Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!  

With Much Love,

Brian, Trina, Pearson, Aaron and Baby Boy #3 due to join us in April! 

Family Fun!

We have had a great month of November. I have been blogging a ton at Teaching My Blessings site. Check out more of our fun there too.

The boys had a blast at Mason's 3 Cabelleros Birthday party!

Our new family activity is to play Cars Memory. We are teaching the boys, especially Aaron, to only turn over 2 cards at a time. Bless their hearts that they are the children of 2 rule following educators who instill the rules!  Lots of family fun!

Our family on Thanksgiving! What a blessing! 

 

 This is my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving day. 19 out of 20 of us were  able to be altogether this year. This hasn't happened in years!

We had a great November and are looking forward to a delightful December!

More Cousin Fun!

One of the many things I truly enjoy about being back in Texas is that our children get to see their cousins more often and truly get to grow up with them.

We had a lot of fun at a pumpkin patch together with Maddie and Mason!

I love in this picture they are in birth order, stair stepped! Not on purpose, either!

We toured a fire station together!

We were able to see Kate and Hayden for a Fall Festival all dressed up!

We met Mason for his actual birthday at our favorite place to celebrate!

My other new blog!

I am having a blast this week blogging on my brand new blog all about our preschool activities. Feel free to check it out at Teaching My Blessings. Once I figure out to add a link for it on the side bar, I will.

20 Minutes a Day for the Rest of Your Life Challenge

 So I have taken a new challenge. Will you join me!?! I have been blessed to hear the Director of Women's Ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Debbie Stuart,  twice now! And Wow, she blows my socks off! She is an amazing, real, speaker and lover of God. She has given this challenge both times I have heard her and I'm in. I copied this from her church website. May God bless our time, ladies.

20 Minutes a Day for the Rest of Your Life Challenge

 This challenge asks you to spend 20 minutes a day with the Lord for the rest of your life. Time is spent in Bible study/reading, prayer journaling, and meditating or memorizing Scripture.
 You can begin by reading one chapter in Proverbs and five psalms every day. (Since Proverbs has 31 chapters, it’s easy to read the chapter that corresponds with the day of the month. For instance, if today is the first day of the month, read Proverbs 1, and so on. For months with 30 days, be sure to include Proverbs 31 on day 30.) Reading in this manner will take you through Psalms and Proverbs every month.
 There is only one way to know God and receive revelation from Him, and that is to spend time with Him. He speaks through His Word … and it will change your life!
 Other ideas for your 20 minutes include:

• Read a chapter of the Bible every day.
• Word Search: Find verses that “speak to” a particular issue you are facing or want to know more about such as forgiveness, resentment, grieving, spiritual growth, fasting, character, leadership, faithfulness, etc.
• People Study: Look up people you don’t know much about and list the things they did that you should do, or things that had a positive impact, or if they left a great legacy, or list the things they did that were not right that you should guard against. Every life has valuable lessons.
• Keep a journal and write out your prayers. Pray those requests as you write them down. It will change your prayer time.
• Memorize one verse from every book in the Bible. As you call each book by name, you will be able to quote the Scripture.
• Use the acronym ACTS:

A is for adoration – adore God and give Him glory.
C is for confession – confess sin and ask forgiveness.
T is for thanksgiving – thank Him for His blessings.
S is for supplication – pray for others; pray for yourself.

• Music: Sing songs of praise; write Scriptures on spiral index cards (in different colors).
• Write verses in a journal so you can refer to them later.... It’s amazing how God reminds of the same verses over and over.
• Read daily devotions by Jack Graham, David Jeremiah, Greg Laurie, Adrian Rogers or Charles Stanley. Scriptures and study suggestions are given and will help point you to the Word of God.

Need your help...

Hi readers,
Ok, I need your help! I am thinking of writing a new blog about all of the preschool activities that I am doing with the boys. Would any of you read it and what should I title it? I try to steer away from using our last name on blogger, but any ideas are welcome!

So far we have learned about birthdays, apples, football, fire safety, fall, pumpkins, dinosaurs, and a book study of Goodnight Moon. I have found a ton of great resources online and would be glad to share them as other bloggers are so willing to share.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments sections.

Our sweet fam!

We had family pictures made for our church directory on Saturday and thankfully a friend took a snapshot of us outside our church afterwards. We are so very blessed!

Not sure why Pearson's shoes were off, oh well!

Are you ready for some Football?

Well, ready or not, football season comes sometimes all too fast at this house! While football season is fun and exciting it also means the Daddy of this house is gone more working hard as he coaches. We love to support him at his games though!

So I found a preschool theme and ideas for football on the internet here and ran with it! We read football books, discussed the game, played football at home, and watched a game or two in person and on tv! We learned F is for football, fun, fall, frogs and so many other words! Here are a few snapshots from our week.

Ready to watch Daddy's 1st game!

Ready, Set, Hut!

Daddy and his two biggest fans!

We made brownie shaped footballs!

Yummy!

We even got to see Papa officiate a high school game and do what he loves! 

Apples, Apples, Apples...

