December is in so many ways my favorite month.
I love Christmas and celebrating and all the extra family time we usually get. Not so much this year, so far. But I'm thinking it will come. I love the Christmas cards and how people are just more friendly when I'm out and saying a cheerful "Merry Christmas!" is most often met with a grin.
This year especially I'm thankful for our health. I can't even believe that it was only last year that Bryant was in hospital for 6 days and we were decorating his hospital room and IV stand with Christmas decorations! But we are all home and healthy this year and doing great health wise. Me, being the one that feels the most sick with Baby growing inside.
Here's a little update on the babe. I am 12 weeks tomorrow. I still am not completely sure of the dates. But that's what we're going with for now. I have an ultrasound booked for Jan 30th and am super excited for that. I was really hoping to hear that heartbeat at 11 weeks but my doctor didn't even attempt it. Boo. I was thinking about going with a midwife this time round. I've heard so many good things about them and I most like the idea of being able to go home nearly immediately after :) The one thing stopping me was that I so liked the obgyn that I was referred to nearing the end of my pregnancies. He even delivered me!! But I just found out that he has since retired. So midwife hunting I will go. Baby is now the size of a lime :)
This year we are doing the Truth in the Tinsel e book. For a while now I have wanted to do something like this with the kids to make Christmas about Jesus every single day. Now I haven't actually done them every single day. Sometimes we have to double or even triple up. But we're doing more than we have any other year. Like I said it's an e book and you can purchase it here: http://truthinthetinsel.com/ I'm not sure how to go about posting without giving everything away so I won't write which verses we read although we did read quite a few each day and did the craft. Most of the time I altered the craft slightly as they were too involved or we didn't have the proper materials or I liked my idea better ;)
Day 1.
Jesus is the light in our darkness. God sent us a light. The Light of the world - Baby Jesus!
We made a candle silhouette craft.
Day 2.
Jesus is our king, wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace and will reign forever. We made little crowns.
Day 3.
The stories of the births of John and Jesus go together. Gabriel visited Zechariah and said that he would have a son. But because he and Elizabeth were both very old Zechariah did not believe him and God made him unable to speak until the baby was born.
We made a Zechariah craft, with wool for hair, googly eyes, a pom pom nose and I used a dot of glue for his mouth to show how God made him unable to speak.
Day 4:
Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would be having a baby, The Son of God.
We made a Gabriel craft and made an angel.
Day 5.
We talked about Gabriel visiting Mary and telling her she would be having a baby. We talked about how she may have been surprised, afraid or nervous as she was young and without a husband, but her response was that she was God's servant and she was ready and available to do His will. A big difference to Zechariah's response to Gabriel.
We made a Mary craft. Here is a picture of all of our 3 Mary's
Day 6:
Mary and Elizabeth were relatives both expecting special babies from God. Mary went and stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months and when she first arrived baby John lept for joy in Elizabeth's tummy. How excited they must have been to talk about God's plan for their boys' lives.
We made a Mary and Elizabeth craft with the babies in the circles in their tummies.
Day 7:
Mary sang praises to God. Luke 1:46 says "Oh, how my soul praises the Lord."
We made a song craft with buttons and craft beads on a cd.
Day 8:
After John was born and Zechariah prophesied that John would have an important job. Luke 1:76 says "And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord."
Zechariah also describes Jesus as the "Rising Sun" coming from heaven verse 79 "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace."
We made a black sun cut out and covered it with shining stars to show how Jesus is like a Rising Sun and brings light in the darkness. We also were reminded of our first craft.
This was mainly just copied and pasted from Maria's school blog so that's why there aren't pics of the boys. They have been involved in some of the crafts. But often they are in bed when I do them. Homeschooling two and then adding an extra craft and reading to each day is a touch much for this pregnant momma ;) But I have the book now for future reference so I don't feel too bad.
We celebrated Bryant's birthday. He requested steak, greek salad and apple pie. Maria and Esther helped with the pie. Maria loves apple pie more than anyone I know so she was thrilled. It was a quiet birthday. B just likes them quiet and at home with his favorite people. That worked out just fine for me. We bought him some of his favorite chocolate, some more pencil holders and Esther chose a snowman candle for him. Later I'll try and organize a special date for us.
