Merry Christmas

^{MERRY CHRISTMAS!!}

^"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

Four Years

I can't believe this was four years ago!

Happy Anniversary to my dear husband.

This is one of my favorites.  Being pronounced Mr. and Mrs. ... and the journey begins!

Minnie's Apples

Sterling is starting to come up with some interesting stories.  I always forget exactly how they go, but I really don't want to forget them.  I want to start recording some of them here even if I don't get them exactly word for word.  I think they are funny I hope this one gives you a laugh too!

Tonight after we had our family worship time, I was talking to Sterling about each of the ornaments on the advent tree.  We were reviewing what the mean.

Sidenote: I was really worried that it would all be over his head this year, but I must say that I was very wrong.  Having ornaments that represent the concept we are teaching each night has been such a great help for Sterling.  Each night we review all of the ornaments and I am amazed at how much these visual clues help him remember.  It is so precious to hear your child see the black heart and say that we disobey God and then see a cross next to it and say Jesus died for our sin and see a lamb and say He was the sacrifice. "No more lamb sacrifice, Jesus is the sacrifice"  Thank you Father for beginning to plant these truths in his mind and hopefully in his heart!

Anyway, we were talking about what one of the ornaments meant and Sterling started talking about apples.  I was a bit thrown off and curious so I asked him what he was talking about.  This is somewhat how the conversation went:

Sterling: Eat the apples
Me: What apples?  Did you eat some apples today  (I've been gone this afternoon)
S: Eat some apples.  Giraffe eat the apples.
Me: The giraffe ate the apples
S: Yes  Apples on the tree
Me: What giraffe (I'm pretty sure he has imagined a giraffe eating apples at this point, random)  Are there apples on the tree?
S:  Yes. points to the Christmas tree
Me: Are there apples on the Christmas tree
S: Yes.
Me: There are? (we have no apples on our Christmas tree)  Show me where they are, I can't see them.
S:  No, apples on the tree.
Me: (thinking maybe outside)  Are there apple on our trees outside?
S: Yes.
S:  Minnie's apple tree
Me: Manny's apples?  Handy Manny's apples?  Does Handy Manny have an apple tree?
S: MINNIE'S apple tree
Me: Oh Minnie Mouse has an apple tree (I am remembering at this point maybe seeing an apple tree on Mickey Mouse one time)
S: Yes! Minnie's apple tree.  Giraffe eat the apples.
Me: The giraffe ate the apples off of Minnie's apple tree? 
S: Yes.
Me: The giraffe ate the apples off of Minnie's tree, did he get them all?
S: No, eat the apples off of that tree.
Me: What tree?  (he points to the advent tree which has felt ornaments that could look like apples to him)
Me:  Are there apples on our advent tree?
S:  Yes.
Me: Did the giraffe eat the apples off of our advent tree?
S:  Yes.
Me: Are they all gone or are there some left?
S: All gone.  Giraffe ate all the apples.
S: Minnie has an apple tree.
Me: Does she still have some apples?
S:  Yes.
Me:  Do you think she would share with us since all of our apples are gone?
S:  Yes. Eat Minnie's apples.

What a dizzying mind an almost 2-year-old must have.  It is so fun to get to peak inside of it from time to time.

Read on to meet Sterling's dear friend.  Or should I say "horse friend"?  Was that too cheesy?

Cute Pictures and A Best Friend

 I had to add this one even though the focus is on the horse.  That face is just too funny!

Sterling loves this horse.  He also has a stick horse that he loves and totes around the house everywhere.  He and this rocking horse have had a rough time becoming friends though.  Sterling went through a long period of time where he was scared of horses.  I think I have documented him being scared of a certain book with a horse.  Then he got this rocking horse for his birthday and was terrified.  We had various "therapy" sessions in which we would take him close to the horse and let him pet it (or make him pet it). 

After almost a whole year, Sterling has gone from being terrified of this horse to all of a sudden being best friends with it.  He will talk to it and feed it.  I have to pretend to pour juice, water, milk, apples, you name it for the horse.  He will lay down in the floor and have conversations with the horse - who is sometimes named Ann Elizabeth and most of the time named Jamis.  He loves to ride him and give him hugs and kisses.  Just do not squeeze the horse's ear.  He makes real horse sounds and Sterling reverts back to being petrified of him.  He can even be found at times dragging the horse by the handle around the house saying, "Common horse, let's go horse, common horse."

