Christmas 2008

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Birthday JESUS!

Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday To You
Happy Birthday Dear Jesus
Happy Birthday To You.

Happy Birthday Jesus
I'm So Glad Its Christmas
all The Tinsel And Lights
and The Presents Are Nice
but The Real Gift Is You.

Happy Birthday Jesus
I'm So Glad Its Christmas
all The Carols And Bells
make The Holiday Swell
and it's All About You
happy Birthday Jesus
JESUS I Love You!

MERRY CHRISTmas!!!

Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - Happy Birthday Jesus

Amy's and Emily's Journey Part 3 ~ Answers

Well, Praise God we have answers!

Believe it or not the girls had two totally different things.

Amy had an Immune Complex. This is were her immune system was attacking her immune system. Dr. Patel explained it like this - it is like you have a loaded gun and you are pulling the trigger, once you get the trigger to a certain point you can't go back you have to fire. He said that since this wasn't caught early (back in August when it started) that it would have to run its course which takes anywhere from 3 to 4 months. Well I am so glad to let you all know that the blisters on Amy's tongue are gone, Thank you Jesus.

Emily's blisters started up on the 22nd of November. She had a virus that last 3 to 4 weeks and I am so glad to let you know that the blisters on Emily's tongue are gone, Thank you Jesus.

Well, all of us are doing well including David who is moving around and looks to be at 90% (recovering from his pneumonia).

Thank you all for your love and prayers!

Some of the fun things the girls have been doing!

Well, it has been a busy week and a half full of all sorts of fun things and activities for the girls.

One activity the girls had done was decorate their trees in their rooms.

Here is Emily's tree, which now has a beautiful red star on top (not seen in this picture).

Here is Amy's tree, she has Dora as her tree topper.

Here is Emily singing with the Girls Scouts at a Nursing Home last weekend.

Here is Emily at her teachers house having a Girl Scout party. We made Chocolate Crackles, a messy cookie to eat because of the powder sugar but so worth it. It is almost like a little brownie bite but better. These are one of Emily's favorites!

The Girl Scouts had an ornament exchange and this is the ornament Emily won.

Our Nativity set has grown. Thanks to Mr. Jolly our Elf, he left the girls a few boxes which included the Little Peoples Inn at Bethlehem, the Little Drummer Boy and the Three Wise Men sets. What a thoughtful gift from Mr. Jolly!

Here is Amy at one of her two school parties where she got to visit with Santa and Santa gave her a gift.

Here is Emily at her school's choir performance the other night. They were little elf's and the cutest thing was when they sang "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" as Emily fits that picture very well!

Here is Emily at her school party on Friday as Santa made a surprise visit.

The girls have been so Blessed this year and have had fun doing things to fulfill our 25 days of Advent!

Remembering My Grandmother

It was 10 years ago this past Tuesday, December 16th that cancer took the life of a precious woman, my Grandmother,

Olivia.

Grandma was an amazing woman. Always smiling, energetic, creative, encouraging and had such a love for life and the most positive attitude of anyone I have ever known. She was a living example of the Proverbs 31 woman.

She was a Godly God fearing woman, daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother, grandmother and would have been the Greatest Great Grandmother in the world!

To celebrate her love of baking and cooking we put together a cookbook in her honor with her most famous family recipes and added some our families favorites too. Over 100 pages of recipes later we finally have our cookbook completed!

Because one of Grandma's favorite things to make was tamales, I have been asking my Aunt Libby to teach me how to make one of my Grandmothers specialties. Well, today was that day.

Here is our meat.

Here is our masa.

Here is our bean ones.

Here is our meat ones ready to be steamed.

And finally here are our tamales being steamed.

There is nothing like eating a tamale right from the pot. It took about 5 hours to complete and we made 22 dozen total of meat, bean and jalapeno bean tamales. These tamales came out delicious and I will be serving them Christmas day.

Thank you Aunt Libby for your time and for my lesson today. Thank you also to Uncle Anthony for your help and TIPS, and thank you Dad for your help.

Emily can't wait to help out with my next batch of tamales. The traditions of my Grandmother will be passed on from generation to generation!

It was a beautiful day as we looked though albums and pictures and reminisced about a wonderful woman, my Grandmother, Olivia.

We miss you so much and look forward to the day we see you in heaven.

Girl Scout Cookies

Just a reminder if you are wanting to purchase those delicious cookies from the Girl Scouts, Brownie Emily will be selling them starting January 1st!

The Night that CHRIST was Born ~ Bethlehem Nights

Wow, what an experience. The girls and I participated in Bethlehem Nights up at church last night. We first got dressed in costume.

We were in the kids corner where our assignment was to play games that were played the night Christ was born. There were marbles and dreidel which Emily plays very well.

Here you can see Emily signing the census.

Here is Amy signing the census.

The girls had so much fun. We were only signed up to volunteer for one hour but we ended up staying two hours.

Here are Emily and Amy with a Roman Soldier.

