Family Traditions

A few weeks ago, I was sitting & eating lunch with some homeschooling moms and their kids. One of the moms asked me if we had any family Christmas traditions. I couldn't think of any at the time, but realized later we have lots. Some traditions we have tried to do every year and other traditions we do every other year or every few years. Here are some of our family traditions:

1. Decorating a gingerbread house (not building one - been there done that and I won't do that again)
2. Making, baking and decorating sugar cookies (We do this for most holidays since it is easy enough for all   kids to participate in)
3. Make a cake and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus  (It is his birthday afterall. My kids asked what Jesus' favorite color was and what his favorite kind of cake would be. I told them I'm sure he'll like any flavor and color cake we make.)
4. Make treats for friends, neighbors, teachers, and family to give as gifts (We've made cookies in a jar, pretzels dipped in chocolate, cookies, brownies, etc)
5. Drive around and look at Christmas lights (We get bundled up in our car with coats & blankets and have hot cocoa to drink as we drive around in local neighborhoods or walk through Naples in Long Beach).
6. Go see or perform in Christmas performances (The last two years, Victoria has been in Christmas Joy, so we've gotten to see her perform at our church).
7. Decorate the Christmas tree together while listening to Christmas music even with toddlers (There is sometimes broken ornaments and I often have to rearrange ornaments, but the kids LOVE decorating.)
8. Make an Advent wreath (This year was our first time doing that with our church. We decorated a green wreath with ornaments, pinecones, and ribbon. We placed candles into the candle holders which were attached to the wreath and lit one for the first week. We sang songs together and meditated on scripture.)
9. Watch Christmas movies together (old ones and new ones too- Still my favorite is "It's a Wonderful Life")
10. Read books together about Christmas (I like "The Crippled Lamb" by Max Lucado)
11. Have the kids help put up the Nativity scene decorations (One year they put on a play at home about the birth of Christ. Victoria was Mary and Nicholas was Joseph. I think Ben, Allan and I were wise men and Lizzie played baby Jesus if she cooperated.)
12. Buy gifts for family or friends that have a missional purpose (Our church has been doing a missional marketplace the last 2 or 3 years. They have all kinds of gifts that you can buy and the profit goes to specific missionaries around the world. We bought coffee and homemade jam this year. And we bought and wrapped a toy for a foster child. I was able to explain the needs of other people in the U.S. and other countries to my children)


These are some traditions for Christmas that our family will continue to do. I want to find more ideas that I can do with my family where we can really focus on the true meaning of Christmas - the birth of Christ. I have in the past gotten sucked into the gift giving event that Christmas has become and I don't want that for myself or my family. Yes, we buy gifts for my kids and yes Santa comes to visit. But my fondest memories of Christmas are not of the toys that I received, but the time I've spent with my family and friends celebrating Jesus' birth. Email, comment or facebook me if you have any fun Christmas traditions.

Benjamin, Victoria and Audrey (Victoria's friend)
decorated this gingerbread house. We had to place
the houses up high away from little fingers.

Nicholas rolling out the dough for sugar cookies.

Benjamin loved picking out fun Christmas
cookie shapes.

As you can see, Victoria's cookie making station is very
clean. She was such a great big sister helping the little
ones roll and cut out their cookie shapes.

Here Lizzie is decorating her cookies with frosting and sprinkles.
If you look closely, you'll see a mountain of sprinkles.

Victoria and her friends from the Christmas Joy performance.

Our first Advent wreath in antipation of Christmas,
the birth of Christ.

Celebrating Birthdays

December is always a fun and busy month for us. We have Victoria's birthday on the 3rd. She turned eleven years old on Saturday. She has had a birthday party most years, but this year we are going to go to a tea house with just her, myself and Grandma Cynthia. Victoria celebrated her birthday on the first day of Bethany Church's Christmas Joy performance which she is singing and dancing in. They performed last weekend and again this weekend on December 10th & 11th at 3:30pm and 7pm. Anyway is welcome to go. She plays a hangtown kid and they sing and dance to many songs. She also gets to dress up in a sheep costume which she wasn't too happy dancing in. But doesn't she and her friend look adorable. We celebrated her birthday during breakfast time with cinnamon rolls, eggs, and pineapple. I decorated our dining room with streamers and signs. I have no pictures of her on her birthday because I left my camera at my in-laws the previous weekend. She was very excited to get some Paris-themed items as her birthday present since we are in the process of redoing her room in that theme. Paris is one of the places on her bucket list that she says she will be visiting or living one day. Victoria is a wonderful young girl. She is a sweet and loving daughter and sister. She is growing up ever so quickly. She still wants to sit on our lap or snuggle really close to us. I try to really take advantage of that time and not hurry to do something else because one day she may not want to sit next to me. Allan stops what he is doing whenever she wants to talk and he just listens. I love watching him joke around with her.

