Christmas Season

It is Christmas time again this year. What a great time to think about the sacrifice that God has provided for our sins with His Son! How can we be anything except thankful and humble at the thought of that. And yet, we go about carelessly sinning and taking for granted the grace and mercy that God bestows on each and every one of His adopted children.

Especially this time of year, the focus should be on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ and the ransom He paid for our sins and how WONDERFUL that gift is. Despite the fact that we have received the most wonderful gift in the world, and on a daily (minute by minute some days), receive continued forgiveness and grace from God for the numerous sins we still commit...... yet we still have wants and desires that we think NEED to be met at Christmas. How could we want for more? Except maybe to share the truth of God's saving grace to others?

So when you think about what your most fond Christmas memory is.... do you ever question the reason it is the most fond memory? Does it have anything to do with Christ? or just the commercial / material Xmas that the seems to dominate our thoughts this time of year?

My most fond memory as a child was at my Grama Pollard's house on Christmas Eve (we used to always be at her house on Christmas Eve evening). Nearly the entire family was there. I remember reading the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke (pretty sure my Aunt Melissa read it this year) and then someone started up some music and we all began dancing (jitterbug, square dancing, twist, we did it all). :) It isn't very often that so much laughter errupts from the house when the entire family is present, but it did that Christmas Eve. It was a FANTASTIC memory, and I don't have any idea what I got for a present that year.

That is the type of memory I hope to pass along to my daughter. Pray with me that we can change and take the commercialism "X" out of Xmas and put Christ back into Christmas.

Motherhood

I have to say that I love being a Mom. It is a hard job, but the rewards that I get are priceless. To see the lessons that I am teaching my darling daughter actually sink in. The lessons that come to mind that I have witnessed lil E understanding and using in conversation are:

• God created everything


• Memorizing scripture
  
• Happiness is a choice -- choose it.
  
• Cats can't talk (she said this after I asked our cat a question)
  
• It is better to share even when other kids take the toys you had first

I know she is not a prodigy or even much different than other kids her same age, but she is the example I have to witness on a daily basis and I am so thankful to God for this opportunity.

She is already starting to read and I think this is an amazing process. It is great to hear her read outloud signs, cereal boxes, mail and products we see at the store. Although today, as we were passing through the feminine hygiene department, I was glad she didn't use that opportunity to read outloud any words. lol!

Here are a couple of pics we took this past week. One is of lil E when she kept her jammies on all day long. After her bath that night, she was confused why she was putting different jammies on again....and not clothes. Confused, but happy! :)

And this is one of the two of us on the couch watching her favorite letter show (Wheel of Fortune).

And here she is dancing to one of her new favorite songs, Waves of Mercy. She is doing the motions they taught her at church. :) Here are the words to the chorus in case you can't hear it very well:

Waves of mercy, waves of grace
Everywhere I look I see Your face
Your love has captured me
Oh my God, this love, How can it be?

Halloween

We had such a great time at the Harvest party at our church. I love it that it takes the focus away from the "dark spiritual" part of Halloween and emphasizes the fun, games and of course candy that the kiddos truly love. Here are some pictures of our darling daughter (cowgirl) and a short video of her practicing saying "Yee-haw".

She ended up begging me to clean the "freckles" off before we got to church and ditched the hat about 10 minutes after we got there..... so, she didn't really appear to be dressed up at all. But we still had fun.

Her favorite parts about the evening were probably the 15 minutes she got to jump in the bounce house alone (unheard of) and then on the ride home with Daddy, she got to try a starburst candy (which he said she LOVED). :)

Here is the video of the "practice yee-haw"....

Here she is with our pumpkin that she refused to help me carve. She totally turned down putting her hand into the pumpkin and I had to insist that she pick up a seed that flipped out onto the floor to help me pick up. She said she didn't want to touch it because it had pumpkin juice on it. She didn't have any issues helping me eat the seeds once they were roasted.....

Funny things kids say....

So today, my darling daughter was drawing pictures of our family and I was trying to explain that Daddy's glasses needed lines on the sides to show how they go back over his ears. With a very puzzled look, she stared at me, as if trying to picture what I was saying. Then, a light bulb appeared over her head and she said, "Mommy, I see your lines right here" as she pointed to my forehead. Not exactly what I meant.....


