Braces

Samuel got braces on Tuesday of this week.  It was a pretty bothersome deal as he said his cheeks hurt basically from the get go.  We gave it a day until we realized that indeed he had wires poking the inside of his cheeks.  Thankfully, we had wax to place over the wires until we could get him back in on Thursday to get them trimmed.  Poor kid had his wax fall off at school and he came out of school yesterday pinching and holding his cheeks out so that the wires wouldn't touch.  We felt bad.  All is good now and the drama has ceased, so everyone is happy.

Spring

Vibrant Colors. Sweet Aromas. Birds Singing. Radiant Sunshine. Longer Days. Open Windows....

Spring's Wonder of New Life...You are Welcomed! 

Emma's Stuffed Animals

If you receive our prayer letters you know that Emma shared recently about her stuffed animal making for friends at school.  It all began when a classmate of Samuel's was over at our house to play and he saw a couple of Emma's creations.  He was impressed apparently because the next day word spread and Samuel came home with letters for Emma with requests for stuffed animals.  Emma was flattered but at the same time a little overwhelmed by some of their detailed requests.  At the time, Emma did not even know the kids she was getting letters from.  Samuel was a good brother and passed notes back and forth and delivered the finished products.

After about her third request for a very detailed doll figure, she finally made photocopies of things she COULD make and asked them to choose from her list.  Her main inspiration and patterns come from the book, Socks Appeal.  Instead of choosing just one animal, they chose several each.  At least one boy brought her some socks for the projects. 

Emma is quite good with her little sewing machine and can pretty much do everything on her own.  Every now and then I have to step in to help her.  

Emma started making stuffed animals and clothes for her animals I think when she was just six years old using her imagination and a glue gun.

And since mom and dad don't always oblige her in buying yet another requested stuffed animal, she just makes them herself--which satisfies all of us.  Seriously this girl is a stuffed animal lover.  She has so many that we have resorted to storing them in a bean bag case which nicely accents her room, but keeps the animals from overrunning her room and collecting dust.

Here are some more of her recent creations using various techniques: wool felting (bunny), sewing kit (purple bear), yarn (pom-pom), self created pattern (peach and green "Luma"), and machine and hand sewing sock projects (brown bear, octopus, snake and mouse).

Order #1 that she made.  I forgot to take a picture of the owl she made for her second order.  I have to note as well, that her grandmas are most generous in keeping her well stocked with supplies.

Expander

For those who are curious about Samuel's expander (okay, maybe nobody), here is what it looks like:

They froze the wire so that it would contract in the shape of a "W".  Then slowly over the course of two months, the wire expands on it's own to it's original size, resulting in extra space on the upper jaw.  This is much different than what Luca had done where we had to turn his expander daily and achieved full expansion in three weeks.  In March, we will check Samuel's progress and start to prepare for braces.

Happy Birthday to Samuel

Our oldest son turns 11 years old today!   

Samuel is clearly in transition from childhood desires to more grown up interests.  His siblings are not too happy about that and are often frustrated that he won't join in their imaginary games.  Samuel prefers his imagination to be captured in books--a man after his dad's own heart.  His light is often on until 10:30 at night as he reads, with his latest book series being the Lord of the Rings.  He loves to share fun facts he finds from the book in the form of trivia questions, challenging his dad's Tolkien knowledge.  In the normal course of a days conversation he uses words that just aren't normal for an eleven year old's vocabulary.  What kid uses tertiary and archaic in a sentence?  When not stretching our vocabulary knowledge, you can often hear him speaking with lingo from Duck Dynasty.

Samuel is our very sensitive, sincere, intelligent and loving child.  He is also very timid outside of our family and does not desire to be the center of attention.  Girls are showing their interest in him at school and he comes home saying "I don't want to be popular!" He wanted to have a small party with just a few friends because too many people makes him nervous.  It was a our joy to host a party for him over the weekend with 5 of his classmates.  Some siblings of those classmates also came filling our house with 11 kids running up and down stairs, having an indoor Nerf gun fight and other chaotic games, that at times made me wonder if our house would come crashing down.  Samuel was very happy to have his friends over and we are so thankful how God has provided new friendships for him this year.

