manipulative thinking skills

Isaac had the most ridiculous poopy blowout today after his nap. I went into his room to get him up and there was just poop everywhere. Seth and Lilah were in Lilah's room playing with her new makeup. I started working on getting the poop cleaned up and was right in the middle of bathing a wiggling Isaac when Seth and Lilah got into a full on wrestling fight over lip gloss (I know, there's a lot wrong with that statement. But I think Seth was wanting to put Lilah's makeup on her for her). So I yelled from the bathroom that they were both to go downstairs to the playroom immediately until I could deal with them. I finished bathing Isaac and got to a stopping place on the poop clean-up and both big kids were still in Lilah's room.  I went in and told them that the consequence for their disobedience was that they would each lose their favorite toy for the rest of the day. It was easy to choose Lilah's favorite toy... she has walked around looking like a prostitute since Friday, so I took away her makeup. Seth immediately said, "mommy, my favorite toy is not Woody (from Toy Sory), it's Buzz. (Buzz was his favorite toy LAST Christmas, and while he still enjoys it, it has lost its luster and I know that) I told him I did not believe that Buzz was his favorite toy. So he said, "ok... but it's still not Woody, it's Wall-E (his 2nd favorite toy this Christmas) I took away Woody. I have to admit though that I was impressed with his thinking ability to choose to offer up the Wall-E because he really does love Wall-E and he knew that I just might fall for that one. =)

Christmas 2009

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. The kids are finally old enough to really get into it. We ate pizza and watched Polar Express together on Christmas Eve, read the story of Jesus and then set cookies out for Santa. The kids scurried to bed and Josh and I enjoyed the next few hours getting stuff set up... and eating cookies. =) The kids didn't wake up until 7:30am, which we though was pretty fantastic considering how excited they were. We heard Seth get up and tip toe downstairs... silence... and then the whispered, breathy expression that defines the magic that is Christmas... "wow." He ran upstairs and woke us all up and we all came downstairs to open gifts together. (except for Isaac, he had a cold and slept until 10am.That's why he is not in the pictures) The kids got some great toys this year and they have been totally entertained ever since Christmas day. We relaxed for the morning, ate some gluten-free pumpkin pancakes (interesting...) and then got ready to drive to Sidney for Christmas with the Newman family. We had a great time with nina and papa and uncle Dave and uncle Dan and Aunt Lauren. We really missed the Newman cousins this year and the kids were bummed when they couldn't see them at nina and papa's house to play with toys together. But overall, it was a great Christmas with family, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We spent the month of December really discussing the meaning of Christmas because I really see Christmas as a teaching time. Dec 25 is the symbolic day of the year that we can truly just celebrate Christ's birth and ultimately the gift of salvation He gave to us... and the whole world stops for it. It's magical. And I won't minimize the importance of that. Christmas is ultimately a unifying holiday that brings people and families together for worship of the Savior. Magical. The kids do enjoy gifts from Santa and we spend extra time throughout the month learning the real story of Saint Nicholas and his ministry and that the gifts are all a part of the celebration to remind us that JESUS was born to bring us the greatest gift of all, salvation from our sins for those who call Him Lord of their lives. So, I LOVE Christmas and I love passing down the fun, meaning, and magic of Christmas to my children. I hope all of our friends and family felt the magic of Christ's birth this last week as well. =)

"An ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. And were it not for a God who loves to hook an "extra" on the front of the ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. The sheep would have been forgotten, and the shepherds would have slept the night away. But God dances amidst the common. And that night he did a waltz." --Max Lucado

You know your a doctor's kid when...

The other day we were visiting with extended family and they aked Seth what he wanted to be when he grew up. He replied, "A daddy!" And they said "yes, but what to do you want to do fo your job? Do you want to be a doctor like your daddy?" Seth looked at them very confused and said incredulously, " A daddy IS a doctor." (duh...) In all fairness to Seth, he barely knows anybody who's daddy is not a doctor. His papa is, his uncle is (the uncle with 4 kids), ALL of his friends from Columbus had doctor daddy's, and it is just now that he is old enough to encounter and remember the people who are not doctors. He just assumes that when people say they're working, they are at the hospital. =)

fun day at school

Seth's preschool teaher encourages parents and grandparents to share special talents and resources with the class. So Vicki offered to bring an ambulance from her work and do a demonstration with the kids. They LOVED it! Seth was beyond excited that his grandma was the special surprise that day and that it was such a cool surprise. Lilah got to come as well and demonstrate how the gurney works and both of the kids got to take turns driving around in the ambulance strapped into the gurney. Fun day! After the demonstration, the teacher commented that we must feel so secure having a grandma that's a paramedic and a daddy, papa, and uncle who are doctors, in case the kids ever get hurt. I agreed wholeheartedly and then just 2 days later we had to put th medical expertise to use when Lilah banged her face on the wooden arm of the couch. I wasn't sure if she needed stitches or if she'd boken her nose. Fortunately, I didn't have to take her to the ER to find out. We just popped over to the hospital to visit daddy and find out that she was fine. =)

