MOTHER AND FATHER'S DAY 2010

Although this one is a little late, it's one that I think is very important. Shannon and I are both very blessed to have wonderful parents to model for us what family and marriage is suppose to be like. We take a moment again to say a big thank you and we love you!! As we entered the world of marriage with kids, we had no idea what it was truely going to be like. Do any of us??? :)

I can tell you that it has been an adventure that we have absolutely loved. Kids bring a dimension to your world that is indescribable. They can take a bad day and turn into one of the best days ever in a blink of an eye. They can also send you from smiling to pulling your hair out in .5 seconds as well, but we will not focus on that today. :)

I am thankful to have a loving wife who loves me 2nd to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She is a wonderful mother to our 2 kids and always works her hardest to help us make it as a family. She fulfills the role of mom to the nth degree and my kids are blessed to have her as a mother.
My prayer everyday as a dad is that I can always be the man of God that the Lord wants me to be. To teach my children how to grow up loving the Lord and wanting a relationship with Him. When we take a second to really reflect on the responsibility that comes with being a parent, it can be a very scary thing. Yet I think that there is no better blessing in life than to put your whole heart into your kids and help shepherd their hearts.

I pray that my kids will be able to one day have a family of their own. I hope that they can look back on their times of growing up in our household and say....as TobyMac would say...

Love is in the house and the house is packed
So much so I left the back door cracked
Mama always said it's a matter of fact
that when love is in the house the house is packed

Our world today is seeing more and more families not making it,so I pray right now that you protect your marriage and fight for it. Put Christ first in your marriage and make a conscious effort daily to walk with Him as you walk through life with your spouse and your kids. The passage below is one of my favorites that I keep as a reminder of God's command for us as parents to our children. May it bless you as well.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9

GO TWO NINE!!!!

We have 3 specific teams/folks that we pull for in the Whitt household......

If it's college football time....ROLL TIDE is the constant theme, decked out in our Julio jerseys and yelling, many times a little too much. :) What did they do in 2010? NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!

If it's college basketball time....LET'S GO DUKE is the constant theme, decked out in our Duke shirts or JJ Redick jerseys with our good luck signed basketball somewhere very near us. What did they do in 2010? NATIONAL CHAMPIONS AS WELL!!!

We are not big pro anything around here...not football, basketball, or baseball. The only other thing we really stay tuned into is Nascar. Now I know many folks will say that Nascar is not a sport, but I challenge anybody to strap into a car and run 200 mph with 40 cars all around you for 3 to 4 hours straight. Bet you get a different opinion after that. Plus if you have ever seen it up close and personal, you might change your mind as well. I have been fortunate enough to be able to see races from the grandstands as well as about 15 ft away in the pits at Bristol Motor Speedway. It is a boys trip/ritual taken every year in August and it's a blast! Last year was the first year in 7 years that we were not able to make the trip, but I am hoping that we will be able to get back on track to the track this year.

The reason for this post is to just say congrats to my favorite driver Kevin Harvick, not only for winning the Coke 400 race at Daytona this weekend, but for turning things around in 2010 and having a shot to win it all and dethrone Jimmie Johnson. I have been a Harvick fan since 2001 when he replaced Dale Earnhardt after his tragic passing at Daytona. For whatever reason, the 29 and my family seem to have this weird little bond that's pretty cool.

When Shannon and I got married (which was on a Saturday), we were on our honeymoon in FL and actually came inside for lunch (on Sunday)and I turned on the race to watch for a few minutes. It was awesome to watch him win that day in Chicago. That was the beginning of a common trend for us.

When Caden was born on April 22nd of 06, what was going to be a fun evening of letting my little man experience his first race with dad, turned sad very quickly. He was rushed to the NICU and had to stay there for over a week. I remember the emotions of that day. I remember visiting hours being weird and how hard it was for me to go down and see him hooked up to all of those machines. I just couldn't do it, but felt that I had to at some point in time. I had settled for waiting for the next day when Shannon and I could go together. Shannon was exhausted and asleep by early evening, but I couldn't get my mind to stop at all. So I turned on the tv and had completely forgot about the race. They were racing at Phoenix and when I turned the tv on, there were about 40 laps left. I remember sitting there in the chair and saying to myself how awesome it would be for Kevin to win one for my little man. And sure enough, he came on at the end and won! I know it's stupid but it brought tears to my eyes. It at that time also gave me a reason to go talk to my little man in the NICU and conquer something that was very hard for me to conquer earlier that evening.

