Holiday Picture - forgot to post this in Dec! :)

I really liked my mother-in-law's Christmas tree and thought it would be nice to get the boys' picture taken near the tree.  Boy was I wrong!  Who knew that getting two boys to both sit still AND smile couldn't be accomplished by three adults?!?!  Even though I don't typically post "bad pictures," here are a few outtakes and the final project (with help from Grandma & Grandpa!  Thanks!).

Maybe next year will be more successful!

Fun days at Grandma's

The boys enjoy going to Grandma's almost every Friday!  I guess getting someone's undivided attention, getting to do fun things and having someone fix your favorite foods is pretty great, right? :)  I would want to go too!  Here are the things they currently like doing while at Grandma's:

Jack has recently taken up playing baseball in the yard!  We are thrilled that he is showing some interest in physical activity & something we think is super fun!

Henry can almost alwaya be found sitting in the middle of Fisher Price Little People or Playmobil people.  He cracks us up with his obsession and concentration!

Before our school break

(Now that I have my computer back I'm trying to get caught up on our last few weeks.  Just hoping I took some pictures of everything!!)

Jack and C were doing really well with school before we took our break for the holidays.  They both were beginning to pick up on sounding out and using the letters that they have learned.  I've seen big improvements in cutting and coloring since August!

One afternoon after school time, Jack and C were having some free play time.  They chose to create a train in Jack's room and Henry was insistent on participating!

Christmas Card 2010

About a week ago we wrote a fantastic Christmas note to print on labels and put on the back of our Christmas card (a picture one ordered online).  Saved the letter late one night and thought we would print it the following morning, but when we went to turn the computer on, the hard drive had died.  So sad..... but we have a quick fix!  

Christmas cards will be sent out tomorrow and the blog address is on the back.   Hopefully people will check it out and read our second Christmas note for 2010.....

We hope that your 2010 has been full of blessings and joy!  Our days have been full and fun this year. Here are just a few memories that stir up thankfulness in our hearts:

• Several opportunities to go to the beach with family and friends
• Experiencing sound teaching and enriching fellowship with our church family
• Jake loving his job
• Henry walking, talking and adding joy to our every day lives
• Jack playing soccer and enjoying our home preschool time each week
• Welcoming our new niece/cousin, Zoe Evelyn (pictured with the boys on our card!)
• God's overwhelming provision in our lives

These are just a few things from our year, but we'd love for you to look back through the blog to see what else we've done.  Maybe we will be able to update it a little more often this coming year!  Hoping to visit with many of you in the days and weeks to come. Praying that you and your family experience the love, peace and joy that comes from knowing our Savior Jesus Christ.  Much love to you!!!  

Jake, Winnie, Jack and Henry

Inside Fun on a Snow Day!

When we see this outside.........

We try to stay in and do warm, fun things!  If there was enough snow to sled we would go out but right now it's not worth it.  It is below 32 and chilly, but we are having fun with Daddy's Playmobil sets!  Jake NEVER lets the boys play with these beloved treasures from his childhood, but tonight we are having a special treat!

Jack just told us, "I'm rounding up the posse! I've got a door (score) to settle!"  No idea where he learned this phrase but it is cracking us up!

Henry loves putting the hats on the cowboys!

2011 Family Bible Reading Time - Long Story Short by Marty Machowski

I know I already mentioned our Advent Jesse Tree activities, and how I love this time of year, but I think I am even more excited about a new book that arrived in my mailbox today:

Recently my pastor published a list of books that he thought would make good Christmas gifts and this family devotional book was on his list.  I have already browsed through the first few days and I can't wait to get started.  I think Jack is the perfect age to really solidify some family Bible reading habits each evening....or morning depending on what works with our schedule in the new year. 

So if you need a great book to encourage you in your faith and help you pass on the gospel story to your children...AND you need all the resources at your fingertips, something to tell you what to say and do to help family time go successfully, then this book is for you!  FYI, it was $19.99 on Amazon.  I have no idea where else it can be purchased. I was so eager to get it in before the new year that I didn't "shop around" (glad I have a forgiving husband! Love you J!).

Henry - 18 months

There is a sweet, loving, obedient, funny, determined, focused, empathetic, amazing boy that lives in our house these days.  It's hard to imagine our lives, 18 months ago, without Henry!  He is so special to us! Just wanted to take a minute to write down what he's doing and how he brings us such joy:

His favorite things to say are:  choo choo, all aboard, sorry, bye bye, more, Jack (which sounds like 'ack'), mama, dog, daddy, Grandpa, car, pray, truck, and a number of other things that we can interpret but would be unitelligible to most listeners!  

 He loves cars, trucks, fire engines, LEGOS!!!, books (finally!), eating, playing outside, doing everything Jack does, playing in cabinets, seeing Ms Kelly & Ms Lisa in Sunday School, throwing a ball (or anything he can get his hands on!), and Christmas lights.