On Monday, the 5th, we celebrated Allan's birthday. Victoria & Nicholas helped me make a chocolate chocolate cake from scratch and boy was it DELICIOUS!!! You can see it in the photo and it doesn't look that pretty, but it sure tasted good. We never finish cake around here and I think there may be one slice left for Allan's dessert tomorrow. Nicholas and Victoria have never really decorated a cake before and I am not a cake decorator myself, but  Allan loved it anyways! All of us made him a card and he really seemed to enjoy his time with just us. I have to say he is an amazing man. He is so humble and kind! He really cares for us and I am fortunate to have him as my husband and as a father to our four children.

Allan with all his crazy, I mean adorable kids.

Allan and his mini-me, Benjamin. Ben would be in all the pictures if he could.

Lizzie & Daddy- He loves his little girl!

Nick & Daddy - They spend lots of time doing cub scout stuff together.

Victoria & Allan- She really enjoys her dates with daddy.

Here are Victoria and Audrey posing as good sheep.

My Little Cupcake

I can't believe Elizabeth is two and will be three years old in January. She is a very busy little girl and always getting into something. We have to move things, hide things, and keep her away from lots of food and household items. Since she has three older siblings, she thinks she can do everything they do and have everything that have. In my opinion, you do have to parent a little differently with your third and fourth child. They are just exposed to more things more quickly. I do try to shelter her as much as I can like with the tv/videos she watches and the toys/games she plays. Lately, I've been working with the boys on etiquette and it is going VERY slowly. I've been trying to teach them that you hold a door open for girls/women and allow a girl to walk through the door first. Lizzie has heard me encouraging them and she runs to every door and says, "Girls first!" She cries when the boys push past her. Although, she is very stubborn and knows how to get her way in many situations, she is also sensitive when her brothers or sister pick on her. I'm really enjoying watching my youngest and last child grow up. As I cuddle her, I whisper in her ear, "You can't grow up, you have to stay little forever." She usually says, "No mommy, I getting bigger" and sometimes she replies with, "Okay." 

We heard her giggling from our bedroom and
this is what we found. The next day she used
a black marker. There was punishment after
that incident and it hasn't happened since.



She's not afraid to get messy and gooey!

She might suck your blood if you get too close!
Mahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

She's good at organizing and she even shares!

She has a weapon and she WILL use it on you if needed.

Ahhh! My little cupcake! Doesn't she look
sweet & innocent!

Things That Make My Heart Smile

There are so many things that can make us sad, disappointed or angry in our world and in our own family. It is easy to get caught up dwelling on things that go wrong in our life or that cause us the most stress. Lately I've been negative and looking at what's wrong with myself, my kids, my husband, my life in general instead of focusing on the positive things that I have. Today I remembered a post that I started about a month ago and never finished. It was a good reminder of things that make my heart smile and here they are in no pacticular order....

Nicholas playing piano pieces and skipping ahead in his music book simply because he loves to play.

Victoria & Elizabeth swinging on the swings together and singing goofy songs.

Nicholas teaching Benjamin how to swing on the swings. (this is unbelievable if you know my boys)

watching all four of my kids compare two dead bees (not the death part, but the investigating part)

having fun singing, chanting, reviewing our Classical Conversation memory work with my older two(Ex: What are four types of tissue? Four types of tissue are connective, epiltheal, muscle and nerve. It is fun to see them learning.

watching Benjamin sing Thanksgiving songs with a bunch of other 4-5 year olds, he stood focused even with all the other distractions around him

Allan fixing another household problem - the bathtub plumbing. "Another satisfied customer," he says.

Snuggling with my two littles in their jammies as we snack on Kix cereal.

Playing Uno with Benjamin twice and the Ladybug game and he beat me everytime. I loved seeing his winning smile and dance.

watching humming birds visiting our backyard for nectar everyday, such amazing creatures

friends who pray for me and ask how I'm doing and then listen

washing dishes as Allan dries them and puts them away and we talk about our day together

There is so much for me to be thankful for! My family and I are all healthy! I need to keep these memories when I have hard days so I can remember all the things that make me laugh & smile. I thank God for creating me, my family, friends, and all the beauty that surrounds us. How fortunate I am to be living for Him!

