Easter Sunday Sermon

If you’ve talked to me since Easter, you’ve probably heard how much I loved Pastor Brad’s Easter Sunday sermon.  Like so many of Brad’s sermons, this one really spoke to me.  It touched me on several levels.

First, he is reminding us that “God gives us life.”  He says you can walk through life in one of two ways; you can think “you deserve everything you have” or you can think “everything you have is a gift.”  I have felt so guilty since my miscarriage that James doesn’t have a sibling, and his third birthday only reminded me that he’s getting older.  I decided while listening to this sermon that I am not going to look at James as ‘my only child that does not have any siblings’, rather James is ‘my happy and healthy gift from God.’

Brad ends the sermon with a story about one of his friends who died from cancer.  The cancer stories get me every time, but this particular cancer patient loved and appreciated every day that he had on earth.  It really touched me to think of how someone could die so peacefully with himself and his family.

Brad says that he went to the hospital right before his friend passed away to pray for him.  And after he prayed, his friend prayed for him.  That is what my grandfather {James’ namesake: James Washington Ratliff} did right before he died.  A minister came to the hospital to pray for my grandfather and afterwards my granddaddy laid his hands on the minister and said “now let me pray for you.”  The minister said he had never had anyone do that in all of his years of prayer.  Justin didn’t have the opportunity to meet my Granddaddy, but I’ve told him before that that particular story sums him up.  He was respectable, giving, witty, humble and I only have the fondest memories of him.

So I started balling in the church at the end of this sermon.  It’s not unusual for me to get choked up during one of Brad’s sermons, but I definitely had snot running from my nose to my mouth.  I was so embarrassed!  However, it’s these humbling moments with The Lord that really seem to make the biggest impact.

Here’s a link to the sermon.  I’m not sure how long it will stay on the website, but someone please let me know if you are not able to listen to it.

I am the Resurrection and the Life

Happy Easter

What a great day.  Not knowing how to explain Easter to James, I decided to tell him “On Easter we celebrate Jesus!”  Lately I’ve been trying to ingrain this in his mind.  Here’s our typical Easter conversation:

Me: “James, what do we do on Easter?”

James (eyebrows raised): “The Easter Rabbit gonna come to my house and weave a basket of eggs.”

Me:  “That’s true, but who do we celebrate on Easter?”

James (yelling): “JEEEEE-SUS!”

Well that “Easter Rabbit” did come to our house to fill James’ basket.  Only with much more than eggs. :)  Mostly books this year and art supplies, but plenty of other goodies as well.  Like usual, the basket was filled with WAY more than planned.

I didn’t take tons of pictures.  We had a nice morning of Easter goodies, breakfast, watching James’ new Peter Pan movie, and getting ready for church.

It doesn’t happen often, but when James decides he doesn’t want to wear something, there is no getting around it.  I fight A LOT of battles with him, and I mean it when I say this is a big fat loss for me.  He boycotted button down shirts for his entire second year.  I knew I had to play my cards right, which gave me the perfect excuse to buy him a soft and cozy, white linen shirt.

He wore a new shirt, new pants, and new shoes.  I couldn’t risk a belt even though it bothered me that his shirt wasn’t tucked in.  And I had to hike his pants up after this photo.

James has a new camera of his own so, Justin and I stood at the doorstep while he supposedly took a picture of us and told us to “say cheese!”

He followed us around all morning saying “say cheese,” “wook at me,” “that’s a gweat picture” and “that’s the goodest picture.”  He also repeatedly said, “Mommy, don’t touch my camera.”  I told him that wasn’t very nice then, I realized he was repeating what I’ve been telling him for years.  Oops.

He hasn’t quite mastered keeping still while taking pictures.  He took about twenty pictures of me, and here’s the best one.

James kept asking “Mommy, do you have your camera?”  which prompted me to get a fab pic of my hubby.

We weren’t able to get a family pic this Easter, but these two boys made up for it.  (If only I didn’t still have the birthday wreath on our door… how embarrassing!)

So much to be thankful for this Easter, especially Jesus Christ himself.  Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Our Christmas Season

I wrote most of this blog over a month ago and am just now getting around to finishing it!  I clearly have not been on the blogging ball.

