Cole's wallet

I thought everyone might like to see a picture of Cole’s wallet. I know it is silly to let a 6 year old carry such a nice one around, but he loves it and is proud of it.

And who am I to try to push my own more casual style on him?

Here it is.

Wait for it…

wait for it….

here ya go.

He always has had a natural bend toward the fancier things.

Why are these children wearing Diet Coke?

A. It is their mother's drink of choice and she finally snapped.

B. Their momma is in charge of learnin' them youngin's up and she calls it science.

C. We were out of root beer.

You can see the rest of our first day of school here if you wanna. Or not if you don't.

Oh, and if you guessed B, ding-ding-ding-ding! But A and C are also very reasonable possibilities so don't feel bad if you missed it.

God plus girls

I spent my weekend with these amazing ladies at the Beth Moore conference in San Antonio. If you have never been to hear Beth Moore speak, OH you should. She is incredible. She is so passionate and so full of truth that you just can’t hear her and leave unchanged. And see her in San Antonio if you can. It’s a mighty fun place to hang out.

Ok, check out Cissa, the woman in the green skirt that I am hanging on. Do you see who she looks like? Do you?? She is Shawn Johnson’s long lost twin. Is she not? This causes me to call her ShawnJohn for short. ShawJo for short-short.

She not only looks like her, she shares in her gymnastic ability. See?

And she is adorable with a capital adore.

Here is Amy kissing the glass case in the Chocolate Factory. Oh I love that girl. This was right before we may or may not have spent 20 bucks on fudge.

The first morning when we were getting ready to leave our hotel and head to the Alamodome, we opened up our balcony to thisCome on now, that’s just fun. We are pretty darn sure He did it just for us. Right as we were heading off to hear of his promises. Get it?

So I am home. I’ve shared my weekend with David, which is what I have to do to make things real and complete for me, and now I am feeling content and happy and mentally refreshed.

I really do love a good God+girls’ weekend.

I can't think of a THING that could go wrong here...

Dear Lord, please protect my children as they make poor choices while suffering from Olympic fever.

So, what frightens you the most, the balance beam on top of pillows on top of stools, or the mini-tramp in front of the balance beam on top of pillows on top of stools?

I know, it’s a hard choice.

Second chances

I love watching gymnastics but I find myself completely and annoyingly tensed up during the routines. It’s hard for me to accept that after all of that work, all those years of sacrificing to train for this one huge event, that dreams can be dropped like a bomb all because of one hand slipping off of a bar. Or one toe stepping over a line. Or one person doing 1/100ths of a point better than you. I know that's what it is all about, but sometimes my heartache for the losers is as strong as my excitement for the winners.

I’ve watched Cole experience the same anxiety as we have watched the Olympics. More than once, when someone has made a “devastating” mistake he has turned to me with a frantic look on his little face and said “Can’t she have another chance?”

But she can’t. That’s it. It’s over.

It makes me think of grace. What if God ran the our lives like the Olympics? What if we had one chance to get it right and then it was over? You know we deserve it. But that’s not the way he does it. He lets us keep trying and trying. As long as we are His and we are willing, he will give us chance after chance to get it right. If we slip, he picks us up and lets us try again. If we step over a line, same thing. And if someone does 1/100ths better than us, he couldn’t care less. He wants us to keep going until we get it. With him, it’s not about judgement. It’s about grace and mercy and second chances.

It’s kinda like the anti-Olympics.

And that is one Olympics I can actually qualify for.

Friends and cake

Theresa, Kim, Natalie, Robin, Cindy, Roger

If you don’t read these blogs, good golly get yourself over there and read!

I spent practically the whole weekend hanging out with these girls (not Roger, he's not a girl,but we did all get to have dinner with him and his adorable wife on Friday). We talked for hours on end. We laughed, we cried, it was like a really long, good chick flick. You know, the kind you keep thinking about after you leave the theater. I do love these amazing women. They are beautiful, challenging, inspiring and make-you-pee-your-pants hilarious. No, I didn’t. But thanks for asking.

Now on to cake.

To honor requests, I shall share now my top secret Chocolate cake recipe. I created this two summers ago for my sister's birthday. My goal was to come up with a cake that was really moist, because let's be honest, there is nothing more disappointing than dry cake. Anyone?

Here we go.

Deleise's Chocolate Layer Cake

Follow directions on the box of 1 duncan hines (but probably any brand) cake mix, EXCEPT
-add 1/2 cup sour cream
-replace water in directions with milk and add 1 tablespoon
-add an extra tablespoon of oil
-add 1 small box of chocolate pudding mix

Place in 2 9inch round pans and bake at 325 until done, which is longer than you will think but I don't know how long so just keep checking after about 30 minutes. I know, very specific right?

Cool on wire racks. Slice cakes horizontally making two layers from each cake, 4 total.

Icing (I didn't make this one up)
2 sticks butter, melted
1 1/3 cup Hershey's cocoa
6 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat together at medium speed. Add more milk if needed.

If you decide not to cut layers and just make a two layer cake you will only need half of this frosting recipe. But please don't do that.

This cake is best cold.

Now if we can just get Natalie to give up her famous fry recipe. Seriously Nat, Garrett thinks your fries were the rockinest and I couldn't figure out which ones they were at the store last night.

Come check it out!

We are starting school next week and can’t wait. I have been putting together an education blog. You can find it here or on the link to the right. (My awesome friend Kim is going to make me a button for it soon because I can't figure it out. I love her!) Stop in and check it out. I’ve posted a bunch of ideas and pictures from our last two years and I plan to post as we go. It’s for anyone who wants to take a look. Even if you don’t provide a full-time education at home, you may find some fun ideas you can do with your kids. Oh, and by the way, don’t mean to cause alarm, but if you are raising kids in your house, you are home schooling. For real. You are. It’s ok.

When Daddy is in charge...

Oh my. That's not what ladders are for.

(Ignore that Cole is about to fly off the swing, this isn't about him)

It gets worse before it gets better.

Better...

Jesus loves me this I know.
See! It's ok! There is no need to panic! No small Klaassens were harmed in the making of this photomontage. I was all "That's not good! That's not good!" And David was all "She's fine! Let her go higher. I'll catch her." And I was all "Catch her??!!" And he was all (insert "it's ok" look). So I was all (eyeroll) "I guess I'll get my camera."

It's the story of my life.

Feelin' the love

Do you ever have those days when your precious offspring are just at each other’s throats? It seems like they just get through one problem and they are at it again? It’s like there is a breakdown in the sibling system and they just can’t move past it. I am going to share one of our favorite ways to help ‘em snap out of it. Maybe you can give it a try sometime when you are about to pull your hair out. Or theirs.

Protecting sibling relationships and showing respect for each other is pretty high on the list of things we expect from our kids. So when there is continuous bickering or snotty attitudes going on between them, we sometimes pull the offenders aside for a little activity. We all sit down together and each child is told to come up with 3 things they admire about the other kid. Then they take turns telling us what those things are.

The first one is hard.

There is eye-rolling and veins popping out on foreheads as they rack their brains trying to figure out if there is anything. at. all. they can think of. After all, who wants to point out something good about a person you are mad at?

But after they get that first compliment out, things start to soften up. All of a sudden, the walls start to crumble. You see the kids remembering what they actually like about each other. You see them joining forces to act like we are crazy for making them do this. You see them feeling empowered by the compliment from the other. The words heal the hurt. They revive the friendship. It’s amazing how this activity can turn things around. They almost always leave as buddies.

And they get one more lesson in the power of words.