Kiddos sing at Church

Last night we had a Christmas service at our church. The kids always do a few songs and Scripture reading, and this year, since Madeline is 3 and in "big kids" Sunday School, she got to participate. Since Rivers is 2 he wasn't supposed to be involved but followed Madeline up to the stage. We didn't want to cause a scene so we let him stand there with Maddie and her friend Dallas. Here is a couple of the songs from last night! Enjoy! Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Our Hero Made the News!

Daddy is an everyday hero around here, but was shown here tonight on the local news being a local hero on WHAS 11 News. We are so grateful for God's mercy in protecting his life as well as the other firefighters and the woman they saved.

You can also read a great blog post our good friend Denny wrote about Mike.

(click on the gray text to watch the video and read the blog, if you were having a hard time finding it!)

Ornament Day 2011

Today was our 6th annual ornament day. For those of you who don't know, or have forgotten, the background of the reason the Frantz Family has an ornament day on December 9th every year, I will briefly give you the history. It was the year 2006, and a certain handsome man (Michael) and a certain southern belle (me) had been dating for a little while. He took me on a surprise date before I was to go home to Mississippi for Christmas. We went to see the Nutcracker Ballet and then we were supposedly going out for a nice dinner afterwards, but decided to exchange one Christmas gift early. We were going to start a tradition of exchanging ornaments with each other every Christmas. Well, much to my surprise and excitement Michael proposed that night with a beautiful engraved ornament, and we have kept the tradition every year on December 9th, now including our kiddos in the ornament exchange.

The 2 young Lovebirds 5 years ago

This year was so much fun, because our kids, especially Madeline, had really been looking forward to it. Michael started off with a little family devotion by retelling the story of that night 5 years ago. They listened with wonder, that mommy and daddy hadn't always been married, and he read some of Ephesians 5 explaining that marriage is a wonderful gift God has given to picture Christ and the church. Then we sang "Merciful God", the same hymn we sang together the night he proposed, and thanked God for the sweetest gift apart from our salvation... our family! And then of course the kids excitedly opened their first Christmas gift of the season, their 2011 ornament.

Gloria got a "baby's first Christmas" ornament. Madeline appropriately opened a princess ornament since that has been her "favorite" thing this year. I was super excited to find Rivers ornament because it incorporated his 3 great "loves" of the year, balls, books, and "oo-oos" (a monkey or really any zoo animal for that matter).

I got Michael a Johnny Cash guitar ornament, complete with the ability to play Blue Christmas, because 1)he loves Johnny Cash's music 2)he found out about a month ago he is distantly related to June Carter, and therefore, by marriage Johnny. Yes it was something very big and important that happened this year :) He got me a cute little school house ornament since this year embarked the first year on my journey of homeschooling.

We ended the night with family movie night, something we all look forward to, with the works... pizza, The Polar Express, and brownies. Such a fun way to celebrate a day that we consider its own holiday around here! Oh how much has changed in these 5 years! Thank you Lord for this sweet sweet gift! Happy Ornament Day!

Its Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is definitely in full swing in the Frantz household. We've trimmed our tree, decked our halls, made our first batch of Christmas cookies, went to a Christmas concert this past weekend, and attended our Sunday School Christmas party... and it's only December 5th! I hope to be sharing some more ways we make Christmas special around here, so stay tuned!

Our little helpers decorating the tree! They had so much fun this year!

Making the first batch of Christmas cookies to celebrate Daddy's first semester of seminary ending (daddy's favorite)

Watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the first time... It makes my heart happy how much these 3 love each other!

Last Month Happenings

Last month was quite busy... so I'm going to update you briefly (with lots of pics) on the highlights from November.

We started off the month with a trip home to Mississippi to welcome Carter Wesley Lewis into the world! Much to my sister's disappointment, but to our delight, he waited to make his appearance until we got to the hospital late that evening (November 2). What a sweet time it was to be there for his birth, and we definitely can't wait to get back for Christmas and get to love on him some more.

