Abby Funnies

Too cute not to remember:
Last week she told me on the way home from the Morehead State Basketball Game, "This is the Happiliest Ever Ending to my day. I got to do the chicken dance." Yes, she and Claire joined the cheerleaders for the halftime Chicken Dance and it was great. Happliest ever in fact!

This afternoon she came up the stairs sobbing to which I immediately knew there was not a big issue it was just a bunch of dramatics. I told her," You need to calm yourself so I can understand what the problem is." And she replied. "I Caaaaaan't. My feeelings are broooooken!!!!" Her feeling were not just hurt...They were BROKEN. When I asked her why she told me because Carson popped her balloon (which actually happened two days ago.)

This girl is funny!

 

Snow Day

It snowed. They played. The End.

The girls

These girls are just too fun! I just love dressing them in the same outfit and they love it too!

I am tempted...

to buy things I don't need because they are a great deal today on Black Friday. Last night, Thanksgiving night, we loaded up to return some Redbox movies. I told the kids we will just run into Wal-Mart, return the movies and grab some milk...and then I remembered the sales had already started. We live in a small town and I wondered how many people would actually be at Wal-Mart. As we drove by I looked back and could see my children's eyes getting big...Carson said, "Mom, just look at all those cars!" It was a sight. The lot was full and they had parked all up and down the access road and across the street. There were people crossing the four lane road to get to Wal-Mart by foot. Wow! We continued on and pulled up to Kroger instead. It was dark and a sign on the door said, "We will be closing at 5pm to allow employees time with family." I found myself proud of Kroger even though I did some bad planning and still needed milk. We returned the movies in the Redbox with the empty parking lot and made our way back home. I cannot tell you how many emails I have received in the past 24 hours to let me know what great Black Friday deals are just waiting for me. It makes me feel tempted to buy. I don't need anything. All of our Christmas shopping list has been checked twice and purchased before Thanksgiving. Why? Because I knew that the commercialism of Christmas would get me. If I didn't get the shopping done before then I would be frenzied, concerned and overbuy things that weren't even on the list simply because they were such a great deal. I am not tempted to load up and shop with a gazillion people at our local stores but I am tempted to participate online and that may be even worse. I can access it anytime and my purchase will come straight to me. No fuss there. Here is what the Lord keeps whispering to my heart, "Be content." There will always be something I can chase after and on black Friday great deals are at the top of the list but I need to stop and not be consumed by the temptation to buy. I can choose to be content. I wrote this on my Facebook post this morning: "Being that today is Black Friday may we be a people that learns to be content with what we have and not constantly pursuing the next great deal that we cannot afford or that we truly don't need. Phillipians 4:11" I can choose to be content. I can choose not to fall for the temptation to buy.

A Day of Thanks

Dad is covering the hospital today so this day of Thanksgiving is a little different for us. We are not with family. We didn't watch any Thanksgiving parades. There is no pie cooling on the counter. We ate Mexican for lunch but we did spend some time today during our school time to search our hearts in how thankful we are to God for all that He has done, is doing and will do in the days to come. Carson, Andrew and Abby compiled this list of things they are thankful for.
1. Food
2. Jesus and God
3. Daddy
4. Animals
5. Toys God gave us not to be bored
6. Crayons to create and draw
7. Our homes (We are still waiting on the Lord to provide a buyer for our home in Cushing)
8. Family and Church
9. Sister
10. Clothes and drinks
11. Cars to be able to travel
12. Kids in Haiti
13. Trains and Planes..Traveling things
14. Bathroom in our home
15. Books
16. The world..a place to live
17. The sun that warms us and gives us light
18. Electricity so we can turn things on
19. Trees so we can breathe...they produce free air
20. Garbage trucks to take the trash away
21. The sky so we can see how God paints the sunset
22. Heaven so we can live with Jesus
23. The Moon and Stars so its not dark at night
24. Soft beds to sleep in
25. Shoes that protect our feet
26. For dirt and grass so the worms can go through and make flowers
27. The Bible so we can read God's word and know who He is.
28. Butterflies so we can see their beautiful colors
29. Friends
30. Hats to keep our heads warm in winter
31. Vocal Chords so we can talk to one another
32. Music so we can sing and dance
33. Hot water tank so we can have warm showers
34. Brains so we can learn, read, write and spell
35. Our Body and bones so we can move and play

