1 John 4:14(b)

The monthly memory verse for December:

1 John 4:14(b)

"The Father (God) has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world."

It's a little hard to hear Meredith, but if you listen closely, you'll hear that she got most of it all by herself!

Caleb likes to make up songs, and his creations oftentimes incorporate truths he's learned from the Bible.  His latest "song" goes something like this....

Christmas is oooooover,

But Jesus is still with us.....

I hope that our little ones never forget the truth of John 4:14, that God sent His Son to be our Savior.  

And that even when Christmas is over (or, oooooover), He is still with us.

Christmas 2011

 The past few days have been packed and tiring, but fun and joyful (for the most part). All the kiddos have colds (Shane actually has a double ear infection) and I have a bad sinus infection.  But, aside from some major temper-tantruming by our little girly yesterday, Christmas this year was good.  We spent time with family, ate yummy food, gave and received special gifts and, most importantly, reflected on Jesus' birth.

I did not get a ton of great pictures over the past couple of days (because of squirmy kids, a less than stellar camera, and overall business with other things), but here are some moments I happened to catch.

Christmas Eve morning, Kris reading one of our Christmas books to the kids.

Notice Meredith doing her own thing with a separate book....that is pretty much how she rolls these days.

On Saturday morning, we opened gifts from Nana & Papa.  They are always so thoughtful and generous and creative in their gift-giving.

Funny moment: Meredith opened one of Kris' gifts instead of one of hers.  I apparently wasn't paying attention to the names on the outside of the packages.  She was a little confused when her special gift was a man's shirt! =)

Caleb loves his Lightning blanket.

Our sweet shepherd did great in his Christmas Eve program.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner for my parents, Warren, Heidi & Kimball, and Brian & Faith (friends from our small group).  Someday, we'll hopefully have a dining room big enough for everyone to sit together.  Someday.

Meredith helped Auntie Heidi put the finishing touches on the yummy gingerbread cake she made...

A few pics from present-opening...

Christmas morning...this was the best we could get of all 3 of them! 
Poor Shane.

 

Stockings...

Traditional reading of the Christmas story.

Some candids...

Cuties...

**I so wish this one wasn't so blurry!**

 We spent Christmas afternoon/evening at my Aunt Nancy's house...once again, I didn't get too many pictures....and I didn't get any of Caleb, as he spent the time running around with his 2nd cousins...they were all a little impossibly hard to catch! 
But, here are some I did get of our littlest two.

Our best attempt at a family photo...if you look closely, you can see Caleb's fat lip from an earlier cousin-collision.

And, for anyone who (like me) always experiences a little bit of a "let down" after Christmas is once again over, here's some truth and encouragement, and a little bit of fun, in song form.

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!

Recent Christmas Fun

Our life is full.  Full doesn't always mean busy, but these past days, busy it's been!  Here are some fun Christmas-y highlights from the past handful of days...

  On Saturday, we went to Zoo Lights at Brookfield with some friends.

It was ridiculously crowded, and obviously cold, but overall we had fun.  Nana was an especially good sport, as this weather is an obvious change from that in sunny Florida!  The amount of lights they have there is pretty amazing, and it's extra special to see the polar bear in its natural conditions.  =)  I wish I would have taken more photos, but taking pictures with gloves on is a bit tricky, and taking gloves off in the cold is not at all fun!

Theresa took these next 2 pictures, and I love them.  Thanks, Theresa!

Watching the monkeys, with friend Abigail...

Going for a ride on the polar bear, Daddy's favorite!

Some pictures I snapped before church on Sunday...

I go our most recent craft idea from my friend Natalie.  I thought this would be the perfect craft to go along with this week in our Countdown to Christmas - we are reading about the wisemen following the star to find the stable where Jesus was born (Matthew 2:1-10).  Our stars didn't work out quite as well as Natalie's did, but the kids had fun making them.

Normally, when working with glue, I remind the kids that "a little dab'll do ya", meaning that they just need a little bit of glue as opposed to a huge glop.  With this project, I assured them that the more glue they used, the better. Glop away!

The stars were supposed to hold together without the background paper.  Some of our corners held together well, others did not.  So, I just cut them out, keeping the wax paper on.  It works.  They look pretty hanging on our banister, and the Christmas lights make them shine a bit!

Playgroup this week was at out house, and the kids made ornaments. 

Each kiddo started with one of these...

...and filled it with a bunch of this...

And, made this...

 (The left one is Caleb's, Meredith's is on the right.)

 We also had our Christmas gift exchange among all the kiddos...here are (most of) the kids before exchanging gifts!

And, I will leave you with a short Christmas concert for your listening pleasure. =)