He is currently 26 lbs and 33 inches tall.  His favorite foods are animal crackers, apple juice, green beans, and chicken nuggets.  Henry is great at climbing in his chair for activities or meals, sitting still for a short story, sharing toys, saying he's sorry, and picking up toys.  We are hoping these habits stick through the preschool years!!!

We love this boy!

Advent Season - Jesse Tree

My Catholic upbringing always makes me think about the Advent season.  I remember the colored candles, wreath, live nativity, incense burning my eyes each week (oh wait, I was listing positive memories!), candy advent calendar, etc...... all culminating with Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. 

Although it's a great reminder for myself, I also really want my boys to have a clear grasp on the true meaning of the Advent/Christmas season.  Salvation doesn't begin with the birth of a sweet, tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  The rich history of the Old Testament brings forth the work of salvation from the beginning of Creation.  

The answer.........The Jesse Tree 

There aren't as many resources out there as I thought there would be, but we are really pleased with the book we chose to use - The Advent Jesse Tree by Dean Meador Lambert.  (I ordered it on Amazon for $10 last year and it came in 2 days, which was important since I waited until Nov 29th to order!)

As the author states, "The Advent Jesse Tree seeks to tell the story of God's redemptive plan for the world through 25 symbols from the Old and New Testament.  Each symbol is explained with scriptures, devotions, questions, prayers, memory verse, and songs."

There is a children's devotion and a short one for adults as well.  I enjoyed reading the adult devotion each morning and then doing the children's one with our family in the evenings after dinner. 

I'm leery of even posting pictures of our meager ornaments, but I know I was frantically searching for pictures of ornaments last year, so maybe they will help someone else out there....

The ornaments are placed on a small 2 foot pre-lit tree just sitting on our kitchen counter.  Ornaments can be made or purchased.  We just used felt and made each symbol....some were even made the day they were needed! Better late than never, right?  All our symbols are ready to go this year, and will be wrapped up this weekend.  The boys will get to open one each evening during our devotion time.  It would be fun to create or even color a simple ornament each day, but my boys aren't big into crafts (bummer, right?) so we might wait a few years. 

I only became acquainted with this in 2009, but it was such a sweet time for our family last year.  I think I've been dreaming of Advent since July! I hope and pray that your family will spend time thinking about the work on the Cross and the true meaning of Christmas. 

(I know you only have a few days to get your stuff together for this year, but it would be SO FUN to do an ornament swap in the fall next year!  If 25 ladies wanted to participate, each family would make 25 of one ornament, come swap, and then go home with a completed set.  Sounds fantastic! Lord willing, I will try to get this together next fall!)

Marshmallow fun!

[Yes I know it's been a month since I've posted.....maybe one day I'll be a "real blogger" (aka posts every day) but for now I'm happy to be a wife, mother, sister and friend.]

A few weeks ago we had Jake's family (minus Hannah :(...) over for dinner and SMORES!  Henry LOVES marshmallows and actually did really well around the fire.  Now that the weather is consistently cold we may get to have more fire nights! 

Jack also found a dead snake this same day.  He "wore" it around his neck for most of the afternoon!  He had seen a snake at a friend's  birthday party recently and the man held it around his neck.  Unfortunately I can't get the picture to upload correctly.  Maybe one day I'll figure out how to rotate pictures once they've been imported to the blog.........

Preschool Days - T for Turtle

After going to the beach and taking some days off for school I thought it would be hard to get back into the swing of things, but it hasn't been difficult at all.  I think a little break was just what we needed!  This week we studied the letter T and talked about not quitting, but  persevering.   

Gluing ten triangles on the letter T was tons of fun!  It just happened to be the week to talk about triangles in math!  I must admit that these darlings LOVE glue almost as much as I do....who knew I should've purchased LOTS of glue during all the Back-to-School sales! 

Now that we have learned several consonants (t, l, m, n, s) and one vowel (a), we are able to work on blending! Both J & C were able to blend s-a-t on the first attempt!  They were very excited to be reading!

(Side note - Since we are "readers" now, we ended our time today with C "reading" to us from the Bible.....C taught us about several things, not necesarily in this order - for such a time as this, being baptized and going to heaven, 1066.....in Bethlehem, Jack Spann trusted God without disobeying, God told Satan what to do, there is a true God Christ in the Bible and some spontaneous singing at the end. Glad they are thinking about our Lord at such a young age. Excited to see them grow in wisdom and stature in the years to come.)

Unexpected Blessings

This happiness makes 8 hours in the car by myself with two young boys, totally worth it!

