The Cave

Mackenzie, McKenna, and McKylie have all been doing some tumbling lately.  They have all enjoyed it and are doing really well.  Here is a video of Kenna working on a new move.

Recently we were hit with a pretty good snowfall here in the Ozarks.  Here are a few pictures of the girls playing in the snow.

Basketball season is here again.  Our 5th and 6th grade girls had their first game today.  We played hard and had a chance to win at the end, but came up just short.  We lost 15-13.  Here is a short video clip of Michaela scoring her first basket of the year.

Have a Merry Christmas, and may we always remember the real meaning of Christmas–God with us!

Here is a video taken on one of our favorite rides at Disney World–Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom!

If you know anything about our family, you know there was not a shortage on pictures taken on our trip, so I am still seeing new pictures each day from the trip.  So far this is one of my favorite pictures.  Mackenzie did not want to leave my side during the trip and each time we went down Splash Mountain she was going to put her hands up for the big drop, but she ended up holding on to my arm instead.

After literally years of planning and saving, our family finally got to go to Disney World.  We were there for 8 days around Thanksgiving.  We stayed in one of the Disney All Star resorts and had a great time going from park to park and enjoying all that Disney has to offer.  Our girls loved their visit and are already wanting to go back again.  Here are a few pictures from the trip:

One of the highlights of the trip was having breakfast with the princesses.  Here are the girls with Snow White as she visited our table.

Nemo was a big hit, especially with McKylie.

Kayla’s favorite part of the trip was getting to ride on all the rides.  Here she is at one of our favorites–the Tower of Terror.  She is making her best scared face.

Kenna loved the rides as well, and here she is making her best scary face!

Kenzie loved the rides too and here is her scary face!

The girls loved getting to meet all the other characters as well.  They came home with autograph books full of signatures.  Here is Kenzie and Kylie with Kylie’s favorite character Tinker Bell.

Riding an Ant in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground.

Waiting to board a bus on our first day at Disney!

I loved going on all the rides with the girls.  Some of our favorites were Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller Coaster, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Kylie was even big enough to ride Big Thunder, she was scared at first, but by the end of the week she loved it!

Probably my favorite memory of the whole trip for me was on Thanksgiving Day our group decided to go to Downtown Disney shopping.  All the girls have been saving their money to spend, and they all took their wallets and bought some things there.  Kenna picked out all her stuff real quick and said she wanted to go ride some more rides.  So her and I ditched the rest of the party and headed to Magic Kingdom together.  We closed the park down that night by getting on Space Mountain together as the clock struck midnight.  I will never forget the big smile she had that night as we played together.  We cannot wait to go back!

Michael Spencer from The Internet Monk has an article on admitting our weaknesses that I believe ever believer needs to read.  I think he is dead on the mark.

You can find the article here:

When I am Weak

Here is a snippet from the article:

The voice on the other end of the phone told a story that has become so familiar to me, I could have almost finished it from the third sentence. A respected and admired Christian leader, carrying the secret burden of depression, had finally broken under the crushing load of holding it all together. As prayer networks in our area begin to make calls and send e-mails, the same questions are asked again and again. “How could this happen? How could someone who spoke so confidently of God, someone whose life gave such evidence of Jesus’ presence, come to the point of a complete breakdown? How can someone who has the answers for everyone one moment, have no answers for themselves the next?”

Indeed. Why are we, after all that confident talk of “new life,” “new creation,” “the power of God,” “healing,” “wisdom,” “miracles,” “the power of prayer,” …why are we so weak? Why do so many “good Christian people,” turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed. Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I thought we were different.

It’s remarkable, considering the tone of so many Christian sermons and messages, that any church has honest people show up at all. I can’t imagine that any religion in the history of humanity has made as many clearly false claims and promises as evangelical Christians in their quest to say that Jesus makes us better people right now. With their constant promises of joy, power, contentment, healing, prosperity, purpose, better relationships, successful parenting and freedom from every kind of oppression and affliction, I wonder why more Christians aren’t either being sued by the rest of humanity for lying or hauled off to a psych ward to be examined for serious delusions.