The Letter "Q"

Tonight's verse was...

"Quick Lord, answer me, for I have prayed." Psalm 141:1

After our usual dancing and verse memorization, we sat in a circle. Michelle handed out four fruit snacks to each of us. We took turns and went around the circle praying about whatever was on our minds. This was designed mainly for Alayna. She has been quite shy about praying lately. We wanted her to have many opportunities to pray and get more comfortable. The suggestion came from a mentor mom at MOPS this week. She mentioned taking 4 or 5 of the same object (corn, fruit snack, smartie, toy, etc.) and having a prayer for each thing. This way they were simple prayers and she wouldn't feel intimidated.

The prayers were precious. Josiah prayed for his friend Isaac, his dad to be a good teacher, for everyone to stop smoking, and for everything in the whole universe. Alayna was thankful that her family was nice, that her dad's students would learn a lot, and was thankful for our family. After her second prayer she giggled a bit and with that teeny bit of pressure, let out an adult sized "toot." That set us all into a good round of laughter!! (Family Time's are not totally serious, that is for sure!!) Michelle and I prayed for our church, friends, family, each other and grandparents in a kid friendly way. It was very sweet, funny, and sincere.

We were so proud that Alayna opened up tonight about praying out loud. God hears even her quietest prayers, but we would like her to feel comfortable to pray out loud with all of us...of all places to feel confident praying out loud would be at home. Even at supper tonight it was her turn to pray...often times she will say, "Josiah can pray for me tonight". Josiah feels very comfortable praying out loud and is always ok with that idea. Tonight however, she picked a picture (we have a box of pictures on our table, they are pictures we received from people with Christmas letters and we pull out a different picture to pray for) and very confidently prayed for my brother and each member of his family....then half way through supper she said, "I forgot to pray for their cats" and so we stopped eating so she could pray for their 2 cats too. This is truly an answer to my prayers.

We desire for her (and all our kids) to feel confident in her love for Jesus and His love for her and to share with her friends about Him and to pray whenever and wherever. Tonight was a big step for her....our verse was very fitting because after talking about it yesterday and praying for her, God truly answered my prayer 'quickly'.

Antiquities

Here are the pictures I mentioned in my previous post...taking pictures of a picture does not do them justice...but they are still cute! I absolutely love them...if you come to my house, they will greet you in the front entry.

Are These 2 Related??

Josiah in the window at our old house -- watching for when Daddy will come home

Seth watching out the window at our new house -- watching Josiah play outside

I oftentimes write about the rascally/crazy things that Seth does. He is quite the character, but as Dan and I were remembering, Josiah had plenty of those moments as well. Here is just an example of how they are similar creatures. I will say that Josiah was a little more tame in his rascallyness, but I think a big part of that was the fact that we only had 1 kid to keep an eye on. Now we have 3 kids and we're outnumbered! :)

**on a side note, I got my Antiquities pictures back yesterday of the kids....they are way too cute! I just love them! I'll have to find a way to put them on here so you can see.

The Letter "P"

The verse for Family Time tonight was
"Pray about everything." Philippians 4:6

This was a particularly timely verse for our family. As we received news today that will inspire quite a bit of prayer over the next few weeks.

The activity we did with the kids was a competition to see who could hold their breath. Using a timer each kid took a turn holding their breath as long as they could. Daddy even took a turn. The kids loved running the timer.

After that we sat down and discussed. What were you thinking about while you were holding your breath? Beating my sister, beating my brother, holding my breath were the responses. Were you thinking about breathing again? YES! Most of the time breathing happens all by itself just like prayer should happen all the time. When we forget to pray we should feel like we are holding our breath. Then we discussed how God is everywhere, all the time. No matter where we are we can pray to Him about EVERYTHING. We ended our time by sharing prayer requests and praying for each other.

Then we danced again and headed upstairs to make a picture to add to our book. It's getting pretty thick and it's fun to look back on some of the pictures from previous letters/lessons. Are you holding your breath?

Funny Face

I just had to share this funny moment with you....the other day Josiah and I were running a couple errands together. As we were leaving one of the stores, he very seriously said..."Mom, I think you took the wrong kid". In my mind I was thinking he meant I took the wrong kid with me to run errands b/c it's not really his cup of tea some days, but then I asked him "Why?" and he said, "b/c the nose on this kid just isn't quite right". I was very confused...we were at a stop light so I turned around...and saw this....
I couldn't help but laugh!!! Because we were at a stop light and my camera was in my purse I told him I had to take a picture quick. What a goof! His goofiness is different than Seth's because if you know Josiah's personality...he had already thought through his joke and was just waiting for it to play out...Seth on the other hand just has a natural silliness about him and I have a feeling that will never change. Thankfully though...between the 2 boys and the silliness of their sister as well, we have many laughs in the Holder House!

The Letter "O"

Tonight's verse was...

1 Peter 1:14 Obey God for you are his children.

We started our time outside in the warmth of the day. Michelle and I made five messages for Josiah to read out loud. Each message by itself did not make much sense but as J & A obeyed each message it made more sense and became more fun. As you read and look at the pictures you might get the idea.

#1 Climb down a ladder. (it took a bit to figure out to use the window well)

#2 Pick up a rock.

#3 Climb with the rock.

#4 Ride your bike to a bridge.

#5 Put the rock under the water.

Often times the commands God gives us don't make sense initially. Only after we obey for awhile do we see the purpose of each individual command. The rich man encountered Jesus and gave up on the first command to give up everything he owned. He walked away from Jesus and missed out on the joy of obedience. J & A were warned at the beginning of the activity that they would not get the rest of the messages if they did not obey each one.

The final lesson we included was that obedience has a reward at the end. God promises that He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" to those who trust and obey Him. After explaining this we gave the kids another opportunity to recite our verse and then we enjoyed fruit snacks as a reward.

Of course they had to give back to mom and dad a portion of what we gave them. ;)Because he's cute and enjoyed Family Time with us...here is Seth. Happy as ever just to be outside!

Easter 2009

This year for Easter we went to St. Cloud. It was a great weekend...the weather was FINALLY nice, the kids played outside, inside and even at the pool. We are very blessed to have cousins on both sides of the family. Wherever we go to celebrate the kids have a great time. They love all their cousins (on both sides of the family) and are very blessed to not only call them all cousins, but friends as well. Here are some pictures from the fun times at the pool!

Doing what he does best...playing with hair! :) He wasn't sure if he liked swimming...until of course the last 1/2 hour or so at the pool...then he realized he LOVED it. Go figure!

Hailey and Alayna...they have a lot of fun together!

Look at those strong men!

Show me your muscles!!

Swimming around with dad

Family Time

Due to the flood issues, we didn't have Family Time for 2 weeks -- (it's hard to have Family Time when the kids aren't here!) :) Anyway, we're all together again and so last night we had Family Time. We took a break from our Verse Book because this week is Holy Week and we wanted to take some time to talk about the importance of this week and Easter.

Last year we started the tradition of talking about Easter using the Resurrection Eggs that you see below in the picture. They are an excellent tool to help you share the importance of Easter with your kids! There are 12 eggs with a 'symbol' in each egg that helps tell the Easter story. It was a very precious evening...as we opened each egg I shared with them the verse that went with the object and then we talked about what it meant and what Jesus might have been feeling.

We talked about how Jesus prayed and prayed and asked His best friends to pray with Him that what was going to happen wouldn't have to happen, but that most importantly Jesus said, "Not my will, but Yours be done"...while praying, while praying He realized his best friends fell asleep...I asked Josiah how he would feel if he knew that in 15 min. he would be run over by a car and that after asking us to pray for him we all fell asleep or decided to do something else. Would be feel precious and special? Probably not...

