The Titanic and candy corn cookies

At the beginning of this week Jason and I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a few days together at Mackinaw Island for a pastor's conference while my parents watched our children.  It was my first time spending multiple nights away from all three children.  I missed them a lot, but it was a treat to spend some time reconnecting with Jason while exploring Mackinaw and enjoying the conference activities.
     Micah has been interested in learning about the Titanic lately, so, while we were away my Dad spent some time reading to Micah about the Titanic.  It seems to have really peaked his imagination.  The time spent learning about the Titanic, coupled with the massive amount of rain we received today caused the Titanic to arrive at our house this afternoon in the form of cardboard boxes and pieces of foam.  Madeline, Micah and Elijah spent time floating on the sinking ship, and attempting to make it to dry land.  It was very cute to watch.

     As the Titanic game began to slow down, the boys decided to pull out paper bags and pretend to be robots.  Here is a photo Micah as the R5D8 robot from Star Wars.

After the imagination games came to an end, the kids helped me make candy corn cookies just in time to take with us to a fall party at a friend's house.  The rain continued into the evening, forcing the party to be moved inside.  We had a great time visiting with friends.  The boys ran around with the other children at the party and even decided to have some fun running around in the rain.  After the party I drove home with two wet and tired boys and one sleepy girl.  It was a fun day!

Burping is funny!!???

I was talking with a friend earlier this week and made the realization that I have completely let my blogging go by the wayside.  Which really isn't a big deal, however;  as I was trying to compile last year's blogs into a book, I was made aware of all of the fantastic humorous and cute memories that I have managed to freeze in time throughout the year by diligently blogging about them.  So often the children say or do things that are hilarious and I vow to remember each cute phrase or funny incident of course unless it is recorded in someway I forget it.  So, I am going to make another attempt to resume my blogging.  I may not be extremely regular, but hopefully I will manage to record some of the more humorous and meaningful portions.  Yesterday seemed to be filled with some pretty humorous moments, so what better day to start blogging again...So...Here goes....

When we learned we were going to have a little girl, I was so so thrilled.  I love my boys like you wouldn't believe, but the idea of having a little girl to help add a little pink and softness to our house sounded wonderful.  I have always longed to buy dresses and dolls and tea sets.  I am thankful that Madeline does allow me to do girly things with her she loves her dolls and tutus so, some softness has been added to our house, but Madeline is a spunky little girl and our conversation yesterday revealed to me just how silly she is.

I scooped Madeline up along with her cup of juice to load her in the car so that we could travel to Trinity to pick Elijah up from Kindergarten.  As I began walking with her, she started making a strange burping sound.  I looked at her, and realized what was happening.  At the age of two she was actually trying to make herself burp.  I smiled at her and said in kind of a silly voice ,"Madeline, don't burp thats yucky."  Madeline looked at at me and in the same tone of voice said,"No!  Its funny!"  How could I keep from laughing!?  What a goofball!  

Keep in mind, the boys were not home from school yet!  Life just gets sillier when they join in the fun! On the way home from town after school, Micah and Elijah discovered a rope in the car that had been left from when we had pulled our boat out of the water and proceeded to weave a spider web throughout the back seats of the car with it.  I will be working today to untie all the knots. 

     As  bedtime approached I asked the boys to get their pajamas on and brush their teeth while I read stories and sang songs to Maddie.  As soon as I was finished with Madeline I called the boys out to the couch so that I could read with them.  Micah and Elijah both came out giggling as they had decided to put their pajamas on first with their underwear over top!  They looked hilarious!  I decided not to fight it.  I am pretty sure that Elijah still had his underwear over his pajamas when he woke up this morning.    

Moo!

This year, Micah Elijah and Madeline all had a part in our Christmas play at church! Micah was a Shepherd who wanted to know what abiding means, Elijah was a child in his pajamas preparing to sing a song in the Christmas play, and Madeline shared the sound that a cow makes. We were a little skeptical as to weather or not she would say Moo in front of the entire congregation, but she did and she did it with gusto! All of the children did a fantastic job sharing their part of the Christmas story! We were very proud of everyone!

Give Thanks!

We had a whirlwind Thanksgiving.  It was fun, but busy.  It always feels that way with Elijah's birthday falling so close to Thanksgiving day.  This year, Nana, Uncle Nunky and Aunt Naomi joined us on the 16th of November then, Papa and Aunt Hannah joined us on the 18th and spent the time leading up to Thanksgiving at our house.  They had the opportunity to tag along with us throughout our weekly activities which included swim lessons, pioneer clubs, church, Micah's Turkey Trot, Elijah's birthday celebration(which we did early to make sure Papa was able to celebrate with Elijah.) and we spent the remainder of November cooking and eating.  That's what it felt like at least!  It seems that anytime there is a large group of family together it feels as if you live from one meal to the next.  We had a great time.  The girls had a wonderful time trying out new recipes and shopping together, while the guys had fun doing the things guys do!

Rotten chocolate milk and the forest Elves!

      Some days, when I pick Micah up from school, he is quiet and has very little to tell me about his day.  Other days, he is full of stories about all of the exciting things that went on during his day at school.  Today was a day full of stories!  The funniest story he wanted to share with me was the fact that another child in his class had accidentally left her chocolate milk from the previous week in her desk causing a huge stink in the classroom.  It's kind of a funny story but, what really put the icing on the cake for me was the conclusion that Micah had arrived at following the rotten milk incident.  Micah informed me today that he was relatively certain that the elves in the forest drink rotten chocolate milk because one day he had been outside and he lifted up the top of an acorn and decided to smell it, and sure enough, it smelled just like rotten chocolate milk!  Where did Micah get the idea that we have Forest Elves in Traverse City.  I have often felt that our forests in Traverse City could easily be used as an enchanted forest in a movie, but I have never mentioned anything about Elves living in our forests!  How funny!  I love Micah's imagination, and I am glad that even though he growing older ever day, he still makes use of his fun loving imagination!

       In honor of Micah's great imagination,  I have decided to include a few of our Halloween photos in this post.    I found Micah's imagination to be especially active around Halloween!  Instead of dressing in   a typical boy costume such as a super hero or a pirate Micah insisted on being Abraham Lincoln.  He was very cute alongside our little Bumblebee(Madeline) and our Mario (Elijah)
 

Catch up!!!

I can't believe how much time I have let pass, and how many events have occurred since my last blog.  It is amazing how sometimes life just gets clipping along and before you know what happened, a large amount of life has passed you by.  Every evening, as I sat down and thought about catching up on my blog I became overwhelmed with all of the large events that I wanted to try to capture in one blog.  Instead of sitting down and attempting to catch up I managed to let more events with great memories pass by!  Here are some of the highlights of our last month.

Jeremiah and Kaitlin's Wedding!
     We had a fantastic time at Uncle Jeremiah and Kaitlin's wedding.  It was gorgeous!  The weather was fantastic and it appeared that everything went wonderfully!  We were excited and blessed to be a part of it and are thrilled to add Kaitlin to the Bauer family!  She is a great addition!

Greenfield Village

We spent a very brief afternoon at Greenfield Village in Detroit.  We had just enough time to see a glass blowing demonstration, ride the carousel, eat lunch and take a Ride in a Model T.  Micah and Elijah were thrilled!

Hiking the Dunes

We took a little time to be tourists in our own home town area.  We took time to visit the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, and did a little hiking.  It was a little wet and rainy, but  we still had a great time.

Pre- Halloween fun

We were very excited to spend some time with Aunt Hannah before Halloween.  We traveled to the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins and cooked/ate yummy food!

We also traveled to Pahl's Pumpkin patch with Elijah's pre-K class

I am also planning to post pictures of Halloween, but that will be another post.  

Reckless Words

Uncle Jeremiah's wedding(unrelated to blog topic)

     A few weeks ago, Micah’s memory verse for school was the verse Proverbs 12:18
”The words of the reckless pierce like swords”   When he received this verse as his memory, my thoughts were “How fitting” children spend a lot of time throughout their early years of life learning how their interactions affect the people around them.  They learn how to “Use nice words” and how to say “Please” and “Thank you.”  All of these exercises are opportunities for children to begin to learn how to think through their words and the affect that their words can have on their peers and family members.  These lessons help children to learn to take a minute to think before shooting out words that cannot be taken back.  It is amazing how a word said thoughtlessly can stick with a person for years and years.  In many cases things that were said to us years ago can even begin to make up who we believe we are and where we feel our value comes from.  When in all actuality this is not and should not be where our value and self worth is found.    As this verse has been brought to the forefront of my mind, I have become more and more aware of the many times each day that I listen as hurtful words are slung at someone.  The scary thing is that due to social networking sites like facebook, twitter and the use of bogging, people can very easily attack someone without ever having to face them.  I watch as statuses are posted and tweets are tweeted and blogs are updated and I often find myself wondering, “Was someone hurt by that post? ” Ephesians 4:29 reminds us
 ”Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”   Jason always reminds the youth (and adults) at Redeemer that it is so important to treat everyone as if he or she is worth the death of the Son of God.  Because they are and that is where our value is found!  I pray that in all our interactions, we would treat people this way.

Uncle Jeremiah's Wedding(Unrelated to blog topic)

     Children learn by example far better than they learn through lecture.  They watch every interaction we make, and they hear every time we say something that is hurtful to another, they also hear every time that we compliment others.  Most times children try to emulate our behavior.  I pray that I can through my words and actions encourage my children to think before speaking.  I feel that in many cases, if we would step back and ask ourselves “Who do these words benefit? Are they helping someone grow closer with Christ or will they only serve to anger another? “  If we took a few minutes to think through our words, I would pray that many time we would choose to delete the hurtful message instead of posting it or that we would bite our tongues instead of lashing out at someone.  Colossians 4:46 is a fantastic guideline “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”  As I was finishing this blog post, I returned to Proverbs 12:18 to read the second half of the verse and this is what I found , “but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
” Proverbs 12:18 in its entirety is  “
”The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”  May our words always be words of healing and never swords to one another!