Play-doh Puzzle

So I think that my husband might be the smartest man alive. This is one of those moments where I think - why don't you stay home with the boys - you are FAR more creative than I! But alas, God has called me to be here with the boys and Matt to be at church and He has equipped both of us for these things that He has called us to. Thankfully he is an active daddy when he's home and we can benefit from his creativity too! Thanks Matt for this great idea!

Here are the steps to making a "Play-Doh Puzzle".

1. Roll out the Play-Doh.



2. Using cookie cutters, make a puzzle! (O does all of this by himself once I get it flattened out. B only put the pieces back in.)



3. Have your little one put the pieces back in the puzzle.









SO FUN! They BOTH love it which makes me love it!

SNOW DAY!!

I didn't believe it would really happen, but it did! We have about a foot of snow, and it's supposed to snow more this afternoon and over night. It's been a fun day including a brief playtime outside. Here are a few photos.









Last night (in the snow!) we had our staff christmas party. At the white elephant game we won this "Rice Krispee Treat House Kit." Matt and I were disappointed that we didn't win any fun gift cards, but we were quickly encouraged when we saw Owen's excitement about this kit this morning.

Jesus is the LIGHT of the World!

"The people walking in darkness have seen a GREAT LIGHT" Matthew 4:16

How thankful we are that Jesus entered this DARK world and brought GREAT LIGHT!







"And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." Matthew 2:9, 10

One more...then and now

I always tend to post in a marathon style instead of a sprint style. Maybe a 10k would be better.

So here is another then and now quiz. If you want to guess who is who...

Gifts

There is a lot of talk about gifts surrounding Christmas, so we thought we'd fill out Owen's understanding and concept of gifts a little bit.

We talked first about how Jesus is the greatest gift that we have been given. There were some wise men who brought Jesus gifts when he was born - three gifts - because they knew that though he was a baby, He was Jesus - the King of King and Lord of Lords who would one day die for them. Just as they brought Jesus three gifts when he was born, we give our kids three gifts on Christmas - hopefully this helped Owen to get a better grasp of that.

I found some cute little boxes at Michaels and we put a letter sticker in each box representing the gifts from the three kings - G for gold, F for frankincense, and M for myrrh. He likes to match them up with the three wise men in our Little People Nativity set and make sure they are with the right box.





We also had a coloring sheet (a gift box with James 1:17 written at the bottom "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights there is no variation or shadow due to change.") we put glue on and they could stick on pieces of paper, string, ribbon, etc. to decorate it. Even Baxter could do this one!

I don't have any pictures of this one. Our hope is to point them to God as the giver of all good gifts this season and ALWAYS!

Name

All of a sudden last week Owen decided that he wanted to write the letters in his name. Up until now he was too concerned that they weren't perfect so he wouldn't do it at all. Now he's confident and we think it looks great!

Back to school

After a few weeks off, we're back at some "school at home" time with Owen (and sometimes Baxter)

Salt Dough Ornaments:

This first idea came from a friend of ours from JMU - her blog is called Little Page Turners, and it is FULL of fun ideas linking reading to art, etc. We made some of the ornaments for our family and gave a few away to friends.

Owen LOVED this one. He really enjoyed helping to pour in and mix the ingredients, cut out the shapes and paint them the next day. Matt didn't love this one. He came home from work to see what looked like a tray full of christmas cookies in the oven baking. He was not thrilled when I informed him that it was actually salt dough ornaments :( We'll have to make him some real ones!

Advent

Phew! I think it was before Thanksgiving that I last posted. Sorry about that!

We had a great visit to Harrisonburg for Thanksgiving. It was great to have some time with my brothers and their families and my parents. The kiddos got a long GREAT! Here are a couple shots my dad took while we were there.






Now that we are back, we are in full swing with Advent. I think that this is the first year that I am getting it! I have always thought of Advent as the time you need to get through to get to Christmas. There are some fun things you can do, but it's just a glorified countdown until 12/25. Right?! Well, this year, I have been seeing just how great Advent is BECAUSE it is preparing my heart for why there is joy at Christmas.