As we talked about Judas betraying Jesus...His good friend...I asked how they would feel if their good friends (naming some of their good friends) did that to them. It made them think...opening each egg, reading the verse and talking about it allowed for some great conversation and very precious moments.

Then later as we talked about the whip, I explained what the whip actually looked like...and asked them how they thought Jesus felt after having His best friends fall asleep, having another good friend betray Him, being whipped and beaten, having a crown of thorns put on His head and being left on the cross to die...feeling alone...no words were needed...Josiah had tears coming down his face...I asked him why he was crying and he couldn't speak. He has always known how much Jesus loves him and often talks about Him being his friend, but I think last night was the first time he truly realized what his 'Friend' did...the sacrifice He made to show His love and obedience to the Father which in turn proved His love for us. You can't talk about Easter though without talking about the most exciting part of all...the part that makes our God amazing...the fact that Jesus didn't just die...we all die...that isn't the most amazing part about Easter...but the fact that HE ROSE AGAIN...that, is the miracle of Easter! I asked Josiah to close our time in prayer and it was precious...I will forever remember this Family Time. After our time was over they went up to Dan and said..."He Is Risen" and of course Dan responded..."He Is Risen INDEED!"

Silly Moments...

"Hmmm...I'm beginning to think I wasn't supposed to dump out the box of cereal...oops!"

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Alayna is the queen of random comments. She makes me laugh out loud sometimes because she often surprises me with her randomness. Here is a small example of that...

A month or so ago she and I went out one night and she wanted to stop at Scheels to go on the Ferris Wheel. Once we were there she decided she was too nervous to go on it and wanted to play in their 'play land' area instead. She played for only about 10 minutes or so, but while there she met a little girl named Jada. They played together for no more than 5-7 minutes. Almost every week she talks about having Jada over to play or going to her house....(we don't know Jada, I don't know her parents, I don't know her phone number, I don't know her address)...I've explained all of this to Alayna and STILL she talks about her good friend Jada. Today she asked again about playing with Jada and having her come over to play. I reminded her that we don't know where she lives and she said..."oh yeah, well, can we go to Scheels and see her then?" Seriously...I laughed out loud! I think I may need to take her back to Scheels so that she realizes Jada doesn't live at Scheels or go there everyday either. Alayna the social butterfly...she makes friends anywhere and everywhere!

Rascallyness Continues...

This morning as I was reading the blog of a friend of mine about her rascally daughter...I turned around and found my own little rascal doing this...yep, there was a stool in the kitchen and in the blink of an eye he climbed the stool and found a way to pull himself up enough to crawl into the sink.
As any good mother would do...I took a picture! Before I stopped him though...he even had turned the water on for a minute. I have to say though, he's the cutest rascal I've ever seen! :) After taking this picture without smiling (which was hard), I took him out and told him "No, No". A good mother needs proof of the rascally things her kids do so that one day when he has his own little rascal I can prove to him where it came from. :)

We're BAAACK!

What a week!! Last Tuesday Seth and Alayna went to St. Cloud to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Kiedrowski (or G and G Faraway as the kids call them). Due to the pending flood and pending snow storm last week, we decided little kids, flooding and sandbagging didn't mix. Josiah went to Kindred on Thursday to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Holder for a couple days while Dan and I stayed here sandbagging and helping with the Flood Fight. On Sunday of this week we got Josiah back and then on Monday we headed to St. Cloud to get the other 2. I couldn't handle another day without them and with ANOTHER snow storm coming it was a 'now or never' situation. We stayed a couple days in St. Cloud and enjoyed time with Dan's mom and step dad, my sister and her family, as well some fun girl time for Siobhan and I. Today we came back home!! The kids had a great time being away, but they were happy to be home and playing together again!! Once home, they went into the basement and played and played and played...over an hour later they came to find me and wanted me to follow them downstairs...this is what they were busy doing...(they were hot, I was told!)