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Thursday, November 22, 2012

Giving Thanks

 
Colossians 3:12-17 (ESV)
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
 
Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Do you ever feel overwhelmed with gratitude?  Sometimes I look at my life and feel undeserving of all the wonderful blessings I've been given.  Mark and I try to instill the value of gratitude in Will and Ben.  One way we are trying to teach this is every night we pray together as a family before we go to bed.  Typically Will prays, then Ben, me, and Mark is last.  If you were to listen in, this is what you'd probably hear, from Will and Ben
 
"Dear Lord, Thank you for our family, mommy, daddy, Will and Ben. In Christ name we pray, Amen."
 
My prayer is usually this,
 
"Dear Lord, Thank you for this day.  Thank you for all of our many blessings.  Thank you for our family, mommy, daddy, Will and Ben.  Thank you for our friends.  Thank you for the church, the Bible, for Jesus, for loving us and forgiving us.  Thank you for our home and providing us food.  Thank you for school and for mommy and daddy's jobs.  Thank you for watching over us and protecting us.  Please keep us safe.  Help us to always do what's right and be good examples to others.  In Christ name we pray, Amen."
 
Lately Will and Ben have been praying more lengthy prayers and including some of the things they hear us give thanks for.  It makes my heart happy.  It's that feeling of overwhelming gratitude that I mentioned earlier.  I feel like Will and Ben might be getting the importance of being grateful for all that we've been given and being mindful that all of those things are from the Lord.
 
Each night one of the first things I thank God for is my little family.  About a month ago, we met Lauren at the land we own in the country for a photo shoot.  She is so talented and these are my favorite family photos we've had taken.  The boys were extra cooperative, and it's special and sentimental because they were taken on the land where we hope to build our future home.  I'm thankful she captured these images at this special place.
 


 

 
 
Give thanks with a grateful heart!
xoxo,
Michele
 
 
{Photos taken by Lauren}

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Will's Thanksgiving Play

Will's kindergarten Thanksgiving play was last Thursday.  He was the cutest little turkey!  There are 3 sections of kindergarten in our small town and each class was assigned a different part for the play.  Will's class were the turkeys, and the other two were pilgrims and Native Americans.  One of the teacher's wrote the play about 10 years ago and each year the kindergarten class performs it.  I'd have to say an audience full of parents and grandparents are easily impressed.  I loved every minute of it!

It was left up to the parents to create, buy or make your child's costume.  I panicked a little bit because I'm not an artsy craftsy mom.  Mark wanted to buy a costume online, but I didn't want to spend $50 for a one-time use.  By the way, it's kind of challenging to find a turkey costume.  They aren't really sold with the typical costumes at Halloween, go figure!  Also, I didn't know if Will would even wear it if we bought one.  He's usually cooperative, but I was afraid he might get nervous and refuse to wear it.  Since I don't have a sewing machine I decided to go the easy route.  I used poster board and colored paper.  Even though I'm not crafty I can cut paper and use glue.  Some of the students were in full turkey costumes, which were too cute, and some of the students had simple costumes more like Will.  Will wore fall colors and his turkey headband that he made at school and his turkey feathers.  They all looked adorable.

In this photo, Will is singing the turkey song.
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!


This song ends where they ate pizza for Thanksgiving day. 
Eat Pizza Not Turkey

Here's a photo of the back of his turkey feathers.  I didn't realize how wide I'd made the costume so he had to sit on the back row because he was a rather wide turkey, ha!


Doing a little dance. 


Ben was so good during the play. 

Both of my little turkeys!


Friday, November 9, 2012

Rewind

If I could hit a rewind button on our last week, this would be what you'd see Thursday-Friday.
 
Thursday
 
My sweet boys snuggled up on the couch watching a cartoon before bed.
 
After a long day and feeling yucky, Starbucks in a red holiday cup made me feel better.
 
