Oh Christmas Tree

Since we have been married Todd and I have put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Growing up my family always waited until the day after December 11. That was my Uncle Joe's birthday and my mom always wanted to celebrate his birthday before we put our tree up and decorated for Christmas.

The first year we were married I admit I thought it was silly to put the tree up so early. But I look forward to it now that we have our kids. This has become our family tradition. Put up our Christmas tree or trees as is the case this year and that evening we put in the movie Elf, drink hot chocolate and the kids sleep on an air matress under the tree.

We started last year putting up two trees, the one in the living room that matches our home decor, burgundy and gold. The other in the kitchen that the kids put together with the ornaments they have made or collected. Most of the ornaments end up along the bottom of the tree, but it is beautiful still.

This year Haven got to put the Angel on top of the tree.

Ten Years

In October Todd and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend in Eureka Springs, hiking along the Buffalo River and spending time in downtown Eureka Springs. It was a perfect weekend, weather was beautiful and the time spent together was sweet. We came away with stories where we laughed so hard and stories of how God saw us through

Since having our kids we have never spent more than one night away. This was a very refreshing time to be just a couple again. We laughed a lot and spent time talking about our ten years. Like every marriage we have stories where we have laughed so hard it hurts and we have stories of how God saw us through difficult times. We both agreed that in our marriage this far the greatest trial we have faced together is the loss of our first daughter, Karis Rose.

Through God's grace we were able to not only survive through the loss of her, but our marriage became stronger and more dependent on God. Statistics show that 70% of marriages to do survive the loss of a child. Thank you Jesus for holding our marriage and not letting us fall into the 70%.

I am so thankful for the man God made for me. It is exciting to think about what is ahead and sometimes a little overwhelming. But I am ready.

Here are some hiking pictures of our weekend. We set out to find waterfalls with no luck. The first place we went found out after looking for it that a huge boulder had fallen and blocked it. The second place we went that was supposed to be an all season waterfall was merely a trickle down the side of the rock. I'm sure both were once very pretty. Oh well, the adventure was in finding them and we did find caves to explore.

Jadon's Birthday Pictures

Some pictures of Jadon's birthday party. He had a Star Wars party at the park and invited everyone from his class. They mostly played, but we had an asteroid hunt* and played with a catch with the Death Star**. Later that afternoon we had the family party at our house.

And here are a few pictures that Mallory took of Jadon.

I love this picture and his freckles, they show up so cute.

* For the asteroid hunt I took prizes (small toys and candy) wrapped them in aluminum foil and hid them throughout the park. The kids loved hunting them and then unwrapping to see what each other found.

**I took a balloon and put a small bouncy ball inside along with sprinkles (like you put on cupcakes) then the kids played hot potato with it. The ball and sprinkles made it feel and sound like it could "blow up" at anytime. You can also put confetti in the balloon, but being at the park I didn't want to try to clean confetti out of the grass if it popped.

Happy Birthday Jadon

Jadon,
I told you you were not allowed any more birthdays after your 5th. Well, I guess I wasn't able to follow through with that. I love you so much and even though a big part of me wants to keep you young forever the biggest part of me can not wait to see how God is going to use you.

I will always remember and cherish you as a baby while I continue to watch you grow into a young boy and enjoy every minute of it. You amaze me and I am so thankful for your life.

Love,
Mommy

What a Strange Little World

Our house lately has been a strange little world. Haven is going through the stage of pretend friends and pretending to be different animals and people.

I have to admit when she first mentioned her pretend friend I had a to pause and go through my adult do's and don'ts to see if that was normal or not. I remember thinking, "she knows she's pretend....right?"

It didn't take me long to realize that of course she is normal. Her "friend" spent several days with no name because "her mommy and daddy had not named her yet". She is also 3 years old because according to Haven that was the best year of her own life.

She repeatedly talks about when she was 3 and how she could suck her thumb and snuggle with her blankie and oh how she misses being 3. I can't help but laugh inside when the best thing that has ever happened to her so far in her 4 years of life was sucking her thumb and having her blankies.

When she is not playing with her pretend friend she is being a horse or a dog. We have had to come up with different names for her depending on what animal she is. If she is a dog, her name is Sally and if she is a horse she is to be called Princess.

