I have a FIVE year old???

My firstborn turned 5 years old on Valentines Day! I made some special pink colored heart-shaped pancakes as well as a #5 pancake for his special day! I'm not sure I like the sound of "having a 5 year old child"...ahh! As if turning 30 years old wasn't hard enough for me back in August, now I really feel...well, not "old", but just more responsible...or rather, the need to act more responsible...like I really am an adult on my own with a FIVE year old child...ahh! At times, I still feel like I'm a recent college grad without too many cares in the world, but then it hits me. That was a long time ago! ha! But enough about me...we celebrated Wyatt's birthday a few different times. On his actual birthday, he opened presents from my Aunt Peggy and also the birthday cards that had come in the mail. We all went out to eat that night--partly a bday celebration for him and partly a Valentine's Day gift for me (to not have to cook or do dishes).

Then a few days later we were visiting my in-laws and Gram picked up some cupcakes, party hats and presents! The picture below is at Adam's parents' house in the Outer Banks, NC.

We had his friend birthday party the next week. He had been to another friend's bday a few months earlier and the theme was "Angry Birds". Both he and Levi love to play that game on my phone. If you haven't heard about the Angry Bird phenomenon, Google it! I found tons of ideas for this theme on Pinterest. And if you haven't heard about Pinterest, Google that too!!
I printed out, and then cut out most of the decorations for his party. I only bought the tablecloth and plates. Thankfully, I had had a long drive to and from Adam's parents' house the weekend before to cut out all the necessary pieces!
I taped the Angry Birds cut outs to the balloons. And the cake toppers are just made out of paper that I folded and hot glued together. I got the prints from here, here, and here.

I also taped the Angry Birds cut outs to these colored paper bags. They not only served as decorations, but when it was pinata time, each child got one to hold their candy and take home as a "goody bag".

I made up this game of "Pin the Beak on the Blue Bird". I printed out an Angry Birds coloring page. Colored it. Photocopied it 7 times. Cut out the beaks. Laminated everything. Put sticky tack on the back of the beaks. The kids got blindfolded and spun and tried to get the beak on the blue bird! They loved it!

This idea also came from Pinterest...we re-created some of the wooden structures that are in the game of Angry Birds. I had drawn "pig" faces on the green cups to represent the pigs in the actual game of Angry Birds. The kids got to use bean bags to try to knock off/down the pigs. Again, a big hit w/ the boys!


More party pics below! Wyatt was allowed to invite 5 friends since he was 5 years old!





Here is my fun-loving FIVE year old boy! You are growing into a great young man! We love you Wyatt!!

Were we've been and a great read!

Since my last post over a month ago, I have been enjoying time with FAMILY…my family of 4, and my side of our extended family. We had a very busy, but great month of December! Cookie swap with MOPS friends (Moms Of PreSchoolers), Christmas banquet at church, lots of Christmas crafts with the kids at home, and one Christmas-like activity (a.k.a. Advent Calendar Paper Chain as a count-down to Christmas…VERY fun and HIGHLY recommended!)everyday leading up to Jesus’ Birthday Then my parents drove down from PA and stayed with us for 5 nights, and my sister’s family came from SC to stay 2 nights with us while my parents were here! We had a full-house…mainly full of male guests, and four of them being under the age of 5! I posted all of our pictures from Christmas on either Facebook or Snapfish, so I will only share a few photos here:

Before the Christmas Day church service

Christmas Dinner

My parents and their 4 grandchildren

Enjoying the mild NC weather the day after Christmas


But so much to be thankful for, which leads me into the book I wanted to share with you…
One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp


I actually read this book last Spring, but then had lent the book out to a few people. I had wanted to share some direct quotes from the book when I blogged my review. It was such a popular book, that it was just now returned to me after being read by many!
The author invites us to slow down, to learn how to live the full life of thanksgiving and joy and to embrace everyday blessings and chronicle God's gifts.
The book starts out with pointing out how we often doubt God's goodness and are discontent with what we have...what He has given us.

