advent ornaments

some of those interested in following along with our advent readings have expressed fear and trepidation when it comes to crafting the ornaments.  so i thought it would be helpful for me to include a post that shows what each ornament looks like.  i promise, they are very simple!  most are made from felt and yarn that we already had on hand.  others are ornaments we already had or some we've picked up over the years with the advent tree in mind.  i think the quainter they are, the cuter they are!  my favorite is the rainbow coat!

however, if crafting is not your thing, i also think it would be fun to have each child draw a picture of each bible story and then at the end staple it all together and you have a cute picture flip book from advent!

and don't feel like you have to have all 25 ornaments ready to go on december 1.  our first year doing this found me making the first half and then finishing out the last half as i had time. make it fun!

so happy to celebrate this time with my family and with you!

preparing for advent...get your ornaments ready!

advent is just around the corner and the anticipation is building in our home.

what is advent?  advent (from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming") is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a reminder both of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting of Christians for Christ's return. (from Wikipedia)

we celebrate advent by doing an advent tree.  what is an advent tree? the idea of an advent tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-9, where God promises a discouraged nation that the glory they remember from david's time will come to them again. they will have another king from jesse's family, in whose reign the whole earth will know God. christians see that promise fulfilled in Jesus, and so we put up an advent tree and decorate it with reminders of how God prepared the world for that Kingdom. (taken from Darcy James' book Let's Make a Jesse Tree!)

each day, starting on december 1 and ending on december 25, i will share the scripture that we read as a family and the ornament that is hung on the tree with you in hopes that family and friends would join with us.

we crafted our advent reading plan to perfectly coincide with our favorite chidren's bible, the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.
if you have young kids and don't have this bible, you must walk out of your house, get in your car, and drive to your nearest bookstore to buy it. right now. seriously. and no, i am not being paid to say this. this bible is the sweetest one i've read. each story points towards Christ and is so good!

so here is our reading plan for this advent, along with the coordinating ornament.  some of the ornaments are simple, crafted from felt, that noodle and i made together a couple of years ago while burrito was at school.  others are hallmark ornaments or other ornaments that we've picked up over time.  if you need a sneak peek at our ornaments, look on the right sidebar of my blog under "archived" and click on advent...this will pull up all our previous advent posts and you can see our humble ornaments!

so the reading plan is this:

dec 1 creation genesis 1-2 pgs 18-27 dove
dec 2 the fall genesis 3 pgs 28-37 fruit tree
dec 3 the flood genesis 6-9 pgs 38-47 rainbow
dec 4 tower of babel genesis 11 pgs 48-55 tower
dec 5 the promise to abraham genesis 12-21 pgs 56-61 stars in the sky
dec 6 abraham and isaac genesis 22 pgs 62-69 ram
dec 7 jacob, rachel and leah genesis 29-30 pgs 70-75 stalks of grain
dec 8 joseph genesis 37-46 pgs 76-83 a rainbow coat
dec 9 moses and the burning bush exodus 3-13 pgs 84-91 a burning bush
dec 10 moses and the red sea exodus 14-15 pgs 92-99 the split waters
dec 11 the law exodus 16 ff pgs 100-107 stone tablets
dec 12 joshua and jericho josh 3-6 pgs 108-115 trumpet
dec 13 david's anointing 1 sam 16 pgs 116-121 david the shepherd boy
dec 14 david and goliath 1 sam 17 pgs 122-129 slingshot
dec 15 david the shepherd psalm 23, 51 pgs 130-135 lyre
dec 16 naaman 2 kings 5 pgs 136-143 a heart
dec 17 isaiah isaiah 9 ff pgs 144-151 crown
dec 18 daniel in the lion's den daniel 6 pgs 152-159 daniel and a lion
dec 19 jonah jonah 1-4 pgs 160-169 fish
dec 20 the prophets neh 8-10 pgs 170-175 party hat
dec 21 john the baptist matt 3 pgs 200-203 a shell
dec 22 mary and the angel luke 1-2 pgs 176-179 an angel
dec 23 journey to bethlehem luke 1-2 pgs 180-181 a scroll
dec 24 the shepherds and wise men luke 2, matt 2 pgs 184-188 the three wise men
dec 25 jesus is born! luke 2 pgs 182, 190, 192-198 baby jesus

i would love for you to join us in doing this. this is our fifth year to do an advent tree and it makes this season so, so sweet!  it takes a commitment of time, which just means less opportunity to be assaulted by consumerism in the malls. it takes a little bit of effort in making or securing the ornaments. however, it is so worth it and so rewarding! the boys loved taking turns hanging the ornaments on the tree, and the excitement and expectation builds as more and more ornaments fill the tree, until christ is born and christmas is here!

happy advent!

noodle's celebrations

as always, birthday celebrations go on and on each year for our boys.  we have recently adopted "family fun days" as a better substitute for a birthday party.  and believe it or not, the boys prefer it...maybe because they get to plan our entire day, including meals and activities.

we celebrated noodle's family fun day on a friday that we did not have school.  it began with a trip to dunkin donuts.  i didn't complain!

then we headed to walmart to buy a small present for him (he chose a new beywheelz), after trying out the skateboards!

this is completely hysterical to me!

then we ventured on to the fort worth science and history museum to meet up with a few of his friends from school that graciously invited us to take advantage of their membership there.  we spent the morning hours digging for dinosaur bones and exploring their exhibits, including a bed of nails and a hurricane wind tunnel.

bed of nails

i love their faces!

noodle chose mcdonald's for lunch.  i am not a fan, but hey, it's his day.

