Last Week's Fun in the Snow!

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Beautiful Words

Don't you just love it when you come across words that are moving/inspiring/so perfectly descriptive that you can effortlessly picture the described in your mind? Today, in my read-aloud chapter-book time with my eldest, I discovered part of a paragraph in Charlotte's Web that I found to be a treasure.

"The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay and it smelled of manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell--as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope..."

Isn't that marvelous? I guess that is one reason right there that CW is a winner of the Newbery Honor.

Gingerbread House Creation

Our art project this week was to build a gingerbread house. (Thanks, fam, for the great Christmas gift!) I had never done one before, and it was quite fun! Both big boys created with me, and we had our neighbor over too.

Some New Pics

Here are some new pics. The eldest here is partaking of his new gummy candy from his Uncle David. The Redhead is flashing me his one-of-a-kind enormous smile. Baby boy is bundled to the max and red on his extremities from the family walk we took yesterday morn when it was 20 degrees outside. And then lastly, we had a fam pic taken at our homeschool Christmas party in front of the tree.

Honestly, I have no idea why Baby Boy's pic is huge and the others are small. I'm not smart enough to figure out why or how to make them match, so forgive that aesthetically unpleasing aspect of this post, please! Thanks!  :)

Butterflies and Eskimos

Many nights before bed I give the big boys butterfly kisses and Eskimo kisses. It's fun because they love it. Isn't that just sweet? I had the thought the other day that it likely won't be terribly long before they are pushing me away if I try to do that to them. Makes me want to cherish these small days as they are still present. O, the joys of parenting are tremendous, and the depth of love God gives us for them is as well! What a gift these little people are....

Turning Five!

Our eldest child just celebrated his fifth birthday yesterday. What a fun day! Here are some pictures from the moment he woke up, through to the end of the Superhero birthday party at 6 pm. He began his day with his breakfast of choice--Fruit Loops! (He had never had them before and wanted some!) Many friends joined us, and our sweet relatives from Ohio came down as a surprise to party, too! It was a blessed day--even the heavens rejoiced with us and poured down some snow for a special treat that lasted all day long. Life is precious!

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Haircuts

My littlest boy and my very biggest (hubby) both have new haircuts in this pic! Sweet Baby Boy had his cut for the first time at Thanksgiving, at 8 months old. No more little behind-the-ear curls for him!

Christmas last night

We celebrated Christmas last night with our family. Yes, it was two days before Thanksgiving. But I had a few reasons for doing it that way. So, here are some pictures. It was a blast! Their enthusiasm was so encouraging and fun. And our filet mignon dinner was dee-lish!

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We have an 8-month-old!

Our Pookie Bear is eight months old today. Time does indeed fly. Here is a recent picture.

"There's Another Blogpost Right There!"

I find myself saying those words quite frequently lately to our eldest. He is always saying precious, hilarious things of late that I am wanting to record!

So, today's adorable question was, "Is Jesus a redhead?" I said, "No," (thinking that Middle Eastern people are dark). He said, "Then why does it say, "sac-RED HEAD?" You see, we had been listening in the car to the hymn At The Cross, and the words say, "Would He devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?"

Is that not the funniest? You know, it really makes me wonder what else goes on in their sweet little heads that they don't ever actually ask us about!  :)

Two Good Questions Posed by the Wake

Yesterday was pretty cute. For the first time ever (after five years!) our firstborn noticed that when I go potty, my hands are free. He said, "Mommy, why are you not using your hands? Why aren't you pushing your 'pee pee' down?" So I had the joy of telling him that girls don't have "pee pee's" -- that girls have different parts.  :)  I think he found that pretty interesting!

Then today was precious. I introduced him to the words "safety pin." He saw a picture of one in a school book, and when he did, his question was, "Mommy, what does a safety pin save?" It took me a couple of times of asking him to repeat it before I even understood what he was asking. Then I got it. Adorable! Makes sense, right? Something called a "safety" pin should save something!  :)  So I got out a real safety pin and showed him how it "saves" our fingers from getting pricked if we put the pin inside the covered part.  :)

I love kiddos. Especially mine!!!!!!

Pic o' the Pook

Couldn't resist posting this.