From all of our beginnings, we keep reliving the Garden story. Satan, he wanted more. More power, more glory. Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve are, simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave. Isn't that the catalyst of all my sins? Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives. We hunger for something more, something other

Then through personal examples in her own life, the author points out how much we have to be thankful for, and that instead of being resentful, we should be grateful, instead of anger, we should have joy. She uses a great example from the Bible...
Less than 12 hours before Jesus is to be cruicified, what is He doing? Luke 22:19, "And He took bread, GAVE THANKS, and broke it, and give it to them. When His Father was about to turn His back on Him, He was thankful. THANKFUL.

Jesus offers thanksgiving for even that which will break Him and crush Him...

Then she ties in the relationship of "joy" to "thankfulness, and a thankful heart produces a joyful spirit. Is the height of my joy dependent on the depths of my thanks? As long as thank is posible, then joy is always possible.

The "One Thousand Gifts" is a list. A Gift List. Not of gifts I want, but of gifts I already have...just the common things and maybe i don't even know they are gifts really until I write them down...Gifts He bestows. Learn how to be thankful - whether empty or full.

This way of thinking...of always being thankful, really does produce joy in your life. This book has changed my way of viewing alot of things in the past year. Even the well known verse, "Rejoice in the Lord always..." (Philippians 4:4). I just thought that verse meant be thankful, be happy because of what God has GIVEN me. But that's not all...Maybe you can't "rejoice" in the plans that are made for today, but you can always be thankful for LORD!

I saw a quote somewhere online, "What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things that you thanked the Lord for today?". I've found that I am thanking the Lord more often for the little things like my dishwasher, and hot water from indoor plumbing, etc, etc. This book has really opened my eyes to how much being thankful really will change your attitude towards things.

At different seasons of your life, it's hard to be thankful. And very hard if discontentment has become a habit. Because that habit of discontentment can only be driven out by hammering in one iron sharper. The sleek pin of gratitude.
Paul says we have to "learn" to be content (Philippians 4:11), and learning requires practice. Taking Ann Voskamp's challenge of writing down 1000 gifts that we have to be thankful for is a great practice to learn to become more thankful.

In Daniel 6:10, Daniel knew that the law to pray to only the King had been signed, but he still prayed to the Lord in sight for all to see. And what did he pray? Deliverance? Protection? No, he GAVE THANKS. THREE TIMES A DAY!! What a great example! In the words of my kids' Patch the Pirate CDs..."I will be like Daniel, and follow God's commands".

Then the real kicker...for me...My TIME...
...more time to manage just the life I already have. The work, the kids, the meals, the laundry, the ministry, a life so full it can seem empty. And then, on top of all that, who has time to take on yet one more thing and keep a gratitude journal, count gifts?
All throughout this book, Ann Voskamp is very real, very much a mom with normal struggles like me. I love that about this book and her writing.
Then she really hits home...Time is life. And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time...the busyness of your life leaving little room for the source of your life. God gives us time. And who has time for God?...Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slo time down with weight of full attention...I can always give thanks because an all-powerful God always has all these things under control

Add this book to your "list"! It's a thought changing book!!
And one last picture...the boys were told that this present was for both of them and they could open it together...notice their different personalities/temperments!

Preschool Corner

~Wyatt is 4 years old. Levi is 3 years old~


Once again, it's been quite awhile since my last preschool corner post. We are just so busy have fun with all things preschool! Having 2 preschool age kids in our house definitely makes for some fun and messy times! And yes, there are times when I am willing to say "yes" even if I know that it will make a mess...for example...any craft/project involving glitter and glue...
We've actually used glitter for 2 days in a row and I haven't even vacuumed! Believe it! It's true. I am trying to loosen up a bit for the sake of making memories and cherishing these special years with my little boys at home!
So it's been awhile again, and sadly, again, I have been slack on the picture taking!
We are up to the letter I and the number 6 with Levi as we are going thru the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3 yr old curriculum. This curriculum is free and we love it! The curriculum has us going thru alphabetically and numerically. Right around week 4 or 5, Levi really started catching on to recognizing letters. He still struggles with knowing what sound the letter makes, but we are making great progress. He tries to be like his brother who is learning to read, so we hear Levi saying, "R-r-r-r-Dog". He just wants to make any type of sound at the beginning of a word that he is about to say and it's never the actual sound that the word starts with! But it's cute!
We had fun painting pumpkins around Halloween.

