{HomeSchool}: Weekly Update

In continuing with the theme "Jesus is my Shepherd" and reading Psalms 23, we made "hand" sheep, had an activity to erase our sins away, and then used the colors red and black to make a ladybug.

This week was a lot like the last, and so I didn't get a lot of pictures.  Sadly, our favorite activity was a sort of fail and I didn't snap one picture of it.  Next time, folks.

We first traced Knox's hand to make a sheep (his thumb being the head).  He thought it was hilarious, and it did kind of look funny.

Then, we put paint in a ziploc and used a popsicle stick to draw in it.  You have to use your imagination, because I forgot to take pics.  The premise is that you can draw (basically pushing the paint aside and you can see the hard surface beneath).  But then if you push the paint down again, it erases the drawing, kind of like an etch-a-sketch.  This was to point out that God erases our sins if we choose to follow him.  Cute, but the project didn't work out like we planned, and I don't think Knox liked the fact that he couldn't get dirty :)

Then, practicing the colors red and black, we made a ladybug.  He had fun coloring the spots black, and then went a little crazy with the red!

All in all it was a great week, and we can't wait to see what's in store next week!

{HomeSchool}: LATE Weekly Wrap-Up

We're behind.  The post-holiday blues hit, and it's been freezing...I have a lot of excuses.  But the good news is we did all of the work, I just forgot to blog. 

The first week back was focusing on "Jesus is my Shepherd."  The color was black, and the shape was rectangle.

Not to sound like he's advanced or anything, but he has a lot of the goals in the curriculum down.  Numbers to 20, the alphabet, all colors and shapes...so we typically just use these activities as reinforcement and focus on the bible stories, which are new to him.

We first talked about what a shepherd does...and he loved the idea of sheep walking together in huge groups.  Then I talked about Jesus being his shepherd, guiding him along in life.  Not sure how much of that (if any) he grasps, but it's my job to instill it in him now.  I love my job.

If you've read my blog (or know us well), you know Knox is OBSESSED with cars.  He has a real-life favorite, though.  Papi's truck.  It's a huge black truck, and he gets to push all of the buttons, honk the wheel and ride "un-tethered" in the back.  He loves it.  So, I printed a picture of a truck and let him color it with a black crayon.  While he colored, we discussed other black things--my car, the sky at night, black beans, etc.

Then, as part of the shepherd theme, we colored a sheep and then added his coat (cotton balls).  He did really well at this activity.  I would hand him a marker and tell him what to color.  Though not in the lines, he did it all perfectly!

To mix in the shape of the week, I printed off a rectangle and let him use the paints (his absolute favorite).  We started by letting him choose the color, and then decided to mix a bunch of colors in hopes of getting to black.  We got pretty close...

This week was a fun one, and I'm looking forward to week 2 (which I'll post on time!).

Christmas 2012

Christmas came and went, and then my birthday, the new year and family time...and I'm JUST now getting to the blog.  We had an amazing holiday season, and truly embraced all of the family time we were blessed to have.  It always goes by too quickly, but I think we did a good job of soaking it all in and enjoying the reason for the season.

Knox came down with croup the week before Christmas.  I haven't ever heard the croup cough, and hope I never have to again.  So sad.  Then he gave it to Stephen and I.  We were pretty under the weather the entire time we were in Austin, but we powered through and had an amazing trip.  

My mom catered to our travel plans, and we did Christmas the Sunday before the actual day.  All of the cousins had matching PJ's, and we opened all of our gifts while eating kolaches, donuts and breakfast casserole.  Then after I opened some moose mugs, we broke out the whiskey and egg nog.  Sheesh.

Things are always a bit hectic with 10 adults and 8 grandkids...but we manage!

Almost all of the cousins on the steps

The ladies

Knox and Aunt Hayley had a blast dancing before he had to go down for a nap.  Little did he know, he would wake up and be faced with this:

Yep.  We went to see Disney Live.  All of the cousins were in tow, and they loved it!

He had to go to the restroom halfway in, so Daddy took him.  Then he came back with a Woody toy.  He was really excited, then, when Woody actually came out!

He absolutely loved it.  His only complaint was that Pete didn't come.  Pretty cute!

On Monday morning we had breakfast and headed home.  We were excited to do Christmas morning at our house and start the traditions with him.  He gets it all this year, and it has been so fun experiencing it through his eyes. 

We started with a little cookie decorating.

His "snake" on the bottom turned out to be Santa's favorite.  He left a note letting him know!

And it was a good thing we put the mat down.  With all of the rain, Santa's boots were REALLY muddy!

Another tradition we decided to do was tie a string to his door running all the way to Santa's big gift.  "Santa" went a little overboard with the boy toys, but he specifically asked for a monster truck, so we tied it to that...

Pretty cute seeing his reaction the next morning!

He opened a few smaller gifts, and then found this box in the back.  Once he opened it and saw what it was, this was his reaction.  I think he was excited!

