The Christmas Elf

Joy went to an Elf themed Christmas party and won the costume contest  for the best elf costume, which she made herself!

With the help of a green dress she already had, hot glue and lots of cotton balls!

I thought a red tulle skirt would be cute over the green dress. Don't you love tulle!? Tulle is my friend! : )

But this may be the first time tulle has ever let me down because it wasn't cute and she didn't end up using it. BUT, my Christmas tree ended up getting lots of red tulle bows on it after she left for the party and they helped disguise the fact that that poor tree only 'lived' for about 2 and a half weeks. Nothing like a tree with the needles on the floor to say 'Merry Christmas' when you walk by. lol Oh well. As you can imagine, it will not be seeing us into the New Year since it made a quick exit to the curb after Christmas. : )

Wasn't she the cutest elf ever?! Love you, Joy!

            ~Becky

Scenes from the season: Christmas day

Christmas Day Fun!

Scenes from the season: Christmas Eve

The Christmas Eve service

Andrew, Zac and Joy

Moriah and Nathan

Handsome hubby and I

Hubby and his brother Phil

Andrew's buddy Joel

Marcie and I (I must been in middle giggle or something) lol

Home for fillet mignon cooked by my handsome men, yes, please!

Crusted with blue cheese! Yum!

The meal!

And our  puppy, Bree, who spiced up the holidays!

~Becky

They did it! They earned Chinese!

~I know my dad can't picture me getting my money's worth at all-you-can-eat Chinese. lol I guess I've had to expand my tastes to hang with this gang. ; )

The song had to have 2 verses, a bridge and a chorus, which it did! -All about how they want to experience a cold Christmas because we had an 80 degree Christmas! It was a very ROCKIN, cute song.

We have a video of it that Nathan is editing for the grandparents. : )
 ~Becky

A Christmas carol

My day has been blessed with lots of music.

Music made by our three boys on the drums, guitar and synth.

Here's why:

A couple weeks ago, my hubby told our kids that he would take everyone out to all-you-can-eat Chinese food, if they wrote and performed their own Christmas song or wrote and performed a skit that would 'make mom cry.' (if it didn't 'make mom cry' than it was out for cheese burgers) lol

They opted for the song option.

Zac wrote some verses last week and they have been working on the music all day.

Joy has been in downtown Disney all day with her friend, so they gave the job of singing it to Nathan and have assigned her a small part with the tambourine. : ) It is dinnertime and they are all 4 feverishly jamming away!

They've got Uncle Phil here, cheering them on. I think he might be more excited about going for Chinese than even they are. lol

Anyway, I can't wait to hear the results!

I feel so blessed to have such talented children. I couldn't write and play a song if my LIFE depended on it. ; )

~Becky, who isn't sure if she is making dinner or going out!

P.S. A post soon to follow on all the Christmas festivities!

LOVED this video!

We saw this video at our Christmas Eve service last night and it is THE cutest portrayal of the Christmas story ever! You'll love it too!

It is now time for our Christmas 'roast beast,' I mean ham! : )

Merry Christmas!

~Becky

Let the Stable Still Astonish

This poem really touched our family's hearts during one of our devotions recently. Hope it blesses you too!

Let the stable still astonish, Straw -dirt floor, dull eyes, Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen; Crumbling, crooked walls, No bed to carry that pain, And then, the child, Rag-wrapped, laid to cry in a trough. Who would have chosen this? Who would have said: "Yes, let the God of all the heavens and the earth be born here, in this place?" Who but the same God who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts and says" "Yes, let the God of Heaven and earth be born here- in this place."

~Leslie Leyland Fields

Isn't it a glorious thing that Jesus, the King of Heaven wants to live inside of us? And that His birth was announced to the lowest working class -shepherds and not to kings. Isn't it amazing that he left Heaven for a stable instead of a palace? I think He wanted to assure us for all time, that salvation would have nothing to do with social status. I hope you've had a new glimpse of the stable this season and are 'still astonished.'

~Merry Christmas~

~Becky

It is the week before Christmas and all through the house not a kiddo was studying not even a...little bit! ; ) (sorry, but nothing rhymes with 'house' and my brain is fried from a gazillion Christmas errands!) Yahoo, this home school mom loves Christmas break! The gifts are bought, the goodies for the neighbors are baked, dress shirts taken to dry cleaner and next up is: grocery shopping, cleaning and some baking for friends. The boys have been busy learning Christmas songs for tonight's youth service which was awesome. -The Little Drummer Boy with 4 drummers playing was pretty awesome. Great message too. Love our youth ministry! Our church does a very moving Christmas Eve candle light worship service every year and I CAN'T wait! It is a beautiful and formal evening. We aren't able to attend our favorite Puerto Rican family's Christmas Eve party afterwards since my hubby's brother can't stay out late. (he's a stroke patient) And do they party late! lol So, we are making our own tradition... So far it looks like it will include the early candle light service, a fancy dinner cooked by my guys (whoo-hoo!) and watching a Christmas movie. Sunday, we will be opening gifts, eating, worshiping, then more eating and going to a movie. : ) Can't wait! Tis the season! Hope you have yourselves a merry little Christmas! ~Becky

Nathan made a Christmas album!

Nathan and his very talented friend, John, got together and made a Christmas EP! It has three songs on it. Two cover songs and one original one!
We are so proud! It is just too fun to be playing Christmas music by your son! : )
John has a fabulous voice and plays the guitar. Nathan accompanies him on the keyboard.
John has a band called Adalee and he leads worship for our youth group.

Here is a link where you can download the songs for FREE! :) And if you are one of his grandparents, ; )let me know if you want a hard copy because we will totally 'hook you up' as the kids say. lol ~Becky, Proud momma of a talented musician

Birthday pictures!

