New Year's Resolution #1

I really don't make resolutions, but this year I am making some changes at our house.  Several years ago we had family devotions pretty regularly, and then while home schooling we were in the Bible everyday, but as the summer flew by and school started, we haven't really put any new time in place to have family devotions.  So, since, like I said before, we always have dinner together, I decided to use that time for family devotions and family prayer time.  We are using this really cute devotional that actually really fits all the ages we have.

The other thing that I've started began with this little spiral notebook that I got free on Vistaprint!

I designed the cover just special for this purpose.  In it we write down the kids prayer requests in it and anyone else that is on their hearts, and then we divide up the requests and we pray about them.  As each prayer request is answered, we write the date that it was answered next to it!  All of this has been going on for exactly one week, and I am so amazed at the growth in just that one week!  The first night the older two kids were a little hesitant to participate, but in a couple days, after seeing some prayers answered (yes, that fast!), they are sharing their own concerns now.

Out of all the kids, Zach is the one that has amazed me the most, he is such a heart-felt, and passionate little man of prayer, the very first night, his most sincere prayers were sent up and it brought tears to my eyes.  He prays for others to "Get Jesus in their heart and keep Him there", he listens to his brother and sister's concerns and it almost seems like he sees past what their request is to what they really need prayer for, and prays that for them.

The prayer that I find most humorous in a really ironic way, actually, is Faith's prayer, which simply is "Sleep all night, Amen", the deal is that if she sleeps all night and doesn't wake up mommy she gets to choose a treasure from the treasure box, which is full of, essentially, free crap from garage sales last summer, it's little trinkets and toys, and little bit of plastic jewelry, and she wants something out of there so bad that she will do almost anything, anything, that is, but stay in her bed all night!  But we keep praying for her, and as Zach says, "God didn't answer that one yet, I guess we will just have to keep on praying!"

I struggle to give things over to God, I really do, so this is as much for me as it is for them.  I am blessed beyond measure with the opportunity to train these children, they really do let me see a little of what God sees in me, feels for me.  Nothing compares to this love.

Sunday Best

This morning Zach insisted on choosing his own outfit, and boy, did he do a good job!  My little "lady killer" was dressed to the nines for church today!  I had to take pictures, and of course I got a full out modelling session!!!  It was AWESOME!!!!  He is such a ham, and not a goofy ham either, I should have him in modelling!  Those killer blue eyes seal the deal!

Can you believe this kid?  Yes, he melts his mama's heart all the time!  And then of course factor in that he told me today, "I don't know what you are doing different Mommy, but you look so beautiful", seriously, I am raising a wonderful husband for someone here!

So at church he got lots of compliments, further boosting his enlarging ego, but he keeps it cool.  I picked him up from Sunday School and he handed me a picture with a little girl's name on it, he says, "Yeah, Haven gave her picture to me".  HA!  I'm sure she did, my little stud-muffin!  Seriously, can we get an agent?  Well, here's two!  I LOVE his "serious" face!

Crafty With Kids!

Zach and Faith got the same craft sets for Christmas, I am really enjoying these sets, there is a bunch of crafty activities with all the pieces and instructions, the have been begging to do one everyday since we tried one out!  And you know I love my crafts!  Even Daddy got in on the action!  First they did foam bead necklaces, then onto hand puppets!  These were just about $10 a set and they have 30 projects in each.  They were at Wal-Mart. 

So far they seem to be very age appropriate for Zach and Faith.  Lot's of stickers!  As much as I love to do crafts with the kids, it's the collecting all the stuff to do them that makes me think twice!

I have to stay, I am still amazed at their creativity and the things that come up with on their own too!  Faith is very in to tracing her hands and feet right now, so making things like a turkey out of her hand tracing was really fun for her.  Zach is getting so imaginative with his drawings, monsters with lots of eyes and special powers (that he draws also) are his specialty right now!

GLUE!!!!  THAT is EVERYONE'S craft item right now!  The funny thing about these pictures is that this is what we did right after Zach told me that he was NEVER going to use his imagination again!!!!  This was because I told him that we were shutting off the tv and he couldn't play on the computer, that he would have to use his imagination for awhile!  He's so dramatic (he gets it from his father)!

And here is our hand puppets all done!  Ta-da!  I think we need to make a puppet theater now!  I need a BIG box!

Zach and Faith Being Cute

While most days these two are fighting or arguing, or just getting on each others nerves, some days are like this, when they play together, cooperate and make each other laugh so hard they get the hiccups!  These are the days I want to remember!  In this first picture, you may notice that Faith is "talking" on her cell phone, it was daddy, and I made her tell him bye, so I could take more pics!  Don't worry, she "called" him right back!