Advent

I am so excited to be celebrating advent this year.  Having a toddler is so much fun and I love that he is able to listen and even interact in our family devotions before bedtime.  This year we are using the same advent devotion that the Winters used as kids.  The devotions come from the book Family Celebrations by Ann Hibbard which I think is now out of print, but you can order it on amazon.com.  It has devotions and crafts for kids for most holidays.

Anyway, you create an advent tree, you can make yours out of poster board or the suggested felt.  However, after making three of these advent trees (and having blisters from cutting a bunch of felt with regular scissors instead of fabric ones) I would suggest my favorite, painting the symbols on Christmas ornament balls from Hobby Lobby.  Get some craft paint and colored balls and you have some pretty ornaments you can put on your Christmas tree, a special smaller advent tree, or I think this year we are going to hang ours on the garland on the mantle. Of course the draw back of having pretty ornament is that little fingers can't touch them or put them up.  Since I already had our felt one done I may just use both.

Each day there is a Bible reading to tell part of the Christmas story beginning where else but in the beginning.  The readings take you through the Old Testament to the story of the birth of Christ.  There is also a short paragraph to discuss and questions to ask your children about the readings.  (These are going to have to be adapted for our one-year-old, but are probably perfect for ages 3+)  There is also a Christmas carol or Hymn to sing each night.

There are of course so many other options to use to celebrate Advent.  One of which is very similar to this, a Jesse tree.  You get a tree or some sort of chart and there are ornaments each day with objects on them to take your family through the Old Testament and family line of Christ.  These are traditionally made of felt and embroidery as well, but I have even heard of people finding the objects around the house to put on the tree.  If your children are older it would be fun for them each morning to know what object is needed for the tree and have them find something or make something that could go on your tree to represent the story.

Another thing our family does is lighting our own family advent wreath during our devotion times.  There are so many things that the wreath represents and if your church does one I'm sure they explain the candles each week.  But the basic idea is that we are waiting for the Messiah.  We are waiting figuratively for the coming Christ, but we are also waiting literally for the second coming of Christ.  Each week as you light more candles the lights get brighter as we approach the coming of the Messiah. 

A Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a great time getting to see family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am so thankful that we are able to be so close to grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.  I love that Sterling is able to spend so much time with extended family.  We had no idea that God would allow us to ever be so close to family and we are enjoying every minute of it.  We spent Wednesday and Thursday with Alex's parents and Friday and Saturday seeing my family.  Unfortunately I didn't take out my camera one time at my parent's house, but I got so many pictures at Nanie and Pop's.

This is how Sterling spent his entire morning before the cousins got there.  He is so into Hot Wheels right now and he loved this ramp.

I'm so glad that Sterling has so many cousins all so close in age.  I loved having this as a child, cousins were the best, but I hardly got to see them.

 I have no idea what they are doing but they were really cute doing it.

We have so many things to be thankful for this year.  Most of all a precious healthy boy and our growing little girl on the way.  It has been so fun to be able to watch Sterling learn what it means to be thankful.

I have more cute pictures from the weekend but my blog is still having issues with my rotated pictures.  It is still trying to turn pictures the wrong way which is perhaps why I haven't put too many updates recently.  It is such a hassle to get it saved in a way which makes it happy and I have to do it on the desktop computer.  So stay tuned.

Christmas Cards

Since I've learned to use photo shop I haven't bought my Christmas cards online.  I love being able to make my own and be creative. However, I can't find a printer in town that I am happy with.  So, this year I saw that Shutterfly was giving away 50 Christmas cards to bloggers as a promotion so I decided to look at their website, I mean you can't beat 50 cards for free!  I've never ordered from them, but I have to say they have quite the selection.  I thought I may find one that I liked but they have so many cute cards.  It is going to be so hard to decide.  They also have some cute birth announcements.  I may have to check back when Ann Elizabeth is born as well.  Here are some of the ones that I really like:

 Of course any of these would be cuter with our Stertle in them, now we just have to take some pictures!

Here are some links:

holiday cards to http://www.shutterfly.com

birthday invitations to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birthday-invitations

baby announcements to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements 

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à  http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

Picture Updates

I know that I have been really bad about posting pictures lately.  But don't worry, that isn't because I'm not taking plenty!  We have had lots to do recently so I have several things to post pictures from including Halloween.

