Singing in Church / Reindeer / Christmas Play

The girls sang in church yesterday morning. They did such a good job. They knew every hand motion and almost all the words to the song. :)

After arriving home from Sunday morning church R saw 3 Bucks running down our dirt road. She started yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, I saw Dancer, Prancer and Vixen!!!!" "We have Reindeer!!!!!" I hope the hunters stay away until after Wed. night. :)

My mom's church had a cute little Christmas play last night so we took the girls along with my sister and her kids. This is how they watched the play sitting on the back of the pew. Thankfully we were sitting on the last row.

She had the best seat in the house! :)

The Baby Doll

This was my baby doll. I would have to say that I was about the same age as the girls when Santa brought her to me. She was and is a much loved doll. The girls love to play with her and they always tell me they are taking really good care of her for me. It's as if they understand she was my doll as a child and can not belong to them. LOL It's so sweet. Now, I'm hoping the fighting over who takes care of Mommy's doll will stop when Santa brings them each a new baby to care for in a few nights.

The Live Nativity

We took the girls to see the live nativity this year along with my parents and B's mom. This had become a yearly tradition that we started last year with my sister and her kids. They were out of town so we took the Grands with us. I'm sure it 's something we will continue to do with them year after year. They use real people and animals and they tell the story for Christ from the Angel coming to Mary to the Resurrection of Christ. It's really nice and thankfully to help the Christmas spirit it was really cold the night we went. :)

Here my mom tried to get the girls to have their picture made in front of the nativity but they would not. :)

I did manage to get N and J to stand this close but I don't think they were too happy about the whole idea.

Hark the Hehl Angel's don't want to sing!!!! LOL

Update/Funny Story/ Christmas Dresses

So, it's been quite a few week since my last post. We have been so busy. Last week alone I had some place to go every single day! Needless to say we have taken the last couple of weeks off from schooling. We did start back this morning and the girls seem really excited to start on their Christmas themed lap books. I was so afraid that they may of forgotten some of the things we have been learning but they remember every small detail. I guess it was a conformation to me that I'm doing something right and homeschooling it the best choice for us.

Over the past two weeks my ears took a turn for the worse. Those of you that really know no the history of my ears they are bad and I have tubes. My ears were a little infected and the left ear had a tar like wax build up over and in the tube. Do to this my ears were so blocked up I could hardly hear. Went he Dr. tried to remove the tar wax from the tube the tube and ear drum were coming with the wax. It was very painful and the Dr. had two choices. Surgery or try meds. I took the steroid ear drops and used them several times a day for a week this was to try and soften the wax. So with ear drops and lots of prayer when I went back to the Dr. they were able to remove the wax without doing surgery! Yeah!!!! Now I can hear and it's so nice. Although Brian is convinced he needs to learn ASL (American sign language) because my ears tend to be dramatic. He thinks I will be deaf in old age. :)

Now, for a few funny stories. I will start with telling you all I have a bad habit of singing instructions to my kids. I will take what ever song is in my head and put new words to it. Last Sunday night the girls were supposed to be getting their pj's on but were taking a really long time. I was waiting for them in my room because we were going to watch the movie White Christmas. So this is the song I sang....

~ To the tune of Oh Come All Ye Faithful

"Oh come all ye children, come into my bedroom

It's time to start the movie, Mommy's waiting for you

Come on get moving I am tired of waiting...

Oh come into the bedroom, Oh come into the bedroom

Oh come into the bedroom, White Christmas is on!"

N replied to the tune of Deck the Halls

N can't come she on the potty Fa La La La La La La La La

B looked at me and said, You've been singing instructions to them for too long! LOL

I have started to craft and sew again. I decided last Thursday afternoon I wanted to make the girls Christmas pillow case dresses. So I went to WalMart and found some really cute Ho Ho Ho fabric. I came home and started sewing. I finished the dresses the next morning. This really has to be the cutest pattern and it so easy!!! All day long Friday while out with the girls people stopped us to ask about the girls and their dresses. I will be making more of these for sure.

The girls have really started to like making smores. I happen to have all the ingredients the other day and Daddy made them for the girls with a candle in the kitchen. That evening he was cooking supper for us and while it was cooking he walked in our bedroom to chat with me about something. When he went back into the kitchen he found the girls attempting to make their own smores. They stuck marsh mellows on the ends of spaghetti noodles and were holding them over the steaming pot! I will say one thing about our girls they are super creative!!!!

