Celebrating Advent

Celebrating Advent this year. Being intentional with our time and activities. Choosing to not let the CHRISTmas season fly by in a flash of wrapping paper, chaos, earthly concerns, shopping, selfishness, and Santa.

Taking time each morning to be quiet and remember the history of our Christian faith...WHO created us...WHO holds us all together...WHO loves us with an everlasting love...WHO we are called to honor and glorify...

Being thankful for the many blessings we have been given...especially the free gift of eternal life with our Savior...

Praying for those in need, those who don't know our Savior...

Talking excitedly about the things we can share and give this season...

Enjoying candlelight in the morning grey from our Advent wreath as we count down the days until Jesus' birth...

Reading Advent Stories and Christmas stories...A Jesus Advent Celebration: Jesse Tree Journey and Jotham's Journey

Being together...

Our School Name

Sometimes Elijah just cracks me up. Today he was working on his English homework covering the capitalization of proper nouns. He had to think of several proper nouns for the first section.


1. A book title
2. An animal's name
3. The name of your school
4. The name of your church

He had asked me what the name of our school was and I replied, "Farwell Homeschool...but you can think of your own creative name if you want to. We don't really have a school name."

Well, now I guess we do!!! Ha, ha! And I always think I'm not doing enough!

Elijah and Elmo

Elijah at 6 months old...oh, we just thought he was THE. CUTEST. THING. Still think so! My baby is all grown up and doing 8 year old things...seems like we just took this picture yesterday!

Sadie's Babies

A scene that's becoming more and more common...Sadie holding her "bay-buh."

Another scene that is just as common...a big brother holding Sadie.

Sadie LOVES real babies, toy babies, pictures of babies, the Babies Trailer, Hidden in My Heart Dolls, anything baby related. Now I just have to get her homemade doll made so she'll fall in love with it the most of all!!! I am planning to give it to her for Christmas with some sweet accessories!

Our Elijah turned 8 years old!!! Gosh, I love this boy! We've been enjoying extended celebrations...a special outing with Grammy Potter last Friday, a family party on Sunday, a friend coming to play tomorrow, and a mini party with two families on Friday! Whew! Turning 8 is a big deal!!! Here are a few pictures from his birthday...in reverse order from how I wanted them to be...

The chainsaw Elijah, Daddy, and Luke created from his K'nex Education Kit "Gears."

He loves a good building project!

Hard at work

Opening gifts on his birthday morning

A REAL slingshot...oh, yeah! It shoots small paper balls really well for tons of fun IN the house!

Elijah LOVES reading "manual" type books...his favorite, well-used, well-worn book is The Survival Handbook: Essential Skills for Outdoor Adventure by Towell. We found these great books from Popular Mechanics that he's already taken a liking to: The Boy Camper, The Boy Scientist, The Boy Mechanic, and The Boy Mechanic Makes Toys.

And, of course, we all enjoyed the "traditional-9x13-sprinkle-filled cake" with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday!

I love you, Elijah! You are a joy and a pleasure! How blessed we are that God has given you to our family!!!

Skully

Skully, our new friend, will be joining us for school now. What a fun and educational birthday gift for Elijah! He loves it and I love that he is telling me little facts about bones and skeletons now.

The Twelve Disciples

"The Twelve Disciples" song according to Isaac...

"There were twelve disciples Jesus called to help him:

Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, his brother, John,

Phillip, Thomas, Matthew, James is out of outfits,

Daddy is Simon, Judas, and the bear said, "Moo!"

He has called us, too. He has called us, too!

We are his disciples. I am one and you.

He has called us, too. He has called us, too!

We are his disciples. We, his work, must do!"