Christmas Traditions

Christmas is a special time of year for most, but it is extra special for us because our firstborn, Emori, was born on Christmas Day. She LOVES this time of year, and so do her sisters. Each year we drive around looking a Christmas lights on a weekly basis, and we visit "The Lewis'" several times. We made our first of many trips on Saturday to the Lewis'.

Kennedi (now 2 yrs) really enjoyed it...she was so funny. She sang "Oh, Christmas Tree" to the top of her little lungs through the entire first half of the lighted walk.
My favorite thing that she says these days (although it has nothing to do with Christmas) is, "Oopie, Days". I assume she's trying to say "Oopsie Daisy"--don't know where she got that from, I don't think we say, but she sure does--a lot:)

I personally love celebrating Advent with our children as well. Last night we started our Advent readings of Yolanda Brown's book. We have tea-light candles that turn on (safer:), and they light their candle and say the prayer for the day together. Although there is not always "peace on earth" while we are trying to get dressed for bed or get our candles ready or read, the girls (and Larry & I) really do love this tradition that helps us look forward to the big celebration of Emmanuel.

5 Things Our Kids Love About Hotels

"We do not remember days, we remember moments." (Italian poet Cesare Pavese) To be so young, our girls have actually traveled a good bit, and we have lots of fun, sweet moments to keep in our memory! Recently we traveled through 5 states spending 7 nights in 4 different places. Lots of hours on the road for little ones, but the much anticipated reward always awaited them...THE HOTEL!

They remind me every day to appreciate and enjoy the little things in life.

5 Things Our Kids Love about Hotels:

1. Pushing Buttons: Yes, 3 road weary preschool girls can and do push your buttons, but that's not what I'm talking about. Who knew pushing a button on an elevator could be so much fun and such a source of competition. They race to the elevator to see who will be the winner and get to push the button. And why do manufacturers put the emergency button right within reach of the chubby fingers of a 2 year old? Kennedi actually managed to push it on this trip, and it dialed 911 directly! We could hear the operator, but soon realized they could not hear my repeated apologies...oops:)

2. 2 Beds 1 Room means the first thing our girls do after running into the room is test the distance between the beds to see if they can jumping across from one bed to another (thanks to our friends the Droddy family who taught them this exciting pass time:) If they can't make the distance, the beds make great substitutes for a trampoline...don't tell the hotel owners:)

3. Bars of Soap. Yes, a hotel is where our girls discovered this little phenomenon existed. I had not realized that they had never seen a bar of soap. We use liquid soap at the house. The first time they saw it, they said, "Woe, cool, what is this? Can I have it?" Oh the fun a bar of soap brings until you take a bite:) Kennedi discovered on this last trip that it doesn't taste as good as it smells:) They race to the tub to get to play with the soap!

4. Popcorn in Bed with Coffee. We usually stay in a Holiday Inn Express (reward points:) which has microwaves in the rooms. This is the only place they get to sit in bed and eat popcorn while watching a movie. The coffee cups with lids make great "spill-proof" cups. No matter what the liquid is inside the cup, its still "coffee" according to them when it comes in the coffee cup:)

5. POOLS. Its just not "vacation" if there's not a swimming pool. Our kids are especially thrilled when the hotel not only has a big pool but also has a "little pool with bubbles":)

Fathers Day 09

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"Mom, do we go to church?"

The week after Easter, Emori wore a sun dress to preschool. I'm assuming someone asked her if it was her "Easter Dress" because as soon as I picked her up she asked, "What's an Easter Dress?" I explained that some people wear a special dress on Easter Sunday. Then she said, "Do I have an Easter dress?" I said, "Well, the dress you have on can be your Easter dress if you want." She said, "Sure." Problem solved...and it didn't cost me a dime:)

A few days later she came home and said, "Mom, do we go to church?" Good question. I said, "Well, we ARE the Church. We live our life showing God's love to others and live our life with others who are trying to do the same thing, so we are together the church. Now, there are buildings that people call 'church' and people meet there to talk about God. But for us, church is not a place we go, its what we are."

