Ballet

Madeline started Ballet a few weeks ago, and it is an understatement to say it is the highlight of her week.  

Her friend Ella on their first day

Practicing some of her moves

My Beautiful Ballerina

Tiny Tea Parties

Lately, this is Baby Girl's favorite thing to do, along with taking care of her many babies.  I remember when Maddie used to do it every morning :)  It's so sweet and fun to watch her set up her little tea parties (almost always in the mornings).  She has different "guests" each day, and she loves placing them in their seat and serving them tea and treats.

A Lovely Valentine's Day

We've never been much on celebrating Valentines Day, but Maddie is all about holidays right now.  She's been anticipating Valentines Day since Christmas basically!  So we made the day special by making some home made Valentines, decorations, and yummy goodies.  It was a really fun day, and I think a memorable one with some new traditions started.

We started out with a breakfast of "heart" pancakes...
or panny cakes as they are known around here!

Then we went downstairs to make some decorations and
special Valentines for Daddy and friends.

We made heart shaped pizzas for lunch

The were a big hit!

And we just couldn't waste the dough that was left over from cutting
out the hearts,so we made beneit bites with them.

We used some of our broken crayons to make heart shaped crayons to give friends.

Chocolate Sugar cookies for Daddy

Our decorations... The banner had a heart for each kiddo with the things they "loved".
We will add to it each year. 

On it Madeline wrote 1 John 4:7 "let us love one another, for love is from God." Along with all the Valentines activities I tried to make this the theme of our day.  We talked about the only way we know what true love is, is because God has loved us so much! We talked about God loving us enough to send Jesus to die and pay for our sins, and because he has loved us like this, we should love others by laying down our lives for them.  Trying to explain and demonstrate this to a 4, 3, and almost 2 year old took some creativity.  We tried... and are still carrying on teaching moments from that day... to teach them sacrificial love where it hits them the most.  Giving up a toy that another wants to play with, or letting the other pick out the video that we watch is a BIG deal right now to my precious little sinners' hearts :)!  It's in these small (but Big to them) ways, I pray God is starting to reveal to them the depth of love he has for them by making the greatest sacrifice of all. 

First Snow Day

This wasn't actually the first snow Louisville received this year, but we were in Mississippi for that one, and this was the first snow that we've been able to play in this year.  I'm glad it finally came because Madeline has been asking since before Christmas when it was going to snow.  Mike had to work this day (BOO!), and it was frigid, like 10 degrees outside!  So after it took me about 45 minutes to bundle everyone up we went outside and had a fun morning playing in the snow :) 

One happy girly!

This was Gloria's first snow to ever "play" in

Attempting snow angels on the deck

He laid like this a good 5 minutes just enjoying life

Silly

Joys in January

Honestly, I usually dread January.  It's cold, and I'm not fond of the cold.  It's dark and dreary, and I like bright sunny days.  But this January has actually flown by.  We've had a few cold spells but also some warmer weather to break things up, and for that I'm really thankful.  Even on the cold days though, we've either found something new and fun to do inside or brave it and go outside for a while to get some fresh air.  

Here are some January happenings:

If you ask Maddie, her favorite subject is art.  So this week for our art class in school we drew upside down.  I saw this on a website last week with a list of cold weather activities and the kids thought it was the funnest, silliest thing.  

We've played lots of dress up, usually spurred on by Maddie.  Their new favorite dress up theme to play is Western.  Rivers loves dressing up as a cowboy, and Maddie calls this her princess cowgirl dress.

If it's not just frigid we bundle up and take our snack outside in the afternoon to get some fresh air and get some energy out.

The kids favorite outdoor game right now is freeze tag.
I love this picture of Maddie right after she was tagged

Gloria has been having some sleeping issues, with waking up during the night since Christmas.  In order to try and sort them out without waking everyone up our 2 biggest have been "camping" out together in Rivers' room on the floor.  They actually ask to do it every night now.  Here's a pic of how we found them sleeping when we went to tuck them in the other night.

I think we've finally found a way to allow Gloria to participate in family devotion time at night... Giving her dessert.  It might be messy but she's still, content, and quiet!  We've found even a bit of chocolate milk will do.  

Last but not least, here is a recent picture of our Baby Boy that we got to see last week.  

He's definitely growing, as evidenced by my tummy, and getting more and more active.  It's fun and sweet to feel (and often see) him moving around in there. I'm still so amazed at the miracle of pregnancy and birth.  It reminded me of this verse: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:13-14.  I praise God that he forming and knitting this little boy within me and can't wait to meet him in May!