Tumbling Practice

Big Brother participates in a home school tumbling so we try to practice a bit every day...doesn't always work out that way, but we make attempts. Here are a few pictures of him practicing. Amazed how quickly he is growing in strength to do some of the movements required. We had just had our carpets cleaned the day before so there was no furniture in the living room - lots of space to tumble.

Big Sister's 3-year Photo Shoot

These are a few pictures I was able to get of Big Sister a few weeks back after she turned three. Some day I would love to take some photography lessons, but for now, we will run with what we get. She is such a cutie that even my amateur photo taking captures the beautiful smile of my precious daughter. There were many more silly pictures - with cheesy grins and pirate eyes, but we were able to pull a few out of the bunch. What a blessing she is to our home and always full of smiles. She has recently really gotten into princesses and castles and kings, so love sharing stories about how she is God's little princess - I pray she will grow up knowing how precious she is in the sight of her Father.

Just hanging around - this was the pose she picked!

Had to get one with her hair down. Still amazed at the quantity of hair on her head.

Thanksgiving Post (a little behind on the blog)

I pretty much took the whole month of December off from blogging, so having to do a little backtracking to get caught up. I know we just celebrated Christmas, but I just had to share Big Brother's Thanksgiving turkey creation. Every year, I put together a fruit and/or vegetable turkey and this year, Big Brother asked if he could create his own fruit turkey. So here is a picture of his wonderful creation. I was then able to simplify and do a quick vegetable turkey. So fun and healthy too!

Gratitude - continued

This is a continuation of yesterday's post. If you have not read it - check it out. So many things to be grateful for. I am doing today's list in paragraph form as I do not have enough room to make a running list.

3 Gifts Noon: Lunch, Table to eat at, Family Time; 3 Gifts Red: apples, strawberries, watermelon; Gift Grateful: Jesus - eternal life; Variety of foods to eat; TV; Cups; 3 Gifts Silent: snow falling, rest/sleep, quietness; Ears; Kaila's friends; Technology; Grace; 3 Gifts Hard Eucharisteo: Trials, Illnesses, Discipline; 3 Gifts Traditions: Saturday morning pancakes, Popcorn Sunday, advent; Honey
Opportunity to Homeschool; Candy; Ability to provide for family; Family: Great Gpa Carlson, Uncle Dan, Uncle Lance, Christman Family, Uncle Tim's family, Dixons, Gpa and Gma Core, Great Gma Core, all other family; 3 Gifts looking out window: vehicles, play area, beautiful sunsets, God's Creation; 3 Gifts Autumn: cool evenings, fall leaves, harvest, pumpkins; Duct Tape; 3 Gifts Only in Christ: Fruit of the Spirit, Forgiveness, Eternal Life; 3 Gifts Preparing: Insurance, Handmade Gifts, Ability to Cook; 3 Gifts Laughter: jokes, dinner conversation, Aaliyah, Silly Movies; bed; 3 Gifts Astonishing: harvest moon, Jesus' resurrection, God's Love; Grandpa Alan; bread; Tadeo; Gpa and Gma Wellner; soy sauce; croutons; God; zoo; 3 Gifts Community: small group, Bible study, fellowship; a Gift gathered: Garden Harvest; a Gift Good: House; a Gift Given: Tadeo's gift; 3 Gifts Ugly-Beautiful: caterpillar to butterfly, thunderstorm to rainbow, dark to light (Jesus), coal to diamond, dirty to clean

Gratitude - all of the time

Why is it so hard sometimes to stop and remember all the ways God has blessed us and provided for us. I know, often, I am easily distracted by the busyness around me and selfishly start thinking - if only I had this or that it would make things easier, if I only had more time I could accomplish this or that...and there is no longer gratitude, but an attitude of discontentment. If we really stop to think about it everything around us - even our current circumstances - whether good or bad - provide so many opportunities to be grateful. Although in the moment we may not feel very grateful, "forcing" those grateful thoughts and words can truly work miracles in changing our attitude of selfishness to that of complete focus on Christ and all he does for us. I have been following a blog of Ann Voskamp's http://www.aholyexperience.com/ and she shares some great insight on staying grateful all the time. We decided as a family to use her November Count 1000 Gifts to help us to think outside of the box through the month of November. The goal is to write down anywhere from one to three gifts each day and through an entire year you will have written down 1000 Gifts. Here is our November collection. Some are extras we added in as well. Love this list and know we could easily add 100's more. Hoping to have this be a family focus for us going forward. Tomorrow's post will include the rest of our thankfuls.