She said, "Oh yeah, I know, so everyday we love God share it with people and that makes us church. And when we go to Ekklesia (on Sunday nights), we are with people who love God." I said, "You got it, babe:)"

Mama-Daddy

Kennedi turned 2 last month. She is a funny girl, and is the entertainer of our family. She sees the world as her audience. One funny thing she does is that she calls Larry "Mama-Daddy". Its so funny. Most of the time she calls him by this name:)

When she first started doing this, Larry posted on his Facebook status that he "wonders if he should be concerned that his two year old daughter is calling him 'mama-daddy"" The president of the university saw him later that afternoon at a receiption, and she came up to him and said, "How's it going 'mama-daddy'?" Ha! You never know who's reading your FB status.

Emori Gives Herself a Haircut

I caught Emori after she had cut her hair and just as she had begun to start on Aubri's! I said, "What are you doing?! Why did you cut your hair?!"

She responded by asking, "Your not supposed to cut your hair with scissors?"

Guess I should have been more specific with her. :)

Aubri's First Communion

Larry and I grew up in a faith tradition that usually does not allow children who are not baptized or "members" of the church to take part in communion/the Lord's Supper.

That perspective changed for me Christmas Eve of 2007 when we participated in the Christmas Eve service at Court Street United Methodist Church. Emori was turning 4 yrs old and wanted to walk up with me when it was my turn to take Communion. I told her she wouldn't be able to take it, but she could walk with me. When it was our turn, Bruce Case (Court Street's pastor and one of our favorite friends:) knelt down and told Emori that this bread and drink represented Jesus and said some other really beautiful things as he invited her to participate in Communion. I thought, why don't we let kids participate?...that's crazy that we don't. It really was a beautiful moment for me as a mother.

Our children participated in Communion last Easter during our Family Experience time for our preschoolers at our church, but I decided that they should come into the service with the adults when we take Communion one week. They had not been present during the service, but Larry and I slipped out when Communion began and brought Emori and Aubri in. Now I realize I should have prepped Aubri better. This is how it went:

Aubri took a piece of the bread and I helped her dip it in the cup. As she opened her lips to put the grape juice soaked bread into her mouth, the person holding the cup said, "This is the blood of Christ shed for you". She jerked the bread away from her mouth, made an awful face and said, "Ew, I don't wike it" as she shoved it my way:)HA! I don't blame her:) At least I know now she wouldn't put "blood" in her mouth:) ha.

Oh well, we'll explain it better next time...or just stick to Communion during the children's Bible story time.

Emori shares a lesson for Black History Month

Emori is very interested in President O'rock Obama, as she calls him. I think she's so intrigued with him because she relates being a President to a being king (and our girls are REALLY into the whole Princess/royalty thing). I watch the news too much, and she always asks questions about what he's doing.

Here's a little more background to the subject of this blog entry: This year on Martin Luther King,Jr's holiday, we read a children's book about Dr. King's life...and Emori remembers EVERYTHING.

Ok, so we were at a local restaurant with another family. This is a conversation I overheard between Emori and her friend, Colleen, as they were looking at a poster for Black History month with pictures of famous African Americans on it. (Strangely, Obama didn't make the poster). And this is really what was said:)

Colleen (pointing to the face of Dr. King on the poster): That's Barack Obama

Emori: No its not. It doesn't even look like O'rock Obama.
That's a really nice man who was shot by some bad people. Mom, who's his name again.

(I say "Dr. King")

Emori: Yeah, Dr. King was trying to help people and some really bad people shot him and he died.

Colleeen: No, he did not die.

Emori: Yes, he did die. They shot him and he died.

Colleen: No, my teacher said he didn't die.

Emori: Well, your teacher is wrong! Some really bad people shot him and he died.

(To Colleen's credit, she had MLK confused with Nelson Mandela who she learned about in school:)

Glad to know Emori is confident in what she knows.