stroll to see the horses down the street!




















































Compare the next two pictures! The first was taken on Korben's birthday last year when his friend Brayden came over.























































































































12:30 Completed lunch and Birthday Cupcake #2























































5:00 After a 3 hour nap (must be a myth that sugar keeps you from sleeping), had dinner and the FINAL birthday cupcake!














5:30- All ready for church. Have to get our yearly (okay, well, I've only done it twice) picture with Geoffrey. Compare with the picture below. I don't know why the picture below is so small, but you can still tell just how much he has grown since his last birthday!







































Check out Korben's awesome shirt from Mopppy. SO him!
























He had the special privilege of practicing the drums with Adam at church! SO much fun for him!




































Korben with "Binda" (Linda Cain), one of his favorite people in the whole world. She might as well be family!


























Since he turned 2 that day, he promoted to the "play room" at church, and happily kissed "the baby room" good bye! You can see what a ball he had in there!




















































































So, that concludes a day in the life of a 2 year old! Pictures from his birthday party to come!

Rambling facts and memories

(Disclaimer: I am really sleepy, and I typed this without proofreading. Please have grace on my typos. I happened to be in the mood to "document" some things, so I though I better jump on it!)

Korben is just getting over a coughing/fever virus that resulted in double ear infections. This virus required two doctors visits, antibiotics and ear drops. We know everyone at cooper clinic all to well!

Just a week and a half before that Korben had strep throat. Of course, we all ended up catching it. This required doctors visits for Koben and me, as well as antibiotics for the whole family. Aaron's didn't get very bad because he caught it quickly with antibiotics. Mine was pretty ugly. Wish I could have taken a picture of the back of my throat. It could have been in a medical textbook

Of course 1-2 weeks before that we all had the stomach bug.

And a few weeks before that, Korben was on an antibiotic for a respiratory infection right after the new year.


To say the least, my little one still catches everything. It is always "whatever is going around." His doctors are not worried. They say it is normal for toddlers to be sick a lot when they play with other kids. They promise me his immunity will be exceptional by Kindergarten. I am praying that is true!


Somewhere in the middle of all this, I've had another gallbladder attack (I think) and frequent "pains." I have seen a GI doctor now, and agrees that it sounds like my gallbladder although none of my tests have shown that I have stones. He says that not all stones show up on ultrasounds and I may have stones that are the size of grans of sand. They do not go away on their own and will eventually form into bigger stones. There is a whole lot more I could say on this issue, but for some reason it is just not fun to talk about my gallbladder. I would much rather talk about Korben. Basically, I'm having a scope done on the 9th to rule-out anything bad going on in my stomach (Doctor doesn't think so, he just wants to cover his bases), and then I'm meeting with a surgeon on the 12th to talk about my gallbladder. Fun times.


So, what is Korben up to? Well, It is like night and day around here when Korben goes from being sick to well. He has been sick so much lately that I was starting to forget just how much fun he is when he is well. Korben is officially back, in all of his high-energy. If he is not dancing, he is drumming or playing his guitar. Everything is a drum to him. Even if I am buying groceries, each item I put in the cart is just another "drum" and he has to beat it to see how it sounds. And he talks...constantly. And repetitively. If the thinks you didn't hear him the first time, don't worry, you will hear it again, and again, and again.

He is not making much progress on learning his colors. It is almost humorous to hear him call four different colored crayons all "yellow." However, he is really exceptional with his shapes. He points out every heart, star, square, circle, or triangle he sees anywhere! This brings me to a story. On Saturday night I was putting Korben to bed and reading him a story. He has certain books that we read EVERY night. One is the farm book, which is an oversized hard back book with enormous pictures of everything relating to the farm. He was flipping the pages naming everything, as normal. He named the "pumpkin" and "scarecrow", then he started yelling "RANGLE!, RANGLE!" I was like, "What?" He continued to yell that and point at the scarecrow (which he had already named correctly). Then, out of frustration, he walked over and got his red triangle puzzle piece from his shapes puzzle and plopped it down on the scarecrow's nose, which I NOW noticed was a red triangle. Then he said "RANGLE" again, and it hit me..."Oh, TRIANGLE!!" AWESOME! I was so proud I almost cried. Bless his heart, all that time he was just trying to tell me that the scarecrow had a triangle for a nose. I thought it was brilliant that he was able to "think out of the box" and go get the puzzle piece for me to understand him. He knew I was so proud, and he was so proud of himself. He just smiled and hugged me over and over once he realized we were on the same page. So sweet!

This past weekend was our TWEEKEND event with the youth. Korben really liked going to hear the music. We stayed in the balcony and worshiped while the band played, but as soon as Daddy came on stage we had to leave. Korben doesn't understand that he can't yell at his Daddy every time he sees him on stage. I tried to cover his mouth one time when he yelled out and then he yelled "NOOOOO" even louder. I guess we will just be participating during worship for now!

