Visits with family and friends

This is a catch up post from a few things I wanted to share.

My parents came to visit us just after Christmas.  We loved having time to spend with them!  We played games, talked and just had fun.  They gave us a Wii for Christmas which has been a fun experience for everyone.   Here are a few pictures.

Playing charades

Playing the American Girl game.

Playing on the Wii.

We started off the year by heading to VA on Jan1 to spend a few days with our friends.  It was chilly so we spent most of our time just playing inside and hanging around.  There was time for some football and swinging outside though.

She's barely big enough for the plasma car, but that doesn't stop her from getting on and going!

The little boys loved swinging.

Stop in the action of the football game.

Just hanging out.

We surely miss having our friends next door and love the time to just hang around.  I'm glad that they are close enough to drive to see, but still wish they were here.

I came home a little early with Eliana to meet up with another friend, Barb, that I've known for years from the FIAR boards.  She had not yet met Eliana and I was thrilled to introduce them.  It was wonderful having lunch with Barb, her dh and oldest daughter. 

Barb has been an encouragment to me many times and I loved having some face to face time with her - though it was way too short.  I guess that is always the way it is with good friends, huh?

I've been blessed abundantly by God with wonderful family and special friends.  I'm thankful for each one.

Blessings,

Leslie

Inauguration

We woke up this morning to a world of white ... SNOW!!!  It isbeautiful and amazing to see it here!  It's still falling as I type.  Roger went in late this morning so he could take the children out to play.  Isn't that sweet?!  We are planning to do a little schooling and then maybe back outside to play.  I don't want to lose what may be this *one* day to play in it.  lol

Today is a historic day.  We have been studying on the inauguration over the last week and a half and plan to watch it on tv today.  We have been using Amanda Bennett's Inauguration unit study and it's been interesting to look back over the past events and today we look ahead to the future.

I've been talking with friends about this event and it has come up on the FIAR message board.  Some are really struggling with this new leader.  My wise and beautiful friend Barb had this to share and I thought it was wonderful and wanted to share it with you.

We ALL have every reason to hope and pray that Obama is successful in his presidency! Given that, I feel this verse ~

2 Chron. 7:14 (MsgB)
and my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I'll be there ready for you: I'll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health.

~ is a very important one for this time!

God is still sovereign and in control whether our choice won or not!

*****

Please join me in praying for our new leaders - that God's hand would be upon them.

Blessings,

Leslie

One more ... Praise God!

I'm going to post-date this so that it shows up on the day that it happened - Saturday the 17th.

On Friday while the children and I were doing devotions, we were talking about how Jesus prays for us.  We got into a discussion about Jesus and the fact that He lives in our hearts when we believe.  Well, Isaiah asked if he was in my heart and I replied "yes".  He then asked about others in the family including himself.  I told him that Jesus was ready to come into his heart anytime that he wanted to invite him.  Well, he wanted to do it then!

I asked him why he wanted to invite Jesus.  He said that he wanted Jesus in his heart and not Satan.  He also said that he figured it was the best way to go to heaven and he wanted to go to heaven.  I assured him that this was the only way to get to heaven.

I asked if he would wait until Daddy could be with us.  Unfortunately, Daddy had a busy and long work day already scheduled and wasn't able to be home until late.  So on Saturday morning, we asked if he was ready.  He was.

Isaiah prayed a prayer, nervously inviting Jesus in.  He wasn't really sure what to say and we told him to say what he knew about who Jesus was and why he wanted to invite Him in.  Then as a family we prayed for Isaiah.  What a sweet moment.

Thank you God for helping my son see his need for you.  Please guide him and teach him and draw him close.  I pray that as Isaiah grows that he would desire to know you, to be with you and to serve you.  I pray that he would use his gifts and talents to bring glory and honor to your name.  Help us to know how best to teach and parent him.  Protect him, challenge him and hold him close. 

We rejoice with the angels in knowing that another soul is safely His!

Praising Him,

Leslie

Happy Birthday Roger - and a cute little story!

Happy Birthday sweetie!  I wish we could have seen more of you today (worked a long day/night), but we look forward to celebrating with you tomorrow!  I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful year - filled with God's grace, challenge, growth, peace and joy!

I wanted to share a funny little story about Daniel (4yo).  He made a card for me yesterday and came to give it to me while I was cooking dinner.  Since my hands were dirty, I asked him to set it on the counter and I would look at it in just a minute.  He wandered off and in a few minutes I looked at the card.

It was a small card made of paper that had been cut and glued on both sides.  He had decorated the outside with drawing and on the inside were scribbled lines.  I chuckled when I saw this because it looked like a note.  I found him and thanked him for the card.  Then I asked him what it said on the inside.  He kind of chuckled and said "i can't read, you read it". 