We have a Jesse Tree book and tree that we have used since Owen was born. (I did not make the ornaments, I was part of a Bible Study in Charlotte and we all made it together.) Each day is a different thing that points us to the greatness of Jesus and His birth as a baby that we celebrate on Christmas. It fills in the why of His birth and life and death and resurrection. I am so thankful for it in my own heart, let alone the hearts of our children!

We are really excited for Christmas - 10 more days to go on our count. And I'm thankful that our joy is more full this year than last in what it means that Jesus came and lived as a man to die for us and for our sins, to bring us to the Father. What good news of great joy that is! (Luke 2:10)

What about ME?

I was having a "What about ME" morning one day this past week. We "slept in" - waking up with the boys instead of before the boys. There was only time for Matt to shower before going to work. I am thankful that most of the time I can shower before he goes to work too. But not this day. I felt like my needs did not matter. Everyone else got what they needed and even what they wanted and I just had to kind of go with the flow. If it fit for me to get what I wanted or needed then good. If it didn't, then oh well. This is not a great way to start the day. And even as I type this, the false-thinking is so blatant to me!

So... I dropped Owen off at school in my "running" clothes - though no run had happened (no one needs to know that)! Baxter and I went back home for him to rest. I got to take the shower I had wanted so badly that morning and then I was able to spend some time in the Word. The time in the word brought me to Acts 20:24: " But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

What an encouragement it was to me that day! I had been valuing MY life and MY wants and MY needs way higher than God has intended me to. My life is to be lived for HIM and for the sake of the gospel of God's grace. It is a joy and a privilege to sacrifice much for that sake! This doesn't mean that I should never get a shower or a morning at the bagel shop or a night out with my husband, but it does challenge how much I am depending on those things and how much I am living for those things.

I have written this verse on a 3X5 notecard and placed it on the counter near the sink. I see it often and it has been such a great reminder/challenge to me. What is my life for? It is for God's glory and for the advancement of His kingdom. What joy that brings!

Precious Boys

Not much to say but Thank You God for these precious boys! And I LOVE FALL!

Visit from Grams and Grampop

Matt's folks called the other day and asked if they could come visit us on Matt's day off (Tuesday) to return some games that we had left at the beach...and see the boys and us. We didn't really NEED the games back, but we welcomed the visit!













Here are some fun pictures of a story time before the left. And a series of B sitting close to Grampop.

Just because

Home School week 7 (I think)

With all of the colds we've had, our school time has been a little less constant. No one had energy for it. And that is ok! The joy of this is that it is flexible and if it doesn't happen there is no loss. Somewhere in the midst of the colds, we spent some time learning about Jesus through a story in Matthew 14. It is a familiar story to many, but a profound picture of the power of God. It is the story where Jesus feeds 5,000 people with a little boys lunch - two fish and five loaves of bread. I hope and pray that it gave Owen a bigger sense of who God is and that that GREAT BIG POWERFUL GOD loves HIM enough to send His son to die for Owen.

We read the story in this board book we have and then did some water colors on a coloring sheet. He's just started to be real purposeful about this and enjoys getting the colors just where he wants them.



Later in the week we did a craft that I found HERE.

Here are the supplies needed - it's supposed to be like the loaves and bread (pretty sure they didn't have frosting back then!)



Here is the "finished product." I used quotes because Owen didn't want the goldfish on his cracker (at first he was distressed at my adding frosting to his perfectly good graham cracker, but when I assured him it was just like the frosting used on birthday cakes he complied) and so we took them off. I can't blame him. Cheese crackers on a yummy graham cracker with frosting? No thanks!



Enjoying the true "finished product." (What you can't see is ME enjoying my finished product too with a cup of coffee. You should try it sometime! Very tasty!)

Finally Getting Well

I haven't posted since that last post about being housebound again. Well, we were housebound for a while. Just this week getting back into the swing of things. No swine flu, just an annoying cold virus that kept circulating through Matt, Owen and Baxter. I have only caught a touch of it for which I am very thankful and surprised seeing that I was coughed on and sneezed on quite a bit!! Here is sick Owen on Saturday.