We didn't expect to find ourselves at the beach this week, but WE ARE! What a blessing!  Unfortunately Jake is working and couldn't come down with us, but last night he worked it out to come down this weekend! Yippee!  We are so excited to be here and even more excited that Jake will be here this weekend.  Even Aunt Hannah is going to come in some time tomorrow and stay a few days!

This is Henry's first time at the beach and he LOVES it!  There is a great sandbar right out from the condo and he has spent hours there today.  It's hard to even get a picture of his face because he's looking down at the sand and water constantly.  This is also the first year that Jack is really enjoying himself and is feeling confident in the water.  Grandpa got him a cool surfboard so he has been busy "learning to surf." 

Long mornings in the sun make for wonderful, long nap times!  We all need it after sleeping in one room last night.  I never knew that BOTH of my boys snore and talk in their sleep.  Hysterical, but makes it difficult to get much resting accomplished!

Soccer

So we always said we wouldn't put Jack into any organized sports until he turned 5, but the opportunity presented itself for him to participate in soccer this year.  He has pretty limited contact with other kids his age these days (except for church and preschool time with C), so this was a great way to give him some peer interaction and get some exercise.

During the first week the team was lining up to give Coach John high fives.  This picture just cracked me up, especially the girls!  The one with her hands on her face is the coach's daughter.  The other two gals, near Jack, are serious ball players and don't mess around.  Jack was wanting to show Coach John his number - #9!

Coach John & Coach Terry (our neighbor & friend - pictured above) have done a fantastic job and have gotten lots of exercise themselves.  They spend the majority of the playing time running after rogue players who have inadvertently exited the field with the ball and proceeded to join another game going on adjacent to our field.

Terry's son, Carson, is small in stature but he makes up for it in speed and skills.  He is our leading scorer and appears to be loving every minute of every game!

The kids play 4-on-4 with 6 minute periods. There are three 6 min periods, a 5 min halftime, and 3 more 6 min periods. 6 minutes doesn't seem like very long to me, but Jack thinks it is an eternity. I think this was the same day he said "I had to play for a long time...at least an hour, Mom!"

One of Jack's favorite parts so far is taking a break.  He loves to come to the side and drink from his water bottle.  This past week he even volunteered to be the first one to take a break. Maybe this means he needs a little more exercise during the week......

Sometimes Jack even takes a break on the field!  He has spent some quality time laying on the grass during each game.  Luckily here he was just taking a "short break" and didn't get squashed by the other players.

Fun Preschool Days

One of the first letters we studied in preschool this year was S.  We spent a lot of time learning about the Sun and Jesus as the Light of the World.  The kids drew "suns" and "s" on a large piece of paper.  

They thoroughly enjoyed using shaving cream to practice their handwriting.

Notice C has a cute backpack.  Jack thinks he needs one too.  I've tried to explain that all his stuff is right here at our house and he doesn't have to carry anything anywhere.  We might be getting a backpack one of these days.....

We made suns using finger paint and talked about ABAB patterns.

Another little friend M was able to join us for preschool recently.  Jack and C were thrilled to have someone else to learn with for the day. She jumped right in and was such a joy! Sometimes it's nice to have some girl infusion in my boy world.....

We have a 4 yr old!

For the past few years we have loved ending our summer with Jack's birthday bash!  For his 3rd birthday he had a swimming party with tons of friends, but it was a bit overwhelming for ALL involved, so this year we toned it down and just had a family party.

Toy Story has always been a favorite movie, so having Toy Story 3 come out this summer was fantastic!  Jack LOVES all things Buzz, Woody, Jessie, etc.... We had a great time eating lunch together, opening presents and enjoying some super yummy cake!  Thanks everyone for making Jack's day memorable.  He really enjoyed his day.  We thank the Lord for the gift he has been to our family!    

This is his new serious 4 year old face.

Side note, if you are in ChattaVegas, check out BB Cakes for your next celebration!  Becky is super sweet and does excellent work.  If you can think it up, she can do it.  You won't be disappointed!  

I love this man.

I love this man.  Plain and simple. He's absolutely fantastic and more than I could've ever dreamed for in a husband, friend and father. It doesn't hurt that he's pretty stinkin hot too....

Back to School

We took a break last week from school.  We enjoyed a restful weekend with our family but now it's back to regular schedule.  Thought I would post our plans for tomorrow.  Jack is thrilled to have "school" tomorrow and spend time with his friend C. 

Monday, September 13, 2010

BIBLE
“I will live and grow in Jesus.” – That’s our theme for the week. Psalm 1:1-3, Jeremiah 17:7-8, and 1 John 5:12 will help us to learn this concept.

LANGUAGE
Sing the ABC Song (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star). Present a textured L (we cut one from sand paper). Have the child say the /l/ sound while tracing the letter. Show the /l/ leaf picture card. Select 3-10 letters including L and have the child name the letters he sees. Review the sounds for each letter that has been taught - /s/ and /m/.

