It Never Gets Old

I have posted several times about our flower field here in The Grove, well guess what?! All this spring like weather has brought our field back to it's full blooming beauty!! Lylah and I happened upon it today while walking to the "big huge" playground. Needless to say we went on over. Now I think I need to give you a back story, the year we were trying to get pregnant I went to the field alone once (I would always go with my neighbors back then) and just cried hoping to one day make this a tradition with my own children. So needless to say, after three years of sharing the field with Lylah it never does get old!!! It may just get sweeter!! Today she ran around going to different "bunches" of flowers. She kept saying "isn't this a wonderful flower field". We even took time to pray and thank Jesus for our flower field. We laid in the grass together pretending to sleep while she held onto her 4 little flowers the whole time. I was even able to get a few sweet pictures with my phone (we'll have to go back with the real camera).

It did occur to me on the way home that last year when I posted about our time in the flower field I was excited about the possibility of taking pictures of two sweeties this year. Obviously that was not God's plan for us which got me a little upset on the way home, but I was reminded that His ways are perfect so Lylah and I just started singing praises for His beautiful creation instead. Of course we would appreciate your prayers that Lydia would be home for next years trip to "our wonderful flower field".

Flower girl fun

Last month Lylah got to be the flower girl in Nathan's cousins wedding. I'm not going to lie, when we first accepted this role I was a little nervous. Lylah tends to take a while to really warm up to a crowd or a new situation. This would fall into both. The days leading up to the wedding we really talked it up. She was so excited!! Her excitement kept building as we got the dress and then the shoes!! She kept telling everyone about "her wedding dress".

The night of the rehearsal Lylah was like a different little girl!! She was talking to everyone and loving her spot light!!

Ashton and Jarod gave her a sweet little doll baby as a gift Friday night. She toted it around the whole weekend!!!

The day of the wedding was so sweet!! Lylah was such a big girl!! I think one reason it went so well was because she really hit it off with Ben, the ring bearer. I wish I could explain how much fun they had!! They both just played and played in between pictures the whole afternoon!!! They were playing with his Cars toys and they kept getting further and further away. When I went to check on them Ben said, "I'm 5, I can protect her." They didn't want to do anything apart! So stinkin' sweet!!!!!

After Lylah did her job at the wedding (she actually rang a little bell), she got to come back and sit with me. I just knew we would have to leave the wedding service. I was wrong again!!! We sat next to Ben and his mom. He shared his gummies with Lylah!! Little did he know, that is apparently the way to her heart. At one point during the service she reached over and patted his neck, then gave him a little kiss on the cheek!!! After the service there were more pictures. She took time to give her main man a kiss too!

The reception was by far Lylah's favorite part!! After the dinner Ben came to find her so they could dance, and boy did they dance!!! At one point there was a whole circle of people around them clapping!!! Seriously, my daughter used to be shy!!!?? Nathan kept asking her to dance and she kept saying "no daddy, you go over there". I think she danced with everyone except for us!!! It was so sweet though watching every moment and thinking how much Lylah has grown up!!!

We ended up leaving the reception after 10:00 and Lylah still cried because she wanted to stay!!! She still asks about Ben at least every couple of days and talks about Ashton and Jarod's wedding and how she wants to have a wedding when she gets bigger. I think she enjoyed the weekend, and so did we!!!

There is "snow" weather like KY weather

We had our first snowy day in the area last week which worked out perfectly with our snowy learning time then this week we started off the week with 60 degrees and thunderstorms!! Oh Kentucky weather you have a way of changing the way one understands seasons!

Seriously though. We just kept moving right along with our winter topic and have been having big fun with it. We will continue this with some polar bear and penguin stuff coming up and probably some more snow and snowman stuff too. Here is a quick look at what we've done so far.

I can't believe we haven't done this before as it was one of my go to's when I was teaching in a public school classroom. First my lil lady painted a snowy scene with shaving cream and then we just had fun exploring it some more. Every once in a while I would draw a shape or make a letter in it, but mostly she just had fun! By the way, while we were doing this it actually started snowing! Just flurries, but it was still sort of magical ;)

We painted with ice which was really fun, but really messy!! Next time I won't be lazy and will go upstairs and get some popsicle sticks to make it less mess :)

It wouldn't be winter in KY without a random almost 60 degree day looking for interesting rocks at the lake and then some smiley swing time!

We had snowman ice cream sundaes.

We also made egg carton snowmen. Lylah likes these so much that we had to make two!! And I couldn't pass up the sweet footprint snowman!!

One morning Nathan was home and I needed to run to town. There were a few activities that we hadn't gotten to so daddy filled in as my sub!!! They made this sweet toilet paper snowman!!!

That same night it snowed!!! So the next morning we went out for some super cold snowy fun!!

Lylah thought that Ezra needed to be cozy so she covered her up and read her "A Snowy Day"!

The best way to play in the snow....in a sensory bin!!!!

A few short days later, the snow was melted and it was 60 degrees and stormy!! That didn't stop us from doing a counting buttons on a snowman activity!!

And building an indoor snowman! Lylah LOVED it!!! She just kept giving it one more hug all during lunch!!

And we finished tonight with some snowman milkshakes!! Yummmmy!!

