More snow day fun

Wanted to share another video of the most recent snow day fun! All we had gotten at this point was a bunch of ice, so it was 4 wheeler time! We're now getting a ton of snow, and it's looking like I won't go in to work today (of course in honor of my sister in law Carrie's birthday), or tomorrow, or perhaps even Thursday! We'll have more pics and videos for you I'm sure as we enjoy this very snowy (for StL) winter!

Fun in the snow and other stuff

We've been having some fun in the snow that we've gotten recently, and wanted to share some of the videos and pictures with you! When we got our backyard graded last year it amounted to a better sledding hill in the backyard, and we've been taking full advantage! The days off of work have been fun as well, and while I don't have any pictures for you, Sol and Thad have been working really hard shoveling driveways for neighbors and making some good cash at the same time!

MMA Sparring

So Sol and Thad have been doing some martial arts classes for about a year now, and have really wanted to begin sparring. What they needed was some protective gear, and for Christmas they used their Christmas money from Grandpa Bailey and Uncles Garrett and Jesse, and Auntie Jenna to get gloves and headgear. Here are some pictures from their first attempt at sparring outside of our basement! They did pretty well sparring the other kid their size, but when it got down to sparring each other they kinda ended up wrestling and Sol just overpowered Thad the first time. The second time they sparred Thad did better, getting Sol into a headlock and making him tap. All in all it's a really fun thing and they have really enjoyed doing it. Sometime soon we'll probably get Eli and Ezra into it as well!

Ice Skating!

We have tried a new thing with our older two boys since Christmas this year. We offered up a reward to them for doing "acts of kindness" to others in the family. This includes things like helping little brothers with their morning jobs, helping mom with lunch or other tasks, being cooperative, and just having a nice attitude during the day. Sol and Thad email me each day with their list of kind acts and I choose a "winner for the day". They had to earn 7 tickets for their reward, and by last Saturday they had both earned their 7, and chose to go ice skating! Their time on rollerblades has paid off and they both did really well, despite the fact that their were probably 200 people on the ice at any given time! Good job boys!

Christmas Musical

I wanted to share some pictures of the Christmas musical "The Best Christmas Present Ever" that our 3 oldest boys were in last Sunday - Hope you enjoy! Ezra got to be a sheep a few weeks before and was in a slide show that was shown that morning too!

Nice and toasty!

c

The day finally came this week, when our wood stove installation was complete! It happened on Monday while I was at work until 9:30PM unfortunately, but when I got home the house was VERY nice and toasty! In fact, when I got home the first thing I had to do (after bringing wood up to the house!) was to take off my sweater! It has been 3 full days now, and our furnace hasn't run ONCE! The main level stays around 75 F, and the upstairs around the same! It's pretty fun to enjoy the wood heat, and be able to sit around in a t shirt and feel very comfortable! For our 14th anniversary Rhonda and I bought each other various tools for the fire, an ash bucket, tools, and a little humidifier pot to put some moisture back into the air. Hope you enjoy the pictures and can come and stay warm with us sometime this winter!
As an aside, if you ever need a stove installed or a chimney swept, check out A+ Chimney Services, they took great care of us!

Have we done enough?

Merry Christmas! We hope that all of you are enjoying this Christmas season. We really enjoy the Christmas season at our house and the traditions that go along with it! Ezra was begging for Christmas lights to be put up way before Thanksgiving even. We love making buckeyes, icing sugar cookies, making graham cracker gingerbread houses, cutting out paper snowflakes for our windows, the whispers and secrets of gift-giving preparation, singing (and sometimes butchering) Christmas carols, and just having some good ol’ family time together.

But between the shopping and gift wrapping Dustin and I really try to instill in our kids the true meaning of Christmas. Our church starts December with a Breakfast in Bethlehem where the whole gym is transformed into the marketplace of Bethlehem at the time of Christ. There is a live nativity scene with real animals (that even poop to add to the little ones’ excitement) and there are different booths or shops in the marketplace with hands-on activities for the kids so that they can easier imagine what life may have been like then. Another fun activity was going on the Journey to Bethlehem that is put on by a large church in our area each year. They put you in family groups and you trek through their property on a journey to “Bethlehem”. There are actors along the way to pull you into the scenes as you pass along on your journey, which of course ends at a little stable in Bethlehem where you get to meet a special family with a brand new baby boy. They do a fabulous job and it is enjoyed by all—well, except for those mean Roman soldiers that Ezra could for SURE do without. J Our boys are busy practicing their songs and lines for the upcoming Christmas musical (The Best Christmas Present Ever) this Sunday at our church. We are so looking forward to it, and again, it is a way to focus on the true Christmas. We also have one of those red and green paper chains hanging from our chandelier over our table. Each strip of paper has one verse of the Christmas story on it and down to the littlest, who can’t really even read, we take turns reading those verses as we count down to Christmas day. Then comes our celebration of Jesus on Christmas morning, we read the Christmas story from the Bible (and have even acted it out before) and on our breakfast table sets a huge stack of pancakes which gets candles plopped into it. Next, you guessed it, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. These traditions are actually among the boys’ favorites.

So, all of that plus the squeezing Jesus into conversations and asking thought provoking questions…surely we’re getting the message through? One would hope so! But why then do I constantly hear about wanting more and asking for more gifts and see the obsession with the gifts that they look forward to? Are we not doing enough? No, we aren’t. We never can. And THAT’S the true meaning of Christmas. The amazing gift of grace that God chose to give us -- Jesus’ love for us! He was willing to be separated from his Heavenly Father and be restricted by human form for many years so that he could love us through HIS sacrifice on the cross. Why? Because we could never do enough and the thought of us being separated from him forever made him sad. He wants us to choose to be with him and it’s just so simple. We just have to do what we love so very much….receive a gift!

RLB