Christmas Card

We didn't send out a Christmas card this year

for fear it might end up like this one!!

Fun in the Leaves!

Claire Elizabeth's Baptism

Claire Elizabeth was baptized today. It was wonderful...right in the middle of Advent. She was baptized at the same time as her cousin (Rick's sister's son) Sam.
Sam was baptized first and Kate was saying "Sam's getting baptized!" and "What about Claire??"
After the covenant vows, the father names the child and gives a blessing. Here's how it went:

Pastor: Father, name your child.
Rick: Claire Elizabeth.

May God make you wise among your peers. May He give you eyes to see His truth and a heart of repentance and faithfulness persevering in His ways throughout your life.
Your mother and I love you and our hope is that you will be a blameless and innocent child of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as light in the world, holding fast to the word of life. (Phil 2:15)
May you regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. (1 Peter 3:15)

Peggy's Source of Pride

When Peggy was pregnant with Kate, she spoke often of this one "little" arm hair that was extremely long. She joked (more than once) that we should call the guinness book of world records.

Well, it looks like she was right, and if we had called, the article below might have been about her!

Man seeks record for arm hair length

Kate-23 months old-11-22-06

My dear Kate,

Wow! I can’t believe you are almost 2 years old! You’ve been sick a lot this month which has been hard. We keep passing stuff back and forth. You are such a sweet girl and you love to sing and to color. You can sing your “ABCs” now except you leave out T-U-V. You LOVE to play with makeup!! You still sleep from 7pm-7am and take one nap from 1pm-3:30 or 4pm. You are such a great big sister to little Claire and the 2 of you are interacting more and more now that she can do more things. Sometimes you try and share a toy with her but you take it right back. It’s hard to learn to share!
You love to pray each night and you say you need to “get on your knees.” Sometimes I think it’s a stall tactic not to go to bed but you do like to pray and thank God for everybody. It’s so sweet and I love to hear you say “I love you God…I love you Jesus.” How I pray that you will always say so.
I’m in a bible study each week and you get a little lesson while I’m in class. You learn bible stories, sing songs and have a memory verse. Right now you know, “Do not be afraid…your prayers have been heard.” Luke 1:13 It’s sung to a little tune which is helpful. You say “do not be afraid…your CARES have been heard.” It’s really neat though because I’ve been able to use it with you lately because sometimes you are scared of different things and I’ll say your verse to you. What a great verse to know and how great to learn it so young.
We have an exciting month coming up! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we also have your birthday party! I am thankful for you Kate and I do love you.

I love you now and always,
Mommy