We also have been doing some letter, math, and Bible activities but I shall blog about that later :)

Thank You Pinterest for helping me get organized (a bit)!

I've been trying to organize and get rid of some clutter this new year. Enter pinterest! Such a useful little tool for someone like me!!! Here are a few projects I've been up to!!

Cleaning and Menu Planning dry erase.

Remote control caddy.

And my favorite, a mail sorter made out of a cereal box!!! Yay for working on projects I pin!!!

Reflecting back and looking forward

This New Year has been the strangest that I can remember. The celebration was a ball; spent with good friends and yummy food, but I've just been funky really. I wish I could explain it, but it really all boils down to trying to find happiness in people and circumstances instead of finding joy in Christ. I can thank a wonderful Wednesday night sermon for that reminder. Anyway, with that being said, I finally feel that I can usher in the new year in my heart as well as reflect on 2011. If my memory served me better I could give you a month by month play by play, but alas I am not a good memory keeper so an overview will have to do. :).

We began the year with accepting the call to expand our family through adoption. That took us on a journey of watching God provide in some pretty amazing ways through fundraisers, private donations, and even one family supporting our adoption monthly. Wow-what a precious thing to watch the hand of God!!!

Other memories from the winter of 2011. We played in lots of snow!

With the spring came making the decision to leave my teaching career official by telling my precious assistant. Later, the day before my 30th birthday, I let my principal and super attendant know. I love the kiddo's and parents at Cherry and am able to keep up with many of them on facebook, but every single day since the end of May I have been thankful for the step of faith we made in our decision for me to stay home. Not only do I get to teach and train our lil lady, but we have also seen God provide again and again just like He promises.

We said "see ya later" to some of our very best friends a they made the journey to Swaziland. We of course continue to miss them tons, but are enjoying our pen pal correspondence as well as our skype and phone calls!

Nathan tried out for the fire department during the summer and got put on the future hire list. That basically means that the door has not been closed on that possibility, so we continue to pray for God's will.

We took two vacations in July. One to Gatlinburg and one to Mississippi. Lylah got to see the ocean for the first time and love it!

We ended our vacations and went straight into party mode a our lil lady turned 2!!

The fall brought the beginning of tot school as well as an opportunity to share about sensory bins with our MOPS group. Fall also brought new friendships and a bad case of Vertigo for Nathan.

And like most of you we ended the year by celebrating Thanksgiving and cherishing the season of our Savior's birth.

So as we look forward to 2012 we know it will be like every other year as far as having peeks and valleys, but we are thankful that we will not go alone as Christ has gone before us.

We would appreciate your continued prayers concerning our adoption. Things are at least moving again. We are praying that we will not only accept a referral for our sweet Lydia some time this year, but also brig her home. Please pray that the after referral wait time speeds up. Right now they are saying 10-15 months after the referral. God's timing is perfect, but we also know that He is bigger than that time frame. Also pray that we will wait well for His perfect timing especially if it is not this year.

One thing that 2011 has taught us is that God is faithful so we will choose to praise Him for His faithfulness in 2012 whatever that ends up looking like.

Advent

Last year we started a tradition of being intentional not only with a family advent devotion, but also with doing some fun activities together during the season. For our devotion this year we used two things. First we went through "What God Wants For Christmas" which a friend gave to us. We LOVED it!!!! We were going to just do it again and again, but then several people recommended an ebook called "Truth in the Tinsel". We loved it too!! Check them both out next year if your kiddo's fall into the 2-7 age range. I think even older kids would enjoy these too! Here are a few pictures from out different activities.

Light up BG

Checking out the cabin during KY Christmas at WKU.

Kung "Who Fanda" at the Opryland hotel.

Gingerbread Nativity

Family game night.

Making "footmade" Christmas cards.

Making cookies

A Jesus birthday party with friends.

Christmas in Indy and meeting our sweet new cousin/nephew!

We also watched "The Very First Noel" and Veggie Tales "The Little Drummer Boy". We visited a local live nativity that is by far the best ever! We visited for the first time last year and loved it so much we couldn't wait to go back this year! We walked around our neighborhood and looked at lights one night and one night we enjoyed some hot chocolate :)

We ended our advent celebration with a birthday party breakfast! Complete with decorations, singing and birthday cake pancakes!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Handmade Christmas

This year there were lots of handmade goodies given by the Mattingly's. I guess it was partly because our budget is a little tight this year, partly to keep things more simple, and partly because crafting is just fun. Anyway, here is what we made.

Love how this little dolly turned out!! Soooo easy too!!

There were of course two of these :). I didn't even manage to get a picture of my sweet mama wearing them :(

This was before I put the waistband on it. It is a toddler tool-belt for my little builder!! Of course she wouldn't try it on for me :(. I'm sure she will love it eventually though!

Now this is what I loved the most!!! Nathan made the seat using materials he already had. I made the chandelier and banners also out of materials I had on hand. The book shelves are actually rain gutters and were the only things purchased!! What a fun place for our lil lady (who loves books) to sit and read to her friends!!!!

I also made a roll out kitchen mat for a very special lil lady in Swaziland and a couple of phone charger pockets, but I didn't manage to get a picture of those either :(. Anyway, it was super fun to try a few new projects and even more fun to give them away!!!!