Christmas break highlights...part one

We have loved being back in Indiana for our Christmas break!  Staying with grandparents is a huge hit for our kids (and for us, too!)  The first part of our break we stayed with my parents, and it was so much fun.  (But we missed you, Aaron and Jill!!)  Then we moved into Nathan's parents' house just in time for Aunt Jenna's visit.  More pictures on that later!

So here are just a few pictures from the first part of our break...just a few highlights.  It is super overwhelming to do a blogpost when I have hundreds of pictures on my camera :)  So here are a few.  

Can't begin to say how much we love and appreciate these two...what generous and loving grandparents they are!

We face-timed Aaron and Jill at our family gatherings.  It was so good to talk to them, and super fun to watch my 97 year old grandma doing face time!  She is so cute :)

Nathan and I won first and second place in the ugly Christmas sweater contest! (Thanks Aaron, for letting me borrow your sweater!) Just for fun, see the next pic of Aaron wearing it last year. You're welcome, bro :)

                           


We survived more stomach flu!  Halle and Layla both had it, and they were sweet little flu patients :)

Making Christmas cookies is always a huge hit...

I love spending time with my grandparents!  So thankful that I am still blessed with 4 wonderful grandparents.  I thank the Lord for that!

One more week in Indiana! 

Christmas--just the 6 of us

We celebrated our Christmas last night with our kids.  Since we will be leaving on Friday for our Christmas break (Indiana, here we come!!), we decided to celebrate with our kids a little bit early.  It was a very fun evening with a surprise ending.

Halle decorated napkins for everyone in our family.  She did such a good job!  This is a tradition started by our beloved GW assistant, Lisa.  She always used to decorated napkins whenever a resident had a birthday.  Lisa, we miss you!!

We decided to do a breakfast-for-dinner meal, because breakfast food is what our kids like best!  So Nathan made eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon, and we also had cinnamon rolls...and pop.  Because pop goes with everything :)  Layla loved the bacon...

Poor Kaine was not feeling well.  This is pretty much how he was the whole evening.  Poor little guy (turns out he has an ear infection and strep, by the way).  :(

Nathan did an amazing job (once again) creating some fun games for our kids!  We decided not to buy them gifts, but instead just little prizes to go with with the homemade games.  They loved it!

Daisy was excited about her prize bag :)

In this game, Nathan propped one end of our table and the kids had to roll Skittles into a box at the other end.  Whatever Skittles they got into the box, they will get to eat on our way to Indiana this weekend.  Great idea, honey!

Well, this is where our night's "surprise ending" came.  Picture this scene, with the tilted table, and Daisy leaning over the table...and then she got SICK.  I won't give you all the gory details, but just picture Daisy looking stunned and our kids screaming "the puke is going to slide into the Skittle box!"  Ha!  It is amusing to look back on.  Not so amusing then.

So this is where Daisy and I ended our night.  She doesn't look too sick here, huh?  It was actually kind of fun to cuddle with her on the couch and just watch the rest of the night's festivities with her :)

Fun night!  And I can't wait for a Christmas in Indiana!

Teaching our kids truth

My alarm clock goes off at 5:30 every morning.  During the 5:30-6:00 time slot, the local Christian station broadcasts the "Family Talk" radio show with James Dobson and Ryan Dobson (not "Focus on the Family", but very similar).  And every morning, it is soooo hard to drag myself out of bed before 6:00 because I am usually riveted by the topic being discussed!  

I am not one who keeps up very well on news or current events, but this radio show is fixing that for me, big time--but from a Christian worldview.  The subjects they discuss are downright concerning.  The path America is on right now is a very scary and Godless path.  Maybe I will blog some time about some of these topics.

In light of all that, Nathan and I see the HUGE importance to make sure our kids clearly understand TRUTH.  By God's grace, we are trying to raise them with a God-centered, biblical worldview.  We know that they need to understand theology and how to live the Christian life.

Look at these sweet faces.  Who knows what their future holds?  Seriously...it could hold some very hard times, persecution or who knows what.  We have just a few short years to teach them the truth of God's Word--and we pray that it will always be deeply embedded in their hearts.

So...all of that to say...here are some really good books that we love.  Nathan is very intentional in this area of teaching our kids the Word of God.  He does very God-centered devotions with them every day, and I always feel like I learn more just by listening to them!  Here are some recent books that we have used.

The Lamb, by John Cross.  This book is hands down the best one we have ever read in explaining the Gospel to kids.  Actually, I would even recommend it for adults.  It goes chronologically through the Bible in a very understanding way for kids, and with lots of pictures too!   The Big Picture of the Bible is explained so well.  We love this book. 

The Priest with Dirty Clothes, by R.C. Sproul (notice the next 3 books are all by Sproul...he has some great kids books!)  This is a great book that teaches the doctrine of imputation (our sin imputed to Christ, and His righteousness imputed to believers).  Deep theological concepts, but in a readable, captivating and very  understandable kids' book!   And it is possible for kids to understand concepts like imputation, even at pretty young ages!

Much the same as that...The Prince's Poison Cup by Sproul.  We might even like this one better!  This book covers the topic of atonement, and the necessity of Jesus Christ taking God's wrath for believers--the wrath that we so deeply deserve.

The Lightlings, again by R.C. Sproul.  This book is about the beautiful story of redemption.  It will cover things for kids such as why some people are more afraid of the Light than they are of the dark.  Another amazing book.