She has studied the way horses and dogs move, sleep, eat, play and do just about anything. She stays in animal character no matter what she is doing. I am truly amazed at how she prances around the house on all fours.

The other night as we were praying I started to pray for her and was corrected when I mistakenly called her Haven when she was Sally. I had to finish my pray over her calling her Sally. I am so glad God knows all and all her names and characters and He loves her the same no matter who she is.

I find her imagination quite amusing, there are times however, when it can honestly be a little embarrassing.  Like tonight I was trying to talk to someone at Mama Jean's, Haven is sitting in the back of the grocery cart and as I am speaking I start to hear growling. She is trying to growl at the man I am talking to. He has no idea that she is pretending to be a dog, he just sees this little girl showing her teeth and making low growling noises.

My strange little world in my own little house being led by my very own little children. I couldn't imagine it to be any more fun.

So Proud

Last Friday was the first Tiger Pride Assembly of the year at Jadon's school. Parents are always invited and I had planned on going. I asked Jadon if it was okay for his mom to show up, he casually said sure.

Several days before I had received a letter from his teacher in an envelope, sealed envelope, that had written on the outside "do not let Jadon read." In the letter his teacher explained that at the Tiger Pride Assembly they were going to recognize the Student of the Month for each class. And for the month of September she had chosen Jadon for the honor.

I got a little choked up. I was so proud of him. What an honor to be named Student of the Month, as she explained she can only choose 9 out of her class of 16.

The reason for secrecy was she wanted it to be a surprise for Jadon. He would not know until his name was called by the Principal.

Awards were also given from the specials teachers (PE, Art, Music, Library, Computer) to the class in each grade that had shown good behavior for the month. Jadon's class swept all 5 awards. From the reactions in the room I don't think that usually happens. Way to go Mrs. D's class!

A Haven story before I close. Lately when we pray together at night before bed time we have been discussing prayer requests. I asked her the other night if she had any prayer requests and she said so seriously, "yes, I want to pray that I can become a Princess, get married and have a baby." She already has that desire to be a wife and mom. We spent some time praying and talking about allowing God to do all these things in his timing and prayed for the man God has picked out for her in the far future. 

Becoming a Princess, well she is already her Daddy's Princess.

God Loves Me

That is the title of Jadon's first book. On Friday Jadon didn't have school, he was out for a teacher work day. So, he spent the day writing a book. He spent all day and night writing. The idea for the book, every thing he wrote and the spelling was all him, no help. 

On Sunday Jadon decided that every person in his class should have a copy. So, he and Todd spent the evening making copies to hand out to his friends. While waiting for the bus on Monday he was holding his stack of books, he didn't want them put in his backpack to get wrinkled, and he said, "I think my class will like this, if I was given a book like this I would read it every night before I went to bed."

Jadon came home carrying the same stack of books minus 1 that his teacher kept. We received a very nice letter from his teacher explaining why the books couldn't be handed out during class and offered to help him give them to his friends after school.

Todd and I knew he probably would take his stack of books and not be able to pass them out. But we pray daily for our children to have boldness in their faith. We were able to have great conversation about how some don't believe these truths about God, but that we are still called to go and preach the good news, tell friends and everyone about Him.

One of my favorites is where he wrote God is Good and the illustration to go along with it is a picture of a person hurting (bleeding). God is good even when you are hurting. Amen.

Lemonade Stands

Jadon has been wanting all summer to do a lemonade stand. The problem is we do not live in an area that works for having a lemonade stand. When Donna and Karla decided to have a garage sale Jadon took the opportunity to finally have his lemonade stand. Donna made cupcakes for him to sell along with the lemonade.

He did a great job. He proudly sat at the stand and when someone bought a glass from him, he got the ice, poured the lemonade and even counted the change if needed. He did very well at it too, making $13. After putting some back for God, reimbursing me for the lemonade and paying Haven for helping him, she went around asking people if they would like a cupcake and helped him serve, he came out with a net profit of $9. Not too bad for a lemonade stand in the country.

When Haven was not helping Jadon she was enjoying time with Buddy, the Guinea Pig. She loves him and is completely convinced that when she is not there he misses her.

Jude took a time out from looking for frogs to hold Buddy.

