On Saturday, we hung around the house and dyed some eggs in the afternoon.

On Sunday morning, after the kids had looked through their Easter baskets and had an Easter egg hunt, we headed to church. The boys sang in the children’s choir and did an excellent job.

Camden kept insisting that he wasn’t tired, but he kept yawning…all day.

Tags: Easter

I have been wanting to incorporate Advent into our family for a couple of years, but have never made it happen.

This year I was motivated by this muffin tin advent calendar that Meredith made.  Lack of time had me creating something a little more simple for this year.  Hopefully next year I can start sooner and create something that will last from year to year.

I made a simple envelope from scrapbook paper and free-handed a tree and stars to glue on. My husband and I then decided on 24 things to do over the course of the month.  There are a few days that are very busy for our family, so those days we will have a verse to read instead of an activity.  The kids were watching me put the calendar together this weekend and are anxious to start.

We are also reading Looking Forward to the Nativity as a family each night.

Tags: Advent calendar

Related posts:
He is the Gift
Snowflakes from Heaven

Tags: Festival of Trees, The Baby Fold, Christmas

The weekend before Easter, our kids participated in our church’s Easter egg hunt. Besides hunting for eggs, the kids also got treat bags before they left, which resulted in a…sugar high.

In our house, we put more toys and less candy in their Easter baskets.  

When the boys woke up on Easter,  they ran downstairs to find their baskets on the kitchen table.  They waited for my husband and I to get up and then dug into them to find all their goodies.  They sure were excited by the simple things we got for them.  Emma slept in, so she got help from her brothers to discover hers.

We went to my in-laws for a great Easter dinner.  I made a carrot cake for dessert, that was very yummy.  

The picture of the all three kids is the best we could.  Poor Emma had been running a fever since Saturday afternoon and was not feeling well all day, but she was a trooper.

Tags: Easter

Last Friday, I got the chance to head to the Hearts at Home national conference for the third year in a row.  My hubby stayed home with the kids, so that I could get some mommy time and rejuvinate.  I got to go to some incredible workshops, hear some awesome speakers and musical acts.  Go Fish is the 3 man group that entertained us this year.  They were incredible and my kids are enjoying the CD’s that I bought for them.

My favorite workshop this year was, Setting a Paradigm for Purity.  The founder of Generations of Virtue, Julie Hiramine, was the speaker.  It was an excellent workshop and I came away with so much information on how to teach our children about purity.  I also bought several books at the resource center that I am eager to start reading.

I had a great time and am already looking forward to next year.  My friend, Kara, has a good post about her experience that day (including pictures).

Tags: Hearts at Home, Generations of Virtue, Go Fish

The button below links directly to all of the great items that are being sold on Etsy to raise funds for The Cora Playground.

Tags: Cora Paige

The boys and I did one of our annual Christmas Eve day traditions – decorating cookies for Santa.

They had fun decorating their plates of cookies and then got to eat one.  The best part of cookie decorating.

After going to our church Christmas Eve service, we do another tradition – looking at Christmas lights.  After we got home, the kids put out the cookies and milk for Santa.  They also got to put on their new Christmas pajamas and we then read The Night Before Christmas.  After that the kids were out like a light.  

In our family, no gifts go under the tree until after the kids are in bed on Christmas Eve.  Mostly, because of the toddler who would do too much damage.  Larry and I then get to do our favorite tradition – watching Christmas Vacation.  We still laugh everytime we watch this movie.

Christmas morning did not disappoint for the kids.  They were so excited for their presents.

After breakfast and some playtime with our new toys, we headed to the grandparents for more Christmas fun and dinner. We then got home to play some more and then crashed into bed.

Tags: Christmas, cookie decorating, holidays, family life, holiday traditions

The trees are auctioned off and all of the proceeds go to The Baby Fold, a great organization in our community.  Besides the decorated trees, there is a gingerbread village, celebrity trees, a cookie shop and a gift shop.  The highlight for the kids is the Jingle Bell Junction.  They have a lot of different activities for the kids to participate in and a train the kids can ride.

I got to go with both of my boys on their school field trips and then we went as a family on Friday night.  Caleb and Camden had to show Larry all of the things they had seen the day before.  We had a lot of fun and it is a definitely a highlight for our family.

Tags: Festival of Trees, The Baby Fold, Christmas, He is the Gift

The winner of the book, My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions, is Lanie from Creations by Lanie.  Be sure and check out her cute Etsy shop.  Thanks to everyone for entering my giveaway.

Tags: Bloggy Giveaway, children’s devotionals, My Big Book of 5 Minute Devotions, God’s creation

It’s that time again and I am so excited about my giveaway.  Back in March, when I went to the Hearts at Home Conference, I picked up a great children’s devotional.  My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions is one of the best devotionals for children I have found.  My 5 year old, Caleb, absolutely loved this book.  Even when we were in the middle of another book, he would request that we read this book instead.

This book has different devotionals based on God’s creations and character building lessons.  There are approximately 40 devotionals that give some facts about an animal and then a character building lesson to learn.  Some of the lessons are about accepting others, obeying your parents and being a good friend. This book also has excellent illustrations and is very engaging for children.

We are actually going to begin reading this book again with Caleb and including our 3 year old, Camden, as well. We feel the lessons are timeless and can not be repeated enough to our children.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment with a way to get in contact with you.  I will be ending the giveaway on Friday, October 31.

Head on over to Bloggy Giveaways for more great giveaways.

Tags: Bloggy Giveaway, children’s devotionals, My Big Book of 5 Minute Devotions, God’s creation