3 Gifts Eaten:  French Toast, Maple Syrup, Our Garden Harvest
Forgiveness
3 Gifts Bible Reading: Wisdom, Truth, Promises
3 Gifts Harvest: Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Tomatos
Gift Handmade: Wooden truck from Great Grandma
Gift Held: Babies
Gift Happy: Adelina
Gifts Made: Doll Table, Felt Carrot
Gifts Rememberance: Great Grandpa Core, Great Grandma Carlson, Great Grandma McDonough
Seth's Rock from CA
Gifts Passed On: hand-me down clothing
Pink Flowers Seth Made
Salad
Gift Shared: Smiles
Bracelet
Butterfly Wings
Aaliyah
Mommy and Daddy - this was written down a couple of times : )
God's abundant grace
3 Gifts Government: Freedom to Vote, Constitution, Daddy's Job, and Soldiers
Quilt
Kaila and Aaliyah's Birthday Party
3 Gifts Acorn-small: marbles, wedding ring (and all it represents), eyes (to see)
Aunt Leah
3 Gifts Worn: sweatshirts, warm hats, shoes
Cutting board (Kaila birthday gift)
Gift Salty: Popcorn
Gift Sweet: Candy
Gift Sipped: Milk and Hot Cocoa
Seth
3 Gifts Humble: Serving Others, Being Served, Prayer
3 Gifts that start with N: Neighbors, Niki (Aunt), Noodles
Grandpa and Grandma McDonough
My Kitchen (Kaila)
3 Gifts Behind Door: Beds, The Great Outdoors, Warm Coat
Our Little Ones
Chad's Job
Cheese
Ability to Create Things (crafts, sewing, etc.)
Lily
3 Gifts Golden: DAddy's wedding band, sun rays, wheat

Look Who's One!

It is hard to believe that Baby Sister is One!! Where did the last year go? It was full of cuddles and smiles! Such a happy baby girl!

Gpa A is a favorite around our house. We are blessed to see him every week - sometimes more!

Baby Sister loved her piece of carrot cake. I thought twice about serving her a big piece of chocolate cake like Big Sister had as she is primarily still nursing...the carrot cake was still a bit much for her tummy to handle. She had not been spitty for months and then she was - pretty sure it was the food she ate at her party.

Looks Who Three!

Big Sister turned 3 this past weekend! This was a picture taken a few weeks earlier for her birthday invite!

Even though she was on her third day of fevers, Big Sister had a great birthday! We started the Saturday with our customary pancake breakfast. For some birthday fun, Big Sister put sprinkles into all our pancakes - yummy!!

Big Sister enjoyed playing with her cousin K during her birthday party. This was the birthday sensory bin I put together last week. It was great to see the idea of using rainbow rice as the base of this sensory bin as we had a whole bunch on hand from St. Patrick's Day. I then just threw in a few candles from our Melissa and Doug's Birthday Cake, some flowers, noise makers, small gift bags, and some 1's and 3's. The girls enjoyed scooping into the gift bags and emptying them back out again.

Big Sister was all smiles at her birthday party. I made the fun cupcake shirts for both my girls and Gma D C had picked up the fun skirts at a consignment shop a few weeks back! You would not have known that Big Sister was under the weather seeing this picture.

Showing off an assortment of items received for her birthday! It was so cute to see how much she loved all her gifts. There were a couple of items that were unwrapped and delivered directly to her bedroom. She wanted to be sure they were kept safe and sound. One was a My Princess Bible that we bought for her with her initials embossed on the front, and the other was a Cinderella princess doll.

Enjoying being pushed by Uncle D in her new John Deere wheelbarrow.

Big Sister ended her evening by coloring in a new coloring book with Aunt L.

DIY Project - Family Style

Everyone was anxious to pitch in and help redo our dining room chairs last week. As you can see they were in much need of repair. This one actually looks good compared to some of them.

Beatrix Potter - Garden "tea" Party

For the girls' birthday party, I decided to go with a Beatrix Potter garden tea party theme. We were truly blessed to receive a large box of Beatrix Potter collectibles from Daddy's great Aunt E from out in CA last year and thought it would be fun to really put it to good use for our party. The cake decorating idea was a Pinterest find - but of course I had to modify - the "vegetables" included starbursts, M&Ms, jolly rancher chews, cornflakes, and frosting. The cake itself was a recipe from Living History Farms.

Peter Rabbit jumping into the flower pot!

Big Brother help me put together these "carrots" with our napkins and silverware.

Teacups - also a Pinterest find.

Big Brother made this great carrot out of balloons. We had a ton of balloons hung all over in the house and garage for the girls to enjoy.