2009 at a Glance

The year 2009 has been another big year for the Vicena family. We began the year with 6 week old baby Isaac and have enjoyed the adventure of becoming a family of five. In January, Josh was offered a position in a urology program up in Detroit, MI. We accepted and began preparing for the move from Columbus, OH to Michigan. While we were very excited for the new career oportunity and felt that it was an option that God literally dropped into our laps, the prospect of moving was diffcult. We spent the Spring months of 2009 soaking up every last minute we could with our wonderful friends in Columbus. In June we made the move (with some major help from family and some of the BEST friends in the world) to Michigan. We spent July and August enjoying the summer and getting unpacked and settled into our new house. August brought a fun chance to meet up with our dear friends, the Ross girls, at my parents' house for a couple of days. That was a major highlight for the kids and me as we were all pretty homesick for Columbus. Another major highlight was our big trip to Rochester, NY to see my brother, Ben, and his wife and kiddos. We had such a great time on our first big cousin vacation! Then we were greeted by my friends from college, the Linds and Galmarinis, when we got back to Michigan for labor day weekend. The big adventure in September was Seth beginning school. He LOVES it! And I love to see my big boy's excited face every day as he tells me all about his day at school. We enjoyed the Fall with some fun family get togethers, trick or treating, and time with friends. God has blessed us with some good friends from our ORU days here in Michigan and the Neufeldts have been huge for helping us transition to Detroit. We are loving the time we get to spend with them now that we live close! Another great weekend for me was a women's retreat I attended with my mom. We had a great time growing in the Lord, staying in hotels, going shopping, and then I was lucky enough to get to see several of my Columbus, doctors wife, girlfriends for coffee and dessert. That did my heart good and I needed it. (Thanks girls!) Thankgiving brought tons of excitement with Josh's sister visitng and my brother, Dan, and his wife surprising us with a visit. We jumped right into the Christmas spirit in December and have enjoyed just spending time as a family and talking more about the incredible gift of Jesus 2000 years ago. While the past couple of months have brought a couple mildly stressful situations; like Seth's possible dignosis of cerebral palsey, Lilah's first major facial injury, and Isaac swallowing velcro (yes, we are still waiting for that to pass)... it has ultimately been a blessed time with family. I am hoping the year 2010 brings many more joyful times together and that we contiue to get settled into Michigan and find our place here. We're still kind of working on that. The year 2009 wasn't the easiest year, but we learned that God is faithful and that He provides and that He works out every little detail. So Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends and may 2010 be a great year for all of us! Love you!

"Something good is going to happen..."

So as many of you know, I attended Oral Roberts University for undergrad. My dad attended the ORU med school back in the early 1980s and my husband and two brothers also attended ORU. Needless to say, I grew up with a little bit of Oral permanently lodged into my heart and mind. Oral Roberts started his medical school with a passion for "merging the healing power of medicine and prayer." This vision is perhaps one of the main reasons Oral is so revered by my family. Coming from a family of doctors and standing at the beginning of my husband's medical career, the idea that medicine and God's power go hand in hand is a concept Josh and I are passionate about. Oral began his ministry after his own miraculous healing of tuberculosis at age 17. He went on to pastor churches and host crusades where he reminded people that our God is a healing God. Oral Roberts was the first minister to bring the message of God's healing power and salvation to the masses through television. He's written more than 130 books and founded Oral Roberts University. Oral Roberts' ministry has forever changed the concept of reaching people for Christ. He has changed the world.  For anyone who has not seen the news today, Oral Roberts passed away yesterday at the age of 91. We are certainly thinking of his family and close friends right now who are grieving and missing their dad, grandpa, and friend. However, I have to see Oral's death as being an event of great joy for a man who's body was wearing out and who is now in his perfect, heavenly body with his Lord and with his "darling wife, Evelyn."

