Merry Christmas

Enjoy the video of Luke reciting The Christmas Story (Luke 2:1-20) on Christmas Eve to his Grandparents! He memorized it in about 2 weeks...working on it here and there. God has truly gifted him with an amazing memory. We pray that it blesses your hearts as you hear Him, through Luke, tell of His gift of the Living Word made flesh to dwell among us!

Christmas Card 2010

Modern Cranberry Noir Christmas

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Luke Reads Jonah and the Big Fish

We took this video the other night before bed. We knew Luke had a great memory, but had no idea the extent of it.
David was reading to him and called for me to come...(I later found out that Luke just kept 'reading' when David paused...) David then got the camera and began recording. We were amazed. He is only 3 1/2 and can only read a few words, but memorize this whole story? What a truly amazing gift the Lord has given him! (I did help him a little at the end...he's not that good! Seriously, though, at the time of this video he had only heard the story read to him 4 maybe 5 times!) I need to beef up our scripture memory!

Enjoy the video. If you have the Jesus Storybook Bible, read along! I am sorry it is blurry. We are thinking about getting a nicer video camera for Christmas.

Haydn's 8th and 9th Months

Our sweet baby girl had a wonderful April (month 8), but not so great May (month 9). During the month of April, we traveled to Daddy's annual MS150 ride. We stayed with Lou Lou and Opa for a few days before we headed to the half way mark to meet Daddy. It was a rough weekend, because she started cutting her 2 bottom teeth. They came in just a few days shy of when her brother's protruded. She also said her first words, "Bye, Bye" while waving. She said it for me one morning and when Luke and Dad walked into the room, she said it for them. Luke's first word was 'duck' at 7 1/2 months. Haydn was pretty close to the same time frame. We are in for it if we have two big talkers! Since then, she says several words, 'da-da, ah-duh (all done), mum mum (a snack she likes), ma-ma, muh (more), dog. She is also pulling up. She will pull up to her feet, but is most comfortable on her knees. I think she is becoming a little cautious about it due to a few falls from pulling up on not so sturdy objects.

One day, we were listening to a song, 'Party in the USA'. In the song it says, 'Put your hands up...'. Luke and I were dancing to it and raising our arms and little copy cat started 'raising the roof' and dancing away. She loves to dance and watch Luke dance, jump, anything...We get the best belly laughs from her when she watches him. David also likes to play baby ninja with them and she LOVES that. What is Baby Ninja?, you ask....well, David carries her low to the ground and chases Luke with her. When Luke stops, he raises Haydn to double kick Luke in the head. He doesn't do it hard, but it is hilarious. We all crack up! I will post a video one day.
She loves to play peek-a-boo and will put something over her face to do it herself. She laughs pretty hard at this, too. Oh how I wish we could freeze this stage for awhile. I love 9 months...she's so fun!

This was one of the pictures taken for a surprise Father's Day gift (shhhhh!!) She is 8 months in this picture.
This is month 8, as well. She loves playing with Luke's cars and trains!

About to eat....her favorite pass time!

Sadly, the month of May was horrible for sister girl. I started dropping a few feedings for her to get to 4 feedings a day and then the sickness began! It started off with fever then a rash (Roseola), then we had 2 weeks of diarrhea, and top it off with a nasty cold for the last week and a half. May should be coined, 'survival mode month' for this household! ugh! It was awful! Because of all the sickness for her and lack of sleep for me, we did not take any pictures of her during the month of May.
I have a video of her eating below, though. Man, can the girl eat! She's totally off baby food and will hardly let us feed her applesauce much less pureed anything. She is very independent and wants to pick up food and feed herself. She loves everything I give her especially foods with color, veggies are her favorite with fruits coming in a close second. She could hardly stand the BRAT diet that I had to give her for 2 weeks of her sickness. She wanted the good stuff. Her favorite would probably be broccoli or green beans. We really have to watch that we don't over feed her. Sometimes she won't stop and it all ends up coming back up and until we see it again we have no idea how much she's eaten. I know...sick....but she can eat as much or more than Luke some days! Even with that, she still only weighs 15lbs 12oz. I think it's the 5th percentile or so. She lost alot while she was sick, I think.

