The Lightner Family

Playing around in the toy room… what we each do best!

2012-02-13T12:42:00.001-05:00

On a typical morning or afternoon in the Lightner house, we like to play around in the Toy Room when Josiah is up from his am nap (after school) or after they ALL get up from pm nap. We are blessed to have a dedicated place to put the toys that our kids have… it is all in one space (at least it is supposed to be). There are times that we have to push it all back into the room and reorganize it, but for the most part a Toy Room works great for all of us! I have just purged a lot from it… AGAIN! We didn’t need all of those toys we got from Happy Meals while on our trip to PA/VA or those crafts that they have made in church. We also had a few broken things or things with missing pieces. I was SO GLAD to get rid of them. There is so much beauty in organization!

Hannah loves pretending. She sets up plastic animals to play in the farm or in the playhouse. She also loves dressing up…right now she is into Cinderella because she just saw the movie and DOES NOT want to be the sisters from the movie! She doesn’t like Josiah touching her animals when they are set up, and making her share them is a battle! She is super cute and has a great vocabulary. Right now she has a cold so it is harder to understand her, but one thing is clear, when Josiah is bothering her, we ALL know about it!

Grace loves to read… that is no surprise to anyone by now. She can pick any book off of the shelf and read it. It is really amazing. She would rather read than do just about anything. She is very into pretend as well. She likes to dress up and asks you to play with her by calling her a character’s name or repeating lines from the story as they happen. “Mommy, you be_____ and I will be _____.” is heard many, many times in this house in a given week! She takes characters from her stories and acts them out as well!

And what does Josiah do while the girls are busy? He likes to interrupt them or do what they are doing the most. He is now getting into playing his own things, especially trying to figure things out – how things fit together, come apart, etc. He likes to carry things with handles, push things with wheels, and put small toys in bigger containers. He is a true little boy! He loves balls and likes to kick them, throw them, hide them, and eat them! He also likes puzzles and tries to find the place where they match. He still enjoys going up and down the stairs and really zooms down them… so fast!

He is looking like such a little boy, isn’t he!?!

A little snow goes a LONG way

2012-02-09T23:04:00.001-05:00

Coming from NH we expect to get snow in the winter, but here in IA when they say snow we never know what to expect. We don’t get as much as they predict and often we get none at all! All over the states, we have see lots of winter drought… so THIS family gets out and play in the snow when we can! We have to make a little snow go a LONG way! This type of snow was really sticky so I bet you can guess what we did…MADE A SNOWMAN! We hadn’t done that since Hannah was a baby…AN INFANT!

Josiah wasn’t sure about the whole experience again… this was only his second time in the snow. It was hard to walk and he really wanted his hands free to explore.

Hannah’s having fun! What a cutie!

Hard at work….

Hannah is SO proud of the snowball that she made for the snowman’s head! Look at that SMILE!

Yes, even I got in on the fun… I had to go get a carrot and a hat and scarf for our snowman!

Hannah got a little distracted… it is hard for a two year old!

Our snowman…without a real name

Josiah and I went in when he started to get cold. I needed to warm him up and get the hot chocolate and cookies ready… a tradition in this house! He just wanted to look out at his sisters playing in the yard. He longed to be out there, but he settled for watching out the window.

The girls were hard at work… packing snow on our rock wall. I don’t know why it was so much fun, but they loved it.

It was hard work and it kept them really, really busy while Danny snowblowed!

And here is the snowman from when Hannah was just a few days old… March 10, 2009!

Birthday BOO

2012-02-08T21:30:00.002-05:00

Robin’s birthday was on Thursday… February 2… so she and the girls made brownies for the brownie sundaes she wanted for her birthday treat! YUMMY!

Large Family Logistics

2012-02-08T21:27:00.001-05:00

Yes, we are rapidly becoming a large family! It is hard to think of our family as large – we aren’t the Duggars – but we do have more kids than a lot of people do. We will have FOUR in May! WOW! It thrills me and scares me when I say that every time – especially when our oldest hasn’t turned 5 yet!!!

For my birthday my aunt gave me a great present (she must know me well!). She has a large family (with five kids) and she ordered me a book about managing your household that really meant a lot to her! Well… it has meant A LOT to me as well. I have really enjoyed learning from the author – a mom with nine kids, a BELIEVER, and a home school family. There are TOO MANY good things to share from this book, but I will list several ideas that were reinforced or learned through this book.

1. Have a schedule! I have always been one to be very scheduled. I have had a schedule for all of the household chores for over a year, and it has been working great! I have had laundry day on Wednesdays since we moved to this house last January and I LOVE how that works. Now I am scheduling myself even more. I get up before all of the kids so I can shower and have my devotional time. I love the quiet of the morning and having a shower first thing (that is not interrupted or needs to be hurried) is WONDERFUL! I also am thriving with a morning devotional time because I think about my day or pray in the shower and then spend 30 minutes in the Word before the kids get up. I have prepared myself for the battle of the day! It is great! I tried having that time at nap, but I was so tired and defeated on some days that I hardly could keep my eyes open or even remember what I read or studied! NOT A GOOD COMBINATION! There are other things that I do only at specific times during the day as well as a few things to do after the kids go to bed to make the next day run more smoothly.

2. There should be a place for everything, and everything should be in its place. I have heard this 1,000 times, but I have never been great at doing it. This book has encouraged me in that pursuit. If there isn’t a place for it, is it really necessary to keep? NOPE! I have cleaned out more cabinets and closets and PURGED! It is a great feeling… if we don’t use it… LOSE IT!

3. Get the dishes done at every meal RIGHT AWAY! Yes, this is one that I never have liked doing, but I love the benefits of doing it. BUT that means that I must have the dishwasher emptied to put more dishes in it… scheduling once again. I put dishes in the DW at dinner and then fill it again at breakfast and lunch. Then I run it after lunch. After naptime it is all finished so Grace and I will empty it in preparation for dinner. Most days this works really well and there is space for dinner, breakfast and lunch dishes, but sometimes there will be an early DW run or I will run it when it is not crammed full. Keeping on this cycle helps me to stay on top of the dishes.

4. Character building is the MOST important thing! My kids are like any one else’s…. they fight, they yell, they disobey, they have bad attitudes. As moms we all know how to handle that and discipline them accordingly, but what I have been challenged to do it to build character into them with Bible verses. I need to help them replace that bad attitude with joy or that fight with love. Taking the time to build character has added a whole new perspective to my discipline because I am working on the heart and not just the behavior. They can change their behavior to fit the standards of this home, but when their heart is truly in line with the Word, there is TRUE change! I am also teaching them character traits to go with behaviors so all I have to do is mention that trait and they know what I mean. For example, when Grace and Hannah were working on HARD floor puzzles yesterday, I encouraged them with, “I am going to go upstairs for a minute, but I want you to be DILIGENT. When I return I will see all of the hard work and progress you have made!” Being diligent is a Biblical character quality with many verses to go with it!

5. Cleaning chores. I have often wondered what the balance should be between having children be children and having children be slaves. I have come to realize that there are just some things that must be done in this home that the kids are MORE THAN CAPABLE to do that would be helpful for them to do. They are not slaves, but I now have them even MORE involved in the daily chores around the house. They had chores before, but now I have given them MORE responsibility and they LOVE IT. They thrived on doing the “mommy jobs” and mommy LOVES not having to do all of them (especially as my tummy grows!). For example, Grace has learned how to empty the dishwasher and sweep the kitchen floor. Hannah has learned how to carry her clothes to her room (on laundry day) and appropriately put away her clothes in her drawers. Praise the Lord for diligent workers!