Happy 17th Nathan!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Nathan last week. (I think this is the third time I've written this post. Blogger is not cooperating lately especially when it comes to pictures)

Nathan inspired a new birthday breakfast around here. Because of his idea, none of the December birthday guys had bear shaped chocolate chip pancakes which is our tradition. They had his 'Basage recipe.'

And Basage is a combination of bacon and sausage that are cooked into a pancake and oh so yummy. (precooked of course) and then you pour some pancake batter made with EGGNOG instead of milk, in an oblong shape on your griddle, then lay a piece of bacon down on it and a sausage link on top of it. When it is bubbling and ready to flip, you cover the meat with a little more batter right before flipping. And Voila! Basage! ;)
My bear face making days may have officially come to an end.



We played a "Nathan Quiz." He is the kind of guy that lets you know (more than once) lol what he is into since he's so passionate about everything in life. So, it was pretty easy to take a quiz and list his favorite song, favorite movie, favorite phrase etc... I also had questions about his gifts/talents from God, what you admire about him and what your favorite memory with him is. He got to pick the winner, who won a candy bar! They made a nice keepsake for him to save. He said he felt very loved! : )
And he certainly is! A few of the things that I love about Nathan are his sense of humor, passion for praise and worship, love for piano, his insight into the Word, and his sweet spirit. Love you Natie! Happy Birthday!

Aim at Heaven

I soooo LOVE this quote by C.S. Lewis:

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were

those who thought the most about the next...

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so

ineffective in this one. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in.' Aim at earth and you will

get neither." ~C.S. Lewis

AMEN! : )

~Becky

The best day

My hubby gets his birthday off each year and for the past several years we've been blessed with free Disney tickets, to use on that day! Tons of fun!

This year we used those tickets before my brother-in-law came to live with us since he wouldn't really be able to go to a theme park and we couldn't leave him alone all day and be that far from home.

Anyway....The new plan for the hubby's birthday, was for me to steal him away for the WHOLE day to do things he would enjoy! We had a blast and he loved it! We spent time in the stores he likes, like Guitar Center and the pro football shop at the mall. We went amp shopping and I got a lesson in all things guitar and amp related. ; )

We also went out to lunch and then to the movies to see Courageous. We were probably the last people on the planet who hadn't seen it yet. : ) Absolutely amazing!!!!! I cried all through it. And you know it is a good movie, when you enjoy it even though the words aren't matching the actors' lips and there is a power outage that stops the movie in the middle of it for 20 minutes and you aren't mad and trying to get your money back. lol It was THAT good!

We went out to dinner after that. (Thanks Carlos!) And we had our own chance to be 'courageous' when we were seated at a table next to a poster of a woman that was ...well, not good for any guy to be looking at. We asked our waiter to move us and told him why. Can't say we've ever had that experience before. I hope the restaurant gets more complaints and takes it down, for goodness sake...

Anyway, then we headed home to celebrate with cake and our kiddos and Phil.

My sweet man loved his day and assured me that if it were my birthday, he didn't think he could handle going in all my favorite stores and listening to me talk about something like shoes for an hour or more. LOL! I got a kick out of that. So, glad he enjoyed it! He's so much fun to be with, I'm sure I had as much fun as he did and I'm looking forward to next year.

~Becky

Grateful

Yesterday, my hubby had the day off and he and I spent the whole day out and about celebrating his birthday!!! (whoo-hoo) More on that later.

Our fabulous kids, (minus the college guy who had to go to work and had two finals to take)

did their school and took care of their uncle (who's a stroke patient) for us.

We came back that night, to a clean house and a fed family. Not to mention that it seemed to be an extra hard day in "care giving land."

Nathan said "But the Joy of the Lord took care of everything." : )

That is a capital 'j' as in Joy!

So proud of her!

Thank you Joy, for blessing our whole family! You are the Joy of the Lord to us.

~Becky

Scenes from the Season...

The tree!

Some of our favorite Christmas books! And some cute mittens I found in the $1 section at Michaels.
I found this REAL wreath at Home Depot that smells heavenly for only $5.00. -Thank you, Black Friday.
When your daughter's name is 'Joy' you have lots of decorations that say 'joy.' : )

I love putting fresh evergreens on every possible surface around here. (even though my family teases me)

And (despite the earlier post) one of our very favorite things this year is Bree!

Hope you are enjoying the holidays!

~Becky

Life with a puppy

is never ever dull.

In the last week, Bree has taken some of the lights and a half dozen ornaments off the tree, dug under our fence with the help of the neighbors' dog -where they had a romping good time together, munched a $60 audio book belonging to the library, broken Nate's keyboard stand, ripped a hole in Joy's sweater, and escaped down the street, just to name a few...

Good thing she is just so doggone cute!

She redeemed herself by somehow finding my reading glasses when I had hunted high and low for them! Now how amazing is that?!

~Becky

Holiday yumminess

Have you tried the Cranberry Bliss bars at Starbucks?

They are divine!

Thanks to Zac, we get to try some yummy things of theirs for free.

Anyway, I saw this recipe on how to make them yourself, and I had to try it. Go here.

They were a big hit even though I somehow forgot the TWO sticks of butter that belonged in them in the microwave. LOL

Andrew's buddy Joel, tasted one and called me a "Culinary Goddess." -Love that kid! ha ha : )

So, give them a try and remember the butter. Or don't. ; )

Or buy them already made at Starbucks on Dec 6th when they are 50% off!

(they are having twelve days of sales) Go here to see if there is a store participating near you.

No, this isn't a paid add, just sharing the love or the calories, however you want to look at it! ; )

~Becky