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We Made It Home

January 10, 2012 in family traditions, holidays, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Two incredible weeks of vacation at my parent’s house in Iowa.  I truly feel like a new woman after the rest we got while up there!   Twenty-one people, eleven of whom are children, all staying under one roof, and I absolutely LOVED it.

The kids did great.  Well, except for a couple few incidents by little man.  We learned he liked switches as we woke up on morning to a freezing cold house because he turned off the heat the day before, and one morning my dad had a cold shower because Justus turned off the water heater.  Luckily, my parents are gracious and laughed at my son’s energy =)

Some people go to a beach to get away and relax.  We go to Iowa.  There is just something about being surrounded by family who loves you that just allows all the stress of the world to go away.  Thanks mom and dad for letting us crash at your place for two weeks!

 

The Perfect Evening

January 2, 2012 in Family, family traditions, holidays with 0 Comments

Norwegian pancakes on the griddle, bacon sizzling, a fire in the fireplace, and time with my parents.

Life is good.

Another Family Tradition

December 28, 2011 in Family, family traditions with 0 Comments

My kids associate Grandma and Grandpa’s house with ice skating.  They have not yet discovered there are numerous ice skating rinks within minutes of our house so the only time they get on the rink is when we go to Iowa.  To say they are excited to ice skate is an understatement.


This was actually the first time the little man actually got on the ice.  He had a blast!  Here’s a little video recap of our adventure:

 

Christmas Traditions

December 24, 2011 in Family, family traditions, siblings with 0 Comments

Advent

December 20, 2011 in Family Spirituality, family traditions, holidays, My Spiritual Journey with 4 Comments

Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

I love that word expectant.    Oftentimes we are willing to wait, and wait, and wait, and we deal with the waiting by staying busy and not thinking about the fact we are waiting for something.

Advent is different.  This is a waiting with expectation.  That expectation is what makes the waiting exciting.  That expectation is what keeps our focus on Christ in the midst of a long season of silence.

So I have tried to instill that expectation, that excitement of what is to come, in my kids this Christmas season.  This preschool advent book is helping us in the process.

Every night we are reading and talking about the stories leading up to Christ’s birth.  They make an ornament over the story as we discuss.  They are always so curious about what the ornament is going to be and excited to sit and make something for our tree.

Every year we try different advent ideas, and this year’s has been my favorite so far.  All three kids truly are waiting with expectation for the story and ornament making craft at night.

They’ve even enjoyed acting out a scene or two

The point is, waiting with expectation is fun.  In the past I’ve tried to hard to make things serious and prepare their little hearts for more than they could ever possibly understand.  This year, I’m focusing on learning to wait with expectation for the incredible things God is about to do.

 

Merry Christmas From the Minters

December 12, 2011 in Family, family traditions, holidays with 3 Comments

In keeping with our family tradition, here’s a little video to wish you a Merry Christmas!

here’s 2009 & 2010 if you want a look down memory lane!

Our Attempt

December 3, 2011 in Family, Family Fun Day, family traditions with 0 Comments

We attempted to decorate a Gingerbread House tonight

There was a little someone who couldn’t quite grasp why we would glue candy to a house and not just eat the candy.

Pretty sure he ate his fair share of what should have been on the house

Fortunately,  my artsy child came through and had a plan and a vision for the house and the willingness to not eat all the decorations.

Thanks to her determination, we finished with this

Beautiful, right?! =)

Thankful

November 25, 2011 in Family, family traditions with 0 Comments

This month we did our annual Thankful Tree again.  This is the forth year we’ve done this, and it is seriously one of my favorite things we do.

So to capture our hearts at this stage in life, here are some of the things we are thankful for this month.

  • Breakfast (this was said A LOT.  I must make good breakfasts =)  )
  • Thankful Tree
  • The Bible
  • Swimming pools
  • Ms. Lexi
  • Mrs. Talessa and Mr. Joseph (said 4 times!)
  • Tape
  • daddy & mommy (said a total of 10 times…makes me smile)
  • Seanna
  • laughing with my family
  • Family game nights
  • God
  • Ice Cream
  • cookies
  • Good sleep
  • Pajama days
  • Short Work Weeks
  • How God speaks to us
  • Quiet mornings
  • Hot Coffee
  • Mrs. Colleen & Mrs. Kathy
  • Grandma and Grandpa
  • That God made us feel better
  • Gymnastics
  • Uncle Ben
  • Justus and Elliana
  • fruit
  • Evie
  • Making pumpkin things to eat
  • water
  • friends at preschool
  • holidays
  • homeschool
  • date nights
  • movies
  • (the rest Avery wrote, and she spells the way she thinks a word sounds which means I have no idea what they say!  We’ll just say we’re thankful for a lot =) )

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

 

Guess Where We Went?

October 16, 2011 in Family, family traditions with 1 Comment

Have I mentioned how much I love the month of October?

October is just not complete unless we go to a pumpkin patch.

Not only is the whole experience just a blast, but  I get to snap cute pictures of these beautiful young ladies.

I had a goal of getting at least one picture of me with the kiddos.  I just finished a photo album for Avery for her birthday and realized I’m ALWAYS behind the camera and NEVER in front of it.  I thought it might be a good idea to have a least one picture of me in her birthday album!

We even found someone to take a little family pic for us.  Have I mentioned how much I love my family?

And because it was my last family day before leaving for Vietnam, we celebrated by not going home for naps!  Instead we played all day long.  I even managed to snap this picture.

Yes, he is buckled in on the carousal.  You never can be too safe.

The perfect last day together as a family before I  leave the country for 10 days.  Man I’m going to miss those smiles, but I’ve now started counting down.  5 more days =)

A Glimpse at Family Worship

September 23, 2011 in Family, Family Spirituality, family traditions with 2 Comments

Here’s a little glimpse into our family worship time.

At least the singing portion of our time together. I didn’t film the Bible reading or the prayer time although I somehow need to figure out how to film the kiddos praying without them knowing I’m filming. Kids talking to Jesus is just precious and should be preserved forever =)

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