Completed Bionicle

Huge Bionicle assembled....check!
Can you believe it's done? He actually finished it last Saturday...the day after Christmas! 849 pieces!

A Little Gift from Little Hands

Now that Christmas is over, I want to share a really cute homemade gift! Sorry I couldn't do it in time for Christmas, but the recipients of these read my blog ;)

Start with a plain votive. The site I found recommends blue but I couldn't find blue so I used regular clear ones. I think any color would look good too. Press your child's finger into white paint and press it on the votive in three places. After it dries, add eyes, mouth and anything else you want to make a snowman!

I then printed off a little verse to put inside:

Little snowmen 1,2,3
Made with my fingers for you from me.
The candle inside will burn so bright
To remind you that I LOVE YOU
Day and night.

(Leave room at the bottom for them to sign)

On the back we put Matthew 5:16:

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
Such a sweet little reminder from a sweet, little girl :)

Here's the link to the site I used. It's really a great site for the preschool-kindergarten ages. Enjoy!

A Fun Surprise

This morning, I shampooed the carpet in the kids' rooms in the hopes that they would be dry come bedtime. Of course that would not happen! Megan's is fairly dry, but the boys' carpet is still way too wet for them to be walking on, so guess what the kids found when they came home? Sleeping bags in the family room! Yep, it's sleep-over night here :)

(Todd and I had DATE NIGHT! so we were not home when they got here, but we'd set it all up before we left while they were at church)

They watched "Up", which is a favorite around here, and then it was off to sleep for them!

Wise Men Seek Him Still...

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
When Herod the king heard this he was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him. Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
'And you, Bethlehem, Land of Judea;
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a ruler
Who will Shepard my people, Israel.' "
Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him."
After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
After coming to the house they saw the Child with Mary, His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:1-12

Christmas Day part 2

We spent the rest of Christmas Day with Todd's parents. We like to be home all of Christmas day so they join us here and we have lunch together and open more presents :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get the group picture before Kristen left for her dad's house.

Do you see our kids still in their pj's? They stayed in them all day long! It was ...lovely :)

Guess who was hiding in the gift bag?
;)
Guess who needs a nap?
yep!

Christmas Day part 1

Another thing we changed this year had to do with Christmas Day. In the previous years, the kids saw Santa's gifts first, then after all the ooo-ing and ahhh-ing Kristen passed out all the gifts to everyone and there was gift-opening chaos! This has always been fine for me as I enjoy watching them and all the chaos, but this year, I wanted to do it differently.

The kids gift each other, carefully choosing something they think their brothers and sisters will love. After all that effort, I felt they should have the pleasure of giving the gift and watching the recipient open it! When I put all the presents under the tree, I made sure the ones they bought for each other were right up front. After they all saw the treasures that Santa left for them, I handed them their gifts to each other one at a time to the giver and told them who it was to so they could give it to them themselves.

I was a little afraid they might tire of this while anxiously looking at all the gifts under the tree, but they did great!
I loved watching them experience giving. It was different than giving at birthdays, as they had to put off their desire for opening their own presents while they were giving, but they did wonderful and I think they really enjoyed watching the others open the gifts that were lovingly chosen for them :)

After their exchange was over, Kristen passed out the gifts that were left and it was chaos once again, just the way I like it ;)
See this thing? It has 849 pieces, I kid you not. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment ;)
And he has it completed :)
Nicholas has been asking us how to make a sock monkey. Well guess what? There's a kit for that :)
He is one excited little guy!

An after-present-opening snuggle :)
It was a wonderful, relaxing morning!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Santa brings each child in our house one toy and also leaves some family gifts for us all to share (of course our stockings are stuffed too!). He leaves them right out front, unwrapped so it's the first thing they see when they come down. We very much look forward to seeing what surprises Santa has in store for everyone :)
Santa always knows what books, movies, and games will be the perfect addition to our home and leaves them in baskets ;)

One More Picture from Christmas Eve!

I forgot this one! I used my timer to get us all and I love how it turned out! See the black and white picture in the background? They're my grandparents. My mom painted that and it's the perfect, although completely accidental, addition to this picture :)

Christmas Eve

We decided to change things up a bit this year and I love the way things went!

