Snowman Cookies. . . A Cry for SNOW!!!

Ava's Kindergarten class has a schedule for snacks to be brought in. Ava is scheduled about once a month and I had full intentions of being the mom that always sent in CUTE creative snacks for fun.  Well, I have not been that mom much at all. I even managed to forget one time completely and I had to pick something up real quick to drop off at the school.  Ava was pretty frustrated with me, so I decided to do something really cool the next time. 

So, I looked up snowman cookies Which I have pictured below. Anyway, they were cute in the pictures so I decided to try them.  They are literally vanilla almond bark coating on Nutter Butter cookies and then an orange tic tac for the nose, mini chocolate chips for the eyes and black line icing for the mouths.  I used M&M's for the buttons and this was not only fun to make but they weren't too bad tasting either.  I thought they were a little sweet but Ava loved them and was so proud to take them to her class and share for snack.  I did however, feel bad for her teacher, that probably was not too happy with me and the amount of sugar I included in the classroom snack for the day. :)  Sorry Mrs. Boward.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G - by Ava

I shared on my facebook page a few weeks ago, that Ava has really started to SPELL things and words out.  She loves reading and sounding out words and is so very proud of herself as she recognizes these things.  Anyway, she often, while in a room with Micah or I, will ask us what a word says.  She will find it, like Sony, on the TV and she will say, "what does S-O-N-Y spell?"  We always tell her and then she may find another word and spell it out for us to tell her what it says.  So, a few weeks ago, she was sitting in the living room and I over heard her say, "daddy, what does A-S-S spell?"  The tone she used was so innocent, and we knew she had no idea.  Ummm, first of all, where did she find the word? and secondly, what were we to say about this?  I couldn't stop laughing, while hiding in the kitchen, but I totally got the subject on to something else and never answered her question. 

So, tonight, we are sitting as a family in the living room and Ava is spilling her guts about the day she had at school, with random but funny details. :)  She is smiling sheepishly like she has a REALLY big secret to share, and she says, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!!"  Then she smiles like she said something sneaky.  I smiled and started singing, "Kissing - First comes love. . . " She was very excited and asked how I knew that song.  I asked her who sang it at school and she said, "Garrett. . . he said it about him and Morgan." I asked if he liked Morgan, and she says. . . "No, he just throws out names and puts people up in trees." I love this girl. 

Grandma & Pappy's House

Christian has gotten the chance to spend some fun days with Grandma and Pappy over the last year, while I have been going in and trying to help with Ava's school classroom.  We have whispered to Christian numerous times, how this is a privilege he gets because he is not in school.  Ava doesn't get this chance during the week because she has to go to school.  We do this, because is still always so sad that he can't go to school and she can.  This is his sort of reward system.  However, if Ava catches wind that he is going to get to go to Grandma and Pappy's while she is in school, oh watch out!!! Then the "I don't want to go to school because I hate school" starts.  We have to hide if from her as best we can.  

When Christian goes to Grandma and Pappy's house, they do all sorts of fun things.  They play in the snow, paint pumpkins, decorate for whatever holiday is coming, and they eat pancakes.  He gets to hang out with Simba and spend time getting lots of band aids on his little boo boos, because Grandma is so much more sympathetic toward boo boos than his mommy. :)  I love though, that he always tells us he missed us when we pick him up.  He always smiles and runs up for a hug.  He always says how much fun he had but how much he missed all of us.  He really does make me smile. 

My Little Man is Growing Up

I like to periodically write small updates on my kids to let me know later where they were that year. . . .things they were doing and what they were like.  I am sure I will miss lots but I hope to hit a few of my favorite highlights.

This entry is 100% about my sweet boy that is growing up so very fast. I know I am biased but I think he is so handsome and cute and he manages to make me laugh all the time, just like his daddy.  He also looks like his daddy and he acts like me. 