Emily went to jail and I had to pay two coins to get her out.

Then it was the most anticipated experience of the night. We saw the "CHILD"!

The girls were in amazement.

This picture would have made a wonderful Christmas card.

What a blessing and honor it was to participate with my girls in this re-dramatization of the night that Christ was born!

Amy's Choir Christmas Program

Well, last night at Choir Amy sang in her Christmas Program. It was so cute. Emily was not present as she is in 1st grade and does a different Christmas Program. I attended by myself this year as David is still trying to recuperate from his pneumonia.

Here is Amy 2nd child from the right 2nd row from the bottom (if that makes any since?).

Here is Amy as the presentation was done. I didn't get that many pictures because I was video taping her performance.

Here is a cute close up of Amy back in the Choir room!

Sweetheart, you made Mommy so proud! You were like an angel up there!

Siesta Fiesta Ornment Exchange!

Well, this is my first year participating in the Siesta Ornament Exchange. I am so over joyed that I did.

You can see what Siesta's are about here:

http://thesiestafiestablog.blogspot.com/

You can see the Siesta Ornament Exchange here:

http://thesiestafiestablog.blogspot.com/2008/12/siesta-ornament-exchange-link-up.html

My Siesta Buddy is Sarah from "Tales from Oakbriar Farm"

http://oakbriarfarm.blogspot.com/

I received my package Monday and I was so excited as I love ornaments!

And here is my beautiful ornament! I love it as it looks just like the Bethlehem Star!

I found the perfect place on my tree for it too, wouldn't you agree?

It is perfect and it shines and glimmers and my daughters love it just as much as I!

Can you find it in this picture below? It stands out just like it did the night Christ was born.

Thank you Siesta Sarah as I truly love the ornament you picked out for me!!!!

Our Elf on the Shelf!

Well, we have been doing our 25 days to Christmas count down and having fun. Yesterday the girls received their "Elf on the Shelf" and boy was the excitement great! We sat down as a family and read the book and then the girls came up with a name for their Elf. The ones that were flying in the air were "snow, bell, skipper, nibbles, peppermint, spy"and finally the one the girls agreed on "JOLLY"!

Yes, our Elf's name is Jolly. We placed him on the piano last night and the girls awoke this morning to find him hiding on some greenery on the entrainment center. Jolly also left the girls a note letting them know how excited he is to be assigned to the Osborn girls! I can't wait to see where we will find him each day.

We also got an invitation from my friend Carrie about making a green hand print for a wreath that she is making with all her family and friends. This was our project last night and the girls did a fabulous job.

Emily drew baby Jesus in a manger and decorated it with sequence and there is a white star at the top of her middle finger.

Amy drew a Christmas mouse and also colored it an used sequence.

Our project on Monday was making little Christmas trees (using pine cones) and decorating them with sequence (as ornaments). They came out cute.

Here are Emily's!

Here are Amy's!

With all that is going on we are truly enjoying the CHRISTmas season!

Amy's and Emily's Journey Part 2

Well, last Wednesday we saw Dr. Patel and we LOVE him. He is so knowledgeable. He has several different things in mind of what could possibly be causing the blisters in the girls mouths. He took 4 tubes of blood each from both Emily and Amy, they were both brave. We should have answers hopefully by December 16th.

Please continue to keep them both in your prayers and I will update as soon as I get more information.

Amy's Journey Part 1

Well, as you all know Amy still has the blisters on her tongue, this has been going on for well over 3 months now.

Saturday, November 22nd, Emily came up to David and said I think I have Amy's blisters in my mouth. And low and behold my heart sank as she opened her mouth for us to see the blisters that are now on her tongue.

My chiropractor told me to rub honey on their tongues as this will help. And you know what it has helped with the discomfort and pain but it has not healed it.

I asked Emily how they felt and she said they itch, as Amy was not able to tell me exactly how it felt only that it hurt.

So tomorrow we are off to see Dr. Patel, an oncologist. I am praying and hoping he will be able to help us figure out what this is and what is going on. We do know that from the pathology report this is not life threatening but I still want to figure it out and get them taken care of.

Please continue to keep the girls in your prayers as we continue this journey.

David Update

Well, David went to the doctor this morning and he is definitely going to stay home at least one more week maybe longer. The pneumonia has really taken a toll on him as he barely gets up for a few minutes and he is worn out. He started fever again tonight so continue to say a prayer for him.

David's 50th Birthday Hoedown!

Well, as you know David was in the hospital for a few days with pneumonia. He was able to be home for Thanksgiving and rested up all week for his Birthday Hoedown last night. It was so worth it.

Ann, Margaret and Patty really planned out and decorated the place for this special celebration. All David's nieces and nephews and brothers and sisters pitched in to make this a great and memorable birthday for David.

The very special birthday surprise gift were 2 Non-Bearded White Crested Black Polish Hens.

Emily is so excited about raising these hens. They should be laying eggs in a few weeks. Emily named them Pip and Squeak (David really should have named them as they were really his gift, but Emily is taking them over, LOL).

