You. are. WELCOME!
Tips, plans, lists and free printable organizer pages. Every year I fall in love with this website all over again. *sigh
All this and more!!!
Hello, Organized Christmas. I love you like crazy!
Category Archives: 3 Celebrations & Festive Events
We are halfway to une autre jolie petite-fille petite!**
Rocky’s mom {me} started with 3 girls (before the infamous Rocky himself showed up). Jovan’s mom had 3 girls. It is familiy tradition! :)
Another grandbebe of the sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice pursuasion!
But now the question is, will she be grandbebe #7 or #8? It all depends, for Dave & Tara (all systems go and ready) could end up adopting before this little Rhoades-etta arrives. Time will tell, time will tell. But at the very least, we’ll have at least one new granbebe by spring. :)
**another pretty little granddaughter…in French
Happy Birthday to the World’s Best Daughter-in-Love EVER!
Happy Birthday, Jovan.
You have my son. You have my two adorable grand-girls, Averi and Amelie and another little Rhoades grandbebe on the way. You have a lovely home and family and sweet spirit and you have my heart. Now have another HAPPY BIRTHDAY, too!!!
I actually started this blog when you and Rocky were just newlyweds and so you are integral to the history, a part of every family story in recent days and a kindly receiver of the old history, which makes me happy.
There is some question: is Amelie picking? Or still asking you to keep Baby-Rhoades a secret???
You’re a good daughter, Jovan. You are attentive to family tradition and the wiles and ways of getting so many {more} sisters when you took Rocky as your husband and ended up in this bright constellation of characters almost as numerous as the stars in the sky! Thank-you, by the way, for your continuing contributions to our bunch. We love them one and all.
I, Jovan, take, thee, Rocky…and your mom and dad and Tara and her family, and Stephanie and hers. And I take Tredessa and commit to helping her find a husband, too (since you and I are jumping the birth order for marriage – it is my reasonable service). And I take Stormie and all that will someday be of her. And add you all to my big, Italian family. Amen.
So for your birthday this year, I have gone back to see what I have had to say about you for all these years. And here is some of what I say {and believe} about you, Birthday-Girl:
2011 {CLICK to see original post}
I made you a “card” to try to capture some words that would express how much I love you. I always run out of space, because the words come easy.
You turned 25 and here is what I said,
“On an All Hallow’d Eve’ so long ago, a day usually draped in black and night, a light was born. Twenty-five years ago today, to be exact, a reflector of the love of Jesus Christ was born and the world can never again be as dark as it once was. Shine on, sweet girl, godly woman, and gift-of-a-daughter you are.”
2010 I recognized your light
And I just remembered: it was the first time I ever put words on a photo. I was obviously quite timid about it in 2010, but a year later – not so much. Haha.
2009 I used your middle name. Jovan Marie DiPerna Rhoades!
This is the year I sang you the song that I used to sing to Rocky and his little sisters about praying for the love of their lives even when they were just little-bitty babies in my arms. And I wrote a list of 23 things for your 23rd birthday.
Here are numbers 11 & 12, but I also still really like #3, #6 and #22, as I have seen God totally do these things in you!
- My wish for you is to find your own beat and to be unapologetic about marching to it.
- Jovan, I hope you will understand that you were called to us and will never be afraid to change us and impact us. That is why you’re here
Read the comments, too. Grandma Moslander left a sweet one. Lots of good ones!
2008 The year I wrote prayer-gifts out for you
And God answers prayer. The proof is in re-reading these and knowing He has been sooooooo faithful!
- Fearlessness in the battle. There is an enemy, Jovan. He will fight you for your family. But to be forewarned is to be for-armed. God looked through all eternity and knew He could trust you for this job. You are gentle, yes. You are careful not to run over people’s toes. But I also see the warrior spirit in you – absolutely aware at every turn where the battle lines are drawn. I pray for God to be your shield of protection and your deliverer. I pray He will give you the needed courage at the right times and that you will have no fear – because you are not alone!
