Advent Update (and an advent calendar fail)...

So a couple years ago, I made this cute advent garland. One of my friends was in charge of the crafts at a local MOPS group and she had some leftover supplies! The boys just love opening the boxes each day to find some sort of Christmas activity to do together. Last year, I was a few weeks pregnant and had absolutely no energy. My Christmas decorating was very minimal and this garland simply seemed like too much work! 

This year, however, I was determined to make it work! I sat down, made a schedule of events for the 25 days, and filled the boxes with all the activities we'd be doing during the season. When we opened the first one, though, it was the wrong activity. We weren't supposed to eat a special Christmas treat yet! I hadn't even gone to the store to stock up! The next day was mixed up too! Somehow I had gotten off by a day or two when I was filling the boxes and they weren't following my planned schedule at all and I honestly didn't feel like taking the time to rearrange them all! 

Enter this board in my kitchen:

That's right! I told the boys that we were gonna have a change of plans! Instead of opening the boxes each day, they could come read the board in the kitchen each morning to find out the activity for the day! It's been a little bit of a fail, but so much easier for me! It's even given me the chance to change the plans at the last minute without them knowing! Sneaky, I know! 

Here's some of the fun that we've been having! 

Yay for snow on Thanksgiving! 

We had so much fun inviting our church family over for a Christmas Open House! 

This cute little Santa was the doorman for the Open House!

And this handsome guy handed out ornaments to our guest! 

Our yearly trip to Candy Cane Lane - a street where every house is extravagantly decorated with lights! 

We worked hard on a gingerbread house.....

The final result! 

We were able to go to a local nursing home with some friends to sing to the residents! 

The crew (minus the the dads)

Family ornament making day at school complete with cookies and hot chocolate! So fun!

Needless to say, we're still having tons of family fun even in spite of my calendar fail.

What about you? Have your kiddos had fun so far this season? I'd love to hear about it! 

Kiddo updates and a job change......

It's been a super long time since I've had a stay-in-my-yoga-pants, no-makeup, sip-two-cups-of-coffee kind of morning! I'm soaking in the quietness and cool autumn breeze and thought I'd pop in for some random updates.....

Little brother is as silly as ever! He'll be three next week and is so excited about his Ninja Turtles party! He constantly keeps us on our toes, but his affectionate and hilarious personality is precious! 

The "little princess" (as her brothers call her) will be 3 months tomorrow! Crazy! She is growing so fast and has such a gentle personality. I just love her baby babbles and snuggles! Oh! AND she sleeps really well at night which is wonderful for the whole family! 

Big brother is loving 1st grade. His reading ability has really exploded this year. It's so fun to watch how excited he gets to figure out new words. It's like a whole new world has opened up for him. 

I took some time off from our worship team after Little Sister arrived in July. I'm finally back at it this month. I didn't realize how much had had really missed it! 

Speaking of church things. After a lot of prayer, we decided that I would step back from my job as secretary at church. I was just swamped with everything ministry-wise, office-wise, and mommy-wise. God provided an awesome replacement for me, and she's doing a great job picking up on all the new things I've been teaching her. I can't tell you how excited I am to spend more time with the kiddos and make our home a refuge for Adam. 

Still waiting.....

Just like my other pregnancies, my due date has come and gone. I thought maybe a girl would be different, but God obviously has better plans. I have an induction scheduled for this coming Wednesday, but I'm still praying that she'll come on her own before then!

39 weeks

In the meantime, I thought I'd post a couple pictures and a little update because I know I won't be around much here after she arrives!

We had a great 4th together as a family. It was really special to have one last holiday with just my two boys before we become a family of five.

This little guy was totally excited for the parade that goes right by our front yard!

Me and my sweetie! This was our 10th time celebrating July 4th as a married couple! I can't wait for the next 10 celebrations! 

 We love having some of our best friends come down to watch the parade with us! 

 Adam's been doing a weekly Bible class with the boys on top of our family devotion time! 

We've been searching for clues pointing to the story of redemption throughout the Bible.

The boys even get to use a little magnifying glass, hence the strange one-eyed face! :) 

Yesterday, I found the best surprise in the mailbox from Bethany House Publishers and Elyse Fitzpatrick/Jessica Thompson! I feel like my oldest is getting to the point where he's thinking about the "deeper" things in life and in the world. I'm SO excited to read this brand new book for some Christ centered advice on answering these inevitable questions. 

This is getting packed tonight in my hospital bag! I'll let you know my thoughts in a few weeks! 

In the meantime, if you want to read it with me, you can buy it here or here! 