The last and most recent connection, which was about 2 years ago came during a very tough time in our lives. Shannon and I were in Dallas on a business trip of hers. We took Caden and he and I spent the entire week together in the hotel room and the pool. It was so much fun. As we were getting ready to go on Saturday morning, he got a hold of Shannon's straightening iron and burned his hand really bad. We didn't know how bad until we got to the hospital. He had a 3rd degree burn on his hand/fingers and we were going to have to stay at the hospital in Dallas until the beginning of the next week. The incident in and of itself was very emotional and probably the toughest thing that Shannon and I have been through together in the 8 years that we have been married. She was 7 months pregnant with Laura Grace which didn't help things at all. But again, I remember her getting to sleep exhausted from the day and me being wide awake with my mind running rampant. Very very similar to the evening of the day Caden was born, I turned on the tv and the race was on. They were in Phoenix, same as when he was born, and for a few minutes in life, I wanted to watch him win another one "for us". And so he did. :) It was a nice memory in a time of fear and crazy emotions. Caden has come on to be just fine and we still have a story to tell to this day.

Now I know that Kevin Harvick has no idea who we are, and could probably care less. But it is fun to have a little connection like that to our lives.
I also know that Kevin Harvick is not the strength that gets us through our days or our tough times. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the strength and rock during these tough times. He was the one to give us the will and strength to keep going and know that in the end, He will take care of us. So please know that I know that.

So back to 2010. I am hoping that the 29 will help us pull out the trifecta of champions this year. How awesome would that be?!?!?!
It would make 2010 a year to remember as far as the Whitt sports go. But if he doesn't pull it off, we will be there to pull him on next year. GO 29!!!!

CELEBRATING ON THE 4TH...WELL 3RD, 4TH, AND 5TH!

We first of all want to say thank you to all of our military folks, active and non-active, who risked and are now risking their lives daily to allow us the opportunity to have the freedom in the United States that we have. I think that we take our freedom for granted way too much in today's society. So, I want to take a moment to pray for our military and to let them know that we truly appreciate them.



We did not purposefully start our 4th of July celebration a day early. It just happened to end up like that. We borrowed a huge waterslide from Debbie and Ken Lambert (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!) We had actually had it for a couple of days for our kids to play on. Well on Saturday, my sis and sis-n-law brought their kids over and we just had a big ole playday in the backyard. The weather was awesome and the kids had a blast playing together as usual. Here are a few pics below of the fun.

I know that our kids are blessed to be as close as they are. They stay together throughout the week at our parents houses and yet they can still get together on a Saturday and still have a blast together. I think that's awesome!

On Sunday, the 4th, we went to church and had an awesome worship service. I really enjoy it when we have services where we are all together. It, to me, makes our church feel complete.
Afterwards, we went to mom and dads for one of the most relaxing days that I have had in a while. We took the slide over so the kids could keep on playin. We had some awesome food and I ate until I was stuffed and then some. The kids played hard and then went down for a late nap. It was fun to just hangout as adults and lay in the pool, or lay under the shade and read, or just sit on the porch and chat and enjoy each others company. I really love my family and thank the Lord everyday for the blessings He gives us. Below is some of the Sunday 4th fun.

We decided to keep the party going on Monday by going to AL Adventure. Mom has purchases season passes and takes the kids every week, but we actually had a day off to go join the fun as well. It was a blast!!! I was able to take my two and let them play at the "big kid" park. They don't normally get to do this when they go, so they really enjoyed it. They were able to ride with mom and dad down the big slides and we just had a great day together. The park was so much fun that both of our kids were snoring by the time we got onto the interstate. :) Love my family and love when we get to experience fun things like this past weekend together. Hope all had as much fun on the 4th, before and after, as we did.

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – Psalm 103:17

TRUST AND OBEY

Psalm 40:4 says, "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust."

I have a little book entitled "Hope for Each Day" by Billy Graham. We actually picked it up at the church yardsale for next to nothing, and it has happened to be one of the best little treasures that I have ever stumbled upon. It has a verse and a 2 to 3 paragraph story for each day of the year. Nothing superduper fancy that sticks out about it at all on the outside, yet the words coming from within are powerful!! Example:

The most recent title is "Trust and Obey". What's the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it's the hymn. I bet I have sung the words to that hymn 1000 times since I was little.

Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus.......but to trust and obey.

