Merry Christmas

From our family to yours. We hope you enjoy the true gift of Christmas, always!

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Birthday Party for Jesus

This is the first year that I have kids old enough to start to "get it." So, I really wanted to start some traditions that would celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ is the most precious gift EVER. Therefore, I thought it only appropriate that we begin our celebration on Christmas morning by being intentional about celebrating Him. We have a little birthday party planned. Muffins will substitute as cupcakes. We will sing "happy birthday, Jesus". We will present our gifts to Jesus with prayers of gratitude that we have the resources to give and do for others. Read through the Christmas story. Explain to the children why they are receiving gifts. Then, watch them open gifts...

I ran across this post and love it. Wanted to share it since it has some great ways in teaching Christ and keeping Him in the center of our lives at Christmas and everyday!

3D T.V. and Financial Decisions

Several days ago my husband and I were joking around about spending the money on a new 3D T.V. He posted what we thought would be a funny status update on Facebook. It went something like this:

We have decided to purchase, with a credit card, the huge 3D TV they have at Sam's club. It is not really in line with our financial goals but I really think it will make us happy and give us more together time, on the couch...

Then, we sat back and waited for the funny comments to roll in. I asked him, I wonder who will send us a Dave Ramsey link? {chuckle} We got a few "likes" and one comment that said, "ha ha go for it." We had a couple of people ask us if we had purchased our new T.V. yet. We also had ONE person who was willing to lovingly rebuke our *decision*. (In case you need a good line for a similar rebuke, I think this was PERFECT!) The following Sunday in our SS class a friend went up to Andrew and said (sort of jokingly), "Hey man, Dave Ramsey is mad at you about your new T.V." This comment lead to a funny conversation during which Andrew confessed that we were trying to make a JOKE!

Just to clear things up:

We don't want to be a "slave to our lender" (Prov 22:7b) and we want to honor God with all of our decisions. Debt is not honoring to God because then we are slaves to our lender and not free to do God's will. Therefore, we feel that going into debt for an unnecessary purchase such as a huge 3D TV is not very God honoring.

If that weren't enough, there is always this:

So Much

So much to blog about so little time. I hope to work in some blog time in the near future. For now just some kid cuteness!

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(Un)Forgetful Friday

-Braedon and I were reading a book called Hurray for Heroes. I asked Braedon if he knew what a hero was and we discussed that a little bit. Then I asked him who the best hero of all is to which he replied, "Jesus." YAY :-)
-We were watching Super Why the other day and Kaley was standing next to the TV. Wyatt asked which word was the word "less" out of three words that were displayed on the screen. Kaley points to the word less and turns to me and says "less."
-I wanted to take our family picture for our Christmas card the other day. I have learned that if I talk about something all day with the kids they will respond better when the event comes up. So, all day I was saying, "When daddy comes home we are going to go stand by the Christmas tree and take pictures." So, when daddy came home, Braedon ran to get his toy camera. He went and stood next to the Christmas tree and started *taking* pictures of us (not standing next to the Christmas tree). I guess I should have rephrased it since kids are so literal. :-) It was pretty funny!
-Braedon and I had the neatest conversation about God the other day. We talked about how God is everywhere. Braedon asked if he was hiding. I got to explain that no he is not hiding. We can't see him but we know he is always there and that is called faith. Thank you God for the sweet opprotunity to share you with my kids!
-Braedon grabs Garrett's hand and shakes it while saying, "nice to meet you Garrett."
-Braedon says, "Garrett's a sweet baby" in a high pitched, super-sweet voice. It is almost the cutest thing ever.

Garrett - 4 Months

Look at that smile! Yes, it does completely melt my heart. We go to the doctor for his 4 month check soon but I am pretty sure he is in the 12 lb range. He loves the attention he gets from all of us and especially his brother and sister.

