Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Kailey's One Year Pictures
Kristin just put Kailey's one year pictures up on her site. You can go to http://www.kristinmorales.com/index2.php, click on client and type in Critz as the password. Just don't look at the ones of me! Yikes! I love having pictures done of my kids but should really stay out of them. : ) Anyway, there are several that capture Kailey's personality so well! Kristin does it again!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Kailey's Pink Party
Making Kailey's cupcakes. All the "Little People" helped us. : )
Showing Bimi her birthday present
Reading her baby a book
Talking to Memaw Cox
Happy about finally getting to eat cake like everyone else
Yum! She didn't get any on her pretty dress!
Sharing the rest with Mom
LJ driving his friends around in his golf cart.
The party crew - minus a few who had left. Such fun! Many kudos to the guys who were willing to wear pink for the party (and to the wives who dressed them). True men.Thursday, November 15, 2007
Happy Birthday, Princess!
I completely missed blogging on Kailey's birthday. It has been a busy week full of fun things. Being the classy girl that she is, Kailey went shopping in Dallas on Tuesday night (her actual birthday) after having a wonderful pink party on Saturday! Thank you so much to those who called, e-mailed, and/or attended her party! She has such special people to love her. I pray that she already knows how richly blessed she is.
I will post more pictures but thought I would share my birthday letter for Kailey on her first birthday.
My Precious Sunshine,
This year has flown. I can vividly relive each detail of this day last year and have trouble believing that there could possibly have been 365 days between then and now. Yet it is also difficult to comprehend how you could have spread so much joy in a mere 12 months. There is no way to describe the blessing of you. You are everything precious, beautiful, joyful, and wonderful. You are already my little companion - sharing with me in girl things, mommy things, sweet things, and pretty things. You are a buddy to your brother - playing ball and tagging along right behind him. You are a princess to your daddy - grabbing his heart and holding it in that tiny grasp.
You have done everything early, seeming to run to meet milestones that I would have been willing to postpone. You seem to already have a desire to remind me that you are not a baby but a growing girl who needs responsibilities. : ) You want to help, snuggle, comfort, love, and cheer everyone you meet. I am in constant amazement at God's ability to use your sweet presence in a shopping mall, a grocery store, or a restaurant to put a smile on someone's face and cause them to open up and share with us. I pray to constantly be ready to walk through the doors God uses you to open and to reach out to others. I know you will always be challenging me to do better simply by being yourself.
Less than two years ago, your daddy and I were crying out to God for you, knowing that there was something missing from our family. That something was you! When we asked God what He wanted us to do, He told us to stand firm and see Him deliver us from the long and difficult road we had been on. God gave us a story in the Bible of Him fighting for His people as they praised Him. At the end of the story they ended up with so many riches when their enemies were defeated, that it took them three days to carry it away! We felt that was our promise from Him, treasure beyond our expectations. You have been beyond what we could have dreamed. Because of that we decided to name you, "Kailey" which means "crown." Our treasure given in God's victory over our struggles! He is so good!
My precious Kailey Abigail, there is not a day that I take you for granted, not a night that I put you to bed without pouring out a heart of gratitude to God for giving you to me. In no way could I ever deserve to be your mother and have the joy of spending these precious years with you, but I can never thank God enough for His graciousness in allowing me that priceless privilege.
Oh, how I love you. But always remember, He loves you unfathomably more. He will be your everything if you will only let Him. How I pray for you to walk with Him each hour of every day for the rest of your life. There is no real living outside of Him. No real joy unless He is at the center of it. If I could only ask one thing for you, baby girl, it would be to know His love and to return it with everything you have. If you do that, everything else will fall into place.
Happy Birthday, my love. May there be many more full of the love, family and friendship that this one has been. You are a blessed baby girl.
Mommy
I will post more pictures but thought I would share my birthday letter for Kailey on her first birthday.
My Precious Sunshine,
This year has flown. I can vividly relive each detail of this day last year and have trouble believing that there could possibly have been 365 days between then and now. Yet it is also difficult to comprehend how you could have spread so much joy in a mere 12 months. There is no way to describe the blessing of you. You are everything precious, beautiful, joyful, and wonderful. You are already my little companion - sharing with me in girl things, mommy things, sweet things, and pretty things. You are a buddy to your brother - playing ball and tagging along right behind him. You are a princess to your daddy - grabbing his heart and holding it in that tiny grasp.
You have done everything early, seeming to run to meet milestones that I would have been willing to postpone. You seem to already have a desire to remind me that you are not a baby but a growing girl who needs responsibilities. : ) You want to help, snuggle, comfort, love, and cheer everyone you meet. I am in constant amazement at God's ability to use your sweet presence in a shopping mall, a grocery store, or a restaurant to put a smile on someone's face and cause them to open up and share with us. I pray to constantly be ready to walk through the doors God uses you to open and to reach out to others. I know you will always be challenging me to do better simply by being yourself.