Bundled Baby Boys

It was 35 degrees this morning when we ventured out this morning for our walk and bike time. For the first time we donned our winter coats to stay warm, and then came home and had cocoa!  :)  Here's a pic of my sweeties prior to going out.

Mr. Mobile!

Guess who's on the move? That's right....our Pookie Bear!  :)  This week I set him on the parquet kitchen floor, he saw something he wanted, and away he went! Little cutie pie....it's an army crawl he's doing--not full-out on-the-knees crawling. It's pretty precious how he drags his body along. In this picture it was our bag of Halloween candy he was going for! Darling sweet precious punkin-headed adorable little guy!  :)

First Field Trip

Yesterday we visited the Creasy Mahan Nature Preserve for our first-ever field trip for Biggest's schooling. It was the last day of sunshine prior to the rain and cold rolling in, (so the forecasters said) so we snatched up the opportunity and headed out. It was a good time. My favorite part was making a new friend in the parking lot by "accident." She's a sweetheart and pastor's wife, and by God's grace, He ordained our random meeting. The boys and I went to the playground with her and her friends and hung out before the field trip began. Then we jumped back in the van and enjoyed being in the great outdoors with other homeschoolers. We went for about an hour-long hike and learned about trees and different animal fooprints and what turtles do to keep warm in the winter. It was fun. Boys climbed trees, the Redhead kicked leaves, the Pook took a ten-minute nap in the sun, and a good time was had by all. After the hike, we viewed the dioramas in the nature center and marveled at the bearskin and the size of the turkey and the hiddenness of the baby deer under the wagon. One of the things I liked best was seeing the gargantuan leaves produced by one of the trees out there. I've never seen anything so huge!!!!! Take a look----

Neighborhood duckie delights

God is so generous with us. When we lived in Nassau Bay, we loved having a pond in our neighborhood and ducks and geese to feed there. We left that behind when we moved into Houston two years ago. Little did we know that when we moved here, we'd end up in a neighborhood once again where we had that. We didn't even realize it until after moving in. But sure enough...there they are, and we love to go see them and fill their bellies with crackers or unwanted stale bread.  :)  Here are some photos of the other day. We have had unusually warm weather the last week, and we're cramming in a bunch of outdoor things before we're all locked up for winter. Thank you, Jesus.

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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!

The other day, after we had read our Bible story for the morning, Biggest realized that the next story in line began the New Testament portion of the book. With this revelation, he started jumping up and down and going nuts and screaming, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" When I asked him what he was so excited about, he told me that it's because the New Testament is all about Jesus, and we get to read about that next. Wow. To quote the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, "That's just about all I could say was 'Wow.'"

There have been indications for a while now that the Holy Spirit is at work in our sweet eldest boy's life. He does things often that make us think that God could possibly be drawing his little heart to Himself at a young age. We sure hope so. We know it takes time for that to be tested and proved, and we shall see what God does in years to come. But we seem to be off to an encouraging start. The next morning, I came down to the basement to find Biggest going through the New Testament portion of the book with our Redhead, and with each page, pointing out and saying, "Jesus." "Jesus." "Jesus." "Jesus." "Jesus." May he remain this enamored and pumped about our Lord in His Word!!!!!!!

A little encouragement for you today after the election

This appeared on our homeschool loop today, and I liked it. It helps!

A True/False Quiz

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as
Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for
social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women
through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will
still be in this order - (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America, not vice-versa.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be
empty.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the
government, will still be our salvation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be
more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be
my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you
know the first?)

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see
abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life
through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay
marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of
marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not
match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, "Jesus Is Lord" will still be
the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God
is in control.

Finally....a Mama's Boy in the Bunch!

God has given me three beautiful bouncing baby boys. Not until this one, though, has he given me a mama's boy. Our sweet Baby Yook (as #2 calls him) loves his mama--number one. I cannot say that I am sad about this truth.  :)  In fact, I'm quite loving it. Never before have I experienced the joy of Baby crying the second he perceives that I am leaving him. I am clearly the one he prefers. Everyone in our house loves Uncle D. But when the darlin' precious Snookerdoodle is handed over, what does he do? He cries. Even Daddy gets the shaft sometimes because if the Doodle is feeling fragile, then yes, even Daddy deals with tears--if it's Mommy's arms he has left. What do I have to say about this? Well, to this I say, "YES! It's about time!"  :)

