Words with Wiley

Some days Wiley watches Winnie the Pooh. On that show there is a porcupine character. This morning we were watching it together and I was asking him what kind of animal each of the characters are. When the porcupine came on, I asked him what kind of animal it is. He replied, "a pine corn." Too cute!

Shane and Wiley were just playing. Shane was picking Wiley up and dropping him on the couch. Wiley was just laughing so hard and kept saying, "Again" over and over again after Shane dropped him. They were both laughing so hard then all of a sudden Wiley got real serious, got up off the couch and said, "that's enough" and walked off to go play with his toys. He's too funny!

We love you Wiley and all your cute little words!!!

Teachable Moments

This morning Wiley ran up to me, hugged me and said, "Mommy, I did a bad thing." (He's never said this to me before.) Surprised, I asked him what he did and he responded, "I don't deserve to be your son." My first thought when he said this was to be upset that he would say or think such a thing. It took me a minute to understand what he had said. Then it was all I could do not to laugh. You see, Wiley has a children's book that is the story of the prodigal son. In the story the "bad" son took his inheritance from his daddy early, went away and spent it all. When he returned to his father he said, "Father, I am sorry, I did a bad thing and I no longer deserve to be your son." We have been reading this book to Wiley and often try to explain about sin and God's forgiveness. I never really thought he was listening but apparently he was. So this morning when he said that to me, we took a moment right then to learn about how we are God's sons and daughters because He made us. When we do bad things, this is sin. When we sin we do not deserve to be God's sons and daughters anymore. But just like the father in the story, God forgives us and gives us grace whenever we come to Him and tell him we are sorry.


We often miss opportunities and moments to direct Wiley's thoughts towards God, so I am thankful that God sometimes drops those opportunities right into our laps so that we can't help but to recognize those moments for the teachable times that they are.


Thank you, Lord. Please make us into faithful and Godly parents who seek to always, moment by moment, direct our children to the things of You. Amen



By the way, I never did find out what "bad thing" Wiley thinks he did.

Sweet photos!

These are some sweet photos that my sister Katie has taken and e-mailed to us. I just love them and wanted to share with you!

One of Wiley's all time favorite things to do is sit on Grandaddy's lap and listen while he tells him a story. (My dad tells the best stories and I remember this was one of my favorite things to do as a child as well.) We are always amazed at how still Wiley will sit for one of Grandaddy's famous stories!!!

I love this funny photo! Two seconds before both Wiley and Evie were perfectly posed and ready for a photo. Of course, as soon as Katie clicked the camera button they both moved. Wiley is talking (big surprise!) and Evie is stretching (or in this case giving us her cheer leader pose! Rah - Rah - Ree!)

Motty (Shane's mom) gave Wiley this cute doctor's outfit complete with adorable coat, stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, and many more "tools of the trade". He's had lots of fun giving everyone shots and writing us prescriptions! You won't find a healthier family while Dr. Parker, Jr. is on the job!

I'm so proud of you, Shane!

I just wanted to take a minute to share some news with you all. Yesterday we received two journals in the mail. These are Shane's first published works! The first is Christian Education Journal's Supplemental Issue: Christian Education: A Field in Motion. When Shane began his PhD at Southern Seminary, he agreed to be a part of a research team made up of faculty from various Christian institutions. They began a 3 year research project with the purpose of getting "a field study to better understand what was happening in Christian education preparation programs at Bible colleges, Christian liberal arts colleges and universities, and evangelical seminaries in North America." After lots of hard work and several trips to California and Colorado to meet with the team, their report has been published. Our prayer is that this research will be useful in furthering Christian education around the world.

The second journal is Christian Education Journal's Spring 2009, Series 3, Volume 6, No. 1 issue. In this issue, is published Shane's first article. It is entitled, "The Supervisor as Mentor-Coach in Theological Field Education." His article "examines the role of the field education supervisor as it relates to function and process." He focuses on the supervisors two main responsibilities of mentoring and coaching. Congratulations, Shane!!! I know how hard you worked on both of these projects and I'm so very proud of you. I pray the Lord will use your writings to further His kingdom! I love you!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We hope your Easter day was beautiful and full of worship of our Lord and Savior. We went to church on Easter for the first time since Evie's birth. It was wonderful being at church together on the Lord's day. I don't think we realized how much we'd been missing it. Shane's parents came with us and enjoyed the service. After church we all came back to our house and had a nice lunch. Wiley and Evie opened their Easter baskets from Motty and Poppy and then Wiley had an egg hunt in the front yard. Then we went over to Lydia's parents house and had a great time visiting with them. Lydia's sister's family came over too and Wiley and his cousins had a great time doing an Easter egg hunt and playing. Overall it was a wonderful day, and we are really glad to be living near family to be with them on special holidays such as this.

We had pictures taken for our Easter photos and for Evie's 1 month photos. She is 1 month old today!!! Enjoy the photos!

3 Weeks Later

Evie is 3 weeks old and things are going well. She has gained over a pound and her bilirubin levels have lowered. Wiley is becoming a better big brother each and every day. Evie seems to really like Wiley, and he has a nack at calming her down that even Mommy and Daddy don't seem to have. Just thought I'd post a few photos of some sweet times with Evie sleeping and getting kisses from Grandaddy while being held by Aunt Katie.

Wanted to post some close ups of Evie. Also I love this photo of Wiley: He was so good at Evie's 2 week check-up. He said that he wanted to be a doctor too and so Shane promised to get him some doctor toys for being so good at the doctor's office. Would you believe Wal-Mart didn't have any!?! So Wiley chose to get a Handy Manny toolbelt kit instead. Here he is wearing the toolbelt, gloves (that are way too large!) and Shane's shoes!