Today we celebrate his life as a family, enjoying cheesecake #2, presents and dinner out.  We love you so much, Samuel David!  Our family is blessed to have you in our lives.  May God continue to grow you into a man who loves and serves Him and others with all your heart!  We pray the gifts, talents and interests that He has given you will be used for His glory and to bless those around you.  You are one very special and always loved boy!

2013 in Books

Books Read:

Raising a Daughter After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George

The Church Planting Wife by Christine Hoover

What if Your Blessings Come Through Raindrops by Laura Story

Desperate: Hope for the Mom Who Needs to Breathe by Sarah Mae & Sally Clarkson

How to Really Love Your Child by D.Ross Campbell, M.D.

Gospel Wakefulnness by Jared C. Wilson

Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes by Shauna Niequist

Because He Love Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

The Chiveis Trilogy by Bryan M. Litfin

When Jesus Wept by Bodie and Brock Thoene

The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson

The Fiddler’s Green by A.S. Peterson

A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily P. Freeman

Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart At A Time by Jeremy Courtney

Currently Reading:

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright

Family Reads:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.

Current Family Reads:

The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers

The Story for Kids: Discover the Bible from Beginning to End

The Gospel Story Bible by Marty Machowski

December Happenings

Christmas 2013

We hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas in reflection and renewed awe of the greatest gift--Jesus!  We enjoyed Ann Voskamp's Advent devotional, The Greatest Gift, as we once again hung our Jesse Tree ornaments.  It was a month of high anticipation for us, especially the kids.  Celebrating with them just gets more fun every year. 

Like many of you, our December was full of activities, special events and family holiday traditions.  Upon our return from Madeira on December 1st our feet hit the ground running all the way up until Christmas.  Here is our month at a glance...   

Thanks to IKEA we made a gingerbread house.  Dad and Mamma constructed the house and the kids (mostly Emma) decorated.

On December 16, yours truly celebrated a birthday.  I still like to consider myself in the mid-thirties, but according to my insistent children I am now in my late-thirties, because anything over 5 you round up!  Someone please tell me 36 is still in the mid-range! ;)  It was a fun weekend of special treatment as my precious family both near and far showered their love upon me.  Jonathan made a fabulous cheesecake topped with pomegranate seeds, scoring big on taste and presentation!  Another year full of great blessings from my gracious Father--thank you!

A huge highlight was also our graduation party for our first Percorso Speranza (Journey to Hope) students.  This fall we spent over 50+ hours in the classroom with B&I working through the Jobs for Life material and Bible studies on reconciliation.  It was a great first run and we all received mutual blessing and encouragement through the experience.  We will continue to walk alongside this brother and sister pair as they continue on their journey to seeking employment and pursuing further education. For their graduation we invited several from the local charity we work with along with someone from social services and of course their family.  My colleague and I put together a fun and festive table spread for the event.

We also spent some time delivering food boxes to families in our community that are in need.  And then we made some treats for our neighbors.  There are six other houses in our complex and so we took a weekend to deliver the special packages to them.  We delivered 3 packages in 3 hours last Saturday.  Each house invited us in for a chat and offered us a snack and coffee.  Our gesture was unexpected but warmly received by all, and we were thankful for the time to get to know our neighbors better.

The city had another Christmas street fair and we attended with the purpose of being an encouragement and support to Ivana who was offering face painting.  Even though the boys were not thrilled about the idea of getting their faces painted, they came to understand that their willingness was a great encouragement to Ivana who is new to the whole venture of face painting.  She did a fantastic job and we hope our kids were good publicity for her that day.

Holiday feasting requires several days of preparation and so the kitchen was non-stop busy with sugar cookies, cakes, yeast rolls, egg nog, cider, cinnamon rolls and more...

Christmas morning in our new home...

And then the presents...

That pretty much covers our month of special events.  Throw into the mix a few doctor appointments, a 5th grade Christmas party lasting past 1AM and the usual rhythms of life and one can see how the month flew by as it did.  Now we are enjoying the final days of 2013 with some much needed relaxation!