My Pretty Girl....

After trying for baby #2 almost a full year, you can imagine my excitement when I found out I was pregnant with our second child. Even more exciting...at 20 weeks to find out it was a girl.

Then, 5 years ago today I held for the first time the most beautiful and precious girl I have ever met. She has a sweet and gentle heart mixed in with a fun and spunky personality. She is a tomboy at heart, but has a love for pink and sparkly things at the same time...to me, she's a perfect mix.

She has really grown in to her role as the middle child...she loves playing with Josiah and thinks he can do no wrong. They have lots of fun building together and playing card games. It took her a while to see that she was no longer the baby of the family and to come around to being a little sister AND a big sister, but she has filled the role well. She helps play with and take care of Seth and that has become a huge help.

She likes to make her own lunch as well as her brothers. She helps me fold laundry and does a great job at helping me keep things tidy. She loves cooking and baking and for a long time when I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up...she'd say she wanted to be a mom. I don't know what God has in store for my "pretty girl", but as I sang to all my kids when I was pregnant with them, I pray that they 'Hold On To Jesus' (you may have to scroll a little in the songs to find it).

I love you Miss. Alayna....here's a look back at my pretty girl....

Age 3: Fallen

Well, I'm a little slow at writing this, but last Tues. we went through our 3rd lesson in the new Family Time series we came up with. This past week we talked about the saddest day in history...many people think of a variety of things when I say that, but in reality, the saddest day in history (b/c the bible is history even though many don't see it that way) was the day sin entered the world.

Here's an excerpt from our book that we're reading (the pictures are great and the kids LOVE listening to us read it to them): "When God made Adam, God didn't make him like a puppet that God forced to do whatever He wanted him to do. He gave Adam the ability to make choices. When He created the first man and woman, God wanted them to love Him because they chose to-not because they were forced to love Him. So God gave them a test to see if they really would love Him and obey Him."

Now, enter the tree of knowledge of good and evil...as we know, they chose to eat of the tree even after God told them they could eat of ANY tree in the garden EXCEPT that one.

This is the saddest day because Adam chose to rebel against God-he sinned. Because of sin, now we die as God warned would happen and we are all sinners. "The good news is that for all humans who repent and put their faith and trust in Jesus as the One who died for them and paid for their sin, and receive Him into their life-they will live forever with Him."

After reading, we popped some popcorn and got ready for more of our video series. Have I mentioned that Dan and I have really enjoyed Family Time...yes, it's a GREAT teaching time for our kids, but it's a lot of fun for us too!

One of the animals from this week was the bombardier beetle.

My Tomboy

I love my daughter dearly and in many ways she is like her mother...poor thing! I wasn't very girlie until high school...yep, nike pants, Michael Jordan t-shirts, tennis shoes and anything else non-girlie were my outfits of choice.

Now, my daughter is MUCH better then me in that department. She likes pretty things, she likes sparkly things and she likes dresses...sometimes. However, when it comes to playing, she KNOWS how to play 'boy games' and is still trying to figure out how to be 'girlie'. Even when she has girls over to play you can find her with a cape on playing with light sabers while they are dressed in her pretty dresses...maybe someday. :)

Anyway, tonight her cousin is here playing and this is something they LOVE playing anytime they are here together. Building boats for a LONG time and then filling the bathtub and floating them in the tub and playing pirates, ships, whatever else you play with boats. Maybe someday she will become more girlie, but with 2 brothers...I won't hold my breath waiting.

Age 2: Fearless

On Tuesday we had Family Time and we read the second chapter in our book. Some of the verses it talked through were Ge. 1:29-30 as well as Gen 2:8-17. When you think about dinosaurs you think big, mean and scary. Well, when God created them, they lived with Adam and Eve. One of my favorite lines in this chapter is:

'When God finished creating everything, this was truly the Fearless Age-the age when people and animals were unafraid of each other. The age when a T-Rex could put his head beside Adam, open his mouth, and show all those teeth, and Adam wouldn't have been afraid! Adam knew that T-Rex only ate plants.'

How do we know that the T-Rex only ate plants? Gen. 1:29,30.

After reading about the Fearless Age, we watched about a couple animals in our 'Creatures That Defy Evolution' video series. Here is one that is fascinating!!

Pacific Golden Plover Defies Evolution - The best bloopers are a click away

Age 1: Formed

Tonight we began our next family time topic...Creation Science. While we were at the Creation Museum we found a great book about Creation that contained an overview of God's creation story. It is called Dinosaurs for Kids.