Thank you to everyone that could make it and to the ones that couldn't you were surely missed!

This Hoedown took everything out of David as he has been sleeping all day. Hopefully when he sees the doctor tomorrow we will have good news to report!

Our 25 Days of Christmas Countdown - Advent Calendar

December 1st is Monday and I have been looking into our Advent Calendar. I have taken ideas from We Are THAT Family http://www.wearethatfamily.com/2008/11/our-family-advent.html and my dear friend Carrie, she has some great ideas with daily scripture to re-enforce the project or theme of the day. http://minimemitchells.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas.html.

Here is what I am looking at for this year (most of it taken from We Are THAT Family and Carrie's blog):

{December 1} Send a letter to a child. It's such a great way to teach your kids about others. Read I John 4:10

{December 2} Make Santa’s list. Write a letter to Santa and drop off at Macy's Department Store, they donate to a charity for every letter they receive.

{December 3} Let your light shine! ask: How can we do this? Read John 1:5

{December 4} Build a fort from blankets & sheets/ Read a Christmas book in the fort!

{December 5} Lay on the trampoline and stargaze, talk about your dreams for the future.

{December 6} Make cookies.

{December 7} Watch a Christmas Movie.

{December 8} Make paper snowflakes (here's some great patterns) Read Ecc. 3:13

{December 9} Play a board game.

{December 10} Pray for pour people. Read Luke 1: 39-45, Mary visits Elizabeth.

{December 11} Work on Awana teacher’s, Choir teacher's and School teachers gifts.

{December 12} Leave little notes of encouragement all over (i.e. the mailbox, grocery story, park, etc.). Read Psalm 100

{December 13} Bethlehem Night (at church). Discuss the differences between living in Christ days and now.

{December 14} Watch a Christmas Movie and make hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows!

{December 15} Give $5 to someone (find a needy person). Read Rom. 5:8

{December 16} Make a gingerbread house.

{December 17} Talk about Missionaries and pray for them. Isaiah 12: 5-6

{December 18} Make a birthday card for Jesus. Put it under the tree.

{December 19} Sing Christmas songs.

{December 20} Have a Happy Birthday Jesus party, make a cake and give him a gift- such as being good that day, making a wise choice, talking nicely, being kind to a sibling etc. Go look at Christmas lights.

{December 21} Make something for our neighbors (a card, cookies?).

{December 22} Make a spinner http://www.thetoymaker.com/

{December 23} Take bubble baths with Christmas confetti (recipe).

{December 24} Read Christmas story from the Bible. Open Christmas Eve gift from Mom and Dad (pajamas).

{December 25} Talk about Jesus, what it must have been like to be born in a manger, what the sky looked like, the 3 wise men, how there was no place for them to stay except with the animals, etc.

What does your Advent Calendar look like?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Well, I got up this morning at 5:00 am and put my turkey in the oven and went back to bed only to be awakened by Emily at 6:30 am. So she crawled up in bed with me and we watched some TV this morning. It is always a joy to wake up to the smell of turkey roasting in the oven and cuddle with my little princess!

I made my Grandmother's dressing for the first time in my life yesterday and I am very proud of myself as when it baked in the oven this morning it smelt just like Grandma's house and the dressing tasted like hers too.

I have so many things to be thankful for:

Jesus

My salvation

Church

Bible studies

My husband

My girls

family

friends

Being a SAHM

Our health

Health insurance

Our home

Our cars

Our lives

Our dogs

Sweets

The funny things the girls say and do

Online shopping

Wal-Mart

Pj's

Slippers

Vaporizers

My husbands job

Favor of God on our lives

Gods protection

Backpack purses

Cell phones

Tea

Grandma's dressing

Ann Taylor

Hugs and Kisses

Smiles

and many, many more things!!!

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name." Psalm 100:4
"Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name." Hebrews 13:15
"Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will]." 1 Thes 5:18

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Guess who we visited today?

Yes, it is one of our traditions that every Thanksgiving Eve we visit Santa at the Mall. When we are done visiting with Santa we walk over to the Great Cookie Company for cookies. This was a nice visit as no one was in line and we spent a good 10 minutes talking with Santa. His request again this year is chocolate chip cookies.

Emily and Amy were thinking about what to write on there lists for Santa!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Well today my Sweetheart turns 50! Wow, I can't believe it. I just wish he didn't have pneumonia. Yes, my pour sweetheart spent this weekend and today his big day sick. The girls drew their Dad some cute pictures and let him rest (rest is always a great gift).

My sweet friend Carrie brought us lunch/dinner. She made us this wonderful chicken noodle soup. Believe it or not the pot is almost empty. She also made us a fabulous pie and some extras that really made our day!

My other sweet friend Carla came by the house today to drop off this made from scratch german chocolate cake (David's favorite). It is the best german chocolate cake we have ever had.

Happy Birthday My Love, get well soon!