There are MORE AND MORE wonderful reminders in this book about home management! I have benefited from it SO MUCH! Thank you, Auntie, for sending it to me. It will be a great resource that I will go back to over and over as our kids grow!

The girls’ favorite part

2012-02-06T22:31:00.001-05:00

The girls’ favorite part of our trip and the hotel was the pool! They were excited for it from the moment that we told them we were going to MN, and it proved to be a wonderful experience for the whole family! Grace is a little fish in the water and loves to jump into the water by herself, and Hannah has learned to swim on her own as well. She kicks and does the doggie paddle like a champ! We were practically the only ones using the pool when we were there, so it was a treat to have it all to ourselves.

our family

The kiddos….

Science Museum in St Paul

2012-02-06T21:47:00.001-05:00

Robin and I ventured out with the kiddos on Tuesday morning… we followed directions and made it safely to the Science Museum in St. Paul from our hotel in downtown Minneapolis. It was a little scary going there in the busy streets in a place that we were both unfamiliar with, but we made it and were pretty proud of ourselves. We got to get in for FREE with our zoo/science center membership which is always a cool thing in my book. We have used that here in DSM over and over and then in FL and now in MN…. and that was just from this year.

Josiah has learned to say CHEESE when you take a picture… so he wants to be in front of the camera more and more. I will take advantage of it while I can!

Making LOUD Dinosaur noises… and then CHEESE (with his chin up like Uncle Adam)!

Learning how tornadoes are formed and seeing how fast moving air over a curved surface creates LIFT

My little musician…nice pose, Grace!

Auntie BOO and the kiddos…

Me and my kiddos!!!!

We went to a demonstration for preschoolers about vibrations. The kids LOVED it, and the teacher was EXCELLENT! Hannah volunteered to pluck the strings of the little violin and feel the vibrations on the back while Grace volunteered to try out the Whoopie Cushion (her daddy would have been so proud!).

(Mom, who does the boy in the striped shirt remind you of? I immediately thought of a boy from CCS… let me know what you think!)

The last part of the day was making fingerprint animals and shapes… it was a highlight! Hannah made a few insects while Grace enjoyed decorating a butterfly with her fingerprints. (We didn’t let Siah participate in this one…) There were many, many more things that we saw and did, but I didn’t take pictures of. We had a blast even though many of the exhibits were not geared for preschool children. We had to really look for things that would be good for the kids, but they loved exploring this new museum and it made us really appreciate the one that we have in DSM.

Our First Business Trip

2012-02-06T21:20:00.001-05:00

It sounds funny to say that Danny had a business trip… he is not a “business man”, but that is what he had. He had planned to go to a pastors’ conference in MN, but he didn’t’ want me home with the kids alone for most of the week. He invited us to join him and even helped my sister Robin fly here to be my helper! What a guy! THANKS, Danny! We had a great time with Auntie Boo!

We drove up to Minneapolis on Sunday after church and just had fun in the pool that evening, but on Monday we went to the Mall of America. The kids favorite part was the rides. Robin and I got to check out a few of the hundreds of stores, but didn’t buy anything. It was fun to look… can you imagine 2 floors of Old Navy? YAHOO! There was SO MUCH to check out!

Danny’s conference didn’t start until the afternoon, so he was able to go with us… he didn’t want to miss the rides! Siah was glad to have another man around!

Auntie Boo and Grace got to ride on the swings… they were really high and fast!

Hannah couldn’t ride the swings, but she LOVED riding on the trucks! Look out! HERE SHE COMES!

I wasn’t able to get on many rides… all of them had warnings about pregnant mommas riding, but we thought the Merry Go Round was safe enough for me to ride with Siah. He loved that ride and had a HUGE smile THE WHOLE TIME!!!

Our Family of FIVE… (number six is a little hidden in these pictures!)

More rides!

Lego Land was fun to play at… it is hard to believe that ALL of these creatures are made entirely of Legos! We kept thinking of AJ and Riley who LOVE Legos

Fun in the Rainforest Café Store…yes, Robin IS wearing a frog hat. It took lots of convincing, and she may now need years of therapy!

ADORABLE HATS

2012-02-03T17:33:00.001-05:00

Thanks, Nanna, for the ADORABLE hats that go perfectly with our Zoo Unit and with the girls LOVE of pretend! They will be getting hundreds of hours of use!

Loveable Lions

2012-02-03T17:20:00.001-05:00

Last week we had a special day of learning about lions…. how they live in prides, that the daddies are the ones that have manes, and that the mommies are the hunters. Grace is fascinated by the facts and she just soaks them in. She loved talking about the parts of the Lion King that she remembered and how they relate to the facts that we were studying. The girls loved making daddy lions from paper plates. Here they are in progress:

Starting the day off right

2012-02-03T17:14:00.001-05:00

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day…. at least that is what I have heard, but according to the meals that Danny makes for us, you would not assume that he believes this. Danny and Grace make very chocolaty chocolate chip pancakes EVERY Saturday and he occasionally makes Stewed Crackers (Saltines, butter and water). Now he has moved on to another nutritious breakfast for our family: homemade doughnuts in the deep fryer! Yup… nice and healthy!

He uses refrigerator biscuits to make the actual doughnuts and fries them for about a minute on each side. Then he adds cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or a chocolate glaze! They are delicious and we ALL LOVE them… but as far as a great start to the day… we have to balance it out with milk and a LARGE FRUIT!!

Afternoon fun…or afternoon mess

2012-01-27T15:37:00.000-05:00

After a nap time this week, Grace still had a few things that I wanted her to do for school so I had to find something for the little kids to do. I pulled out the bag of split peas and barley that I have for the kids to play with. Both Josiah and Hannah love to pour and dump so I knew that this activity would be a hit! They also love making messes so I had to prepare myself for the mess to come!

There were many squeals of delight and joy!

When Grace finished her work, she joined the fun… and spiced things up a little with a twist or two of her own (which made a BIGGER mess)!

They made a HUGE mess, but they had a lot of fun! I loved seeing them together… all doing the same thing at the same time. I can’t believe that Josiah is able to do things that the girls are doing… he seems so grown up. I am thankful that they all genuinely love each other and care for each other.

Thanks, Dave!

2012-01-25T22:50:00.001-05:00

It is no secret that Danny and I are Dave Ramsey fans… we have really learned a lot from his program and continue to live with one income and 3 (almost 4) children with money to give and save. We want to teach these things to our children as well, so we began a new plan for their chores this new year. The girls have jobs around the house to do – according to their age and ability – and they get to check off when they do those things on the job chart. If they do those things and the other jobs that we ask of them throughout the week, they are given money. We have divided their earnings from before the first of the year into three jars: Give, Save, and Spend. Now when they are earning money, they must put at least ten percent of their earnings in the Give Jar, some in the Save Jar and the rest in Spend Jar. We have found that it is easier to give the girls their money in small coins so they can divide it easily.

Give Jar – this jar is meant to encourage them to be “cheerful givers” as the Bible commends. We want them to know that all of what we have and what we earn comes from the Lord, it is a privilege to give back to Him, and all we have is His anyway. We have seen that kids are great givers; both of our daughters had NO PROBLEM putting the required amount into this jar – they even put MORE than that! How rewarding to us as parents!