Halloween Cuties

Batman, The Pirate, The Turtle, Daddy, and I enjoyed our Halloween activities. We went to church for a Trunk or Treat and then walked the oh-so-busy neighborhood to see folks and get candy. Here's what my guys looked like for the events!  :)

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My Love of Leaves

If not for Jesus, I might live for fall leaves. That's how ga-ga I am over them! Today Hubby said, "You know, we'll see them again next year."  :(  (This is after I have spent about 45 minutes taking around 80 pictures of neighborhood trees)!  I hope I never lose my giddiness over the amazing beauty of God's creation in fall leaves. Now, I just need my heart to adore, treasure, and celebrate Christ with this same passionate fervor. Mold me, Lord Jesus, to do that, and please receive my humble worship as I exult in what YOU have so marvelously made!!!!!!

As you watch this slideshow, there are two things to note: One is that we live on the corner of Juniper Springs and Willow Springs, so you can figure out by that that yes, there is a picture or two of our house in there. Secondly, know that the slide show is long, so you need to listen to the song about one and a half times through before you get to the end.

Now, relish with me the beauty of Christ displayed in our neighborhood on November 2, 2008!

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Sponges, for sure

I was sitting at the lunch table today with my two-year old and almost five-year-old, and it was quiet for a minute (remarkable!)  :)  So I thought to myself, "I ought to talk to them about the election coming up." So I began, saying, "Guys, it's an election year this year. What that means is that the people of our country vote to choose who will be the next President of our country. Do you remember what a President is...what a President does?" I was floored to hear the words that came from my biggest boy's mouth next. He said, "I think Barack Obama is going to win the election. But Cora says she saw lots of John Mc Cain signs out." I was stupefied! How did my child know those people's names? And how did he know to associate them with a conversation about this being an election year? So I asked him, "How did you know those names?" He told me he had just heard us talking, and that he had heard his cousin (almost 7) talking about it. Wow. So....he picked all this up just from hearing Mommy and Daddy talk, basically. We never have the TV on. (Truly...it doesn't even work!) And we rarely talk politics! But he's picked it up. Frightening it is, really. I think our precious children hear everything we say. And they watch everything we do. I really don't think they miss much at all. Lord, help me! Make me more like your Son, Jesus, so that HE is what they see in me!!!!!!!!!!!

little boys and leaves

i love leaves. fall leaves. who doesn't? our front yard is full of them, and it's been a fun week!

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Eating Flamingos and Christopher Robin

Okay, I had to post on these two adorable kid things that our biggest boy said in the last day or two.  :)  We were sitting at the lunch table, with bowls of peaches (that he thought was mango) on our plates. When our middle boy said, "peaches," Biggest corrected him by saying, "No it's flamingo!" (He had confused flamingo with mango!!) Love it.

Then we were thinking of a little boy at our old church--our beloved Redeemer in Houston. Biggest was recalling a boy in his Sunday School class, and he was describing him to me and telling me his name was Robin. I could not for the life of me think of any boy EVER who had even visited our church named Robin. But Biggest insisted. Finally, I realized that the boy he was referring to is named Christopher. He had switched out the name Christopher for the name Robin. Apparently this Winnie the Pooh video he was watching had muddled up some things in his sweet head!  :)   We laughed and laughed when we figured out his mistake!

My Kindergartener!

Today was my firstborn boy's first day of kindergarten. Wow. That time is here. My little sweetie stayed at home and had Mommy for his teacher. I'm so glad he's at home with me right now. Today was a great start. I'm so thankful. I hope to do be successful at homeschooling, but we're taking it one step at a time and one child at a time. We'll see where the Lord leads us in years to come, but for now, we are having fun!



The schoolday today began with prayer, then a Bible story reading and discussion time. Then we said the pledge of allegiance. We also have a memory verse for the week: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." We dove into math with our Math U See curriculum that led us to start out with place value. Kinda a hard starting concept, but we had a strong first lesson. I'll go over it again tomorrow. Then we took a snack break, after about an hour, and we then jumped into phonics. That was easy and fun and familiar, as we have been working on that area for probably a year and a half informally with other books. I got to spend more time with our Redhead during that time, since Wunk 1 is familiar with beginning phonics. Then we finished up by our sweetie pie copying out our Bible verse of the week to practice his handwriting.  Then one last time we said our memory verse, and we all clapped for ourselves at the wonderful job we did on the first day of school!!!! The whole time was two hours, just as I planned, and it was delightful...praise be to God!