*Just a qualifier...The video you are about to see is not pretty. She has bed head and was seriously getting after the food!

Luke's Lovely Singing

Luke loves to sing. He loves music! On Easter, we played Christ the Lord is risen today and he sang it for weeks afterward. We got it on video below. His Alleluia is pretty good!

The second song he is singing is one that I sing to Haydn when I put her to bed. He hasn't heard much of that song so he doesn't know all of the words yet...no matter...he's still stinkin' cute!

*Disclaimer: Don't mind my mom heckling me in the background. She's always on me about not posting to the blog. So...here you go, Mom...ppttthhhh!

7 Months

Our sweet sister's smile!

I don't know how I got this shot! It's hilarious to me, though!
It's alot like the 'Matthew face' she makes. (My cousin, Matthew. She was only a few minutes old and my sister is telling me that she looks like Matthew. I love it! I'll post a picture one day and maybe you'll agree.)

Yes, Haydn Grace is 7 months old...can you believe it? She is such a happy, laid back baby. She rarely cries or gets fussy. Her favorite past time is watching Luke. She loves to watch him dance, and laughs at him the entire time. He loves to entertain her. It is so great to watch them love each other because I know the fights will come, but it is pretty sweet now. She is crawling and has been for at least 3 weeks. She pulls up to her knees in her crib so we've had to lower it. The child is very mobile and does not like to sit in my lap for long. Luke would sit and read with me for hours, but then again he was late on mobility...maybe that's my fault for holding him so much! Glad I did because he won't allow it now! She still is not sitting up unassisted, though. It's crazy to me that she can crawl and pull up, but not sit up. The pictures above look kind of funny because she is on her belly. I tried to sit her up and she just toppled over onto her face. Spectators thought I was a terrible Mom, I'm sure, but she seriously does not get upset at anything. We think (and hope) that she has David's Grandmother's personality. Very easy going...we all know it's not my personality! We call her 'our watcher'**. She's an observer and just watches everything and takes it all in. She rarely laughs, but when she does it is so cute. It's not a belly laugh...just a cackle. Luke is good at bringing out the cackle, but I can pull it out with a little game of 'peek-a-boo'. Just to let you in on her sweetness...a few months ago she started opening her mouth right on our cheek! It's a little early for kissing, but she loves smooches!!
Her first sounds are starting to come out. She says 'da da da da' and 'ba ba ba ba'. I just taught her to clap on my hand when I sing 'Clap, clap, clap. Clap, clap, clap. Haydn likes to clap, clap, clap.' She loves to eat, but only wants what we are eating. She is so over the pureed food. She wants texture and flavor! She loves veggies and isn't big on fruit (I was like this). When she is hungry we all know it because she makes this spitting noise with her mouth. I videoed it and will post it soon!
She is such a joyful child and smiles at everyone. I love this about her! We are so very grateful for our sweet Haydn Grace. Happy 7 months, sweet girl! Can't wait to see what next month brings!

**David's Grandmother is 96 years old and occasionally has some dementia episodes. A few years back, she would randomly point out a person to David's Mom or Aunt and say, "That man over there is a 'watcher'". Apparently, she thinks that there is a conspiracy with the government and they place 'watchers' around to keep tabs on people. We laugh when she says this and now we have our own little 'watcher'. Hopefully, she won't report back to the government the ongoings of our home! HA!

Thinker

Today Luke looked at me and said, "Mommy, I think I'm going to put my hand on my chin like this (insert example...see picture above) and think!" You go right ahead, Luke...go right ahead!
(Where does he come up with this stuff?)

Attached

Luke's imagination is wild some times. It's very fun to watch him come up with something or add to a memory. Lately, he's been saying he's 'attached' to something and can't come to us when we call him because he's stuck or attached. Stinker!! Anything so that he doesn't have to obey...
This was a conversation in Home Depot the other day:

Daddy - Come on Luke.
Luke - I can't. I'm attached.
Daddy - Attached?
Luke - Ya, to this sticker. (One of those floor advertisement things.)
Luke - uhhhh. UH! uhhhh. UH! uhhhh UH! (The noise you make when you are trying to get 'unstuck'.) uhhhh. UH! There we go. There we go. I'm free. Let's go, Daddy.