Such simple words, yet how many times do we fall on our faces because....
1.) we don't fully trust
2.) we don't obey

I love the story that is mentioned because it so applies to all of us. He talks about one day when his kids were little, someone gave his little boy a dollar. Upon first instincts, the boy says, "Here dad, hold this for me" and he runs off to play. A few minutes later he comes back and says, "Dad, I better keep my own dollar" and takes it back to put in his own pocket. Well we all know how this story is going to end because we have all probably done it before. The boy comes back with tears in his eyes and says "Dad, I lost my dollar. Can you help me find it?"

I say that we have all probably done this before, but how many of us are actually doing it right now in our lives at this present day? We say, Lord please handle this matter, and then when the Lord doesn't act in the timeframe that we want him to act in, we decide that we can take matters into our own hands. And I would say that everytime we end up like the little boy in the story, coming back to say "Lord, I messed it up. Can you help me because I am in trouble?!!?"

Obedience begins with a listening heart. If we are not pursuing God daily, how do we know what He is asking of us to be obedient about. How many times does God impress something upon our heart and we become too afraid or too lazy to act on it? Have you ever felt God telling you to move/act in a moment, a right then and there moment, and you feel yourself starting to sweat and your heart starts beating 90 miles an hour? It might be for you to go pray for someone or with someone. It might be a moment where you need to stand up and give a testimony right then and there. He might impress on your heart to call or email someone. It might be that you need to go ask for forgiveness or tell someone that they have hurt you, and you need them to know so you can forgive them and ask them to forgive you. These are just a few to throw out there, but God calls us to be obedient.

I pray that we will all be able trust God in all phases of our lives. To trust Him to protect, to trust Him to provide, to trust in the fact that He knows what's best for us and will always love us. So today is a call to trust and obey.

IT'SSSSSSSS MOVIE NIGHT!!!!

Since summer provides so much time with the children, we decided to try to do some things to really make being home fun for the summer. When school is in, the routine day would consist of Shannon and I both working, getting the kids around 5, eating around 6, bath at 7, and bed around 8. It's pretty routine, but keeping our kids on that schedule has really made life easy for us as they have gotten older. Well summertime is a much different animal. For whatever reason, the time span of 4 to 8 seems like an eternity, if there is nothing setup for the little ones. :) I will be the first to admit that many times the "please go to your room and watch a movie" phrase sounds very appealing. But they are of the age now where they want to be with mom and dad doing stuff. They don't want to go watch TV or go "play." Now don't get me wrong, they can do both very well. But many times we think summertime is about being "off", "vacation", "chillin", and all little people under five don't grasp these concepts very well.

So we have decided to implement some different stuff throughout the summer to mix it up for the kids and make summer and family time fun and adventurous. We decided tonight to do a movie night. We will not name Monday nights "movie night" yet, but I am sure down the line that will be something that we want to do. We grabbed our blankets and mom popped us all some popcorn, and we let the kids pick their movie. They decided on Tweety bird movie. What a great movie.....not. But it made them happy and kept them watching for at least a little while.

I know that it will not be very long before the kids will think that they are too cool to hangout with mom and dad, so we are soaking up every minute we can while they still like us. :) The Lord has truly blessed us and I know our children will continue to like us for a long time.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him. Psalm 127:3

THE POWER OF A MAN

I just finished a book entitled "The Power of a Man" by Rick Johnson. The premise of this book is basically to challenge all men to stand up and be the man that you were created to be. As men, we all have people in our lives our age, older, and younger who look to us as an influence. This book challenges you to use your influence as a "man of character." As a teacher and coach, I teach and work with kids every year who are growing up in a household where there is no male role model available. Since they spend more than half a day with me everyday for 188 days, that's plenty of time for me to make an impression, be available, and choose for myself what kind of model that I want to be for these kids. Just like my 2 little ones at home, they watch, they see, they mimick. My prayer is that my words and my actions always line up. I know at times my human condition will cause me to falter and make mistakes. But in a consistent timespan, I want my kids to know that I walk the walk that I talk.

We live in a society today where the entertainment industry is dominating the rules and regulations of how we live day to day. Kids wear what they see on tv, act like folks act on tv, and have adopted their way of life based on what they are seeing. This book is a challenge for all men to step up your game in the roles that you are now living in, whether that's husband, father, sibling, mentor, whatever. It starts with what's going on inside your home. Are you being the husband to your wife that you need to be? Are you the father to your kids that you need to be? How many people are inside your daily "circle" that you are influencing and what kind of influence are you?

