Happy Birthday Daddy!

Just a few shots of Chris’ birthday party here at our house – Hudson and Anna helped decorate Daddy’s birthday cake and loved singing to him. Happy Birthday wonderful friend, Daddy, and husband!

 

 

tee-pee-pee-o

Did you know that Native Americans lived in a

tee-pee-pee-o?

Hudson has never seen Star Wars, but his buddies the Lehmans know all about it and are teaching him the subtleties of geek-speak.  And now, according to his preschool teacher (who was laughing as she told Daddy the story), Native Americans live in tee-pee-pee-os.  HA!

missionary crop-dusters and earth movers!

There is a nearby construction site and we took a bike riding field trip to the area today after lunch (cause it is a gorgeous fall day!).  We watched the earth movers push and pull the soil.  We saw dump trucks come in to the site nearly every 5 minutes to deposit more soil to be “moved”.  Hudson learned how to signal the dump trucks to honk their horns (which they did, cause he is so darned cute). 

But the coup de gras?  The little man got to “drive” an earth mover.  The grandfatherly gentleman noticed us having fun observing the site, and while there were no dump trucks around, he drove the earth mover over to us and asked Hudson if he would like to drive.  I think Hudson nearly exploded with excitement.

The nice gentleman lifted Hudson up onto the earth mover and into the seat (the tracks for the wheels were as tall as me) and he talked to Hudson a bit about the vehicle.  He asked Hudson if that is what he wanted to do when he was older, and bless Hudson, I think he said yes….I couldn’t quite tell. 

I say that because for as long as we can remember, Hudson has wanted to be a pilot.  And now, it isn’t just any pilot.  It is a missionary crop-duster pilot.  So you’d think that maybe he has not really an understanding of what that is.  Wrong – he does.  Ask him what it means and he says,

“A pilot that flies around the world telling people in different places about Jesus.”

I think he has the idea. :) 

CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP COATS!!!!

Old Navy is running a 50% off of all winter outerwear. That's a good deal.

But want an even better deal? How about a 75.00 coat for 26.25?

If you are an email recipient of Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic's deals, they recently sent out a promo for 30% off of all purchases. The topper is that not only do you get a great deal, but 5% of every sale until Sunday goes to selected charities (including FeedAmerica and the Lymphoma and Leukemia Foundation.)

Find someone that gets these promos, and they are allowed to "invite you" to give charitably in the next four days. (If you know my personal email address, email me, and I'll share with you!)

Here's how the deal works:

Ticket price: 75.00
50% off: 37.50
30% off of that: 26.25

Happy "keep your family" warm shopping!

thankful feathered turkey

I figured I’d share a good idea.  Cuz, you know, when you’re a Mama, an in-the-trenches-and-I-have-Mama-brain Mommy, sometimes those ideas help you out.  And this idea came to me one night while I was brainstorming another project for my artsy-craft luvin’ kids.  (It kinda helps that Mommy likes to do this stuff too.)

I was trying to come up with an idea that would work on the idea of “thankfulness”.  How do you begin to teach this to a 4 & 2 year old?  We firmly believe that instilling thankfulness and appreciation for things God has given us is a part of worship….and yes, even preschoolers and toddlers can worship God in this way.

So, we made a Thankful Feathered Turkey.  You need to have:

• large styrofoam ball
• ribbon
• craft glue
• heavy paper traced with “feathers”
• popsicle-type sticks
• decoration stuff (glitter, stickers, markers, glue, etc.)
• google eyes
• paper bag

First – spray painted our styrofoam ball.  Not necessary, but we happened to have some fun gold metallic paint.

2 – Gave the kiddos some feathers to begin decorating.  I didn’t cut them out, I let them do that after they dried.  While they did this, I started on the turkey body.

 

3 – Measure ribbon to cover majority of stick.  Double it over the end of the stick.  Place glue on both sides of the stick and fold ribbon over.

4 – make some fun feet…cut four of them.  Place glue along bottom edge and then around outer edges.  Place together over end of “ribboned” leg.  Pinch together and fold up.

 

5 – stick a bit of craft glue on the wooden ends of the legs.  Stick into the turkey so he “sits”.

 

6 – Crumple up a bit of paper bag and place it on the end of a stick.  Attach with tape.  Cover the crumpled bag and smooth around to create the turkey head.  Then tape it around the stick. 7 – Use the ribbon to wrap the top of the “neck” and put craft glue all around the stick as wrapping.

8 – Glue the google eyes on the turkey.  Cut out a square and fold it in half to make a triangle.  Glue onto the turkey head and stick it into the body.

