Bubs is ELEVEN!

Where did the time go?  I don't know who seems older...my big boy who is eleven or his mom who has been a parent for eleven years.  These past years have most definitively been a roller coaster with some valleys but thankfully the mountaintops are that much sweeter.  He has amazed his mom this year with his talking.  He can now form sentences with two and three words and finally tell me he loves me!  He is truly a gift and I  cannot imagine my life without him in it! God has been good.  He has always been there to give me just the amount of patience and love I needed for him at the right time.  He has known how to give me the strength for IEP meetings and the will to fight for him when I needed to.  He has also given me the wisdom to know when to be quiet and let Bubs go on his own!

I decided this year to start a BIRTHDAY questionairre with each child on their birthday.  Here is what Bub said...

What is your favorite color?  Green
What is your favorite animal? elephant (Paul)
What is your favorite book?  Spiderman
What is your favorite show?  Team Umizoomi
What is your favorite movie?  Spiderman
What is your favorite food?  Chick fil a
What is your favorite drink?  water
What is your favorite breakfast food?  yogurt
What is your favorite clothing item?  Spiderman shirt
What is your favorite toy?  Spiderman
Who is your favorite friend?  Skyler
What is your favorite thing to do?  play Spiderman
What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
Where would you want to go on vacation?  BEACH (love my boy!)
What would you like to do when you grow up?  Work at Chick fil a



This year he wanted a bowling party so we had some friends for a bowling party and a very special friend to go to lunch with us at Chick fil a! The common theme for the party was....guess what???  Spiderman!

Here are some photos of my sweet boy and his friends... These kids are truly a blessing to my kid (and his momma!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This Christmas has been marked as the "sick Christmas!"  As we speak Bubs is recovering from the flu after a week of recovering from an infected thumb.  Samuel started running a fever just a few hours ago and coughing.  Thankful for TAMIFLU and the hope that it will make Christmas at least a few minutes of fun!  ( I say that because in my house it only takes a few minutes to rip open the presents!)

So along with the events of the last few weeks in our nation (Sandy Hook) and the events in my household it has made me grateful for every day I have with  my three beautiful children ( and my wonderful husband).  The fact that they are here and with me this Christmas is something I should be thankful for every minute!  

The other thing striking me today is thinking how sad those parents in Sandy Hook are today.  Presents for those children unopened and empty stockings...A reminder of how much they lost.

There was another father who knew when his son was born that he would die. He knew the loss when he sent him as a baby.  He gave up his son to die and to die for me.  It hit me...how much of a sacrifice that was that first Christmas.  God sent his only son to the earth to be born so that he could die for me.  WOW.  The joy that comes with Christmas is not in the fact that we all have the perfect Christmas and that all our kids are well or even that we have presents under our tree.  The joy is that the father who loved his son so much to send him to pay a price for sins that I could not even come close to repaying.  He loved me so much he told me that if I just only trust and believe that He did come to die for me he would be gracious enough to cover my sin and give me his gift of eternal life. It is God's gracious love for me that is to be celebrated this Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

P.S...this past week was so crazy I am not sure if I sent cards to all of you or maybe even some of you might get two...if so I apologize and if not the kids picture is here for you to see.  We love you all!

It's beginning to seem a lot like Christmas...

except for the weather.  75 degrees here today.  But just like Richmond, by Friday it will probably be in the 30's.  Anyways...trying to do some fun stuff with the kids.  Here is a nativity scene we made together.

Gracie's Pancake Breakfast with Santa

Gracie's preschool had a really sweet pancake breakfast with Santa.  Here are some pictures.
I loved sharing this time with my girl.

Visiting Santa

Every year during the Christmas Season I look forward to our visit with Santa.  It does not really have a thing to do with Santa himself.  We really do not focus on Santa much around here...my kids can tell you...it is Jesus' birthday but I have said before I love the visit because it shows a little about my kids.

This year was no different.

Gracie was really nervous before she was to talk to Santa but watched in amazement as he came down the chimney and talked to the boys and girls.  She knew what she wanted but had to keep asking Samuel what she was supposed to say.  So here is what my kids asked for this year.  Samuel...and IPOD touch.  I think every year for about four now...he asked for some sort of technology.  That's my boy.  He loves video games and the computer.  Bubs of course had one request...the new Spiderman movie.  The big news this year is that he said it in a sentence.  I do not really know if Santa understood him or if Santa understood how important that one sentence was to me but I felt like crying.  He had practiced that one sentence ALL afternoon so he could TALK to Santa.  That is really BIG for us this year.  Gracie went last and almost forgot what she wanted.  She asked for a doll house.  We already have one but she wants one that will fit her Barbies.  Specifically the Hannah Montana house.  Good thing we convinced her she wanted that since Santa found one at a consignment store that was WAY cheaper than the Barbie Dream House she had on her wish list.

Gratitude is much more

Happy Thanksgiving.  

We have so much to be thankful for.  I know we can make the lists, count our blessings, and write them down but on this Thanksgiving I was wondering really what more do we need to be thankful for than the One who gives us everything. So we can thank Him for all the gifts in our life...our homes, families, health...but there is even more to be thankful for.  Gratitude must be much more.

Here was my devotional verse for today.  
 .2 Corinthians 4:15

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So thanksgiving is related to grace.  How can we really be truly thankful until we truly realize we are undeserving of any of it?  That calls us to truly fall on our knees and be thankful doesn't it.  That we do not really mean "thank you" until we see the grace that is extended to us.  

 Grace begins when one person is full and another is empty. One person is a have and the other a have-not. One is rich; the other is poor. Then grace comes into action as the emptiness of one is filled up by the fullness of the other. What we do not have is supplied by what he has. Our poverty is replaced by his wealth. And all that not because we deserve it, but because Jesus is gracious. His riches are free. Therefore, gratitude wells up in the hearts of those who "receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness" (Romans 5:17). This gratitude to Christ, which marks all true believers (Romans 1:21), is more than saying, "Thank you," or trying to return some service; it is more than being glad you are free from condemnation; it is being glad toward Jesus for the riches of salvation and the way he made it ours. When the grace of Jesus penetrates the human heart, it rebounds back to God as gratitude. Christian gratitude is grace reflected back to God in the happiness we feel toward Jesus.  JOHN PIPER


So this is the type of gratitude that Christ is owed...the kind that should "well" up inside of us and explode out of us.  It is more than just saying "thanks."  It should show in every action and word and our thanks only for the glory of God.  

This thanksgiving, I am truly overwhelmed with how gracious God is to us.  So many times undeserved and many times goes without acknowledgement.  

All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given,
The son, and him who reigns,
With them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore.


Happy Thanksgiving.

Slumber parties

This weekend while Samuel was away Gracie and Bubs had a slumber party all their own.  We let them sleep in the guest room together for the night.  They piled up lots and lots of pillows and animals and I am pretty sure they fell asleep way to late and got up way to early but it was pretty cute!

Here is a picture of them on the bed...