We always spend Christmas Eve at my mom's for dinner and presents. This year, we bumped dinner up just a bit so between dinner and presents, we could go to church for our candlelight service! We had never been for various reasons, the biggest being that we had very young kids and dragging out the evening wasn't appealing ;) But now, they are all old enough and it was perfect! The service was a wonderful addition to our Christmas Eve and made the evening a bit more meaningful. At the end of singing many carols and hearing all the verses of Jesus' birth, we each had candles that we lit and sang Silent Night with all the lights out in the sanctuary, only the lights of the candles. It was very still and very special.

After the service, we went back to my mom's for gifts :) We took it a bit more slowly this year with Mom handing each of the younger ones their gifts one at a time (Kristen doesn't get toys anymore, she gets a gift card to spend anyway she chooses ;)) It was really nice for her to get to share in their joy a bit more!
I love when they open something and say, "LOOK at what I got!". Priceless :)
Kristen got a couple of small gifts that she loves along with some cash which she is looking forward to spending ;)
The boys got a frog aquarium (terrarium?)! I forsee a unit study on frogs and metamorphosis this spring ;)
Megan's new doll that she named "Megan". I thought that was appropriate ;)
The boys got so many things this Christmas to build or transform...does that surprise you??
It was a fantastic Christmas Eve! Dinner was wonderful and we added a new tradition which we all loved. :)

Merry Christmas!

I thought I would share my favorite Christmas Carol sung by one of my favorite groups :) Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

Twas the Saturday Before Christmas...

Every year, we celebrate Christmas with Todd's extended family on the Saturday before Christmas. We have a big dinner and then play a game with gifts...so much fun! It's really great to spend the evening with everyone :)

The minute we got there, Nicholas confiscated Meemaw Judy's antlers :)
Enjoying food and good conversation. I'll try to get everyone on here! I apologize if I've left anyone out. I randomly snap pictures and pay no attention to who I'm actually taking pictures of and often I look at them after I load them and think, "I didn't even get so-and-so!"! I really need to get better at that!

Jules, Trevor, and Chris? Sorry, I'm horrible with names.
Kristen and Scott:
Kathy, Wayne, Carla, Carol, Russ, and Devon:
Kathy is trying to get Wayne to look at the camera. Men!
Nicholas, Judy, Russ, Devon, Derek, and Scott:
Kristen, Scott, and Barb. Scott and Barb celebrated one year of wedded bliss today! Congratulations!
Megan is trying to get Brandon to dance with her!
Good luck with that! He MAY dance at his wedding, but I'm not holding my breath ;)

Nicholas snuggling up to Meemaw Judy:
Playing with their new little video games from Meemaw and Papaw :)
Opening goodies from Uncle Scott and Aunt Barb:
Uncle Scott got Brandon a cool Bengals claw! It was a hit I tell ya ;) They were all fighting over it! lol
Nicholas playing a game of "roll-the-ball" with Molly. She actually rolls it!
Kristen posing for her momma ;) (Barb's not looking at the camera because I forget to announce that I'm taking a picture ...GAH!)
It was a great evening!

Zoo Christmas Lights

We finally made it to the zoo! This is the first year we've all made it in a very long time. Actually, Megan, and maybe even Nicholas, wasn't even born the last time Todd made it so technically this is the first time we were all there!

This is the clearest picture I could get.
My beauties with the lights:
My loves:
This is how it really looked though (without all the blur):
The lights are amazing! It's truly like walking in a winter wonderland!

It was cold so we stopped in as many buildings as possible ;) A favorite is the manatee and aquarium. I don't think we can go to the zoo without seeing those exhibits!

Since it was later than usual, some of the animals were sleeping which was cool to see. And we got to see another cool thing:
The seahorses are pregnant! So cool!

Megan was pretending to drive the boat ;) The scene in front of her is actually a video that made it look like you are really on a boat! It's constantly moving and changing.
While we were waiting in line for our hot chocolate and pecans, I snapped our little sweeties!

My beauties again :)
My handsome guys:

When it was time to go, they were all disappointed. Megan had a heart-attack because we didn't make it over to the tigers. Right then and there, I made the decision to hit the zoo more often. I think some zoo programs are in our future!