My sweet little nephew

On our trip there we also got in some fun time with Aunt Susan

and of course some play time with Marmie

a proud Papa and his 2 grandsons

November was a big month for Madeline. We've casually been doing what you could consider "preschool" with her for a while now, but she officially started a more "formal" preschool last month by beginning a phonics curriculum. She LOVES doing school and its been a lot of fun being her teacher!
In November our little one turned 6 months old! Half way to her first birthday, can you believe it? She experienced her first time swinging and loved it!
She's rolling all over the place, can sit up on her own for moments at a time, and is starting to scoot up on her knees trying to crawl. She remains such a content happy little girl and we love her so much!
She also began solids last month and loves all the veggies we have tried so far (peas, carrots, sweet potatoes). Like my other 2 it looks like I've got a good eater on my hands. At her 6 month check up Gloria weighed in at 16lbs. 10.5 oz (50-75%) and is 27 in (90%) tall! We are thrilled to have a healthy growing baby girl.
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house with a grand total of 17 of our friends and family! It was such a fun holiday :)

loving time with Mawmaw

Thankful for our growing family this year

Fun to use my newly renovated dining room (thanks to my talented hubby) to host Thanksgiving

The bounty of food!

Madeline and Rivers loved spending Thanksgiving with the best friends!

That about catches you up on November for the Frantzes... a little late :)

Halloween

We had a blast Halloween night. We trick or treated with the Murrays, and it was so so much fun watching all the cousins trick or treat together. This was our kids first time and they loved it!

Carving our pumpkin a few nights before

The finished product

Getting ready to go get some candy

What fun cousins we have!!!!!

Our little Lion all bundled up. She helped Mawmaw pass out candy

Trick or treating

The finished loot of candy & one happy little boy... I think it will last us months!

Our Hero

This was the front page if the Metro section of the Courier Journal this morning. Notice the hotty in the center of the pic :)

Sweet Prayers for Daddy

Every night before our kids go to bed, we read them a story from one of our Bible story books, sing a hymn, and pray. We often ask them what or who they would like to pray for and then give them a chance to pray. Most of the time their prayers go something like this, "Father, thank you for _______. Amen." The nights that Mike is working we always pray for him. Tonight, Madeline said that she wanted to pray for Daddy, and I was expecting her usual prayer. Instead this is what she prayed,

"Thank you for my Father. Help him to grow. Be with him at work. Please can he not go to work because I love him so much? Amen."

Well, I was in tears by the end of it! We so miss Mike when he has to be away from us, and as you can tell, he is such awesome daddy that our kids want him to always be with us. I pray they will continue to go to God and trust him in all of their needs and concerns.

5 months Old!

Last week Baby Girl turned 5 months old. This week she has officially gone mobile by rolling over. As soon as you place her on her back she'll flip to her stomach and scoot around. This sweet girl's smile is contagious and she remains such a content baby. If you can't tell, we all just adore her!

Doxology

We have been singing the Doxology most nights before dinner for about a week or so now. Madeline especially likes this prayer and often breaks out at other times during dinner to sing it.

Here's a little peek :)

Fun Fall!

I am so glad Fall is here. So far we have had a fun and busy fall. I love Louisville in the Fall. The leaves are beautiful turning colors, the weather is getting cooler, and there is lots of fun things to do in or around the city! Last weekend we went to the "World's Largest Halloween Party" at the zoo. They decorate the entire zoo with different movie themes and have Live characters out and about. The kids had a lot of fun, and so did we.

Mawmaw and Rivers starting the trick or treating

This pic is kind of blurry, but it is one of my favorite from the night. My niece was trying to get Rivers to smile for a picture and this is what he did... I love my sweet Little Man!

Madeline loved seeing all the princesses there.

Cute little Lion

The 3 munchkins ready to get some candy

Two weeks ago we went on our annual pumpkin picking trip to Huber's Farm with a few families from our church. It was a blast. Some friends also took some family picture of us that I hope to post soon (especially since we have none of all 5 of us). Here are some pics I got before my camera died.

This is my favorite one from the day.

Daddy and Rivers pickin apples

Not great... but the best shot I got of the 3 kids together

We are so blessed to have such great friends!

Disney on Ice

Last Wednesday my mother in law took Madeline and I (Gloria tagged along too) along with my sister in law, Michele, and her three youngest kids to Disney on Ice. To say that Madeline had fun is an understatement. She was absolutely thrilled to be there, even picked out a dress so she could look like a princess, and when it was over she almost cried because she didn't want to leave. I have to admit, that I really enjoyed it too. I thought it might be amateur or cheesy, but it really was an amazing show. They had great effects and the ice skating was very good, at least I thought, and I was really entertained!

Not sure if a 4 month old can actually enjoy the show but even Gloria seemed to really like it.

Peter Pan flying off to Neverland with the Wendy, John, and Michael

Michele and Gloria

All the kids glued to the action

Our favorite was The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea." Bubbles fell from the ceiling and giant jelly fish were floating around

Thanks Mamaw for a fun night to remember!