One of those Mornings

Do you ever have one of those days? Or mornings? Or _______ you fill in the blank? You know when everyone is getting upset, things aren't going your way, someone gets hurt, no one will listen or obey..... That's the kind of morning I experienced. Everyone was mad at me and I was mad at them. Victoria was upset because she had piano lessons and knew that she had only practiced once this week. She was upset at herself, but that anger turned to me. She also couldn't find her recital sheet music which she realized that she had crumbled up out of anger a few days prior. It was now in the recycling bin.Nicholas was scrambling to find all of his piano music for his morning lesson. I think he is the only that didn't yell at me this morning. Benjamin became angry after getting a privilege taken away because of his disobedience. On the way to school, he told me he hated me at least twenty times. I think he sang it to me. Lizzie was crying because she couldn't have candy at 7:00 in the morning. Her fingers got pinched in the door right before we took Ben to school. So, I had Ben sobbing as he put on his shoes and Lizzie whimpering over her hurt fingers. I was angry the whole time trying to keep everyone on schedule to leave to take Ben to school. It was a very stressful morning!

If I would have written this in the morning I would have had even more details, but some of the incidents of the morning have been erased from my memory for sanity purposes. Unfortunately, I allowed the anger in me to take over. I allowed it to take over how I acted, how I responded, and how I cared for my children. I wasn't loving, gentle, caring, patient, kind, or peaceful. I certainly didn't demonstrate self control, so how can I expect my children to demonstrate those characteristics when I wasn't even modeling those for them. I know I need to be more prepared and organized for the morning and teach them those things as well. But there will be days that no matter how prepared, organized, or ready I am things will go wrong, someone will get hurt, or a child will disobey. It is up to me to respond with love and gentleness. It is up to me to pray for my attitude and behavior. I hope as someone is reading this that they can relate and say, "Yes, I've had one of those days before."


My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
                                                               James 1:19-20

Help me! I have a NINE year old!

I have two October babies. Ben celebrated his 5th birday on October 5th and Nicholas just had his 9th birthday on October 20th. I can't believe he is nine. He is my hot or cold child. He is either really happy or really mad. He'll be really excited to go somewhere or to do something or he'll throw a huge fit because he absolutely does not want to go anywhere or do anything. I have to make him go most places and in the end he has the most fun out of all the kids. As a baby and toddler he always had something in his hand. He started with a baby sleeper and then moved on to a blanket. As a toddler and preschooler he would walk around with a plastic hammer and then downsized to a plastic kids spoon. He was the most difficult one to be potty trained. I'm glad that was over with several years ago. I love to see him excited about things. He enjoys playing the piano which he just started in February. In our backyard, we often find science experiments that he has been working. Allan wasn't so happy about the yellow grass or the messes that we find at the end of the day. We are so thankful for our 9 year old boy and how much he is learning and growing. He is halfway to manhood. He'll one day make a wonderful husband if we can just get him to do his chores more consistently. We love you Nicholas!!



Here Nicholas is helping Allan put together the girl's bunk bed.



Nicholas is waiting patiently to open up his birthday presents.

He picked out a chocolate mousse cake with strawberries on top.

Look who's FIVE!!!

I can't believe Benjamin is five today. He has been waiting for this day for 364 days. Since he has an older brother & sister, he always wants to be older, bigger, stronger, smarter, taller, faster, and the list goes on. So today he is officially OLDER. The last month or so he has had a lot of changes or accomplishments in his life. First, he learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I can't believe I don't have a picture of this to post. It is so cute to see him riding on his small bike. His pedaling reminds me of that old women/the wicked witch of the west from "The Wizard of Oz." I can hear the music playing now... Da, dat, da, dat, da, da, da.... He also learned how to swing himself by pumping his legs. His older brother patiently talked him through that. Another accoumplishment is that he learned how to travel across all of the monkey bars on our backyard playset. He has been practicing that for quite awhile. He started school this September. It is called Transitional Kindergarten for kids whose birthdays are in late summer and fall and their not quite ready for Kindergarten. He LOVES it! Mom loves it too!! Victoria & Nicholas love that their younger brother isn't bothering them. He has made a lot of friends! You know that show "Everyone Loves Raymond". Well that's what we say about him, "Everyone Loves Benjamin". He has that smile that can melt anyones heart. His joy and laughter are contagious. He also keeps getting taller or thinner. I'm not really sure which one. I'll have to measure him one of these days. I just know that most of his shorts & pants have trouble staying around his waist.
Today, as we were driving home from dropping Victoria off at choir, Benjamin asked me, "Mom, when will I turn six?" I said, "You won't turn six for another 364 days." He pondered that and responded with, "That's a LONG time mom." I told him to enjoy five, soak it in, just be five for awhile. Well as you can see we love this fun, energetic, cute guy and it is so exciting seeing him get bigger.

Here is Benjamin on his first day of school.
He even has a backpack & takes his lunch everyday.

Benjamin has just mastered going across the monkey bars.

Benjamin working hard on the swing.

Victoria & Benjamin - Don't they look alike?
Victoria made him an original, one of a kind
Bey Blade holder.