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)