 

He still loves his baseball bat!

And balls

 Georgia's 3rd Birthday

 Sterling pulling the girls around.  Adeline was so sweet to walk around with Sterling.  I know she is really excited to get a real baby cousin to mother, because Sterling doesn't really fit the bill anymore.

 Hayride

 Playing in the pumpkin patch.  Sterling has loved pumpkins this fall.  Almost as much as Christmas trees.

 Sterling loves anything that he can "shovel"

 Our little lion!

 We took a trip to the park/petting zoo.  They even had a train to ride.  Which freaked Sterling out and he fussed the whole time he was on it, but as soon as we were headed for the car that was all he could talk about!

 One of our nursery buddies' construction party at the park.  Sterling loved the hats.  Why do all kids what to go up the slide backwards?

 Sterling and the Birthday Boy

 Alex changed out our ancient thermostat for a new digital one last week.  As soon as Sterling saw Daddy working he ran to get his own tools so he could "help."  My favorite parts of the ordeal were Sterling pointing to Alex's screwdriver and saying, "Daddy's Turner" (one of the screwdrivers from Handy Manny).  Then when Alex had to cut the power Sterling started looking for Flicker (the flashlight).

What's In A Name?

First of all if you haven't read my previous post please do so first!  I actually posted twice today, but don't get used to it!  ;)  Apparently Sterling is really sleepy today.

I have always been one who loves name meanings.  I love that in the Bible your name was who you are.  So many times I have read about someone and their name was truly a foreshadowing of who they would become.  I have always thought that would be so cool to see your child become his name.  But how do you do that?  I mean what if I name my child one thing and the turn out the opposite.  However, when you look more closely you see that many of those times in the Bible God either gives the name or He changes the names, and then I am sure there are those more everyday instances where the parents just really prayed that God would show them what to call their child and then used that to pray for them.  It's really all a testament to God's Sovereignty.

With Sterling his name has become my prayer for him.  He was named after his father of course and so that stirs up many things for me to pray for him.  I do pray that he would be like his father, and there are definitely names that I would use that have a "bad" meaning, because they were after someone.  We talked about using William and James if this baby was a boy after my dad and several of our grandparents.  One means strong-willed and the other usurper.  I would have had to do some praying to find what God wanted me to pray for but I'm sure He would have had his reasons for those names too.

Anyway, Sterling's name is Alexander - defender of mankind and Sterling - pure.  It is so cool because I already see him becoming a defender of others.  Like I said in my last post.  I can see that he is already becoming protective of me and maybe even his little sister. 

But I want more than that, put the two together and they mean defender of purity.  I want Sterling to be a defender of purity, what a high calling!  I want my son to stand up and defend what is right and holy.  I want him to be a champion of truth and God's holiness.  I want him to be a defender of the Word of God.  In a world that lives so contrary to what the Bible teaches, I want my son to defend what is right.  I want him to see the wisdom in obeying the Word of God, and for him to live that out so others can see it's beauty as well.  It has been so cool to see how my prayer for Sterling has grown since he was named.  I think the more he has grown the more I see in his name that I want to reflect.  I can't forsee who he will become, but God knows who he made him to be and I really think that he made him to be an Alexander Sterling.  While Alex's mom put the name together from Alex's family tree, God knew who He was making both of them to become, and He put the name in her heart and ours.

Now with that being said, there is another child to be named.  Ann Elizabeth will be our baby girl.  That is Ann first name and Elizabeth middle she will go by both.  We actually had this name picked out if Sterling was to be a girl.  But again God knew who the child in my womb was then and he knows this one too. 

She is named for both of my grandmothers' middle names.  I first heard the name from a teacher who worked across the hall from me.  She was such a dear lady and she had a granddaughter who she always talked about named Ann Elizabeth.  She had such a sweet southern draw - think old south, Gone with the Wind, Julia Sugarbaker kind of accent - and it sounded so pretty when she said her granddaughter's name.  I just really liked it and didn't know why.  I love double names but never thought I would name one of my children a double name.  Then one day she was telling a tale of her high-spirited granddaughter, Ann Elizabeth, and I thought, "Wait, those are my grandmothers' middle names!  I really should hold on to that one." 

