The World God Made

After we read, and put the world on the tree, we sang two songs together. One was from Reece's school that starts with "God made the earth, God made the sky, God made the clouds go floating by..." "He's got the whole world, in His hands" was the other.

It was a nice evening. Reece even got a world yo-yo to play with (D brought from work). But, once he realized that the world on the tree was his ball that I used and not a duplicate ball, he wasn't very happy. He wanted it back. He wanted BOTH the yo-yo AND the other ball. Grrrrr. Ungrateful.

As I told him the evening before, he is welcome to play with any of the Jesse Tree ornaments as long as he puts them back on the tree when he's done. It is important to me that he be able to play with them.
That worked, after a few more grumblings.

Church

Went to evening church for the second week. This time, I took Zach into the nursery. I had just nursed him before I left, so I was hopeful he'd do ok.

He fell asleep on the way there, which isn't unusual. He takes a little nap around 5pm every day. I made it on time, dropped him off with instructions that included to page me if he's fussy. I got to sit downstairs with Mel, pager attached to my side.

I thought about Zach about 50 times during the service, hoping he was doing ok. But, I also thought how nice it was that I was getting to listen to the entire service. It was a good one, too.

Mel went with me to pick him up. The workers saw me and said, "Did your pager go off?" My heart sunk. "Uh, noooo.", I said.

Evidently something was wrong with the pager and in the mean time, my poor sweet boy cried most of the service. It broke my heart. At the same time, it was done. He was sleeping when I picked him up. I figured God wanted me to hear that message. We'll try again another week, but I may insist we test the pager first. : )

Jesse Tree

So excited about celebrating the birth of Jesus with the Jesse Tree this year. Christmas is so inundated with gifts, spending, and Santa, Jesus is often completely overshadowed. My gifts-oriented child's chance of being more excited about Jesus' birth than Santa had no chance. : )

But, I'm hoping this year's Jesse Tree will not only be fun for him, but a great way to learn more about God's secret rescue plan and why Jesus' birth is something so worthy of celebration.

Thanks to some major on-the-ball friends, like Chrys and Christy, we had great reference and resources to draw on. I'm using this as a guide. I vowed to keep it simple. I hope to record every night of this new tradition, but I know some will be hard to do. We'll see how it goes.

Although I planned to keep it very simple, Chrys' idea of wrapping the each ornament struck me as PERFECT for my gift-oriented, tactile child. I am wrapping each. He's so excited.Tonight we read a short excerpt from one of my very favorite bible books about Jesse and his sons.Darren trimmed the holly trees in the front yard yesterday. I ran outside when I saw him hauling them off, and he snipped me this piece...our stump of Jesse.I think this stump or family tree is a little hard for him to understand. I hope to draw him a family tree (maybe even with pics of our family) so he can understand it better. But, that'll have to be for another night.

I'm so excited about this. Maybe one year our big tree will be filled with Jesse ornaments from each year doing it, starting with this one. <3

Day after

The day after Thanksgiving is the day we decorate the Christmas tree.
We didn't get to the big tree today though. But, we still put up a tree.

Julia, a friend of the family, sent this little tree to me in college. I put it up every year.

Intrigued by the small tube (still inscribed with my college address), this year it is Reece's. (And is donned with Zach's sock.)We took a picture to send to Julia. We think of you every year. <3

Thankful 4

4
That's what I'm thankful for.

Drool

and some other new Zach-a-roo faces...

loved

Piles

Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. Our first ever.I got everyone's must-have dishes and divided up the tasks.
D smoked an incredible turkey. Mom and I worked on the sides, while Becky brought cranberry sauce and the pumpkin and pecan pies. Minus Damon, Michell, and the boys (which is a BIG MINUS), it was perfect. I loved having it here. I was so warm and special. We did a good job at not doing too much, also, although neither mom nor I were ready when Ben and Becky arrived. We did, however, eat a real Thanksgiving lunch. I like to have Thanksgiving at lunch time, so then you can have it again at dinner...twice as nice!

And it was nice. Everyone agreed...

Smokin'

D smoked his first turkey this year. He counted down the minutes and seconds until it was ready. And then VOILA! It was smokin', both in the literal and proverbial sense. Seriously, it was a beautiful bird, if I can say that about a dead turkey. And to me, the bird ain't the only thing that was smokin' (minus the alfalfa sprig). : )

Good morning

Just arrived...

Keeping Grayson & Foster

Babysitting twice within a week...a little crazy, I know.
It started out so nicely with coloring at the table. : )Grandpa James picked up Foster and the boys came outside to say goodbye. Phil and Aidan were off this week and playing outside. Grayson and Reece joined in and got some good tackles and giggles.

The boys were fine today...with some of their usual spats. I remember thinking how daunting babysitting 2 more kids would feel when I just had 1. Now, oddly with two, it seems natural. : )

see you sometime

Darren usually puts Reece to bed these days. Tonight, I got Zach down and tagged in.

Reece usually balks on praying. He likes me to pray and sometimes will say he doesn't know how, or doesn't do it good. I reassure him that God loves any and every prayer from his sweet lips.

The past couple of times, he asks me to pray and adds something before we close. This precious thing was his prayer tonight.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for Jesus and my friends and my neighbors.
I wish that you could come here sometime so I could see you.
I would really like to see you sometime.

In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.

First time, long time

Went to church tonight for the first time in a long time.
Broke the cycle.

Morning sleep has been so precious it was hard to make it.
But, the evening service left me with little excuses.
I love going that time of day. It is laid back, for one.
For me, it reoriented my mind, ready for rest, and starting the week off right. There was no worrying or distraction about the rest of the day and how I was going to spend it...the day was done. There was only to get home, get to bed, and try to make a better tomorrow.

I took the boys by myself. Mel met me, checked Reece in (who is now upstairs!), and walked with me until we chose seats. That helped.

Zach came with us in church...I wasn't ready to leave him yet. He did great during the music and the first part of the message. But I was distracted with him, trying to nurse at every peep, which isn't the formula for everything these days. Had to leave after a while, which I expected and was fine. I guess I needed to learn the hard(ish) way that it was time to leave him. It was.

Still so sweet to hold him during the worship music, swaying and kissing and hugging this precious gift while singing to the one that had made us both. Loved that part.

Chatty Zach-y

I know it's a corny title, but it fits.
He squalks, he talks, he coos, he squeals, and he giggles.
Today, he did it for the longest time.

Love it.

M&Ms

Miles and Max's birthday party was Friday at the Flight Museum. Haven't been there since this time. They've improved it for sure. Was a fun outing with friends.

(indoors + rambunctious boys + no flash = blurry pics, but still cute)The new 'radio tower' is so clever and cute. Truett and Mike made it even more so.Reece picked out dinosaurs for the boys. If there's only one thing I've learned from Foster, it's that little brothers like to play with big brother's toys. But today, Max got his own....and LOVED his new stegosaurus. : )

Happy, Happy Birthday Max and Miles.