On a different level, these books are also some that we have been loving.  They are Frank Peretti's "The Cooper Kids Adventure Series".  They are chapter books, aimed at ages 9 and up, but we have been reading them to Kaine (he is almost 8).  They are action-packed mysteries, and actually could be a little scary for younger kids.  They deal with topics such as witchcraft, evil spirits, etc--but the main characters (the Cooper kids and their dad) have a very God-centered, biblical worldview that causes them to be very wise and discerning in the most scary or evil circumstances.  These aren't topics we would normally discuss with young kids, but we feel that it is very important for them to be aware of this stuff.  It is very real, and we want them to know that and to be able to understand clearly that God is so much more powerful. If you have ever read Frank Peretti, you know that he has a very creative imagination, and these stories are the same.  I love reading them to Kaine!  I always can't wait to see what happens next :)

Does anyone have any other books that have been helpful in teaching your kids truth?  We would love to hear about them!  

Phonetics

I have a blog-genius for a sister.  God has seriously gifted her!

If you have a few minutes, PLEASE hop on over to Jill's blog.  She just did an awesome blogpost about our most fascinating class that we are taking, called Phonetics.  It is the most interesting and useful class--we are loving it and so thankful they are teaching us this stuff now, before we go to our tribe!!

Here is the link--
http://hut-sweet-hut.blogspot.com/2013/12/fnks.html

Have a wonderful day!

a family slumber party!

We started a new tradition (at least, I hope it will become a tradition!) on Friday night.

Halle has been begging me to have a slumber party with her.  I thought it sounded really fun, but I knew her other sibs would love it as well!  

So I proposed an idea to Nathan--why don't we have a family slumber party?

He loved the idea!

So on Friday night, I got some good "kid-friendly food" (aka Totino's pizza rolls, dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggest, tater tots and rainbow sherbet) and we had a fun supper:

And then we watched a movie, which we pretty rarely do.  We rented "The Crood's", which we LOVED!  It was such a funny, cute movie.  Our kids laughed hysterically at it, and it was just really fun.

Nathan was in multitasking mode, so while I snuggled with the kids on the couch, Nathan painstakingly folded and stuffed envelopes with our Christmas cards/newsletters.  Thank you, baby!!

Daisy is a little young to enjoy a full-length movie, so a lot of the time she just carried around her babies.  She is just too cute:)

After the movie, Nathan brought down our queen-size mattress for the kids to sleep on, and they had a blast jumping on it for awhile...

Then he settled them down by reading them a couple of chapters in the Thanksgiving novel that we have been reading to them.

Nathan and I slept on the couches while our kids slept on the mattress, and we all had such a fun time! The next night, Daisy wanted to sleep in the living room again :)  Although our slumber party was a lot of fun, I still prefer to sleep next to my hubby!  So maybe this will be a once or twice a year thing.  

Love doing things like this with our kiddos!

a weekend to be thankful for.

This past weekend we traveled some more...this time back to Indiana for Thanksgiving!  It was the first time that we have been back home since we moved to Missouri, so we were more than ready to see everyone.

We stayed at Nathan's parents' house.  They have a great setup for our family to stay on our short breaks (like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring break).  Our kids love all the attention they get from their grandparents :)

On Thanksgiving morning, we had church services at our church.  It was so great to be back in our home church again!  Look at super-daddy, straightening Halle's hair before church :)

After church we had Thanksgiving dinner with Nathan's family.  Thanks, Mom M. and grandma, for all you put into that...it was a great meal!

(Kaine found a stash of Miami Dolphins hats, put away from Nathan's childhood.  Nathan's mom graciously gave them all to Kaine--thanks, mom!  Now my son is constantly wearing a vintage Dolphins hat on his head :) ) 

Our kids loved the Thanksgiving meal, too!  Here is Halle, smashing on her pumpkin pie.  I love how she picked the whole thing up :)

Daisy also approved of the meal :)

We celebrated Layla's birthday during our dinner (how many celebrations can one kid have?  I think it was like her fifth one!!)

Here she is, showing off one of her new sweatshirts that Nathan's parents gave her...

Nathan and I very spontaneously decided to go shopping that night!  We left around 9:00.  I am not the most spontaneous person, so this was a little crazy for me.  And I really am not sure what to think about all the Black Friday craziness...but we definitely don't get into all the push and shove of trying to get good deals.  We just thought it sounded like a fun date!  How many times in life do I get to go on a middle-of-the-night date with my hubby?  It was so much fun :)

So here we are, ready to go to Fort Wayne--when we should have been thinking of heading to bed! Crazy :)

We randomly met up with Michael and Jane at Kohls and Target!  How fun--here we are, eating pizza and drinking Starbucks at 3:00 am. :)

We also spent time at my parents' house, with a couple of different Thankgiving gatherings.  

Kaine and my grandpa... 

The "kids table"...

 Kaine and his good friend/cousin Avery.  They are both missing their 2 front teeth!

Ha!  I love this of Daisy and her cousin Atlas...they both have blond hair in their eyes :)

Nathan and Aaron played some football with Kaine...

And then, the drive back to Missouri.  It is about a 9 hour drive, so it isn't terrible...but the last couple of hours kind of drag.  I know we will have to be getting used to this traveling around, with a missionary life, but I don't know if I am ready for it!  Snack bags from Grandma Jan helped...

And some surprise bags from Grandpa Dave and Grandma Terri...

And of course, electronics are a blessing on long drives :)  We try to limit them, but they are pretty nice.  Kaine and Halle like taking turns on the ipad, so I feel like they are at least interacting with each other too, and not just the ipad.

Nathan rigged a pretty awesome way to attach the ipad to our ceiling.  Then we hook a little speaker to it, and we rent a movie on itunes...the kids love it!  And actually, so do I:)  I sit in the back with Kaine and Halle during the movie, and Nathan sits up front listening to sermons on the ipod.  It works well for all of us :)

What a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Now, back to a couple weeks of classes and then the semester is done.  That is so crazy.  Where does the time go?  Soon we will be headed back to Indiana for Christmas!