Heaven

i'm sharing Joshua's facebook post he just made for today, now that we've been missing Papa for two years.

 Joshua Vaughn

Tuesday, January 29 at 10:16pm

Evenin' all, my wife is currently making fun of me because I can never just write something - instead I have to agonize over every word choice and what would take her three minutes to write might take me an hour. So - here we go, I'm going to try to prove her wrong and knock this out in record time...

Two years ago today, after a short and severe bout of flu, my father, Ray Vaughn, left this world to stand in the presence of Jesus. I celebrate that Heaven is real, Jesus is real, and that dad is there now and always, not because of how good he was but because of how forgiven he was. I love my dad and I miss my dad, but I wouldn't wish him back from that for anything. I found a shirt of dad's the other day that had been wrapped up and still smelled like him (in a good way :) ). Evalana asked me if I was crying because I missed him and I said that I was. I don't often cry for missing dad but when I do, Evalana will almost always encourage me with a "you'll see him again someday in heaven". I pray my children grow to know and love Jesus as their Lord and Savior, so they will share in that eternal life-life that is full and overflowing and starts in the here and now. I am thankful that He has forgiven me and bought me back from sin and death. I hope and pray the same would be true for each of you. This life is a blink and then forever. I pray you'll find the love of the God who hand-crafted each of us, loves each of us and died to rescue each of us from sin and death. Peace and blessings, all.

P.S. - For two years I've wanted to write back and thank each of you that sent messages of encouragement and support and shared memories of dad. It's no secret that I am the world's worst Facebooker and am horrible at keeping in touch, but I really am grateful for all the kind words. So a belated and heartfelt 'thanks' to all. love - JV

P.P.S - My smart wife was right. This took like 2 hours. :)

popping balloons

Chuck E Cheese

On the 28th, Dad and Nancy took all of us to Chuck E Cheese. It was great to have a little more time with Jennifer and Chris before they headed back to Arizona, and everyone had lots of fun playing together. i was so busy that i didn't get any pictures taken, but joshua managed to get this one when lazarus put coins in this game.

Christmas

 

my two year old

Lazarus is so much fun. He loves laughing and showing affection. We can now understand about everything he says. One thing he still doesn't say quite right is calling his belly button "butt" or "butt butt." He still calls both dogs Samson. Last month he finally got his canine teeth, after not getting any new ones for the last year. He doesn't like to be away from me much. In January he stopped nursing to sleep and wake up, and now he's only nursing about once a week or so. I doubt he'll be nursing for much longer. He loves loves loves playing trains. He likes music--playing music and dancing to music. He likes to go fast. Two of the things he's done this year that he told everyone about are riding on Gigi's boat and riding a roller coaster. He also talks about going to the zoo almost every day. He's doing a great job with the potty. At 1 1/2 he started using the potty for most of his peepees, and, with some water-sticker rewards, he also got all his poops on there. Then, later in the summer, he did a lot of peeing on the floor instead, although I never figured out what changed. He now, though, always uses the potty when we're at home. He's still scared to sit in the big toilet, even with the insert and even the little toilets at church, so he wears a diaper when we're out for more than an hour. Thankfully he will not poop in his diaper anymore, so that helps a little with the wash. And I love that he's always in unders at home. He's able to take off his clothes and go to the potty whenever he needs to by himself. Awhile ago evalana showed him how to get his underwear off by himself, so he likes to show her he can do it. Then, after he goes potty, either Evalana or I help him put his unders back on. Evalana's such a great help. Lazarus eats a lot. I can't think of anything he doesn't like, but he especially likes goldfish crackers, hotdogs, breakfast sausage, and pizza. He prays before every meal, especially for Gigi, Baby, and Mommy. He likes to sit and read books with me, even evalana's school books. Thomas the Train videos are the magic answer when he's really upset, but we try not to watch them too much. He shows real appreciation and thankfulness when someone does something for him. He loves being with his sister and playing with her. She's really great with him too. I feel so blessed with these three kids. Lazarus is now 36.5in (94%) and 28.6lbs (71%).