Today is our 8.5 year anniversary! I can't believe we've been married so long already! It's been such a good marriage so far. Ups and downs, of course. But there's no place I'd rather be!
We've slowly been setting up the house for Christmas. We decorated the tree. I have to get a pic with the boys in it, too. They were both in bed when I took this one of the girls. A quick pic to throw on the school blog. Tommy is stopping napping slowly. He goes down like a charm but I sure do miss that quiet time in the day!! Might as well get used to it, though! Here's the tree. We used Bryant's home made tree again this year. Our house is so tiny that a real one won't fit. Dreaming of the day this tree can stay up all year round.
I have been so thrilled with the cold this year. Not really when I'm out erranding or times like that but because the pond froze!! Yippee! On Sunday we packed up the crew and took them ice skating for the first time in 2 years. They were so thrilled! We didn't have skates for Tom, but I don't quite think he's ready, anyhow. He was a bit concerned at first but ended up loving it in the end.
Danny showing Tommy the ropes, big brother style.... I don't know where B found these little walkers but they were amazing!
The girls were doing great at the end, both were skating without support at the end and were so proud of themselves :)
A little help from Uncle Dean :)
And from Daddy...
By the end Maria was attempting hockey with our big friends and has decided that next year she will give up dance and start hockey :)
Tommy playing with cousin Kevy :)
The next day it snowed!! Hooray! So we did our tradition of taking a picture of the kids on the first day of snow :) They all cooperate so well these days ;p
And even thought it snowed we went ahead and went skating again because Uncle Dean is rad and either used a leaf blower or shoveled all the snow away for us. Hooray for rad uncles!!
And made snow angels on the ice. They turned out beautifully! You can see here that Maria is wearing clown skates. They were all we had but Uncle Dean went and bought her some in her size :)
And Tommy living up to his nick name "Thomas the Tank".
And that's been
December so far :) Merry Christmas and thanks for reading
I love Christmas and celebrating and all the extra family time we usually get. Not so much this year, so far. But I'm thinking it will come. I love the Christmas cards and how people are just more friendly when I'm out and saying a cheerful "Merry Christmas!" is most often met with a grin.
This year especially I'm thankful for our health. I can't even believe that it was only last year that Bryant was in hospital for 6 days and we were decorating his hospital room and IV stand with Christmas decorations! But we are all home and healthy this year and doing great health wise. Me, being the one that feels the most sick with Baby growing inside.
Here's a little update on the babe. I am 12 weeks tomorrow. I still am not completely sure of the dates. But that's what we're going with for now. I have an ultrasound booked for Jan 30th and am super excited for that. I was really hoping to hear that heartbeat at 11 weeks but my doctor didn't even attempt it. Boo. I was thinking about going with a midwife this time round. I've heard so many good things about them and I most like the idea of being able to go home nearly immediately after :) The one thing stopping me was that I so liked the obgyn that I was referred to nearing the end of my pregnancies. He even delivered me!! But I just found out that he has since retired. So midwife hunting I will go. Baby is now the size of a lime :)
This year we are doing the Truth in the Tinsel e book. For a while now I have wanted to do something like this with the kids to make Christmas about Jesus every single day. Now I haven't actually done them every single day. Sometimes we have to double or even triple up. But we're doing more than we have any other year. Like I said it's an e book and you can purchase it here: http://truthinthetinsel.com/ I'm not sure how to go about posting without giving everything away so I won't write which verses we read although we did read quite a few each day and did the craft. Most of the time I altered the craft slightly as they were too involved or we didn't have the proper materials or I liked my idea better ;)
Day 1.
Jesus is the light in our darkness. God sent us a light. The Light of the world - Baby Jesus!
We made a candle silhouette craft.
Day 2.
Jesus is our king, wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace and will reign forever. We made little crowns.
Day 3.
The stories of the births of John and Jesus go together. Gabriel visited Zechariah and said that he would have a son. But because he and Elizabeth were both very old Zechariah did not believe him and God made him unable to speak until the baby was born.