Our Completed Thankful Tree

What all made it on the tree?:
All the people who love on me
jesus and grandpa
ministry opportunities
daddy
Braedon Kaley Garrett and Mommy
venison
magnets
daddy's lap
candles
clouds
heater
mommy who loves me
movies with buddy Braedon
fingers to chew on
blue bouncy chair that Garret sits in
mommy's lap
coffee
Grapes
CLC groupsd
a good marriage
god and jesus
brother and sister to make me laugh
green markers
my family
corporate and private worship
time off work
lamp
fall leaves
tape
how blessed we are with family jobs health and relationship with god
mamas milk
the light blue bear that sings jesus loves me
pacifiers
chicken nuggets
bible
daddy
god and jesus
sleep
pigtails
a warm house
braedon
glenn and avery
a bed to jump on
the ability to buy food and toys for the less fortunate
god and jesus
pancakes with family
Nap
Alaina's hugs
Madison's hugs
babies
gas drops and saline
god and jesus
relationships
date with daddy
god and jesus
diapers
jesus and grandma
My favorite part was praying through all of these as a family on Thanksgiving Day morning. We also thank God for all the other wonderful gifts made possible through His son Jesus Christ!

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My Boys

Love Love Love them!

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(Un)Forgetful Friday

-Braedon and Kaley have actually started wrestling. Sometimes it is cute and funny. Other times not so much.
-The opportunity to start teaching my children that stuff is not that important.
-When hubby says "honey you are a great manager of our home."
-Kaley only wants to cuddle every now and then. This morning was one of those precious moments.
-When Braedon says wow mommy you are doing great.
-Memorial service that was so worshipful and inspiring to live more passionately for Christ.

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Our Thankful Tree

We have not done this before but I love the idea so much that it will be a tradition starting this year. Each day from now until Thanksgiving day each member of the family will write something they are thankful for on a leaf. Then the leaf is taped to the tree. On Thanksgiving Day we sit down together as a family and read through them. I envision incorporating prayer into it also. Maybe we will draw them one at a time and pray for each one and the person who wrote it. I am looking forward to some spirit filled family time!

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(Un)Forgetful Friday

-The way Kaley looks at her baby brother:


-The way Braedon looks at his baby brother:

-How proud I am of hubby for getting up early enough for a 6 a.m. meeting every Friday morning.
-Braedon wanted to pick up about a dozen crayons and put each one in between his toes to use his feet and put them in the bag.
-Kaley saying "uh huh boo boo" with a spiderman bandaid on her hand...translation "I have a boo boo" in a voice like she really does have a boo boo. Except it is her brother's bandaid that fell off of his boo boo.
-When Braedon's evening preschool teacher at church said to me, "Braedon has quite the imagination. He was trying to use the teeter totter as a catipult."
-Braedon saying "wadgi ga bee dat" unrecognizably fast. At first I thought he was saying "why did you call me that" but then we realized that he was saying "what's it gonna be that" obviously not knowing anything about sentence structure yet.
-Not being able to wait until Sunday to get some Land of a Thousand Hills coffee at the new cafe at our church.
-Kaley saying "mommy" at her bedroom door after she crawled out of her crib for the first time and the shocked look that hubby and I traded.
-When Garrett locks eyes with me and smiles.

Making Cards

We enjoyed making a birthday card for my neice who turns 4 this month. I think they turned out pretty cute. The instructions came from the inside of the construction paper cover. Fold a piece of construction paper in half. In the middle of the folded edge make two straight cuts that are 1 and a half inches apart. Glue your object of choice onto the pop out tab. Glue another paper to make the front and then decorate.

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Look Who Turned 2

Our precious baby girl turns two today. We celebrated this past Sunday with just our little family and grandparents via phone and webcam. Kaley got a Dora backpack to replace her diaper bag that we have been carrying to church and other activities. She also got a Care Bear (Share) that is bigger than her. If you haven't seen the video of her trying to put a diaper on it you can see it here. I baked a cake (out of the box) and the kids helped me put sprinkles on it. We sang Happy Birthday, ate cake, and opened presents. Then, Kaley wore her backpack around for the rest of the evening.




It was time change Sunday so she was extremely tired and we had a bit of It's My Party and I Will Cry If I Want To.