- The joy of the Lord for the strength you need. I am praying for an outpouring of an abundance of clear, sparkling, life-giving rain to wash over your heart and mind. I pray you will be known as one who laughs right our loud in the face of danger! I pray that you will have everything Jesus promised in the area of joy: complete joy, and a full measure of His joy. I pray you get so much joy – it will splash on everyone else! (Ps 28.7; Ps 4.7; Jn 18.11; Jn 16.24; Jn 17.13)
2007 The story of how you and Rocky came to be
From the mother-in-law’s perspective, the first year I began writing birthday tributes to my children and theirs.
She is an impressive girl, or I guess I should say “woman.” She is just so pretty and has the most exotic eyes (eyelash length: 1.769 inches long).
AND this was year you were pregnant with Averi and I made you a Barbie-doll cake because she had always wanted one. I still get emails from all over the world about that cake and people wondering how to re-create it. :)
Yep, it is official. I want you to have a happy-happy-happy birthday every single year.
Love you bunches. Grateful for your prayers and love. Love watching you be all you were born to be. Happy birthday, sweet girl! LOVE, mom! xxoo
Through it all, 1959-present
October 8.
Stephanie ran across some one’s Andrae Crouch record album collection at a thrift store the other day and brought me 3 I didn’t have, but have loved my whole life long. I selected the one that was “big” to me from about age 12-14 or 15 (Christian songs have staying power that other songs don’t), and placed it on the turntable while I was busy with other things.
Each new song brought an o-I-loved-this-song and a smile to me, as I was hearing it in the distance a room or three away. But when it reached the final song on side one, I had to stop for a moment and just sing with Andrae. I’m not dead yet, but wouldn’t this just be an epitaph that said what really needed to be said?
I thank God for the mountains, and I thank Him for the valleys,
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.
For if I’d never had a problem, I wouldn’t know God could solve them,
I’d never know what faith in God could do
Through it all, through it all
I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God
Through it all (sometimes through the fire), Through it all (sometimes through the flood)
I’ve learned to depend upon His word.
Terri Pickett and I used to sing “Through it All” at the North Pine Church of God in Davenport, Iowa.
And I remember that back in the 70s, my dad (who taught me to love Andrae), used to want to mangle the words and sing it “Through it all, I’m learning to trust to in Jesus, I’m learning to trust in God,” which drove me crazy. :) But now I do get what He was saying. For through all the days of my life, yes, I actually have learned some about trusting God with the whole of me and my life, trusting He will never leave me nor forsake me. He is true to His word, and I get that to some degree.
But it is also true, like my dad thought – I am in process. Since I haven’t been through all quite yet (14,976 days, but still – not all of the ones I get), since there are more days to come and sights to see and life to live and faces to kiss and hands to hold and tears to cry and things to lose and unexpected and undeserved gifts to get and gray hairs and wrinkles to hide and reunions for rejoicing and songs for singing and books for writing and seasons that change (and change me) and blogs to post and all the good and bad and ugly and ravishing beauty of life to behold …well, then, my dad was right (like always): Through it all, even though I have no memory of one day without Jesus in my life (not one!), I’m just really just, starting just, beginning just, learning to trust in Jesus…
And as Andrae so powerfully communicates in this song, Through my sickness and pain, through it all, through my sorrow and shame, I’ve learned (and I am learning) to depend upon His word. And that can get me all the way through all my days to the end.
By the way – the reason I won’t play the piano is because I can’t play like Andrae…but in heaven… Oh yes!!!
Happy Birthday, Rock-Bo
Oh, Rocky Rhoades, you crack me up
You are so intense, so serious, so zealous about whatever your cause. But you are also still the silliest and can make me laugh at the drop of a hat. Oh, boy of joy, your mama loves you. Like a rock, as Paul Simon sang.
You arrived to a houseful of girls and dolls and stuffed animals and fit right in, as depicted here.
By the time you came, we were resigned to all girls, which would have balanced things quite nicely, thank-you very much, but wow-o-wow, we were sure glad to get our little boy. You upset every fruit basket in your wake, scaled every wall and swung from every ceiling. You were the little ever-so-slightly-naughty who kept all three of your big sisters chasing you down, trying to make you behave, to very little avail.