Save Jar – this jar is meant to encourage them be patient and delay gratification for a season. We want them to work for their wants and know that items cost money. It will be hard to save and save until they can get enough money for some of their wants as time goes on, but this is an important quality that we desire to build within our children.

Spend Jar – this jar is meant to encourage them to work hard and get rewarded for it; buying is fun! It is rewarding to go to a store and get something that you want. We want our children to make wise choices in what they spend, but to work hard without everything being handed to them.

Thank you, Dave, for all of the great ideas and encouragement to start our children early teaching them the basics of money and money management!

Pretty Lunches

2012-01-25T22:04:00.001-05:00

I have a hard time being creative when it comes to what to serve the kids for lunch… I usually am stuck in a rut, but the kids don’t seem to care. There are things that they LOVE and they don’t mind eating them over and over. Some things I think they would eat every day! They don’t seem to be bored, but to make the same things a little more exciting, I some times put the same food in different packaging.

So… last week, I made the same yogurt with fruit and granola, but I put it in GLASS mugs to make it look pretty. The girls loved my extra effort to make things look good and they ate every last spoonful.

PS I have been trying new things and new ways to present the old meals… Pinterest helps!

Zoo Review

2012-01-17T19:17:00.001-05:00

We have come to the point in our home school year that it is now time for a little review. We have been very diligent in the first half of the year in our studies, so we are taking a break for review and more fun! For the next two weeks we are going to review while studying a unit about the Zoo! Grace has been doing SO well in reading that she challenges herself to read sentences backwards! What a kid! She reads whole books and rarely asks for help. Hannah is more interested in learning letters and numbers, so I am going to capitalize on that immediately!

We started off the week on Monday with a fun game that the girls wanted to play over and over and over. I gathered many different Fisher Price animals that you would find in the zoo and made name cards for each one. I hid the animals around the room and put the cards in a basket. The girls took turns taking one of the cards out. After reading the card, they both searched for the animals around the room and put them with their card on the stairs. If they got a card with the word “zoo” then they had to lose a turn! BUMMER!

We have many special things planned for this unit. Today we learned about Zookeepers and the jobs they do for the animals at the zoo. If you would ask my precious girls about it, they would just talk about scooping up poopie. Yup… I hope other things sink in! We also reviewed a lot with numbers by having Hannah add animals to her cages to correspond to the number that I said while Grace finished number sentences with her animals’ help. She also created number families by using 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 animals to help her. For example, she made 0+5 1+4 2+3 3+2 4+1 5+0. It was fun! What will we do tomorrow?

Savor every bite…

2012-01-16T20:57:00.001-05:00

It has been a tradition just about every weekend for me to make homemade pizza for the family. Danny has been getting into it recently and making it himself with his special blend of herbs and spices (aka Italian seasoning). We love this meal especially when we have lots of veggies on the top! YUMMY! Until a few weeks ago, we only had chicken wings occasionally, but Danny has been anxious to use his new deep fryer (RIP WING MAKER from James and Bethany! You were so faithful and made such yummy wings, but you were getting harder and harder to clean!) Now our girls are really into wings… we have to make at least 2 for each of them. I pull the meat off of them for Hannah but Grace is now a Pro at eating them herself… and she gets as messy as her Daddy in the process!

Hannah stuffing her mouth with pizza while Josiah is playing with the crushed red pepper flakes

Still saving money

2012-01-16T11:56:00.001-05:00

Yes, I have made a resolution to save money again this year. I think once you have started saving, it will always be on your heart and mind. I want to save MORE than I did last year, so I am excited to hear what a PROFESSIONAL has to say about couponing at our next MOPS meeting. We have Katie Kitterman coming. She is from here in Iowa and is going to share her secrets to saving in our meeting. She gives seminars in our area.

One of the chief ways that I save money is buying meat in bulk. Fareway grocery store is the best place for me to find chicken. I am able to get 10 pound bags of chicken for 39-49 cents a pound (it is hindquarters – legs with thighs)WOW! Then I take it home and divide it up into dinner portions for our family. I am able to get about 4 dinners from a 10 pound bag. AWESOME! I usually get 4-6 bags when it goes on sale like this!

I also just got a HUGE pork tenderloin (about 21 inches long) from HyVee for $14 with a Hormel coupon. I took it home and divided it into 2 large pork roasts, and then several meals of THICK pork chops for our family! I was able to get over 6 meals for us for $14 (I know that we will have LO roast!)!

Just wanted to show you what I do…. Maybe it will inspire YOU!

Hannah learns to write H!

2012-01-16T11:43:00.001-05:00

Hannah has been much more hesitant than Grace to learn! It is so hard NOT to compare the two girls, especially since Grace is an OVER ACHIEVER and WAY BEYOND HER YEARS! Poor Hannah! She is a really smart cookie, but she doesn’t get much credit because of her sister’s talents. BUT we have made a break through. She wants to read like Grace and has now identified every initial letter from our names – M for Mommy, D for Daddy, G for Grace, H for Hannah, J for Josiah and N for Nanna! She knows a few others as well! She is so proud of herself and RUNS to show me the letters that she finds in books! I LOVE IT! What a smartie!

Last week, she was writing on a mirror down in the school room with her special window markers while Grace and I were working. She started writing Hs – “Down, down, across!” She kept repeating it over and over out loud as she wrote each stroke! Just ADORABLE! She is so proud of herself for being able to make Hs… the first letter in her name. Now she is marking everything with an H. I need to make doubly sure that she does NOT write on walls, books, etc. to mark them with her sign!

Here is the proof… can you see the pride in her smile?!

Swings

2012-01-11T21:34:00.005-05:00

We have had some unseasonably warm weather in the last two weeks, so the kids and I have been outside every chance we can! We love being outside, and as I am writing this the temperature has dropped and we are getting flurries! The wind is supposed to be around 40 MPH tonight... BRRRRR!! We are finally getting some winter.

While the warm lasted, we got outside and enjoyed the new swings that the girls got for Christmas! They are working great! Thank you, PopPop and MomMom.

A baby BOY is on the way!

2012-01-11T21:24:00.000-05:00

Of course Danny and I have been praying for a healthy baby growing inside of me. We have been name planning and trying to figure out who will sleep where when the baby comes. But deep down both of us were really hoping for another boy. Grace and Hannah are great friends (most of the time), so we were hoping that Josiah could have his own brother for a playmate. God has granted us our desire.

We went to the doctors as a family last Friday and ALL went in to see the ultrasound. The kids sat in chairs and ate fruit snacks while I laid on the table. Danny attended to them. They oohed at all of the pictures of the baby. They loved seeing the heart beat, the little arms, legs, head, belly, etc. They were so funny. Hannah was a little more concerned with the jelly stuff on my belly than anything else.

The technician asked us to close our eyes while she decided what the gender of the baby was. We gave her an envelop to put her decision in. When I was all finished, Hannah climbed up on the table just like me. The Tech was so nice... she did a little ultrasound of Hannah! She got to see her own kidneys! She LOVED the cool jelly on her tummy. What a brave little girl!

When we left the doctors, we went right to lunch where we opened the envelope to reveal that we were having a boy. I will not post the pictures that show the proof, but it is obvious! :)

We are already praying for this little life -- BY NAME -- and asking the Lord for him to be a man of God, one who loves the Word of God and desires to serve Him all of the days of his life. What a honor to raise another boy to make an eternal difference!

