Pizza Picnic and Rudolph!

I missed yesterday...I hardly saw my boys all day and when I did they were practicing for their church Christmas program.

This weekend has been a big weekend for our campus ministry.  We finished off the semester with a big Christmas Celebration yesterday, complete with a full traditional Christmas meal :)   There is always a mixture of emotions at the end: relief, sadness, excitement and exhaustion.  This semester was no different.  I will miss the students but I'm excited for the next couple of weeks to be present with the kiddos.

After all of yesterday's festivities on campus, we turned around had the boy's Christmas program at church this afternoon.  They did so well and were extremely cute.  You could even hear sweet Samuel's voice every once in awhile.  I got horrible pictures but here they are.

You can't really make out Ethan's face but he is in the very back.  

Tonight we decided to take. it. easy.   We picked up a Little Caesar's pizza (meal of champions) and had a picnic while watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  We had yet to have a family viewing so tonight was perfect.

 We have fun ornaments, service projects and games planned for this week so stop back by!

Friday Funday

Is it Friday already?1? (or at this point almost Saturday!)

This will be brief because we have a full day tomorrow but I wanted to share the fun printable play dough mats we used today.   I'm not sure I know a kid who doesn't love play dough and when I saw these on pinterest I knew the boys would enjoy them.  My kids would play with play dough every day if I would allow it but I'm not sure my patience level can handle that :)

Here is the link to awesome printable mats.  I looked a couple of places to try and find single laminate pages to cover them with but I couldn't find any and didn't have time to run to an office supply store.  Plain card stock worked ok for us but once the play dough was stuck to the page there was no moving it.

Full

Today's word.  Full.

This morning I ran errands with a cart "full" of children.  One who was "full" of giggles, one "full" of cute and one "full" of attitude.  All will remain nameless.

The kiddos and I spent a "full" day together but really didn't do anything unique or out of the ordinary and I am trying to be ok with that in the midst of this challenge I have given myself.  We did have a great time with Rudolph stickers that I bribed them with ($1 bribe...I will not feel guilty about that).  There are new masterpieces on my fridge now.

We also have "full" bellies from a wonderful dinner treat tonight at Red Robin thanks to David's parents.  David had a "full" day of joy because he came home with a new guitar :)  More on that later.

Today is teaching me that I can be present with my kids without bells and whistles.  I know that truth but sometimes in the moment I forget.  Sometimes, I use it as an excuse to never be intentional with them.  Preschool is teaching Ethan everything, right?  One more show on TV is fine right now because I need to fold laundry, right?  And so on...  Then I rebound and sometimes plan way too much and overwhelm us all.    Today I want to remember what it means to be "full" in the right way.   Full of contentment.  Full because I am ok with where God has placed me right now.

I'm reminded of this verse from Psalm 63:5 "I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you."

Fully satisfied.

Since this post has been a bit on the deep side, I will leave you with this picture.  I just noticed this ornament Ethan decorated.

Sometimes you need both the statement necklace and the scarf :)

Giving Trees

When we moved into our neighborhood 4.5 years ago we quickly realized that the medium age of our immediate neighbors was over 50.  The three neighbors across from us were in their 70's or 80's.  Not quite what we expected, as a young 25 year old couple with a baby on the way.  However, God has used this situation to show our neighbors love through our acts of service (and cute kids).  The first time it snowed significantly, we realized just our much they needed us.  David has even had to rescue one of their cats from a tree :)  We have also been shown kindness and love from them.  They love to make over the kids when we stop and say "Hi" on walks.  One in particular has taken David under his wing in many ways.  He has shown him how to trim our front tree, allowed David to use his tools and sometimes even beats us to snow blowing our driveway.  

Over the years we have realized that one thing is the same for all of them...they live alone.