Christian turned 5 years old this past October and life has been so busy, that I have not gotten the chance to blog his birthday yet.  I will be blogging it though and I can't wait.  We do a BIG party for our kids 5th birthdays and so this year he got to choose what to do.  He chose a bowling Party, so I will follow this with a blog of his party. :)

A few things to mention about Christian is how loyal he is and how sensitive he is.  I know he just turned 5 and most boys at this age are rough and tough and are simply just BOYS.  That is not bad at all, but there is something a little different about this particular BOY in my life.  He is amazingly sweet and sensitive.  He understands when someone is sad, especially when he sees me crying, and then he does it.  He does what I believe is ingrained in men from the womb maybe, and that is, they try to FIX what is wrong in our lives.  What I mean is, when I am crying (which I have done a lot this year) he can be in the other room, hear me sniffle and he drops what he is doing, comes running to find me to tell me, "it's okay mommy, I make you feel better."  Then he always follows with a hug and a kiss.  He hates when I cry and is extremely sensitive to that fact. I remember being that way about my mom too.  I love this about him though. I love that he LOVES babies and smaller kids.  The sad part is that he is a little on the small side himself, so the younger kids don't take well to someone their size mothering them or nurturing them.  However, he knows he is older and so it is hard for him not to boss them around and nurture them whenever he feels lead. :)  We have to watch him around Jamie Blue Eyes and Roman, because he loves them so much, and he loves to pinch their cheeks. He touches their heads and wants to hold them.  He has really attached himself to our little baby, Jamie Blue Eyes.  Not so sure what we are going to do when Jamie Blue Eyes goes home in a week.  I was crying about this just yesterday and of course, here comes Christian to the rescue.  He wraps himself around my leg and tells me it will be okay. I told him why I was crying and he got this really sad look on his face and said, "no, we will all cry a lot if he leaves to go to his home."  I believe he will too.  I know he will miss the little guy.

Christian is very funny and has a contagious laugh.  He seems to find humor in many things, including body noises like FARTING and BURPING.  He is extremely proud when he performs one of these and gets a reaction from his daddy, which often happens. Some of his favorite random phrases when he knows not what to say, "that's Weird!!"  or  "They are so silly."  or  "What?? That makes my brains jump!"  and, "Stop!! you are making me crazy!!"  (I think he means to say, that I am driving him crazy.)  A few more phrases he uses, "Thumbs up!!" or "pound it!!"  He loves tractors, helicopters, airplanes, buses, trains, matchbox car, and his new obsession. . . . Transformers!!! He likes to walk around singing the Transformer Song and he does a pretty good job I must say. 



The Beach happens to be one of our favorite places to be as a family.  I think we try and get to the beach every year at least once, if not more.  Sometimes our trips are a weekend trip but fun just the same.  When at the beach, Christian is a sand magnet.  He loves to be buried in it and loves to lay down and let the water run up over him with all the sand in it.  You can find him digging, burying things and luckily, now that he is five, we no longer find him eating it. :)  He likes the water to watch but he is not daring enough to run out and dive into the waves.  I am personally happier with him having a healthy fear of the ocean.  Makes my job a little easier.  Just one more thing about the beach pictures above. . .check out his perfect belly and chest skin!!! What a miracle, right?  That skin was burnt off and completely replaced and brand new.  You can't even see the scars any more.  I never would have thought he would have been able to go around without a shirt to show off his belly and be proud of it.  Praise God!!!

Christian just graduated from speech therapy this year too. He currently has four more sessions and then he is done.  He has come leaps and bounds with his speech.  This boy LOVES to talk and he sometimes tries to say every thought that comes to his mind.  The thoughts are a little random, but his brain must be going 100 miles a minute and he finally can express, so he doesn't hold back.  His daddy and I tell him that he doesn't have to say EVERYTHING that comes to his mind, but hey, I feel as though I don't have too much room to reprimand on this topic. ;)

Christian is definitely "word of affirmation" for one of his major love languages along with touch.  He Needs to be affirmed and told how loved he is often.  He thrives off of compliments and that is what drives him to clean his room, is when I am building him up on how proud I am that he is so good at cleaning his room.  He also is a pack rat to the tenth degree.  He won't throw anything away and if I happen to sneak a little something by him and pitch it in the trash can, he almost always catches me and gets really upset.  Along with this pack rat trait, he is very sentimental.  He can remember who gave him what and it has real meaning to him.  For example, when I tried to finally throw away a few of his birthday cards, two months after his birthday, he cried because Reece gave him that card.  We still have the card in his room.  Another thing we noticed over this past year is that he can live in a messy room, to the point that you can't walk on the floor to get across his room without stepping on some sort of toy.  We actually experimented on this and instead of helping to clean his room, let him go for a week without asking him to clean any of it.  At the end of the week, the toys and blankets were everywhere and his room was a disaster and yet, he was not the least bit bothered.  Finally, Ava, went into his room and said, "this is a mess, I will clean it for you."  She takes after her Nana and Daddy. Christian takes after me.  Sorry about his luck. 