PS.. After we opened the envelop and cheered, I resumed eating only to be interrupted by Danny's comment: "But I really liked the girl's name we had picked, too!" Oh, Danny! I nearly choked on my food! :)

Favorites from Vacation

2012-01-10T14:32:00.001-05:00

I don’t have the pictures from the Lightner Christmas PA loaded onto our computer yet; I just got the CD of the pictures from Vicki this weekend. I will be loading them soon and then blogging about them, but I need to get some of these posts written for the scores of you who are just waiting by your computer and refreshing this blog every hour! HA!

On the Friday before Christmas we went to see our great friends Brett and Jamie and their son Judah. They are the type of friends that you see only once a year, but you pick up right where you left. We talked about family, ministry, friendships, our relationships with the Lord and more. It was great to see them. They also had my buddy Rachel and Tim, too! We are so happy for them and their relationship. They are really growing and we can’t wait to see what the Lord has for them! What a story of the Lord’s faithfulness!

The day after Christmas we loaded in the van really early – 6:30am – to drive to VA for the Chase Christmas. On the way we had plans to stop at Cracker Barrel to visit with Brad and Karen and their kids! I was so excited that I could hardly sleep and I was all jittery when I knew that we were getting close! We had an amazing time from the first hugs and tears to the goodbye hugs and tears. It was so special seeing them again and getting connected to friends that we truly care about like family. We had never met Jadon and they had never met Josiah so that was a special time. Our girls and Sadie chatted, sang, acted, and just had some great girl time…. it was like they had been friends forever. I think that they sensed the deep friendship of their moms and dad and just knew that each other were special! Danny and I felt even more blessed that they agreed to come because it was Sadie’s birthday and they planned their day around seeing us!! I am glad that we will not have to wait another 20 months to see them!! We will see them in September!

After we left the Illians – with hardly a dry eye – we still had about 3 hours to go to my aunt’s in Virginia! We didn’t have to stop for lunch or gas, and we knew the kids were tired from being up early. I was hoping for GREAT naps by the time we reached the mountains – AND THEY DID!

When we arrived we were greeted with lots of hugs and kisses. The kids dove into playing with the kids and loved being out of the car. Hannah was most looking forward to playing with Bella – my 2 year old cousin.

Here are some of the adventures while in VA…

Coloring on the HUGE cardboard castle and space shuttle that Grampa and Nanna bought for the kids:

Meeting Mr. Justin Waples… in person!

Seeing all of the kids play with each other and the grandparents and great-grandparents lovin’ on them!

Seeing my brothers and their families… my girls LOVED their Uncle Adam!!!

We even played a lot outside. Going for this walk in the woods was FUN!

Bowling…. the cheers throughout the alley made it obvious where the Chases were!

The Chase Gang… minus KK! We had a great time…

Christmas morning… a little early

2012-01-09T15:26:00.001-05:00

Nearly every year we are on the road for Christmas… so we celebrate as a family with our own traditions before we leave. This year we celebrated on the day the left – Tuesday morning. Danny had off from work to prepare for our trip so we knew this would be the perfect timing. We told the kids the night before that tomorrow would be the Lightners’ Christmas and even greeted each other with “Merry Christmas" in the morning! When Nanna called, we even said “Merry Christmas” to her!

Josiah was anxiously waiting for what we were going to do… and getting a little impatient!

The morning began with the girls singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and then singing their other “Happy Birthday, Jesus” song. Then Danny read the Christmas story from Luke 2 while the girls helped him recite it (the parts they had memorized) and acted out the story with the Nativity Scene (that was Hannah’s idea!).

Then we opened presents…once again we didn’t have a whole lot for each child, but they were THRILLED with our selections. Grace got a placemat, a special cup with a cool straw for our long trip, and a Crayola Crayon Maker. Hannah opened a placemat, a special cup, and a “Super Why” Game. Josiah got a placemat, a special cup and a shirt. Every year we try to focus on the Lord at Christmas…. truly it is about Him and not the gifts that we receive. How hard that is in our culture of get, get, get!! Our kids were truly happy with their gifts and use them ALL THE TIME… the cups and placemats everyday… and we have played with their toys and crayon maker a few times as well. We want them to remember each Christmas by what they learned about the Lord and not define it according to the gift they got…boy, I could go on and on!

Playing with the crayon maker later that morning….

Playing with the game later that morning…

A GREAT Christmas….we were together as a family….we celebrated our Lord…. and we loved on each other while in our PJs!

Serving with the Life Group

2012-01-05T20:08:00.001-05:00

We love our Life Group…. they have become like family to us since we have moved to the Midwest. We meet with them nearly every Saturday night as we eat together, share about our lives and then study Scripture. One of the cool things that we get to do together is serve. Our group went to the church on December 17 to help prepare the Fellowship Hall for our Christmas Reception.

Grace helped to make the napkins pretty by putting them in a pattern… she was a diligent worker! (We are working on character traits with the girls, and “diligent” is the one that we are working on right now. They love saying this big word, but we hope that they do more than just repeat it over and over: that they will live that quality in all they do as for the LORD!)

Some of the older kids, Camryn and Parker, put doilies and centerpieces on the tables while the adults decorated with tablecloths and other arrangements.

Tracy and Brian cut up the fruit – cantaloupes and pineapples.

Where were the little ones? Danny and Bart graciously volunteered to manage the toddlers and preschoolers in the gym. They set up one of the bouncy houses and got out balls and riding toys. We all joined in on the fun when the real work was completed! Great job, everyone!

A Zooey Christmas!

2012-01-05T19:31:00.001-05:00

Yup, I couldn’t help myself, but to write that as my title. We love having a zoo membership so when a fairly warm Saturday came and there were special activities at the zoo, we got all dressed up and headed to the zoo! It was a lot of fun! We forgot the stroller, but that was ok because Josiah LOVED walking on his own. The zoo was hardly full (because everyone was standing in a HUGE line for Santa!) so we didn’t mind Josiah walking around by himself.

One of the special things at the zoo was getting to take your picture with a reindeer and sit in a sleigh. We all loved watching the deer.

Exploring the exhibits….

There were also two fun stations to eat cookies and drink hot chocolate (or luke-warm chocolate) and then make a reindeer hat.

Once again our zoo membership came in handy… a fun Christmassy morning with the family with NO MONEY SPENT!!

My little helper

2012-01-05T16:40:00.001-05:00

I had been telling Danny for weeks that Josiah loves helping me with chores around the house. Right before Christmas, Danny was able to get this picture when he was home. Josiah loves helping me vacuum, empty the dishwasher, sweep, and put the clothes in the washer and dryer! What a little man!

Merry Christmas from the Lightners

2011-12-17T14:25:00.001-05:00

Christmas Tree Math

2011-12-17T10:52:00.001-05:00

We have been doing lots of review of phonics and math skills this week as we get ready for Christmas vacation. The girls have enjoyed less text book time and more hands on learning. On Wednesday and Thursday, I made paper Christmas trees and used buttons to decorate them. I gave Grace addition sentences. She used the buttons on the tree to figure out the answers. Hannah got number cards and had to add that number of buttons to her tree. Both of them had a lot of fun doing this learning, but we mixed it up a little when I gave them M&Ms instead of buttons! Now the real fun began! As they got problems right, they were able to eat their M&Ms!!! Math truly IS fun!

Crazy Sock Night

2011-12-16T23:28:00.001-05:00

It was crazy sock night at AWANA on Wednesday. The girls wore my socks ALL DAY in preparation for the event in the evening. Grace LOVED having socks that didn’t match and Hannah loved doing what Grace was doing. It was hard fitting their feet into their shoes with these huge, puffy socks, but we managed and it was fun to see them SO excited!