then we went to main event for some family fun bowling.  after 3 games, the lure of the arcade games was too much.  after trying to convince both boys not to waste their money on those claw games that are designed to never let you capture and grab a cheap stuffed animal, we relented and this is what happened!

he won twice!!!  we ended the day with dinner at chili's and renting a movie and eating candy.

the next birthday celebration was at mimi and poppy's house.  he was so excited to get a harry potter lego book, a new beyblade, some new athletic clothes, and a new scooter with light up wheels!!!  we ate cookie cake and played outside.

on noodle's actual birthday i took cookies and drinks up to school at recess for his school buddies.

before dinner, he opened presents from us.  he got a new basketball goal (which broke in 2 minutes and i had to ship back so don't buy this one!!!), basketball shorts and a beywheelz stadium from his brother burrito.

don't ask me why he is doing the star trek sign???

we also went out for dinner (again, his choice!) at ihop and then came back home to open presents on skype with nina, pappaw and nonna in st. louis.  he was so excited to get more beywheelz, a beyblade destroyer dome, money and a scooby doo game (thanks uncle daniel!).

i would say that this boy is blessed beyond measure and we sure had a good time celebrating him!  happy 7th birthday noodle!!!

Happy 7th Birthday to my Noodle

 well, it's happened again.

another of my babies grows a year older.  i don't like it.  at all.  but i haven't figured out a way to make it stop.

my sweet noodle is 7 today!

noodle, you are such a blessing to our family.  you are just the right person to level out the other 3 high-strung residents of your home.  you are sweet and sensitive.  you don't take things too seriously but you do your best.  you are still a game nazi.  you love playing games all day long.  you are quite the sports buff too.  it's been fun for us to watch our little leftie play baseball this season.  you are doing great in 1st grade.  your lowest grade was a 99 for the first quarter.  you are a great reader and i am constantly amazed at your tenacity to sound out words that you don't immediately know.  math comes natural.  i think it's from all those games you make us play.  you are a budding musician and we are so glad you are learning to play violin.  you are a good friend and easily float from one friend to another....everyone is your best buddy.  i love that you and your brother are close and share a room and sometimes sneak into your big bed together.

we are so grateful for the gift from God you are to us.  we look forward to seeing the Lord develop your gifts and skills for His glory.  we pray that you will be a passionate fireball for Him for your whole life.

we love you so much!

Meet the Teacher & First Day of School 2012

Last night the boys had the opportunity to go to school and "meet" their teacher.  Of course, they know most of the teachers at school already but it is still fun for them to see where they will sit and know exactly where to go on the first day.  The teachers always have a sweet little treat waiting for them there too.

burrito the third grader with his bag of special treats

burrito checking out his REAL textbooks with his buddy

noodle with his sweet 1st grade teacher mrs. s

i can't believe my baby is a 1st grader!

my husband really loves that i INSIST on taking his first day of school pic too!

and here are my cute men before we headed off to school this morning.  this is their chapel uniform because they have chapel on wednesdays.  aren't they handsome?!?!

here we are walking into school.  that's burrito and john ahead of us.  i made john come for my emotional support! :)

burrito outside his 3rd grade classroom

noodle outside his 1st grade classroom

when i picked them up this afternoon, they both said they had a really great day and loved their new teachers.  burrito had his textbooks because we had to put covers on them tonight.  i had to conjure up my book-covering abilities from years past.  i can't believe he has real textbooks.  does this growing up thing ever slow down???  noodle talked about how they can earn tickets for good behavior and then cash in their tickets for little prizes.  they both talked about seeing their old buddies at recess and not having any homework for this first week.  hooray!

i was not as emotional about leaving them this year.  i think i am finally accepting that they are growing up and learning new responsibilities and that's a good thing...even if it's hard for this mama.  i just love them so much.  such a treasure and gift from Jesus.

praying sweet blessings on them this new school year...

Summer 2012...where did it go???

well, you won't believe me when i tell you this, but we start school in 3 days.  yep, you read that right.  sickening i tell you.  i told john the other day that our school is an evil institution because it steals away my 3 most favorite people all at the same time. ;)

so since we head back to school on wednesday, i thought i better jump on the blog here and document a little bit of our summer, before i start posting "1st day of school" pics!

we started our summer with an immediate trip to st. louis back at the end of may.  and when i say immediate, i mean immediate.  we attended graduation on friday night and left 5 hours later in the wee hours of the morning to make the 11 hour trip.

here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to visit john's family.

Noodle and Pappaw playing croquet

burrito sticking his hand in a rabbit hole!

we had a great time at the science center

they built the gateway arch!

don't be fooled!  this was at the st. louis zoo but they so badly wanted to visit a cave.  this was as close as they got! :)

at the zoo on a beautiful day

our other big trip of the summer was to our favorite texas beach location, rockport!  this was our third summer to visit and as always, it was totally relaxing and fun.  this year we rented a house for a week just minutes from the beach with my family and had a great time, minus the jellyfish.  these are a few of my favorite pics from that trip.

of course we planned our trip around being in austin at breakfast time so we could eat here

first day at the beach

does he look like a surfer dude or what???

cousin porkchop

love this picture of my burrito

the grandsons with mimi

in the ocean eating a snow cone...life just doesn't get much better!

john and burrito and the vast ocean

our beach home on the fourth of july

waiting for the fireworks

celebrating our freedom

this is outside the texas state aquarium in corpus christi.  that bridge in the background makes me squeamish!

the boys at the aquarium

under the sea

other summer memories include lots of bike rides to the park with john, swimming with our cousin, ice cream cones from braum's, john's intro to baseball class for the boys (they're playing baseball this fall), going to the movies and eating popcorn, swimming in our blow up pool, and reading the harry potter books.  it's been a good summer and i'm thankful for my family.