That just made me laugh.  Guess if it looks like writing it must be and since he can't read, surely I could.  Funny boy!

Blessings,

Leslie

FIAR Ornaments

Our FIAR group (our local one, not the on-line one) did an ornament swap again this year.  This is our 3rd year doing this and our biggest swap thus far (13).  Each ornament represents one of the book titles in the FIAR curriculum.  We had ornaments from Before FIAR (2), FIAR (10) and Beyond (1).  They are so creative and beautiful!  I just love them.  It'is hard to see how beautiful they are since they are 3D and you just miss something in a photo.  Here are some pictures.

 Big Green Pocketbook and Blueberries for Sal

Sorry this one is fuzzy.  I've already packed up the ornaments and don't want to get them back down now.   This is The Story About Ping and Pumpkin Runner.

Truman's Aunt Farm, Duchess Bakes a Cake and Boxcar Children

Wee Gillis and Cowboy Charlie.

Clown of God and Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

 

 Arabella and Roxaboxen

Blessings,

Leslie

New Year's Eve

We did activity bags like last year (see earlier post for link to last year's if interested).  This was a huge hit last year and our children were excited to do it again this year.  We changed things up a little bit - but not too much.  We were blessed to share the evening with good friends.  What a sweet way to bring in the new year!

Here are the bags at the beginning of the evening.

This year, I stapled the clues to the outside of the bag.  We had a theme idea of spies so they had to figure out the clue and then could peek in the bag.  Here's our evening.

Clue 1: WHERE

 

Questions, lots of questions will find you this night.

Answer then correctly and you’ll have fun alright.

Put on your spy hats and ready your mind.

It’s time to go hunting in order to find.

Where are you going? Where is the clue?

Where is the place that you leave your shoe?

Go together slowly and don’t race ahead.

Where you end up depends on where you are led.

*5:30 – In the bag: Noisemaker: 10 paper plates, beans, markers, crayons, craft stick, tape, glue, stapler. 

They went on a scavenger hunt.  I used one from a Klutz treasure hunt book.  These are FaBuLoUs!!!  All of the clues are figured out and it even tells you where to hide them.  For this scavenger hunt, they had to act out the location of the next clue.  When they had finished the hunt, they got the bag and made noisemakers.

Clue 2: WHAT

What is the question that is asked each day?

What is the one Moms don’t want you to say?

What are you wondering and want to ask?

Figure it out to do the next task.

*6:00 - In the bag: pizza crusts, olives, mushrooms

The question that they figured out was "What's for dinner?".  They then made their own pizzas for supper.  Yum!  We had a variety of toppings (pepperoni, sausage, peppers, mushrooms) that they used to decorate the pizzas.

Clue 3: HOW

How would you describe your year?

With laughter, sadness, joy or a tear?

How did you spend your days?

How do you want to change your ways?

7:00 – In the bag: cardstock with questions

We took our time answering questions and then read the answers out loud.  We tried to guess who wrote each one and most were pretty easy to figure out.  I think this could be a fun keepsake from year to year.

Clue 4: WHY

Why are there sprinkles and frosting and more?

Why is there sugar? What fun is in store?

Why are there things that need decoration?

One that needs to pull into the station.

*8:00 – In the Bag: Makings for cookies – cutters, sprinkles

We decorated gingerbread cookies.  They had their choice of a gingerbread train and people.  This was a fun and simple activity - much easier than making our own sugar cookies like last year.

Ready to open the bag.

Clue 5: WHO

Who is the star?

Who will make you giggle?

Who still wants a snack?

Do you promise not to wiggle?

*9:00 – In the Bag: Movie – Horton Hears a Who, popcorn

Clue 6: WHEN

When is it my turn?

When will we learn?

When do we pick teams?

Is it as easy as it seems

*11:00 – In the Bag: Chalk for Pictionary, club soda for a fun drink

Clue 7: LAST CLUE

It's time to say good-bye to '08,

Watching the ball drop will be great!

A hug, a prayer, a sweet drink for the toast,

Happy New Year, it's 2009

*11:45 – In the bag: A scripture for each person to read. shake noise makers, take pictures, cups for bubbly drinks

 

We enjoyed the beginning of the year and look forward to see all that God has in store for us this year.

Blessings,

Leslie

 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

 

I've been off-line for a few days ...

because my sweet hubby has been working on the computer.  The end result ... I have a new computer!!!   Yippee!!!

The screen is bigger and it's faster!!!  It is password protected in case I want to keep anyone off.  Did I mention that it is faster?!!!  It was so much faster loading pictures.  Very nice!

Thank you  Roger!

If you emailed me during the last couple of days and I haven't responded, please try me again.  I know that I've lost at least a couple of emails from someone today asking if I'd gotten them.

Love,

Leslie

Princesses

I saw this on another blog - and just loved it! 

