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Today we took Macy to get her stitches removed. It was a pretty straightforward procedure. No tears, just a healthy scar across her eyebrow. Here’s some pics:

That smile...

There's 5 little stitches somewhere on the plastic

The lolipop always makes it better

So, she’ll have a great story to tell - hopefully she’s gotten her injuries out of the way for a while…

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Miles & Macy ready to ride

On New Year’s Day we hung out at Jen’s parents house & the kids decided to get some quad riding in. Miles got a 50 last year for Christmas (he was 5), and rode it until he did a spectacular wipe out. After that he wasn’t too sure about it, until a couple days ago when all of the sudden his interest was re-sparked. So he got on his 50 and Macy got on her (his old) batter powered quad for some good old socal fun. Here’s a little video of some awesome riding.

Quads 2009 from alex mclean on Vimeo.

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Sunday post-church is always an interesting time for me. On one hand I really want to enjoy the afternoon, hang out with friends & family, maybe even go out to lunch with a new family or something - rarely does any of that happen because I am usually wiped out or feeding kids & putting them down for naps.

This Sunday I actually had a plan for post-church. Miles & Macy were at their grandma’s and I was going to go home and try and clean up our house for Jen (it was a mess from Christmas & Christmas dinner, and the ensuing days of laziness).

So I am leaving church, actually about 2 minutes away when I get a phone call. (Actually I was on the phone with Peter)… it went something like this:

Me: Hello?

Grandma: Where are you?

Me: Driving home from church…

Grandma: Well, Macy just fell, and we think she’s gonna need stitches, what should I do?

(at this point I can barely make out spoken word over the screaming of multiple people, including my two kids in the background)

Me: Well, I guess you should bring her to A+ Urgent Care right here, I’m about 2 minutes away. I’ll u-turn and go make sure they do stitches…

Grandma: OK, we’ll call when we’re on the way.

Me: Alright, is she OK?

Grandma: Yeah, I think Miles is crying worse than her, he’s saying, “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault”…

Me: OK, well I’m on my way - see you there, and oh yeah… don’t tell Jen!

(she was at work)

Thus began our afternoon emergency adventure. Here’s a blow by blow (pun intended).

The first picture taken immediately after it happened (cleaned up of course).

Macy asleep when she arrived at A+.

Me comforting my little angel before ’surgery’

No comment…

Cleaning…

The stitching…

And the finished product! She was such a brave girl!

Thanks for the prayers & kind words for everyone who was following along with Twitter. Thanks too to the great people at our local A+ Urgent Care (on Winchester & Technology). In case you want to see more pics of her ordeal, there’s a few more here. She’s great +5 stitches, mom’s great (we waited till she was home from work to tell, er, uh, show her), and dad didn’t pass out, so I think all in all we’re good! In fact, as soon as we got back to Grandmas, Macy decided to jump on her quad…

That’s our girl!

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Here’s Macy’s video singing debut!

Macy sings ‘Jesus Loves Me’ from alex mclean on Vimeo.

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Just in time for Thanksgiving, tonight Miles and his Kindergarten class from Santa Rosa Academy sang a little song about Thankfulness at our local Barnes & Noble.

I am Thankful for… from alex mclean on Vimeo.

By the way, this is what Macy looked like when we got there - she woke up just in time to watch her brother sing.

Another ‘by the way’ - I can’t believe next week is Thanksgiving!

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It’s been a busy few weeks! I was sick for like a week and a half - I was only down for a couple days, but I felt pretty gnarly the whole time. Anyway, I missed blogging a few things and just thought I’d catch up.

Last week my dad turned 60! I know, that’s pretty crazy. He’s such a cool guy - the best grandpa you’ve ever seen! We did a little surprise party for him, which was like a local reunion of sorts with the church that I used to be a youth pastor at - it was so good to see a bunch of old friends and celebrate my dad.

A very good friend of mine, Trasier, invited us over to hang out and we got to connect with his family and some other old friends, the Beavers. This is a picture of their girls and our kids hanging out. Its amazing how old friends can instantly reconnect and have a great time together.

We discovered “Guitar Hero Word Tour”. One word: AMAZING! We love playing Guitar Hero 2 as a family on our Wii, this just takes it to another level. Even better songs (Sweet Home Alabama, Are You Gonna Go My Way, La Bamba, etc), online playing, downloadable songs, record your own songs, drums, guitar, bass, vocals - it’s awesome. Of course, we only rented it. Maybe we’ll get it for Christmas. And yes, Macy plays Guitar Hero on a Uke!

Me and Jen got to attend another South West Church Planters Forum and hear my great friend Eric lead worship. These are such a great resource in our valley for pastors, planters, and leaders in local churches - great networking, great food, and just refreshing.

Halloween! Actually the day before. We went to Jen’s Grandparents place, a local elder care place. The kids got to trick or treat to all the folks who lived there, plus we celebrated Jen’s Grandpa’s birthday. That’s Miles as Darth Vader - of course! Macy’s on the end as a princess, and then their good friends Ella and Allie. (Not sure who the other kids are!).

Miles had a park day for his school, Santa Rosa Academy. By the way, we are very pleased with our decision to send him to a charter school. He’s in school two full days a week, and home for the rest. We work with him on the other days - sort of like home school. He’s got some great friends and he’s already in 1st grade reading/writing. We’re very proud of him!

Miles is now a 4 stripe white belt and he tests tomorrow (Friday) night for his yellow belt. He’s doing his ‘forms’ all over the house and looks like a stud! Again, we’re SO proud of him.

Macy had Pajama Day at her school last week! She LOVED it! Got to wear her princess jammies to school and bring her baby. She was so cute - she’s such an awesome little girl.

We’re truly blessed!

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Whenever I think that life is rough or I’m facing tough days, I can look forward to our evenings together as a family. We have a little routine that we go through every night. It’s baths/showers, hang out for a little bit, playing or reading books, and then we pray together, then kids to bed. Macy just started saying her own prayers, so now it’s even more fun. Check it out (video embedded):

Macy cracks us up every night. I can’t imagine a better way to spend each evening.

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