Precious Moments: Glimpses of Truth

There are times Bryan and I look at each other and wonder  whether we're getting through to Brandon or not.  Then God blesses us with little tid bits of encouragement as if to say, "See, he's four, he's just beginning to learn about me, but I'm there."

Yesterday, while taking down the Christmas tree, Brandon was lamenting on Christmas being over.  I was beginning to wonder again whether he had learned anything in the whole season about Jesus and his love.  So I asked him some questions.

Me: Yes, Brandon Christmas is done.  It's time to put the tree away for another year, but did Jesus go away too?
Brandon: No, he didn't!!!  (very exclamatory voice)
Me: No?  Then where is he?
Brandon: He lives in our hearts, Mommy!

I could have thrown a whole other party.  The joy in hearing your son tell you Jesus lives in our hearts, is comparable to nothing.

Thank you, Lord, for glimpses of your truth in our little son!

A Tid-Bit While Waiting...

We have been busy, busy, busy with parties, parties, parties.  Of course, that means I have pictures, pictures, pictures to edit, edit, edit.  I'll get there...maybe next year.  Oh wait, that's in three days.  Ummmm...

Well, while you're all waiting anxiously (ha ha) for the pictures of all the parties, I thought you might enjoy listening in on a dinner conversation from yesterday between Bryan and Brandon.

Brandon: You love me, daddy.
Bryan: You're right, I do.  But you know what?  I love your mommy even more!
Brandon:  That's okay, daddy.  I forgive you.

The logic (or lack thereof) from my four year old trying to figure out language keeps me smiling.

Hope you all are having a fabulous week.  Bryan is home for the week, which is a special treat.

Blessings

Merry Christmas!

Funny Moments

Micah's Moment:

Sunday evening I went to the Christmas Cantata the CR Churches in the area get together to put on.  Bryan stayed home with the boys and fed them supper.  As Micah put each piece of corn bread in to his mouth, he looked at it and said, "bah, bah" (bye, bye).

Brandon's Moment:

This morning was the Christmas celebration at Coffee Break and since we're all healthy for a change, I took both boys and we enjoyed a morning of beautiful Christmas music and fellowship.  I knew the kids from Little Lambs would be coming in to sing to the moms and Brandon has a hard time actually singing so this morning's conversation went like this:

Me: Brandon, I'm so excited for you come sing for all the moms with Pastor John and the other kids!

Brandon: Mom, I don't have time for that.  I have to play with the piggy bank.

Me: But you love singing with Pastor John and the kids, and I would really love to hear you sing today.

Brandon: Well, maybe I'll try.

(And he did.  His mouth was moving a little bit with the camel song.  :))

Afterwards he came up to me and said, "Mom, I didn't sing very loud."

Me: That's okay, buddy!  I was excited to see you up there trying.

Brandon: Yeah, I did.

Blessings on your Wednesday.

Precious Moments

It's on days like today when the weather is changing and they seem to be at each other's throats that I try remember these precious moments.

Brandon lifted Micah on to the couch and was "reading" him the story of the Three Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, and doing
an amazing job of remembering it all!

Blessings

A Bright Spot in a not so Bright Day

It was a rather cloudy day the day we took these pictures, but there was so much laughter going on it was a fun time!

With permission from Sally, here are a couple pictures from their family photoshoot I did Thanksgiving weekend.  Thanks for a great time!

Tuesday blessings to you all.

A Tradition Continued

The recipe: Oatmeal Cookies With a Purpose

and it reads as follows...
The Requirements (for parents, neighbor or grandparent):
1. Patience.
2. Loving-kindness.
3. Smiles
4. Praise, given out liberally
5. Wisdom, to help children share tools
6. Pretend dark glasses

Method:
1. Sprinkle flour on the table for each child
2. Distribute pieces of dough
3. Demonstrate how to roll dough, cut cookies and transfer them to the pan
4. Preheat the oven
5. Wear pretend dark glasses to avoid seeing trail of flour from table to floor, or path of dough from fingers to mouth
6. Pop pans into oven as soon as filled
7. Put each child's cookies in separate container
8. When all dough is baked, present each child with his or her container

Results:
1. Sparkling eyes
2. Happy faces
3. Grimy hands
4. Bulging cheeks
5. Sweet voices saying, "Mm, good, it's yummy yummy in my tummy."
6. Spontaneous hugs from flour-covered arms
7. A few cookies

Now doesn't that just make you want to make cookies with your kiddos?  Brandon and I had a blast with his friend Elliot and mom Sandra, carrying on a wonderful tradition from my childhood. 

The boys cut out about 15 cookies each and then went to play while Sandra and I finished up the dough.  Then they came back to paint them (an egg yolk and food coloring mixture) before baking.  With a little assistance in covering the whole cookie, the boys did the majority of painting/decorating.

And Micah had the very special pleasure of being at Grandma's house all by himself!!  ;)
It was a great day.
Blessings on the rest of your weekend.

Family Visits

Family visits always do so much for us.  It's a change from routine, projects get worked on/completed, I get a bit of a break from kiddos, and we laugh...LOTS!  It's good for the soul.

Uncle Aaron and Auntie Stacey were here last weekend for a couple days and we had so much fun.  After some very intense weeks around here and lots of sickness, it was wonderful to have a change of pace and just enjoy family.

