Forrest Sledding

Then it was Forrest's turn. He loved it, too! Check out how in the pictures he is completely hidden by the sled! He came out with a big smile! We loved playing with our neighbors... Caroline is helping me get Forrest ready.

Andrew Sledding

By far, the most favorite part of the snow for the boys was sledding. They went down the hill countless times! By yesterday afternoon, Andrew could get himself situated on the sled, give himself a push off, and head down by himself. He had it all figured out. They went back out this morning to sled... until it turned too muddy. Boy, was it fun!

A Beautiful Day with my Favorite People

Is that Jesus' cross?

On Tuesday morning, I was driving the kids to "school". Right before our church, there is a baptist church that has a small cross on its sign.

Andrew said, "Look Mama. Is that Jesus' cross... that he died on to save us from our sins?" (This has been a frequent question lately as we drive by church crosses.)

"Yes, it is Andrew." I responded, so excited to hear that my little one is thinking about Jesus' cross and beginning to understand what the cross is a symbol of.

I continued, "And if we believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, then God will take us to live in heaven one day. Do you know what heaven is?" I continue describing heaven.... and by this time we are in the parking lot. When I finish my "3 year-old-appropriate" heaven description, I pause waiting to hear how Andrew will respond...

He says, "Mama, will you turn it up?" Referring to the Christmas Kindermusik CD that we are listening to in the car (Yes, this is February and we're listening to Christmas music still.) The conversation that I had been so excited about having with my son was over almost as quickly as it had started.

Andrew's first observation was great and I loved the opportunity he gave me to share. But it's also a bit hard to start the conversation but not really get to take it that far, do you know what I mean? Do you ever have moments like this? You get a glimpse of spiritual understanding from your child and then minutes later they are onto something else... Or maybe your toddler says "no" when you ask him/her to say a prayer with you? That happens at our house.

Here is a link to a brief, yet very encouraging blog post about teaching our children spiritually...

I think I'll be referring back to this one.

Sinking Stones and Evening Devotions

p.s. The Big Picture Story Bible mentioned in the blog is great! We have this and love it.

Posted using ShareThis

Hats

I just love to sit and watch my little ones interact with each other. Now of course there are times when they aren't nice.... and I don't love those times. But when they are sweet, it's precious!

Forrest has become a fan of hats lately. He has especially enjoyed this straw hat. It was a birthday party favor from a couple of years ago, but I think it has spent more time on someone's head this week then the times from the past 2 years combined. Here's how the playing went between Forrest and Ann Evelyn.

Forrest - Puts the hat on his head and shows "Sissy".

Now, he thinks, I wonder what this hat would look like on Sissy's head? Puts in on her.

Forrest and Andrew check her out... Smiles from everyone!

Hmm... Forrest thinks he needs to put it on again.

Now, back to Sissy. Forrest looks proud of his work. Sissy looks happy to be wearing the hat, doesn't she?

A very cute interchange between these two without any spoken words.

Forrest LOVES his Sissy.

A few days later... Forrest and the straw hat once again.

Andrew has been having fun with the cowboy hat. Here he is riding the horse and yelling "Yee Haw!"

January Highlights

I couldn't let January get too far away without posting pictures of some fun highlights of the month...

We had our own little New Year's Party at our house - complete with party hats, horns, and beads. No one was more excited than Andrew! (Except for maybe May-May who supplied most of our party goodies. Thanks, May-May!) He and I made cupcakes to eat after our dinner. Then, he INSISTED on Wilson taking him to get some RED sparklers. What a fun night!

"Camping!"

The boys got a cute Curious George book for Christmas, and one of their favorite stories in it is "Curious George goes Camping". Needless to say, this has sparked a huge new interest of camping in Andrew. He is SO ready to go camp, and climb a mountain, and sleep in his sleeping bag, and roast marshmallows... He's READY!!! Do you remember all of those cold days in January? Well, we set up a little tent in the den a lot and the boys pretended to camp. They brought their "bitty" pillows, sleeping bags, blankets and books in, and we ate a snack of chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, and graham crackers. It was a great way to entertain my stir-crazy boys. The only problem is Andrew still wants a snack of chocolate chips and marshmallows every day when he wakes up from his nap. :)

The 1st picture right above is of Andrew roasting a marshmallow on a stick. Wilson pulled out his small camping burner one cold night for he and Andrew to roast marshmallows over. Poor Forrest was sick and was miserable having to watch thru the window. But, they did share some with all of us. The 2nd is the boys in the tent. Neither the boys nor the camera were being very cooperative... but we had to catch the memory.

Forrest is sleeping in a big boy bed!!

We made the transition about 3 weeks ago. After watching the boys do acrobatic tricks from the top of the changing table into the crib, we decided that for safety reasons we just had to make the change. He's done great! Proud of our big boy!

And sweet baby girl is rolling! She's been rolling for several weeks, but how funny to leave her on the playmat and come back a few minutes later to find this! She looks so excited, doesn't she?! I took pictures today of her sitting up by herself. I just can't believe how big she is getting. She'll be 6 months old on Saturday!

There's just something about this boy...

His eyes, his dimples, his soft blonde hair, the sweet way he says "Mama" and "I wove you"... I could just eat him up!!

Ann Evelyn, child of the covenant

Ann Evelyn was baptized on Sunday at our church. Our dear associate pastor, Bob Brunson, baptized her, and my dad said a beautiful prayer for her. Wilson was called at noon on Saturday and asked to fill in at the pulpit... so he preached the sermon at her baptism. Ann Evelyn was precious... listened, smiled, and just seemed to take it all in. The boys were cute. Forrest fell asleep during the prayer before the baptism so he slept on Wilson's shoulder during the baptism. My dad was holding Andrew. (He was up there with us since he was going to be saying a prayer for her.) Andrew grabbed hold of sleeping Forrest's hand and held it during the prayers. Precious. Andrew was so sweet about his sister's special day. He loves to look at the album of pictures from his baptism so I think that he had an idea of what was going on. And of course, he was excited about the "party" we were having after. Even though it was really just lunch with our family, it was a party to him. We were blessed to have family join us for the occasion. It was a wonderful day.