Crazy kid! We love you!!

Santa

Well, this is the year where the rubber meets the road when it comes to Santa and secular ideological Christmas. I didn't expect it to hit me this hard. All of a sudden, I've been questioning the whole Santa thing and wondering how we should handle it. I didn't have a problem last year at all. We drug him to an awesome Santa in Chicago and sat him on his knee screaming. For some reason, this year is different. Maybe it is because he's older and the disciplining/training/teaching is in full swing. We are trying our best to point to Christ in everything we do with the kids so that one day they will come to know and love Him as we do. We fail (miserably some days), but God's Grace is good and His Mercies are new each morning. We are just regular parents doing our best to raise our sweet children to one day know Him. By His Grace alone they are saved, and He has called us to lead them to Him. Thus, our Santa dilemma begins...

David and I both grew up going to church and living in Christian homes. I can say that Jesus was talked about here and there, on Sundays, Christmas, and Easter, etc. It rarely came into practice with discipline or other aspects of daily life. We didn't have family worship or devotional time. Just mainstream Christian broken homes. This is not to say that they way we were raised was inherently wrong. It is what it is. The more we learn about the sacrifice of our Savior and the glory that we are supposed to bring to him in our daily life and raising our children, we begin to see a bigger picture than the Baptist Box that we grew up in. We are trying to do things a little different with Luke and Haydn. We want every thing we teach them to point to Christ.
I say all of this because we both grew up with Santa. David and I have great memories of the mysticism of Christmas as children. My mom did the 'you better be good' bit, but his did not. He had elves bring him candy in his shoes. I didn't have a chimney so Santa had to show up at my grandparent's house. It was presented differently, but both of us have memories of it. My memory of baby Jesus was categorized with Santa. Jesus was discussed year round, but we both recall Santa being more 'exciting' than Jesus.

These are my random thoughts lately:

• I don't want to lie to my children.
  
• I grew up with the Santa thing and wasn't damaged by the lie my mom told me, but I know people that were.
• David and I think that maybe the people that were damaged had more of the 'punishment' side of Santa presented to them. You know, the 'You better stop that or Santa's not going to bring you any presents.' (while in the grocery store in June).
  
• There is just something a little creepy about the song that says, 'He sees you when your sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.' Seriously....a big, red, bearded fat guy watching you all the time is kind of creepy.
• Luke is scared of Santa. Always has been. I can only imagine how he would feel if he knew that Santa was going to sneak into our house when we've baited him with cookies. I doubt he'd sleep the night before. For example, we went to 'Breakfast with Santa' at the local high school with some friends Saturday morning. It was going to be a trial run for our real 'sit on Santa's lap picture' this Thursday. We walked up to the front while a friend was sitting on his lap so that Luke could see that she wasn't scared. We didn't say anything. Just let him watch. He still had NO desire to get in line. So, we played the little games that were out for the kids. After each booth, someone would inevitably ask, 'Have you seen Santa yet?' Luke knew what they meant so he would reply, 'I just SAW Santa. He's over there.' I would have to tell them that we haven't 'seen' Santa, but he did just go 'see' him. Then, after about the third occurance, he said, 'I SAW Santa, but I.am.not.going.to.get.in.his.face!' My kid...he's something else!
  
• Not sure I want to put him through another year of crying on kringle's lap.
  
• If our goal in parenting is to bring Luke and Haydn to the Throne of Grace and teach them about Jesus so that one day by Grace they will be saved, then how is Santa omniscient when the Triune God is the true omniscient one?
  
• If our goal in parenting is to bring Luke and Haydn to the Throne of Grace and teach them about Jesus AND the true meaning of Christmas is Christ's birth, then where does Santa fit in?
• Santa is just a character like Cinderella or Mickey Mouse. Maybe we should just teach the kids the difference between fantasy and reality without saying, Santa isn't real...just call him a character. This may help in the area of other children...if our kids never hear the 'Santa isn't real' verbiage, then maybe they'll just play along with the rest of the world without actually 'believing in' Santa and spoiling others beliefs. (It's so hard to be in the world and not of it!)
  