 

And that’s your turkey.

Now, every night when we sit down together at dinner (or at breakfast because Hudson just can’t wait) we add a feather of something we are thankful for.  And it’s working!  He and Anna are coming up with some pretty awesome things!  Here’s what we have so far:

(doggie and teddy)  (Car)  (freedom) (Grandmom, Mom-Mom and Poppy) (food we eat)

I can’t wait to see what will come tomorrow!

this kid :o)

This kid cracks me up.  Really.  Thanking God for a little boy full of spunk and energy and personality is a treasure.  And why share this today, you ask?  Well, because of something he said today.  His vocabulary and way with words make us smile – all day….even between those moments.  Yes, you all know “those”….

Today, Hudson had the chance to spend an afternoon with a friend.  He was delighted.  As we were recounting the afternoon, our conversation went as follows:

H: We played outside and I got to play a computer game.  And we built a zoo. (Sidenote:  we went to a zoo yesterday to enjoy the beautiful day, and we’ve been building a lot of zoos :))

M:  Cool, bubba.  What did you do outside?

H: We played cars and fill-up station.

M:  Did you play on the playset?

H:  Mommy, sadly we did not.

M:  (insert my giggle)  Sadly you did not?

H:  No, sadly we did not play on the playset.

And now you all have a little insight into my daily doses of laughter.  Thank the Lord for humor, laughter, smiles and joy!

World Series, Game 4

    Chris and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Game 4 of the World Series this past week.  Long story short, he won a lottery bid that gave him the chance to purchase tickets to the game.  We were able to score some standing room only tickets.  In Citizen’s Bank Park, there are no bad seats, nor are S.R.O. tickets while standing!  We had a bar to lean on and a great view of the field.

We got to the game not long after the gates opened, as my super-fan husband wanted to make sure we were able to stake our claim of standing room only area (which we were glad we did!).  We had plenty of time to watch the Phils warm up….Here is a shot of Shane Victorino during batting practice.

And here are Pedro and JA Happ chatting it up in the outfield.

The Phils weren’t able to pull out a win for us, but we sure had a grand time anyway.  I felt so lucky to be there – the crowd, the atmosphere, the noise!  And, well, thanks to the very inebriated fans nearby (they had been at the Eagles game and then came to the WS!), I now have a new insight into the peculiar vernacular and vocabulary of the serious fan…well, serious fans who enjoy many beers and hot dogs.

I’m not kidding.  The guys next to us said the started tailgating at 9 am and were estimating that they had each already eaten 7 hot dogs during the day and during the WS game alone, they each had 6-8 servings of bread in a can.       

We certainly laughed and enjoyed the game – even though Chris almost got kicked out of the park when blamed for tossing peanuts and hot dog bits at Yankee fans (I think he wishes he could have after some of there bold comments!)…but our new buddies took care of the one sided food fight for him.  And my one new buddy took a liking to protecting me and my personal space from anyone else that tried to infringe upon it – which I was thankful for! 

It was a super night – and memory that makes me gleam when I think about the experience – a great night, at an awesome venue, with an even better date.

rewind AZ recap

This is the rest of our AZ trip in a pictorial directory :)  It would take a lllooonnngg time to write about it all, so here are a few of our favorite pictures from the second half of our visit – this is when we started to feel better! Anna and Mommy at the Queen Creek Olive Mill – We loved all the samples!

Schnepf’s farm festival with Merle and Carmen.

Carmen and Hugs on the airplanes…Hudson rode this ride 2 years ago and still didn’t want to get off it.  Some things don’t change!

Havin’ a ride on Merle’s shoulders!

Hudson didn’t like that his Arizona room didn’t have pictures on the walls anymore, so he made sure to decorate! :)

Hugs and his favorite dog ever – Pirate.

The kiddos and their favorite Merle ever :o)

Got to have lunch with some girlfriends that I taught with in Gilbert….we had a blast at Joe’s!

One of our favorite stops – a desert staple (no, not a dessert staple, I said desert)…Jamba Juice!

Hudson tellin’ a tall tale to Grammy Lyn at our favorite mexican restaraunt….Macayo’s.

 

Hudson and Anna really miss time with their Grammy Lyn, and they were happy to get some quality moments with her.  She even babysat one night so Mommy and Daddy could run some errands!

At the Wat’s pool….

The great staff of GCCC back together, and goofin’ off as usual…

T and Me.

We had a fantastic trip and were so blessed to get to spend time with people that love us as we are.  And we love them as they are.  Already looking forward to the times when we can be together again!