This book communicates a lot of information about dinosaurs and a seven age history of the earth.

Here are the seven ages:
Age 1: Formed
Age 2: Fearless
Age 3: Fallen
Age 4: Flood
Age 5: Faded
Age 6: Found
Age 7: Fiction

Similar to the ten commandments we taught the kids actions to memorize the seven ages. Then we started looking at Age 1: Formed. We read from the book about how God created the earth and all the living things including dinosaurs and man. We discussed some of the differences between the time span taught by evolution and the time span recorded in the Bible. Then we watched part of a video series called Creatures that Defy Evolution together.

One quick example from the video is the European Green Woodpecker. If you ever questioned whether or not God was real, or wondered about Creation vs. Evolution...this is pretty fascinating stuff. Why isn't in text books? Because Scientists can't explain how the animals like the ones in this video series could have evolved...only God can because HE made them.

Family Time....

Ok...I haven't been really good at posting about Family Time lately. Amidst the holiday's and adjusting schedules our Family Time hasn't been the exact same day and the exact same time each week. However, we have still enjoyed quality time as a family and one of the ways we've done that recently is by reading through this book.

We bought it when we were at a conference in December. After we got home we started reading to the kids each night (it's about 125 pgs. long) and I'm not sure who enjoyed the book more...I LOVED reading it to them and the kids LOVED listening to it. We finished the book right before Christmas and after we finished reading it Alayna asked if we could start it all over again the next night. :)

Here is a synopsis of the book that I found online: "Told as a dream, it relates the story of Christian, who abandons home and family to flee from sin and destruction and travel the straight and narrow to the Celestial City. Along the way he encounters allegorical figures such as Faithful, Evangelist, and Hopeful, as well as Ignorance, the giant Despair, and the monster Apollyon, as he confronts a series of hardships and tests before arriving at his destination."

It's another great way to create spiritual conversations with your kids in an education way. Enjoy!

The Sneaky Sneak....

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in previous posts that my 2-year old's love language is physical touch. He is CONSTANTLY touching, hugging, playing with my hair, cuddling (when he's not being rascally of course). This is a definite issue when he plays with other kids because most kids don't really like other kids being in their personal space quite so much...Seth on the other hand has ZERO personal space.

Anyway, he has become quite the mommy's boy lately. Over Christmas break when we've been staying different places and he hasn't been sleeping in his bed I've taken more time to lay with him and help him fall asleep. Did I mention he LOVES to cuddle? Most nights when I put him to bed we cuddle for a bit and whenever I try to sit up to leave the room he tries to push my head back down to lay with him longer (it's pretty precious, but seriously...sometimes by the time bedtime rolls around I'm ready to 'punch out' for the day).

Anyway, as we've been getting back to our normal routine I haven't been laying with him for quite as long and so one night he kept getting up and we'd put him back in bed, he's get up and we'd put him back....finally, all was quiet. Ahhhh....

Then, I went upstairs later on that night to get ready for bed...and this is what I found....
He went from his bed...into our room....to my side of the bed...climbed into our bed and fell asleep on my pillow. How can such a rascally boy be SOOOO cute sometimes?!?!

Family Christmas #4

There is no shortage of celebrations at Christmas time in our home. December is usually a pretty busy month, but it's a lot of fun; filled with quality time with all our family. We celebrated New Year's with Dan's dad, stepmom and then his brother and his family (again). :) It was a COLD celebration, but still a lot of fun. We missed out on a lot of the outdoor fun, but there was no shortage of fun inside!

This is Josiah and Alayna....can you tell?? It was so cold the kids were COMPLETELY covered. They didn't last too long outside...just long enough to see Maggie (the dog) and all the horses. BRRR!

Checking out the horses...

He LOVES to play with cars and after they zoom and crash he likes to line them all up nicely in a row. Who would have thought that my rascally, non-stop energy boy would like to have his cars in a nice row? ....NOT ME!

Photo op with grandpa Holder....can you see the little man saying "Cheese!"

The Holder grandkids...minus 2 adorable boys that live over the ocean.

We had a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year...I hope you and your families had a great time celebrating our Savior's birth and that you took a break from the busyness to spend quality time with those you love.

Family Christmas #3

We hosted Christmas one weekend in Dec. at our house with Dan's mom and stepdad as well as Dan's brother and his family....13 people all 'nestled' in our home. :) It was a lot of fun!!

And later on....let the building begin!

Boy was he excited when he had gotten it all built and was able to watch the cars ride on the roller-coaster. Very fun! After building it he was already thinking of things he could build next...