Making fall trees when cousin Ethan was visiting.

Fun with watercolors...Levi LOVES to paint with water colors. And like most all things that Levi does, he also paints "extremely". Levi is our "extreme" child. He's either really, really, really loving and sweet, or else really, really, really angry and mean. When he is playing, he plays HARD. When he's tired, he crashes hard! When he paints, he often will paint so much that it makes a hole in a paper b/c of how much water and watercolor he put in one spot! I love you Levi!


And Levi LOVES playdoh. He will sit still and make pretend food w/ playdoh for close to an hour!


"Recess" Our boys LOVE to play outside! Wyatt can throw the football in a good spiral, and Levi toss the football and then kick it in the air.

Fall Fun

Now that it's December, I realized I had better post these pics from our fall adventures!
Mid-October, we took a day trip to the "mountains of NC" and drove a little over 2 hrs to Asheville, NC. I think it was before their "peak" color weekend, but there were definitely more colorful leaves than we had here in the southern part of North Carolina.
Our first stop was the North Carolina Arboretum. Adam had found this online as a very inexpensive location to check out. We were impressed. We paid $8 to park and that was it, no admission fee, no fee to use the binoculars or nature trail back pack. In fact the whole nature trail back pack was quite a blessing b/c I had forgotten to bring a bag for the kids to collect leaves in. This nature trail back pack included binoculars, magnifying glass, bug box, and much more. All we had to do was go to the information desk and ask! And then you had to leave your driver's license w/ them in order to ensure that they would get the pack back when we were done.





In addition to all the nice flowers, plants and trees in the arboretum itself, we were right on the edge of the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we could see some great view of the mountains w/ the colorful leaves in the distance/background.
We spent about an hour walking thru the NC Arboretum, but then the boys were getting hungry. I had packed a lunch, and we had driven by a nice picnic area right before turning into the NC Arboretum. We drove about 3 min. "back" to that spot and had a great lunch right by a river.


Then we drove to The Grove Park Inn. It is a historic resort hotel on the western-facing slope of Sunset Mountain within the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Asheville, North Carolina. We were able to walk all around the resort inside and outside. Very beautiful, original stone-work throughout the building, huge and I mean HUGE fireplaces, and lots of smaller buildings around the property w/ antiques. There were even one whole building of full-size antique cars. The curator of the antique cars let the boys try out his "squirrel rod" (as opposed to a fishing rod). See the pics of Wyatt below! The bait was a peanut! We tried to get a nice family picture, but the boys weren't cooperating!





Then in mid-November, we we went to Aw Shucks which is a local farm that has an old general store, corn maze, hay ride, animal barn and many other outdoor fall activities. Here Wyatt is trying out the slide on a burlap bag.
Running across the bales of hay!
Coming down the steps from the tree house.
By the animal barn. Levi did not want to stop feeding the sheep and goats to get a picture with me!
Practicing lasso skills!
I got this one!
The picturesque General Store

Seasons (Part 2)

Last month I wrote Part 1 to this post about the Season of Change(s) in our life over the past 4 years. Here is the rest that I wanted to share about what the Lord has taught me. Please go back to the other post if you have not read it yet to catch up on the changes that I am referring to!

First of all, I was reminded by some close family and friends of all the people that had been praying for me thru those difficult months and years of change. And I want to say THANK YOU! Prayer definitely makes a difference and is a huge encouragement! Also, there were so many family and friends that gave of their time, which is a HUGE gift, to help us with the many moves...including packing, unpacking, watching the boys, cleaning, meals, etc, etc. I specifically remember 2 families who helped us with 2 or 3 moves. And by "moves" I mean, the whole nine yards, from boxes to furniture in and out of a u-haul, up and down stairs, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning! And after all that, they helped again with the exact same items when we had to move less than 12 months later. That my friends is an unforgettable gift, and we will always remember that generosity! We were blessed by their self-sacrificing actions and it turned our eyes to the Lord who was shining thru their hearts!