They arrived Saturday evening after driving here from Colorado, and went straight to bed since they had driven straight through.  Sunday we relaxed and went out to Don and Sally's to let Albarka run by the river, and we got some fresh air and visited for a while.

Uncle Aaron's rough housing is always a favorite for Brandon.

Auntie Stacey was quite successful in teaching Micah how to throw rocks into the river.

Brandon was quite enamored with how far Uncle Aaron could throw a stick!

Bryan got a little four-wheeling time which is always fun for him.

The sunset was gorgeous through the trees.

Monday was work day.  I had asked Aaron if he'd be willing to help me clean out the backyard since Bryan and I just hadn't had the time, or physical strength from being sick, to get it done.  What a big job!!  After getting all that cleaned out, Aaron had brought some special fertilizer for my garden so we worked that and some horse poop into it.  He taught me lots about how to prepare the soil, plant seeds and watering.  Maybe something will actually grow in my garden next year....

A picture that captures many memories of growing up together.  Aaron was always examining/using
little critters--here he's comparing three different types of worms.

He cleaned out the whole diseased compost area behind our shed and I raked up all the left-over leaves in the back yard.
We loaded Don's 20 ft trailer FULL.  It took us a good hour to scoop/push it all out again.

Auntie Stacey watched kids all day so I could work outside.  It was such a treat for all of us. 
The boys got lots of attention and I could work uninterrupted.

Tuesday was play and relax day.  In the morning Aaron and Stacey went to have coffee with an aunt in town and after nap time, we all headed out to Birch Bay.  It was cooolllllddddd!

Aaron took great pleasure in seeing Albarka's reaction to salt water--something she'd never been introduced to before.

In typical fashion, he found something that worked great as a whip.

Auntie Stacey is a great teacher!  She had Brandon hitting a baseball properly by the
time the afternoon was through. 

They practiced on rocks first!  :)

 After playing out at Birch Bay we headed back home to get cleaned and packed up.  Aaron and Stacey took us for a special treat of dinner out and then they headed down to Olympia area to spend a couple days with her parents.  We had a couple days of attention detox, but Brandon is getting better at handling that, too. 

Thanks, Aaron and Stacey, for a wonderful visit!

"Just the size for me"

Last week Gigi and Gramps offered us their little kids table since they are moving and wouldn't have room for it.  At first we didn't think it would fit, but then decided it was more important for the boys to have a table/play/work space at their level so we took the piano down and put the table there instead.  They have been absolutely LOVING it!  They eat breakfast, lunch and snacks there, bring their toys there, fix puzzles, read books and Brandon tells anyone who walks in the door to come see the "just the size for me table".  (He has also taken to asking if I have other things "just Brandon's size".)  It's been quite a blessing in our lives.

Last week Thursday I told Brandon we would be putting up our Christmas tree in a couple days since he had been noticing them all over town and asking when we would have one.  After I told him he decided in his little head that it was going to snow then.  It was one of those days when all three of us were fighting another cold and didn't have a whole lot of energy so I pulled out the water paints and some coffee filters and we made snow flakes instead of anticipating real snow--which made us all happy!

We let the coffee filters dry for a couple hours and then after rest time for Brandon, while Micah was still sleeping, we cut the snow flakes together.  He is really starting to get the hang of using a scissors and did a great job!

Blessings on the rest of your week.

Jesse Tree

I will shamelessly admit that I have missed my mom a lot this past month.  As a kid I would dream of making a Jesse Tree for my own family some day and how fun it would be if Mom would be there to help.  Well, she's doing the work God has called her to across the ocean, and I would never begrudge her that work, but there are times like this when I miss her more.

Our Jesse Tree is complete.  For this year we're just going to hang each piece on a "tree" of branches.  Maybe next year I'll sew an actually Jesse Tree and hook them all on like we had growing up.  Each piece is made out of felt and all the detail work I painted on with fabric paints.  Overall I think they turned out really well.

Brandon has already caught on to the idea and was asking today when he could hang another picture on the tree...now if the stories stick in his head as well, it will be all that much better. 

Here's a couple pictures of how the pieces turned out.

Blessings on your Advent season--the season of anticipating the joy of Christ's return.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend Happenings

The sunset on Saturday was spectacular and Mount Baker was actually semi-clear.  Brandon informed his daddy on the way home from Bellingham that he had to "stop so Mommy can take a picture".  He's learning quickly.

We had a FUN weekend visitor.  The boys especially really enjoyed having Steph around.

Singing Veggie Tales songs as loud as they could together and loving it.  They're both so full of life, it was fun to watch.

We get asked lots if Micah is adjusting to only having one of his hands or if he gets frustrated.  Well, here you can see for yourself how well he is adjusting.

Blessings on your week--especially this week of THANKFULNESS.

FAST Racecars!

Yesterday while cleaning, I happened upon Bryan's old electric race car set so after supper and all toys were put away Bryan cleaned it up and put it together.  Brandon was so excited!  Those cars sure did go FAST!!

They later moved it to the hard wood floor which made it run much smoother and Micah even got a turn.  We had a couple of very happy boys last night.

Well, that is the end of the pictures for now.  Blessings on the rest of your week.