I Love Kindergarten

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I have been excited about Jadon starting Kindergarten for some time now. I have thought about how I could volunteer at his school and go on field trips and be a room mom, all the fun stuff a mom gets to do when their kids start school.

I have joined the PTO and so far since the first day of school have been up there weekly doing something. I have helped work the Book Fair, which I made friends with other moms and the wonderful Librarian.

I worked school picture day. My job was to line the kids up for the photographer and check the kids over for messy faces and hair. It was so cute watching the Kindergarten classes and the cute little faces with big smiles. At the end of the morning I was blessed with the fact that my picture package for Jadon was free for volunteering. What a huge blessing that was. The week of pictures was not a great week for purchasing pictures. We went ahead and bought a package because I really wanted Jadon's Kindergarten picture and then to find out we got them free was a huge blessing. I called Todd when I found out and we had a little praise service.

On Tuesday I was able to go to the school and do copying and three hole punch papers for Mrs. Daugherty, Jadon's teacher. At the end of the day she asked if I would like to read the class a book. I loved it, Kindergartners are so fun to read too. Then they showed me a matching game they play on the smart board. I was also there when they called Jadon's name over the school's speaker system for winning a poster from the Book Fair. My heart was very proud watching him go out of class by himself, walk to the Library and pick out his poster, come back to the class and Mrs. Daugherty letting him tell his classmates about his poster. After he spoke his teacher had the whole class tell him "congratulations." I wondered at that moment, how did he get so big.

So, Jadon has loved his first month at school and I have loved my first month of being a school mom. I'm ready for more.

Butterscotch

When we were pregnant with Jude Todd and I talked about the probability of us having 3 kids that preferred sucking their thumbs over a pacifier. At that time both Jadon and Haven preferred the thumb, even with much effort on our part to get them to take the pacifier. I didn't work.

I'm pretty sure that Jude was our earliest thumb sucker too. Great, another one to have to break from sucking their thumb.

I know some parents I have talked to would have preferred thumb suckers. Their reasoning is that it's hard for the child to lost the thumb. I agree with that, we never had nights of crying because they couldn't find their pacifier or having to wonder around retracing steps to find where they lost it.

But that's our argument for being against having thumb suckers. You can't just get rid of it when they reach a certain age. It can continue to be a struggle for them long after you think it's over.

We have been in a back and forth battle with Haven for about a year now trying to stop her from sucking her thumb. We have tried putting band-aids on her thumb, she just took those off. We tried putting hot sauce on the thumb and band-aid, she just waited for the hot sauce to be wiped off. We tried putting hot sauce directly on her tongue when we caught her and even though it caused her to throw up a couple of times she continued on.

Finally, I offered her a present. I put an offer of a stuffed horse on the table along with putting athletic tape on her thumbs and using the hot sauce on the tongue.

It finally has worked. She has been free from thumb sucking for a whole month. So, we went and she picked out her horse, Butterscotch. I am so proud of her.

Here she is with Butterscotch and her unicorn that she's had for a while now, Pinkie Star also known as Alice on occasion.

Jude wanted to get in on the pictures too.

August 19, 2010 will always be remembered in our family, the first day of school for Jadon. This day began a new chapter in his young life and I am excited to watch it unfold.

Just in case you are wondering I did not cry, I did not even get teary eyed. I have been excited about this day for him. I did have that heart swelling proud feeling though.

Jadon has been wanting and ready to go to school for a while. He loves to learn and he honestly just could not wait to go to school so he could learn more.

I have been spending 5 years praying with and for him and every night the one constant in all those prayers is that he would grow to love God more and more with each passing day. For me today was about him going out on his own to put into action what he has been taught and to show God's love to his peers around him.

Todd and I tease with the kids all the time about not letting them have any more birthdays once they hit 5. There is no reason for them to grow anymore, of course we tease and have fun with it. Honestly, though, I am excited to see them grow. I want to see what God will do in their lives and how He will use them.

Here are a few pictures of Jadon's first day and one of him and his teacher Mrs. Daugherty.

And the night before his big, first day of school Jadon lost his other front tooth. He has now lost a total of 4 teeth.

Jadon, I am so proud of you and can not wait to see how you grow and change this next year.