Less than two years ago, your daddy and I were crying out to God for you, knowing that there was something missing from our family. That something was you! When we asked God what He wanted us to do, He told us to stand firm and see Him deliver us from the long and difficult road we had been on. God gave us a story in the Bible of Him fighting for His people as they praised Him. At the end of the story they ended up with so many riches when their enemies were defeated, that it took them three days to carry it away! We felt that was our promise from Him, treasure beyond our expectations. You have been beyond what we could have dreamed. Because of that we decided to name you, "Kailey" which means "crown." Our treasure given in God's victory over our struggles! He is so good!
My precious Kailey Abigail, there is not a day that I take you for granted, not a night that I put you to bed without pouring out a heart of gratitude to God for giving you to me. In no way could I ever deserve to be your mother and have the joy of spending these precious years with you, but I can never thank God enough for His graciousness in allowing me that priceless privilege.
Oh, how I love you. But always remember, He loves you unfathomably more. He will be your everything if you will only let Him. How I pray for you to walk with Him each hour of every day for the rest of your life. There is no real living outside of Him. No real joy unless He is at the center of it. If I could only ask one thing for you, baby girl, it would be to know His love and to return it with everything you have. If you do that, everything else will fall into place.
Happy Birthday, my love. May there be many more full of the love, family and friendship that this one has been. You are a blessed baby girl.
Mommy
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Walky Talky Dolly
I think I completely failed to mention that Kailey started walking a month ago. : ) Nice, Mom. She is everywhere now and refuses to crawl anymore. This is the goal she worked so hard to achieve and she will not do anything but walk, even if there is a faster option available. Here she is with her "pup pup." She gets so excited she can hardly stand it whenever Noel is around. Noel is getting a lot of good playtime these days with my kids outside constantly. Kailey also recently started making some animal noises which crack us up. She likes to moo and neigh and mooing requires her to throw her head up in the air kind of like a coyote howling. It's pretty funny. She is also completely obsessed with babies, whether real or dolls. She hugs them and makes all the little cooing noises that a mommy makes. Precious. My mom calls her a walky, talky dolly. That pretty much sums it up!
Friday, November 02, 2007
No Fear Party
I'm going to put a disclaimer on this before I even start. I usually don't discuss this with other people because I don't want them to feel that I am trying to tell them how to do or not do this. I'm not! It's the furthest thing from my mind. I just want to share how excited I am about what God prompted us to do this year! This is between us and Him and has absolutely NO bearings on my love and respect for how you choose to do things in your family (which, by the way, is how I feel about anything you and I do differently). There are choices you make in your families that constantly challenge me to rethink my decisions and ask God if He is wanting something else from us. Okay, now I feel better, and I love each of you!
Can I just tell you how much fun we had Wednesday?!!! In the past I have completely dreaded this time of year. I personally dislike everything about Halloween. The fear, greediness, and darkness that drive the holiday for most people disturb me. I dislike going to the grocery store and having to steer my small children around blood, skeletons, and life size grim reapers. I dislike that kids will gripe about people not giving out the right candy or enough of it when their bags are full of enough sugar to make you sick looking at it. I cannot find a way to align this with my beliefs of what I should teach my family. Witches and demons and evil are real, not playthings. They are part of the Enemy's army and we are on the other side. I am teaching them that God is love and casts out fear. So why toy with it or celebrate it?
In the past we have avoided the holiday. We do something else and treat that day like any other. We go to dinner or hang out with family. As it approached this year, I found myself desiring more. I felt prompted to do more than just find a safe or fun alternative when I could redeem this for God's glory. So, I did something that I often forget to do, but, whenever I remember, I am blown away by His willingness to answer in even the smallest of issues. I asked for creativity. I am not by nature the most creative person around. The great thing about this lack on my part is that whenever I experience a burst of it, I know it's God and not me. Anyway, as I prayed, the ideas just started coming. I talked to John and we decided that we really wanted to focus on the opportunity to interact with our neighbors. I mean, how often do all of your neighbors show up at your front door?
So, we scheduled our first ever Critz family "No Fear Party." All during the day, LJ and I talked about God's power and how He is bigger, stronger, and more powerful than anything or anyone else so we have nothing to fear. We listened to praise songs like "God is Big" and made a poster that listed things that are big but still smaller than God. We also wrote down things we don't have to fear like fire, thunder, and bad guys. I wrote it exactly like he said it and he was very proud of his decorating skills. Then, while he was watching a movie about God helping us not to fear, I made some snacks that reminded us of Bible stories where God was powerful. You can see those in the pictures below. LJ and Kailey dressed up like animals on Noah's Ark and made an ark out of sofa pillows. Daddy ended up playing with the praise band for Fallfest so we stayed home to pass out candy and showed him all of our "No Fear" goodies when he got home. A few family members stopped by to eat dinner with us and see our little projects. When the kids started arriving, we passed out candy, met neighbors, and that night we prayed that each child and family who had come to our door would experience God's power in their lives, dissolving all their fears. Several weeks ago LJ and I chose some pumpkins and wrote verses about God's love and power over fear on them to put on our porch. One cute little boy that came to the door asked me what my pumpkins meant. I told him what they meant and he ran back to his mom yelling, "Mom, they're Christians in that house!" Now I just pray to daily live in a way as I come and go among my neighbors that backs up that title that includes my Lord's precious name!
