Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  I hope you have enjoyed the entire Christmas season.  My girls have watched "The Nativity Story" many times already.  It is fabulous.  I love the part at the end when the shepherds come to see the baby.  The old shepherd puts his hand out to touch Jesus and then pulls it back.  Mary looks at him and as she is lifting Jesus toward him says, "He is for ALL people."  The shepherd touches Jesus.

Oh if those that I know who are hurting this year would just put their hand out and touch Jesus.  He is for ALL people.  No matter what our sins are, no matter where we live, no matter what our past contains, no matter what our current problems are....Jesus is for us ALL.  He came into this world as a helpless baby.  He was fully man and fully God.  When the time was right He willingly went to the cross for my sins and yours.  We deserve the cross.  The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to God.  There is nothing righteous about us.  But God's love is greater than our unrighteousness.  He made a way for us to be righteous.  We have to accept that Jesus took our sins upon Himself on the cross.  We have to believe that His blood paid the price for our sins.  We have to believe that He died, rose again on the third day, and is sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  Jesus will return again to get His bride, those who have accepted Him as their Savior.   I look forward to that day...to see my Lord and Savior face to face.  

I pray that you are looking forward to that day as well.  All of the above is what Christmas is all about!

Lulu is 9

Where does time go?  It just seems like she should still be that curly-headed two year old....

Lulu is turning 9 today.  Happy birthday Sweetie!  I love you very much.  The Lord blessed me when he chose me to be your mom.  I cannot think of a better Christmas present here on earth.  There were some scary moments when you were born.  But God gave Daddy and I peace.  We knew you were going to be okay.  And look at you now!

Lulu had her birthday party a couple of weeks ago with her friends.  She had a winter theme.  The girls had a great time.  So today is just the five of us.

Fun Times

We have had a lot of fun the last month.  First up was our Family Fun Night at our church last month.  We had a chili/pie baking contest.  The kids can dress up if the want to.  Of course....most kids want to!  Lulu made two chocolate sundae pies.  They were yummy, yummy.  She won a prize they were so good!  It was a great evening of fellowshipping with our church family.

Lulu went as Princess Leonore from the Medieval Dinner Show.

Monkey went as Padmae when she married Annikan.

Lil went as SuperGirl!

Three very beautiful little girls if I do say so!!!

Next up on our fun list was a night out bowling.  We had never taken all three girls bowling before.  This was Lil's first time ever.  They all had so much fun.  Their Papaw is a big bowler and James used to be as well.  So needless to say they liked it.  They told their Papaw last weekend when James and I were away for the evening that they wanted to go bowling with him.

Last week we had our annual Thanksgiving Feast Day at co-op.  We love our co-op.  God has blessed our group with a terrific leader and with wonderful Christian families.  It is a strength to me to know that I have women at my fingertips that I can go to with questions and for support.  Anyway back to Feast Day... this year's theme was prairie days.  Since my girls love all things Little House on the Prairie this was perfect for them.  I managed to come up with dresses, aprons, and bonnets for all three.  (Not the best aprons and bonnets, but I tried)  We have several stations set up for the kids to travel to and learn about different aspects of living during that time period. 

Lil was practicing a leaf rubbing.  They also did potato prints.

At this station the kids learned about living without electricity and all the luxuries we live with today.  They listened to a story.  How sweet that Lil is in Lulu's lap!

Here is Monkey at my station.  We talked about how hard it was to get food.  The kids got to crack corn, grind applesauce, and crack nuts.  Thanks to James, some of the boys even got to try their had at using flint and steel.

I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving.  I know that I will.  I am already extremely blessed. 

Couple's Retreat....Well One Couple Anyway

Friday night was a couple's retreat for our church.  Well, it was supposed to be anyway.  We had plans to go to Natural Bridge State Park and spend the night in the lodge fellowshiping with other couples.  Due to various circumstances the other couples could not attend. 

James and I have not been for a night away since Lulu was born.  That's nine years in case you were wondering.  The only time we have spent the night away from home without the girls is when I was in the hospital giving birth to the next one.  So we were  not about to cancel our plans.  The girls were spending the night at Papaw and Nana's house, going out for pizza, and bowling.  So we could not have told them plans changed either.  They were very excited about their night away as well.

So off we went.  As soon as we left our van started sputtering.  It has been doing this for awhile now.  But this time it was much worse.  We kept driving and contemplating turning around.  James pulled over and looked at it.  Once we started driving again it had quit.  So away we went. 

We had a great time just the two of us.  Yesterday morning we went hiking.  I was very surprised at how many other people were out hiking in the snow too.  We found Grey's Arch.  We had looked for this arch three times.  When all the leaves are on the trees it is hidden unless you know where it is. 

Happy Birthday Monkey

Monkey is 7 today!  My babies keep growing and growing.  Her birthday starts the two month spread of all five of our birthdays.

She was excited because she got the day off school.  We ran errands and went to the dentist.  Two fillings is probably not the best birthday present she ever received !  She is used to them unfortunately.  Monkey chose chicken pot pie for her birthday meal.  Her daddy brought her home a little cake for us to enjoy after dinner.  She is having her party tomorrow night with all her friends.  I will update about the party with pictures sometime this weekend. 

Happy birthday sweet girl!  I love you!!!

Time Passes So Quickly

Life sure gets in the way sometimes, doesn't it?  I have so many things I want to share but can never seem to find the time to post.  I have also wanted to change the style of my blog around for awhile now.  I am not sure if I like this new design yet.  I will leave it up for a few days and see how if it has grown on me at all.  There are more changes I want to make.

Anyway...on to the updates.  School is going really well for us this year.  I am seeing big results this year.  Monkey has busted forth with her reading abilities.  She took a reading assessment test this week and scored a reading level in the 9th month of 4th grade.  I am so proud of her!  Monkey is in 2nd grade at home, but she is only 6!!!  I have not given Lulu a reading assessment for a long time.  I will try to do one with her next week and she where she scores. 

Both girls are doing really well in math this year too.  Lulu is sailing through multiplication.  She began division this week along with a more in-depth look at fractions.  She finally likes math.  RightStart Mathematics is a great program. 

Lil can recognize A and M.  We are learning E this week.  She knows 1, 2, 3, and 4.  School is a lot easier with her this year.  And I am happy to be able to say that she is not spending her time watching movies.  She is either working on something in the schoolroom or playing with her toys in her room.  I have seen so much growth, dare I say maturity, in her over the past few months. 

I have lots of pictures to post soon.  I had planned on doing that tonight, but my computer will not recognize my SD card at the moment.

We Won!!!

I'm so excited right now!   And so are my girls!!!!

Last month I entered them in a drawing for a FREE American Girl Doll.  They have really gotten into American Girl in the past few months.  Lulu got the Julie series for Christmas from Poppy and Georgia last year.  She is reading through them now.  So her favorite doll is Julie.  Monkey likes Molly.  She has one of her books and checks the other ones out at the library.  Lil says she likes Julie...I wonder why?

Anyway....back to the FREE doll.  For those of you not familiar with AG dolls, they are expensive.  $105! 

The lady called me from the bookstore just a little while ago to let me know that we won the Kit doll.  They were running the contest around the opening of the movie.  I hope it goes to the dollar movies soon.  I'm sure the girls will want to see it for sure now. 

So I'm guessing that school will go smoothly for us today.  They have a great incentive for getting done quickly.

Now I just have to be in much prayer.  How do three little girls share one new doll?