Videos from our Family Celebration Service

Callie & Samuel sang Jesus Loves Me for the Family Celebration service at church.

A solo by Mike Terrian.

Jaleesa sings...

A poem and song by the Peters.


Now this one....I'd strongly suggest NOT watching...oh my....I really debated as to post this...but oh well...here goes....It's hysterical. And, YES, it's me....the girl in the bright pink sweater that squawks out a note all by herself while everyone laughs!!! Don't know WHAT happened!!! I totally lost my voice....

Chocolate Chips on the floor....I think NOT!!

A short story.........

Mommy goes into the kitchen and a 10 year old boy comes running out of the music room.  His mouth is STUFFED full of something.  She asks what it is….the boy holds up a finger suggesting she wait until he has finished chewing up his food.  This makes the mommy slightly perturbed.  He can talk with his mouth full of food any other time.  She is suspicious of WHAT is in her son's mouth.  She demands that he tell her NOW!!! 

“It’s just a few chocolate chips.” The boy tells his mommy. 

“WHERE, did you find them?” asks the mom. 

The guilty looking boy replies, “I found them on the floor.”  

Hmmmmm…..methinks the boy did NOT find them on the floor!!  Finally the truth comes out.  The boy had been hiding a bag of chocolate chips in the attic stairwell.  This makes mommy mad and sad!!!  Punishment follows and the sneaky boy is sent to his room.  Apparently he worked on this sweet card of apology and placed it in his mommy’s kitchen where he was so sure she would find it later that evening.  She did not.  This made the boy very sad. 

He thought to himself, "What kind of mom doesn't find the apology note from her son?" 

For you see, the VERY sorry boy put it right outside her music studio where she would see it the minute she finished teaching lessons.

The mommy found the sweet card during the day while the boy was at school.  It made her smile.  She thanked her son on the way home from school later.  He was glad she finally found it and has no more plans to hide chocolate chips EVER again!!

 This was ALL the money he had leftover after Christmas shopping for his brothers, sister & Daddy!

The same evening the chocolate chips went missing(and before I knew he had made me such a sweet card), Simon sewed his sister a nightgown for her doll.  He did a great job!!  Although I'll have to admit, I was just a bit scared when he used my serger for the first time!!!  Callie was beside herself with excitement for she knew that Simon was making her a Christmas gift and she wasn't allowed in the room! :) 

Here is Simon, with the Christmas gift he made for his sister.  She's going to LOVE it!!!

Advent: The Candle of Peace

Late last night, after our annual Christmas Celebration Supper, we came home to have our second Advent reading and candle lighting.  It was Seth's turn to do our reading and light the Candle of Peace.

Then, it was time to hide the nativity pieces for the week and hunt for them in the dark with a flashlight! Please excuse all the busy-crazy-no-time-for-cleaning-last-week-clutter in the background of the pictures!!! My house is VERY real right about now!!! :)

Last week, it was youngest to oldest, in the hunt for the nativity pieces.  This week, we declared the oldest would go first!!! :)  Seth found one of the angels.  And yes, we really are in the DARK, with just a flashlight......I took pictures with FLASH nearly blinding us all in the process!!!

I LOVE this picture of Simon searching for the elusive donkey.....Do YOU see it?

He FINALLY found it!!!!

Finding just the right place....

 Samuel spotted the second angel right away on the MESSY computer desk!!!

 I snapped this picture JUST as his angel tumbled down from the roof.  He needed just a bit of help to get it to stay!!

Callie was soooooo excited to FINALLY search for her piece...she was just a bit miffed that she was LAST this week!!! :)

What it REALLY looked like while searching for nativity pieces....

Callie puts the little shepherd boy outside of the stable.  The kids are already asking what pieces will be hid next week!!!

Second Sunday of Advent

Candle of Peace.  We'll relight the first candle of Advent, the candle of hope.  Then we'll light the second candle of Advent, which is the candle of peace.  This candle helps us remember that Jesus was called the Prince of Peace.  He wants us to learn how to live together in peace with each other.  That means not fighting with our brothers and sisters or hurting someone else's feelings.  As we think about Christmas, let's find ways to be kind and loving to other people.

Bible verse for today. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."  Luke 2:14

Prayer. Dear Jesus, we want to be kind, helpful, and caring to other people no matter who they are or what they look like.  Teach us how to live in eace every day with our family, friends, and everyone we meet.  Amen.

Advent: The Candle of Hope

A few years ago, we started celebrating the 4 Sundays of Advent in our home.  This is something the kids look forward to each year.  After church on Sunday, the kids take turns with a simple Advent reading and then light the candle/candles for that day.  After that, pieces from our Nativity set are hid around the living room.  The lights go out and one at a time, the kids use a flashlight to find a figure to put in our manger.  By the last Sunday of Advent, our Nativity set is complete and baby Jesus, is placed in his bed.

 We were happy that our cousin, And'rea, got to spend this first Advent celebration with us.  She took part by hiding the 4 Nativity pieces for the kids.  The kids enjoyed playing a few games with her afterwards!

For anyone interested....here is the simple reading for the first Sunday of Advent....

First Sunday of Advent

Today is the first day of Advent.  The word 'advent' means coming.  So this is a time to think about Jesus' coming to earth as a baby.  Advent starts today and ends when we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas.  There are four Sundays in Advent.  We'll light a candle on each on those Sundays.  Each candle stands for a special idea about this holy time of the year.