I love the silly things and the deep things. I love that the Lord is opening their eyes to all the things that He has blessed us with. We ended our day of study with this song. The Doxology. It seems so fitting.
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Everything we have is from Him. Everything. We should praise Him alone in ALL things ALL of the time! Continually. Consistently. He alone is worthy! May we never forget His goodness. His faithfulness. May we never forget that everything that we have comes from Him. Everything that we are is because of his riches in glory through His son Christ Jesus who made a way for us and satisfied the greatest need in our lives. We need a Savior. We cannot do it on our own. Only through the blood of Jesus can our relationship with God be made right. Thank you Jesus! May our family never cease to give God thanks for all that He has done, is doing and continues to do. To God be the Glory! Glory in the Highest!

And so it begins...

..one of our favorite Christmas traditions: unwrapping a Christmas Story to read every night before bed as we prepare our hearts to Celebrate Jesus. Oh, Come let us adore Him!

The Bird and The Tree

 Thanksgiving and Trimming the tree! Nina came and joined us this year for our Thanksgiving feast and we taught her how to make a pie. She had lots of help and it turned out pretty yummy! The kids wanted cookies so we decided to make some turkey cookies too. A funny on Thanksgiving was in cooking the turkey. I was trying to be very good about the whole process. I brined it and got it all set up. I had it cook for two and a half hours and the timer went off to. I went to check it. The house did not smell like turkey....hmm...so I took it out and looked at my instructions. The temp inside the bird needed to be 180 degrees....hmm, 180 degrees sounds familiar....I looked at the oven. Oops, I had set the oven at 180 degrees and it was of course sapossed to be set at 350. Oh my! Well, at least I put it in early and we had another hour and a half for it to cook! And much to my surprise it actually turned out and was very moist and yummy. It was happily consumed by all! After dinner we got the tree out and trimmed the tree. Such fun! Our first Christmas in Kentucky has begun. We have so very much to be thankful for!

Carson, took this picture! He did such a great job!

Let us Celebrate the newborn King!!

Sweet Girls

Claire taking a Sunday afternoon nap. Such a sweet little one.

And Abigail. Her brothers blessed her with a mustache while she fell asleep on the way back from Cincy. Nice one brothers! When she woke up she felt it and took it off. She looked at it and then said "Oh" and put it right back on! Funny!!

These are the days...

 This girl is funny. Yesterday out of the blue she decided she was going to be a lefty. Claire has been choosing that hand most often and we were talking about it a couple of days ago how Claire and Carson are so similar. I guess Roo grabbed onto that and decided she wanted to be a left too. She tried writing with the left hand. She tried cutting with the left hand. No success. But finally she had an idea. "I know Mommy," she told me, "I will just be a lefty gluer." Oh my, and so she is!

This is one of my favorite views. These boys are such hard workers. We are really enjoying a few new workbooks I got. We are in the groove now and sailing through our days of discovery!

Abby's Wonder Woman

Abigail has been working on an activity called Mat Man where it teaches children to draw a person with all the right body parts. Until now she has drawn people with one big head, two eyes, a mouth. She usually drew the legs and arms coming out of their head. This was her very first attempt and she did it all by herself!! This is Wonder Woman. She is really into Wonder Woman these days. She told me, "Momma, Wonder Woman is awesome because she has really cool panties..." I have never even noticed really what she wears...Hmmm...but my four year has.... She colored the panties pink and then decided to put green pants on her legs so no one could see them! Very good choice there.
Things that make you go hmm....

 



Stolen moments

I found myself sitting at ballet one night waiting for Abigail to finish and I looked up to see this. Both of my boys reading. I felt such joy for my boys. I am so thrilled that they love to read! We have intentionally spent lots of time this year replacing the desire to play with phones, electronics and such and encouraged them to take a book and read instead. It has been a great thing! They are learning to be more patient and content. They are learning that they do not have to be entertained at every waking moment but they can use their imagination through play and reading to have lots of fun in far off places! This is a blessing. This thrills this Momma's heart! I sure love my boys! 

"Lull Vule" Fun

Yes, folks He still has it and here is the picture to prove it! :)

We attended the Global Health Missions Conference in Louisville this year and had a great time. It was at Kyle Idleman's church, Southeast Christian Church, and it was wonderful. The church is huge. Carson asked if it was the biggest church in the world! The kids and I got to play at the Science Museum and  Zoo. We all got to go to Louisville sluggers museum. So much fun for all of us!