Christian is very good at spotting details whether it be in a book, on a road or on a movie.  He always points out Water Towers, no matter where we are.  He never misses one. . .he spots them and points them out to us.  He also is very good at directions and knows what roads take us where.  I laugh because he is a great back seat driver, always pointing out the stop signs and telling me to stop, and then telling me I am going the wrong direction or that I missed my road.  :)  He reminds me to not talk on my cell phone when driving and he helps me spot and read road signs. 

Favorites for Christian at age 5:

Favorite Movies : The Ant Bully, Iron Giant, Lion King, Transformers Show

Favorite Color: Blue & Red

Favorite Drink: Chocolate Milk & Coke

Favorite Food: Pancakes, Cookies, Candy, Spaghetti, Shepherds Pie

When He Grows Up He Wants to Be: Spider man, A Daddy, and most important. . A Pilot.

Favorite Place to go:  Beach

Favorite Clothes to Wear - P.J.s of any kind, all the time.
Favorite thing to do - Play bowling on the wii. . . he is really good even doing it backwards

A Prayer from His Heart in His Words at age 5:

Dear Jesus,

We can have a good day about the swing set and playing.

Help Jesus have a great day.

We can go outside and have a nice day.

SHHHHH, I am praying!!

Dear Jesus,

Amen

Dear Jesus,

I am silly, hahhahah

Have a nice day for Westin

Amen

He gets easily distracted but I had to get a prayer written down because I love that he just says whatever is on his mind. I think God would like it if we all talked to him so candidly. Who knows.  Okay, so I will end this blog.  I think I hit on a few of the bigger things that make Christian who he is.  Always thankful that he is my little man and I love him more than words can say. 

BLESSINGS of 2011

I found a blog that mentioned an idea of starting a thing called a Blessings Jar at the beginning of the year and throughout the year, writing little notes of the blessings you receiver.  They can be BIG or small and our whole family was to participate.  Then at the end of the year, open the jar and read them as a family.  I loved this idea, so I started one in January of 2011.  On New Years Eve of this 2011, we came home as a family, got in our jammies and then came out to wait the last half hour until he ball dropped.  The kids were happy to get to stay up and watch this with us and while we were waiting we got out the blessings jar and started taking turns drawing out pieces of paper with the blessings jotted down on them.  It was a fun and uplifting experience and then we thanked God for all the blessings he bestowed on us in 2011.  Below I have posted our list, that though they were not ALL the blessings we received, they were many of the ones we remembered to put into our Jar.  Thought I would end my book of Year 2011 with this post of blessings. . may next Year have many more!!!!

Blessings Jar – 2011


- Scott called Micah with Steeler's Game Tickets and they won!!

- Jan. 11 – daddy got to stay home with us for a week and play “narmo boys” or Mario Brothers

- Jan. 11 – Jesus Blessed us with a warm house on a very cold snowy day – Ava

- Jan. 11 – Michelle, Ava and Christian are blessing and very thankful for them. - Daddy

- Jan. 12 – Ava was grateful for sledding with Daddy and Christian the week daddy was home.

- Jan. 26 – Found out about Free Enbrel for a year through the mail

- March 22 – Ava finally got her tonsils out. . What a blessing

- March 28 – We got a wii – Yayy!!!

- We got a huge Double Tax return at tax time – surprise

- We looked at Daddy’s unemployment for four months as a four month Vacation with family

- May – We found out that Micah was getting a 13 week contract assignment – steady work for the first time in four months

- May 24 – Blessed to find out that CAS was giving us 4 free tickets to Hershey Park

- Nephew Roman was born and very healthy.

- We thought our ipod shuffle was broke, but we prayed over it and were blessed to find out it was still working

- August – Beach Trip paid in full and we had a blast. What a blessing on a year where Micah didn’t even work much

- Aug. – a second contract came through for Micah, giving us a few more weeks of steady work

- Aug. – Ava feels blessed to have a brother, mommy, daddy, food to eat and house.

- We were given mom and dad’s stove and it looks great in our kitchen and works perfectly.

- Sept. – Found out that Nana and Pappy were going to stay for a second week during their visit

- Sept. – Refrigerator broke and we were worried to have to replace it. . . but it ended up being only the heating element that needed fixed.  Very inexpensive.

