What do 5 year old need and love?? Superhero training!! Step 1: Look like a Superhero! Step 2: Create a shield as strong as Captain America's! Step 3: Test your precision! Step 4: Work on your wind power! Step 5: Hulk MAD...smash, smash, smash! Step 6: Identify the bad guys! Step 7: Refuel!
0 Comments
FIVE? What? Where did the time go?
Lucas I always call you our 'energetic' one! You are the first one up, last one to fall asleep, full of questions and answers. Such a thinker! Some know this story, but we almost didn't have Lucas. We were perfectly happy with our family of 4, until the day I got pregnant when I had an IUD. For 10 long weeks I prayed for the baby to survive, to be healthy. God answered my prayers but not in the way I planned. I sub-sequentially lost that precious baby but had a life altering change of heart and body. We learned how precious life is and how much we really did want more kids!! A larger family filled with craziness, but also with bunches of love and laughter! Shortly after this along came Lucas!! I say this about each and every one of my kids but they are each such a blessing to us and teach us different things. Lucas, well you teach us grace and unending forgiveness. You are hard headed but forgive easily with open arms! You see the abstract and artistry in things, something we try everyday as parents to preserve in you! Thanks you, oh thank you for joining our family!! <3 Started doing New Years this way last year and seems to be the 'thing' to do. Kids say, "it's the best new years EVER." This is high praise so we brought the New Year in with a bang again this year and did a different activity each hour! Our mantra this year...ENJOY LIFE!!
When I was growing up I often went to Feed My Starving Children with my church youth group. Once I left home, got married, started moving from place to place with the military, and began to have one child after another I fell out of going regularly to volunteer. Now that our children are getting a little older I want them to know the world around them, to know that we are truly blessed and giving back with a gracious and joyous heart is what you do! Not out of guilt or pity but out of love and generosity! During winter break when the older two were home we took them out on a date night to feed my starving children! They had never done this type of thing before so they were fascinated by every detail. Asking a million questions that we were happy to answer. So they could get the whole experience we had them switch off between the different stations. I truly love this organization! Not only are they are Christian organization but they give all they can and want to expand to ever corner of the earth to help the hungry! The inspiring testimonial stories the kids got to hear show a real perspective to all that we have here in the U.S. Our group packed nearly 10,000 meals, such an impact that can have! When you think that it only costs $80 to feed 1 single child for an entire year or $100 to feed 1 family for 3 months and we as Americans spend $1000s on food each year, it makes you think. We had a great time and the kids immediately asked when we were going to go back. Something we are definitely going to make a regular thing! We already got mini m&m tubes so the kids can start to collect their own quarters to donate! Hair net swag! Packing away! Praying over the boxes before they get shipped out! If you have never heard of Feed My Starving Children or want to go volunteer, check them out!
Winter has so much potential and such fun outdoor activities to do. With the age range of our kids sometimes it causes minor problems. It needs to be a decent temperature out to bring the little ones, plus if they are too tired when you leave they end up falling asleep in the car. So we always have to be strategic! Our kids love skating and have been asking since the first day of snow to get out to the rink, but it was always too warm that they hadn't put down the ice yet or it was too cold that we would only last minutes out there. We finally made it out skating right after Christmas before the massive below zero temperature drop. While we aren't a hockey family we can hold our own on the ice! Alexis and Derrick both took skating lessons back in VA, so they get the hang of it. Lucas is still really shaky, so maybe lessons are in order. When he gets sick of the skates he just throws his boots back on and jumps right back on the ice! Kourt on the other had wants nothing to do with it or being outside in the cold. Kris's brother flew in to surprise his mom for Christmas, but our kids got one day of him to themselves! For the most part this winter there has been such dry snow that making a snowman was almost impossible, but this day everything seemed to work out perfectly. They made a massive snowman that is still standing welcoming everyone to our backyard sledding hill! Between building and snowball fighting the kids had a good couple of hours outside with their uncle before Grandma got here! We have a sledding hill in our backyard that the kids usually use, but when Kris's family was here we went out to the local sledding hill in the hopes of some better sledding. Turned out great! The designated sledding hill was "lame" according to the kids, so we headed over to the unsanctioned hills that wove through the trails. I didn't get to see a lot of this because, like I said earlier, Kourt wants nothing to do with any of this. So, instead I took Kourt over to the swings. I pushed her for at least an hour but at least she was smiling and not crying hysterically! All in all, kids and adults included had a good 2+ hours of fun and laughing outside in the fresh air!
In MN it seems like we get stuck inside for so many months we forget what it's like to get outside and enjoy it. I'm not going to admit that I really like winter but there are some fabulous things you can do out in the snow! I am glad we can enjoy these times with the kids! We always try to put up the Christmas Tree right after the 1st of December. The whole atmosphere in the house always changes immediately the day we put the tree up, not sure why but everything feels so much more like Christmas! The best thing is the kids haven't tired of it yet. They still peek into all the bins, eyes wide with excitement, to see what we are pulling out and putting up. If only us adults could see everything through a child's eyes like that! Of course you have to make cookies this time of year! This year I changed it up a bit and had each kid pick one kind of cookie for us to make together. It turned out so much better then I could have expected. Not only was there not fighting but I got to talk with each one individually. Not about anything important just stuff! Gingerbread houses became a tradition a couple years ago and the kids love it! This year we invited some other families over to join in on the fun! Alexis, Derrick, and Lucas like the decorating. Kourt mostly likes eating the decorations, but she had fun either way! As we get closer to Christmas we hunt down Christmas lights. Last year was such a tremendous bust that I did my research ahead of time and found a single place over in St. Paul we can drive through. Saved a lot of disappointment from last year. This is one of my favorite traditions! Not sure why, the lights just seem so magical. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day around here was filled with a bunch of sickies. Some of us were starting to get over it some of us weren't, but we were all super tired and kind of cranky. So we tried to keep everything as low key as we could. Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma & Grandpa Taft's! We did dinner and presents and wrapped up the night with a Santa Clause Movie marathon. It was such a nice relaxing night!
Christmas Day was just us! Presents, dinner, playing, and relaxing! This year I taught Derrick how to make the frosting for Jesus' Birthday Cake. I so treasure spending those little chunks of times with the kids! Overall, this Christmas we tried to 'cut the fat,' we didn't go to a ton of holiday parties and if a tradition wasn't blessing us we cut it. Sweet and Simple, this Christmas season was filled with a lot of love. |