The verse that has been most precious to me over the past 4 years is
Isaiah 58:11--And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

Satisfying your desire in scorched places...scorched made me think of desert, dried up, too-far-gone, dead, no feeling. At times I felt like that...that there was no way we'd find a church family, no way I'd make close friends, no way we'd get to buy a house, etc, etc. But God said that he would satisfy my desire where it seemed "too-far-gone".
Then the verse goes on to say, give strength to your bones...boy did I NEED strength. Physical strength! I was very uncomfortably pregnant w/ a Ureteric stent (google it), a very, very big-for-his-age 12 month old who couldn't walk and had to be carried, lifted, etc. I needed strength!
And the last 2 lines of this verse talk about a picture of happiness...a watered garden, a never-ending spring of water. I didn't think it was possible, but this verse was an encouragement to me that the Lord would satisfy my desire even if I thought it was too far gone. The Lord would give me strength. And the Lord would make me look like a picture of happiness despite my circumstances.

"Disappointment happens, but discouragement is a CHOICE"

And finally, Psalm 37:3-5, 7--Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him and He will do it. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;

When I read this verse I was really challenged to change my way of living in NC...I was to dwell in NC. Not just get by day-to-day and say woe is me, I have no friends, I have no room to invite friends over... Not to think that our time in NC might be only temporary b/c we might have to move to FL, and if it's just temporary, why should I even try to find a church or get involved or make friends? No, no!! I was to dwell here and become faithful. Even if our circumstances didn't get better and we had to move back to FL, I was to be faithful and dwell where I was while I was there. It wasn't an immediate change, but I started at least "trying" to like NC and let myself admit the things that I did like about it. We started going to church faithfully and making friends and getting involved. I just had to commit, trust and wait like those verses said. And I did...over a period of 4 years. I wasn't very patient about it, but the Lord kept bringing me back to this passage and I would be encouraged and challenged and keep trying to change my way of thinking and with the Lord's help, I did!

And I have to include at least one picture in the post...This is the best we got for a family picture when we went to Asheville, NC a few weekends ago. The boys are stinkers now about smiling for pictures. At times you can get a smile out of them if they are promised a silly pose/picture after the nice one! ha!

Preschool Corner

~Wyatt is 4 years old. Levi is 3 years old~


Levi and I have done 4 weeks of preschool at home since I posted last! I need to post more often for the grandparents at least! And sadly, not only have I not posted every week about his homeschool preschool, I have not taken pictures as often as I used to either. This mama is busy! But I do want to make sure to start taking more pictures!
And with any of the pics I posted, you should be able to double click on the picture and it will open in a bigger window unless you are reading it via email (may or may not work via email feed burner)

Levi using finger paint to put red, green, and yellow apples on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (weekly letter was A, theme was Apple, and Bible Story was Adam and Eve)


Working on his "letter game" from Starfall. He has become quite good at using the wireless mouse! Also on the table are his other "crafts" for the Letter A week

Crafts for the letter A week...playdoh mat letter As, 2 stickers, and traced the number 2 poster, finger paint apples on tree, sneaky snake lying to Eve, and glued animal crackers on the Letter A poster.


This was a "fall" activity I saw on I Can Teach My Child

I melted butter and added red and yellow food coloring and we talked about how red and yellow make orange. Then they "painted" the butter on the bread, and I put cheese in the middle and put it in the skillet!


Pumpkin Shaped Grilled Cheese Sandwich




"Put the Fire Out"...a fun activity I found on ABC Jesus Loves Me
I drew a fireman's ladder and some flames w/ sidewalk chalk. Levi had to "climb" the ladder and then squirt water on the flames to put the fire out. He LOVED this!! Especially the Target dollar-bin super soaker he got to use!


And just for laughs and cuteness...our little biker dude! He dressed himself in all of this (well, asked for help getting the finger in the right spots for the Lightening McQueen gardening gloves)