“Show me your crazy socks, girls!”

Run as fast as you can….

2011-12-16T23:24:00.001-05:00

The girls had a GREAT time at a Gingerbread Man Birthday party last weekend! Cadence is turning 3 on Christmas so we went to her party as they celebrated early. Here are the pictures of the HUGE, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS gingerbread men that the girls got to decorate with CANDY! YUMMY! We had to get pictures before they could eat them… it is really hard eating a friend!

Christmas Wreaths

2011-12-16T23:22:00.001-05:00

One of our tasks on the Advent Calendar this week was to make Christmas wreaths! The girls did a great job – they had to use a paper plate, glue, and some shapes that I cut out of paper. They LOVED gluing and made a HUGE mess, but we had a great time. Hannah added more berries and Grace added more leaves…

Josiah had fun too!

Can you tell from Hannah’s hair that it was a CRAZY day?

Boys and girls are different

2011-12-06T15:16:00.000-05:00

We heard this phrase over and over and over and over again while I was pregnant with Josiah and then again when he was just a few months old. We brushed it off because, well, we have Hannah and she can be very much like a boy at times -- rowdy, feisty, inquisitive, loud, boisterous, rough.

Well, we are starting to see one of the major differences between our girls and our boy... VERBAL SKILLS. Josiah is all rough and physical and mechanical while the girls are VERY VERBAL! We talk to Siah all the time and read to him, but mostly he likes to grunt and make noises. Here is a little taste of what he can do. Not to the level of the girls, but he is DEFINITELY making improvements. We love him and love studying the difference in all of the kids... how did such different kids come from the same mommy and daddy?

Magnify verses...by HANNAH!

2011-12-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here she is...our very own HANNAH JOY!!!!

Advent Calendar… Day Two

2011-12-02T14:50:00.001-05:00

We started our Advent Calendar yesterday. Grace and Hannah came up with a deal: Hannah can open each door and take out the paper, if Grace can read each one. That sounded good to each one, so that is what they have been doing. Hannah loves to open each door and grab the paper that is inside – to her it is a new present each today. Grace loves to read the assignment for each day – she LOVES the power that it holds! :)

Here is what our calendar looks like:

Yesterday we had to get ready for the MAGNIFY! Christmas Event that Grace and I attended in the evening. Hannah was sad that she couldn’t go, but she may be able to next year. BTW… Hannah knows just about ALL of the verses that Grace recited last night. I will try to remember to take a video of her today so I can post that… HYSTERICAL.. WHAT A WOMAN!

Today we made Popcorn Garland for our tree as the activity. It was nice to have Danny home to pop the popcorn (he is an expert thanks to my mom!) and take the pictures of the event! He made a bowl to string and a bowl to eat.. yup, we were planning on lots of eating during this activity! You can’t help but string one and then eat one.

This is serious business… can’t you tell?

The REAL work begins!

Hanging up our Handiwork

Me and my Hannah.. she is SO precious!

Admiring our work

MAGNIFY!!

2011-12-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

Grace and I went to MAGNIFY last night (our Christmas Party for the women at church-- about 175 were there!)... here is a picture and the video. We had a great time and she did a fantastic job saying her 10 verses from Luke 2 (she skipped one, though). What a great little girl.. hard to believe that she is only 4!!

Borrowing shoes?

2011-12-01T12:59:00.001-05:00

We didn’t have anything pressing on Saturday, we weren’t about to go shopping, but we wanted to get out of the house! So… we piled the kids in the van and went BOWLING! Yes, we borrowed bowling shoes, got balls for the girls and even the ramp and went to town. Hannah was a little surprised by borrowing shoes and then giving them back, but she liked the whole thing! She had never been bowling before and she did great!

I’m number one!!

The ugly shoes – do they make them ugly so you will want to return them?

Waiting and watching…

Lovin’ it! She caught on really quickly and DIDN’T WANT HELP!

I want to play, too!

Final scores…yup, Grace got a STRIKE!!!! YAHOO!!

With the kids..

With Grace – the other kids would cooperate any longer….

Discovering KETCHUP!!

2011-11-30T17:08:00.001-05:00

Corn Chowder and bread bowls

2011-11-29T10:52:00.001-05:00

I have had several people ask about my recipes for chowder and bread bowls so here it is!

Corn Chowder – a Karen Illian Classic (thanks, friend)

1 large bag of frozen corn

6 slices of bacon

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup cubed potatoes (I use MORE)

1 cup water

2 cups of milk (divided)

1 t sugar (or more!)

1/2 t thyme

salt and pepper

1 T cornstarch

Cook the bacon in a dutch oven until it is crisp. Remove and set aside. Crumble.

Cook onion in bacon drippings until they are tender. Stir in corn, potatoes and water and bring this to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Stir in 1 1/2 cups of milk, the sugar, thyme and salt and pepper.

Combine and cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk and add to the soup to thicken. Cook uncovered 15 minutes until it is thick and bubbly! ENJOY! Makes 6 cups (or more if you add more potatoes).

Bread bowls

2 packages of dry yeast

2 1/2 cups of warm water (110*)

2 t salt

2 T vegetable oil

7 cups flour

1 egg white

1 T water

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in the warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes until it is creamy. Add salt, oil, and 4 cups of the flour and beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time (an electric mixer is recommended).

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic. Place in a bowl and coat the dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let it rise until it has doubled – about 40 minutes.

Punch dough down and divide into 8 equal portions – for 8 bowls. Shape them into round loaves. Place onto a lightly dusted and greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise again until doubled – about 35 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400* and brush the top of the risen loaves with an egg and water mixture. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes; check them and then bake for an additional 5-15 minutes depending on the doneness you desire and the crustiness (is crustiness a word?) you want.

To make the bowls, simply cut off the tops of the bread – just a thin slice – and then scoop out the centers. Leave 3/4 inch of bread in the shells. Fill the bowl with soup and use the bread you scooped and the top of the bowl as “dunkers”. ENJOY!

I like to make more than I need so I can freeze some for next time. They freeze well,and I don’t’ have to go through making the recipe all over again! :)

Helping Daddy and actually HELPING

2011-11-26T10:47:00.001-05:00

Josiah has been getting into one of our cabinets that has cereal and crackers in it. He knows how to open it and helps himself to Lucky Charms, Cherrios or Animal Crackers! I will often catch him red-handed with his sweaty palms deep into a box of Cherrios with a HUGE grin on his face! What a kid!

SO… I have been begging Danny to put locks on those cabinets, and he finally got around to it. Josiah helped him… I don’t think he knew that he was locking up the very cabinets that he LOVED opening, but he was helpful. He held Danny’s drill and watched intently. He gave Danny the tools he need when he needed them and he didn’t even eat any parts!

There IS more to my life…

2011-11-26T10:39:00.001-05:00

Some of you may think that my life is CONSUMED with my children – since 99% of my posts are about them! I DO love them, but there IS more to my life – cooking, cleaning, crafting, picture taking, serving at church, couponing, MOPS, etc!

Danny and I love eating soup on cold days and we LOVE eating bread bowls, too! We have a great recipe that makes yummy bowls, so I made them this week with chicken corn chowder inside… what a delicious dinner!!! I even made a few extra so we could freeze them for next time! Can’t wait!

Don’t drool all over my pictures, please!