At the time we were just married and were not ready yet to have children, but of course most women think about their future children's names, it's just what we do.  So I kept it, thinking Alex probably wouldn't go for it, I mean it is a mouthful.  When we did find out I was pregnant, I mentioned it to Alex and he liked it, I was shocked, and the more he heard it I think the more he really liked it. 

I have always loved the name Elizabeth.  My mother said she almost gave me that middle name.  I love my own Lynne after her, but I always thought Elizabeth was so elegant and beautiful.  Whenever we had "play names" growing up, that was mine.  Ann has never been my favorite.  To be honest, I don't really like it.  Ann just seems so plain.  Anne is pretty and Annie is fun.  But I would never name my child, First Name Ann (sorry if that steps on any toes).  I have to agree with Anne Shirley on this one.  However, I fell in love with Ann paired with Elizabeth.

Looking at the meanings Ann means grace or gracious, and Elizabeth is God is my oath.  Of course, like Sterling, Ann Elizabeth's name sakes have so many qualities that I am praying for her to exhibit. Some of them are qualities that are a part of her name and some are beyond. 

But the specific prayer that I am beginning to pray for Ann Elizabeth is coming from her name. Obviously graciousness, to show grace to others.  I do think that is something that women particularly struggle with and yet have a special calling to, being gracious in all situations.  I pray that this little girl is defined to others by her graciousness.  I am praying that when others see her they see her forgiving spirit, her willingness to be friends to the friendless, to be a champion for others.  I pray that she would have a giving spirit and be willing to make personal sacrifices to meet the needs of others.  I pray that she would see others as more important than herself. 

When you put her two names together I think like Sterling's her name get's richer still.  "A Gracious God is My Oath."  Wow, her name is really the gospel.  I Googled God is my oath just to see what came up.  Most of the things that I saw were defined like we would say, "With God as my witness"  or like when you swear to "tell the whole truth so help me God."  While that could be part of it and definitely made me add to my list to pray that my daughter would be an honest woman, I don't think that this what it really means. 

God is my oath, like I said before to me is the gospel.  When God made the covenant with Abraham, the covenant that is at the root of our salvation, Abraham set up as tradition and as instructed by God, animals to "cut a covenant" with God.  God told him to do it of course it wasn't Abraham's idea, but even more than that when the time actually came for the covenant to be made, God caused Abraham to fall asleep.  God knew that Abraham would not and could not uphold his end of the bargain.  And the reason people "cut a covenant" back then or basically cut animals in half and walked through their carcasses was to say may this be done to me if I fail.  Abraham would have been in deep trouble if he had walked through those animals, we would have too, and God knew it.  So Abraham's gracious God made the oath for Abraham.  He said this is what I am going to do for you and through your offspring will come salvation for the world. 

God became Abraham's covenant.  God was Abraham's promise.  God even gave Abraham the faith to believe the promise.  He knew Abraham could not keep the oath and so He became the oath for Abraham.

This is my prayer for this sweet little girl moving around inside of me right now.  I pray that the Gracious God is her Oath.  Of course, I earnestly pray for this for Sterling too, just as I want Ann Elizabeth to be a Defender of Purity as well.  But God has given us this name and as I did with Sterling this is my special prayer for her.  I'm sure as Sterling's has, this prayer will continue to develop as God adds to it, but at the heart of it I am praying for her to have a gracious heart who knows that a Gracious God is My Oath.

It's A ...

We had our big ultrasound yesterday and the results are ... (drum roll please)  Sterling was right we are going to have to add some pink to the nursery decor.  He is getting the little sister he wanted!  We all kind of thought it was a girl for various reasons, I even caught myself calling her "she," but it is so good to finally know for sure.  I know that now that we "know" we get to start hearing all of the stories about how they thought so-and-so was a girl too until he came out.  While I know it is never 100% we have now seen a little boy on ultrasound and a little girl and the difference is pretty obvious.  So if you have one of those stories, please don't share it!!  Let us enjoy our lace and frills without worrying about the what ifs.  If we end up being one of those we have lots of little boy stuff!

I am so excited to have a little girl, and I know that Sterling is going to be such a wonderful, protective big brother, which is what I have prayed. 

We took him with us to the appointment.  He was not very crazy about them touching me and pushing on my stomach.  He is really becoming very protective.  We explained to him that we were going to look at the baby's picture.  Of course I'm sure while that concept was already difficult for him to understand I doubt he could tell that what he was looking at was a baby.  Not that he was interested in anything on the screen, he just wanted them to leave me alone.  When we got onto the elevator there was a baby with us and we pointed it out to him.  He kept talking about the baby in the stroller.  I really think he may have thought that was "his" baby, and we were supposed to be bringing it home. 