Korben has so many FAVORITE people at church. Linda, June, Doris, Paul, Josh, and Scott! Korben adores our worship leader, Scott. Scott's wife Brittany is Aaron's secretary. He loves Brittany (who he calls "Omni"), but ADORES Scott (who he calls "Scotts"). We have a CD that Scott recorded in our car, and we hardly ever get past the first song because Korben wants to hear "Scotts, AGAIN! Scotts Guitar, Again!" Scott has NOOOOO idea how much he is talked about at our house (and in our car) by Korben! If I turn down the music for any reason, he immediately reminds me to turn it back up! Such. A. Mess.

We had Korben's two year old pictures done with Leigh Ann today. Seems like yesterday that we did his one year pictures! He was a little clingy/shy at first, but it didn't take long for him to be his ultimate "ham" self. I had been telling him all day that Leigh Ann was going to take his picture. I also told him that Leigh Ann had candy. For some reason, he decided he would call her "Lamp", so all the way there, he said "Lamp...Candy!" We slipped her some smarties candy to bribe him with and that was all it took! Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures on here in the next few days...stay tuned!

I posted this on my facebook the other day, but my blog is my baby book so I better write some of these stats on here. Korben is a little over 30 pounds, and really tall (not sure how many inches). He is wearing 3T jeans now! The length is perfect, and thanks the the adjustable waist, they are a perfect fit! I bought him his first pair of size 9 shoes and they also fit PERFECTLY. I don't know why I'm surprised his feet are so big with me wearing a size 10 and Aaron wearing a 15. There is no way he can get around big feet with our genes! He is in a size six diaper. He is not very into eating these days, but from what I hear from all my toddler mom friends, that is normal for this age. Oh well, I'm never going to stop offering. I hear that boys eventually like to eat! He seems to be doing better on the lactose intolerance issues. We have switched him from soy milk to lactose free milk. The lactose free milk has more calories and fat, which is a good thing for his age. He eats yogurt and butter on things regularly and never has a problem. He has even eaten several thing with cheese on it lately (even multiple bags of whole grain cheddar goldfish), and had no problems. Maybe he is growing out of it? Only time will tell!

Aaron and I are attending the "Simply Youth Ministry" conference in Chicago at the end of this week. I am so excited for a hundred reasons! When we get back it will be just a few short days until Korben's birthday party. We are having a "farm" themed party at CC's farm. It is going to be so much fun!

God is ridiculously good to us, and I'm so grateful for all he is doing in our lives. We are having a blast.

Snowman and curly hair!

Aaron made Korben his very own snowman! Korben and I watched his every move from the window. Korben would clap and say "awesome!", "man-man" (snowman), and "Yay, Daddy!" Aaron is so talented. He is so creative, and anything he ever does he does exceptionally well. I think his snowman is awesome! Especially for making it all by himself!












































Just had to share these pics of my curly headed little guy! It is not always this curly, but sometimes when he wakes up from his naps it is out of control like this! A lot of people said that after we got the first hair cut, Korben would lose his curls. Now that his hair is getting long again, I guess we are seeing that isn't true! I'm so glad! I love his curls!

Korben's First Snow Experience!

Fort Smith was lucky enough to get SIX gorgeous inches of snow (or at least, that is what we measured in our back yard!) It snowed all yesterday afternoon and all night. I seriously felt like we were living inside a snow globe. It was so beautiful! It had stopped snowing this morning, so it was time for Korben to experience it for the first time! Even though we have told him it is called "snow" , he continues to call it "man-man" which is his word for snowman. He got that word down pat at Christmas time after looking at so many snowman christmas decorations just a few months ago. When we finished playing in the snow today, without prompting, said "Bye Bye, Man-man." it was so cute. I guess we should have built him a snowman. The day is not over! :)

Soon, I will put up the video Aaron took with his camera of Korben actually walking out into the snow for the first time. It is on facebook, if you haven't already seen it. It was so hilarious because he didn't like it at all. Especially the fact that it was getting all over his shoes. He just kept saying "Shoes, Shoes."

We convinced him to stand in it long enough for me to shoot a little video of him in the snow. He thought it was funny when Aaron threw a snowball at me.





Here he is telling his Daddy to, "ZIP IT!" His coat, that is.






























"Cheese!"




























































































































This picture sort of looks like Korben is sitting in the snow, but he is just hanging in the air in an "L" shaped position. This is the position he would lock himself in if we would try to put him down. He did NOT want to get back int he snow! It was absolutely hilarious. The abdominal strength it took him to hold this position was astounding.

























It has been an incredibly fun weekend! The past couple nights Aaron and I have enjoyed watching the entire first season of the TV show "Friday Night Lights." We found that the first three seasons are available to watch free through our "live stream" netflix that we can watch through Aaron's X-box. If that sentence didn't make any sense, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Anyway, we have fallen in love with this TV show that started in 2006 on NBC about a high school football team in Dillon, TX. It is SO addicting! We only have to watch about 30 more episodes to be caught up to the year 2010. I am currently drinking my homemade french onion soup out of a mug as I finish up my blog, Aaron is playing a video game, Korben is napping...the house is quiet. I'm staring at the gorgeous snow through the window. These are precious memories I will never forget. What wonderful weekend this has been for our family.