Love that face...silly girl!

The next day a card from Grandma and Grandpa Snow came and it had stickers in it. Here she is sticking the stickers in her card.

Diapering a Care Bear

MUTE sound unless you want proof that Little G didn't think this was nearly as amusing as I did.

Kaley got this Care Bear (Share) for her birthday and I saw her trying to diaper it today. Too cute!

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Garrett - 3 months

Here is our handsome, growing baby boy at 3 months. He is a lot more interactive now and smiles all the time. He coos and makes all different kinds of new, super-cute sounds. He loves getting attention from his brother and sister. And they love giving him attention. It has become one of our favorite things to do during Garrett's wake time is to lay him on Braedon's bed and all gather around to talk and play with him.


For comparison purposes, here are links to prior months:
1 month
2 month

Cousin Fun

We had my brother and his daughters over last week. Little Caeser's Pizza has become our dinner of choice when we have little ones for company or just whenever we need something easy for dinner. We crammed four of the kids around this children's table to eat. It was super-cute.

Kaley and Sticker Silliness

I have no idea why but Kaley is mostly interested in sticking stickers to her mouth. Then she just walks around with a mound of stickers stuck to her lips. Silly girl!

Can I Get a Smile?

Garrett has been smiling at me but not on camera yet. Here is us trying to capture it.

Play Hut

We had some great friends give us a princess play hut a while ago. I have to keep it put up and just break it out every now and then because our wild man (i.e. Braedon) will unintentionally destroy it. I broke it out the other day and it was the best thing in the world for about an hour. Here are some cute pics.



I had hoped that maybe it could stay out and be Kaley's "space" because lately Braedon seems to have been wanting his own space and has adopted this corner behind the living room chair.

Decorated Boxes

I saw this cute little craft from Publix Preschool Pals. I got all excited about Braedon being able to keep some of his smaller, favorite toys in it. He made it but hasn't touched it yet. It was fun to make and there is always hoping that he will use it one of these days. Kaley couldn't really make her own so I glued the sides on for her expecting her to want to decorate it with stickers. She didn't want to decorate it or keep any of her small things in it either.


An arrow was the doodad in Lil K a few weeks ago and he is still infatuated with arrows. So, we used his arrow craft that he made that Sunday and glued it on the side of the box. I think it looks pretty neat.

Jug-O-Lantern

This is a cute little halloween craft I saw at Publix Preschool Pals. It was fun but very messy. We drew the faces together and I cut them out. Then I turned Braedon and Kaley loose with paint and they used LOTS of it. Pumpkins are usually orange but Braedon made his blue, pink, purple, brown, and every other color of paint we had. I had a little more control over Kaley's paint options so her's turned out mostly orange. It was fun but then the paint started chipping off of the jugs and leaving a mess on the floor so they had to go bye bye pretty soon after we were finished looking at the finished product.



Once we put the flashlight inside the jug and put it in our dark bathroom it actually looked a little creepy, which wasn't really what I was going for. There is another reason they went bye bye.

I'm It

Over the past few days I have felt somewhat overwhelmed with the number of times Braedon says "um, mommy" during any given day. I think about it a lot because well I am being constantly reminded of it. In thinking about it today I realized that all he really wants is to share something with me. He is excited about showing or telling me whatever it is. I also was reminded that this age and season of life is oh so temporary and one day he may not want to share many things with me. Right now, I am IT to him and I want to relish in that fact, appreciate it, and enjoy it instead of be resentful or overwhelmed by it. The same goes for Garrett and Kaley too. They are all so young that I am the center of their world right now. What a neat privilege that God has given me to be called mommy.

Thank God for Grandparents

We were so blessed to have all three biological grandparents in town during the first month of Garrett's life.
First, my mom was here for three weeks (dad was here for a week of that).

Then, Andrew's mom (aka Mom2) was here for a week.


Then, Andrew's dad was here for almost a week.



The kids were blessed to be able to spend special time with their grandparents and we were tremendously blessed to have extra hands. Grandparents, Thank you for your visit and all your help. We love you!