And you still manage to be the quintessential “little brother” to the older three and Stormie, too, somehow. And like I have always told you, you were all the boy and the only boy God knew I could ever need, let alone handle.
I love you bunches and love how God is blessing you and your beautiful family: the gorgeous Jovan (a wonderful wife to you for 6 years now), and those two sweet baby girls, Averi and Amelie, and now a new little one on the way (a “little Rocky” or another “sweet Jovan,” either way, we win!).
This morning on your birthday, I love you so much, I am re-reading all the great stuff I have said to you or about you for your birthdays on this blog. Here are the highlights from 2011 back to 2007. If you ever need to know how I really feel about you, the depth of my love, I feel like I express my true heart best when I write – so go back and read and accept these blessing words as truth for you and about you. You are a good boy who became a great man. And I love you so…
2011, I tried to fit words about you onto one, small photo (click on the year to see the original post)
What do I SEE when I look at you? Well? my word-collage photo card tried to capture those things. But I know there is so much more…
2010, a man I admire
I told the story of God revealing to me that you were both a David (like the Psalmist and your given name) and a Peter (upon this rock of revelation). God’s assurance was so welcome…and true. :) And in 2010 I said,
…before me stands a man, an honorable and good man. He is rugged and handsome, he is gentle and humble. He loves his beautiful wife and he dotes on his little daughters, and they sure do love their daddy. He is strong and gifted, capable, yet unpretentious. You are turning out, Rocky Rhoades. You have turned out to be a wonderful man! Your mama loves you – can you tell?
And I looked forward to the things God was starting in you with the lyrics from “Rain Down.” Now you’re all wet! So cool!
2009, you turned 25 and we DID surprise you!
I listed 25 wishes for then. I am still wishing and praying all of it for you and love how God has been answering these things. Like this one:
I wish for you a band of strong brothers-in-the Lord: men who have your heart and your passion to fight the battles with you, like-hearted warriors you can trust.
Songs of healing…soon.
2008, a mom’s prayers for her son
I pray that your voice will be heard. Sunday, as you led worship in The River, I was so impressed at how you communicate a song’s truth. That is different than just singing it. I know you know that. It is what has set you apart and given you a place of leading people into God’s presence through worship. But I know, oh how I know, there is more. There is so much more. There is an amazing power to communicate the deep truths of God, almost ready to be birthed. You stand at the precipice, you defer to others more seasoned. And that is OK for now, but know – the time to speak, the time to speak out with boldness – is coming. Don’t let your youthfulness cause you consternation in this. Live it. Then speak it when He says to. And for the ears of the people to hear, for the hearts to receive…
I don’t pray that you will always be a “vocational” worship leader or a pastor, though you were born into a heritage of that calling and have been blessed to walk this path so young. But I do pray you will always be a worshipper. I pray that the song of the Lord will continue to grow in your heart until it cannot be contained and you are forced to pen the songs of heaven. I pray that you will always minister to the Lord (with your song, your voice, your heart, your all), no matter where you are or what else you may ever do. Worship Him, always, my sweet boy. You were made to praise Him.
2007, when I was just getting started
I wrote about your birth, the surprise and the euphoria of it. I told the story of how you got your crazy-famous name as “Rocky Rhoades.” I wrote about “little Rocky.” And I remembered your 18th birthday, when you finally went public with your worship and sang people into the Presence.
Isn’t this photo just peaceful and angelic? Can’t you already just see the earnestness in his expression, the resolve to be God’s man? Can you tell he was getting ready to have a poop-explosion that would ruin his white outfit and the photographer’s blankets and set? Hahahahha! Oh, he was.
When he was little, Rocky actually thought the cereal, the ice cream and the TV show by the same name were titled in his honor. When he’d get away from in a store, you’d hear snickers throughout as the loudspeaker announcement declared: Rocky Rhoades, meet your parents at the Service Desk. Rocky Rhoades, please come to the front.
You have made life fun.
