We now interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

This line keeps ringing through my head when I consider our progress on our Alphabet Scriptures.

The letter "A" went so well. Natalie still points out A's everywhere we go and I find that the verse pops into my head at just the right moments! (A gentle answer turns anger away. Proverbs 15:1- Even if she didn't completely learn the Scripture, at least she'll have a Mommy who did!)

Right after we finished the letter A, however, we found a house to rent. A complete blessing, but a big hiccup in our Alphabet Scriptures progress!

Well, we are now settled and I was going to start with the letter B this week. But then I realized that Thursday is December 1st. 

We now interrupt your regularly schedule program for...CHRISTMAS! 

Another wonderful and blessed interruption. Christmas is such a wonderful season! When else does nearly every store blast music worshipping our Savior? When else do people decorate their yards with a baby Jesus? The opportunities to share Jesus are endless this time of year! I hope to capitalize on these opportuinities with Natalie, but I know that my human nature will probably get in the way and we'll speed through this season with little purpose. Enter a little planning and intention...

So we will be holding off on our Alphabet Scriptures until January and will be attempting to do activities based around an Advent calendar (which is still in the needs-to-be-made category.) Today is my planning day (which I decided to use as an excuse to stay in my pjs today) and hopefully by Thursday we will have 25 days of Christmas centered activities, stories, and verses to learn. 

My desire is to keep it very simple. Some days will just have a card in them with a family activity that we plan to do no matter what (like getting a Christmas tree.) Some days may just have a piece of candy in them. But hopefully most days will have an activity for us to do together to learn more about Jesus, the Christmas story, and the meaning behind some of our traditions. I also hope to pick one or two verses that we'll work on learning all month. I'd also like to do one or two activities where she can participate in giving to others and learn about generosity. This may just be goodies to our neighbors or money for the Salvation Army bell-ringers.

All prayers for creativity (or lucky Google searches) are appreciated today! =)

And Merry Christmas to all!

Oh, and here's a great website I found. I plan on using it to get started:
The Activity Mom: 2011Activity Advent Countdown

Time Capsule Tuesday-Wheeeeee

Thank goodness for Daddies! Even though I remember doing all sorts of things like this as a kid, I still don't think I could get past the mommy-heart-attack enough to have been the first to try it with her. At least not at 2.

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Okay so this is where a future adorable video will be. Unfortunately, our super smart Apple computer apparently doesn't like our Sony videocamera...so until we figure out what we need to do to convert our file types into something Apple likes- here's some snapshots of the evening. They don't compare to seeing what was actually happening, but at least you get some of the joy of the evening. Keith was pushing Natalie on the swing downstairs. She was going so high (from wall to wall!) and LOVING it!

We all had so much fun!

A time for everything...

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...Ecclesiastes 3:1

As a kid, I always thought it was weird when adults talked about seasons in life. 

Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer- okay. But seasons of life? What on earth did that mean?

Now here I am as an adult and the same phrases are passing through my lips- "Yes, everything is going great...it's been a very busy season in life."

Busy it has been. Keith and I have been looking for a rental house for some time now. (Translation: obsessively looking on Craigslist for over a year.) It finally paid of as we found a great house to rent in a great neighborhood. We found it right as September was ending, got the keys mid-October to clean and paint (and I mean CLEAN and PAINT!), and moved in just before November began. We are finally settled in, mostly unpacked, and even have some decorations up. Yeah!

Now we can finally relax...just in time for the Holiday season! Ha.