• We may just skirt the issue and let him draw clues from what he sees. We won't perpetuate anything or tell him anything...just let him figure it out on his own. A friend told me about a conversation with her 5 year old recently. I liked how she handled it:

MaKenna: Mom, is Santa going to come down the chimney?
Mom: I don't know, MaKenna, what do you think?
MaKenna: I think he is.
Mom: Why do you think that?
MaKenna: Because I saw somewhere that he does that...
Mom: Oh...OK.

• We may just say that he's a symbol/character of hope and giving...
• We may just teach them about who St. Nicolas was and why some people believe...
• Will the wonder and excitement of Christmas fade if he knows that Santa is just a symbol or a character??

During this whole thought process, a sweet friend let me borrow a book called, Treasuring God in our Traditions by Noel Piper. She made some good points:

• Fairy tales are fun, but we don't ask our children to believe them.
• Celebrating with Santa and manger will postpone a child's clear understanding of what the real truth of God is. It's very difficult for a young child to pick through a marble cake of part truth and part imagination to find the crumbs of reality. We want our children to understand God as fully as they're able, at whatever age they are. So we try to avoid anything that would inhibit or distort that understanding
• Think of how confusing it is to a literal-thinking, uncritical preschooler. Santa is so much like what we're trying all year to teach our children about God. Look at the attributes of Santa:
  

1. He's omniscient - he sees everything you do.
2. He rewards you if you are good.
3. He's omnipresent - at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
4. He gives you good gifts.
5. He's the most famous "old man in the sky" figure.

• At the deeper level that young children can't comprehend yet, he is not like God at all. For example, does Santa really care if we're bad or good? Think of the most awful kid you can remember. Did he or she ever not get gifts from Santa? What about Santa spying and then rewarding you if you are good enough? That's not the way God operates. He gave us his gift - His Son - even though we weren't good at all. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He gave his gift to us to make us good, not because we had proved ourselves good enough.
• Helping our children understand God as much as they're able at whatever age they are is our primary goal....I think children are glad to realize that their parents who live with them all year and know all the worst things about them, still show their love at Christmas. Isn't that better than a funny, old make-believe man that drops in once a year?
  

I am not saying that we know the right answer yet or that we are even on the right track. We are just trying to figure out what is right for us. I guess that is all you can do. Luckily, we have one more year before Luke is old enough to truly understand. So we will use that time to really pray about and decide how our family wants to handle Jolly 'ol St. Nick. Any thoughts out there? Any book suggestions?

**You may not agree with this post and that is fine. It is more of a way for me to try to work through our struggle with Santa. Feel free to post your comments, but be nice! {wink, wink}...and remember that we are merely trying to do what we think is best for our kids...we all want that for them, don't we?

Advent Calendar 2009

My mom bought us the PB Advent calendar this year. David and I filled the pocket with activities last night! We are really excited to countdown to Christmas with fun, daily traditions. This is what we are planning thus far:

December 1: Neighborhood Christmas Tree lighting and Hay Ride
December 2: Buy and Make Christmas Granola
December 3: Parade of Lights
December 4: Go shopping for Daddy's Christmas Present
December 5: Put ornaments on the trees
December 6: Nativity Night (Put them out and read the story from the Jesus Storybook Bible)
December 7: Wrap Presents and make homemade marshmallows
December 8: Watch the Jesus Series Christmas Movie with hot cocoa & marshmallows (the best cocoa ever!)
December 9: Sing Christmas Carols in the tub
December 10: Make Sweetie cookies
December 11: Gingerbread House
December 12: Breakfast with Santa (at the local HS...he won't sit on his lap, but loved the games!)
December 13: Christmas Horse and Carriage Ride
December 14: Go shopping for Mommy's Christmas present
December 15: Have a fire in the fire place and watch the Boz Christmas movie
December 16: Buy Christmas presents for a needy family & our teachers at school
December 17: Make Gingerbread cookies/Angel Visits Mary Luke 1:26-28
December 18: Make rice krispy trees
December 19: Watch 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' and eat popcorn
December 20: Daddy's Birthday Dinner
December 21: Read Christmas books and drink eggnog (not spiked...HA!)
December 22: Make Christmas Cookies with Aunt Donna and kids.
December 23: Drive around and look at Christmas Lights
December 24: Church and make Happy Birthday Jesus Cake. Open PJs.
Christmas Day!!: Open Presents and Dinner with the family

Who's that?

