Christmas Day 2016

 This year we enjoyed our Christmas day at home with breakfast made by Daddy and then time opening presents and reading Song of the Stars and the Christmas story and then heading to church.  This year, Michael helped preach for Christmas Eve and our pastor did Christmas Day.  Then we spent the afternoon with cousins.  Josiah got a potty seat and TP from Uncle Ben and Aunt Laura- he has been one to clog our toilet a lot this year with stuffing TP down it.  We went with some friends to see the live Nativity with donkeys and sheep.

Family Christmas Pic 2016

Gingerbread Houses...

 Friday we had some friends from co-op over to make Gingerbread houses.  We used graham crackers and tried to make it easy.  It worked out really well and the kids did a great job!  They had lost of fun building and decorating! 

Cousin Crazies...

Learning to Read...

This week we finish Book A of our Logic of English Phonics book! 

We are going to do a little alphabet celebration though I am not sure what that looks like yet. 

So proud of Jeremiah for persevering and learning slowly how to read.

Ok- so this is a big feat for Mama too!  I labored and labored over what reading curriculum to get for like months and just could not pull myself together to pick one until I was at the Homeschool Convention and called Michael and he told me jus to pick this one. :) 

O Christmas Tree...

 This year, we headed back to Home Depot for our Christmas Tree.  I grew up with the tradition of cutting down your own tree, alas, when you live in a city is definitely not cheaper to go out into the woods and cut one down.  We ventured out to a tree farm that I thought would be the place we could chop one down this year- only to find the trees were only 2 feet tall.  So we headed back to Home Depot.  I was not expecting how much the kids would love to decorate this year but they were so ready to pull anything and everything out of the box to decorate whether I was ready for them or not! 

Advent Candle...

I finally made an Advent Candle wreath out of materials I had at my house. 

It is small but works well with the kids.

The Nutcracker...

Resources...

I am always looking for good Advent ideas and these two podcasts have just been so encouraging in thinking through advent traditions to help our little ones and us look to Christ in this busy season!

Read Aloud Revival- Christmas and Advent Readings\

God Centered Mom-  Christmas Traditions with Little Ones

God Centered Mom- Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet

I listened to this podcast last week at Thanksgiving and was reminded of the importance of giving thanks and adoration and praising the character of God in the midst of hard times! 

Josiah- Over 18 Months

 I intended to do this a few months ago- but life with little ones got away from me! 

Josiah is about 21 months now- getting closer to 2 and is beginning the throws of the temper tantrums and whines right now.  But he still is for the most part as sweet, contented little boy.  Of all our kids, Josiah love to hug!  He just loves to run up to you and give you a big hug!  He loves to cuddle and loves his pacy and loves dragging around his blankie!  I can't remember the other two loving their milk bottle like Josiah does!  He loves milk and still loves his bottle!  Josiah loves to dance with Lydia right now and loves to go up and hug his siblings.  He is very good about folding his hands when we pray whereas the other two were not that great at this age.  He was a late walker at 19 months but now loves to run and walk around and explore everything!  He is a boy of few words, a deep observer of nature and everything around him.  He still communicates best by pointing to things and going "this."  He has slowly started saying "Dada,"  "Mama," "ball," "up." 

That is little Josiah right now at this age. 

Thanksgiving Traditions

This year, we read this book about God using Squanto to save the Pilgrims!  It is one I want to get and hopefully read to the kids every year!  It was really good! 

Our thanksgiving traditions include making turkey cut-out pancakes and saying what we are thankful for before the kids get a turkey pancake.  The other tradition we have is sitting down to read some Thanksgiving stories such as the one above.  Then the kids and I trek out across the neighborhood and hand out cards and Orange Cranberry bread to our neighbors and friends that live close by.  We also stopped a few places yesterday to deliver some treats.  We like to read the book Cranberry Thankgiving the week before Thanksgiving and make the bread recipe in the back of the book. 

We also like to make chocolate acorns for ourselves and also to give away-sometimes we will read some books on squirrels when we make these.  The kids did so well the other night making these all by themselves- all I needed to do was melt the chocolate chips. 

We also tried to do our Thanksgiving Tree throughout the month and write things we are thankful for on each leaf.

This month we sang every morning- O Shout for Joy by Keith and Kristyn Getty and worked on memorizing Psalm 100...

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

A Psalm for giving thanks.

 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
²     Serve the Lord with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!

³ Know that the Lord, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;^[a]
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

⁵ For the Lord is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

Praying we rejoice in the goodness of God this week!

Singing and Pumpkins

 This is Jeremiah's first year in Joyful Noise and he is loving singing in a kid's choir.  And the last picture is of us lighting a pumpkin for Reformation day and sitting out back on a warm night.

The Castle...

 A few weeks ago, Jeremiah and I were learning about knights and castles so I decided to take him to see the Loveland Castle in the East side of Cincinnati.  It was pretty neat to go through the castle.  He ran around looking for all the secret hideouts and I think his favorite part of the castle- the dungeon where they keep criminals.  :)

Monday Thoughts....

My thoughts are few and random on this Monday.

1.  As we enter the holidays, it seems like life gets busier and praying that we stay centered on Christ and thankfulness this holiday season! 

2.  Saturday we raked leaves for people in the community and Jeremiah did so well and we loved it- we both love to be outside and it was the ultimate yard work physical activity!  We then went home and cooked a Thanksgiving turkey for some company that night.  Needless to say, I was very tired that night.

3.  I just got finished listening to Teaching Theology to Children from Women's Gospel Coalition this summer.  It had some great ideas and resources and was encouraging to listen to!

Happy Monday to you and now I am going to bed! :)

Planting a tree...

 We took down two trees this year and so we decided to plant two little baby sycamores to replace them.  My helpers helping me dig the hole.

Costume Day at Co-op...

Jeremiah keeps telling everyone this year that we do not celebrate Halloween.  I know it is hard for a little kid to understand but we can always play dress up for co-op. 

Burwinkels Farm.... P is for Pumkins...

 P is for Pumpkin and the week we learned about pumpkins we did a lot of Fun Fall family activities. 

Fire Safety...

 Since October is Fire Safety month, we have managed to go to a few different events on safety with fires and last week in coop, the kids got a talk from one of the dads who is a fireman and wore his whole outfit and let the kids try on his hat and everything.  We are trying to use our school  time strategically and find fun outings.  :)  I am all about the field trips!