New Series- church today

I am adding this series to my blog because EVERY Sunday, after church...I have so much to say about what I learned.  I used to just keep notes on our church pamphlet, but why not have them on my blog to be able to go back through and remember these wonderful tidbits?!?!

First off,  God works through the pastors at our church...

Kevin really put the bible in perspective to me...
in the OLD testament, we were judged by what "we" did.
in the NEW testament, we are judged by what "he" did.  That is so simple and TRUE!  He died on the cross for us and that is ALL we need!  It is finished, we are loved by him and saved by grace and grace alone!  Thanks God!



 

Tucking in my boy

Tonight was the first school night, after a  l-o-n-g,  holiday weekend. Blake asked if I would take him up to bed tonight. I agreed, asked him to go on up and read for a few minutes, while I finished up last minute school stuff.  Knowing that I still had a lot to do before bedtime, I planned on making this a quick, "tuck in".  I went in his room, straightened his crazy crooked blankets for him, then leaned down to kiss him on the cheek. I told him that I loved him and that I had stuff to do downstairs, he replied, "awww...Mom, can't you just lay down with me for a few minutes?" How could I NOT? ....my growing boy still wants me to lay down by him...I should soak in every single second of it. 

I lay there and watched him close his little eyes, and at that moment, I forgot about the boy who was almost 10 years old and saw only the little fella that was just a bouncing toddler, what feels like just moments ago.  How could time have gotten away from me? There he lay, his eyes like slits, his lips still heart-shaped, like the day I brought him home from the hospital. He let me rub my finger over his eyebrows, I used to do that when he was little, to help him fall asleep. Lately he doesn't want my help with anything that requires me messing with his body. I tried to help him clean out his ears and it was a disaster, same with helping him get the shampoo rinsed out, that we realized was still bubbly on his wet head, after the shower this morning! 

I am so blessed, I thanked God for giving him to me and for making me realize how important it is to slow down and soak moments, like these, in.

Decorating for Christmas

We usually bring up the "kid" tree and decorate the family room with all the memories from year's past, on Thanksgiving night, but we were tired. We decided to relax and enjoy feeling stuffed and do the decorating on Friday.

The reindeer is in decorating action!

they must take a break for play time! Blake is the
reindeer this time! lol!  Gitty-up!

The kids and I dug out most of the decorations and waited for Daddy to get home from work to get out the ornaments. Most of them have memories to read as we get them out. I love this part!

We started out with hot cocoa!

Our 1st ornaments, we took turns reading memories, all the way back to
their very first Christmas'

Taylor made these at our dear friend, April's house! She remembers
the kids Christmas party!

Baby Angel ornaments- "Tis' A Gift From God"- and my babies truly are!

Perfect timing for Sophie to go get her Santa toy and make Blake play!!

Blake's hand-made Pokémon ornament from
last year.

Our Anna Maria Island ornament from our 1st family vacation!

The boys did have to take a break!

looking beautiful!

Buddy, Come back!!!

We have made it a tradition, to read the Elf on the Shelf book, on Thanksgiving night.  It invites our wonderful little elf, Buddy, to come and stay with us until Christmas. He is a real delight, the kids absolutely love finding him each morning, as he travels back and forth from the North Pole. He is the messenger that lets Santa know if the kids have been naughty or nice that day.

And by the very next morning....

Thanksgiving 2013

How can it be Thanksgiving already? Seems like it was just Halloween, but I guess time flies when you're having fun! I feel so blessed this time of year. I love how the holiday season is a time to reflect on all we have to be grateful for.

This year, I kept the menu very simple and even (aaahhhh....) bought the desserts. It was nice to not stress over the food. In the year's past, we celebrated our family dinner on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then served food for The Big Feast on Thursday. The place we normally serve is no longer there, so this year we were home on the holiday and everyone was off work. It worked out perfectly. 

We wrote out little "blessing" fortunes to place in the
rolls!

SMILE!



We wrapped them in foil, and placed b/t the rolls.

I rolled out paper and placed markers on the table...we drew hand turkey
and all kinds of memorable stuff!

We were shaking heavy cream to make real butter, but...they
got a little carried away with the shaking and accidentally
made cream instead! lol!

Diana, Danny, and Aunt Susie came over. The kids had been looking forward to Thanksgiving for weeks now, because they get to see everyone. They just wanted to hang out and "play"! And that is exactly what they got to do!

Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny took off with the kids to play, then we ate a wonderful dinner, and then played the LCR dice game. We all love that game, even if we do lose some money. This year Diana won and won and won!

He's winning!!

The famous "Turkey Handprint"!

See how happy those kiddos are....to be with their favorite people! :)

Taylor's First Fall Party!

Taylor has been looking forward to her first official school party, for awhile now! It's finally the day of the FALL PARTY! 

she was in the "candy corn" group!

She got to make a cute owl craft with handprints, snack on kettle corn, play "pin-the-stem-on-the-pumpkin" & "pass the pumpkin", and then get wrapped up like a little mummy!  She had a great time and so did I! 

 

Blake's 4th Grade Fall Party

Blake's 4th grade party was full of fun things...they got to mix glue, water, borax, and food coloring to make "slime"!  They made s'mores for the snack and got to play "Ooey Gooey Frankenstein Lab" game, where they put their finger in a hole and feel icky things and then guess what they were...the "fingers" were slimy pickles, the "eyeballs" were skinned grapes, the "guts" really were pumpkin guts! lol! 

Today was a lot of fun, I loved getting to hang out with him in class! I got to meet his friends and play Mad Scientist!   Fun was had by all!

please can I have this sucker?!?!?!?

Blake and Ms. Leon :)