Happy New Year from us....

Happy New Year from our family to yours. We pray 2009 is
full of God's goodness and blessings as you seek Him!

Here is a mother's dialogue as she tries desperately to get a good picture of her children....

Sit down and look at the camera!

Stop making faces...look at the camera!!

Please stop crying...give me a smile.
LOOK AT THE CAMERA!

Stop making faces!!!

A New Year....

What are your plans for this coming new year? Have you been thinking about areas you want to improve upon with yourself and your family? We sure have!! There are some specific things we want to set in place for 2009 that we have been lacking in the past unfortunately. Our goal for our family has always been Joshua 24:15…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I have to admit that I have not always been the example I should have been for my husband and children. That is something I definitely want to improve upon this new year. Our children are soaking up the images we set before them and I have already seen behavior from them that mimics my own bad example…..that hurts tremendously. I am responsible for shaping and molding their thought process, their attitude, their actions….their desire for a heart towards God. It will be their decision whether or not they want a relationship with their Heavenly Father, but what a responsibility it is to set before them the example of loving and serving our God. Please pray for me during this new year that I will be the mother and wife God wants me to be.
We have also set a goal of growing closer together as a couple. God has blessed me tremendously with a loving, faithful, compassionate, strong husband that seeks after God. He wants to be the spiritual leader for our family that God has called him to be. We want to be a unified example of what Christ intended for a husband and wife. This can not be accomplished in our own strength…..we would fail the first day of 2009!! So many things in this world pull at spouses and cause turmoil to destroy the unity of a couple. Our desire is for God to be the head of our union and to keep us in a place of love and tenderness towards each other, to give my husband the strength and spiritual guidance he needs to be an example for our family, to give me the humility to be the supporting, submissive helpmate for him to accomplish what God has set for out for us.
We need to pray for each other!! Pray for our families, our relationships, our children, our walk with God. I hope when God brings our family to your mind that you will bring us before His throne in your prayers. I hope that each of you have a very blessed new year!

Baby needs a haircut!

My poor boy does not have a lot of hair but the bit of hair he does have is long! Look at all that hair over his ears!!! It's funny....both my boys lost the baby fine hair on the top of their heads when they were a few months old, but from the ears down it kept growing. This hair is now too long and I'm a bit nervous to cut it. I cut all the family's hair but he is still so little and so wiggly I'm afraid to do anything with it yet. Barrettes are out of the question but what do you think about a ponytail? *smile*

Sweet smelling surprise

Look what hubby brought me home yesterday. They smell so nice!! After 10 years, he still surprises me with little things here and there. It's a wonderful feeling to still be "in love" with your spouse. To have the want and desire for each other, to truly be each other's best friend, to have the feeling of oneness with each other. What a blessing he is to me....I thank God for him!

Beware of the Doghouse...

You have to love this!!! Very cute from JC Penny....take notes gentlemen!

One of my favorite things...

One of my favorite things to do at night....rock my babe to sleep. I love this time together. I've done it with all my children. It's a time for me to sing to them, talk to them, cuddle with them....I love their breath against my neck, little fingers through my hair, the sweet kisses we exchange. I treasure these moments. They go by too quickly!! Goodnight.....

Let the diet begin!

I'm still stuffed!!! We had a wonderful Christmas day with family and now to have a day of rest...haha. That turkey sure works quickly....I was zonked after our meal yesterday. Today we are going to take it easy, enjoy watching the kids play with their new toys, take a few strolls around the block and work off all that food from yesterday. I hope everyone had a wonderful day with their loved ones. Here is a beautiful Christmas moment captured on camera from yesterday....love it!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! A day we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. To think that God would send his only Son to earth for us....filthy sinners, knowing that He would be put to death for our sins. For Jesus to lower himself from His throne in heaven, to become a man just to be put on the cross to save us from the wrath of God. What love!!!! How can we ever comprehend?!