5 months

picture taken by my cute
4yo photographer

Our baby is now 5 months (23 weeks) in the belly and about 1 pound and about 11 inches. The baby's moving quite a bit. Evalana even got to feel some of the kicks on Sunday, which she was pretty excited about. I'm still feeling great. I had a brief cold over the past few days, and Lazarus just threw up this morning but seems to be doing just fine now. Otherwise we've been able to avoid all the icky sickness going around. I'm so thankful we've been able to stay so healthy this winter. Just four-ish more months until we'll be holding this little baby.

great grandpa moser

While we were in Arkansas and Joplin this month, Joshua got to spend a little time getting family information from his Grandma Vaughn and his Grandpa Johnson. He got some really good stories, including a great story about his great aunt getting named--hopefully he'll be able to share some of those stories soon. When Evalana was born, we gave all the grandparents a Grandparent's Legacy book for them to fill out. I got Great Grandpa Moser's (my mom's dad) book back after he died, and i finally got pictures taken of the pages to post to share with family. In his being diagnosed with cancer when he was 90, we had the blessing of realizing we had limited time left with him here, and i'm thankful to everyone who helped Grandpa fill out a little more of his book. Grandpa was always full of stories, so hopefully we can continue to collect more to pass on to his great grandchildren. 

                             

end of 2012

On December 30th we went to Arkansas. Gigi now has internet at her house, so Joshua was able to work from there for the week. It was great to be able to spend some time with Gigi. We left Sunday morning and got to go to church in Joplin with Meema, Uncle John, Bailey, and Chloe. It was great to see them. And then headed to Arkansas and got to see Aunt Kristen, Trinity, Gracie, Curtis, and Shelby.
Here are a couple pictures of our New Years Eve, before the kids and i went to bed at 7pm.

 

Thursday night we got to have dinner at Aunt Kristen and Brent's house and see both of them and Noah and Shelby. Then Saturday morning we picked up Aunt Kristen, Noah, and Shelby, and went to Joplin where Brent, Trinity, Gracie, and Great Grandpa and Grandma Johnson met us at Meema and Grandpa Kidd's. And then on home.

happy new year!

We're very excited for 2013 because we get to meet our Baby 3 this year! And Aunt Kristen and Brent are getting married June 1st. We got to enjoy January 1st with games and family at Gigi's house.

 

robe

On Christmas Eve, we gave the kids robes. Evalana was very excited about hers. Lazarus refused to put his on until we were at Gigi's house the next week. Gigi also gave him matching slippers. I think he looks pretty cute in it.

 

january zoo

looking at the cheetahs

On the 11th, the temperature was in the mid-50s, so we decided to visit the zoo. it was still kind of windy out, so we had our coats on most of the time, but it was a great afternoon to get out. it's supposed to be in the mid-60s Monday, so we may be making another trip soon.

Lazarus told Daddy about the zoo and then wouldn't give up the phone and fell asleep. 

oops nap

On the 14th, both of my non-nappers took an accidental nap.

 

Lazarus stopped napping at the beginning of January, and it's been great to have a little more freedom to our schedule during the day. Now if he does nap, then he ends up staying up later at night and gets less sleep than his usual 12 hours. Evalana also sleeps for about 12 hours these days (and stopped napping around 2 1/2).

peanut butter snowballs

On the 15th, the kids enjoyed making yummy snowballs, which was part of Lazarus's school time for January.

 

sabbath

Last weekend Joshua and I decided that we needed to do a better job of observing the Sabbath in our family. We don't ignore God's other nine commandments, but we haven't done much of anything to honor the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11 says, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." So Saturday evening to Sunday evening was our first attempt for our family to try to do a better job of celebrating the Sabbath. Saturday we tried to get all of our cleaning and project work done, and our goal for our Sabbath was to focus on God and our family and serving. 
We started off our Saturday at sunset time with a great dinner, including the traditional Challah bread. We still have a lot to figure out, like do we do dishes and cooking during our Sabbath, but I am thankful that we aren't bound to the laws that Jews had. Sunday we went to church and then Damien came over to play for awhile, and Joshua helped them make a Moses skit. Then we got to play some games together, too. 

Our first attempt at observing Sabbath was a great experience. We're looking forward to doing it again this evening.