I know that we love our princess and delight in the joy she brings our family. 

All in all, Eliana is sooo much more than "Down syndrome".  It is a part of who she is - but it is not all of who she is in any way.  I know that I say it often - but I do want the message heard.  She is a blessing.  I am so thankful for her and am so very glad that God has placed her in our family. 

 Blessings,

Leslie

Eye appointment updates

Hi Friends,

I was reflecting on last year as I mistakenly posted a recent post (that I had started in Dec) in '08 instead of '09.  I had to go back to find it and was surprised to find that a year ago I was doing the same thing, almost to the day.  I was taking three children - and the same three - to an eye appointment. 

It seems like so much of last year was one of fears, changes, and difficulties.  So many things happened and I found myself clinging to God - the only thing that wasn't changing in my life.  After going through the roughest part of the year, I thought that dealing with just one more thing was just more than I wanted at the time.  I find though that the best part of trials, fears and challenges are that they cause me to run to God.  To cling to Him and spend time just resting in His arms.  One of the benefits of being housebound and tied to pumps for months after Eliana was born is that it gave me a lot of time to rest in Him.  (Though I truly got no REST in a physical sense.  lol)

Well, now I'm finding that things are stable.  There is still work, but none of the staggering difficulties and in a way it is hard on me as I find myself trying to do it all on my own.  Why do I do this?  Haven't I learned this lesson?  My times with God have been too short and disrupted and I need to find a better way of spending time with Him.  I want to cling to His faithful presence.  I want His goodness and peace to fill my heart.  I want to be like Him.  It's scary to say that though.  I understand in a different way now what it takes to be more conformed to His image and it's hard.  It often hurts.  It is good though because He is good.  Thank you God for being faithful, even when I'm not.

Today went pretty well.  Eliana had to have her eyes dialated - which she did not like (and we knew it).  When it was her time for the check-up, she did NOT want anything close to her face.  She was sitting on my lap and I held both of her arms and tried to hold her face still.  She was mad and crying and raising a real fuss!  At one point the Dr called in some others to help distract (Joshua had been doing his best).  They weren't better than Joshua though.  She still fussed.  Well, she got a decent look.  Her optic nerve looks a little unusual, but not in the same way as Daniel's did.  This is unusual, but in an acceptable manner.  The end result - she is waiting on glasses and wants to monitor her.  We'll go back in 6 months. 

Well, unlike last year,  (See this post ) I was really prepared for her to get glasses this time.  I guess it will wait though and I'm not disappointed.  I think it will be a challenge for her to keep them on - though I would love to be wrong.

Both of the boys did great.  Isaiah's eyes look great and are 20/20 with his glasses.  Joshua is holding and was thrilled that he doesn't have to wear the permanent patch now.  (If you look at his pic, you'll notice that his right eye glass looks fuzzy - that is his patch.)  He has to wear it for 10 to 30 minutes per day while reading.  That is doable, we just need to remember.

As we were leaving one of the nurses commented on Eliana's personality being joyful.  I agreed.  One of the other nurses begged to differ having seen another side of her.  Hmph!  She was one that helped when Eliana was fussing.  I defended her (why did this make me feel defensive?).  I commented that she had endured a lot of poking, prodding and hurtful things and it was now hard for her to be at the doctor's office.  (It's true.)  The part I didn't mention was that she is also incredibly forgiving.  She moves past a hurt and forgives - maybe even forgets? - in a way that is so beautiful to me.  She is an incredible example to me of this.  I want to be more like her.

Thank you God - for your faithfulness, for your gifts that sometimes come in unexpected ways and for loving me always.

Blessings,

Leslie

Playing catch-up

Last week was full and fun - which left not much time for the computer.  We were able to visit and spend time with family and friends.  What a delightful way to end one year and begin the next. 

We enjoyed having my parents here to visit for a couple of days.  We celebrated Christmas with them.  They gave us a Wii which has been a fun new toy for our family. 

We celebrated New Year's Eve in a similar fashion to last year with the activity bags.  I think this will have to be a family tradition now.  It's just too much fun! 

We also visited our sweet friends in Virginia beginning on New Year's Day for several days.  We arrived home yesterday and I met with a dear friend, Barb from the FIAR boards and her dh and oldest dd for lunch.  It has been several years since we've been able to see each other and it was wonderful. 

Since then, I've been doing laundry, trying to clean up the house and working on getting plans made for the remainder of the school year.  Tomorrow we have 3 eye appointments - Joshua, Isaiah and Eliana.  I'm thinking that this may be the time that Eliana gets glasses.  I'm not sure I'm ready for this, but ready or not - the time is here.  I'd love prayers for a peaceful time as I'm sure it's going to be a long time there.

More details and pictures (when they are uploaded).

Blessings,

Leslie