I apologize for not posting this yesterday, but we got a cry for help upon arriving home from some friends who will be bringing home their baby in a few weeks and needed some help with the nursery.  And on that note our little girl will have plenty of playmates because so many of our friends are having babies as well.  There are five women in our small group, including me, who are expecting.  One of them is a boy and the rest will be finding out soon!  Such a fun thing with Sterling has been having so many friends who have children (mostly little boys) his age.  And it seems as though our baby girl will have the same thing! 

"Tree Fall Down"

Alex cut a tree down the other day in the woods.  We were out playing and taking pictures, so Sterling, Hillary, and I watched the tree come down.  I had no idea how much this would traumatize Sterling.  This was his reaction

He started bawling!  Then when Alex went around to the other side of the tree to cut it up, Sterling started crying, "No, Daddy, get out!"  He was so worried about him.  He still mentions it from time to time.  I have to remind him Daddy cut the tree down and that trees are not just going to fall down on him.

I Love Fall

I think that fall is really my favorite season.  I love the cool weather, the smells, and the holidays (I consider Christmas in the fall, it's not like it ever snows here then or anything).

21 Months

Time is flying by, I can't believe that Sterling is nearing his second birthday.  While I can see that, as everyone says, two will be a difficult age, it is so fun as well.  I love listening to all of the interesting things that he says.  He is trying to speak mostly in complete sentences, which can get pretty comical.  For example, Alex taught him instead of just saying, "milk please" to say, "May I have some milk please."  While he has since gotten very good at repeating this phrase it is used to ask for everything.  So if he wants up in your lap he may say, "May I have some up please" or going outside is, "May I have some go outside." That boy really keeps us laughing.

He is so observant and remembers EVERYTHING.  Sometimes it is great, like when he comes out with a phrase that he has heard us say.  For example he was mumbling something the other day in the bathtub and then said, "That was silly."  But his memory also means that if we do something special he remembers it and asks to do it everyday.  It also means that he gets really obsessive about things.

Some of Sterling's newest obsessions are basketball, the moon, and Christmas trees.  Sterling wants to play with the neighbors basketball goal all the time.  A Sterling-sized basketball goal will have to be on his Christmas list this year.

One night after coming home from church, I heard Sterling saying, "moo" in the back seat.  I wasn't sure what prompted him to say that so I was asking questions.  "Moo, did you see a cow."  He has a big imagination and many times he would say yes.  But this time he just kept repeating himself in that tone that let me know I wasn't understanding. 

When we stopped at the house, Sterling ran into the driveway and pointed at the sky and said, "moon."  So we looked at the moon and discussed the crickets and the stars and went inside.  The following week when we were coming home.  Sterling wanted to see the moon.  Unfortunately, the moon is not always out and this just happened to be that phase.  Since you can't explain well to a 1-year-old that the moon is out sometimes and sometimes it's not, we decided to go in and look at it on the computer.  Now anytime we are outside or I am on the computer Sterling wants to look at the moon or . . .

Christmas trees.  I decided one day to show him pictures of him in front of the Christmas tree.  I can't really remember why, but I think that we saw a tree in a book that looked like one and I thought, "Well he doesn't even know what a Christmas tree looks like." 

Now he is OBSESSED with Christmas trees.  Nanie, he will be in LOVE with your house this December (she puts up about 15 trees around the house each year). 

It has gotten to the point that he talks about them everyday.  I found one of his Christmas books and that has satisfied him some, but we were at the grocery store today and he was looking for Christmas trees there. So, when I have my Christmas tree out this year early in November, don't judge it is for my son.  However, today I did think that I could put up his little tree in his room so that he could see it everyday and I could still enjoy fall.  Would that be crazy?  A little bitty Christmas tree in October?  I do still have my Christmas cards hanging up because he loves looking at them.  Oh, the things we do for our children!

Sterling really enjoys coloring and reading books to himself.  He has loved the pretty weather and being able to go out and play baseball or swing. 

Blogger has changed how to upload pictures and now I can't get any of the up and down ones to do right.  Is anyone else having these problems and if so how did you get it to work.