Complete the letter L pages from MFW. 1) Look at 6 picture cards for the letter L. Color the pictures, cut them out. (We have two sets so we will play memory with the picture cards.)

CALENDAR TIME/MATH – Sorting by Color/Creating a Real Graph
Ask some new calendar questions: What month is it?, What letter does September begin with?, What months have we colored?, Whay year is it? Say “Yesterday was ________.” “What day of the week is today?” “What letter does (day of the week) begin with?” “Let’s say the days of the week together.” “Yesterday’s date was the ____th.” “What is today’s date?” ‘What number will I write in today’s date square?” “let’s count to see if you are right.” Write the date in the correct box. “Today is (day), August (date), (year). “What colors are we using this month for our calendar squares?” “What color will we use to color today’s square?” “Let’s read our pattern to check.” Color today’s square, remembering to alternate colors. Review the names of the months.

Put out 20-30 teddy bear counters of assorted colors in a pile on a work mat. ‘Watch what I am going to do.” Begin sorting the teddy bears by color. “What am I doing?” “Do you know what we call this?” (sorting) “I am sorting the teddy bears. What does the word sort mean?” (to put the ones that are alike together) “Today you will learn how to sort and make a graph.” Give the child a work mat and 8-12 bears of assorted colors.

“Sort your teddy bears on the mat.” “Now you are going to graph your teddy bears.” Give the child a chart (any piece of paper with a grid on it with squares large enough for the teddy bears). “How do you think you will put your teddy bears on this graph?” “Line up the bears on the graphing grid.” Assist your child if necessary. Ask the following questions: What color you have the most of?, How do you know?, Do any columns have the same number?, What color do you have the fewest of?, etc… Put the teddy bears in a pile on your mat. Pick up your mat and slide the teddy bears into the container. Save the grid for future lessons.

DEVELOPMENTAL ACTIVITY – Name the Sound
Using small objects and paper bags play name the sound. Name and show the child what is in each bag. Shake each bag so that the child can hear the sounds they make. Close the bags and change their positions. Encourage the child to listen as you shake the first bag. Have them name what is inside. Repeat with each item. Continue until the child has succeeded several times. At another time repeat this activity. It promotes skill in identifying objects, listening for a sound to help make a selection, distinguishing different sounds, confidence, and language enrichment. (Slow and Steady Get Me Ready)

THEME - Leaf
Remember the grapes from the letter S (Sun), go check them if you haven’t tossed them out. Ours are really beginning to wrinkle and are completely brown.

There are lots of great leaf activities to do. Go outside and collect a variety of leaves – different colors, shapes, sizes, etc… Count the number of leaves and sort the leaves. Make a leaf book. Trace each different kind of leaf on a small sheet of paper and label it with the name of the tree, if known. Have the student color the leaves in realistic colors. Staple the pages to form a book.

There is a great illustration about leaves and living and growing in Jesus. I’ll try to post it later. We are also reading lots of leaf books from the library:

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
Picture Guide to Tree Leaves by Raymond Wiggers
Fall Leaves by Don Curry
Counting on the Woods by George Ella Lyon
ABCedar: An Alphabet of Trees by George Ella Lyon
Let’s Play in the Forest by Claudia Rueda
My “L” Sound Book by Jane Belk Moncure

Perfectionism out the window

So I thought I would only post in chronological order of life events but that just isn't happening.  If I do that then other things in my life suffer, so I am putting away perfectionism and biting the bullet. 

Jack wanted to send a picture of his store/theater to his Aunt Hannah, so I said, "Why don't we just post it on the blog?" He liked that idea except his preference was for a picture of him at the store in his underwear....I had to veto! Sorry buddy!

A few months ago I discovered an AMAZING, FANTASTIC, CRAFTY little bit of heaven called KnockOffWood (which has now become Ana White  - an updated, beautiful version of her old site!).  I found some plans for a kid's play store, went to Lowe's and got started!

The whole experience was a great stress reliever and because it was a task that had an END (unlike laundry, dishes, child training, cleaning, cooking, etc..) it gave me a great sense of completion, which is rare these days! Here are the details in case you are curious:

Cost - approximately $80 (For wood and screws.  The paint and fabric were leftover from previous projects.)
Time - one naptime plus a little evening sanding/painting
Accessories - $0  (Jack's birthday wish list included food, cash register, etc... THANKS to everyone for making this all come together so well!)

Note to all you doubters, YOU can do this too!  I had never really used a drill before and certainly am not a woodworker.  The site tells you to use nails & glue but I am lazy by nature and would rather use a power tool, than an old fashioned hammer. Anyway, Ana White makes it so simple with step by step directions and pictures throughout all her plans!  Check out her site and let me know what you build!!! I can't wait to hear about your projects!