When I was a senior in high school and looking at colleges, I made a trip to Tulsa, OK to visit family and my parents made me tour ORU while we were there. I was not interested in going to ORU, but I humored them. I toured the gaudy, gold campus that looked like it was straight out of the Jetsons. It was designed to be futuristic back in 60s, but architectural style still has not quite caught up with the honeycomb details and pointed arches of the ORU campus. It's almost laughable. But then you drive by the giant praying hands and you get that gut-churning feeling... that one that tells you you have just entered someplace special. The ORU tour takes you through the prayer gardens and to the prayer tower where somebody is praying, 24 hours a day, for all the requests that pour into the ministry. You see the flame burning above as a symbol of the ever-present power of the Holy Spirit and you feel it even more, it's like electricity... it's not JUST someplace special... you can feel the actual presence of God. You know immediately that these grounds are almost sacred. Yes, it is a university where thousands of young people have goofed off, pulled pranks, stayed up all night cramming for tests, flooded the dorms to make human slip and slides, and done their fair share of complaining. BUT... it is also a place where young people gather in the prayer gardens for spontaneous worship times with just their voices and a guitar and a place where students would gather around to pray for a struggling friend in the dorm rooms. The grounds of ORU have been a place where students were trained to be a whole man; mind, body, and spirit, and where they could discuss their faith openly and share new ideas and challenge old ones. It's a place where young men and women learned not only their course material, but also how to take their faith into every man's world, whether it's the office, a hospital, their homes, or capital hill (and yes, ORU grads are in all of those places). The grounds of ORU have birthed vision...thousands of visions in young people who then went out into the world to accomplish the thing that God called them to. Oru has been the training ground of alumni who started too many ministries to name, many of which have absolutely changed the world forever. And when you think about all of it and the vision upon which Oral Roberts University was founded, it's difficult not to feel chills at the power of God on that campus, that training ground, that holy place. The heart and sould behind ORU can be summed up in the statement that God gave Oral many many years ago:

"Build Me a university. Build it on My authority and on the Holy Spirit. Raise up your students to hear My voice, to go where My light is seen dim, My voice is heard small, and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased."

Needless to say, I changed my mind about ORU that Fall day in 1998. I finished my tour of the ORU campus with the presentation about Oral Roberts and his ministry in the visitor center at the base of the prayer tower and God moved my heart, very simply... I knew that I was to go to ORU. I'm thankful I did. I enjoyed my education in Communications at ORU and learned lifelong lessons from teachers and friends that had nothing to do with the classroom. But isn't that what learning really is, afterall? So on this day after the passing of a man who committed his life to bringing the healing power of God to people, and who started a university that trained so many of us to "hear God's voice and to GO where His light is seen dim and His voice is not heard, and His power is not known" ... I want to say thank you, Chancellor Oral Roberts. Thank you for teaching us to "Expect a Miracle!" and to believe that because we serve a great God, "something good is going to happen."

Some interesting quotes from and about Oral Roberts:

"Oral Roberts was a man of God, and a great friend in ministry," the Rev. Billy Graham said in a statement Tuesday. "I loved him as a brother. We had many quiet conversations over the years."
Note: Rev. Billy Graham dedicated Oral Roberts University in 1963

"If God had not in his sovereign will raised up the ministry of Oral Roberts, the entire charismatic movement might not have occurred," said Jack Hayford, president of the California-based International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, in the statement. "Oral shook the landscape with the inescapable reality and practicality of Jesus' whole ministry. His teaching and concepts were foundational to the renewal that swept through the whole church."

Before his death, Roberts said, "After I'm gone, others will have to judge how well I've obeyed God's command not to be an echo but to be a voice like Jesus," the statement said. "As far as my own conviction is concerned, I've tried to be that voice with every fiber of my being, regardless of the cost."