"I'm sorry, I have no room"
When Joseph came to the inn that night,
he was tired, weary and worn;
And Mary, his wife, was weary too,
her child about to be born.
The innkeeper told them, "I have no room,"
and started to send them away.
"But wait" he called, "I think I can help;
though it's only a barn with some hay"
They said they'd be grateful for even a barn-
at least it was some place to stay.
Then Joseph thanked the innkeeper there
as he settled his wife in the hay.
The stars seemed to shine that first Christmas night
as they never had shone before,
And as Jesus came into the world for us,
they seemed to shine even more.
Shepherds strayed to the manger scene,
worshipping as they came.
Three wise men were led from the Orient far,
searching to do the same.
It wasn't exactly the place for a King;
why, it wasn't even the inn!
No, out in a barn, in a manger poor,
He was born, to take away sin.
The innkeeper had no room that night;
I wonder, how about you?
If Jesus asked for a place in your heart,
what do you think you would do?
For you know some day when life has passed
and you stand at the door of the inn,
The Lord may look at you sadly there
and you'll hear these words from Him:
"I have no room, I'm sorry, my friend;
I'm truly sorry to say.
"I have no room," He'll tell you once more,
then turn and send you away.
-Ann Farrell Blunt

I hope Jesus is apart of your Christmas. Do not let another year go by without Him!

Christmas Eve

Our family got together tonight for a gift exchange for the kids. They had so much fun and loved their new surprises! Nana and Grandpa had some wonderful ideas, and watching the kids faces was so precious. Here are some pictures from this evening.

Grandpa with all 5 of his grandkids.

Christmas cookies

We made our sugar Christmas cookies tonight. We are having family over tomorrow and the kids wanted (and were requested!) to make some cookies....so they had fun baking and decorating and sampling :) .....well you have to make sure it tastes good for your guests right?!

Easy no sew blankets!!

If you want a quick, easy, fun project here it is! These are so great because there is absolutely no sewing involved and they turn out beautifully!! I've made a couple to give as gifts and I want to go out and get more fabric to make my kids one as well. Here are the easy steps to make them.

Step 1 - you need 2 pieces of matching fleece fabric. It looks best when you use a print and a solid but you can use 2 solids if you like. You will need a yard and a half of each.

Step 2 - Lay both pieces of fabric on the floor (right sides facing out) one on top of the other. Smooth both pieces of fabric so there are no wrinkles. Cut about 2 inches around the whole perimeter to cut off any salvage pieces and to have 2 even pieces of fabric.

Step 3 - cut a 4 inch x 4 inch square piece from all 4 corners of the blanket.


Step 4 - grab a ruler and cut 4 inch long strips 1 inch wide along all 4 sides.

Step 5 - tie the top printed strip of fleece to the bottom strip of solid fleece in a knot. (do 2 knots) Do this to every other strip around the whole blanket. Then flip it over and tie the remaining strips in knots. This will help the blanket lay nice and flat and the knots lay nicely.
(On the corner pieces, I grabbed the 2 strips from the one side of the corner with the two strips of the other side of the cut out corner and tied them in a knot to make it rounded at each corner. Let me know if this doesn't make sense :)

Your blanket is done!!!!! Here are the 2 I did last night.

A 5 year old's question

Isn't it funny the things our kids can come and ask us about. Some questions are so simple and then there are the ones you have to think about and try to explain to young minds who are trying so very hard to understand about life and God. Our 5 year old came up to me tonight and asked "why doesn't God answer our prayer sometimes?" I asked her what she meant and she gave the example of her great Uncle who died a few years ago. She said we prayed for him to get better but God didn't answer our prayer. Wow....what a great question. Does God not answer prayer?
I tried to explain it in the simpliest terms I could. God answers our prayers but sometimes we don't get the answer we are looking for because we aren't praying the right way. We can go to God and ask our hearts desire....He wants us to do that! He wants us to bring before Him our needs, our hopes, our desires. We also need to bring those requests before God wanting His will! God knows what is best for us. He knows how the outcome of situations will bring about great things even if it means we must suffer some pain from that outcome for a time. God sees everything from start to finish and sometimes while we live in the moment, we can only see pain and heartache but through it and because of it, God will be glorified! We need to bring our requests before God wanting His will. That can sometimes be very hard because what we want may not be what we need. God knows best and we should want God's best! He loves us and cares for us so much.
Did she understand? Probably not all of it.....but she is taking baby steps towards understanding about her relationship with God, about the importance of prayer and our attitude when we come before God in prayer. How wonderful it is to hear our children inquire and have an interest in heavenly things. I pray for God's wisdom to help me as I guide and instruct her.