The boys and I are having a lot of fun working on learning new things together. A few weeks ago we learned all about apples. We read apple books, tasted different apples, painted with apples, wrote the letter A over and over again. To top off our awesome week of apple learning we baked an amazing apple cake together! Overall we just had fun. I really hope to make it to the one apple orchard that I have found in the DFW area at some point, although it is an hour and half away and they (as all Texans) had a rough and hot summer. We'll see. But I do think that would be so fun to go and pick apples. We did this a few years ago in Colorado when the boys were littler and it was so fun!

The boys are still receptive to the things I am trying to teach them and when Pearson says he is "done" we stop. I want to keep it fun!
Here are some pictures of our fun week with apples.

Pearson matching magnetic letters to flash cards.

Our apple books

 I actually got really brave (for me at least) and bought temperant paint! Then we painted with apples!

Sorting letters by color.

The Many Faces of Aaron

So we had a little fun with the camera last week and here is what we have: The Many Faces of Aaron!

Happy Face!

Silly Face!

Goofy Smile!

Sweet and innocent

Surprised face!

Trying to make a mean face, but not so much!

This precious ball of energy is fun loving, sweet, independent, and sometime honorary. He adds so much joy to our family. He recently gave up his "baba" aka, paci, and at times he does miss it. But if he can say, "Uh-oh, baba broke", then it was time to give it up.

Here is one more picture of him after he found a permanent black marker while Mommy was distracted on the computer, oops! Thankfully a fast bath and warm water got this mark right off!

He doesn't seem phased at all, does he!?!

B is for Birthday!

Our first preschool theme was Birthdays! We celebrated JP's birthday and read books all about birthdays. We worked on the letter B, the color orange, and one shape. The boys did well. I didn't push it too much, when JP said he was done we stopped. I want to keep it fun and light. Stay tuned for more fun with D is for Dinosaurs!

A few of our birthday books...

CA practicing coloring over the letter B.

JP concentrating on tracing. We are enjoying using expo wipe on markers and sheet protectors.

More tracing practice.

Playing a fun matching game.

A favorite activity: coloring with dot markers.

Preschool...

So after much prayer and consideration, I have decided to do preschool activities at home at least two days a week with Pearson and Aaron. I may even start a new blog about it, not sure yet. I feel they both, but especially Pearson, need structure and activity to our days at home. I have researched preschools and mother day out programs and while they all look amazing, I don't feel that our budget will allow for it at the time. So after at first being sad about that, I then realized, God has given me gifts and talents and knowledge to teach, SO TEACH! I can teach my own boys at home. So I got to planning and oh boy was that so much fun! My teacher brain was on! And I loved it! I bought a $1 teacher plan book and planned our year thematically. I then went to the library and checked out a ton of books for our 1st two themes. I also found a ton, I mean a ton, of websites about preschool activities to do at home with little ones. And the lessons and activities are all good. These other mamas are sharing all of their good stuff for free to other mamas doing the same thing at home. It amazed me how openly and willingly these ladies are sharing their ideas. I have printed a few really cute packets already for this week.

So last week I introduced a few new activities to the boys and at first they were hesitant, but then they really enjoyed it.

We sorted by colors, read books, sang songs, worked with cool whip and danced. Oh and attempted potty training for Aaron, hence his attire, but when a friend called to treat us to lunch, we hung up potty training for the day! It will still be there when the time is right. These pictures totally sum up the personality of the boys: Aaron jumps right in for new adventures and Pearson is unsure at first and then likes it.

"Yum!"

"Not so sure about this Mom?!"

"OH, this is really fun!"

Rolling dice and exploring the numbers.

We had a blast and look forward to more fun mornings together! I am excited for what God has in store for us this year!

Pearson is 4!

Where have 4 years gone? My baby is now a big four year old! Pearson is an independent, inquistitive, observant, fun-loving sweet boy! He continues to amaze me daily! He has a love for books, his family and the Lord. I pray all of those continue.

 Here are a few things about this precious boy I want to remember.

Things Pearson loves:
-The color orange
-Buzz Lightyear, Ernie, and Big Bird these days
-singing and dancing especially to Chris Tomlin and Lincoln Brewster songs
-wrestling with his daddy and brother
-dinosaurs
-playing with his hot wheels
-books, books, and books (that's my boy!)

A few things he dislikes:
-his sweet younger brother playing with his things and getting in his space!
-naptime! Bummer! But not to worry, we are still having "quiet time" in this house as long as possible.

Pearson, we love you so much! God totally blessed us immensely four years ago when he allowed us to be your parents! Happy, happy birthday! We love you!
Mommy and Daddy

Handsome, Silly Boys!

New Hairdos!

Silly Faces!

Handsome boys ready for church!

 

We have been enjoying our last few days of summer with the daddy being home with us! We loved having him with us more. The boys were looking spiffy in their matching shirts from Nana for church this morning so I had to capture at least one photo! Cute things, if I must say so myself!

Fun with Water!

When it is so hot outside what do we do?!? Play in the sprinklers and wash the cars! We love simple fun activities with water to cool us all off!