Yesterday (Saturday), Daddy realized that lil E hadn't been to the restroom in quite a while...

Daddy said: "Do you need to go potty? You haven't been in a long time."
She replied, "I went Daddy."
Daddy: "When?"
She replied: "Tuesday"

LOL!

We're Back from the Smokies!

LAUREL FALLS

Vacation is so much fun, but it sure is nice to be home again in Indiana. :) The picture above is from Laurel Falls -- a very popular trail that ends at the waterfall. I was just a tinsy bit nervous with the danger -- danger -- danger signs everywhere and the big cliff drop-offs. But we made it in and out without anyone getting hurt. Praise God!!

CADES COVE

Here we are getting ready for our hike at Cades Cove. Yes, that is a harness (leash) on our darling daughter. We didn't want to lose her. :) We saw this sign about aggressive bear activity on our way to the trail.

Daddy shows her how to throw the rocks and acorns off of the bridge. According to the hikers who came through after us, there was probably a bear watching us from the woods here. Eek!

And on our way back to the truck, we had to walk through a primitive campsite (where the people were gone, but their camper and truck remained). We happened on a black bear in search of some food. Their camper had paw prints on it from where he was peeking in the windows at the yummies inside. We even saw him get up on his hind legs to try to take a peek. We watched him (anxiously) for about 20 minutes until the campers (on horse back) and a couple hikers came through. Then he ran off into the woods to splash in the creek.

CLINGMANS DOME

This is a picture from Clingman's Dome (well the parking lot). It was so cold and windy up there. It was kind of a hazy day and a huge cloud rolled in just after we climbed to the peak. Ugh! But, the view was fantastic and worth the 1/2 mile hike up to the top (even just to say we were > 6600 ft altitude). :)

Here we are from the parking lot with the view at our backs. What a stunning view of God's wonderful creation! Behind Daddy, you can see a cloud creeping in......

PUTT PUTT GOLF

And of course, every vacation needs to include a round of golf -- even if it is putt putt. The Ripley's Davey Crockett putt putt was so much fun! It is fairly new to Gatlinburg and very well animated! It was so much fun, that we didn't even keep score.

And we are at the bottom of the prairie dog hill. It worked kind of like plinko as the ball bounced between the prairie dogs. It was great!

Favorite Things

2 Learn about God
I enjoy reading and listening to podcasted sermons to learn more and more about my Lord. The podcasts I enjoy the most are:

Truth for Life - Allistair Begg
Grace to You - John McArthur
Love Worth Finding - Adrian Rogers
Revive our Hearats - Nancy Leigh DeMoss

I am just starting a book study with other women on the Lies Women Believe. This looks to be very convicting and a wonderful way to grow closer to the woman God wants me to be. I am sure I will have more than enough "things" pointed out to work on for the next few months (years).



2 Cook

I have loved to cook for a long time, but now, I am faced with a new challenge. My daughter has an egg allergy (which means no nuts or eggs until she is 5) as well as a dairy intolerance. It turns out that some of the health issues I have had are also related to a dairy intolerance. So, I am always looking for healthy ways to cook dairy and egg free. It turns out, dairy and eggs are important ingredients in most "fun" foods, such as cookies, brownies, cakes..... So this is QUITE the challenge. My daughter and I also don't do very well with the soy products (ugh). I look for many vegan recipes and they are super helpful.

Here is the recipe that is in the oven now:

Apple Bread

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 c. supar
1 c. shredded, peeled apple(I used two apples)
1/4 c. cooking oil(I used canola oil)
1 egg( I used applesauce)
1/4 tsp lemon peel (no lemon in mine)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (no nuts in mine)
Grease 8x4x2 bread pan. Preheat oven at 350. In med. bowl combine flour, cinn, baking soda, powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.In another bowl combine sugar, shredded apples, oil, egg(or subst.), and lemon. Mix well. Add the dry mixt to the apple mixt. Stir just until moistened. Fold in walnuts.Spoon batter into your greased pan and bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes. Let it cool for about 10min before you remove it from the pan.The base of this recipe comes from my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I just "veganized" it. Enjoy!!
** this came out WONDERFUL!! next time, i'll cut back on the sugar though.