In today's world, the defintion of a "real man" has become very broad, yet also very skewed. Many think that you become a real man based on your status within your job or how much money you have. Some believe it's about how you are with the ladies. And others believe it's based on how many people you can beat down in any given evening. These would be very flawed definitions and there are many other flawed defintions not mentioned. But throughout this book and throughout my life, God has revealed some basics for "real men." Here are a few that I would consider essential:

A real man ......
1.) is the spiritual leader of his home.
2.) protects and provides for his family.
3.) uses his God-given influence to serve others.
4.) is accountable to God and other men.

These are just a few of the things that I have pulled out throughout my life and have been reenergized with throughout reading this book. I would highly encourage it for all guys out there, especially if you are a husband and father. Our generations to come, especially the males, are absolutely dependent on us teaching them what it's like to be a "real man." We need to not just talk about it and teach it, but to model it and live it so that our kids have the best chance possible to live a life for the Lord that they were created to live.

"Be on guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong."
1 Corinthians 16:13

CAMPING WITH THE CLARKS

As the wife headed off to the beach for a girls trip on Friday, the rest of the crew had plans to go camping with the Clarks. This was actually make-up plans from a couple of weeks ago when daddy messed up the plans by having surgery. So Caden did his usual calendar count by keeping up with "sleeps". It's a funny little thing that he does. He doesn't want to know how many days until we do something, he wants to know how many times he has to go to sleep before the time arrives.

So Friday finally arrived and what a packed day/weekend it turned out to be. Meme and Granddaddy took the kids to AL Adventure that morning/afternoon. The kids played their hearts out and had a blast. I went to get them at 4:00 and they were still zonked out napping. They finally woke up around 5:00 and we headed out. The kids were pumped and doing "daddy daycare" for the next couple of days, I was pumped as well!! :)

We arrived and let the madness begin. I say that in fun because there really wasn't any madness at all. The 4 kiddos have grown up playing with each other and always have a blast and play well. We had pizza for dinner and "awesome" spiderman cupcakes for dessert. (Check the pics on those!! LOL)







The boys gave us plenty of entertainment during the evening playing the Wii. They love the swordfighting game on Wii Resort. Caden and Cole are probably the most competitive 4 year olds in the world. They definitely take after their daddies!! It's scary, though, that they are 4 and are better at most of the games than we are. The girls played with the Cinderella Castle and dollhouse. They love playing with each other as well.



As the sun began to go down, we decided to set up the tent outside and give it a shot. It has been so hot lately, we didn't know if it would be worth attempting to stay outside the entire evening. We set it up and the kids loved the tent. It was as if they had their own cage and they ran around inside of it as if they were caged animals. But they were having fun.







As the sun went down and it got dark. The kids wanted to tell ghost stories. So Linc and I were chilling in the tent with the kids listening to them tell their own ghost stories. The imagination of little people is amazing! Well, then they wanted Linc and I to tell them some stories. That's when it got really funny. I told the best ghost story that I could create and scared them pretty good. Then Linc created his own story. The funniest thing during Linc's story was watching my son creep further and further away from Lincoln as he was telling the story. By the end of the story he was all up in my lap!! :) It was pretty funny. He then decided that he was seeing things outside the tent, and so camping outside in the tent had now come to a close.

WAY TO GO, DADS!!

I will be honest and say that it was strategy on my part because I wanted to sleep inside in the AC. LOL! So we turned outside camping into inside camping and it was just as good. The kids all piled in and slept in the inside tent, slept through the evening, and didn't wake up at the crack of dawn. That's what I'm talking about!!

We got up Saturday and played through the morning. That afternoon, we went over to Lincs neighbor's pool and swam forever. The kids loved it! Caden is becoming very brave but not quite there yet. I am sure he will be by summer's end. Lala wanted to stay attached to daddy, but that was fine and we had fun. It's safe to say that pools are the best preparatory activity for a great nap! And ours slept well.



To finish off the camping weekend, Linc and Les were having some friends over cook out. They had a big water slide brought over for the kids and we had to stick around to let Caden and Lala enjoy that. So they spent the next couple of hours playing in the backyard and wearing out that waterslide.





I wish we kept a counter to see how many trips were made on that slide. I would say that 1000 would probably be a reasonable number.





All in all, we had a blast with the Clarks and can't wait to do it again!!