Christmas: Part 3 - Celebrating in Colorado

I hope to have more pics from my mom soon, since we tag-teamed taking photos on this morning, hopefully she got some of me, and since we swapped cameras a few times too, hopefully there is some of her on there too, and my sister, she's missing from my camera! 

My Dad and Simon

                                                                                   Bailey and Ethan

Stacey and Simon

                                                            Zachary

The "Ninjas!" Josiah, Nick and Rob

Eliza, Grace, me and Joy (with her head turned)

Eliza

Stacey, Simon, Faith and Rob

Papa and Zach playing Memory right after we opened presents!  He could hardly wait to play it!

Gettin Crafty At Christmas!

My sister had the BEST idea, she said we should bring our craft stuff and work on projects while we were in Colorado!  I LOVE CRAFTS!!! I was so excited to have time to work on some!  So here are the things that I worked on-





Felt flowers for the girl's hair, these are made from scrap fabric, felt and a button, all sewn and then glued to a barrette. 

The girls liked them so much that I got requests for colors and they wanted to learn to make them!  I'm thinking I need to have a craft night with my nieces to make these.  We ran out of time and I didn't get to make very many, or teach them how.

This wreath was definitely more time consuming than I thought that it would be!  It is a foam wreath wrapped in two layers of yarn, and then I made the poinsettia out of felt that I stitched veins on even using the sewing machine.  Then I sewed beads on for the center.  Hung by a ribbon.  The poinsettia is removable, so I'm going to make other flowers to pin onto it so I can use it more than one time a year!

These are my mini Christmas trees!  I really am happy with how these turned out, they are foam cones, wrapped in two layers of yarn, and glued.  The second layer of yarn gives it lots of texture that I really like, they remind me of a warm sweater!  I am considering a star of some sort on the tops, but so far I just really like their simplicity!

Faith's 3rd Birthday

We got up early on the morning of Faith's birthday, otherwise known as the day after Christmas, so we could get to my parent's home in Colorado as early as possible to relax and celebrate Faith's birthday with the whole family!  I would really like to say that that was the plan in the beginning, but....not so much!  Our baby girl, decided she didn't want to sleep in her bed and would not be persuaded to stay put, so, knowing that we wanted to get somewhat of an early start, after about an hour of trying, we gave in and she snuggled in with us. 

But sleep, she did not, and sleep, I did not, Rob?  Sawing logs like Darth Vader in his mask next to her!  I seriously hate that he can sleep through ANYTHING!  I was kicked and smacked by a thrashing little girl all night and finally, after 20 minute intervals of sleep from 11pm - 4am, I woke Rob, who had been sleeping pretty soundly since 10 and asked if we could just get up and leave, he was more than happy.  I knew he would be, he's always trying to get me to leave earlier. 

I thought I would sleep on the road there, again, not so much!  We did, however get there fairly quickly, even despite running out of gas near Oakley, Kansas!  Yes, we ran out of gas, correction, MY HUSBAND, ran out of gas!  I handed him the AAA card and didn't say a word.  Thank goodness the battery did not die while we sat there waiting, so the kids could still watch their movie.  Luckily it only took 15 minutes or so for AAA to get there, so no big deal, really, and we arrived at my parents house about 1pm! 

While everyone else was arriving, I finally got a nap!  Nick and Stacey had similar luck to ours, a somewhat sleepless night, followed by car troubles, except, the engine, not gas, and they had to be towed and picked up, so, I decided running out of gas was okay in comparison! 

Finally all of us were all together (minus Jada, who was "working" in Hawaii for the week) at my parent's house in Golden, and ready to celebrate Faith's 3rd birthday!  For obvious reasons, to everyone, it needed to be a Dora the Explorer party!  I am somewhat strangely pleased to say that I have seen well over 100 Dora and Diego episodes/movies, and the proud owner of many of them.  While Faith was recovering from having her tonsils and adenoids removed in August, we watched A LOT of Dora, and it has stuck!  So, bring on the Dora toys, pillow person, blanket, play set and stuffed animals, plus even new Dora and Diego books!  And a beautiful handmade scarf from Aunt Stacey with the love of Uncle Nick, I'm sure!

She did her very best to blow out all of her candles on her Dora cake, but I should have thought to put them all together!  Because instead of her spitting on a small portion of the cake, she sprayed THE WHOLE THING!  It was hilarious, and no one seemed to mind, it was all eaten by the end of the week!

You really would think that all of the kids would have been exhausted from all the travel, nope!  Everyone ran around and played till very late!  It was THE BEST sound EVER!  A house FULL of family to enjoy!  A great start to our week!