Girls just wanna have fun!

Strawberry Shortcake and all her pals. :) We were all at the birthday party for my cousin's little girl and my aunt, the photographer, decided this would be a great shot. I was hesitant at the time, but it came out pretty cute. :)

And now here is one of the true cutie patooties! Yes, the little girls showed us old gals up. They are true beauties!!

Cute Quotes

Cute Quote #5
Playing I Spy, I said, I spy with my little eye something gray. My loving daughter belted out, "Your hair Mama, Your hair!"

Cute Quote #4
Daddy came upon a new stop sign in the road that had not been there before, and exclaimed, "Where did that come from? I wonder who put that there?" Miss Smartie replied, "Jesus did." and then proudly added, "I'm getting good at this!". :)

Of course, when Mommy came upon that stop sign, it completely caught her by surprise, so she barrelled on through it. While Mommy was complaining, Miss Smartie was in the back seat reminding Mommy that red means stop and green means go. Oops...


Cute Quote #3
The other night, she was comparing how to spell "Cole" and "cold". She started to say "c-o-l-e-d", and then looked at me and asked what that spelled. I said that isn't a word. She said, "yes it is Mommy, just sound it out."


Cute Quote #2
As I was assisting in the "clean up process" during a bathroom break, my darling daughter was leaning forward (for obvious reasons) and announced "Mommy, you have BIG toenails!" I'm still trying to decide if that is a compliment or not. ;)


Cute Quote #1
Upon waking up from her nap this afternoon, my daughter and I had this clever (on her part) conversation that proves she is too darn smart.

Darling Daughter: "Mom, can you please turn on lampie?" (new pink desk lamp in her room)
Mom: "How about we just open the blind and light the room with the sunshine that God made for us instead."
Darling Daughter: "God made lampie"
Mom: "Yes He did. But, lampie takes electricity which costs money and the sunshine is free."
Darling Daughter: "God made money"
Mom: "Wanna play outside?" :)

Misc Stuff

My sweet Aunt Mel came all the way from Colorado for my darling daughter's birthday party. I mean, who wouldn't want to fly half-way across the country for a 3 year old birthday party? Of course, her darling grankids were also there, so that might have had something to do with it. But, it was still very sweet of her to spend time with our family. :)

We miss you already Auntie M.

What a blessing from God that Brooklyn's baby brother - Braxton - was born healthy yesterday! We love all our cousins and can't wait to "pet" lil Braxton (Our lil E thinks it is a good idea to pet babies, just like we do cats and dogs). ;)

Darling Daughter

Updates


How about this for acrobatic! and yes, that is an "Oink" you hear. She was making an animal sound after each somersault. Of course, one time she accidentally said "pig" and thought it was hilarious! Close....

So, turning 3 is great! New polly pockets. New toys. Get to start school stuff. Learning how to read. And now, a new car seat! Cup holder, secret compartment and all!! Woohoo!

She continues to amaze us. Last night was just her second week in the Wednesday program at church (Cupbearers), and she already learned the first Bible memory verse. Keep in mind, she is 3 and the program is for 4-5 year olds (she is in early since we volunteer with the older kids) and they give the kids a month to learn each verse. Also notice this isn't just an easy verse like "Jesus Wept". It is:

"So whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31

Yes, she amazes us each and every day!


Stats
3 years old
33 lbs - 75th %
37 1/2 inches tall - 75th %

Doctor said she is perfect, but we already know that. :)

Summer Stuff

Our darling daughter's new haircut - the hat immediately after cut (while it was still wet) was not necessarily the smartest thing she has ever done. new haircut - instant hat head. lol! But, we still think she's a cutie.

Wow, I am so excited to create my own blog page. I feel so powerful. :) The only problem is that I don't have anything to say right now. Kind of like being all dressed up and now where to go. I guess I can start with a picture of my darling daughter and handsome hubbie. He is washing off her feet in the sprinkler -- sort of a hillbilly bath. :)

Here is another picture, this one from the zoo a few weeks ago.