Getting ready for Christmas

I finally got the Christmas presents wrapped tonight and put under the tree. Our daughter is getting to age where she is a little snoopy and we've caught her 'peaking' in the closet at the presents. We do not go overboard with gifts for the kids. They get a couple gifts each from Mommy and Daddy and they are blessed with lots of family who come bearing gifts for them as well. This years top picks from us are Lego (we ordered the Fun with Wheels from Lego.com) for our son and baking items for our daughter. She will now have her very own mixing bowls, measuring cups, icing, sprinkles and ready to mix goodies for whenever she gets the desire to bake (after all, she wants to be a baker when she grows up!) I love watching the kids open presents at Christmas. To see the excitement on their faces at the surprises waiting for them. We do not teach nor emphasis that Christmas is about presents, but they are children and it is a fun time for them. They are brought up knowing that this is a day of thanksgiving....being thankful that Jesus came to earth as a baby, thankful that God would give his own Son to be our Saviour, being thankful for the thoughtfulness of others.
We have continued a tradition that my family did growing up. We wake up Christmas morning, listen to the Christmas story from the Bible, pray, open presents, then eat breakfast! In the afternoon we get together with family for a meal and gift exchange. We are going to miss not being with my side of the family this year (in Canada). We will be thinking of you all and know you will be enjoying time with each other. My grandma has improved so much since having her heart attack and has even been allowed to return home! What a wonderful gift for the holidays!! My husband's grandma has also had great improvement has been released to go home since having her stroke. Another thing to be thankful for this holiday season....God has been so good!

My next project...

I'm actually disappointed with the way this turned out. Sometimes things don't look exactly the same as they show on the pattern you buy, but it will be a handy item to keep me warm. Here is the wrap I made tonight....I thought it would have come down farther in the back but it does cover your arms well and is so quick to throw around you as you run out the door. I think I'm going to make one in black as well. I'd like to make a cute dressed up one for our daughter to wear to church. I have a beautiful berry red fleece which would look really cute on her. Add the same color beret to the mix and what a cute outfit that would make!

I won!

I'm not usually one to win contests or prizes so when it happens, I get very excited!! I won a beautiful picture from doorpostverses. Visit their store at www.doorpostverses.etsy.com to see the wonderful selection of verses printed on beautiful photography. Thank you for the contest!

My poor back....

Oh dear....I've been sitting at the sewing machine for so long my back is killing me!!!!! I'm off to have hubby give me a back rub in a minute but wanted to post the two hats I did today. One was a newsboy hat (or golf hat, andy capp hat) I did for our son but was way too big for him. Maybe it will look better on him in a few years. I tried it on our daughters head to get a better look....it's a cute style but it took alot of work!! I don't think I'll be doing another one of those for awhile :) I also made a black beret for our daughter to wear with her Christmas dress. On this hat I made the flower out of ribbon and attached a safety pin to the back so I can change the accesories on the hat (cool idea huh!) Ok, so off I go for my long awaited back rub.

Beret...

I was up till 1am making this one last night but soooo worth it! I love it!

hope you're not getting tired of seeing these :)

More hats....

We went and got some material last night and I've been sewing hats and mitts!! Quite fun actually. I love when a project comes together. I'm trying out different styles of hats and different designs. I need to go buy some embellishments for them because my supply is whatever is left over in my scrapbook bin :) Here are a few pictures.....

Hats

I am having a much better day today :-)
So, I got out my sewing machine again....had a creative idea. Thought I would try my hand at sewing up some Christmas hats. I found some scraps to get some practice. Not quite sure if I'm satisfied with the results. I'd like to try using fleece...hopefully it will turn out a little better than the cotton shirt scraps I used for this one. I need to adjust the measurements too. This was suppose to be for our youngest but had a little too much stretch to it. I'll give it a few more whirls and see if I can find some fleece on sale today. I'd eventually like to make matching mitts and scarves. We'll see ......

Here is the small version....not too bad :)