Our focus

 

 

Throughout the summer I had the girls memorize a bible verse and we worked on a lesson from Kids of Integrity.
Once school started, I stopped doing this.  I plan to do it again this summer, but in the mean time I need to make sure my girls are continuing to learn about Jesus.
The girls have been asking questions about being a Christian and what that means. 
I bought this little figurine on Christmas clearance.
I plan to leave it out year round as a reminder that Jesus was born for us and that he was born to die for our sins.  I want them to not just think about Jesus being born at Christmastime, but all the time



I put the verse up on our door.  Annabelle really likes it because she can read now and can point to the words as she reads them.  John 3:16 is also on one of the girls GT and the Halo Express cd.

 

I also printed off the Wordless Book and these little Gospel Fuzzies that I found on Pinterest. 

I am taking it slow with them.  I don't want to throw a bunch at them at once that they are overwhelmed and confused.  We read the verse and we talk about what it means. 

When they are ready to ask Jesus into their hearts, I want them to know what it truly means.  I don't want them to pray the prayer because that's what they think they are supposed to do.  I am fine with them not doing it right away.  I think it is so important that they know what it means to ask Jesus into their hearts. 

Much of our focus this year will be on learning about Jesus being born, dying on the cross, and saving us from our sins. 

I know that when they are ready to ask Jesus into their hearts, they will know exactly what it means and how much Jesus loves them.

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Since today was a snow day, I was able to do some things with the girls.

We talked about our verse, did our Gospel fuzzies and wordless book, and made wordless bracelets.

We also did an activity to demonstrate how Jesus cleans the sins out of our hearts.

We had dirty pennies, which represented the sin in our hearts.

We put them in vinegar and salt, which represented Jesus.

And then we watched them come clean, which represented Jesus forgiving us.

I had the girls tell me about the Christmas story as well as the Easter story.  They both did a really good job.  Ariel got a little confused when I asked her who came to visit baby Jesus.  She was stuck so I said, "The 3...."  She said, "Little pigs."  Right away she knew it wasn't right, but it was pretty cute.

 

Sleep Over

I had my sister, Erica, take Arianna over night.  I am trying to be done feeding her and night time is the hardest.  I thought if I wasn't around it would be fine.  I felt really good about this because the night before she slept all night long!  (FYI:  That is the youngest any of our sweet girls have slept through the night in a crib.  Our crib is basically brand new except for the bite marks from mad children)

She was pretty excited about trying out the pack and play

Annabelle saying good bye.  She had a really really really hard time leaving Arianna.  She was crying that she missed her before we even left to drop her off.

Caden was ready to take care of her.

Ariel was fine with leaving her.

I was sad to leave her, but held it together.

 

 

So, you want to know how the night went, right?

 

For some strange reason I checked my phone while I was sleeping.  I have never ever in my life checked my phone in the night.  (I don't even have a cool phone that you check - no facebook, no internet, no games, just slide it up and call.) 

Erica had texted me that Arianna had been crying for awhile.  I was able to text her back half asleep.  She wanted us to come get her, so I woke James and sent him on his way. 

He had no clue what time it was.  He thought he was getting her at like 5 in the morning. 

Surprise! 

 It was 1:30.  We didn't make it very long, but it was nice of my sister to give it a try.

I did have to feed her when she got home.

I have since gotten tough and not fed her.

My baby is not such a baby anymore :(

Build A Bear

Finally!

My girls finally got to make a Build A Bear!

They always want to make one and I always say no.  We have lots of stuffed animals and I'm not even a fan of them.  Plus it seems a little pricy for this Dutch Girl.

For Christmas we got the girls each a gift card to make an animal and an outfit.

They were so excited to go, so we went a couple weekends ago. (Its actually been like a month, but blogger wasn't working right for me)

Ariel chose a rainbow bear and Annabelle chose a sweet bunny

 

 

They had fun stuffing their animals and giving them a heart.

The girls who worked with them was really sweet and fun!

Bath Time! 
They actually have an animal to give a bath to instead of just playing with it.

They finally get to be the kids walking around the mall with the special Build A Bear Boxes.

 

 

Christmas Story

I like to be sure to tell the story of Jesus' birth many times throughout the Christmas season.
Reading it from the Bible is a little over the girls' heads so I usually read from books that we have.
I also had the girls take turns telling the story on the way to bringing Annabelle to school.

This year I made an interactive story for the girls.
I found it on pinterest from the imom.com website.
I printed out the characters on cardstock and then laminated them.
I love felt boards and wanted to do that with these guys so the girls could stick them to something.
I went to Hobby Lobby intending to get some felt and glue them onto it. 
As luck would have it, I found sticky back felt.  I peeled the paper off and stuck my characters to it.  Then I cut them out. 
*For my next project I will be sure to trace around the object and then cut.  The felt was super sticky and stuck to my scissors really badly.
I also made a quick little stable witht he felt.

I really liked how it turned out and the girls had fun picking out which people were needed for different parts of the story.

I think I will try and do this for other Bible stories.
It is a good way for the girls to be able to use visuals to help them re-tell a story.

Lunch Time

I always let Ariel eat lunch in the living room while watching TV.  I mentioned this before in a previous post.  She takes so long to eat so I just let her do this instead of sitting at the table forever.

Since Annabelle is home she wanted to join Ariel in the living room.
Arianna hadn't laid down for a nap yet so she wanted to be like her sisters.

Sweet Nani Girl

Arianna is such a sweet little girl.  She is growing up so quickly.  She is hardly a baby anymore.

Watching her sister playing in the snow.

she does have snowpants and has played in the snow

I bought this car costume at Target for 90% off, so I only paid $3 for it.  Arianna loves to wear it around! 

This is her "cheese" face when I am going to take a picture of her.

Arianna got a stuffed lady bug for Christmas.  Its name is Bugsy (came with it) and it came with the same birthday as Arianna (August 19).  She loves this little bug.  She carries it all over and calls it Bubsy.

 

I got a new camera, but it seems to take a lot of blurry pictures.  I don't think it is me because if I take a picture of a boot it is still blurry.

 

Love this sweetie girl so so much!

Bonding with Belly

I had such a great time with my favorite 5 year old.
The other two girl went to playgroup and Annabelle hung out with me all day.
I could tell she was craving attention and needed some one-on-one time with me.
We decided her love language is Quality Time.  I found this reference sheet on pinterest and I really like how they give you ways to identify what your child's love language is as well as tips on how to meet their needs.

 

 

I took Annabelle grocery shopping with me, which was a nice big chunk of time to talk without any interruptions (besides deciding which price was better)

Then we went to her (and mine) favorite lunch spot - Panera.

 

Then we went home and spent a lot of time doing crafts.  This is one of her most favorite things to do, and has been since she was about 18 months. (It might be the other girls favorite too, but I didn't let them do crafts at 18 months, must have been a first child thing.  Actually Ariel doesn't care for crafts that much).

She started out painting rocks, but ended up making a lovely creation that we will add to the Fairy Village.

 

After crafting we went to JP's for an afternoon snack.

 

I had a great day spending it with Annabelle. 

I think it is so important to make sure each of my girls feel like they can have time with me when they need it. I especially need to make sure I recognize this with Annabelle.  As the oldest, she is the most independent and can do most things on her own so she doens't need me to be right there all the time.  She is also a really good girl and doesn't even get that much negative attention from me getting after her.

 Already this evening I can see a change in her attitude.  She is a bit more easy going and cheerful.

 

Love my girl so much!