For the book lovers here are a few books the girls and I are loving this week. They are all of course in the Christmas theme:

The Story of Christmas by Felix Hoffmann
A Christmas Promise by Lark Carrier

On Christmas Eve by Peter Collington

The Twelve Days of Christmas Illustrated by Don Daily

I will try to update a little more often. Thanks for stoping by and leave us a comment to let us know you came.

Happy Boo Day

The girls had "trunk or treat" at my parents church last night where they attend Awana's. So they got to dress up in their costumes. I thought it would also be fun to take a stroll down memory lane and look at their costumes over the last few years.

Last night as "Pumpkin Fairies" & Yes, their hair is GREEN! They loved it!

Here they are with Bandi in her own Pumpkin costume...she was not too happy about it.

Last year age 4 as "2 Chefs & A Princess"

Age 3 as "Clowns from the 3 Ring Circus"

Look we won 1st prize in the costume contest!!!
Age 2 as "Scarecrows"

Age 1 as "Giraffes"

I have to say that my favorites are the clowns and scarecrows. Just too cute!

Triplet Bunk Bed

I ran across this old photo and had to post it! The girls were 3 yrs. old and decided they wanted bunk beds. All I can say is team work!

Books

I hit the mother load in FREE books!!!!! Our church closed their preschool and offered up all their books and supplies to families in the church. So, during the 11 am service last week I went and picked through the books. I could not believe my good fortune. :) Myself and a fellow homeschool mom sat there looking through several hundred books passing them back and forth! I came home with 50 books!!!!! All of them really good books. So I hope to share them with you over the next few weeks. Here are our first three that we have used this week.

My 50 books from church!!!!

Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann is a super funny and cute book! The girls and I loved it!

Down by the Station by Will Hillenbrand is a book you can sing! The girls love any book that you can sing the words. It is a favorite with all of us! Fall Leaves Fall by Zoe Hall. We did a unit study on leaves this past week using this book! It's full of craft ideas and lots of info on changing of seasons. Great for unit study on fall.
This craft idea was taken from the book Fall Leaves Fall. Yes, that is a Palin bumper sticker covering my child's name. :) Go Palin!!!! :) The girls made objects from the different fall leaves we collected on a nature walk. They made birds, princesses, fish and spiders! :)

Pigs from 1 to 10 by Arthur Geisert. We are going to use this book this week to do a unit study on the numbers 1-10. I love the illustrations in the book they are beautiful!

First Field Trip

We took our first field trip as a homeschool family to the Zoo. We had a blast. The weather was perfect! The zoo was not crowded and we got to see all the animals. When we have gone before the animals are often in a part of the zoo that you can't see but we got to see them all. Here are a few pictures....

The stroller...They all packed into a double. :)


Sleeping with the polar bear...
Family with the black bear...he is sitting on the log in the back ground.

J was a little afraid...
R was not afraid!
In the playground at the zoo...it was a veggie patch.



Daddy helping R see the elephant.

Mom's Weekend Away

This weekend I attended E Women Conference at my old university were I spent 2.5 years before coming home to get married. ;)

Liberty University has changed so much since my years there! Can I just say I had a reality check to how I old I am getting while there. We had to park about a mile and half from the Vines Center where the conference was held. So while waiting for the shuttle to pick us up a cute little LU senior was waiting at the shuttle pick up to offer any needed assistants us old women might need. LOL My mom, sister and I along with the other ladies with us were all talking about how much the university has changed since I was last there. My brother and sister both graduated from LU but since I am the baby of the family I was there last. :) Then the young LU guy asks me how long since I came to LU. I replied I came in 1995! He says, "Wow that was a long time ago!!!!!! I guess the school has changed a lot!" Can I just say that 31 is not that old but boy did I feel like an old fart after that conversation. I mean really it feels like yesterday that I was there. Cottage Girl I know you can understand what I'm talking about. Then LU guy says, "I've heard that the rules were like really strict when you were here and they had a dress code." Yes, LU guy they were. It's crazy how much time changes things. I mean when I attended there were like 5,000 students on campus now they have I think 12,000! However, I am not getting OLD!

Now, back to E Women! If you have never gone to an E Women or Women of Faith Conference...GO! It's a great girl, mommy, wife get away! We have a blast each year. This year we got to see Richie McDonald the former lead singer of Lonestar, Mandisa (she gives a rocking concert), Chonda Pierce, Angela Thomas, Carol Kent and Karen Kingsbury! The speakers were great. Angela Thomas has an amazing story as well as Carol Kent!

I always come home refreshed and ready to be a better wife and mom.

Now, It's Sunday the kids are sick and I'm coming down with what they have but thankfully I know we will survive! I hope you all had just as great a weekend!