Heading out Soon

Our days in Houston are few. It'll only be about three more weeks, until, Lord-willing, we are Louisville-bound! God has provided us a buyer for our home. We are now in the option period, and we pray that everything goes smoothly with inspections, etc. Please join us in beseeching us for God to bring this sale to completion. The plan is to start our trek sometime at the end of this month and see some folks along the way so that the 20-hour journey is broken up. Kentucky, here we come!

Splinters and Heaven

Yesterday, to the best of my understanding, our biggest boy got a splinter. At least that is what it appears to be, though I do not know how he got it since there is no wood in our house! And he had not been outside when it happened. Anyway, he cried and cried and said he wanted it out, and I explained how hard it is to get splinters out, and that it usually hurts even more to try to get them out, and how you oftentimes cannot get them even when you try. I told him it'll probably come out on its own in a few days.

So, all that to say, Jake was very sad to not be able to fix the problem at that very moment, and he asked me a precious question: "Mommy, when we go to heaven, will God get the splinter out?"  :)   Isn't it delightful when a child reveals that spiritual things are becoming ingrained in him? It makes me so happy that that is where his mind goes. Though we could do so much better at our spiritual training, I'm sure, little moments like that are very encouraging that maybe we're on the right track!

Oh...and praise God that yes, in heaven, there will be no more tears or hurt or evil...or splinters!

"Gran and Granddad and the Cows"

Well, we went for our last visit to the ranch the other day before moving away from Texas. It breaks my heart to think of being away from my parents again--that far away. I trust the Lord has good things for us, though. But here are some pics that show the "fun-ness" of being at my parents' house. We love to go. There are great things to do there as well as people to see. We've got Mom and Dad, Grandmother, and Brad, Tanya, and their baby. Oh, and of course, the longhorns!!!!!  :)  On the way to their house, we sang to the tune of "Luckenbach, TX" the words, "Let's go to Fredericksburg, TX with Gran and Granddad and the cows!"

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Two Adorable Things

It's been soooooooooooooooooooooo long since writing. Sorry to anyone who has been disappointed, though I am sure that number is very small! Gramzee, you count though!! Thanks for wanting to hear from me! :)

Okay, so the other night I hear our two-year-old say something about his pajamas, but instead of saying "pajamas" he said, "jamamas!" Isn't that so cute? Sounded like juh-mamas! We laughed and laughed!!!

Then this morning on a walk, our biggest, in all seriousness and out of the clear blue, inquired, "Mommy, when Christopher Robin is 100, how old will Pooh be?" I had to think about that and explain that we were not sure about the ages of either, so we couldn't be precise. But if Christopher Robin is about 10, and Pooh is about 4, then that would make Pooh 94 when Christopher Robin is 100.  :)  There's some practical everyday use of math for ya!  Needless to say, I loved that question!!!!

Fantastic Bible Videos for Conscientious Mommies and Daddies

I am a mommy who allows my children to watch one short video each day after naptime. But because it's part of our daily routine, I like to be somewhat careful about not only watching "fun" and "silly" videos with neither educational nor biblical value. Of course, I do allow innocent videos that they enjoy like Winnie the Pooh and Wee Sing, etc., but I just don't like that ALL the time. One thing I cannot stand and do not tolerate is videos that supposedly are about a Bible story but actually have virtually nothing to do with the real story of Scripture (i.e. Veggie Tales). I find them to be so cute and fun and hilarious, but beyond that, there is little value, and in my humble opinion, probably more confusion comes about related to the Bible story from watching their goofiness! So our boys are only allowed to watch the "moral" ones but not the ones that teach a Bible story. Ironic, huh?

My friend Stacy and I feel the same way in general about videos, and she shared with me one day about a video she has about the book of Daniel, from Nest Family Productions. She said that it was excellent, and very right-on with the Bible story, and highly quality, as far as animation, etc. goes. She gave it to our big boy for his birthday, and boy is she right. That video is amazing! We have also purchased now The Prodigal Son and another one that we have not yet opened. I write this post to commend these videos to you. They are truly fabulous! We will likely be buying a few more. Though they are a bit expensive ($15/each) I think they are worth it for the children's minds and hearts.