Happy Birthday, Rocky and tons of blessing, too. Love you with all my heart…don’t all these posts prove that? :) {mom}
At the Tristan/Rocky joint family party the other night. :)
Happy 6th Anniversary, Rocky and Jovan
Happy Anniversary, you two! Where have 6 years gone?
It was blue and very classic black and o-so-hip and the hottest party in town. It was 2 chocolate fountains and bubbles and crazy-fun dancing and an electric blue Mustang for the getaway. There was a 5 tier cake almost 3 feet high and thousands of twinkle lights backlighting a radiant bride and her handsome fella. It was the sun setting and the nightlife lighting up and 2 huge families coming together to celebrate young love and a long-cherished dream come true. There were promises that made us laugh and made us cry and a convivial feast spread across candlelit tables set with beautiful centerpieces on a lovely September evening.
Now here we are, 6 years and 2 gorgeous girls (and baby number three on the way), a first home, and a new minivan later ~ beauty!
Love you. Happy Anniversary!
Happy 9th Anniversary, Dave & Tara!
It was a lovely wedding, complete with with Phillips, Craig and Dean singing as you served communion to your very special guests, thousands of tiny twinkle lights, and getting Grandma and Grandpa Moslander to dance for the first time since their first anniversary. Shrimp cocktail and that crazy-amazing aged steak from your boss (will I ever experience that goodness again?) and your flower girl and ring bearer rolling down the aisle in a white-satin and lace baby carriage – so fun! A certain song sung in Itailan…Hot pink, bright orange fabric billowing from the roofline to the celebration below, stained glass windows, starry skies, brisk air, smiles and joy. Lots and lots of joy!
And the years since have been so blessed.
Just think what this year holds in store!!! :)
Love you and am thoroughly enjoying the Hunter-time!
So {grand} to be a grandparent
Guini’s 2nd grade class invited us to a Grandparent’s Day (the next day) appreciation event. They sang for us and did some rap and poetry and then they served us muffins and lemonade.
Her friend, Alana, was assigned to us because her grandparents didn’t live nearby. So we “adopted” her for the day and got double-good treatment.
I really appeciate the school teaching the kids to honor the generations. It will come back to them!
Love my Guin-Guin. Thanks for a delightful time, sweet Guinivere!
Now hanging on my fridge:
Look who was at my breakfast table the past 3 days
Wrex & Sawyer
Little Sawyer Phipps!
Miss Sawyer just turned 2 last month and already counts and knows her colors and shapes, too – even pentagons and trapezoids! Plus she is learning scriptures for every letter of the alphabet.
They came all the way from Holyoke just hang out a couple of days. It was sweet and we miss them already.
The whole fam: Wrex, Stef and Sawyer (plus baby-to-be)
Happy Birthday to Tristan!
Well, a more beautiful day to celebrate your birth, I cannot imagine. I know Stephanie and the kids have been scheming and plotting and you will have a whole weekend of fun and delight for they love you so. And with good reason: you are such a great daddy to those grandbebes of ours and we are so thankful that you married Stephanie almost 11 years ago now.
I totally remember dad spending some time with you and saying, “I wish one of our girls would go for him. That guy has great spiritual insight and a good head on his shoulders.” And though we weren’t really particular about which girl, we should have known, that Stephanie, insightful and sharp-minded as she is, was already discovering what a great catch you were.
So on your birthday, when you’ll be getting lots of gifts, we are hoping to get continued credit for the gift of a gorgeous red-head (or platinum blond, or raven-haired beauty, or whichever phase she is in) to be your wife. It has been a pretty fortuitous and mutually beneficial situation for all of us, I think. My daughter got the man of her dreams, who turned out to be a WONDERFUL man, at that. And the love between you has produced 3 amazingly, quite-above-average, wondrous grandbebes that light our lives. And in return, you get Stephanie and all of us. :) And we all love you so.
The proof of this has been reflected in my blogs since 2007.
Here is what I have been saying about you!
2011 {click the year to read the whole post}
Last year I tried to put my words on a “card” and the cool thing is, I could have used a whole billboard and still have filled the space. It was all true then and it is all true now.
