Our Life in Daily Photos

Hello my friends! Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I took a break during the holidays, then we had a few weeks of sickness and now I think things are finally getting back to normal around here :)! Even though I wasn’t blogging in January, I WAS taking lots of pictures – at least one each day (usually many more)! And I am happy to say that I have been making lots of digital scrapbook pages with all of my photos too :). Here’s a little sample of my pics, one for each day of January.

Hope your Valentine’s season is off to a great start :)!!!

Operation Christmas Child

Advent calendar verses from yesterday and today:

The mountain of the house of the Lord… all the nations shall flock to it, and many peoples shall come. Isaiah 2:2-3

After me comes he who is mightier than I… he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Mark 1:7-8

Each year we participate in Operation Christmas Child. We pack a box for a little boy Gabe’s age and for the past two years we make a little girl one for Julia to give too. It is so exciting and fun to put together a special gift to share the love of Jesus with a child in need! Gabe also got to contribute to and help pack two extra boxes this year: one in his Cubbies group and one in his Mission Friends class.  Since I co-teach a Mission Friends class, we let the kids in our class help decorate our boxes this year with Christmas gift wrap as a group project. After the boxes have been collected, I bring Gabe into the sanctuary at church to show him all the boxes the church members gave. Every year, a group of volunteers from our church travel to Atlanta to a large collection site where they help prepare the boxes to be shipped out. This year my sister went and last year my dad went. When the kids get older I hope we can go too. I think this is such an excellent ministry and I plan to get involved every Christmas!

Happy First Day of December!

I love Christmastime! The music, the decorations, the wonderful family times and especially the times spent reflecting on God’s most precious gift to us – his only son, Jesus Christ! I bought a cute count-down-to-Christmas wall decoration at Hobby Lobby the other day, so this morning Gabe got to put the little wooden candy cane in the pocket for day one where he found this Bible verse I had tucked inside:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

When he got home from school, he also had an advent calendar in his back pack with daily Bible verses leading up to Christmas day. Here’s the one for today:

Arise, and shine, for your light has come! Isaiah 60:1

Praise the Lord! And here’s a fun flash back to last Christmas for you :)!

By-the-way, if you are a scrapbooker you should head over to my other site, where I have a free Christmas themed Digital Scrapbooking kit available! Here’s the link: Scrapbook Ideas. Enjoy!

Big Spring Park in the Fall

This year we have visited Big Spring Park more than any other year we’ve lived here. We like to hang out by the water and share a picnic lunch then explore the park.

I have enjoyed the beautiful effect of the different seasons – from cherry blossoms in spring to the lovely fall colors towards the end of the year.

We always bring bread to feed the birds and fish, and lately Gabe has brought his bike to ride too. Julia is content to play on the big quilt and wave at everyone who passes by :).

Weekend Photos