This weekend Tiffany and the kids came along with me to Morristown for Church on Sunday. We went up on Saturday and had a great time hanging out, swimming in the hotel pool and even catching a movie. Sunday’s are an incredibly long day for me, and because they were tagging a long with me, it was a long day for them too! So, last night I gave Noah my iPhone to play with and pass the time while he was waiting patiently. During dinner, he proudly showed us his “NBC 10 News Broadcast script”. It was too cool not to share. I’m proud of this guys mind. He is so creative. I’m excited to see what God does with his life. So, Enjoy! 
Can you understand it? Or do you need a transl8tor? ~Peter
In a recent parent teacher conference Noah’s teacher said that she has never had a student care about others like Noah does. WOW, right? I mean as a parent I am so proud of him. I was expecting to hear that my kid was the weird kid that stands in front of the urinal with his pants at his ankles. AWKWARD. But no! Instead she surprises us with great stuff! Then, I get this video from Tiffany today. This just put me over the edge. So, indulge me for a minute.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73wPBeO1gtQ]
I could not be more proud of Noah, not because he wants to follow in my footsteps, but because God is developing a really soft spot in his heart for people! I LOVE THIS about him. This reminds me to keep praying for each one of my kids. I love them, and believe that God has something really special in store for each of them.
What are you praying about for your kids?
~Peter
The other day I took Noah out and he shed the training wheels on his bike. He was a bit nervous at first, but then he was totally excited. What a day! He said it was like recess without the training wheels, “because I could go wherever I wanted!” It was a monumental moment in his life.
What monumental moment in life have you had recently?
~Peter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vXnJhC66mo]
This past weekend was my Brother-in-law’s wedding. Everything went great making it quite the weekend. However I found myself waking up on Monday saying, what happened to Friday? It was all totally worth it. There were some really memorable moments. Fortunately no one fainted in his wedding, unlike my wedding where he went down right in the middle of it all! I thought about standing up and faking it. But I didn’t.
One of my favorite moments of the whole weekend was watching my son Noah. He was unbelievable. He was hysterical. He was in his zone. There was a point during the reception when Noah started busting his groove-thang. I mean this kid was breaking it down. Here is one of the many pictures that I took of him in his moment.
I’m telling you he was in the zone. There was no distracting him. His crazy legs were going off. His hands were moving and boxing his face and pointing and going all over. This kid has some moves! Watch your back Bieber; this kid is coming to get you!
Mid way through the dance fest the DJ even took notice of the action on the dance floor and called everyone’s attention to Noah.
He danced harder.
I could not have made Noah do anything other than what he was going to do.
Looking back on that series of events there is so much that I can learn from my little man.
Be who you’re going to be. To many of us try and be someone who we are not. We talk differently, act differently and walk differently than who we really are. Be who you were made to be!
Don’t care whose watching. It wouldn’t have mattered who was watching Noah. He was happy to be moving and grooving. Once the circle formed around him it seemed to set him into motion even more! Don’t be embarrassed about who you are.
Smile. This seems simple, but take joy in what you are doing. If it is who you are and you are doing what you were made to do, then do it with a smile on your face. I have a friend who is a funeral director. We laugh together all the time. I love that guy! You would think that he would be pretty somber based upon his profession. He’s not. He does an awesome job at what he does too, with a smile on his face! So let it out. Smile.
We all could learn a lesson or two from my dancing maniac.
~Peter
The other day Noah and I were building with blocks and I began to question him what it was exactly that we were building. A lot of times we just build for building’s sake. Good times had by all. This time he was persistent to get it just right. We put up the four walls and then added two slanted pieces to simulate a roof line. The walls were tall, towering, and void of windows. Their was one way in, no way out. Their was a parking lot and a prefered parking space near the door for the wealthiest individual. All of the people were sitting in a straight row in the very back of the facility. Then there were 4 people on the opposite wall, they were all standing.
I got really curious and asked him what we were building and who all of these people were. He responded with this is a church. These are the people, and this is the worship team. (I had to help him with the term worship team, that wasn’t natural, but they were clearly defined in his mind.) 
I watched as he carefully and intentionally positioned people, and blocks. He was sure that he was building the church. In reality he is. This looks a lot like our churches, right? What if we looked at the book of Acts and the early church? Would we come to the same architectural structure? What about the placement of people, would that be the same too? I doubt it.
However, by the time Noah turned five he has a pretty good idea of what the church in the west looks like. I hope that when I am building blocks with Noah’s children that maybe the face of the church would look a little different, a little more like a group of people huddled together rather than neatly lined up in a row. Maybe it would be in a facility of some sort, just not so predictable. Can you imagine church being any different than it is now? Should it look a little different than it does now? What do you think?
Oh by the way, Woody and Army Man stopped by because they heard the wonderful music inside. They said they weren’t really into the whole God thing, so they sat in the balcony that day.
~Peter
Can you spot all of the things that are messed up with Noah’s form of church? Tell me what you see.
[slideshow]
A little bit ago I blogged about Noah’s first day of school, and how grown up that little man is getting. Yesterday Tiffany caught some really funny stuff on video. Here is the background story: Noah has a great teacher in school, as evidenced by this video. He is learning a ton of things. He loves music, he loves gym, he loves creative times, and all of the other activities that happen at school. He came home from school yesterday and wanted to “Teach” his little sister Grace all of the things that he has learned. Make sure and pay attention to Grace throughout the movie too. She is just as funny if not funnier!
Man they are going to love me when they get older! This stuff is priceless!
~Peter
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVexOnBFqjs]
It feels to me like time is stuck on cruise control. And the pedal was jammed against the floor when it was set! This past Saturday was Noah’s 5th birthday. I feel like it could have been 3 or 4 weeks ago when we first brought him home from the hospital. As we left the hospital both Tiffany and I were waiting for them to say, “No, you are way to young to drive this baby home.” I was halfway tempted to make a T-shirt that said I’m older than you think!
5 years ago this little kid came into our lives and made a beautiful mess out of me! I am so thankful for him and the ways that he challenges me to be a better husband, father and man. It is crazy how much you learn about yourself when you get married. It’s even crazier how much you learn about yourself once you have children!
I am looking forward to the next 5 years! It’s gonna be awesome!
This video feels like yesterday!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS-fus3moLM]
~Peter
You know it’s always good to have an ace in the sleeve. So… Noah and I thought that maybe we have found our Ace.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhGLa3YbGQI]
~Peter
This week has been a fun adventure with the kids! Tiffany started a new job and I had the opportunity to spend more one on two time with Noah and Grace this week! We had a blast. Tuesday night we went chick-fil-a and had a great time. Noah fell asleep in the car on the way there, but when we got there, he wanted to go down “that” (the slide). We romped around in the play area for ever! Then the next night we stepped up our game and went and played at Chucke Cheese’s. They loved every second of it!
My good buddy Matt Thompson came and hung out with us! Notice, Noah is beating him at air hockey!
(sorry tiff, her hair was all static electricitied! I promise it looked cute before I took her out of the house.)
We had a great time laughing and being silly.
~Peter
SO, this is one of the reasons I love being a Dad. I get an email at 1:54 in the afternoon with these pictures. They were too cute not to share with you! I am so thankful for my family! I couldn’t help but share them with you!
