Our Christmas 2009

Four very excited children on Christmas morning!

Annagrace holding a precious little book she received about how a girl can be a little girl after God's own heart. The book goes through the fruits of the Spirit using beautifully illustrated pictures.

We have a family tradition of serving cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. The recipe for these scrumtious rolls is called Pillsbury. ;)

Lauren's big gift was an Elsie Dinsmore doll. She is so excited!

My sweet Lauren crocheted this bag for me, and picked out Palmer's pregnancy lotion to put inside it. What a thoughtful and creative gift! Lauren has always loved to give to others.

On Christmas Eve we have a tradition of giving the kids new pajamas. They now know to expect new pajamas which is fun. Here is the group pajama picture. :)

Here we all are right before the Christmas Eve service.

It is hard to believe another year has almost come and gone. I think each year goes faster. We are thankful for the gift of Jesus and what He means to us. He is the giver of every good gift, and He is our real reason for celebration. I pray that we will love Him more faithfully in the year to come. He has been so faithful to us and is worthy of all of our heart's love and devotion.

Gingerbread House

I purchased a gingerbread house kit at Michael's, and our super fantastic Daddy over here helped the kids put it together while I was out finishing Christmas shopping. They did a great job!

A Very Rare Occasion

You will seldom see Matt and I all dressed up and heading out by ourselves like this. However, we recently had an evening out and the opportunity to get dressed up. We were dressed up in this picture to go to his work party at a restaurant. Just dressing up and going out alone with Matt is a rare treat. :)

My Crafty Girl

Lauren loves to do crafts. We use workboxes each day in our home school. There are twelve boxes that I load up with everything from the basic core subjects to good reading, fun sheets, computer time, etc. I usually put a fun craft in box twelve as an incentive to make it through them all. A couple of months back Lauren made this cute forest animals set. It was a Martha Stewart craft kit I bought really cheap at Big Lots. Everything was included to make this adorable set up out of pipe cleaners. She did a great job and even enjoyed showing it off during a presentation in her class at Classical Conversations. Her newest endeavor is learning to crochet. She is doing very well using much creativity in her little projects.

Snow!

Well, I did not believe the weather forecasters when they said we had a good chance of snow, but they were right! I have very seldom ever seen snow fall like it did yesterday. It was early on in December for such a snowfall too. It was exciting; the kids were so eager to get out in it. Our family walked around the water retention area in our neighborhood. It was a cold walk but magical to see everything covered in white. I told the children that the Lord blessed us with a special gift yesterday. It was also great that Daddy got to come home early from work. We just spent the day in the house with the fireplace going and watched Old Yeller as a family after dinner. It was a cozy kind of a day. What an unexpected blessing!

One Month To One Year! Happy Birthday Abigail Joy!

Abbie Joy had her first birthday. If you scroll through the posts below you can see how she has changed each month over her first year. You may have to click on older posts once you get to the end of the first page, but they should all be there ending with her bday party pictures. This year has flown by, and she is such a JOY to our family.

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

What a Cute Strawberry!

Eleven Months

I just love that smile!

Abigail is One Year's Old!

Abbie Joy turned one on November the eleventh. The kids and I took her to Memorial City Mall during the day and rode the carousel. We had a little party with Daddy after he came home from work. At one she is walking and almost running and keeps us all laughing. She is a real little ham. She says Mama and Da-Da and babbles really loud. I want to post monthly pictures I took of her during her first year. I will do that in separate posts. If you scroll through you can see how she has grown.

Ten Years of Marriage and Ten Things I Love About Being Married to Matt

As I shared in the last post, October the ninth marked our ten year wedding anniversary. We did not get to go anywhere that weekend, however, the next weekend we were able to drive to South Padre Island. We went to attend a Family Life Weekend to Remember. It was a fabulous conference sharing Biblical truth for marriage. We felt so encouraged to see where the Lord has brought us over the past ten years and to see what He may want to do through us in the years to come. We were reminded that the Lord brought us together not just for our own happiness but also to use us as a team to impact His kingdom. The Lord brought us together and has given us children that He might use our family to reflect Him. I will also say that marriage and children are also ways the Lord matures us and prunes us of selfishness. :) Anyway, hopefully my point is being made here. Often times people get married purely for their own happiness, but God has a much, much bigger plan in mind. You see He knew that Matt has gaps, and I have gaps. When we join as a team we fill each other's gaps and can do more together than alone. Of course joy and happiness are gifts from the Lord that He gives us through our spouses, but sometimes marriage is hard work and takes commitment to the purposes and plans God has for our lives. It was good to reflect upon ten years of marriage and see God's faithfulness as we talked about our vision and goals for the future. So, that just skims the surface of the great things we took away from the conference, however, my real motive in writing this post is to post ten things I love about being married to Matt. One for each year of our marriage. I'm not posting in any certain order but just as some things come to mind. One of the things the conference spoke to me on is how much of a ministry wives have to their husbands in honoring, respecting, and encouraging them. My list of ten things is one way I want to honor my husband for all He does for me and our children. I love you, Matt!

1. Matt is a man who Loves God and studies to keep growing and learning more. I love it that we can talk about what we are learning and spur one another on.

