We had an interesting Thanksgiving. Mya and Dan had the flu on Wednesday and I got the flu Wednesday night. Thankfully the baby stayed healthy. We were able to go to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night with Dan's family. We were grateful to get out of the house and enjoy a wonderful meal, even though we didn't eat a lot. Mya played with her cousins and had a blast while Sara enjoyed being loved on by family members. I did a little bit of shopping today (Friday) and I can officially say that I am done Christmas shopping! Yipee! Everything is wrapped and ready to go and now I have to be patient and wait for Christmas to come. I have so many fond memories of christmas from when I was little that I really look forward to sharing christmas with my kids and Dan every year. We just heard a really fun idea for our family christmas presents. Why not have three presents for each family member to resemble gold, frankincense and myrrh? That way we only have to buy three presents each and we can focus on the christmas story on christmas morning. We love this idea so we are trying it out this year. It is relief to me to buy fewer presents and this way everyone will have the same amount of presents in the family.

Here are a few updated pictures of the kids.

4 Years and Counting

I recently joined the world of Facebook and my friend Amber, from California, posted a picture that she took at our wedding. It was fun to see an older picture and remember our wedding day. What an amazing day that was!

Home Schooling Update

We have now been having preschool at our house for two months and the kids are loving it. I teach two two year olds, an almost three year old, and a four year old. It is so interesting to see the difference in ages and what they are able to do developmentally according to their age. It has been eye opening for me to see how on fire they are to learn their monthly bible verse and hear the daily bible story. They get so excited when I bring out the kids bible. What has impressed me the most is hearing Mya sing a whole song from preschool that I never knew she picked up on. Just the other day in the car she was singing the "clean up" song and I was blown away by her vocabulary. I have learned that she may act like she isn't paying attention to me, but she really is comprehending things. We have established a predictable routine that the kids know by heart. It is funny to watch them during play time because every once in a while they will play teacher and go through my routine. I am just so happy that God has given me the desire and drive to home school these precious children. They have made my life richer.

Fall Fun

The girls were able to play in the leaves today while Dan raked the leaves. I enjoyed watching them from the window. They had so much fun!

I also wanted to share the fact that both of my girls are exceptionally gifted. They can read just in case you didn't know that.

Home is Where the Heart Is

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever? Sara recently found out that she has a tongue so she likes to stick it out a lot. This picture just made me think about how much I love my home, including the family that lives in it. Our home is so homey and I am grateful for that. Today I put up our christmas tree so I could surprise Dan when he got home from work. The best part was when the girls work up from their naps and came out to see the tree. They were in awe. And then when Dan got home he had a really big smile on his face when he saw what I did. It is fun to start reflecting on why we celebrate christmas. It is also exciting to know that we get to teach our kids all about Jesus and his birth. How fun!

On a different note, please pray for an upcoming presentation that I will be doing. I have an opportunity to present to elementary teachers about autism. At first I was really nervous about this because I have been out of the education field for a couple years. I also left the field feeling burnt out and a failure because I had tough cases and not as much success during my last year of teaching. I put a lot of pressure on myself and had high expectations that I wasn't able to meet. However, working on putting this presentation together has given me the confidence to know that I have a lot of knowledge about autism. I am excited to share this information and I am having a blast putting the presentation together. Praise God for this opportunity!

The Fashion Experts

As I am getting older, I find that I need to look to the young ones for new fashion trends. Aparently I was very unaware of the fact that socks can now be worn on your hands. I might try this out tomorrow. I am worried about my hands getting hot and my feet getting cold, but I guess if it is trendy then I will do it. I want to be in style like these two girls.