Merry Christmas!

I know Christmas is already past...but since I'm on a blog kick today, I thought I'd share the highlights from Christmas 2010!

Mike & I really want the kids to remember that CHRISTmas is all about Christ (not presents).  2 years ago we got a set of Adornaments from Family Life, and we now LOVE the tradition of using them for family devotions and putting them on the tree.  There are 12 ornaments - each with a different name of Christ on it.  Here Garret is hanging the "Baby in a Manger".

Our favorite family Christmas tradition is...

FINDING OUR TREE!

Scouting starts during deer season.  We pick a day to drive & make our final selection.  Then...soon after Thanksgiving, we go chop 'er down.  This year we were headed out at lunch time when the weather was warm - and were beat by a nasty cold front!

This year's tree came from "The North Place"...you know, south of our farm.  :)  Actually right where Mike found his buck.  It was a good spot!  I loved our tree this year.  Green.  Shaped like a Christmas Tree.  Perfect size.  Not sure we'll top it ever, but the fun of going out in the woods to get our own outweighs any imperfections in what we find!

Christmas Eve we had a beautiful candlelight church service reading scripture & singing Christmas carols.

Here are the boys afterwards.  (You'll have to tip your head to see them until I can figure out why they're posting that way.)  And the girls...

Here are the kids' gifts from us this year.
Grant got a new bow - that he can actually hunt with!  He's excited to get to work so he can USE it next fall!

Allison got a heart shaped locket - with our wedding picture inside.  Do you think she's excited??

And, Garret got some more Geotrax - with an exploding bridge!

Asa was happy to hang out with us and chew on some bows & paper.

Grow, Grow, Grow!

4 MONTHS OLD!! Already!

Asa, you are such a little blessing to our family!

You are...

• Sharing your smile with anyone who will give you eye contact.
• Continuing to sleep ALL night!  (Ahhh...)
• Moving to your big crib - you've got the bassinet FILLED UP.
• "Talking".  You like to try out a new sound every day - squeaky, growly, loud, soft...  You only seem to like to "talk" at home though.  You're really quiet when we go out.
• CHEWING on anything you can get your hands on!
• Nursing 5-6 times a day
• Loving your cloth diapers! (the Fuzzibunz are Mom's favorites - and Dad is voting for the Happy Heiny's w/velcro.  I think he wants to start changing more diapers! :)
• Sleeping on your tummy & sucking your thumb
• Amusing your big brothers & sister!  They all love to hold you, hug you, talk to you, & play with you.  No wonder you're SO HAPPY & CONTENT!

I love you Asa!

Mom

A New Year

I've decided this year that I'm going to try to blog...mostly so that I can remember what we've been up to!  I want to be able to look back and SEE God's faithfulness in our lives and relive all the blessings. 

Now to see if I can figure this out - and not have it take forever...

Homeschooling in the Pasture...

Wow! My very first blog post!

Today we had a fun day of school. The forecast says that it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week, so we decided to have a morning outside before it set in. (Actually my plan was to go down to the woods near the field that Grandpa was combining so that the kids could get a ride, but the combine was broke down.) So, we packed up the books, grabbed a big blanket, and headed out into the pasture. We hiked in a half mile and sat under a big tree near a pond.

Since we spread out a blanket outside, we of course had to have a snack!

Allison, Garret and I did LHTH while Grant explored and sketched a little in his nature journal. We're learning about Moses this week. Here we're doing the fingerplay from this unit. "Moses in the basket, Float, float, float" to the tune of Skip to My Lou.

Allison acted out our story today and here she's putting her "baby" in the river...

...and praying that God would protect it.

Grant finished the book "Dolphin Adventure" today in our reading time. He loved this book and chose to do his adventure project for the next 5 days from it. We also did some of our other reading outside...but it was getting pretty chilly late morning. It was probably about 50 and breezy. It was still a welcome change to doing everything inside though! As we were finishing our reading, Garret and Alli found...

HEDGEBALLS!

After several trips to the hedge tree to "reload" and of course throw all of them in the pond and see who could make the biggest splash...it started to sprinkle and we decided to pack up and head home before we were not only a little chilly but also wet.

After we got home, Grant and Allison finished their work. Allison got to cut out a basket to be her "Baby Moses" and some grass to hide him in. She still loves using scissors (and likes her longer hair...so I think we'll be ok!).