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