Cutie in 5T

2011-11-20T19:21:00.001-05:00

Grace LOVES the fact that she is now in 5T clothing! She comes down in the morning after she has changed and asks her daddy, “What size do you think this shirt is? Do you think this is 4T?” She proudly announces that she is wearing ALL 5T clothes! She just loves it! Many of her 4T things do not fit any more, so Nanna graciously sent some ADORABLE things in Grace’s new size! (She “needed” some new things for church!) We got many things from Yard Sales this summer, but there were a few holes to fill!

So.. Nanna… Here she is!

A Season of Change

2011-11-20T19:17:00.001-05:00

We took a break from our traditional schooling to learn about the seasons and review all of the things that we have been learning at school. Grace has done an amazing job and LOVES to “do school”; she often BEGS to do more work when we have finished what I have planned for each day. She is a teacher’s dream!

We started off learning about how the seasons change and why they change and then reviewed fall. Grace wrote vocabulary words for each season, made a special craft for each season, decorated a bare tree for each season, read books for each season, and had several math, writing and phonics activities for each season to reinforce what we have been learning.

Here is the whole season display on our wall in the school room (the basement)!

This is just one of the many units that we will do this year! Our creative little Gracie LOVES all of this activity while learning…and so does her mommy. Keep checking back for the next mini unit on Thanksgiving!

Freezer Cooking

2011-11-17T12:05:00.000-05:00

I am just fascinated with Freezer Cooking. I really want to get started HARD CORE, but I will have to wait until after the holidays. Here is a great E Book that explains all about it. It is from a blog that I follow... Money Saving Mom. I have learned a lot about her budgeting techniques, stories, and helpful coupon ideas. You really should follow her too.Money Saving Mom

You can buy it online as well:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451646208/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=monsavmom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1451646208

Like father… like son…

2011-11-15T18:09:00.001-05:00

When Danny was a little boy, he loved to pretend to be Superman. There are even pictures of him pretending to fly on top of their motor home! He has always loved Superman and has sported a Superman tee shirt ever since I met him.

Here is his little boy… posing as Superman…. I didn’t teach him the moves… they must be in his genes.

Operation Christmas Child

2011-11-15T12:27:00.001-05:00

Every year since I the years when I was teaching, we have been involved in Operation Christmas Child. It is one of those ministries that really touches my heart… KIDS!! I can’t imagine living in the places that some of these kids do, in the conditions that they do, with the few items that they have, with hardly any food, with a small cup of water for a full day, It brings tears to my eyes. I am a spoiled mommy with so many things to offer my kids, don’t want to think about what if I had to choose who would eat what in a certain day… who gets a full piece of bread and who gets to share… who gets clean water and who doesn’t.

Through OCC we are trying to teach our children about the luxuries that we have and the needs that others have. The need is great and we are SO BLESSED here in the states. We even have a choice of what to have to dinner, which toys to play with, which clothes to wear, and what drink to have. WE ARE SPOILED! We have SO MUCH TO GIVE!!!

Here is the family putting the box together… it was fun shopping for it at the Dollar Tree and then packing it with love and prayer. Our church’s collection day was Sunday, and we had over 630 boxes just on Sunday, but there were many that still needed to be collected. Our goal was 700!

Josiah wasn’t a big help, but he is cute!

Walking Boy

2011-11-09T22:24:00.000-05:00

Here is Josiah walking 2 weeks ago....

He has made a lot of progress.... here he is tonight!

Snowy morning in Iowa

2011-11-09T14:12:00.001-05:00

We woke up to a snowy morning here in Iowa! It has been great weather for weeks and weeks, but it looks like a little taste of winter is upon us!

The first thing that we said to the girls was… “Go look outside at the snow!” They were so excited. Danny went to shovel the driveway while the kids and I ate a quick egg breakfast so we could have full bellies to go out in the snow! Josiah really didn’t go out in it last year, so we had to be sure he was in the snow playing this time. I am not sure what the girls were most excited about – playing in the snow or getting the hot chocolate when they were done! :)

Terribly excited sisters!

What are they doing, mommy? I want to go too!

Yup… he likes it, but don’t try to put his mittens on!

Snow angel…

Eating snow… at least it is fresh and not yellow!

Warming up with hot chocolate by the fire!

A lazy afternoon in the Toy Room

2011-11-09T12:51:00.001-05:00

We had a rainy day yesterday… the kind that you have to stay inside… the kind that you want to stay in your PJs all day… the kind where soup and Aunty Rachelle bread sounds amazing… the kind where a long nap is the perfect thing to do even though the house is a mess and there are emails to answer! Well, I wish it was like that at our house. It wasn’t. We had MOPS so I was out of the house at 7:30 with all of the kiddos and we were back for lunch. We had a great time, but I was ready to be home in the warm house!

Here is how we spent the afternoon until Danny got home!

Giving up TV?

2011-11-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

Hope you enjoy this article written by DANNY for our church's blog. I know he won't mind you reading it too!

Giving up Television?

Every time our cable TV contract is about ready to expire, and the choice must be made to re-up our contract or not, there is always debate in our home. Not verbal debate, but mental debate. I begin to wonder: “Is this worth the money? We have 117 channels, but we really only watch 10 of them consistently. There is so much trash on TV, I should really get rid of it. But there is also so much I learn and enjoy from TV as well! What do I do?” And then I do what I have always done—bite the bullet and sign-on to another year of TV so I can debate it again next year.

There’s been somewhat of a stirring in my Life Group recently concerning this topic, mostly amongst the men actually, which might surprise you. One family decided several months ago to put their TV in a box in the basement, and recently the husband/father told me, “We’ve had really great family times since we’ve made that decision.” While I respected that family greatly for that decision, and VERY BREIFLY considered trying it in our family too, I had all these conflicting voices in my head:

“What would you do without ‘Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives’?”

“And what about all those On-Demand shows that your kids like to watch. Could your kids really survive without Curious George?”

And the loudest voice in my head was asking, “What about all those sports programs that you like to watch--could you really do without sports? Monday Night Football is only on ESPN Bub, and you can’t get that with rabbit ears.”

But then I had another conversation with a different husband/father in our Life Group. He came to Life Group one night all stoked that he was getting Direct TV, and was going to be able to watch any NFL game he wanted during the season. After I stopped drooling into my nachos, I tried to muster up as much happiness as I could for him without the envy showing. But then we had lunch together a few days later, and he said something that almost made me choke on my burrito while sitting outside of Chipotle: “I’m having second thoughts about this whole Direct TV thing.” His reasons centered around not wanting to be the “invisible dad” in his home, physically present, but not really there for his wife and kids. He had a couple days to decide until the installer was scheduled to come to his house, and I found out a couple weeks later that he decided AGAINST Direct TV, and he doesn’t have any cable either. And this is a guy who LOVES football, and now he can’t watch his beloved team on a regular basis.

“What would cause a guy to do that?”, was my first reaction. But now, surprisingly, I’m starting to catch the same “say no to TV” bug that my other brothers in Christ are catching. I don’t know all the reasons why my friends packed up their TV’s, but I’d like to share a quick synopsis of the reasons I AM seriously considering NOT renewing my Mediacom subscription when it runs out in a few months:

1. 1. I know that TV is a source of corrupting influence for MY OWN spiritual life. While there ARE some good, wholesome programs that are edifying, when I am honest with myself, I know those programs are few and the vast majority of shows (even previews!) cause my mind to go places I know it should not go. To a degree, TV has desensitized me to sin and pain while filling my mind with unreality (which is very ironic considering the number of “reality” TV shows that exist today).