He's now figured out he came move it to other places in the house and jump off of things.  I thought it was an innocent trampoline, now I have a heart attack about 30 times a day.

After we had breakfast and had settled in to playing with our toys and watching the parade, it started snowing.

It started pretty light, but was steady.  By the time we went to bed, this was our backyard!

We had a great Christmas.  He loved all of his toys, loved learning about Jesus' birth, and loved getting to see all of his family!  We are so blessed, and in love with the life God has given us.

I pray each of you had a blessed holiday season as well.  We are so blessed by each of you...it was really hard to take all of these down!

But not all is sad...this is how Knox felt about his new tractor:

Have a Happy New Year!

Yummy Christmas Gifts

If you're in need of a great teacher gift, something small for your neighbors, or just want to make your house smell good and indugle some delicious bread--this is your recipe!

Seriously, it's devine.

I got the recipe from Jean, a friend in Houston.  She raved about it, so I had to give it a shot.  It did NOT disappoint.  Can't wait to gift my sweet neighbors and friends with this little gem.

Happy Holidays!

Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread


Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream (or greek yogurt)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
2. Stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in zucchini and next 2 ingredients. Spoon batter into 3 greased and floured 5- x 3-inch disposable aluminum foil loaf pans (about 1 1/3 cups batter per pan).
3. Bake at 325° for 40 to 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely (about 30 minutes).
    **I just cooled them completely in their foil pans, and they turned out fine!

*This recipe will make 12 muffins. If you make muffins, I would bake them 23-25 minutes. 

Southern Living
AUGUST 2012

Northpark Trains

If you know Knox well, you know he likes anything manly that moves: construction equipment, cars, planes, trains, buses, etc.  We took him to the train exhibit at Northpark last year, right when he was starting to enjoy moving parts (see that post here).  He enjoyed it, but most of his time was spent "taking it all in."   I think at one point or another, each of us commented on how much he would love it the next year.

Boy were we wrong.  He was OBSESSED.  He still asks if we can go back and see the trains.

Once he realized what we were in for, he was off running.

Among all of the cool set-ups and realistic cityscapes, they have buttons for the kids to push that activate parts of the exhibits.  This button turned on the light in that raised station house.

We had so much fun with him this year, experiencing it all through his eyes.  Not only did he enjoy the trains, he loved spotting the construction equipment, helicopters, race cars and trucks present as well.  He's all boy.

Before we left, we snapped an awesome family pic (too bad the Christmas cards already went out) and watched the puppet show.

I'm excited to make this another Christmas tradition with our family.  Go before it closes, it doesn't disappoint!

Click here for more info!

{HomeSchool}: Weekly Wrap-Up

 In continuing with the "Jesus is Born" theme, we focused on the story behind the nativity scene.  It's been really nice, since they are focusing on the story of Jesus' birth in Sunday School and his preschool.  He loves to tell me that Jesus was born in a barn, and gets excited when you ask him what the "best gift of the season" is.  Daily I find him pulling a chair up to our nativity scene to play with baby Jesus and the animals.

It's really amazing seeing this through his eyes...all the more magical.  

As far as school went this week, I was a bit of a slacker.  We did all of our projects on Thursday night.  (hand slaps)

We first made a Christmas tree out of popsicle sticks in graduated lengths.  He painted them, and then once dry we glued them together and added cotton pom decorations.  He got to add it to the tree, and loves looking at it and touching it with "one finger."  That's our rule with ornaments.

We then made a bell angel.  Her body and wings were made out of bells, and then she had a little boy on her neck.  He did such a good job of gluing them in place, though her bow might be choking her a bit.

This was a fun way to incorporate the ABC's--A is for Angel, B is for Bell, and C is for CHRISTmas!

Our Christmas crafts turned out cute!

And his tree now on the big tree!

Lanterns and Photo Booths

This past week/weekend was really busy!  We had something every night...but one of our favorites was the Chinese Lantern exhibit at Fair Park.  Mimi (Stephen's mom) was in town and had purchased a Groupon for the exhibit, so after dinner we headed over to see what the fuss was about.

These things were awesome.  It was constructed solely for this location, so all of the work was done on site. Each piece was hand made...pretty spectacular.  Knox loved the pandas, butterflies and ants.  But he was OBSESSED with T-Rex.

It moved it's head and hands and growled.  He wasn't afraid at all.  In fact, he would have stayed there all night had we let him!

It was all pretty amazing.  Definitely something to go see before they are dismantled.

Friday night we headed to Austin for my companies Christmas party.  I work for my dad's company, so it's really a family reunion of sorts.  The party was at the Lakeway resort this year, and my mom did a great job organizing.  The hit, in my opinion, was the photo booth.  So fun to do with a toddler.

You can click to enlarge...pretty precious.  The cousins one sends me over the edge.

We had a great time, but headed home the next day to attend a fun Tacky Christmas Sweater party.  Thankfully I don't have pictures of that...good times.