If you are interested, I know that we have gotten ours at a Mardel store, but you can buy them online as well.  Check them out. If you are at all like me, you'll be very pleased that you did.

Anticipating Easter

For those of you out there with small kiddos, I recommend highly to you something we have called Resurrection Eggs. They were given to us a few years ago, and they are so perfect for teaching children the real meaning of Easter. Last year we did it with our big boy, and it was a huge hit. There are twelve eggs, each with a little item in it, symbolic of some part of the Easter story. (Like today's was a donkey, representing Jesus' ride into Jerusalem). The last egg is empty, for the empty tomb. It comes with a booklet that contains and explanation of the item inside the egg, Scripture references to read, and than a little devotional-type thought to go along with it. It's really excellent. And I love it that it causes you to think about Jesus every day for twelve days prior to Easter and look forward to Easter, as we do to Christmas, with our Advent calendar. Consider getting them for your family. You'll be glad you did!  :)

Our Little Artist

Our big boy has blossomed lately in his ability to both color and draw. In fact, he just won a coloring contest that his Paw Paw let him know about. Isn't that so exciting? He'll be getting his prize soon! He is such a perfectionist about his coloring that he cries if he goes out of the lines in the least little way. We are constantly trying to encourage him and tell him all that God expects is for us to do our best!

The sweet big boy is also very into drawing lately. As you can see from the pictures below, he has branched out and is drawing new and different things. Recently, he has drawn our family as pirates (notice the eye patches and beards). He also the other day drew a house, a garage, a trampoline, a basketball goal and player, a sunshine, and putt putt course in one picture! :) How fun!

His Special Day

Today, to continue with the theme of the train birthday cake, we went to the Hermann Park Train to celebrate our little boy's second birthday! It was perfect. They just this past weekend finished the "new and improved" train. It's shiny and red and pretty. Our good friends from church joined us, and we all boarded the train and smiled and talked as we viewed the scenery. Little Red said, "This is fun!" That made me so happy to know he was having a good time. Here are some pics from this morning's celebration and the train time. We love you, JW!

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Ya Ya Ya Ya Puah

Our "little" boy (the Redhead) made us smile and giggle tonight. After family devotions, he busted out singing, "Ya Ya Ya Ya Puah." I said, "What are you saying?" Our "big" boy understood and decoded it for us. The little guy was singing, "There's no God like Jehovah," (part of the worship song Days of Elijah) Isn't that so fun? What a cute boy!  :)

The Redhead's 2nd Birthday Party!

Our sweet second son has now begun the birthday celebrations! Gran and Granddad came into town to celebrate with us, and we sang to them as well, since their birthdays are in the middle and end of February themselves. We had a great time. Wunk 2 had a train birthday cake, and he enjoyed blowing out the candles, though he didn't care much for the cake itself. He's like his momma, I guess--doesn't like the super sugary icing. We went to dinner and then came back and opened gifts. Such a fun night. Such a sweet boy. I can hardly believe he's 2. It certainly doesn't seem like it. Next week we will celebrate a bit on the day of also, with our good friends from church. We'll go ride the train at the zoo, to keep with the train theme. That will be a good time, I'm sure! Here are some pics from the small family party!

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Lately

Boy, has it been a long time since I've written. Wow! Now, at least I've had an excuse....the pregnancy! I have been completely exhausted for much of the time. Lately, I have had spurts of energy and accomplished quite a bit. I think it's nesting. I'm enjoying all my little projects prior to baby's arrival. We sure are so excited to meet that little fella. Could really be any time now. Most likely, we still have a few weeks or a month to go, but I'm 36.5 weeks, so really, he could come in a week! You never know! It's so fun to think about. I am asking the Lord to go into labor. I so desire that, rather than being induced this time. I will receive whatever he has for me joyfully, but I certainly do desire to know what a more "natural" labor is. We'll see what's in store!

I'm so pumped to meet this sweet boy--to see his face and determine who he looks like, if anyone, and experience his precious personality. What a treat we have in store for us! God is so good...

If you are reading this, please pray for continued safety and life in the womb. I am very aware that there are mommies who lose their babies here right at the very end. I pray that God is pleased to sustain this one's life to the end. Thank you!