One Thousand Gifts #367- 384

367. Spring rains
368. finding my 11 yr. old nephew playing quietly with Abigail in her room.

He was helping her put on her jewerly.

Precious!

369. 5 days with my nephews, Gabriel and Malachi (two very special boys)
370. getting the honor of praying the salvation prayer with both Gabriel and Malachi while they were here.
371. watching my two kids at 3 and 5yrs old, speak truth into their cousins' lives without any help from me.
372. a big celebration with the two boys with Brent came home (Chick Fil A, popsicles, and lots of FUN!)
373. bubbles
347. public parks

  Joshua taking a rest. He was worn slick.

 I love this of Brent and Isaiah.

 Daddy helping Abigail on the monkey bars.

 Hanging out in the shade.

 Can he get any cuter?

He loves to lick the wind!!

 Isaiah's 1st time in the swing at a park.

 He loved it!

That's Mommy's girl.

375. a healthy 6 month old boy (yes, I said that... he is 6 months... WHAT!?!)

376. those gum smiles... I can not nor will I ever take for granted these smiles ever!!!

377. our growing garden

what I am most excited about... basil!!

378. painted pink nail and toes

379. planting our garden together

Brent cutting out a border for our garden.

The kiddos watching Brent with the saw. They thought their Daddy was the coolest!

380. cleaning up the backyard

381. making brownies with my girl while one brother was sleeping and the other was gone

382. her... licking the spoon

and then I have this one... one I must be thankful for. I must trust in the truth that my God knows all things and although I don't understand His ways at times, I know that He is good, ALL THE TIME!

384. HARD eucharisteo -celebrating our 3rd child's heaven day. Knowing he is with Jesus. Knowing one day I will see him, I will hold him.

Oh, the hope.

What will it be like, getting to hold him for the 1st time with my two hands?

I can only imagine. I can only wait.

Until then...

my precious baby is with the GIVER.

I can trust that the Giver is holding him and holding me at the same time.



Counting - Power Towers

I have been wanting to teach Joshua skip counting and wasn't sure how to go about it. Yesterday, I was browsing around some different blogs and came across a great idea at ABC and 123 called Power Towers and knew it was perfect for teaching Joshua to skip count. Last night I got our cups ready and we started this morning. Within about 2-3 minutes, he was counting by 10's to 100. So great!!

Yay!

I started with first having him put the numbers in order from least to greatest and having him say them in order several times.

When he could count by 10's to 100 without looking at his cups, I then told him to build a tower keeping the numbers in order.

He loved it!!

I made some for Abigail too. We did counting by 1's to 10.

She of course, got a kick out of it as well.

So much fun!

I am going to have him do this a few more times and then we will learn counting by 5's and 2's too.

One Thousand Gifts #343-365

Counting my graces this past week has been super easy. The more I do this, this counting and naming, the more my eyes see the favor I am given in Christ. These past two weeks at my church (LifeChurch.tv), we have had a guest pastor, Pastor Steven Furtick, speak on God's Favor. It has been powerful. I encourage anyone, EVERYONE, to go and listen online at www.lifechurch.tv . It is worth every minute, I promise. This past week, Pastor Steven, opened up his message by stating that one cannot see God's favor without first giving thanks.

My husband elbowed me. My husband, he knows. He knows my counting, my naming and he knows how it is changing me.

Now, as I see and I count, I see these gifts as His favor pouring down all around me.

For me.

Thank you Lord for loving me so much!

343. a good hair day
344. laughter from Joshua's room from Daddy and him playing
345. a cotton tail bunny right outside my kitchen window (we've been missing the bunnies around here, they been gone and hidden through the cold.)
346. the beginning of our new garden (Yay!)

347. windows opened and the fresh breeze blowing through our home
348. kangaroo jumping with Joshua and Abigail (okay, so at least trying to kangaroo jump)
349. a new banana bread receipe. YUM!
350. a day at home, all day.
351. watching Isaiah attack a toy frog with such determination.
352. Baby blue - ocean blue - get lost in blue eyes
353. milk chocolate Hershey kisses
354. Sunday mornings and the kids RUNNING to their classrooms at church
355. Birds chirping
356. cousins- we have two of our nephews with us for a few days over Spring Break. It has been tons of fun.

I love how Joshua is looking at Malachi in this one.

Isaiah checking these two guys out.

357. Daddy watching his girl climb in admiration.

358. finding a caterpillar

359. Abigail's sense of fashion (I want her confidence!)

360. cowboy hats

361. gun fights and fighting for freedom... the kids were playing like they were American Patriots fighting for freedom with their cousins. PRICELESS!

362. the favor of God everywhere when I open my eyes to see

363. these two guys, in this moment

This could make any woman melt!

This boy loves his Daddy!

364.beling blessed with what has to be the happiest baby ever!

365. the kids wrestling

 How did I get two kids that love each other so much?

Grace!!!

366. a slumber party in Joshua's room



My kids have never done this before and they were beside themselves with excitement.

P for Penguins

P is for Penguins!!

Yay, this was so much fun. Where to begin? We started with our usual lesson on the letter for the week and then straight into studing penguins.

Words to Remember: I will show love to everyone, especially my family.

What truths I get to teach my kiddos.
Yay again!
Yes, I am still loving this journey... everyday seems to get better.

We learned that there are 17 different types of penguins. Did you know that? I didn't.
We learned that the smallest penguin is the Little Blue Penguin and the largest penguin is the Emperor Penguin.

And we went with that.
My kids were all about learning about Emperor Penguins.
So we did.

The role of the father is amazing and oh, so sweet.
I fell in love with these little animals!!!

Because our words to remember for "P" were I will show love to everyone, especially my family, we made a little something special for the emperor in our family.

Joshua making his egg.

He worked so hard on this for his Daddy. Look at that tongue.

Front of their cards

This was what Daddy saw when he opened his cards.

(Abigail's egg was a picture of her inside the egg. How freakin cute!!)

Then we talked about Daddy and how Daddy shows us he loves us. I asked them what they were thankful for about Daddy. I wrote their responses down on the back of their cards exactly as they said them.

Joshua

Abigail

(#5 cracks me up)

I think this very much blessed our Emperor here in our home. He loved them. From the response, you can see he loves to tickle them.

Two great books I found were Penguin and Little Blue by Megan McDonald and

Penguins! by Gail Gibbons.

Then we talked about Antartica and icebergs.

http://www.google.com/images


Here are the kids playing with icebergs in our kitchen sink. The floor was soaking wet and so were they, but they giggled so much it didn't matter. And they learned.
                           

So, there is "P" in a nutshell.

Another fun week and lots of learning for them and for me.

I never knew how much I would learn doing this.