We made a Zechariah craft, with wool for hair, googly eyes, a pom pom nose and I used a dot of glue for his mouth to show how God made him unable to speak.
Day 4:
Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would be having a baby, The Son of God.
We made a Gabriel craft and made an angel.
Day 5.
We talked about Gabriel visiting Mary and telling her she would be having a baby. We talked about how she may have been surprised, afraid or nervous as she was young and without a husband, but her response was that she was God's servant and she was ready and available to do His will. A big difference to Zechariah's response to Gabriel.
We made a Mary craft. Here is a picture of all of our 3 Mary's
Day 6:
Mary and Elizabeth were relatives both expecting special babies from God. Mary went and stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months and when she first arrived baby John lept for joy in Elizabeth's tummy. How excited they must have been to talk about God's plan for their boys' lives.
We made a Mary and Elizabeth craft with the babies in the circles in their tummies.
Day 7:
Mary sang praises to God. Luke 1:46 says "Oh, how my soul praises the Lord."
We made a song craft with buttons and craft beads on a cd.
Day 8:
After John was born and Zechariah prophesied that John would have an important job. Luke 1:76 says "And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord."
Zechariah also describes Jesus as the "Rising Sun" coming from heaven verse 79 "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace."
We made a black sun cut out and covered it with shining stars to show how Jesus is like a Rising Sun and brings light in the darkness. We also were reminded of our first craft.
This was mainly just copied and pasted from Maria's school blog so that's why there aren't pics of the boys. They have been involved in some of the crafts. But often they are in bed when I do them. Homeschooling two and then adding an extra craft and reading to each day is a touch much for this pregnant momma ;) But I have the book now for future reference so I don't feel too bad.
We celebrated Bryant's birthday. He requested steak, greek salad and apple pie. Maria and Esther helped with the pie. Maria loves apple pie more than anyone I know so she was thrilled. It was a quiet birthday. B just likes them quiet and at home with his favorite people. That worked out just fine for me. We bought him some of his favorite chocolate, some more pencil holders and Esther chose a snowman candle for him. Later I'll try and organize a special date for us.
Today is our 8.5 year anniversary! I can't believe we've been married so long already! It's been such a good marriage so far. Ups and downs, of course. But there's no place I'd rather be!
We've slowly been setting up the house for Christmas. We decorated the tree. I have to get a pic with the boys in it, too. They were both in bed when I took this one of the girls. A quick pic to throw on the school blog. Tommy is stopping napping slowly. He goes down like a charm but I sure do miss that quiet time in the day!! Might as well get used to it, though! Here's the tree. We used Bryant's home made tree again this year. Our house is so tiny that a real one won't fit. Dreaming of the day this tree can stay up all year round.
I have been so thrilled with the cold this year. Not really when I'm out erranding or times like that but because the pond froze!! Yippee! On Sunday we packed up the crew and took them ice skating for the first time in 2 years. They were so thrilled! We didn't have skates for Tom, but I don't quite think he's ready, anyhow. He was a bit concerned at first but ended up loving it in the end.
Danny showing Tommy the ropes, big brother style.... I don't know where B found these little walkers but they were amazing!
The girls were doing great at the end, both were skating without support at the end and were so proud of themselves :)
A little help from Uncle Dean :)
And from Daddy...
By the end Maria was attempting hockey with our big friends and has decided that next year she will give up dance and start hockey :)
Tommy playing with cousin Kevy :)
The next day it snowed!! Hooray! So we did our tradition of taking a picture of the kids on the first day of snow :) They all cooperate so well these days ;p
And even thought it snowed we went ahead and went skating again because Uncle Dean is rad and either used a leaf blower or shoveled all the snow away for us. Hooray for rad uncles!!
And made snow angels on the ice. They turned out beautifully! You can see here that Maria is wearing clown skates. They were all we had but Uncle Dean went and bought her some in her size :)
And Tommy living up to his nick name "Thomas the Tank".
And that's been
December so far :) Merry Christmas and thanks for reading
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