"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." Genesis 17:7

"Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."
Acts 2:38-39

All I wanted for Christmas...

What a wonderful Christmas we had with our sweet little family! Wilson accurately nicknamed Andrew "Mr. Christmas". He LOVED it! Decorating, wrapping (& unwrapping on Christmas morning :)) presents, singing Christmas carols, reading Christmas books, making cookies, opening Christmas cards, looking at lights and decorations, coloring Christmas pages... anything we did over the holidays that was related to Christmas was so fun and exciting to Andrew. He loved decorating the tree and stayed with it until the last ornament was hung. After which he said, "Can we decorate some more tomorrow, Mama?" The night before we took the tree down I told Andrew that he needed to say 'good-bye' to the Christmas tree because we'd be taking it down that night after he went to bed. He thought for a moment before he said, "Ok, but can we go pick out a new tree tomorrow and decorate it tomorrow night?" I think he'd be content to celebrate Christmas year 'round! Me, too, sweet boy!

I think one of my most favorite things about Christmas was hearing Andrew sing Christmas carols. I was amazed at how many he knew so well! From Jingle Bells and Here Comes Santa Claus to Silent Night and O Come all Ye Faithful, he was always singing - and still is. :) What a sweet sound to my ears. Andrew has a love for music. I pray that he'll continue to and the Lord will use it to glorify Him. It was a blessing to have this refreshing joy in our home brought to us by our sweet Andrew. One day Wilson said to Andrew, "I love your Christmas spirit, Andrew." Andrew quickly replied, "I love your Christmas spirit, too, Dada." This became almost a daily conversation between the two of them.

Forrest loved the special things that the holidays brought, too. He loved looking at "Frosty", "Thomas", and "Santa Claus" in the front yard. (Yes, we had blow-ups.) Whenever we came home at night and the blow-ups were lit, Forrest wanted to walk to the front yard to say hello. So cute. He loved looking for Frosty, Rudolph, and Santa Claus in decorations, on TV, in books. It was like they were his friends, and he called them by name whenever he saw them. :) The boys definitely understood about Santa this year. And we also had a special visitor with us over the holidays... our Elf, Jack. Andrew and Forrest loved finding him each morning. Andrew would talk to him a little, and even Forrest would say "Hi Jack" or "Bye Jack" when coming and going.

The boys also seemed to really understand the Christmas story and Baby Jesus' birth. They loved playing with the nativity sets and listening to Christmas devotions. Forrest would look for "Baby Jesus" the same way he would for Santa. And he loved picking up the baby from the nativity set. Whenever Baby Jesus was missing from the nativity, we knew Forrest had most likely placed it somewhere - and he usually could find him for us. It was precious to share the story of Jesus' birth with our boys and see them taking it in. Andrew and I made Jesus a birthday cake - remember he loves parties and celebrations, so it was very fitting for us to make a cake for Jesus and sing to him.

Ann Evelyn had a wonderful first Christmas. She loves watching her brothers and being a part of all that they do. She was a sweetheart over the holidays, as usual!

So what did everyone want for Christmas?

Well, if you asked Andrew... a yo-yo, candy canes, and a trumpet! He would respond with yo-yo and candy canes all of December. Trumpet was added the week of Christmas! Since he said it several times, we knew he wasn't going to let it go. Santa had to have some special help to find that trumpet!

And for Forrest... he wouldn't actually name anything to Santa (however he might now... he's been gradually talking more and more in the past couple of months) but he LOVES Handy Manny - he carries the tools around all the time to "fix it". So Santa knew he'd be so excited about his new tool box and Manny's truck!

And for Baby Girl... some sweet little girl things... some pink for her room, clothes, and girly toys. She loves her baby doll, a colorful teething ring, and her musical flowers.

And for Wilson and me... we just loved being with our sweet little ones. Words cannot explain how overwhelmed I feel by the Lord's blessings on our family. What a precious, priceless gift to spend so much time together and to reflect on our Savior's birth. I think we all received so much more than we could have ever wanted, and so much more than we deserve for Christmas. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Happy New Year, friends!

Christmas Morning!

Good Morning, Ann Evelyn!

The boys LOVED looking in their stockings. An apple was at the very bottom, and they thought it was the perfect snack!

The trumpet!! He was sooo excited! :)

And he was super excited about his yo-yo! He actually got 3 yo-yos - Santa left one at our house, and at each of the grandparents' houses, too!

Forrest grabbed 'Felipe' right away. He was a little overwhelmed looking at everything Santa brought. He had to take it in a little... Andrew just jumped right in and started playing.

Ann Evelyn was precious with her doll. She held her and looked at her. Then, she'd kiss the doll's face. I don't know if it was all kissing or if there was some teething going on, too, but it was so, so cute!

Too big, too fast!

Happy 5 months to our Baby Girl! She's just getting too big, too fast! We went for a sick visit to the doctor yesterday (yucky cold, cough, & fluid in her ears and so, her first antibiotic), and she weighed in at a whopping 20.4 pounds! She's a big girl! It's not just her weight that reminds me of how she's growing... she's working on sitting up, loving her cereal, quite interactive with toys and our family, and has settled into a great schedule. She's as sweet as ever and is quite the little princess in our family, adored by her brothers and parents alike. We are loving every minute with her!!

And speaking of growing too fast... two little boys are doing the same.

I'm so behind with my posting, but I really hope to catch up soon!!