summer happenings

It has been a while since I last blogged- it seems life has picked up some speed along the way, and the weeks are flying away from me faster then I can record the events in here! so this post is an overview of the happenings in our family for the past few weeks.
The most important thing that has happened in our kids lives happened on Monday evening just before bed time. Carson and Logan and I were doing devotions together, reading a children's version of the bible, and talking about the stories we read. Carson piped up and said:
"did Jesus die for my sins?" "yes" I told him.
"You know that Jesus and God are the same person," He answered emphatically, " they are the SAME person." "that's right" I answered.
"why did Jesus have to die?" I asked
"Because I sin." Carson said, his eyes on the floor.
"That's right. and even if we just sin once, we can't be with God, because He is completely WITHOUT sin, and there cannot be sin in heaven with Him. "
"yeah," Carson said. "and you sin, and Daddy sins, and so does Logan. and me too."
"yes we do." I said, noticing how closely Carson was listening, "so that means that we aren't going to be able to get into heaven, doesn't it?"
"yeah, because I don't have Jesus in my heart." Carson said, sounding a little defeated.
"and we have to have Jesus in our hearts to be saved from our sin," I said, "He died to take away all the sin that we have done when we follow him and have him in our hearts."
"well, I don't have him in my heart. and I can't because I'm not an adult" Carson said. (one thing that is typical of all unbelievers, even ones that are being drawn to Jesus, it seems that we all have excuses of why we can't come to him, even a three year old... )
"you don't have to be an adult to have Jesus in your heart" I told him. "you just have to believe on him, and want to follow him."
"oh." Carson said.
We continued our devotions, and went on to different subjects. Ten minutes later when we were finished I asked Carson if there was anything he wanted to pray about before we went to sleep. Usually the requests are to go to someones house, have company over, or see family members, but this night he surprised me by immediately saying:
"yeah. I want to ask Jesus to come into my heart." so I told him to go ahead and pray. he closed his eyes tight, and said "Jesus, do you think you could come into my heart?" Then he grabbed me and hugged me and said "I think he said yes!!!" I prayed with him, and have continued to pray for him, for understanding to be given to him, and for his heart to be responsive to the Word of God.

We had a movie night with the cousins, it went well until everyone decided it was more fun to run and scream than it was to sit and watch... we still had a great time.

Logan has been learning a lot of new words, and continuing to amaze me with the things he can do on his own. He is definitely a toddler and not a baby... growing quickly into a big boy. its hard to look at him with his (almost) full head of hair and remember what he looked like weighing less than 30 lbs and bald... he is now getting his own utensils and feeding himself, asking for specifics like apples out of the fridge, he's still asking for juice 40 times a day or so, but he is suffering it out on plain old water most of the time so that he doesn't keep refusing it. Daddy is still his favorite person, he asks for him numerous times throughout the day, and screams his name and runs for him when daddy finally gets home. He calls for Carson whenever he doesn't know where brother is, and can say his name well. his favorite word for this week is "again" - always referring to some kind of body slam performed by daddy or uncle Asa... which is a favorite of both my sons. Carson has been requesting the "choke slam." Logan can say the words "you hurt me" now, which he says even when he slams himself into someone and hurts himself...

We had a great visit with my parents and Lisa, they were down last week for 4 days. it was wonderful having them around. Dad fixed everything in my house that needed fixing... right down to the shower head that got duct taped. my house now seems so much more livable with the utensil drawer now being able to open without falling apart!! Mom made the most delicious
lasagna rolls, I'm going to attempt to reproduce those sometime in the coming week.

the 4th was spent at my place, we had a cookout with my parents and Nathans, it was a great time, with great food- mom Mendes made the greatest steaks that we bbq'd. We ended up watching fireworks on our new 52" plasma... it felt nice to have both our parents enjoy it with us. hopefully fun vacations like these won't be too far apart.