We talked about this with the boys this month and explained to them that we should do something to show our neighbors that we love them and more importantly that Jesus loves them.  We wanted them to know someone is thinking about them.  So, we originally decided we wanted to make them Christmas wreaths...who knew wreaths were so pricy!  And, when Samuel saw the options he was way more excited about mini Christmas trees.  So, mini Christmas trees we bought.

Tonight, after preschool, we set about decorating these babies.  We had some mini ornaments, random yarn, and a few glittery sticks.  Ethan loved using his scissors to cut the yarn (any opportunity for fine motor practice ;) ) and Samuel loved hanging the bulbs.  

When David got home from work, we went out and delivered them.

The boys had so much fun and didn't know why we didn't have trees for the whole neighborhood.   It was so exciting to see their little hearts be opened to giving and beginning to understand what it means to love your neighbor.  I can't wait to see what God does to grow this in their lives.   Also, I can't wait to see how he gives our family more opportunities to love on our neighbors.

We Love To Paint!

Whew, getting this in right in time.  This is a crazy week for our family and the campus ministry as we tie up lots of lose ends, say lots of goodbyes and reflect until there is nothing left to talk about :)

They kids and I did get a little time together after nap time this afternoon to try out a special new gift.  I entered a contest on the Blessed by Brenna blog a few weeks ago and we were blessed to win a gift!  To celebrate Brenna's upcoming third birthday they gave away a lot of her favorite toys and products on their blog.  Our family has been following Brenna's story from the beginning and have been praying for her and her family.  It has been inspiring to hear her mom, Courtney, be real with their struggles, wrestle with faith and find peace in their new reality.    Their blog is www.blessedbybrenna.com 

We received a Do A Dot Art Set (http://www.dotart.com/).  The boys love painting so this was a big hit.  They got a monster truck paint book along with the Do A Dot set and it was huge hit!  They spent the whole time comparing colors of bulldozers, snow plows and trucks.  We will definitely be keeping these in stock because they loved it and it allowed me some time to prep for dinner.

I can't wait to share with you what we have in store for tomorrow!!  :) 

TMNT

Ethan is starting to get into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles much to our excitement.  David has a DVD he bought in college with several episodes of the original cartoon and Ethan is always begging to watch it.  

Since embarking on our twenty-five days of intentional Christmas time, several people have sent me a link with DIY TMNT ornaments.  I knew Ethan would love these "Cowabunga Turtle" ornaments so I wanted to make sure we found time to make them.  In college, I bought a box of red and green bulb ornaments (which we rarely put on the tree) so I already had the main expense for this craft.  Grandma surprised us with felt for the masks and goggly eyes so we were set.  We had enough eyes to make 6 ornaments so Ethan decided to make a couple extra for one of his best preschool buds, who also loves the turtles.  Ethan has told me every day for the last month that he and Will have played TMNT during free time at school...I think they even have the girls in their class playing turtles now :)   

Here ya go:  Supplies needed:  Red, Blue, Purple and Orange Felt or Ribbon, Goggly Eyes, Green Bulbs, Hot Glue Gun 

Celebrate Good Time, C'mon!

Most of our recent activities have involved spending time with the people we love.  Today was no different.  We headed out to my home town after church today.  Every year my Nana carries out a tradition set by her mother, to get our whole extended family together for a Christmas celebration.  I have learned so much about family and enduring love from my grandparents.  Even though it is hard to weed through everyone's schedules, create excitement for a family gathering and plan the majority of the food, they do it faithfully.  

Cora spent 85% of the time sitting on Great Papa's lap or mingling in the crowd with him.  The men in her life really are smitten with her :)

 We came home to a very exciting project for Ethan.  He was chosen as the "star of week" next week for his preschool class!   He loved choosing the pictures for his poster and answering all the questions about himself.

Direct quote from when I grow up, "I want to be a fire fighter so I can shoot the hose and ride the truck.  This will happen when I'm 30."  Maybe he has heard David and I talking a lot about turning 30 in a couple of months...

Weekly update of our Advent Calendar: