Three Men and a Jenn

a burrito-ism

2012-01-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

burrito has been saying some really funny things lately and i've neglected to jot them down here before they escape my feeble mind.

so here are two!

friday night was homecoming at our school and we celebrate at a basketball game. john was asked to lead the prayer before one of the games so he had walked over to get the microphone. when burrito saw what he was doing he turned to me and asked, "is dad going to sing the national anthem?" it was so funny to us, especially if you know that john would never volunteer to sing anything!

on sunday afternoon, the boys and i watched beauty and the beast. i had recorded it on the dvr and thought it would be fun to watch together. the boys really enjoyed it, and at the end of the movie burrito asked, "can you live in a castle and still worship God?" puzzled at why he would ask this question i replied, "yes, you can live in a castle and still worship God. why?" to which he responded, "i think i would like to live in a castle but He would still be THE king (pointing to heaven as he says this very seriously). i wouldn't even wear a crown. but i would like to live in a castle."

it was so super sweet to me to hear him say this so sincerely. it redeemed an otherwise hard and difficult week. i love it when Jesus does that!

thank you Jesus for my burrito and his sensitive heart!

our exciting new year's eve

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

we are such party animals! our idea of the best nye ever was to buy snacky foods, have a picnic in the living room and watch mr. popper's penguins. love my guys!

happy 9th anniversary to the one i love

2012-01-11T08:00:00.002-06:00

it has been 9 blissfully sweet years of marriage to my absolute most favorite person ever, john david! my prayer is that i will get to celebrate 99 more years with you, and it still wouldn't be enough.

xoxo,
jenn

christmas 2011 digest

2012-01-10T13:51:00.000-06:00

christmas 2011 was wonderful. it was just what we like for the holidays. not too busy but fully engaged in celebrating the greatest gift we've ever received, Jesus.

christmas eve we celebrated with john's family via skype. technology is simply amazing! we set up the laptop so that they could watch the boys open their presents from them live! it went smoothly and the boys were thankful for their gifts.

talking on skype

noodle with a new school jacket

checking out a lego book

we also baked and snacked on a birthday cake for Jesus. we've never done this before and this was yet another attempt to remind burrito and noodle to not only think about the presents they were opening, but to also think about the gift of Jesus. we had fun baking red and green layers for the cake, singing happy birthday to Jesus and then enjoying the afternoon snack.

mixing up the red and green cake batter

the finished product

singing and blowing out the candle

the inside view

we headed out to the church john attended before we were married for their christmas eve service. it is a large church and i wanted the boys (really all of us) to hear christmas carols on the pipe organ. we set in the balcony because it was quite crowded and because burrito thought this was the most awesome thing ever! we ended the evening by driving around an affluent neighborhood in dallas looking at christmas lights.

then came christmas morning! we arose early and john read the christmas story from luke 2 and we hung the final ornament on our advent tree. then we let the boys open their presents from us. they each received a new pair of running shoes, a remote control car, and a lego set. they were thrilled!

love this picture of my man

our advent trees

the long-awaited new zig shoes!

crazy remote control cars

burrito with his lego set

noodle with his lego set

then we loaded up the car and headed down to mimi and poppy's house. we opened presents with them, ate some breakfast, welcomed more family later that morning and then ate mexican food for lunch. the boys enjoyed playing with their cousin porkchop, my cousins and each other. it was a great relaxing day of food, family and fun.

the cousins! love these 3 boys!!!

burrito with boxers on his head!

porkchop sporting the new baylor hat

as always, it seems to go by so quickly but we really enjoyed spending time together this year celebrating the birth of our Savior!

advent reading day 25...He's here! Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:00:00.003-06:00

advent reading day 25

scripture reading: the birth of Jesus, from luke 2, JSBB pgs 182-191, 198*

symbol: baby Jesus!

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings
_____________________

merry christmas from our home to yours!

in wonder at the birth of our King,
jenn

advent reading day 24

2011-12-24T07:00:00.004-06:00

advent reading day 24

scripture reading: the King of all kings: the story of the three wise men, from matthew 2, JSBB pgs 192-197*

symbol: the three wise men and the star

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings
_______________________
christmas parties at school...they are always so cute. these were my favorite pictures from that day.

noodle singing with his classmates

burrito enjoying his christmas cupcake

anticipating the joy of His birth tomorrow,
jenn

advent reading day 23

2011-12-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 23

scripture reading: the journey to bethlehem, from luke 1 and 2, JSBB pgs 180-181*

symbol: a scroll, representing the census that was taken

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings
____________________

i couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the boys reading the JSBB this year. we have really enjoyed listening to burrito lead our reading this year. super sweet to me!!!

and we had the privilege this year of leading our church in the second sunday advent reading and lighting the candle of joy. i took this picture of the boys in front of our christmas tree that morning before church.

loving this season of advent!

jenn

advent reading day 22

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 22

scripture reading: mary and the angel, from luke 1-2. JSBB pgs 176-179*

symbol: an angel

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 21

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 21

scripture reading: the story of john the baptist, from matthew 3, luke 1 and john 1, JSBB pgs 200-203*

symbol: a shell, a traditional symbol for baptism

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 20

2011-12-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 20

scripture reading: get ready! God's people return from being slaves, from nehemiah 8-10, malachi 1, 3, and 4, ezra 7, JSBB pgs 170-175*

symbol: a party hat, to celebrate all the Lord had done

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 19

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 19

scripture reading: God's messenger: jonah and the big fish, from jonah 1-4; hebrews 1:1-2, JSBB pgs 160-169*

symbol: the big fish

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 18

2011-12-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 18

scripture reading: daniel and the scary sleepover: daniel and the lion's den, from daniel 6, JSBB pgs 152-159*

symbol: daniel and the lions

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 17

2011-12-17T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 17

scripture reading: operation "no more tears!": the rescuer will come, prophecies from isaiah, JSBB pgs 144-151*

symbol: a crown, representing the king to come

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid friendly readings

advent reading day 16

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 15

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 14

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 14

scripture reading: the young hero and the horrible giant: david and goliath, from 1 Samuel 17, JSBB pgs 122-129*

symbol: the slingshot

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid friendly readings

advent reading day 13

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 13

scripture reading: the teeny, weenie...true king: samuel anoints david, from 1 Samuel 16, JSBB pgs 116-121*

symbol: david the shepherd boy

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 12

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 12

scripture reading: the warrior leader: joshua and the battle of jericho, from joshua 3 and 6, JSBB pgs 108-115*

symbol: the trumpet

*we are using the jesus storybook bible for our kid friendly readings

advent reading day 11

2011-12-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 11

scripture reading: ten ways to be perfect: moses and the ten commandments, from exodus 16-17, 19-40, JSBB pgs 100-107*

symbol: the stone tablets

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly reading

advent reading day 10

2011-12-10T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 10

scripture reading: God makes a way: moses and the red sea, from exodus 14-15, JSBB pgs 92-99*

symbol: the parting of the sea (don't you love my artistic interpretation in this one! ha!)

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

advent reading day 9

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 8

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 7

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 7

scripture reading: the girl no one wanted: the story of jacob, rachel and leah, from genesis 29-30, JSBB pgs 70-75*

symbol: stalks of grain, representing the years of work jacob did in order to marry rachel

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

advent reading day 6

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 6

scripture reading: the present, the story of abraham and isaac, from genesis 22, JSBB pgs 62-69*

symbol: the ram

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

advent reading day 5

2011-12-05T18:30:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 5

scripture reading: son of laughter: God's special promise to abraham, from genesis 12:1-7, 15:1-6, JSBB pgs 56-61*

symbol: stars in the sky, representing God's promise to abraham to give him as many ancestors as there are stars in the sky

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

advent reading day 4

2011-12-04T07:00:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 4

scripture reading: a giant staircase to heaven: the tower of babel, from genesis 11, JSBB pgs 48-55*

symbol: a tower

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

use your imagination when looking at our tower ornament, ha! that's a tough one to make! :)
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so the other day, i mentioned that we had a surprise adventure to kick off our advent season with the boys this year. a local church does this thing called "journey to bethlehem," where you join a "pretend" jewish family and go on a journey to bethlehem to be counted in the census. it was quite a production. we were in a group of about 40-50 people led by a jewish man, his wife and two children. along our journey we encountered roman soldiers on horseback, three wise men, an angel proclaiming the birth of a savior, terrible robbers and thieves, a few beggars, more mean roman soldiers and finally the town of bethlehem. we also saw camels (yes, real camels, 4 of them!), horses, sheep, goats, an alpaca, chickens, and a rabbit. the city of bethlehem itself was quite impressive. it was a walled fortress complete with an entire market inside. the journey concluded with being turned away from the inn because there was no room for us to stay and then seeing joseph and mary in the stable with the baby Jesus.

despite the hour long wait for the journey to begin, it was a really fun family adventure that i am hoping will leave a lasting mark on burrito and noodle. i wanted them to have a tangible picture of the sights and sounds that joseph and mary may have encountered on their journey.

it concluded with hot chocolate which may have been burrito's highlight of the night.

we are enjoying reading together this season. it is so sweet for me to hear burrito do the reading each night. so much has changed in the four years we've been doing this.

and i am so encouraged by all the friends that i have heard from who have chosen to join us this year. i pray that this tradition becomes a sweet family memory for you too!

blessings,
jenn

advent reading day 3

2011-12-03T07:00:00.000-06:00

advent reading day 3

scripture reading: a new beginning, genesis 6-9, JSBB pgs 38-47*

symbol: an ark or rainbow, a sign of God's promise that He will not destroy the earth with water again

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

advent reading day 2

2011-12-02T07:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 2

scripture reading: the terrible lie, genesis 3, JSBB pgs 28-37*

symbol: a fruit tree, representing adam's and eve's choice not to trust God and to eat from the forbidden tree

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.
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so how do we do our advent readings? well, we adjust it a bit each year as the boys get older, but we always do our reading following dinner. we all pile on the couch under a comfy blanket and soak in the words of the reading for that night. this year, we will have burrito read the story aloud and then have each boy take turns hanging an ornament on our advent tree.

this year we have a pair of trees we are designating for our advent ornaments.

we started off our advent readings yesterday with a little surprise christmas adventure that we've never done before. i'll report on that soon!

happy advent,
jenn

advent reading day 1

2011-12-01T07:00:00.001-06:00

and so begins our advent reading and advent tree decorating for 2011. advent means "coming" and reminds us to reflect and think upon Christ's coming to earth for us. please join with us in reading God's Word as we look expectantly towards Christ's birth.

advent reading day 1

scripture reading: the story of creation, genesis 1 and 2, JSBB pages 18-27*

symbol: a dove, representing God hovering over the deep, silent darkness as he was making life happen

_____________________

you might have seen this already floating around on facebook but if not, you MUST watch it. i think it's pretty clever.

the social network christmas

praying your first day of advent reading is just the beginning of a great family tradition for you,
blessings,
jenn

me and my burrito

2011-11-29T20:59:00.000-06:00

preparing for advent...get your ornaments ready!

2011-11-26T18:49:00.000-06:00

advent is just around the corner and the anticipation is building in our home.

what is advent? advent (from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming") is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a reminder both of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting of Christians for Christ's return. (from Wikipedia)

we celebrate advent by doing an advent tree. what is an advent tree? the idea of an advent tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-9, where God promises a discouraged nation that the glory they remember from david's time will come to them again. they will have another king from jesse's family, in whose reign the whole earth will know God. christians see that promise fulfilled in Jesus, and so we put up an advent tree and decorate it with reminders of how God prepared the world for that Kingdom. (taken from Darcy James' book Let's Make a Jesse Tree!)

each day, starting on december 1 and ending on december 25, i will share the scripture that we read as a family and the ornament that is hung on the tree with you in hopes that family and friends would join with us.

we crafted our advent reading plan to perfectly coincide with our favorite chidren's bible, the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.
if you have young kids and don't have this bible, you must walk out of your house, get in your car, and drive to your nearest bookstore to buy it. right now. seriously. and no, i am not being paid to say this. this bible is the sweetest one i've read. each story points towards Christ and is so good!

so here is our reading plan for this advent, along with the coordinating ornament. some of the ornaments are simple, crafted from felt, that noodle and i made together a couple of years ago while burrito was at school. others are hallmark ornaments or other ornaments that we've picked up over time. if you need a sneak peek at our ornaments, look on the right sidebar of my blog under "canned" and click on advent...this will pull up all our previous advent posts and you can see our humble ornaments!

so the reading plan is this:

dec 1 creation genesis 1-2 pgs 18-27 dove
dec 2 the fall genesis 3 pgs 28-37 fruit tree
dec 3 the flood genesis 6-9 pgs 38-47 rainbow
dec 4 tower of babel genesis 11 pgs 48-55 tower
dec 5 the promise to abraham genesis 12-21 pgs 56-61 stars in the sky
dec 6 abraham and isaac genesis 22 pgs 62-69 ram
dec 7 jacob, rachel and leah genesis 29-30 pgs 70-75 stalks of grain
dec 8 joseph genesis 37-46 pgs 76-83 a rainbow coat
dec 9 moses and the burning bush exodus 3-13 pgs 84-91 a burning bush
dec 10 moses and the red sea exodus 14-15 pgs 92-99 the split waters
dec 11 the law exodus 16 ff pgs 100-107 stone tablets
dec 12 joshua and jericho josh 3-6 pgs 108-115 trumpet
dec 13 david's anointing 1 sam 16 pgs 116-121 david the shepherd boy
dec 14 david and goliath 1 sam 17 pgs 122-129 slingshot
dec 15 david the shepherd psalm 23, 51 pgs 130-135 lyre
dec 16 naaman 2 kings 5 pgs 136-143 a heart
dec 17 isaiah isaiah 9 ff pgs 144-151 crown
dec 18 daniel in the lion's den daniel 6 pgs 152-159 daniel and a lion
dec 19 jonah jonah 1-4 pgs 160-169 fish
dec 20 the prophets neh 8-10 pgs 170-175 party hat
dec 21 john the baptist matt 3 pgs 200-203 a shell
dec 22 mary and the angel luke 1-2 pgs 176-179 an angel
dec 23 journey to bethlehem luke 1-2 pgs 180-181 a scroll
dec 24 the shepherds and wise men luke 2, matt 2 pgs 184-188 the three wise men
dec 25 jesus is born! luke 2 pgs 182, 190, 192-198 baby jesus

i would love for you to join us in doing this. this is our fourth year to do an advent tree and it makes this season so, so sweet! it takes a commitment of time, which just means less opportunity to be assaulted by consumerism in the malls. it takes a little bit of effort in making or securing the ornaments. however, it is so worth it and so rewarding! the boys loved taking turns hanging the ornaments on the tree, and the excitement and expectation builds as more and more ornaments fill the tree, until christ is born and christmas is here!

happy advent!

happy thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:58:00.000-06:00

thanksgiving blessings from our family to yours!

halloween 2011

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

halloween 2011 brought a new tradition to the rutherford household: carving pumpkins. neither john nor i could recall ever having done this as a kid and so we felt pretty uneducated and inexperienced. however, with a little online research, we had a great time!

we bought two really great, big pumpkins. they were so cute i hated to cut them up! noodle's class had carved a pumpkin a few days earlier so he was our go-to expert! after sawing off the tops, the boys were so excited to reach in and remove the guts! noodle was totally obsessed with removing all the seeds so that we could roast them later.

love these two!

the perfect pumpkins

john and noodle

burrito

the finished products

this is their scary pumpkin faces!

aren't they cute?


and here's their spooky side!

the trick-or-treating crew

and we had a blast on october 31 with our friends from church. we made an interesting group: a knight, a snow princess, a football player and a parrot! nonetheless, we all had a blast and have 10 pounds of candy to prove it!

thanks friends for hosting us that night and letting us raid your neighborhood!

and for some regular traditions, the boys participated in a reformation day party at school. they are asked to come dressed as either an animal from God's creation or a bible character. we've been a frog and a lion, a penguin, and as abraham and titus from the bible.

noodle as a parrot

this is what he looked like when he actually wore the bird head part!


burrito as a roman soldier. i know it looks more like a knight but use your imagination! :)

all in all, we had a great time dressing up and being with friends and having lots of fun!

noodle's 6th birthday

2011-11-03T10:09:00.000-05:00

as it seems to be standard practice now, we had a several-day celebration of noodle's birthday this year. on friday, we celebrated with friends at school. noodle sat at the front of the classroom while his friends sang "happy birthday" to him. it was very sweet. he then helped me pass out juice boxes and m&m cookies that he picked out from the store.

it also happened to be "texas rangers spirit day" so that it why all the kids have on rangers shirts instead of uniforms. a fun day all around!

then the party continued the next morning at the soccer game. after the game we shared gatorade and more cookies and the team all sang happy birthday to noodle.

i love his little smile here!

then the real party moved to skatetown that afternoon where the boys from noodle's class plus a couple of our dear friends from church joined us to skate it up. even john and i strapped some skates on and relived our glory days from middle school!

this is a little game they have the kids play...balancing the ice cream on your head.

noodle doesn't like cake (or ice cream) so we went with the big cookie for the cake!

noodle's actual birthday was on sunday so we celebrated the real thing with a family party at our house. this is one spoiled little guy! his ultimate present was the nintendo dsi and a multitude of new games for it.

happy 6th birthday noodle! we love you so much and thank God for you each day!

happy 6th birthday noodle!

2011-10-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

happy 6th birthday to my super sweet noodle!

i simply cannot believe that you are already 6. i definitely don't have a baby or little boy anymore! you are such a sweet blessing to our family. the Lord knew we needed a laid-back, easy-going personality in our house of first-born type a personalities!

you are my little pumpkin because you were due on october 31, but you chose to come a little early, which was fine with me! we love your little innocent personality, your inquisitive nature, your love for all things electronic, and your love for all sports.

you are enjoying being in kindergarten and you work with such intense focus and determination. you beg to read to me, you love coloring, and you can sit and work on a puzzle or lego set for hours. you memorize God's Word with ease, you come home from school singing praise songs that you have learned and you love being on your older brother's soccer team with kids that are 2 years older than you.

we have partied all weekend long and when things settle down a bit, i'll post pictures from the multiple celebrations we've enjoyed having with you. we love you so much and are so thankful that God chose us to be your parents.

we love you noodle!

making memories

2011-10-01T21:26:00.000-05:00

i saw this quote earlier in the week, and i am making it my new mantra:

don't cry because it's over. smile because it happened. ~ dr. suess

i am trying to remember this as my children grow up way too fast. i am extremely nostalgic, i don't much care for change, and i don't want them to ever leave me. i just love them so much. but i know (deep down inside) that i will have to let them go at some point, and that it is good to do so. but until then, i want to make as many sweet memories with them as possible and treasure every moment.

so that's what this post is all about.

as i let these thoughts settle into my soul over the past few days, i tried to think of some creative ways to spend time with the boys.

so on thursday i packed a lunch and a blanket and headed up to school. we have a beautiful pond by our grammar school building so i met the boys in the lunchroom and out we went to have a picnic by the pond. burrito and noodle eat at different times so it was a good opportunity to spend some individual time with them.

the beautiful pond. it ended up being 101 degrees this day (sept 29) but in the shade it was pretty nice.

my sweet noodle

my growing-up-too-fast burrito

this is one of those hold-the-camera-out-and-see-what-you-get sort of pictures. i wish i would have thought to do the same with noodle.

the boys are already begging me to come up again this thursday for a picnic date. who can say no to those sweet faces?

for more fun making-memories moments, i had friday's activities planned a few days in advance, and it was torture not telling them my plans! the boys have been begging us to go camping. for maybe an entire year. we bought a tent last april for burrito's camping themed birthday, and we have been either too busy or it's been WAY TO HOT to even consider sleeping outdoors.

well this weekend was going to be a perfect opportunity. the boys did not have soccer and the overnight temperature was going to be a glorious 54 degrees! so friday afternoon, while they were still at school, i set up our tent in the backyard. i figured we better do a trial run before officially camping somewhere just in case my little campers changed their minds about how much fun camping is, ha, ha!

i bought the necessary ingredients to make s'mores, i rented a movie to watch on the laptop, and we planned on attending our school's football game to ensure that we had two sleepy boys on our hands! and things went just as planned!

here are some sweet friend pictures from the football game. it was perfect weather!

noodle and his reading buddy caleb

burrito and his new friend diego, who is one of john's students. they came over to tell me that they were bff's so i told them i better take a picture! :)

and they were so excited to come home and see the tent set up! these first two pictures were taken in the afternoon before we left for the football game because i knew it would be pretty dark before we would get home.

our home away from home (but not really!) and yes, all 4 of us crammed into this tent for the night!


this is supposed to be their really excited and shocked faces!

burrito eating s'mores

noodle with s'mores already all over his face

we realized rather quickly why most campers do not eat s'mores inside their tents, and because the mosquitoes are crazy bad in our backyard, we decided we better head indoors to finish eating our snacks.

we retired to the tent around 11:30pm. the boys watched the movie for about 15 minutes and then were out. they slept all night until i woke them up the next morning for a breakfast of donuts. we never get donuts for breakfast so i think they were shocked and thrilled at the fun time we were having. i don't think any of us slept very well because we did manage to nap for a couple of hours this afternoon.

both boys said several times today that they had an awesome time and want to do it again. and i would semi-sleep on the hard ground again to make these types of memories with my boys.

i love them so much.

smiling that it happened ~ jenn

another one bites the dust

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

this time burrito managed to pull the tooth (#2) out himself. i told him that if he did, i would yell and scream and act like a crazy person outside (which i did) and that i would buy him a big ice cream cone (which i will do tomorrow).

the things mothers do for their children! :)

happy (belated) birthday to my sweet hubby

2011-09-25T20:56:00.001-05:00

though i am a week late, we do love and treasure our september birthday boy john. we have celebrated multiple times with friends and family. we love him so much and are so thankful to God for his humble leadership and shepherding of our family.

john and i celebrated his birthday first with a date to chuy's and starbucks. and our super sweet and awesome babysitter did not charge us as a birthday present to him. isn't that awesome!?!?

we celebrated with friends last sunday night by meeting for MORE mexican food and then coming back to eat dessert at our house.

we celebrated with family last night at my parents' house after eating at chuy's (do you see a trend here? we love our mexican food!) by eating more dessert and spending some relaxing time together.

the boys bought john a bicycle helmet and then made him a coupon to pick out a new bike. we didn't want to do that without john's input and who can wrap a bike!?!? the boys love going on bike rides with him and he's always had to jog along, so this really is a good present, ha ha!

john modeling the new helmet and holding the coupon for one free bike!

happy birthday to the best dad and husband ever! we love you!

labor day john deere races

2011-09-16T15:07:00.000-05:00

after seventy 100+ degree days here in texas, labor day was a refreshing 85 degrees. so how did we celebrate? we headed to mimi's and poppy's house for lunch and to sit out back and enjoy the beautiful weather!

you might remember me mentioning the best toy we've ever purchased: the peg perego john deere gator. it's still alive and kicking after 4+ years and 2 rambunctious boys, but we don't get the opportunity to ride it as much, and now that the boys are older they prefer their bikes. because we have sweet porkchop (my almost 2yo nephew) now, i knew this would be a great toy for all 3 boys at my parents' house. so we haphazardly loaded up this thing in the back of our pilot and off to grandmother's house we went.

and i was right. burrito and noodle LOVED riding the dog out of this thing down there. it's a good thing we have 2 batteries! and even porkchop warmed up to the idea of the bigger cousins driving him around. it didn't take too long for the boys to remember that poppy has a john deere of his own.

and 2 john deeres + 2 boys + one poppy = john deere races!

it was hysterical to watch them and impossible to decide who was having the most fun. i took over 200 pictures that day but these are a few of my favorites:


this one is my favorite i think because they are all smiling. don't miss those kool-aid mustaches!

poppy letting burrito drive. watch out world!

burrito is LOVING this!

noodle running, or driving rather, for his life!

check out burrito's hair flying in the breeze

porkchop showing me what he found on the patio

sweetness

i love this picture despite the shadow!

noodle's turn to drive!

porkchop keeping himself entertained with his football

noodle and poppy love

this picture would have been awesome if you could see ALL their heads.

it was so fun to relax and spend time as a family...a perfect day off of work!

texas rangers

2011-09-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

a few weekends ago we received a call from a sweet friend offering us their tickets to the rangers game. in one hour! we love this type of last minute surprise so off we went and had such a great time! the seats were awesome! and to sweeten the deal, the rangers were playing the angels, vernon wells' (one of our school dads) team. it was so funny to watch the boys be so conflicted over who to cheer for....do we want the rangers to win or do we want vernon to win???


this is vernon wells at bat

in 100+ degree heat, a lemon chill never tasted so good!


not a great picture taken with my phone but i just couldn't resist putting it here

well, vernon ended up winning but it was a great game and we had a great time, even though we were sweating to death!

soccer season is coming

2011-09-08T09:29:00.001-05:00

the boys are super excited for their first soccer game of the season coming up this saturday. we've been practicing since the first of august and the season officially started 2 weeks ago but we had a weekend with no game and then labor day weekend so it feels like it will never start!

the association we play with had a little team parade on opening day that our team participated in, even though we weren't officially playing that day. the boys are playing on the same team this season, the monsters, and proudly marched around the soccer field.

burrito is the "O" and noodle is the "N"

i am so excited to watch them play together this season. they are playing on a much larger field in this age group, and i think that will play to their advantage. we love our coach who is really great with the boys and is a Christian. we like to give him something at the end of the season to say thanks for all his hard work and i am thinking this season that i will try and take a great action shot of each boy on the team and make a photo book to give him. don't you think that would be fun? i even thought that if i can get it made early enough, i could have each boy autograph their picture. we will see how that goes....i'll have to remind myself to stop cheering them on and take some pictures. i get so wrapped up in the game!

boosterthon fun run 2011

2011-09-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

our school does a fundraiser at the beginning of the school year called the boosterthon fun run. the kids get pledges from those who would like to support our school and then run up to 35 laps at the fun run. supporters can pledge money per lap or pledge a flat amount. this year, our school is raising money to build a playground for our grammar school (grades 1-4). my thanks to those who supported our boys this year!

i'm not a fan of fundraisers, especially when the kids get all worked up about getting prizes for the amount of pledges they get, but my boys do have fun running. and they ran fast and hard and always exceed the 35 lap limit. they are so cute. i spent the morning with noodle's class this year and was able to take some fun pictures of his kindergarten friends. here are some of my favorites.

noodle before the race

class picture minus 2 girls

the girls (minus one). aren't they cute and sweet?

the boys. cute and tough!

look at that hair fly, he is running so fast!

noodle in action, with the ever-present tongue hanging out. :)

i love the way the sun was in my lens in this one and it looks like noodle is checking out his competition!

and even though i was the unofficial race photographer for noodle's class, i did manage to sneak over and cheer on burrito as well!

my other adorable athlete!

he looks so intense!

i love this one...like he is checking out his competition and wanting to edge out the lead over his friend!

i think they this was a lap where the kids could walk but not my fierce burrito...he just ran past them!

i tried to get a shot of the whole field. there were two racetracks set up, one for grades PreK and K, and one for grades 1 &2.


we were all glad it was over! this is noodle's class celebrating their victory with their senior.

now, if i can just remember next year to NOT send them in good clothes or shoes. for some reason, every year this is more of a mud run than a fun run. the kids don't seem to care, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the moms do!

congratulations little runners!

a rutherford update

2011-08-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

i am sad to say that this picture was taken about 3 weeks ago because 3 weeks ago we were not in school, and we had time to do fun things like bake!

it has been quite the adjustment having a second grader and kindergartener around here. i think we've settled into a good routine though, and i am grateful for that. for my own posterity's sake, i thought it would be fun to document our schedule so that years from now when we are really busy, i can look back at my busyness now and just laugh!

so both boys are in school 5 days a week this year. i work on monday, wednesday and friday, giving me tuesday and thursday to do all the housework types of duties that i still enjoy doing (i know, i'm weird!). burrito has homework on mondays, tuesdays and thursdays, and we fill in the other days with extra reading or math flash cards. we practice sight words and reading with noodle on daily basis.

i've found what works best for us is to come home, the boys take a shower, change into comfy clothes (we wear uniforms), and grab a snack. then we head to our reading room. we converted our front guest bedroom into a living space that we thought we would use more often. our house is small and so every square foot needs to be smartly utilized. we are so glad we made the change! it gives us a perfect spot to do homework, lounge around and read, or play.

most of our books all in one place. we love it!

this is a little lounger to sit on and read. a craigslist find. and don't miss my volkswagon van art above. i am still trying to convince john we need one of these!

this is where we sit and do homework, art projects, puzzles, you name it! we love having a dedicated table for these types of activities. we made the display above so that the boys can hang up their art.

here's a closer picture of the art wall.

and here's one more seating option near the windows. don't you just love those curtains? they are ikea! i adore them!

i help guide burrito through his assignments, teaching him to follow directions and be a little more responsible for keeping his homework and folders in order. while i am working with him, noodle practices writing his name or copying words from the books he is learning to read on a dry erase board. we can usually finish the work in an hours time, and then we have the remainder of the evening to eat dinner, go to soccer practice, or do something together as a family.

the boys have been doing great! noodle is so motivated to learn how to read that he is plowing through books by dr. seuss. we are currently reading go dog go. i love that he is wanting to read like his big brother. burrito is reading chapter books and is enjoying the magic tree house series. they both have a bible verse they must memorize and recite to the teacher each week. burrito has 20 spelling words a week with a quiz on friday. he also has math and phonics worksheets he must complete 3 days a week. all this work keeps us busy, but it's a good busy and they are learning so much! john and i still toy with the idea of me homeschooling the boys next year, but it's a take it year-by-year evaluation so we will see.

john's school year has started off well, and he is loving being goofy with middle-schoolers. i love that he is doing what he loves and hearing about how he is shepherding his students, not just teaching them latin. the stories of how so many kids struggle with identity and acceptance at this age can be heartbreaking, and i am so thankful he is able to come alongside these kids and encourage their little hearts with the Truth.

i am learning to appreciate this new season of life. it's very strange on tuesdays and thursdays being home without any children. i love, love, love being a mom, and it just feels a little empty without them here with me all of the time. i am trying to dive into my own personal passions on these days, when i'm not buying groceries, doing laundry or cleaning the house. my current project is a coffee table. let's just say if this were round 1, the coffee table definitely won. but i'm not a quitter!

i love house projects and doing research on the best products and companies so i joined angie's list. if you've ever contemplated doing so, let me encourage you to do it! it's not that expensive (i think it was $23 for a year's membership) and we've already used it several times. it's better than free sites because the reviews are from actual people, and they verify the reports so you can be assured that those bad reviews are not coming from the company's competitor. i have found that i just can't fully trust any of the other free sites. i've had good results twice now in the last 2 weeks so i feel like the membership has already paid for itself!

our latest big house project is the replacement of our original 1987 aluminum windows. we've wanted to replace them from the second we moved in, but they are not cheap so it's taken some time to save up the money and bite the bullet to do it. we can't wait for their installation (some time in mid-september) and to reap the benefits this winter. we chose some super energy-efficient ones, so we are hoping to notice a difference on our utility bill and comfort level!

the boys are still playing soccer with one major development this season: noodle is playing on burrito's outdoor rec team! we are so excited, not only because they love playing together, but also because that just means one practice and one game a week instead of two! hooray! now if the weather would just cooperate and cool down. we had practice in the 106 degree heat last week!

so that's the latest in the rutherford casa. maybe thursdays can be my blogging day. it's so hard to keep up with our ever-changing schedule!

thanks for reading and many blessings!
jenn

Mobile blogging

2011-08-12T10:16:00.001-05:00

I am learning how to mobile blog. Hooray!

Sent from my iPhone

first day of school 2011

2011-08-11T08:48:00.000-05:00

tuesday august 9 was our first day of school! this was the first year that all my boys had their first day on the same day this year. they were all nervously excited about the new year.

just for fun here are the first days of years past.

2008
2009
2010 burrito and 2010 noodle

and here are the pictures from tuesday:

john just loves that i make him pose for a picture each year too :)

my burrito on his first day of second grade

my noodle on his first day of kindergarten

my 2 grown up boys!

burrito came home reporting that the first day of second grade was not as hard as he thought it might be, but he knows that it will get harder and harder as the year goes on. i think he is slowly realizing that school will now require more work and less play. his good buddy caleb is in his class with mrs. r this year so he was pretty excited about that. there are 16 students in his class and i know by the end of the year they will all be best friends.

noodle came home reporting that the first day of kindergarten was fun, and he was able to play in "centers." he is very proud that he already knows his bible verse for the month because it is only 3 words: God is love. he already loves his teacher, mrs. l. there are 12 students in his class and this year there are more boys, but he did report he enjoyed seeing all his friends from last year's class at recess!

when i picked the boys up from school we all decided it was time to celebrate so we headed to braum's for an ice cream cone!

we are so thankful for the opportunity we have to attend the school that we do. i love hearing them talk about learning bible verses, chapel, praying for their friends and all of the good education they receive (even if it means they are not with their mama!).

love my boys!

family vacation 2011 day 4: one more day at the beach!

2011-07-20T08:00:00.003-05:00

we toyed with the idea of trying out another beach for our last day of vacation, but being the sentimental gal that i am, i wanted to go back to rockport. i wanted the chance to repeat the picture we took in front of the super groovy rockport sign last year.

here's our photo session from this year...

noodle, john, and burrito

and here's the full shot with the cool bird!

noodle, jenn and burrito

the three cousins: noodle, porkchop and burrito

the family shot sans john the photographer: jenn, noodle, stacey, porkchop, burrito, mimi and poppy

our family


porkchop with his best movie star look

i told you it was a photo session, ha! so after all the photos, back to the beach we went! this time we went beachcombing, looking for all sorts of shells, crabs and even jellyfish! we brought plastic jars for the boys to collect their seashells in. we buried noodle in the sand. john threw the boys around in the water again. it was another great day at the beach, and we were sad to leave.

john and noodle

burrito contemplating the vastness of the ocean

john and noodle

he really enjoyed being buried!

we spent the afternoon resting up a bit and then took advantage of the hotel's indoor swimming pool.

burrito swimming it up

stacey and porkchop

noodle enjoying the hot tub

noodle, who can't stand for the bathwater to be lukewarm, discovered the hot tub and loved it. he was talking to complete adult strangers and it was totally cracking us up!

we were sad to leave the next day but so glad to have spent so much fun time all together. it was a great family vacation that ended with lunch in austin, a trip to ikea in round rock, and then home, sweet home.

now we're trying to figure out a way to spend more time at the beach...a pop up camper, maybe? i keep trying to convince john we need to indulge my love for volkswagon vans and drive one to the beach!

i'll keep working on him. :)

family vacation 2011 day 3: the beach!

2011-07-19T08:00:00.002-05:00

after spending some time at the beach last summer, we knew we wanted to somehow work that in again this summer. when we initially asked the boys to choose between going to sea world or going to the beach, they without fail, would always vote the beach. we were so glad that we ended up being able to do both!

we headed straight for the beach as soon as we woke up on the third day of vacation. we grabbed a bite for lunch in corpus christi and headed over to rockport beach park. we decided to pay the big bucks ($10, ha, ha) for the annual beach pass and proudly slapped that baby on our windshield. i told john it was a sure sign that we are sentimentally tied to this place! we changed into our swimsuits and promptly found a place to bask in the sunshine.

i was happily setting up camp on the beach while john and the boys made their way out into the waves. just a few minutes passed when i could see (and hear) that noodle was upset about something. i made my way out into the ocean to meet them and by the time i got near him, i knew what had happened.

a jellyfish sting!

poor noodle. if it's going to happen to anybody, it will happen to him. i had some antibiotic cream packed in a suitcase in the car so i tried to get him to calm down a bit by offering him a nice cold bottle of water.

that didn't work. so i briskly made my way up the beach headed to the car when God provided my little beach angel jan. she noticed noodle's drama and asked me as i passed if he had been stung by a jellyfish. she asked if i had some medicine and recommended that if what i had didn't work, to make a run to the local walgreen's for some lanacane. duly noted, i made my way to the car to dig out our antibiotic cream. on my way back to noodle, jan remembered that she had some lanacane in her car and happily handed it to me. i few sprays of this stuff and noodle was a new man! we were so happy and grateful for her kindness. noodle and i made our way over to where they were sitting to thank her again, and we learned that she and her husband were at the beach celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. we talked for a bit and she gave noodle a seashell she had found earlier that morning. they were so kind and we were so glad that she came to our rescue.

well, it wasn't a few minutes after that when john and burrito came up from the water toting a nice little surprise in our purple sand bucket:

john told noodle that he caught the jellyfish that had stung him and noodle totally bought it! :) this one was quite small and according to all the stings on noodle's leg, the one that stung him must have been pretty big. we quickly discovered that the jellyfish population was quite large this summer, as we saw hundreds in the water and washed up on the beaches in the course of the 2 days that we were there.

i was so proud of noodle though. after a little time out on the beach, he did end up going back in the water some and enjoying himself.

my parents, sister, and cousin porkchop joined us later in the afternoon (they stayed behind and went to the san antonio zoo), and it was equally fun to watch porkchop discover the ocean for the first time too.

porkchop chasing off the pesky seagulls

we ended up being there for over 5 hours that day and it felt like 30 minutes. it is just so calm and relaxing and refreshing for our souls. john and i have decided that we must be beach people because we are just so happy there.

so we all piled into our cars and headed back to corpus christi to check into our hotel. we got cleaned up, dressed and headed out for dinner. it was 9pm! i don't think we have EVER taken our kids out for dinner that late before. and without reliving the details, we won't EVER do it again, ha, ha!

one more day at the beach. we were ready after a good night's rest.

family vacation 2011 day 2: sea world

2011-07-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

i'll admit it. initially, john and i were not that excited about going to sea world. we are just not fans of being outside for long periods of time in the heat, along with hordes of other people. so we went into it with low expectations.

we were pleasantly surprised.

we had a really fun time. now it was HOT and there were hordes of people, but neither were too aggravating. there were plenty of opportunities to get wet and cool off.

and there was plenty to see and do. we learned pretty early on that with 5 adults and 3 kids, we had to prioritize what we wanted to see and do. first up was the new "sesame street bay of play." porkchop is a huge elmo lover and running through all the water was appealing to my crew. coincidentally, on the way there i had the thought to review my cell phone number with noodle in case we were separated. sea world is a big place. after playing in the water stuff for a few minutes, john and i realized that we no longer knew the location of noodle.

that horrible pit of your stomach feeling sank in as we split up looking for him. and this is why we lost him:

and this is just a small portion of the sesame street part. there were lots of tunnels like these here that the kids could climb through. after a few minutes of desperately searching around, we found him and he quickly learned that he would not be allowed to leave our sight the rest of the day.

despite that one little crazy moment, the rest of the day was fun and enjoyable.

love this shot of noodle

look close to see burrito


look close to see noodle

i think cousin porkchop was a little overwhelmed. he didn't know what to do first!

the boys were so excited to ride their first roller coaster, the shamu express. it was pretty tame and basically did this little loop twice.


gotta love burrito's expression here!

so after our time in sesame street world we headed over to the shamu show. we knew we definitely wanted to see this! but before we made it over there, the boys were distracted by this:

they were a little too short to ride it, but they took full advantage of getting splashed!

these pics were taken in chronological order. here you see the water coming.

starting to get splashed

now you can barely see them in all that water!

it was a really great way to cool off i would say! now, on to shamu!

love these boys waiting for the show to start!

we really liked this show, partly because it was our first of the day and partly because these whales are so BIG! it was really fun to watch them perform.

after the shamu show, we were so hungry we thought we could eat shamu! so we headed to grab a bite and plan our next few hours at sea world. the boys scarfed down their lunch served on a souvenir plate and off we went to the sea lion show. i remember seeing this show as a kid and i think burrito enjoyed this one because of the silly humor.

the animals didn't always cooperate so it was funny to us adults to watch and see how the adult performers had to ad lib a bit. below is a picture of the walrus doing sit-ups!

at this point in our sea world adventure it is about 2:00 and 1000 degrees so our group decides to split up. john and i take the boys to the water park, and my sister and parents took porkchop back to the sesame street water park (he seriously loves elmo!). after a little cool down, we meet back up to go feed the dolphins. i was curious to see if the boys would be squeamish about picking up dead fish.

umm, no.

the fish were gone in a matter of seconds. i barely had a chance to take these pictures.

the last show was a great way to end our day. it featured dolphins and a beluga whale and a group of acrobatic swimmers and divers. there was this really funny guy that entertained the crowd before the show, and this is what burrito is watching in this picture below. it turns out that he was a part of the actual show and a fantastic diver. it was so amazing, i forgot to take anymore pictures, oops!

we of course could not leave without making a quick trip to the souvenir store and all 3 boys chose to take home shamu!

thanks sea world for a surprisingly fun day! and the next day we were off to the beach!

family vacation 2011 day 1: san antonio

2011-07-17T08:00:00.018-05:00

this year, we were so excited that everyone's schedules cooperated and allowed us to take an extended family vacation. there were 8 of us total: john, me and the boys; my mom and dad; and my sister and her little boy, known as porkchop here on the blog.

we thought it would be fun to take the boys to san antonio to sea world, and then on to the gulf coast for a few days at the beach.

day 1 started with a carefully planned departure time so that we would end up in austin for lunch. all of our trips always revolve around food in austin, ha! this time we ate lunch at guero's taco bar, and it did not disappoint! gotta love some good mexican food!

we left austin bound for some outlet mall shopping in san marcos. we all enjoyed getting out of the car and walking around a bit, despite the ridiculously hot temperatures. the three boys were spoiled on a visit to the children's place.

after a little shopping, we hopped back in for the completion of our trip to san antonio. this last leg of the trip seemed to take FOREVER! we were so ready to make it to our hotel. despite the crazy person that STOPPED on the HIGHWAY because they were going to miss their exit, we arrived safely and even had a little time to rest before heading out to dinner on the famed river walk.

we ate outside (with the gluttonous pigeons), and then walked around near the river a bit before deciding to head back to the hotel for a little evening swim. we wanted to make sure the boys were good and tired before bedtime! the indoor pool was fun for the boys, but i'm pretty sure the heat and humidity inside that room were far worse than the air outside. after suffocating for about 30 minutes, we headed upstairs to our room for showers. just as the boys were pulling off their wet trunks to jump in the shower, the fire alarms in the hotel began going off. burrito was so spooked he was ready to head out of their naked! they quickly put on dry swim trunks and crocs, and we headed out to the parking lot. little porkshop was about to take a bath too, so he came out in only a diaper. after a visit from the fire department, it was determined that someone in the pool room pulled the fire alarm. we joked that the HEAT in there was what tripped the alarm! and for days after, porkchop would say, "beep, beep, truck," talking about the alarm and subsequent fire truck.

this is a terrible picture but i just had to include the three boys outside while the alarms were going off

watching the fire truck (nice pool hair!)

so a relaxing bedtime routine went totally out the window! i was a little apprehensive to see how the boys would do sleeping in a bed together with us all in the same hotel room, but they did great! it's amazing the difference a few years makes! it used to be a nightmare to get them to sleep in a hotel. in fact, this was actually enjoyable. we stayed up late watching soccer on television, and the boys fell asleep without any begging or prodding on our part.

and a good night's rest was in order for the next day's adventure: sea world!

concerts in the garden star wars year 2!

2011-07-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

we went to concerts in the garden last year and had a great time so we decided to invite some friends this year and double the fun!

despite the blazing hot temps and some major sound glitches, we did enjoy the star wars music and laser light show. there were a bazillion people there this year so i think everyone in fort worth was there. the kids didn't mind though and had fun playing with each other, eating and drinking galore, and seeing the star wars characters.

thanks friends for going with us and enduring the hot weather and miserable crowds!

slip n slide

2011-07-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

this summer has been brutally hot. but i'm not complaining. i do live in texas for a reason! i DO NOT like cold weather and if you ask me, it's a whole lot easier to cool off than it is to warm up. and a whole lot more fun too!

these pictures are my proof!

burrito in motion

and now it's noodle's turn!

and now some pictures just for fun!

see how much fun you can have when it's hot outside???

breaking rutherford news!!!

2011-07-14T20:26:00.000-05:00

today was a history-making day in the rutherford household: burrito lost his first tooth!!!

at age 7!!!

it was HANGING on by a thread, and he was so consternated about pulling it out that i just had to do it for him. with one little yank, out it popped! he was so excited, and i think a little relieved, that it didn't hurt and that it was finally out!

and i cried.

i just can't take the fact that my boys are growing up.

nonetheless, i was so excited for him. he has been waiting so long to lose a tooth!

love you my snaggle-toothed burrito!

indoor soccer

2011-07-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

just when i thought soccer season was over, our coach gave us the option of playing as a team in an indoor league. we have never participated in indoor soccer before and we had heard that it's lots of fun so we decided to give it a try.

the most exciting part was that burrito's coach asked noodle to play on the team too! sweet little noodle was so excited to be a part of a "bigger boy" team. he has always practiced with burrito's team (thanks to the sweet coach) so he already knew all the boys. this was the first time that burrito and noodle have played soccer together and it was SO FUN to watch both of them on the field at the same time!

they had an awesome season and only lost 2 games. and this encouraged john to sign up and play indoor soccer too! so i am a certified soccer mom and wife cheerleader! it's been really fun to cheer on my players!

legoland discovery center

2011-07-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

as promised, here is our review of legoland discovery center. my boys are HUGE lego fans right now and i cannot walk through my house without stepping on at least one (or more!) lego. so you can imagine their surprise and delight when i told them after our trip to the zoo, that the fun was not over. we were headed to legoland!

and now for a tip on admission. if you go online and print your tickets before your trip, you will save a few bucks and guarantee that you can get in (it gets crowded and there is a capacity limit i'm sure). the boys, however, receive a lego magazine in the mail (it's free!) and whenever it comes, there is always a coupon for a free child's admission. that said, it was actually cheaper for us to use those and purchase our adult tickets there (because you can't use the coupons online) than it was for us to print them off online. so that's the scoop on ticketing. and we went before most kids were out of school to eliminate the chance of it being too crowded to get in.

so it was actually not crowded at all and we breezed right through. first you are lead by a tour guide through a part that demonstrates how legos are made. it was interesting but the boys could have cared less, they were so excited to see what else the place had to offer.

next up was a laser ride. we boarded a ride that led us through different lego scenes and we had laser guns to shoot the bad guys. there was a digital reader that kept track of how many we shot to see who shot the most. this was fun but only lasted a few minutes.

next up was a cute and short 3D movie featuring bob the builder and his friends. they were building a roller coaster (out of legos, of course!) and this was fun because it was interactive. when the movie simulated you riding the roller coaster, a huge fan would blow in your face, as if you were really on the ride. at one point bob spills his water bottle and water sprinkles on you. at the end of the movie, it begins to snow and soap bubbles sprinkle down from the ceiling. it was cute but my boys think they are way to big and cool for bob the builder! :)

they were trying to look like gangstas in their 3D glasses

we then moved into a room that had used thousands of legos to recreate particular places in the dfw metroplex. this was really amazing to see but not so much interactive. i've included lots of pictures here so you can see at what i marveled!

dfw airport

great wolf lodge and grapevine vintage railroad

the gaylord

southfork ranch

the ballpark in arlington

cowboys stadium

reunion tower and downtown dallas

state fair of texas

then there was a huge play area for kids to climb around on, think mcdonald's on steroids. the only place where the kids could play with real legos was an area where you could build race cars and then race them down the ramps. there was also an area with duplos to appeal to the younger audience and a pink princess castle to appeal to girls.

our last attraction was a ride that went around in circles and as you pedaled, you climbed higher and higher.

this is noodle and john

and last was the gift store, that you HAD to go in, in order to exit legoland. very clever you marketing people! i already dropped $38 plus tax to get in, and that was with 2 free child's tickets, and now i had to make my way through a store packed with overpriced legos! not a fan! we managed to get out of there unscathed.

so here's my two cents about this place. it was fun and my boys certainly had a good time. is it overpriced? yes. but i am a cheapskate! was there a lot to do? not really. should you buy a season pass? i sure would not!

i say it's a fun thing to do once a year, and hopefully they'll change things up a bit each year to keep it interesting. otherwise, i was a little disappointed. when you hear the commercials about this place, they tout it being full of thousands and thousands of legos with the idea that you get to play with them all. not so. it took thousands and thousands of legos to build all those neat little buildings that are on display that you're not allowed to touch.

so a little disappointing but we still had a fun time!

Summer Fun

2011-07-12T19:34:00.000-05:00

well, i am grossly behind in blogging. blame it on my part-time job, laziness, or just plain busyness. i have learned that i can only do so much and some things slip through the cracks and unfortunately, blogging has been one of those things.

my lack of blogging does not mean there has been a lack of blogging material. we have been enjoying our summer break to the fullest extent. and because i am so behind, i won't attempt to cram everything into this one post. i'll space it out a bit so your retinas are not bleeding! :)

so we'll start with our first post-school, hooray-for-summer activity, the zoo!

because both burrito and noodle are in school now, we did not renew our beloved zoo membership this year. so the second school was out and we were free from routine, we headed to fort worth!


burrito and noodle amidst the beautiful landscaping

i love this pic of burrito deep in thought

the elephants put on quite a show for us this trip. we have never been there to see them "take a shower!"

feeding the koi fish

the zoo had a dinosaur exhibit this time with robotic dinosaurs stationed around different areas. they have had this before when burrito was little and he was NOT a fan! this time, they LOVED it!

posing by the elephant

feeding the birds

we ended our trip with a visit to MOLA (museum of living art) and the boys were so pumped to pet a real, live snake. i was impressed with the little zoo man here because there were HORDES of children in here and he was being so patient!

believe it or not, we spent about 3 hours here visiting the animals, went home to pick up dad who had teacher inservice for just the morning hours, and then went to legoland for the afternoon! i was either the coolest mom, the most broke mom, or the most exhausted mom by the end of that day! or maybe all three!

so stay tuned for our review of legoland discovery center in grapevine!

Square foot garden

2011-05-22T20:57:00.000-05:00

we decided to try our green thumb out this spring and plant a garden. now i say green thumb with tongue in cheek because i am not very good about remembering to water the few plants we already have so taking on a garden will be quite a challenge.

i did a little research and decided that a square foot garden would be a manageable introduction to the world of gardening for us rutherfords. so first we had to decide on a sunny spot. in our very tree-shaded backyard this was bit of a challenge, bet here's the designated spot.

so first we had to gather our supplies....several bags of miracle-gro garden soil.

and wherever there is dirt, these jokers are not far behind. check out their gardening tools of choice.

we bought weed block to put down at the bottom of our square foot garden to keep out weeds and grass.

and to make our garden project even easier, we found this raised garden kit with all the wood pre-cut and ready to go!

it was quite easy to put together and it looks so cute!

the next part was a little tougher, that's why i let this cute guy take over. it's important to have a level place for your garden so that when you water, it will soak in and not run off.

the back part of our backyard is a little sloped so it took a little digging on the higher end to make a level bed.

next we placed our our little raised bed kit in and covered the bottom with the weed block.

and then we poured in all the dirt. the boys particularly enjoyed this part!

burrito and noodle took their little hand trowels and leveled out the dirt. once that was done, we divided the bed into 12, 1 foot sections and decided where we would plant each vegetable.

we let the boys dig the holes to plant the plants, and it was so cute to watch how serious they took their jobs.

and here is the finished product! we planted a roma tomato plant, a grape tomato plant, cilantro, okra, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and lots of onions!

and later we added a hanging strawberry plant.

and here is a recent picture of our garden. we won't win any contests but our plants have grown and they are starting to produce!

and some fruits of our labor....grape tomatoes

a roma tomato

and a strawberry!

if nothing else, our kids have a better appreciation for where food comes from, and they no longer think it just appears at the grocery store. i am excited to use some of our produce in our homemade salsa that we make weekly. we've had a really great time watching the plants grow and checking on them daily. in fact, burrito came running in today to tell me that we have a little baby bell pepper finally growing. this is such a fun family project, and i'm glad we jumped in to try it out. you should too!

burrito's acting debut

2011-05-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

our school's 1st grade class has performed a production of peter rabbit for the past 22 years. when john first started working there 4 years ago, we took the boys to see the first graders perform it then, so we knew how much fun it would be for burrito to participate this year.

there was quite a dramatic build-up to the passing out of parts this year and all burrito kept saying was "i just don't want to be the tree, i just don't want to be the tree, any part BUT the tree." i think the picture below pretty much reveals the part he received. there were some initial tears but several sweet friends encouraged him by telling him that the tree has one of the funniest parts in the play. he enters and exits to quite the comical musical accompaniment.

honestly, i think he knew the tree would garner some attention and that is probably why he didn't want THAT part! :)

the set was so cute and handmade by one of the art teachers at our school.

and here is burrito making his grand entrance. notice the look on his face....a little embarrassed i would say.

and this is what i would call the "stage fright look!" ha, ha, but he really did do great!

once his big tree part was over, he made a quick costume change and joined the bunny chorus.

i love all their little expressions here.

and here he is as a bunny. i really love the lesson behind peter rabbit, especially at this tender age. peter's mother told him to stay out of mr. mcgregor's garden or he would end up on the farmer's dinner plate. such an important lesson of obedience and understanding that there are reasons for the rules we make!

you did a great job burrito, and we were so proud of you!

mother's day tea with noodle

2011-05-17T19:57:00.000-05:00

i had the privilege of attending a mother's day tea hosted by my very own noodle a few days before mother's day this year. his class worked very hard to make this very special for us moms. they even escorted us into the room and led us to our seats.

they had prepared special treats for us. first was this sweet little flower arrangement. the label says "mom, you're 'out of the box' beautiful!"

he also made me this placemat. it reads, "i see flowers blooming bright in the sun. how will i choose just the right one? mother's day is coming and it must be right. to say i love you with flowers so bright." and the flower is his handprint. so cute!

all the children prepared each of us a plate of snacks first and then they also joined in eating the goodies.

they closed our special tea with a performance of singing. it was so cute and fun. i just love my little noodle!

and just for fun, here is the link to my mother's day tea with burrito when he was in pre-k.

hope you had a lovely mother's day,

easter 2011

2011-04-26T19:22:00.001-05:00

easter in pictures

burrito is 7!

2011-04-10T20:58:00.000-05:00

i just can't figure out a way to celebrate the boys' birthdays with just one party. we've always got the family party, the actual birthday party with fun snacks at school, and then the birthday party with school friends.

i am worn out! ha!

so first up this year was our family party with my side of the family. we celebrated with dinner from panda express, a huge oreo cookie cake and presents of course!

the boys with cousin porkchop

i love this picture of burrito's face....such glee and anticipation!

isn't this a fun cake? and sweet mimi even remembered noodle's distaste for cake (go figure!) and had cookies complete with decorating icing for him!

digging in!

noodle decorating his cookies with the letter "t" for the birthday boy

i think cousin porkchop enjoyed his cake too!

and the birthday loot! lego sets and some spending money!

second was burrito's actual birthday on wednesday, april 6. john and i took a cookie cake up to school for the kids to enjoy. we were clearly a distraction (read: chaos) in the classroom, so i failed to snap a pic and we scooted out pretty quick. we have the tradition of letting the birthday boy pick the place to eat out the night of their birthday and burrito picked cafe brazil. pics of that celebration with john's side of the family were here.

then came the all anticipated school friends party. this year we chose a campout theme and invited all the boys over to our backyard friday after school. john and i both took the day off of work to prepare and i'm glad we did because we worked like crazy people up to the very last second!

these signs greeted our guests as they arrived.

we tried to transform our backyard into a campground complete with tent, fire pit, and picnic tables.

when the boys first arrived, we had a camp backpack they could color with fabric markers. this also served as their party favor bag at the end of the party which included a flashlight, compass, whistle, camp pencil, and s'mores granola bar.

i was camp counselor and i led the boys in several camp games such as a backpack relay, hoola hoop pass, tug of war, telephone, rainmaker and other random games the boys wanted to play. it was fun but exhausting. the boys were hot and sweaty by this point so we took a break to eat hot dogs and chips and get a drink!

we had originally planned to roast the weenies over the fire pit but we quickly realized this was just way too much to handle with this many crazy boys so john just slapped them on the grill.

then it was time for dessert! i made individual cups of dirt cake complete with gummy worms. this was a big hit with the boys.

we concluded the party with opening presents and then just letting the boys run wild in the backyard.

i think the boys had a blast and i was in bed by 8:30 that night! i was exhausted!

happy 7th birthday burrito! we love you!

happy 7th birthday burrito!

2011-04-06T21:57:00.001-05:00

it's just impossible for me to believe that my burrito is 7 years old!

we celebrated his birth with a cookie cake at school and dinner at one of our favorite places, cafe brazil. there is finally one a little closer to where we live and this was our first visit to this location.

burrito choose candy bar pancakes as his birthday dinner/dessert choice.

burrito, you gave me one of the best gifts 7 years ago, making me a mom. it has been such a joy to watch you grow up. you are a lover of people, soccer, music and Jesus. you have become a much better reader, a whiz at math drills, and a serious soccer player. we love you so much and pray that you will love, honor and serve the Lord all the days of your life.

mucho besos!
mommy and daddy

spring break 2011

2011-03-20T14:18:00.000-05:00

spring break 2011 has been a different animal this year, if you will. i realized just how spoiled we've been the past few years, me being home (like always) and john being home on break. we've managed to pack in a little work and a lot of fun during the past few spring breaks.

this year was a little different now that i am a part-time working mom. i worked all day monday and tuesday, so the boys called those days "daddy days" and had lots of fun, male-bonding experiences. i chose not to ask a lot of questions. i probably don't want to know what all they did (or didn't do!).

on wednesday though, it was my turn as john went golfing with some friends. the boys and i headed south to mimi's for some shopping, eating and outdoor playtime with cousin porkchop.

thursday finally brought us together as a family, and we had fun hitting some good "treasure hunting" jaunts. friday was a work in the yard day. the boys love to jump in and help some, and then when they get bored, they move on to digging in the dirt or other outdoor boy activities.

so when saturday rolled around, john and i felt like we wanted to do something unusual that would make lasting memories for the boys. after putting our heads together, we decided to head out to grapevine mills and eat lunch at the rainforest cafe. we'd never been there before, and the boys have always been fascinated with the alligator out front. well, they haven't always been fascinated....burrito once was scared to death to get near him! what a difference a few years make!

now it is a little pricey, but we knew that going into it, and we felt like we could splurge a bit. in its defense, the food was yummy and the atmosphere just can't be beat. we sat in a booth near two gorillas who would awaken every few minutes to growl and shake the trees.

you can barely see the gorilla's hand behind noodle in this picture.

the below picture is complements of burrito.

noodle was loving the fried mozzarella cheese sticks!

we even splurged and let the boys eat "lava mud." it was a concoction of chocolate pudding, ground oreos, and gummy worms!

it was really fun but nothing compared to the fun we had in store for the two of them that evening!

now before i tell you what the surprise was, i must first take a moment and congratulate myself. you see, i am not the world's best secret keeper, especially when it comes to gifts or surprises for the ones i love. i just get so excited and i want to tell, tell, tell!

but i managed to keep this secret for over 2 months! and what was the secret????

tickets to see THIRD DAY in concert!!!! the boys have never been to a concert before, and john had never seen Third Day in concert so you can imagine my excitement for them! i had seen Third Day several times before but many, many years ago so it was super fun for all of us!

trevor morgan and tenth avenue north opened for them. they were both very enjoyable and talented but i can't tell you how many times noodle asked me, "is it time for Third Day yet?"

the boys love listening to their music and know a lot of their songs. and of course, Third Day opened with our current favorite, Lift Up Your Face. the boys were crooning it, noodle was playing his air guitar and jumping all around, and burrito said, "i can feel the music in my body!"

music is very powerful to me. i get the most passionate and most emotional when i am singing to the Lord. and to get to share that with my family, my 6 and 5 year old boys, wow, it was just priceless!!!

it was just the perfect night and the perfect ending to another great spring break with my family!

blessings,
jenn

soccer

2011-03-06T15:55:00.000-06:00

it seems i have found myself in the throes of soccer once again. this second time around has been much easier. less of a shock to my naturally-inclined unscheduled self. do i dare say that i've actually enjoyed it? well, i didn't enjoy the 30 degree wind chill at yesterday's 9:00 game, but for the most part, it's been fun. it could be because john and i have taken a "divide and conquer" gameplan this season. we don't both have to attend every single practice. every game, yes, but not every practice. and with both boys playing and practicing every week, just this little break seems to maintain the crazies.

here are some fun shots from last weekend's games. it was the first game of the spring season and both boys did super! we can see so much improvement, even after having played just one season. and i think they like it even more now!

burrito's team is the little monsters. they have glow-in-the-dark green jerseys. they don't really glow in the dark, but they should, they are "that" color! burrito is #4. here they are warming up.

an action shot. burrito scored a goal in this game and scored another goal in his second game, along with an assist. we try not to make a big deal out of making goals (or not) or winning (or not) but no one can stop me from bragging here! :)

i love, love, love this shot. he's so serious, watching his team while he takes a break on the sideline.

post game smiles from burrito.

noodle's team is the tigers and they have orange jerseys. he is #5. this is noodle with the ball below.

here's noodle making a break-away run. he scored several goals in this game and in his game yesterday. i think he and one other boy on the team are the only ones who "get it."

here are the tigers, minus one player who didn't make this game. it's just a 3 on 3 game so with only 4 players, noodle played almost the entire game. we were so happy that he seemed to have more fun and not freak out when he got tired (like he did last season). his coaches are two 16 year old girls (they are cousins) supervised by their dad/uncle.

and just for fun, here are two shots i've taken recently of them playing outside. i'm still trying to figure out my fancy camera. i haven't yet but despite that, i thought these two pictures were cute.

happy sunday!
jenn

superbowl

2011-02-19T20:14:00.000-06:00

i know i'm way behind but better late than never, right?

we had our own little superbowl party despite days of ice and snow and sick kids. we went to sprouts and picked out a bunch of good snacky foods and we told the boys they could stay up late and watch the entire game if they would take a nap. they happily obliged.

we had lots of good food....burritos, pizza, guacamole, 5 layer dip, homemade salsa, chips and margaritas. well, john and i had the margaritas. the boys had milk and water. can you guess who had what??? we spread out a blanket to have our own little picnic in the living room floor.

we had lots of fun cheering on the teams. the boys were rooting for the packers so i decided to cheer for the steelers. bad choice on my part, ha! we played a few games of uno. and we ate and ate and ate. we had a great time as a family!

kids say the funniest things

2011-02-09T14:38:00.000-06:00

last week when we were iced/snowed in for four days, i took the opportunity (finally!) to do a little organization on the ol' blog. in doing that, i took the time to read some old entries and was laughing out loud at some of the funny things the boys have said.

this one and this one and this one were some of my favorites! and this may be my favorite of all time!

after laughing my head off, i was feeling a little sad because i was thinking we've sort of outgrown this stage of life. well, i was wrong!

the other night when we were having our own little superbowl party (pictures to follow soon), we were playing several games of uno. both noodle and burrito are pretty good game players and i don't have to prompt them very often to play the right number or color in the uno game. we were enjoying playing all the draw 2, draw 4 and skip a turn cards on each other so when it came to noodle's turn, he played a skip card to skip john, though it was the wrong color. when we explained he couldn't play that one, he said "why can't i play the nnntttt (insert a buzzer noise here, i'm not sure how to type that kind of sound!) card????" we just died laughing!

here's what the new skip card looks like:

it sort of looks like a symbol that would indicate a "sorry that would be incorrect" sound of buzzer.

and then today at lunch, noodle had some yogurt on his shirt sleeve and john was instructing him to clean it up. burrito chimes in and says, "noodle, just lick it off!" i give him a stern look and explain that using a napkin would be a much better choice. his reply: "well, in the burrito club, you would just lick it off!"

the burrito club....ughhh. i am definitely NOT a member!

slowing down

2011-02-05T15:58:00.000-06:00

one of the best things about the past 4 days of being iced in has been being able to slow down. we're already not overly scheduled people by nature, but to slow down even more was a real gift.

the boys and i already loved to watch the birds who frequent our backyard feeder for a snack, but to be able to do so with snow falling down while we were in our jammies was a real treat. we had a challenge over those few days to try and catch a cardinal out on our feeder and snap a few pics. we saw several but by the time i had retrieved the camera, they had flown on.

until yesterday. i finally got smart enough to leave the camera out by our backyard windows so we would be ready. and first thing in the morning, we spotted a female cardinal, along with a host of bluejays, doves and squirrels!

one of the many bluejays

the bluejay is still here but the female cardinal is at the top of the pic

the bluejay gets spooked off by the dove and the cardinal joins him

and this gluttonous squirrel was around all day too

lo and behold, the long-awaited male cardinal

the female and male together

just love these guys!

thanks for indulging our love for birds!

blessings,
jenn

snow day part 4

2011-02-04T22:20:00.002-06:00

if you had told me last weekend when it was 70 degrees outside that we were going to wake up to a snow and ice storm that would span at least four days, beginning on tuesday, i would not have believed you. nope. no way.

but that is exactly what happened. john and i woke up at 3:45 tuesday morning to the sound of freezing rain and sleet pelting our two bedroom windows. the mystery of whether or not we would have school and work that day was too much to allow us to return back to bed. we watched in disbelief as the metroplex turned into a huge skating rink. now we've had ice before. that's not new. what's new is the ice lasting more than a day or two, and certainly never four!

the temperatures have been below freezing since early tuesday morning, thus creating the perfect conditions for some quite treacherous driving situations. we had to venture out on thursday to retrieve more antibiotic and we were surprised at how icy the roads were even after two days.

last night, the local meteorologists were warning of more snow, but just predicting a light dusting for our area. you can imagine my delight and surprise when we awoke to several inches of snow! even though noodle is recovering from sickness and burrito now has whatever "it" is, we just couldn't resist the opportunity to play in some real snow and not just ice!

here are my little snow buddies

here they are perfecting their snowball-making

okay, now they're warming up for a big fight...

the face-off

and it begins!

and of course, the big snow buddy had to get in on the action!

i was a second too late in snapping the shot but john surprised noodle by hitting him with some snow

and he hit him right in the face! poor guy!

but the fight continues...

and noodle sneaks in for some retribution!

i love that this man gets in on the action so i can snap some photos!

tomorrow will be the first day we've had temps above freezing so i'm not sure how long this pretty white stuff will last but it sure has been fun!

blessings and stay warm,
jenn

my little handsome men

2011-02-03T07:00:00.004-06:00

they've been begging me to buy them a tie, so when we found these shirts/ties set at wally world for $10, i couldn't resist. i could just eat them!

blessings,

jenn

hello snow (well, really ice) day 2011!

2011-02-02T09:49:00.003-06:00

just because one son has been sick and another would soon fall to sickness too, doesn't mean we wouldn't take advantage of the rare occasion of playing out in the snow. and i say "snow" with tongue in cheek because it was more ice than anything, but hey, in texas you take what you can get!

and thank goodness for the snow because that has helped assuage my downcast spirit in being home so much with sickies! let's just say every closet has been cleaned out, every baked good has been baked, and even my files are in order!

now that's what i call looking at the bright side, ha!

while we probably won't venture out today, the boys couldn't wait to get outside yesterday and i couldn't resist taking a few (and quick, it was cold!) pictures.

hope you and yours are staying warm today!

blessings,

jenn

i'm still here!

2011-01-16T15:05:00.001-06:00

it feels like it's been forever since i blogged, and well, i guess that's because it has been forever! thanks to some really sweet christmas blessings, we were able to upgrade our technology. and with an upgrade in technology has come a steep learning curve for me! i'm definitely not as smart about these things as i once was!

so we have a new laptop (a macbook pro!), which means i am now using the old macbook and we have plans to use our old pc laptop for the boys. just as we swapped things out, the old pc refuses to log onto the internet and with the holidays and getting back into school, we just have not had the time to address it. so unfortunately a few pics that i would love to share here are being held hostage by the old pc. it's probably mad because we are now a macbook family, ha!

and to further complicate things, i was able to upgrade my camera to a canon t2i dslr! i'm totally excited and totally overwhelmed with all the things this camera can do. so in between working full time over christmas break, getting everyone back into school and back on a schedule and being the all-around super-wife and -mom, i've not had a whole lot of time to figure things out. i finally sat down with the camera and the manual for about an hour last week and learned what all the buttons mean!

i will say i am completely impressed with the upgrade in technology. i would love to someday take professional looking (you know, because i'll never be a professional) pictures for families that just cannot afford to have that done the conventional way.

so other than the upgrade in techonology, here's what else we've been up to:

*we took a trip to abilene to meet up with 2 of my college roommates and their families (6 adults and 9 kids 8 and under!). it was super fun to take the kids to our college campus and reminisce about our days there. here are a couple of pics from john's phone (mine are being held hostage, remember?):

these are the 6 oldest kids. the 3 youngest were napping. we had kids ages 8, 7, 6, three 5 year olds, 3, 2, and 1!

then came christmas with my family on christmas day and with john's family the day after. here are a few of my favorite pics from that:

then we rang in the new year with friends and back to school and routine we went. it has been a smooth transition and we are all reminded of how helpful routines can be!

and just when you think the celebration is over, january 11 comes and we get to celebrate our anniversary. this past tuesday i celebrated being married to this cute guy for 8 years! i am reminded daily of his love for me. i am truly blessed! we celebrated our anniversary this year by leaving the boys with mimi and poppy and heading to downtown mckinney to check out their little antique shops. we had such a great time and i am so thankful to the Lord for giving me such a good gift in john!

so that's where we've been. busy, busy little bees! hopefully i will rule this new technology and it won't rule me and i'll be a more faithful blogger!

blessings,

christmas 2010

2010-12-26T20:28:00.002-06:00

i think i love christmas more as an adult than as a child. this time of year is so rich for a believer. we loved (again) reading our advent readings each night and hanging an ornament on our advent tree. burrito even read a few stories to us this year. we enjoyed receiving christmas cards in the mail each day and praying for those families each night at dinner. i love it when it's so cold outside you don't want to leave your house, or change out of your jammies. i love the childhood anticipation that comes with christmas morning. this christmas was no exception, and we have truly savored each minute, even the hours we've spent assembling lego sets!

here are just a few of my favorite pictures:

christmas eve present opening: new jammies!

our traditional 3 presents on christmas morning

john's stocking stuffer...yes, he wanted a snuggie!

and then more presents at mimi's and poppy's

christmas with cousin porkchop

pillow pets, lego sets and new shoes topped the list of favorites this year. we are blessed beyond measure. praying you and your family had as sweet of a time as we did.

when i figure out how to download pics from my new fancy camera, i will post more pics from our christmas with nena, pappaw, nonna and uncle daniel.

merry christmas!

advent reading day 25...He's here! Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T08:00:00.004-06:00

advent reading day 25

scripture reading: the birth of Jesus, from luke 2, JSBB pgs 182, 190, 192-198*

symbol: baby Jesus!

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 24

2010-12-24T08:00:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 24

scripture reading: the King of all kings: the story of the three wise men, from matthew 2, JSBB pgs 184-188*

symbol: the three wise men and the star

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

advent reading day 23

2010-12-23T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent readings day 22

2010-12-22T08:00:00.005-06:00

advent reading day 21

2010-12-21T08:00:00.005-06:00

advent reading day 20

2010-12-20T08:00:00.006-06:00

advent reading day 19

2010-12-19T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 18

2010-12-18T08:00:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 17

2010-12-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 16

2010-12-16T08:00:00.003-06:00

advent reading day 16

scripture reading: a little servant girl and the proud general: the little slave girl and Naaman, from 2 Kings 5, JSBB pgs 136-143*

symbol: a beautiful heart, cured from the leprosy of sin

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

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i am not very creative but i can sure copy someone else's creative ideas! i borrowed this idea from edie's blog last month when she was hosting the 12 days of handmade christmas. i love stuff like this so noodle and i made 12 jars of our own cinnamon honey butter to give to friends. i think they turned out really cute!

merry christmas,

advent reading day 15 (and a rutherford update)

2010-12-15T08:00:00.003-06:00

advent reading day 15

scripture reading: the good shepherd: david the shepherd king, from psalm 51, 2 samuel 7, JSBB pgs 130-135*

symbol: the lyre, representing the psalms written by david

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd-jones for our kid-friendly readings

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i don't know about you but even my best attempts at not being busy this advent season are being challenged. it has been busy from some good and fun things but still busy!

i had the privilege of escorting noodle on a field trip this past friday. his class has been studying community helpers so we visited an animal hospital and a fire station to see what real life community helpers do. it was fun and i even learned some things in the process!

here we are listening to the veterinarian talk about what she does with kitties in the exam room.

getting to pet the kitty

looking at a digital x-ray of a pregnant dog

taking our pulse/ox in the operating room

listening to the fire fighter tell about what he does on a daily basis at the firehouse

going out to see the firetruck

inside the firetruck

group shot!

i will say that i was completely exhausted by the end of the trip. i don't know how teachers do it!

advent reading day 14

2010-12-14T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 13

2010-12-13T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 12

2010-12-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 11

2010-12-11T08:00:00.001-06:00

advent reading day 10

2010-12-10T08:00:00.005-06:00

advent reading day 9

2010-12-09T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 9

scripture reading: God to the rescue: moses and the great escape from egypt, from exodus 3-13, JSBB pgs 84-91*

symbol: the burning bush

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.

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the town square where i work is one of my favorite places this time of year. we took advantage of some warmer weather the other night to just walk around and take it all in.

and have i ever mentioned how much i adore all things charlie brown and christmas???? a sweet friend from school found this out about me and passed this along. oh how i love it!!!

advent reading day 8

2010-12-08T08:00:00.003-06:00

advent reading day 8

scripture reading: the forgiving prince: joseph and his brothers, from genesis 37-46, JSBB pgs 76-83*

symbol: joseph's beautiful multi-colored coat

*we are using the jesus storybook bible by sally lloyd jones for our kid-friendly readings.
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i think this is my favorite ornament. the boys took to the making of this ornament with reckless abandon and it shows!

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in other news....
our football team advanced to the state championship game this past saturday. living in a house full of boys means that there was no question that we were going! so off to killeen we went! it was a beautiful day for football and while our team played hard and exhibited the character of Christ, we came up short at the end and lost 48-41. we are proud of you cougars! thanks for a great season!

and i love that at the end of the game, both teams came together to pray!

advent reading day 7

2010-12-07T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 6

2010-12-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 5

2010-12-05T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 4

2010-12-04T08:00:00.002-06:00

advent reading day 3

2010-12-03T08:00:00.002-06:00