2010
Stephanie threw a fun soiree in the backyard, complete with a photo booth and old-fashioned root beer.
I couldn’t help teasing you for not getting that marital permission first! :)
Almost 9 years ago you married our multi-prismed, colorful, feisty, yet tender Stephanie. What a gentle treasure she’d found. What a trustworthy man, fit to hold her heart and walk along in life with her, covering her. We were so pleased then and have not ever for one second had any regret or fear about whether or not she’d done the right thing…even though you forgot to ask permission first {we really do forgive you! haha}. And you became our son. A new son – all grown up and finished (thank you Larry and Chyrl Kelley: GREAT job. Truly!).
2009
You were turning 29 and Stormie made you a Timpano! Which I referred to as “glorious.” And of course there was a fruit pizza, which you know I love to have you request..
I also wrote 29 wishes for your 29th birthday. Here are a few:
- I wish you 50% off days at Mile-High Comics every Labor Day!
- I wish for your full talent as a musician to be recognized beyond your wildest dreams and that you be compensated duly.
- May you get all the best drumsticks and Zildjian cymbals you ever need.
- I wish for you to have good students: the kind who don’t waste your time and who will really learn from the treasure-trove of musical knowledge you possess.
- I pray that as you have dared2work at dare2share, you’ll get credit in heaven for the harvest!
- Tris, I hope you will always be strengthened by knowing that you are so well loved by our whole family.
I still REALLY wish you had taken me up on number 27. It was a GOOD wish!
But please accept #29 again, and for always:
And finally? I pray for God to bless you back, in the same kind and with the same measure with which you have loved us, shown respect to us, honored us and become a part of us. And if He answers that prayer, and I know He will, you will be blessed – on your 29th birthday and always. And I am believing for that!
In Paris earlier this year
2008
In 2008, I said all sorts of things I loved and appreciated for you. And I made you 2 fruit pizzas. And I prayed this prayer over your life:
Grace to you, Tristan, and peace. Be blessed with provision through your giftings and abilities, both the technological and the artistic-musician sides. I pray that resources make themselves available and that your resourcefulness will become an even greater and valued commodity!
May you be preserved in blamelessness your whole life long. May your beautiful wife bring you joy and your children, great delight. May God hear all your prayers and your secret heart’s desires and answer you in times of trouble.
I pray that, while should it ever fall my lot – I would defend you to the death, may the Lord be your defender and protector and may He keep you safe on every side.
I pray that you, planted firmly by living waters, will begin to see the fruitfulness of your faithfulness before God and that this next year will bring blessing on every side, provision, new opportunities and new open spaces. I pray that we’ll see the explosion of the color of you all around, for this new time and place and new year for you and you family.
I just love reading old prayers, actual petitions before the LORD and realizing that He has faithfully and lovingly answered them fully! SO COOL! Happy Birthday to Tristan, I hear Him saying!
2007
You actually created this blog for me in November of 2006. Sometime in 2007, I realized I could tell the world how much I loved my family. I was just plain effusive, talking about how you came to us and described what you looked like when we first met:
…I believe he was wearing all black including a leather coat. He had bleached-blond spiked-up rock-star hair with a lip piercing and those really big plug-style-earrings. But he was not frightening at all. Not in the least. Rather there was sort of this gentle uprightness about him…
I remembered how you reignited the zeal to worship God musically for us, and mentored Rocky past his hear-and-play methods. And about how when you got in the car accident on I-25 on an icy Colorado morning and Stephanie called me at work, quite concerned and overcome with tenderness and care, the light had dawned, me finally realizing: Ooooohhhh-my baby girl is in love, with some one she had already let us know was the “best drummer in the world.”
On Father’s Day
Yes, Tristan, I have been talking about you for years, behind your back and on my blog and hopefully enough to your face that you know I appreciate you, thank God for you and today, like always, I wish for your birthday and every single day of your life to be blessed and joyful. Also, like always, THANK-YOU to Cheri and Larry for raising a wonderful son and sharing him with us.