- Oct. 24 – We were blessed to get the special call and go get little Jamie Blue Eyes to come home to our house and spend some time with us

- Dec. – Harry and Margaret bought me my new Kitchen Aid Mixer

- Dec. – Blessed that our neighbor Jim in two very dynamic ways

- Dec. – the kids were blessed to help put up the Christmas tree as a family

- Dec. – Nana and Pappy came to visit again and took the kids to Hershey Park

- Dec. – We were given three free Hershey Park tickets to the candy Lane Hershey rides.

- We got to keep our little guy through Christmas time and he has been a huge blessing to all of us.

- Dec. – Blessed with two Walmart Gift cards right when we needed them.

- We were ALL spared from any HUGE or Traumatic Health illnesses and no one had to have any time in the hospital as we went this whole year without health insurance. God Blessed us physically.


So, that is how I will end this year's blogging. I know the dates say into Jan of 2012, but I have to get the other updates of 2011 in for the end of the book.  I just had to get this BLESSINGS of 2011 out as my ending mark.  God Bless!!!!

Christmas Letter - 2011

Highlighting the Blessings and Big Events of 2011

Micah lost his job in Jan. of 2011 and yet, God provided time and time again and we just got to have daddy home with us more often. Micah and I started looking at it as a huge GOD GIVEN staycation and we made the best of it. Micah has had contract work different times of the year and that has provided income also. He got a nice buck with his bow this year and was happier than one could imagine.

I joined a praise band at our church and have really enjoyed that venture in my life again. It has been about 10 years since I have sung and I forgot how much I missed the praise and worship. I still get really nervous, but God helps me through each Sunday. I am loving my life with my children and love watching them grow. One of my biggest events of the year was being able to be a part of my nephew Roman, being born in June of this year. It was amazing and He is perfect. Another huge event of the year, My parents sold their house and moved to Missouri to be with my mother’s family. The adjustment, for all of us, has been tremendous, but over all it is a good thing.

Ava started school this year and still doesn’t like it. She doesn’t cry every day but she does ask just about every night, “do I Have to go to school tomorrow? I don’t like school you know.” WE KNOW AVA!!  She also lost her two front teeth this past month, so she is having fun singing the infamous song of old . . .”all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeph.” She really loves the fact that she is learning to read though and she wants to read to me now, instead of me reading to her. It is very sweet and I remember when reading to her while she was a baby, dreaming of the day to come when she would read to me. IT’s Here!!

Christian is a boy. . . need I say more. He is my little sidekick this year. At first, When Ava went to school, he missed her so much and he was so sad. I kept trying to tell him how much fun we were going to have but he was not to be convinced. I think he is finally realizing that now that it is down to just the two of us, we do a lot more “going places” than we used to. He has really started to talk, a ton, like incessantly, since his sister is no longer talking all the time for him. I think he feels the need to express EVERY thought that enters his mind. I find this rather funny and I just say he takes after me. I love talking too. My goal is to start working on his preschool curriculum this coming year. . . .to get him ready for kindergarten. He is really into Transformers and Legos and his favorite thing to do is to snuggle up on the couch with mommy and watch a movie while eating popcorn.

We have a new addition to our home for a few months. . . hopefully longer. Who knows what God has up his sleeve. We will call him Little J and he came to us at one month old with a broken arm. He is now almost four months old and we are all in love. He brings such a pure joy to our household that is so amazing. I am concerned about when we have to send him home, but God is good enough to handle all of our emotions. We feel blessed to at least get to keep him over HIS first Christmas. It gives us more opportunity to pray blessings on him.

And finally, with a heavy heart, I must mention, we lost a very dear friend this year. She is in Heaven and healed but the rest of us miss her more than words can say. It has been a long rocky last two months but God is good and will carry us through this. Please keep her family in your prayers this year to come also.

Well, I must end this letter and attend to the beckoning baby in the other room. He is making his presence very known right now. May all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe and God Bless you all.

With Love,

Micah, Michelle, Ava,

Christian & Little J

 

Midnight Walmart Shopping Trip

While Nana and Pappy were in and visiting for Christmas, we decided to hit walmart at night and do a late night trip.  By the end, Mom, Brianna and I were exhausted but as you can see the two sweet kiddos we took along, as a treat to them, were WIDE awake and hyper as all get out. :)  They loved the idea of having a late night trip where they actually got to go along and they go to go in their PJ's. :)