Lauren's Christmas present

This year for Lauren's Christmas present we took her to get her ears pierced! She has been talking about it for awhile, but we wanted to make sure that she was ready not only to have it done, but also for the responsibility of taking care of them. I wanted her to be the one to clean them 3 times a day for the first 6 weeks! For a long time she really had a fear of shots, needles, blood work etc...but she has been getting allergy shots since August (1 in each arm-1-2 times a week) and handling it like a champ! Sooo we figured she could handle this. Greg and I went and checked everything out ahead of time. On Christmas we gave her a certificate that I had made up that said she was getting her ears pierced. She was so excited. Claires has a video online that you watch about the whole process and the aftercare, so we watched that. I made arrangements for the boys and then then a few days later Greg and I took her to get them done. The bottom picture is her ears one last time without earrings. Notice the red on her cheek...Greg had kissed her allover her ears, so he could get some pre earring kisses in. His whiskers kind of scratched up her face. We went straight to Claire's, she picked out the cutest little pink (of course) flowers, got in the chair and had a smile on almost the whole time. She barely even flinched when the girl did it! We were so proud of her! Afterwards she asked for hot chocolate from Starbucks, so of course we didn't complain! She has been taking care of them all by herself and so far everything is going well!

Happy New Year thoughts...

Last night the kids and I sat down on my bed and talked about this last year and about the new year to come. I wanted to journal some of their thoughts. I am not going to include them all, because some of them were really personal to Lauren, but I will share some sweet and funny ones.

First I asked the kids what events they really enjoyed from 2008.

Joshua- sitting around the Christmas tree and loving (so sweet)
Brennan- playing with toys, going to cabin, playing with Mommy
Lauren-getting ears pierced (pictures to follow)

Next-what didn't you enjoy about 2008?

All-when Nana died
Brennan-doing the trash cans (his job is to bring all the trash cans from around the house to the main one in the kitchen) and discpline (at least he's honest)

What things do you want to accomplish this year and what character qualities do you want to work on this year?

J-"Put a soft boiled egg on my egg cup (it is this little egg holder he got from a Christmas cracker), self control and I want to teach Christians how they can hear God in their life". ( I made him repeat this one-I almost cried when I heard this). He told me recently that now that he is getting bigger ears he can hear Jesus talking to him more. He said usually he hears him early in the morning, but it is actually not through his ears, but Jesus talks to him through his heart. Soooo precious.

B-"Gentleness, not hitting people, not screaming, not tearing people down and only building others up" (These are his exact words-HE IS LISTENING!!)

I pray that I would give the Lord my full attention this year and that my eyes would stay fixed on Him. If you are listening to the music I have on the blog, the first song to play is called "Full Attention" by Jeremy Riddle. The words of this song are my prayer.

Christmas Fun

This Christmas season has been so much fun now that Brennan is a little older and can really participate in more of the activities we do. I am going to list the pics from top to bottom.

1. Lauren playing Christmas Carols on any piano she can get her hands on (this one is my aunt's).

2. Bundled up at Zoolights- a must see if you haven't ever done it before.

3. Brennan playing with Christmas tree ornaments..his version of decorating the tree

4. Lauren and Joshua happy to be able to climb the ladder to decorate the tree. Our tree isn't really that tall-we just have it up on a chest.

5. Joshua exploring to see how much water the tree needs-plus he likes to be in trees!

6. Annual Christmas Carolling Crew (minus my sis's family-they had to go home early). These are my 1st cousins.

7. Brennan helping to make banana nut bread (I know the bananas look nasty-they were frozen..it sure does taste good though)

8. Brennan in awe of the family's train set up in their back yard. It was amazing! Half of his back yard was dedicated to the train exhibit. The kids loved it!

9. Lauren playing Hark the Herald Angels sing at our family talent night at Auntie's house. Make sure to stop music at the bottom of the blog so you can hear her!