Perfect Autumn

I always love my children. But there are days I ferociously love them, and enjoy every single moment of the day. Today was one of those :)

I made Sam a special breakfast and then we headed out to the Discovery Museum Science & Space Center. I had never even heard of this place, and it's only a few freeway exits from our house! Live animals, astronaut dress up clothes and rooms filled with things he was ALLOWED to touch = Sam heaven!

                                         Earlier that week, we did a little catalog shopping....

                                          This was pretty cool....

                                          But he thought the moon was cooler....

                                          Giant color table

                                          Mixing new colors

                                          Sam's favorite thing at the museum.

                                         Jet lag.

                                         "Blast off, mommy!"

                                          Learning about angstroms and nanometers...yeah...
                                          I totally know what those are....

                                          Someone else spotted this...

                                               ....and her reaction to it.

                                         You could shuffle around magnetic bugs. Charming.

Learning about how different countries use the wood forests give us.

                                         Hey cool! Thanks NASA! - Charlotte J. Warta

                                           Invetstigating the mysterious species littlest sisterus

                                         

                                                     Oops.

                                         Charlie liked being outside more than the museum.

                                         She looks so judgmental toward the poor trees.

                                          Sam driving a space ship.

                                            Fall leaves! We had a "fall leaves fight". We don't get snow, what do you expect out of us?

                                          Autumn bliss. <3

5 Months Old!!!!

Sweet little Charlotte, please stop growing. I am selfish in my love for your baby-ness, and it seems to be slipping away so quickly. There just isn't enough time in a year. I am taking every opportunity to cherish it all <3

                                          I know, I can't believe it either!

What Did I Do To Deserve This?

Over the past month or so, I've been developing a heightened awareness of God's blessings. I mean, I obviously try to always be aware of the way He looks out for me and takes care of me, but lately I've noticed more and more how He spoils me rotten. I can't help but wonder, what have I done to deserve this? I feel so blessed to have a life simply jam-packed with creature comforts. It both heartbreaks and inspires me. I wish I had more time in my life to send my broken self toward more opportunities to help those not as comfortable as me.

Nothing ever feels like enough to thank God for all he has done. I am currently sitting in a clean, temperature-controlled Starbucks, where the most precious little boy just ran up to the display behind me. He was probably about 2 or 3 years old, (always so hard to have perspective, because Sam is so small for his age) - and his grandfather implied he could have anything out of the shelves he wanted. He looked at everything carefully, and thought out loud about a few items, to which the grandfather replied, "Do you want that? Okay! Sure, you can have that."

Out of the overflowing display of granola, yogurt, cakes, sandwiches, juice, milk, clean bottled water, fruit and fancy cheeses, the little boy finally selected a cake pop and hot chocolate. There are little boys his age in many parts of the world who will never even SEE clean water, let alone a cake pop and hot chocolate on an upper middle class October morning.

I hate this. Do something quickly, Lord. For everyone else. Feel free to take some of my creature comforts away if it will benefit another. Comfort and I have had a good run. But, of course, thank You so much for blessing me with one of the "easier" lives out there. I am humbled and thankful. Compel me to always be so.

Love My Husband, Love My Ministry

Frank and dance are not usually mentioned together in the same sentence. He makes sure of that. He is a behind-the-scenes kinda guy, and although he has some wildly entertaining dance moves, they are unfortunately only accessible to the audience of myself and our offspring.

But this past weekend was an exception to the rule (the association, not the Frank dance, darn it), and Frank volunteered to accompany me on a trip down to Southern California with a big chunk of the Royal Stage dancers. And he agreed to drive. And it was our anniversary weekend.

Bless his heart. Because really.....

But I digress. The weekend was fantastic. The dancers ministered in a convalescent home and were incredibly gracious when they got comments like, "Wow! What a group of gorgeous girls! I'm serious! Not a single one of you is ugly!" (spoken from an old dude in his late 70s while he checked out their booties), and some also helped work at a thrift store to benefit battered women. Then they went on to rock the 15th annual Southern California Christian Dance Concert, where many of us experienced that our dance with the faux blindfolds quickly became a case of REAL blindness when the fabric hit the stage lights.

Oops.

Then, we went to Disneyland. It is really one of my favorite things in life to go to Disneyland with people who have never been there before. Two of the dancers never had, and it was so funny as they were practically in tears going into the park. Love it.