Will has strep throat.  Poor little guy :(
 
Guess what?  I have strep too.  I haven't had a sore throat like this since I was a kid.  I broke down and went to the doctor Thursday morning.  I'm glad I did when the strep test came back positive.  Now I have antibiotics that will make me all better :)  Thank goodness for amoxicillin!!!
 
 
Tuesday
 
We went to the land after school and work to see the fall leaves.
Look closely and you can see Will and Ben's "I Voted" stickers on their shirts.
 
The beautiful fall leaves didn't disappoint.
 
I wish my camera phone could capture the spectacular color.  There's a tree with bright yellow leaves in the distance.
 
The top photo in the collage is my sweet mother-in-law with Will and Ben.  The red oaks leaves are deep red.  The stack of cedar wood was cut by my hardworking father-in-law who is clearing out brush for us.  Mark and I can't wait to get out there and help clear brush, too.  The more we walk around at the land the more excited I am about the idea of building a house there. It's like our own private nature preserve.  I love it there.
 
Earlier in the day I voted.  Civic responsibilities fulfilled.
 
 
Sunday
 
I attend church with a very talented lady who makes adorable personalized baby gifts.  She delivered my latest order to church.  Her facebook page is "Little Missy Boutique".  These Christmas shirts are for my nieces.
 
I also ordered this cute bib for Lily since it's her first Christmas.
 
Lily's baby gift.  I love the matching chenille bib and burp cloth sets.  I love picking up girly gifts for my nieces.
 
 
Saturday
 
Will's All-Star Birthday Bash
 
My favorite photo from Will's birthday party.  I still can't believe he's 6!
 
 
Friday
 
Will wanted to share cupcakes with his class for his birthday.

Ben got to go to his brother's school party.
 
Most of these photos were taken and shared via instagram.  I'm @redbirdblue
If you want to keep up with our daily lives, then follow along.  It's much easier to instagram than blog these days. 
 

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Six

 
Yesterday was Will's 6th birthday!  We spent the day celebrating this special boy's big day.  He had a blast at his All-Star birthday party and played so hard that he couldn't stay up another minute last night.  He went to bed happy and exhausted.
 
Six things that Will really likes right now.
 
1. Road signs, maps, street signs, driving directions and addresses
 
2. Crayons and art supplies
 
3. Reading
His favorite books are Sharks, Disney Pixar Cars storybook, and the If You Give..series by Laura Numeroff
 
4. School, his favorite classes are P.E., art, music, computers and library
 
5. Soccer
 
6. Superheroes, his favorites Batman, Superman and Mr. Freeze
 
Bonus :) His favorite Bible story right now is Jonah and the big fish.
 
By the way, I still can't believe he's 6.  Everyone is right when they say that your children really do grow up fast.  It's happening right before my eyes. 
 
We're so thankful for Will and the smart, sweet, handsome, loving boy that he's growing up to be.  He's not perfect, but he's about as good as they come. 


Friday, November 2, 2012

Flashback Friday: November 2, 2006


Six years ago today, I was fully confident that Will's birthday would be November 2nd.  That morning we went to the hospital for a scheduled induction expecting to have a baby boy later that day.  Well, that was just the beginning of learning that when your children are involved things don't always go as planned.  I had a difficult labor and eventually after many hours of pushing and a c-section, Will was born just after midnight on November 3rd.  
I love looking back at old photos and reminiscing.  A few things that caught my attention...
We look so young.
Some of the things in the living room have changed but some are exactly the same.
I was burning a fall candle.  I can see it in the background.
My belly is huge!!!  My goodness!  Little did we know that Will would weigh in at 9lbs , 7ozs.  Surprised us all, including the doctor!
I remember really wanting to take this photo even though Mark was anxious to get to the hospital.  I think I knew our lives would be forever changed after this moment.  We left the house as a couple and returned as a family.  Incredible!
Tomorrow we celebrate Will's birthday.  He's so special to us, and we are blessed to be his parents.

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