2. 2. TV is a source of corrupting influence for MY FAMILY MEMBERS’ spiritual lives as well. I am learning, through God’s Word and Men’s Fraternity, that as the leader of our household, God has entrusted me with the responsibility to display righteous energy and fight for my family’s souls. I am the gatekeeper of what my family learns, and it is my job to shape the worldview of my children. I can’t afford to let TV shape the worldview of my children, because THAT worldview is ANYTHING BUT BIBLICAL.

3. Watching TV is not the best use of the time God has given me. EVEN IF everything on TV was wholesome, watching it would still be a waste of time. There are so many people in this world who could tell you everything that is going on in the life of the most popular celebrity, but they don’t have a clue about their own life—i.e., they have no idea how much money is in their own bank account. If I spend all day away from my family while I’m at work, and then I spend several hours in the evening in front of the tube, I am wasting away that precious little time I have to instill the Kingdom of God into my kids.

I know most of you who read this will probably have 1,000 reasons why you shouldn’t pack up your TV either, just like I did initially. And I still have all those reasons in my head, by the way, as they certainly haven’t disappeared—the battle between the flesh and spirit rages inside of me just like anyone. But right now, God has brought me to the place where the 3 reasons stated above have taken precedence over Guy Fierri, Curious George, and the Dallas Cowboys. Will my resolve to give up TV be as strong tomorrow as it is today? I hope not. I pray it will be stronger, because I desperately need to feed the life I’m trying to live, and starve the life I’m trying to leave.

Costumes!

2011-10-31T09:57:00.001-04:00

Here are our kids – our Dalmatian, our Monkey and our little Lamb!

Carrying on the Tradition

2011-10-24T11:58:00.001-04:00

We have gone to the apple orchard every year since Grace was born, but for some reason, we haven’t made it to the orchard until this weekend! AND I AM SO GLAD WE DID! We were a little afraid that we wouldn’t find apples, but we did. We had to go to the very back of the orchard, but there were some beautiful Honey Crisp Apples within reach for all of the kids. We had a blast in the GORGEOUS weather and with each other!

We found some Roly-Poly Caterpillars while we were walking to the orchard. The girls carried them for a while, but here they are saying good bye to their friends!

Picking apples for the first time….

Here is the one that Grace took of us….

Here is the one that Hannah took of us…

Yup… they LOVE the tractors! Part of Iowa IS rubbing off on them!

Turn DOWN the volume

2011-10-23T19:56:00.001-04:00

When Danny had Grace out on a date on Friday night, I put both of the little kids in the tub. I didn't know that they were going to have a FABULOUS time together! They were laughing and copying each other. PLEASE TURN THE VOLUME DOWN... THEY WERE SOOOO LOUD!!!!

Great times with the kids getting along!

My new desktop background..

2011-10-23T19:40:00.001-04:00

Oh, SO GOOD!

2011-10-19T17:28:00.001-04:00

It was as good as it looked to little Josiah, who had been eying the cupcakes ALL AFTERNOON! He somehow knew that they were for him and his special day. He kept pointing to them and grunting. I know he was saying… “How do I get that yummy goodness in me? Mom, how much longer are you going to make me wait? It IS my birthday!” He FINALLY got the chance after dinner when we gave him his own cupcake. He squealed and giggled and dove right it! He was so cute to watch… gentle at first and then he tore into it like a ravenous beast!

Crazy boy in the tub!

2011-10-13T10:01:00.000-04:00

Josiah was just so funny in the tub last night that I HAD to get a video... you understand, right? So, I will have to apologize for the naked baby... he is just too cute and funny!

Eating Birthday Cupcakes

2011-10-13T09:49:00.000-04:00

(Sorry that this is a little long... the grandparents will LOVE it, though!)

Through the Year

2011-10-13T09:46:00.001-04:00

Josiah at 1 month (November 2010)

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

2011-10-11T07:50:00.001-04:00

My baby is one! I hardly can believe that it has been a year! We are so blessed to have Josiah James in our lives. As I rehearse the day of his birth in my mind, I can see the hand of the Lord in all of the details. We are honored that He trusted us to have Josiah and are thankful for all of the lessons that we have learned through him. These first days seem so long ago! (more pictures coming soon!)

At Cownie Park

2011-10-08T20:59:00.001-04:00

We just love going to parks to play and Des Moines has a PLETHORA of them to choose from… there are a ton that are really close to us and some we haven’t even checked out! Here are pictures from our latest trip of fun!

In case you were wondering….

2011-10-07T15:52:00.002-04:00

My girls have NOT converted to Barbie world… They are still in love with dinosaurs and all things that have wheels. They are NOT girly girls even though they went to that Princess Party. Here is the scene from our Kitchen this week! I guess I have more mouths to feed than I thought!

Leaf Walk

2011-10-07T15:50:00.001-04:00

The kids and I have been enjoying the GORGEOUS weather out lately. It is cool in the morning and at night but in the afternoon it has been warming up to in the 80s! It is just weird! But we LOVE it. We get outside every chance we get because soon it will be TOO COLD!

Last week we went on a Leaf Walk. The goal was to collect lots of pretty leaves of all shapes and sizes. Since we just found the really cool path that leads from our street to Easter Lake, we are able to really walk in the woods and collect some neat things! The girls loved getting all kinds and shapes of leaves. We found many different colors – red, yellow, green. Hannah had to get EVERY leaf that she saw… I quickly put a stop to that. It had been 5 minutes and we were barely out of the driveway! It got a lot better and we quickly were at the lake for some fun by the water.

Josiah is all ready to go!

Hannah really wanted to swim… doesn’t that sound like her! :)

Learning Time

2011-10-07T15:42:00.001-04:00

I am AMAZED at all the things that Grace is learning! She is one of those students who LOVES to learn and is just like a sponge – soaking everything in. You don’t need to tell her two times…. she gets it on the first try! She is a teacher’s dream! I LOVE IT!! It is a lot of fun!

Today I cut out some leaves, and she and I wrote words on them – words that she can sound out. Once we had a great big pile, she read each one and stuck it to the wall (on the pathetic tree) with sticky tack. When we were done, she posed for some adorable shots!!

Princess Party

2011-09-29T12:49:00.001-04:00

I know you are shocked that I would let my kiddos attend a Princess Party and that I would go with them! BUT I DID!! We had a great time. Friends of ours gave us tickets to attend and when she heard that my mom was here she gave me an extra ticket so all of the girls could go! HOW FUN! It was great just having the time together.

We ate a yummy breakfast provided by Panera… (I had a yummy pastry with chocolate inside!)

Then we explored the crafts – coloring on a cardboard house (this is the ONLY time they may color on the walls!)

Making picture frames in the shape of crowns

Decorating princess hats….

Oh, Hannah!

Hannah, what ARE you doing? It looks painful!

They even got their nails painted!

SISTERS ARE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!

Dancing on the Dance Floor before we left… boy, do they have some cool moves!

Leaving the Party with Nanna… we were tired from all of that fun!

By the way, we did see princesses there as well, but we didn’t stand in line for 30 minutes to get pictures with them. We also had tickets to get their hair curled, but we didn’t stand in that line either… it was taking 45+ minutes! We had plenty of fun with the things that we did do… we didn’t need those other things. Thank you, Rebecca for giving us tickets!!!!!!!!

Watch out!!!!!