All in all we considered our day a massive success and all glory goes to God for His creativity! He is so faithful to hear my cries as a mom even on seemingly insignificant things like this holiday. LJ has continued to talk about God's power and not being afraid since then. After all this, I am definitely asking Him for some Thanksgiving ideas! : )
The dinosaur watching a Hermie video about not being afraid
Some of our snacks: David's staff and stones (pretzels and raisins), Animals in the ark (animal crackers), Daniel's lion (a lion craft), and one not pictured was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (sour patch kids in red jello). You can also see our poster in the back.
Even Goldie helped us out and played the part of the big fish. The little green guy is, of course, Jonah
The dinosaur and the duck in the ark
The dinosaur hugging the duck. The ark must have been a happy place. : )
Can I just tell you how much fun we had Wednesday?!!! In the past I have completely dreaded this time of year. I personally dislike everything about Halloween. The fear, greediness, and darkness that drive the holiday for most people disturb me. I dislike going to the grocery store and having to steer my small children around blood, skeletons, and life size grim reapers. I dislike that kids will gripe about people not giving out the right candy or enough of it when their bags are full of enough sugar to make you sick looking at it. I cannot find a way to align this with my beliefs of what I should teach my family. Witches and demons and evil are real, not playthings. They are part of the Enemy's army and we are on the other side. I am teaching them that God is love and casts out fear. So why toy with it or celebrate it?
In the past we have avoided the holiday. We do something else and treat that day like any other. We go to dinner or hang out with family. As it approached this year, I found myself desiring more. I felt prompted to do more than just find a safe or fun alternative when I could redeem this for God's glory. So, I did something that I often forget to do, but, whenever I remember, I am blown away by His willingness to answer in even the smallest of issues. I asked for creativity. I am not by nature the most creative person around. The great thing about this lack on my part is that whenever I experience a burst of it, I know it's God and not me. Anyway, as I prayed, the ideas just started coming. I talked to John and we decided that we really wanted to focus on the opportunity to interact with our neighbors. I mean, how often do all of your neighbors show up at your front door?
So, we scheduled our first ever Critz family "No Fear Party." All during the day, LJ and I talked about God's power and how He is bigger, stronger, and more powerful than anything or anyone else so we have nothing to fear. We listened to praise songs like "God is Big" and made a poster that listed things that are big but still smaller than God. We also wrote down things we don't have to fear like fire, thunder, and bad guys. I wrote it exactly like he said it and he was very proud of his decorating skills. Then, while he was watching a movie about God helping us not to fear, I made some snacks that reminded us of Bible stories where God was powerful. You can see those in the pictures below. LJ and Kailey dressed up like animals on Noah's Ark and made an ark out of sofa pillows. Daddy ended up playing with the praise band for Fallfest so we stayed home to pass out candy and showed him all of our "No Fear" goodies when he got home. A few family members stopped by to eat dinner with us and see our little projects. When the kids started arriving, we passed out candy, met neighbors, and that night we prayed that each child and family who had come to our door would experience God's power in their lives, dissolving all their fears. Several weeks ago LJ and I chose some pumpkins and wrote verses about God's love and power over fear on them to put on our porch. One cute little boy that came to the door asked me what my pumpkins meant. I told him what they meant and he ran back to his mom yelling, "Mom, they're Christians in that house!" Now I just pray to daily live in a way as I come and go among my neighbors that backs up that title that includes my Lord's precious name!
All in all we considered our day a massive success and all glory goes to God for His creativity! He is so faithful to hear my cries as a mom even on seemingly insignificant things like this holiday. LJ has continued to talk about God's power and not being afraid since then. After all this, I am definitely asking Him for some Thanksgiving ideas! : )
The dinosaur watching a Hermie video about not being afraid
Some of our snacks: David's staff and stones (pretzels and raisins), Animals in the ark (animal crackers), Daniel's lion (a lion craft), and one not pictured was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (sour patch kids in red jello). You can also see our poster in the back.
Even Goldie helped us out and played the part of the big fish. The little green guy is, of course, Jonah
The dinosaur and the duck in the ark
The dinosaur hugging the duck. The ark must have been a happy place. : )
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