Follow me on Instagram, our FB page, or here on the blog for any baby updates! I'll do my best to not leave you hanging!

P.S. My pregnancy brain totally forgot about a Friday Feedback question this past week. Let me know how you've been doing in the comments here or over at Facebook!

New (an update)......

Can you believe it's May?? We're 5 months into 2014 already! I've been noticing a pattern of firsts in our little family lately! 

Here are some things that have been "new" for us in the last month or so......

 Our big guy competed with his fellow AWANA Sparks in his very 1st Sparks-a-rama. 

Adam had the sweet opportunity to share the gospel with all the K-2nd grade competitors before the games began.....

A few of the kiddos ready to go! 

Our team was super young and the whole day was new for many of them, but because of some mistakes from the other teams, we brought home 1st place! Woo Hoo! 

Adam celebrated a new year of life at the end of March. The boys thought it was hilarious to use trick candles for the 1st time! 

One of Adam's birthday gifts was the new P90X3 workout! I love watching my boys learn healthy living by watching their Daddy's example!

I've done some of the DVD's with him so far, but can't wait to do it full-force once this little sweet pea arrives! 

Easter was an absolutely beautiful day here in northern Pennsylvania. It was one of the first warm Easter Sundays we've had in years! 

There's always something special about setting a whole day aside to focus on the new life we have in Christ! 

One of the biggest changes we've experienced as a family in the last couple weeks is Adam's new job! 

Our Sr. Pastor recently retired after 26 years of ministry at our church. After much prayer and discussion, our church family voted to call Adam as their next Sr. Pastor. We felt God's leading to accept that position and start this brand new journey. 

Would you pray for us? We desire to know God and make Him known in our little community. We desire to more fully grasp the gospel and share that with our church family. 

This new job also brings more stress and emotional demand on our growing family. I struggle with fears that we won't be able to balance it all! I pray that this new season will cause me to lean more into Him and His unending grace and strength! All in all, we're pretty excited about this new chapter! 

Before jumping into the saddle, we took a little weekend getaway down to Lancaster. Our little monkey was super excited about his first ride on the train in Strasburg! 

 Loving the new experience!

Have I ever mentioned that these boys have my heart? 

The new little girl in my belly is healthy and growing bigger every week. I took this picture at the beginning of last week! We're in the home stretch and overall, I've been feeling wonderful still!  I'm enjoying all the kicks and somersaults before she arrives. Won't be long now! 

Well, that's what's been new with us lately! Lots of changes and new experiences! 

How have YOU been? Share with me in the comments!! 

Lately......

This blog is starting to remind me of the long distance relationship I have with my childhood best friend in Florida. Because of the craziness of motherhood, ministry, jobs, and life in general we go months without talking. When we finally get a free moment to chat, our conversation lasts for hours because we have so much to catch up on. 

I love this space here, but I feel badly that I check in so infrequently that I post a million pictures from the last few months! Hope you don't mind if I share some recent highlights.......

We hosted a volleyball night at our church gym recently. It was so fun to do something active together! The kiddos even played nicely together the whole night! 

Just like so much of the country, winter just will not end here in PA. It's been bitterly cold for months which means the snow we get never melts in between storms. 

 This is one of our recent snowfalls! Crazy, huh? 

The forecast shows that we may possibly reach 40 degrees this weekend, though! I can't wait! 

These kiddos are the love of my life......

Our school recently held a special day at our local university for all the elementary kids. We got to attend one of their basketball games for free (popcorn included). The boys really loved their first game ever. 

 Last month, I was able to attend the IF: Gathering online. What really got me excited after such rich teaching and encouragement was the new site, IF: Equip. Thousands of women around the world are currently reading through the book of John. Each day, we read a portion of a chapter then watch a short discussion about it on the website. I can't believe how refreshing it has been to read this familiar book again. I've been reading from the Gospel Transformation Bible that I wrote about a while back. The notes with each passage really trace the beautiful thread of redemption throughout the entire Bible. 

If you don't currently have a plan for your reading, I'd definitely sign up for the daily emails. 

We had so much fun snow tubing last weekend! Even the boys loved it! 

Best buddies!! 

Our little one is growing bigger. This is a picture from about 22 weeks. Later that day, we found out that we are having a....... 

Supergirl! 

We're still a little shocked to be entering this new world of girliness! I'm sure I'll have much more to share on that topic in future posts!!

That's about it for now! I've had a few other posts bumping around in my mind. We'll see if this pregnancy brain can get them actually written one of these days!

I'd love to hear how you have been lately! Feel free to update me in the comments or over at our A Steady Rain Facebook page!