Princess and The Frog

So this is just a very quick post as it is 1 am and I don't have time to really catch up right now (I will try to do that soon)... But I wanted to post this fast as a heads up to other moms of "princess wanna-be's" who might be planning to see the new Disney Princess and The Frog movie. We took the bigger kids on Friday night. I will start by saying that the story and characters, etc. were super cute! Really great concept infused with a lot of great cultural influence from New Orleans/jazz/etc. I LOVED that princess Tiana is one of the first Disney princesses who finds success based on the principle of hard work and not just wishing on a star... (or being pretty and having a nice singing voice). HOWEVER ..... the villain in the movie was WAY too much for us. I realize that there will certainly be lots of differing opinions on this subject and lots of parents will be fine with it. But we nearly walked out of the movie. The villain is a voodoo doctor who does tarot card readings, has voodoo dolls, and a talisman with the prince's blood. When his evil plot begins to fail, he calls on the help of his "friends from the other side" or demon like spirits. His payment for their help is the promise to give them access to all the wayward souls in New Orleans once he gains power. And when his plans goes completely awry, his blood debt is his own wayward soul. The villain's scene ends with his screaming, horror-filled face being dragged into the flames of what I can only assume must be hell. His gaping mouth of terror is etched into his own tombstone, leading Seth to ask the question "mommy,why was that pirate so sad on the hard wall?" Let me just say, I wasn't quite ready to explain the spiritual realm to that extent of horrifying detail to my 4 year old. We simply said that the man was very bad and made bad choices and his conequence was that he had to go be with the bad people and he was upset about it. I am hopeful that most of the stuff went over the kids' heads and that they won't even remember it. And like I said, I know that some parents would be fine with the movie. I personally felt like it was simply too real. This was no "bippity boppity boo" Disney magic or wave a magic wand and the villain turns you into a toad kind of magic. Voodoo is a very real witchcraft that a lot of people fully practice. It is a very dark, sinister, and evil kind of magic that is actually put into use by people and those people believe that it works and is real. True witchcraft is not somethng to be made light of in my opinion and is definitely not something I want my young children exposed to. I wasn't really planning to take the kids to see a Disney princess movie and then have to have a real conversation about demons and hell and fortune-telling afterwards. Just too much for us. And the kids found it to be scary, especially the parts with the "spirits from the other side." Needless to say, The Princess and The Frog will NOT be joining our Disney video collection. bummer.

holiday fun

So I thought I'd add a quick update following the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Josh was on call so we had to stay in Michigan, but we were lucky that family came up so we didn't have to be alone. Josh's sister was in town for the past couple of weeks from Tulsa. We loved getting to spend more time with Vanessa and the kids had blast getting to play with cousin Victoria. My parents planned to come up with my granddpa, so we were excited that we would still get Thanksgiving with family and the grandparents. It was my first time really hosting a big Thanksgiving where I actually planned everything and handled the majority of the cooking and housed people... the whole shibang! I started cooking on Wednesday and planned to have everything wrapped up that night when my parents came in because we were going to order pizza and all snuggle to watch the new Disney move, Up. (BTW, BEST movie out there right now!) So, I was in the kitchen finishing the stuffing and I was on the phone with my mom who was about an hour away from the house. Suddenly, the dog started barking and we hear a knock on the door. (odd, because we were not expecting anyone at tht moment) So, Vanessa opened the door and I hear gleeful screaming from all of the kids (including Josh) and then see Josh run across the foyer and leap (yes, leap) full body into another man's arms. As it turned out, my brother and his wife had driven all the way from Virginia Beach to surprise us for Thanksgiving. BEST SURPRISE EVER! So we got to have Dan and Lauren with us as well and it was awesome. We very much missed the other boys though. Dave is stll in China. He enjoyed mongolian barbeque for Thanksgiving (with dog meat, which is apparently kind of a specialty meat over there). And then Ben and Sarah and the kids were in NY where Ben was working most of the holiday. His first big holiday as a doctor... working... typical. We also celebrated Isaac's first birthday during dessert because half of the family was out of the country on his actual birthday. He enjoyed his carrot cake cupcake, aside from the moments when nearly suffocated himself by shoving icing up his nose. But once we cleared out his nostrils, he enjoyed his cake. =) We decorated the Christmas tree and the house last weekend and are full-blown in the Christmas spirit around here. We've spent the rest of the week just hanging with Josh's sister and now that she has headed back to Tulsa, we are gearing up to do our Christmas shopping. Not terribly exciting, but that's the recent happenings around here. Happy holidays! Here's few pics from the past week.

Isaac was not so sure about everybody singing loudly and staring at him during Happy Birthday.

Seth was in the Christmas spirit. We found him like this the night we decorated the tree.

And not to leave out Lilah... on her way up for a bath. She's ready if butt cleavage ever makes a comeback (not that we would let her out of the house like that) It's funny because the poor thing always looks like this. She just can't seem to keep that tucked into her pants, ever.  =)