2. Matt is nurturing, affectionate, and caring towards me.

3. Matt is a good daddy and plays well with the children.

4. Matt has a servant's heart and helps me a LOT around the house and with the children.

5. Matt works hard and is dependable.

6. Matt is fun loving.

7. Matt is teachable. He studies and is always trying to continue learning. He is a lifelong learner.

8. I love Matt's blue eyes.

9. I love how Matt is still a gentleman towards me and takes good care of me. I love the way he leads our family selflessly. He is always willing to do anything that needs to be done.

10. I love how Matt talks to me. Sometimes the sweetest times are simple things like talking on the front porch eating ice cream.

I guess I could publish a book if I kept going with this list. Can you tell I love my husband and am so very thankful for him? Thank you, Matt for all you are and all you do. You are the best.

Ten Years

On October the ninth Matt and I arrived at our ten year anniversary! We had planned to have a babysitter come and to go out on a date. That plan changed, however, when sweet Abbie Joy came down with fever. Mama ended up at the pediatrician's office instead. Well, that did not stop us from celebrating no matter how humble the celebration. I went out and picked up food from our favorite Italian restaurant while Matt set a very pretty table with our china and put the kids to bed. We are not sure where the last ten years have gone, but we do know that the Lord has been faithful and very good to us. We are excited about the years to come.

Abbie Joy Eleven Months

This is very late, but Abbie Joy turned eleven months on October the eleventh. She is taking a few steps now and is full of personality. She likes to scream and babble really loud; I guess the poor thing feels that is the only way she will be heard. She laughs a lot and tries so hard to be one of the kids. One of her favorite things is going in the back yard and swinging in the baby swing. She also likes to get in the Little Tikes car and have Lauren push her around. We all enjoy her so much.

October 2nd Finally Arrived!

Annagrace just turned three on October the second. She has been waiting and waiting ever since Lauren and Gabriel had their big party last spring. When they had a party at Inflatable Zone she started asking when it would be her birthday. We told her that her birthday is October the second. She memorized that date and has been reminding us for months now. So, the anticipation was high and it was very exciting to see her revel in the joy of her big day. It blows my mind that she is already three. It seems like I just had her. Annagrace has a very sweet way about her and displays compassion towards others. We are incredibly blessed to have her in our family.

School Report

We are wrapping up week two of our home school this week. It has been a very intense but good two weeks. We are doing work boxes this year which have truly revolutionized our home school days. I began learning about the work box system in the last few months and have done a lot of research online about it. The system was developed by Sue Patrick and has taken the home schooling blogosphere by storm. I am on a yahoo group that shares many wonderful ideas about how to implement this system and creatively fill the boxes each day. The boxes are helping my little students learn how to manage their schedule and keep moving from one activity to the next. It has also helped a great deal to have all supplies placed in the boxes ahead of time. We are getting much more work accomplished than ever before. I am posting some pictures of our meet the teacher night, our work boxes and also some of our first day of school activities. Please notice Abbie Joy studying the time line book. It is hysterical. She likes to crawl over to the book and flip through the pictures. People ask me about when I start schooling the children; as you can see the schooling starts right away. ;) Seriously, the babies just pick up tons of stuff from absorbing what they hear the older children learning. Annagrace is enjoying her own work boxes filled with file folder games, puzzles, simple activity sheets, and read alouds with Mommy. I am impressed with how well she is doing with moving her velcro numbers and placing them on her boxes as she goes through them one by one.

Gabriel's Presentation

Each Friday at Classical Conversations the children have to give a presentation to their class. It is really fun to see them up in front of everyone and how they handle the situation. This past week Gabriel was supposed to give a presentation on one of his favorite Bible stories. So, we pulled out the flannel graph set and he decided to do the story of baby Jesus. I got to sit in on his class and see his presentation. He couldn't quite remember how the angel's visit to Joseph went but fully recovered his thoughts on the journey to Bethlehem. Pretty cute. :) They have been trained to always start with, "Hello, my name is and today my presentation is about......" Then at the end they close with, "Thank you for listening to my presentation; are there any questions?" The questions the other kids come up with can be very cute too. It is good training for speaking later in life. I am glad they have this opportunity.

Loves to Eat

As I said in the previous post, "Abbie Joy always loves to eat." I have been through this four times now, but I still have not figured out how to teach table manners to a baby. Hmm, she may be the messiest yet. :)

10 Months!!!

Abbie Joy turned 10 months on September 11th. She is full of such life and personality and makes us laugh all the time. She is cruising around and getting strong on her legs. She gets excited to go outside and swing in the baby swing and of course loves eating anytime. One thing she started doing this month is trying to sing. There have been a few times lately when I have sat in the recliner and sung to her. Well, I noticed one day that when I sat down she started making this kind've humming sound. It dawned on me that I think she was trying to get me to start singing hymns as I had done the previous few times. It was precious. Sometimes if I am singing she will start that humming sound along with me. Absolutely priceless! She also starts bopping up and down when she hears music. Maybe this girl is going to be musical. Another new thing for her is fighting with Annagrace over toys. Yes, the sibling rivalry has already begun there. Now that she is making her way around and grabbing her siblings things they are getting upset with her. Annagrace and Abbie Joy recently had their first run in over toys. Then it was followed by another run in a few days later. Yes, there is much character training to be done with these little girls. Lessons on sharing and kindness are in full session in the Adams home. :)