Christmas started early In the Helfer household.  We had a busy couple of weeks ahead so we got our Christmas tree the week before Thanksgiving.  Since Thanksgiving was early this year, I was just hoping we didn’t have a fire hazard come Christmas Day.

We went to Lowes this year and actually got a really good tree!  {Maybe because we got first pick.}  James was very excited!  Notice he’s not touching the ground here…

We picked out the perfect tree…

and were on our way.

We decorated our tree and house, a calmer experience than last year.

And the amazement began.

Every morning after we put the tree up, James would lay on the floor in front of the fireplace waiting for Santa.  So we made a Christmas chain to help us with the countdown.

Christmas jammies were almost expected to be clean every night…

The morning after Thanksgiving, our Elf on the Shelf arrived!  James named him “Elf” last year.  I thought that maybe since he is older, he might want to give him a more creative name, but he named him “James.”  We decided to stick with “Elf.” {Justin grew a beard, like most Vets do, that lasted until his 30th birthday.}

Elf first made his appearance in the nutcrackers, and has moved all over the house since.

We had our first candy canes of the season!

James got his Christmas basket!  {Most of the stuff was purchased after Christmas last year on clearance... just so I don’t look like a mega consumer.}

James LOVES getting his Christmas basket each year.  In fact, we lived and breathed everything Christmas for the month of December.  And I loved it.  I was concerned about a Helfer depression on December 26th. 

Luckily we had some best friends come to visit so, Christmas was sadly and thankfully just a memory.

We went to see Saluda Shoals lights one night, and James was mesmerized.  We actually drove around to see Christmas lights a couple nights a week, always ending with our own Grizwald house. 

We made a gingerbread house that was not a masterpiece, but nonetheless gave me one of those sentimental life doesn’t get much better than this feelings.

We saw the singing bears at Richland Mall, but did not take a picture because James repeatedly said “I don’t yike this.”  However, we saw soldiers play Christmas music while shopping on post one day.  it was pretty awesome, and James insisted we stay for quite some time.

We decorated Christmas cookies.

We celebrated Hanukkah with The Helfers!

We had hot chocolate dates.

We especially tried to keep focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  We took James to his first church service on Christmas Eve, rather than the nursery.  We also saw the live nativity of the Christmas story.

We had one excited boy Christmas Eve night.

We left cookies and milk for Santa.  I never got around to making cookies so, he got nilla wafers.  James licked one entirely before putting it on the plate.  sheesh.

One little reindeer stayed up waiting for Santa.

We had a great Christmas day with hardly any pictures… oops!  We had a quiet Christmas morning with just the three of us and Lynyrd of course.  Then, Sandy and Nanny came over for Christmas dinner.

We had a wonderful Christmas season, and we especially have so much to be thankful for.  Merry Christmas and God Bless, for He is the reason for the season!

Extravaganzalorious

If you have seen the Elf on the Shelf movie, An Elf Story, then you probably know the Extravaganzalorious song.  Well, James has had the movie for a week and is already on his way to Broadway.  It is so hard not to burst out laughing when he tries to do this choreographed dance.  And although he is extremely athletic, he also loves music and clearly loves to dance.

Halloween Night

My Halloween pictures are horrible!  I had just gotten an external flash, and apparently had no idea how to use it.  It either looks like I’m shining a flashlight on the subject or it’s completely blurry.  Regardless, I’d like to share what I can of our Halloween.

I snapped my usual picture on the front porch.

Then we headed over to The Granger's for a very warm welcome!

Wendy and Tigerlily love a friend in uniform!

In fact, Tigerlily sneaked him a kiss.

James had his friends, and Justin and I had ours.  We went inside for a few while the kiddos colored and the parents visited {aka had a drink}.

We realized it was getting dark so, we quickly got on the move.  This is when my pictures took a turn for the worse then, I just stopped taking them…

They LOVED playing in the leaves.

Then we went trick or treating!

We picked up some neighbor friends, and told the kids they could eat candy when we got back to house.

The kids played and ate candy, the adults grilled out, and we didn’t leave until after 9:00, which is super late for my scheduled kid.  We had such a great time!  Thank you, Erin, for hosting this craziness! We may not have gotten the best pictures, but we made great memories this Halloween!