Joyful Heart

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!!

From your beautiful 9 year old…
Thank you for giving the best hugs ever!
Thank you for taking me out to lunch.
Thank you for spending time with me.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for doing morning devotions with me.
Thank you for praying for me.

From your lovely 7 year old…
Thank you for all the things you do!
Thank you for playing with us.
Thank you for giving hugs and kisses.
Thank you for teaching me to ride my bike.

From your handsome 5 year old…
Thank you for being my daddy – because I love you!
Thank you for giving me hugs.

From your energetic 3 year old…
Thank you for being my daddy.
Thank you for playing trains and Super Why with me.
Thank you for reading to me.

From your adorable 1 year old… (Well, what we thought he might say =) )
Thank you for playing trains and ‘cooking’ with me.
Thank you for giving me food.
Thank you for encouraging me to walk.

From your bride…
Thank you for your love and dedication to our family.
Thank you for being an example of grace to the children and for pointing all of us to our Heavenly Father.

We love you!!!!

I snapped this photo as two of our girls were joyfully singing parts of ‘Christ is Risen’ after they retold the Easter story with the felt pieces.  Priceless!

portions of ‘Christ is Risen’ by Matt Maher…
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death.
Come awake. Come awake.  Come and rise up from the grave.
Christ is risen from the dead.  We are one with Him again.
Come awake. Come awake.  Come and rise up from the grave.

Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh hell, where is your victory?
Oh church!  Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead.  He’s alive! He’s alive!

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Jesus said to her,
“I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 
and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26)

Happy Easter!

and WEAR it, too!

We recently celebrated the first birthday of our fifth little one.  We have given each of our children a ‘smash’ cake on their first birthday.  They do more playing than eating and it is always fun to watch, especially when they reach out their sweet, caked hands to share some with you =)  When our fifth little guy was presented with his cake, the older kids started calling it his ‘pound’ cake – and rightly so.  He dug in with both hands and had cake smeared along both of his arms before we whisked him away for a bath! 

And, since a mother has a right to some reminiscing, here are our other kids with their ‘smash’ cakes for a comparison of messiness…

Our first child daintily pecked away at bits of her cake.

Our second child held the record for messiest and best demolition of her cake (until her 2nd baby brother came along)!

Surprisingly, our first boy didn’t dig in as we thought he might.

And, our fourth little one was fairly neat as well – but she had fun!

Cake, anyone?

We now have three young readers in our house! 
Scenes, like the one below, are becoming more common. 

So, how did we get here?

Lots of listening to stories being read – by mom, dad, grandmas, and especially older siblings…

Playing ABC games, doing letter sorts, and making letter art for upper and lowercase letter recognition and matching…

Playing sound games for matching letters to sounds, finding the same sounds, etc.

Enjoying rhyming/word family mini books and games and practice at building words…
    

Reading sight words in the context of predictable readers…

Practicing and reading sight words out of context in a fun way…

Beginning workbooks for letters, sounds, rhyming, word reading, and writing out of context…

Lots of easy reading practice…with leveled phonics readers…
   

Now, our son is excitedly reading anything he can- from leveled readers at the library, more challenging books from our bookshelves, or even reading aloud a few verses from Scripture with the family!

He has a sense of pride and success!

Our three readers have all made this progression, just at their own pace.  I love the excitement as the world of books and the joy of reading are opened up for each child!

This just in…

It may just be me, but doesn’t she sound like a little news reporter?

Our family has been trying to memorize Luke 2:1-20 this Christmas season.  It was intended to be just for my husband and I with the oldest three kids.  However, our 2 1/2 year old has often been present while we are reciting it and has quickly caught on to the words.  (Well, most of them.)  I am pleasantly surprised each day at how much the littlest lives in our home are able to learn and process in their hearts and minds.

Our little one only attempted the first 11 verses and wasn’t able to say all of the words, so here is Luke 2:1-20 (NIV, 1984 version) in its entirety…
(Free printables to use with the verses can be found here.)

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were
just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!  The Savior has come!