But then we ditched them, and went to a fancy dinner.

                                         Our 7th anniversary pic that came out like crap.

                                          Our fancy schmancy all-you-can-eat dessert feast!


It was an incredible time! I hope to post videos of the dance performance  soon <3

That's It. Moving to Finland.

My goodness, this is a great idea! And the stuff is actually cute!

A big Finnish baby shower!

We've Lost Joy

When I was in college, I was involved with a group called Davis Christian Fellowship (DCF). I was told by a hometown church friend to not come home for a visit until I had been to DCF. He wanted a full report, because it was that good of a group.

He was right. I made some lifelong friends through DCF, and met some of the most incredible leaders. DCF saved me from some crazy stuff - it also introduced me to dance ministry. Really, without DCF, nothing about my life would be the same today.

My very first time at DCF, a girl named Joy was the first person I met. She walked right up to me, introduced herself, and sat with me. She then gave me her phone number and said if I needed a friend (since I was the new girl on campus) or just encouragement and prayer, I could always call her. That little scrap of paper stayed in my bible for years. I never needed to call Joy, but I just found the little piece of paper she wrote on in an old bible I used in college.

I smiled when I found it, and remembered my friend, who all throughout college, asked me if I needed prayer for anything. And I know she prayed. A lot of people don't when they say they will, you know.

This morning, I got a facebook message from the pastors of DCF. Over the weekend, while I was dancing in Southern California and playing at Disneyland with a ministry I founded because of DCF and Joy's "hook" into it, Joy passed away.

Joy did not only pass away. She committed suicide. The happiest girl I knew during my entire time at college killed herself.

Please remember to pray for and encourage those in your life that seem the happiest. Those people who seem to be upbeat, and who "don't need" all the love and edification possible (just like us more gloomy folks), please remember Joy.

Joy knew Jesus, and His love sustains. She will experience the comfort of the ultimate Comforter. But it didn't have to be this way. She had a lot more life to live, and many more people to love and encourage. And we are sad today as we realize she didn't seem to know it.

My Halloween Dream Foiled

I had the perfect plan for Halloween. Sam had asked to be a pirate, and so I was going to dress up Charlotte as his parrot. Don't even tell me that isn't beyond adorable.

Yesterday as we were excitedly anticipating the first rain and doing arts & crafts indoors, I decided to risk it and take the kids to the Halloween store down the street. Sam has been excited about Halloween for weeks already. I have no idea how we are going to make it until the 31st. He trick or treats around the house everyday and he loads up on imaginary candy.

So off we went, and Sam LOST. HIS. MIND. Costumes galore, he wanted to try them all on. He fell in love with a haunted broom decoration and was awestruck by the sheer variety of trick or treat bag options. Three year olds are fun :)

We went straight to the toddler section and picked out a 3T pirate costume right away. We were on our way to the dressing room, when Sam all of a sudden started jumping up and down and screaming with glee. He had found a display of Yo Gabba Gabba costumes. If you do not know what Yo Gabba Gabba! is, see here.

"Mommy!" Sam exclaimed, "I don't want to be a pirate!"

My heart sank. Bye bye, parrot costume for Charlotte. I forced enthusiasm "Oh really? What do you want to be?"

"DJ Lance Rock!"

Again, for those not familiar with DJ Lance Rock, here is a picture of him.

Or, my personal favorite:

He's the host/MC/cheerleader/enthusiastic-spandex-wearer of Yo Gabba Gabba!, and there is my extremely Caucasian little boy dying to dress up as him for Halloween.

Oh whatever. If he is old enough to have an opinion, he should be able to be whatever he wants, right? And if he wants to be a gumby-shaped, African-American DJ in a neon jumpsuit, who am I to stop him? Lord knows he has the dance moves to pull it off.

So that is how we decided to be DJ Lance Rock for Halloween instead of a pirate.

Until, that is, the costume store lady wouldn't let us take the hat and glasses out of the package. Then Sam lost interest and decided to be Plex instead.

I love three :)

Here are some preview pictures of Sam in his Yo Gabba Gabba! Plex costume. He loves it. And Charlie is just going to be a ballerina, I guess.

The real Plex: 

 My Plex: