What a Blessed Christmas!

We had such a fabulous Christmas celebration! We have been trying to do fun things all month to prepare our hearts for Jesus Birthday. We have been baking, doing "What God Wants For Christmas", opening our advent calendar, and going caroling. There is so much anticipation and expectations for the actual day of Christmas. It all seems to go by so fast. I can hardly believe it's over! We began this past Sunday celebrating with my parents and siblings. We went to a very spirit-filled service at church and then headed to Zeeland. We had a great meal and some fun time with family. My mom had us all write down our favorite Christmas memory or some way we have been blessed this past year. We draw names for our gift exchange and every person had to read someone else's paper before they opened their gift. It was a lot of fun to hear what everyone had to say. I love watching people open their gifts! The girls had fun too.
On Christmas Eve we headed over to Shawn's parent's house. We had a great time opening presents, reading the Christmas story, playing rook, and enjoying the day. I really enjoy spending time with family!

This year we decided to stay home on Christmas Day. With our girls getting older, it is just too stressful to try and get everyone out the door by 10am! I say this because we have a special breakfast we always eat first. It is the same breakfast Shawn and I had on our Honeymoon. It was our first breakfast together as a married couple and we had it at the Snowgoose Inn somewhere in Ohio. For some reason we just decided to make it every year for Christmas. It is baked apple pancake. Nothing spectacular but very good! We also always have my mom's cranberry coffee cake that she has made every year since I was at home. She thought she would share a little piece of home on Christmas morning! We opened our stockings, read the Christmas story, and gave our gifts. It's so hard to do all that by 10 or 11!
Eliza could have cared less, but she enjoyed playing with the opened toys! Adrianna was a pro at opening and we are trying to have her help give out the gifts too. It was hard to show her that every gift was not for her and that she needed to actually look at the gift before she tossed it aside and asked for another one! I have a feeling we are going to be working on this her whole life! We had a nice dinner after we all took naps and enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Jesus! Adrianna helped decorate the cake as you can tell by the big blob of sprinkles all in one area! It was a very relaxing, celebrative day that we all really enjoyed.











Adrianna loved her Polly Pocket! The pieces are extremely small!!
I think we have lost all the shoes already! She also got a Princess cash register which even has a debit card that dials, just like at the store! (She's a little obsessed with Princesses, and we are happy to oblige! She knows she's God's little Princess!)







Eliza got some instruments in a big drum. She loves anything that shakes, lights up, or makes noise. The instruments are all shaped like bugs and so cute! I think she is going to be the percussionist in the family! Today I found her sitting on the kitchen table, beating on the salad bowl with the tongs! (She has somehow figured out how to get out of her high-chair even with the straps criss-crossed and really tight!!!)


I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and you enjoyed time spent with your families! It is precious time that you have to cherish as it comes. I enyoyed seeing the simple enjoyment on our girls faces as they saw the lights, opened a gift, or saw someone they love. It was such a blessing! (okay, enough cheese for now!)




I am looking forward to catching up on some family time since Shawn will be home for 2 weeks!

Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid". John 14:27
I can hardly believe it is almost Christmas! Well, we have been celebrating all month, but the actual day is almost here! My prayer for all of you is that you will experience the peace that only comes from Christ.
Peace in aloneness, Peace in provision, Peace in the storm, Peace in the wait, and Peace in the tears. We don't have to be afraid of the future (something I struggle with), we can have Christ's perfect peace if we let him infuse our minds with His Word and His love.

Enjoy your families this Christmas, reflect on God's goodness, and rest in His love!
I am looking forward to some quality family time , enjoying our girls, and celebrating Jesus birth!

Merry Christmas!

A Blessing

I had written in my previous post about our plans to go caroling and pass out cookies. I had also said that my heart was not in it and I was wondering why we were even doing it. Well, the Lord has surely blessed my heart! We got all bundled up and walked to 5 of our neighbors houses. Adrianna was all concerned at first that we would not be back in time to watch Frosty the Snowman! As we sang Joy to the World, she was so excited! She kept asking if we could go to more houses! I think she would have liked to go to every house on the block! I'll have to make more cookies next year! She even sang Away in a Manger to one of Shawn's band parents, and who helped fix something on our car.
The blessing came today when I went out to get the mail and there was a bag on the front porch. I opened it and there was cherry kisses (my favorite!) and a card. It was from a woman who is here visiting her 96 year old dad. He lived by himself and we caroled to them last night.
Here is what her note said:
"Thank you for caroling at our house last night. A lovely tradition that is inspirational to a neighborhood. My father is dying from cancer. He is almost 96. I am here from California to care for him these last weeks. His granddaughter, Kerri, will move in here when he has passed. She is single. I was very tired and sad when you came. Thank you for cheering me up. My favorite was the old- fashioned gingerbread man. Bless your beautiful family."
Love, Patt and Lloyd
It amazes me that the Lord affirms us and blesses us even when we are unwilling to do something and our heart is not in it. I think of that song by Mandisa that says when we hear or see something, what if it's God speaking?. It reminds me to always be listening for his voice and have the willing heart to obey.

Cookies, Cookies, Everywhere!

I can officially say that I am done baking Christmas cookies! I think we made 16 kinds this year! The tradition started many years back with my Aunt Sue and my mom. I think I was in middle school or high school at the time. My Aunt would come over and her and my mom would bake all day long and end up with about 10 kinds. We have since added to our tradional favorites! It was so festive to come home from school and have Christmas music playing, see many kinds of cookies made, and smell the ones baking in the oven. My Aunt lives in Detroit so the tradition of her and my mom getting together has faded, but now I can help carry on the tradition! I am hoping as my girls get older they will have a desire to join in the fun. Since my aunt and grandma live so far away, when we get together for Christmas we have a cookie exchange. We each make 1 dozen cookies for each person and then we trade. It is fun to see what everyone decides to make every year! I will always remember sitting down every year to decorate the cut-out cookies and turning on Evie's "Come on ring those bells". This year we were decorating and the song came on the radio! Yes, cheesy I know, but fun to reminise about the fun memories. I really enjoy baking all the different kinds of cookies and handing them out to our neighbors. It is a great way to connect with them. I have been looking forward to doing that tonight, but as I think about bundling up the kids and walking in the cold, my heart is not in it. It is out of my comfort zone to sing some carols for people we hardly know! I pray that the Lord will fill my heart with love and a desire so share His goodness with the people He has put around us.
We are trying to teach Adrianna about giving and hopefully when we hand out the cookies, she will see the joy on our neighbor's faces and realize it is fun to give to others! She helped me make the cookie trays this year and she was so excited!

Shawn has recently taken on the tradition of making the Holly Wreaths. Some years, they are huge blobs, last year they actually were wreaths, and this year they are blobs again. I think that is because Adrianna helped this year! It was so cute to see her try and resist licking her fingers and not getting green food coloring all over her clothes! She had fun putting on the red hots. (and yes, she did wash her hands!) Eliza just watched while eating her puffs! She can help next year!

Here are some cute pics of Shawn and Adrianna bonding in the kitchen.

My favorite word

Can anyone guess what Adrianna means when she says "Puneder"?

It is one of my favorite words in her vocabulary!


She means the computer! I have no idea where she came up with that, but it makes me laugh every time she says it!

It's working!

A few posts ago I had asked for ideas to get Adrianna to clean-up. Here are a few that seem to be working! It has been a very good week of obedience! Thank you Lord for the reprieve!

1. Taking toys away- then giving them back
We were trying to clean up one day and after 20 minutes, not one thing was picked up! So I gathered all the toys on the floor, put them in a laundry basket and put them in my room. She can earn back a toy when I see another toy in her room put away and taken care of. She is doing a pretty good job of cleaning and doing it in less than 20 minutes! She really wants to earn her stuff back!

2. Sticker-reward chart
We started a Princess manner reward chart. She can earn a sticker for having good manners, obeying the 1st time, having helping hands and a happy heart, being giving, taking a good rest time, and cleaning up. When she earns 5 she can pick from my prize bag. I stocked it up with things I found at goodwill and the dollar store. This is the greatest thing ever! She is so excited to have the verbal affirmation of positive things and it also teaches her that she can't just be handed toys and fun things all the time. She has to earn them.

So we will do these things until they stop being effective and I have to petition for more ideas!

The birds and the bees.....:)

Recently we were watching the video of when Adrianna met Eliza for the first time in the hospital. Adrianna asked me "How did Eliza get out of your tummy?". Well...I told her that the doctor cut her out with a knife( Okay, so I regretted that after I said it!). She got a very concerned look on her face and said "Ohhh, how did he put it back together?", well I told her they used staples and sewed it back up. She then said later on "They put tape on it so your tummy wouldn't fall off".
I wish my tummy would fall off.......
An early start on the birds and the bees...:)

Candy Canes & Santa.......and most importantly.....Baby Jesus!

We have had an incredible weekend doing some fun Christmas activities! On Saturday we went to Pinery Park in Wyoming with the Howells for a Candy Cane Hunt and lunch with Santa. We got to the park and had to find 5 paper candy canes hidden in the snow. Then we got to turn them in for the real thing. It was VERY COLD, but Adrianna did great trying to find the candy canes. I think it lasted about 15 minutes!



















Then we walked to the Wyoming Senior Center for some games, crafts, and lunch. On the way over Adrianna grabbed Santa's hand and wanted to walk with him. It was very cute! I reminded her that we needed to tell Santa about Jesus too! Can you just imagine that we will be able to walk with Jesus in the same way when we see him in Heaven!



Eliza did not like Santa! But she pretty much gives everyone that look!



Some yummy hot chocolate and Memory!








Eliza and Daddy were working on their coloring skills before
we enjoyed a pizza lunch from Papa Murphy's, made a few ornaments, listened to a story, and had a great time with our good friends! It was a very well organized event and a fun way to continue our Christmas celebrations!





After afternoon naps we went to a church in Wyoming to see a Live Nativity. They acted out the Christmas story complete with live animals! Adrianna loved seeing Gabriel and was very attentive to the play(shocker!). We got up close and personal with this llama! Jaedon loved it and Eliza could care less! The kids did great and it was a great way for them to see the miracle of Jesus with real people. We hope to teach our girls that Santa is just a person dressed up, he can be fun but the real meaning we celebrate is our Saviour!










Our evening ended with coffee, Christmas cookies, Loaded Questions, and some very precious friends!

Clean-up help!!!!!!!!!!!!

How in the world to you get a 3 1/2 year old to clean up anything in less than an hour?
I have tried setting a timer and told her to clean up one thing in a 3 minute time period. IT NEVER GETS DONE! I give her specific things to clean up, one at a time, and she cannot focus on that to save her life! I even stand at her door and guide her from thing to thing since she is easily distracted but she will not move! Sometimes it is an obedience issue, sometimes it is just a distracted issue. I told her to put these clock pieces back in the puzzle and I set the timer for 3 minutes. She proceded to put 3 of them back and then started making one of them the mommy, one was the daddy, etc... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Can someone give me some ideas??!!!
We got home from the store one day and she had taken off her socks and boots in the car. I told her to put her socks and shoes back on right away. I was able to take our 3 loads of stuff into the house, take Eliza in and put her down for nap, came back out to the van and she STILL did not have them on! She was playing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was like 10 minutes I think!!!!!!!!!!!
Please help!

To Burp or not to burp....

I have recently discovered a hidden talent that my sweet precious Princess can do. This is a very special talent that I can honestly say I hope she never does in public!
She can burp on command! Yes, last night she started burping and then laughing hysterically at the same time! Shawn wanted a boy and some manly things in this house....well, there you go....
I have no idea who taught this to her or where she learned it from! Yeah....that is precious...:)