2011-09-29T12:28:00.001-04:00

PopPop and MomMom got Gracie some roller skates, but we have been hesitant to have her try them. Danny was the brave one who had the time to do it with just her and suit her up with all of the pads and her helmet. She was a true champ and LOVED the whole thing! WATCH OUT, though! She isn’t too good at steering, yet!

Grace – ready for the adventure….

She felt like Wonder Red on Super Why….

Oops! There were a few little slips…we are thankful that she had knee and elbow pads. She told us that she felt like Franklin in the book where he learns to ride a bike with no training wheels. What a girl!

Pumpkin Patch time

2011-09-28T21:32:00.001-04:00

While mom was here we had a blast at Howell’s Pumpkin Patch. It was the day before the kids were supposed to start coming for field trips, so we were blessed with so much of the place to ourselves! YEAH! Here are the highlights of our day:

Looking at the animals

Our Nanna Banana

On the horse swing…. daddy pushed them WAY higher than I was comfortable with!

My Pumpkin Girls

Having fun in the wet wheelbarrow with daddy

They had a really fun corn pit with billions of hard kernels of corn. The kids loved playing in it – so did Danny and I…

These Iowa kids like tractors!

The HUGE tunnel slide was fun too!

Climbing with Daddy on the Hay Bales… Danny being Danny

What a crazy bunch!

In the corn maze… looking at the maize!

On the wagon ride back to the van….

Silly Kids!!!

Prayers for my children

2011-09-28T21:14:00.001-04:00

I was inspired by a post that I read a few weeks ago to come up with a few verses that I could pray over my children each day. I didn’t write down exactly the same verses that she did, but I did take the whole concept to heart. I NEED to be praying more for my kids and certain activities throughout the day can trigger me to remember to pray for specific areas for them.

At Meal Times or Snacks:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.” Psalm 34:8

Lord, please help them to taste and see that YOU are good.. You are the one that they need in life. Develop a hunger in them for YOU that they will not chase idols but the real YOU!

As they get up in the morning and get dressed:

“Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:10-11

Lord, please help them get suited up in their armor so they can fight off the enemy. I know that he is real, but You are more powerful. Give my kids victory over Satan with Your help, Lord.

As we go for a daily walk:

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and on his Law he meditates day and night.”

Psalm 1:1-2

Lord, I pray that my children will walk with YOU and not with friends who are going to pull them into sin. Help them to choose friends wisely and always stand up for You when they have to make decisions. May Your Word come to mind so they are not easily taken to a path of sin.

As we say “I love you” before bed:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 10:30

Lord, I pray that they will love you more than any thing and any one. I desire them to love You more than anything. May their love for You grow and develop so their hearts, souls, minds, and strength are transformed.

As we play together:

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

Lord, please help them to imitate you more and more. They love to copy me, but in reality I want them to copy You. I will fail them and not be the perfect model, but You never fail.

May these verses and prayers draw them to You, dear Lord. My prayer is that Hannah and Josiah will ask You to be their Savior just as Grace has so that ALL THREE will live for You and make a Kingdom impact! AMEN!

And now there are FOUR!

2011-09-22T14:51:00.001-04:00

Four what, you may ask…children?? Four people that Josiah will let hold him! YEAH! We are making progress. As I have told you before, Josiah is not the most friendly and happy little man. He is a momma’s boy and has cried a LARGE portion of his little life. BUT we now have another person that Josiah genuinely likes… NANNA! Are you surprised? I’m not. Who doesn’t like my mom? I don’t think she has a mean bone in her body and everyone just genuinely loves getting hugs from her…. she is the main greeter for all of her church!

I think he could just sense that it was his Nanna – the one who has prayed and prayed for him, the one who held him in the middle of the night when he was days old, the one who longs to snuggle with him even when he is fussy and uncooperative, the one who spoils him like crazy…. NANNA! He came to her when he was fussy, he snuggled with her when he was tired, he played with her in the toy room, and he rode on her lap during the tractor ride. Yes, it seems like they were long time friends. He loves her! I am SO GLAD!!! She MUST be someone special to be on Siah’s list!

Here is the proof:

Oh… by the way… SHE LOVED IT!!!!!

Beyond Surprised!

2011-09-21T16:20:00.001-04:00

I have been so busy lately – the MOPS starting, school starting for Grace, the beginning of AWANA, Danny preaching and having evening meetings, the beginning of Life Group, etc! We just have been going and going, and I have been using every minute of naptime to do things for MOPS. It has been too crazy for my liking. Last Monday – the day before MOPS – I was totally overwhelmed and frustrated so I called mom to pray for me. She had great words of wisdom for me…little did I know that she would be on a plane in less than 12 hours to encourage me IN PERSON!! Danny went to the airport during our morning MOPS session and delivered her to me at the end of the meeting! I WAS SHOCKED… beyond surprised… I immediately SOBBED!

She is such an encouragement to me… she loves my children, prays for them and me and Danny, knows what needs to be done around the house and does it willingly, reads 100 books to each of the kids (including the same ones over and over if they want it), spoils them with their favorite things (TV, candy, treats, crafts, etc) and gives me wise words when I need them the most. I LOVE our times together…laughing, crying, planning, remembering the past and envisioning the future!

Our week went quickly…there was so much to do and I didn’t have time to have it all planned out. There were things that we just HAD to do because I wasn’t planning on having her there. BUT… we managed to make it to the Science Center….

BUBBLE TIME!!!

Josiah found a way to get up to the bubble stands…. He got wet so we had to remove his sweatshirt… he was back at it in no time! :)

Nanna helping Hannah with all of the food…

Our favorite part… it was so funny that I didn’t’ stop to take many pictures! We just got too creative!

11 months old

2011-09-21T13:53:00.001-04:00

Josiah was not into getting his picture taken for some great 11 month pictures, but they are a great way to see him in action! He is not walking yet, but he must soon… he is cruising everywhere and taking a few steps here and there on his own!

The count down is on…his birthday is right around the corner!!!!! Oh, BOY!

AWANA

2011-09-21T11:45:00.001-04:00

Grace has started another AWANA year! She is thrilled to be back in the swing of things with Cubbies. She is now in the four year old class which means that she has to memorize verses AND the references! She is a champ and memorizes things much more easily than her mother – she must be like her daddy! She always wants to do the review section as well as her regular new verses…. we practice everyday at school time so she is really ready to go. It was really fun this week to show her where the verses are in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 was really easy to find and she can do it by herself – even with the many pages of study guides in my Bible.

Hannah has started the two year old program called Puggles. She has been doing a great job. She enjoys going to be with her friends, hearing Bible stories and singing the Puggles Song. I downloaded it from the internet so we can sing it at home to! She doesn’t know many of the words yet, except for the part that she yells “PUGGLES!!!!!!” She knows that part really well… you know when she is singing it no matter where she is in the house.

What can be better than having your children learn God’s Word and hide it in their hearts? One of my goals for my kids this year is to give them reasons FROM SCRIPTURE for why we do things. We back up their disobedience with verses to match the “crime”. I am trying to let them see that they need to obey mommy and daddy, but in reality it is MUCH bigger than that…. they MUST OBEY GOD! HE IS THE ONE WITH THE ULTIMATE RULES!! Don’t we ALL struggle with obeying HIM? I don’t want them to obey me just because it is the right thing to do or they fear the discipline, I want them to obey because they love God and want to please Him. I want their hearts to be molded after His… that is quite a job! Filling their hearts and minds with Scripture and bathing them in prayer are two vital ingredients in this!

On the first night of AWANA!

Hannah got her Puggles shirt last week…. (pictures from Daddy’s phone!)