Notice the picture above is of David from Junior High School...
While we were at Grandpa Jim and Nana's over Thanksgiving, Nana was going through some old photos and found this one of David. It was sitting on the table while Luke was eating lunch. David picked it up and said the following:

David: Luke, who is that? (showing Luke the picture)
Luke: I don't know. Who is it?
David: (putting his thumb over the top of his head to cover his hair...) Now, who is it Luke?
Luke: OH...it's Daddy!!

I guess he is hard to recognize with hair!
(Go ahead...cover the hair with your thumb...you know you want to!)

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.

Yep! That's right! It snowed this morning!! David was on his way out of town and sent us a txt, 'It's snowing.' Luke and I immediately ran to the door. It was so pretty!! What a wonderful treat! We finished breakfast and then got dressed to go play! Luke didn't really know what to do. He fell in it, picked it up, ate it, and kicked at it. It was fun to watch him discover. I got some cute pictures of him playing! What a fun morning!

YUM!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Christmas and Thanksgiving at Grampa Jim and Nana's

We spent the day after Thanksgiving with Grampa Jim and Nana. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. Charlie, Brook, Todd, Grace, Stephanie, Terry, and all the kids made for a wonderful time together. We opened presents and had a delicious Christmas dinner! It's been years since we've all had Christmas together. We are thankful for the time to gather as a family and celebrate the Christmas season together.
PS...Grandpa Jim and Nana, Luke LOVES his vacuum and cleans our house daily and Haydn cannot get enough of Sophie the Giraffe! Thank you for a wonderful weekend. We love you!

*This is the reason I don't have more pictures of that day. Charlie, Terry, and I played around with the camera to get some 'bokah' pictures. Love me some bokah! This was my favorite!

Brook and Haydn Grace....she can't get enough! :)

Todd, Grace and the kids...I took some pictures for their Christmas cards. They came out pretty good...

My BFF, Atlanta, painted a canvas for Grandpa Jim of his 'kids'...the dogs. She did a great job! It's amazing how well she captured the personality of each dog! She's amazing! Thank you, A. He LOVED it!

Maggie...their first dog...the queen. She passed away a few years ago.

Choco...#2. Your typical 'old man' dog...keeping guard over the ladies!

Cassie #3...she's a dapple, long hair. She's a stocky little thing. I would say she's a little tomboy.

Molly#4. She's my favorite! She's a cream long haired and super sweet. She's definitely the baby!

Grandpa Jim...choked up at the gift!
(We all wondered if he'd react the same way at a portrait of us...his REAL kids! HA!)
Merry Christmas, Grandpa Jim and Nana...we love you!

Thanksgiving with Lou Lou & Opa plus Happy Birthday, Opa!

Thanksgiving Day we celebrated with Lou Lou, Opa, Brook, Charlie, Jim, Khristi, Scott, and the kids. We not only bowed our heads in Thanksgiving for blessing us with a wonderful family, but also for a great Opa. The 25th was his birthday. We had a great time together that day! Happy Birthday, Opa. We are thankful for you. (Thanks, Lou Lou, for the pictures!)

Opa and Haydn Grace

'The girls'

Opa and The Kids

House Divided! Ready for the big game!

Opa's Birthday!

Aunt Brook and Haydn Grace

Luke and Ella played with the piggy banks forever...The pigs were missing stoppers, but they didn't seem to notice or care! :) They are exactly 1 year apart!

Playing outside

Lou Lou loves our sweet girl!

Lou Lou and Opa with Haydn


My Man...mmm..mm..mmmmm!!

We saw THIS on the way over to Charlie and Brook's for Christmas! HO! HO! HO!