Lacrae

Growing up as a teenager in the 90's, Rap & Hip Hop was my thing.  I still love to listen to it but don't do it as often any more.  Its a little hard to listen to with the kids around when I'm supposed to be setting a good example. (see more about that in this post Rap Music is my Cigarette) 

When I came across this rapper I was a little hesitant, Christian rap to me is the knock off of rap music and has never really captured me but Lacrae is good.  Maybe its because I'm older now and still want to listen to my rap but this guy is different.  I watched an interview with him, I like his style and love his message, he's got my attention.  

Who Is Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony is the worlds worst war criminal, he abducts children from their homes and forces them to be soldiers and sex slaves, to murder and mutilate their neighbors. The stats on this guy are over the top; 26 years or violence, 30k children abducted & 440k people displaced across 3 countries - Invisible Children

Enough is enough, finally someone is ready to put a stop to it. Invisible Children released these videos, if you haven't seen them yet, please watch;

Part 1

Part 2

The goal is to make him famous to culture makers & policy makers who can help in the effort to take him down. Cover the night, starts tomorrow, so if yo don't know, now you know, join in the effort to make him famous, sign the pledge.

Parenting Tips by Theo

Theo was playing with these stuffed animals all day like they were his kids. Taking care of them and parenting them. We were cracking up about how he was treating them when they were "bad". (This is not how we as parents deal with bad behavior) but I was joking with him that maybe we should start. He insisted that I film him.

Working with Dad

Our baby girl loves to be busy and always have something going on. So naturally when her Dad is doing a project she wants to be right in the mix working too. Here is she "helping" install the new dishwasher.

Photo Shoot

Here is the latest from our photo shoot with aunt Laney, always pleased with what she does.

http://alaynaduran.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/brother-sister-love/

5 Year Old Interview

Theodore turned 5 years old this month.

In celebration of his fifth year, I did an interview with him. If I post the whole interview, I will loose you, so here are just a few of my favorite answers to the questions;

1. Who is your best friend? Josiah & Nathan

1. Who is your role model? My Sister

1. What are your goals in the next year? Ride my bike with no training wheels, ride my skate board

1. What do you want to be when you grow up? Just live in a motor home, drive around and sleep & eat

Stars

Our family likes to use a 5 start rating system. We use it for all kinds of stuff but we started using it to help with mine and Jacobs biggest disagreement "how we spend our time".

The conversation will go something like this, Jacob says "hey will got invited to this thing" and I say "fine but how important is it to you that I go"? He will then give me a star rating. Anything 4-5 star usually means I have to go but if we've had a lot going on, then 4s can be negotiable. If its a 3, I can decide my self if I want to go and below a 3 for get it, I'm not going. It really has made this disagreement a little easier to handle and makes it better for me to get out of things, which is what I love to do.

We use it for other things to base priority or rate things like meals, likes & dislikes.

Try implementing this system into your family, its fun.

Bath Time Fun

Custom Canvas's

For Christmas we got creative and made some canvas's as gifts. One was for a project with the Duran siblings, part of the gift was to be made in a donation and part as a handmade gift for your person. The top picture is Alayna with her gift representing Ephesians 5:25-29. The Communities of Hope was for Jacob's parents and the Fruit of the Spirit tree was for Jacob's grandparents. It was nice to let out some creative juices.

Mud Fun

Mom let us play in the mud.

Putting on our Chapstick

I like to sit on the bathroom sink to do my make up. One day I grabbed Cadence and put her up there with me. I am so pleased that Jacob ran to get the camera. This picture captures such a cute moment; Cady & Mom, with Theo looking on. I love this picture.