It's Christmas time!!!!

We spent the thanksgiving holiday with my in-laws, we had a nice relaxing time. We needed a little break away from all that has been going on here at home.

The kids have been begging to put up the Christmas tree for over a week. We finally relented today. I'm not looking forward to keeping Jada out of the ornaments, it might have been better to put the tree up on Christmas Eve!

As we were coming home from church last night Caleb went into a long discourse about the true meaning of Christmas. He thought Josiah needed to know (he told me later, "If I weren't Josiah's big brother, he would never know what Christmas is really about). Tonight, after the Christmas tree was up I decided to have him tell me again so I could record it. Sorry about it being so dark.



Then I asked the other kids. Josiah played shy, and would barely speak at all with the camera running. Rachel didn't say much either. When I asked Jada, though, it sounds just like she says, "Jesus is." Who knows if that's what she really said, but thats the story I'm sticking to!!

Thanksgiving tree

Today the kids and I made a Thanksgiving tree. I had read the idea on one of my e-mail loops (can't remember which one!). We traced their hands, and cut them out. Then each of them wrote down things they were thankful for. Caleb made the trunk and all the little branches going out.

Caleb was thankful for: Mom and Dad, God, and the world

Josiah was thankful for: Dogs, fish, horses, and fire (yes, nothing that he has any emotional attachment to at all!!)

Rachel was thankful for: God, our house, and Nuna (her name for Grandma)

Here is some pictures of the finished product:and the kids in front of it. (I tried to get a picture with Jada in it too, but she just wouldn't cooperate!).

Yesterday we had the dedication service for our new building at church. It was a wonderful service. Here's the location of a video clip on the local news. www.wane.com
Under the featured videos, got to "new building, new beginning"


Posted: 3:51 PM, Nov. 20, 2006

Caleb's first Lapbook

Caleb finished his bee lapbook today. He said he liked making it. I asked him if he would like to do them all the time, or just a couple a year. He said just a couple a year, so I guess it's something we can add in every once in a while. Here is a few pictures.Caleb putting it all together.

The inside.

Caleb wanted to place everything himself, and instead of putting these on the front of the lapbook, he put them on the back! :)

The inside of all his mini books. The first day he wrote several of the definitions himself, but after that he just dictated to me and I wrote. I think he learned a lot about bees, and had a little fun too!! Now we plan on studying Thanksgiving for the rest of the month.

Posted: 1:35 PM, Nov. 8, 2006

November 2, 2006

We've had a pretty crazy time this past week. We did get to have services on Sunday in our new building, which was wonderful!!! Aaron is also back to working at the church, which has been a bit of an adjustment. I've gotten so used to him being here, that it feels really strange to not have him around!!! We are going through a difficult time at the church, though, and Aaron has been under a lot of stress for the last several days because of it. Please just keep him in your prayers as he deals with things.

We're working on our first lapbook this week!! It is about bees (from In the Hands of a Child) and Caleb has really enjoyed it and seems to be retaining the information a little better than normal. Hopefully we will finish it up at the beginning of next week, and I can post our finished product.

For Caleb's creative writing assignment this week he had to write about what he would do differently if he lived somewhere else. He chose space as his place to live. Here it is:

If I lived in space I would go outside and fly because there is no gravity in space. It would be fun, but you can only fly in space. I would go look at the galaxy in my spaceship. It�s just a lot of stars spinning around and around. I would go see all the planets in my spaceship. I would go play with my dog inside the spaceship because there is no oxygen outside. The end.