CANDLE OF HOPE

  The first candle we light is the candle of hope.  People were looking for a Savior to come and help them.  When Jesus was born, that hope came true.  Jesus was the Savior of the world, and He came to teach them and save all people everywhere.

Bible verse for today:

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."  Luke 2:11

  Dear God, as we begin Advent, help us to learn the true meaning of Christmas.  We want our hearts to be ready to celebrate the birthday of Jesus.  Amen.

~Celebrating Christmas~

At the end of August, I planned a spontaneous Christmas celebration with Duane's sister & her husband.  They were leaving to be missionaries in the Philippines and we wouldn't see them during the holidays.  We made 4 big homemade pizzas and Christmas cutout sugar cookies.  It was the least stressful holiday celebration I've ever been a part of.  :)  Not to mention it was way more fun to bake Christmas cookies in August!!!  Here is Callie with the cookies and wearing last years' Christmas day ooga booga outfit.

Each of the kids waiting patiently for their Christmas gift.

Callie just LOVES her ponies.  I can't believe how much she looks like me in this picture!!!  I didn't notice it until uploading these pictures this morning!!!

Simon LOVED his whoopie cushion!!!!  I say LOVED(past tense), because it was soooooo well-loved and sooooo well-used it just couldn't handle all the repeated use and was jumped on(to make yet another explosive, hilarious sound) one too many times and simply split its' side!  They even put it outside my music studio door and made sounds while I was teaching!!!!!!!!!  It was tons of fun.  Another one will have to be purchased in the future.

Seth & Samuel both love playing/setting up Army bases.  More things for them to add to their collections.  Seth is excited, just acted silly, by NOT smiling. :)

Yet another strange face from Seth......

Aunt Sarah, read the kids their bedtime story that night. 

The Mad Dash...Only 10 Days to go!!!!!!

Sewing like mad the last several weeks.  Every spare moment has been focused on sewing gifts for Christmas.  Well, I needed to make Callie's Christmas dress so this morning I cut out and sewed up this dress for her to wear on Sunday.  I just have to hand sew the hem in the sleeves and the dress is finished.  Here are a couple of shots of her while she was modeling it for me this afternoon.  Silly girl!!!  Couldn't get one single 'normal' shot of her! :)  Later this week I will make a pettiskirt to go underneath to make it 'poof' out more!  She loves her new dress.  I'm just glad to cross one more thing to sew off my sewing Christmas list. 

Here goes.....keep in mind the sleeves are not hemmed in this picture yet!  She insisted on a picture with her arms up in the air.

Don't know WHAT this face is!  I was told by someone that she looked just like ME in this picture! :)

The green taffeta sash and rose are made with the scraps leftover from the bridesmaids' dresses from our wedding more than 13 years ago!!

Seth & Simon's Christmas Parties at School

Simon opens up his gift at school.

Simon with a gift from his teacher, Mrs. England.
Seth and Mrs. Jingst, his teacher.

Seth, Andrew, & Joe eating pizza.

Seth, Joe, & Andrew show off their gifts.

My greatest disappointment with the Christmas parties at school was the fact that my camera's batteries died and I didn't get any videos or pictures of the kids participating in their Christmas chapel. Seth and Simon both played their violins for the first time at school and I missed recording it!!!! Boo Hoo...... :( I do have a very interesting video of myself in a donut eating contest that I am uploading to YouTube at this moment that I will be posting!

~Merry Christmas~

Drum roll, please.............Our Christmas Card is FINALLY finished! This is the picture Duane took of the kids on Sunday. I was VERY happy with the way it turned out. Do you have any idea how long it takes to get 4 kids to look in the SAME direction at the SAME time with a somewhat pleasant expression on their face? Let's just say it took soooooo long that the batteries ended up dying, but it is ALL OVER! That is, until we do it all over again next year! :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

~HCS Christmas Program~

Seth sings with his classmates. He is the one in the suit!

~3rd. & 4th. grade choir~
Simon made alot of interestig faces as he was singing!

Simon with the 1st. and 2nd. grade choir. He is the one in the suit that has his mouth opened the widest of ALL the kids! :)

The 1st. - 12th. grade singing the final song.

The boys did a great job singing. After it was over, I used a free movie rental coupon to rent WALL.E for us all to watch and picked up pizza from Little Caesars. We let the kids stay up until after 10:00! They were thanking us over and over for letting them stay up and eat pizza and watch the movie they had been wanting to watch for months!

Now today, I have to attack the house with a vengeance. I went shopping twice yesterday, helped decorate 2 more Christmas trees (one of these days I'll have time to take pictures of all 4 of our trees and post them), did some laundry, taught 5 lessons, and attended the kids' program. There was NO time at all to do any kind of cleaning.

What's your vote....

Which picture of the kids do you like best?

I bribed them with M&M's to get these taken. These are the best 3 out of about 3 dozen!!!

#1

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#3

This is our very first attempt at making a gingerbread house. I have been wanting to make one of these with the kids for YEARS! I figured out it's a lot harder and takes a lot longer to make one of these than I thought! There were tears, icing that was like glue everywhere, arguing over who was going to decorate what, a little girl eating part of the rock hard gingerbread roof than throwing the rest of it in the trash can (we had to fish that part back out), someone taking a bite out of one of the gummy roof decorations, not to mention spilling an entire bowl of itsy, bitsy pieces of candy (which resulted in one screeching mommy), it wasn't as perfect as a family memory as I would have liked, but hey, we all learned from our mistakes last night and will do better next year. Yes, I would do it all over again next year!