A Few More Thanksgiving Day Pictures

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 was.....

enjoying a little big-sister lovin....

a dinner of green beans and bananas.......
playing outside......

riding the lawn mower with Grandpa..........

enjoying a bottle from Nana..........

Thanksgiving 2011 was....... a GREAT DAY!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

From the Ellsworths:)

Family Day - Part 2

Here are the rest of the pictures from our family day.

Tom, Alana and Peter riding the train. Doesn't Tom look comfortable?:) Peter was, of course, THRILLED with the train.

Alana, Peter and I rode the carousel together, but we didn't get any pictures of that because that thing flew! I've never been on a carousel that fast before. I had to hang on tight to Peter and he was terrified. I tried to be calm and confident for his sake, but the truth was, I was kind of scared too. We were glad to got off of that.

Isaac was content to just ride in his stroller. He napped off and on and just took it all in. He is such a good baby.

It was a great day together.

Family Day - Part 1

I can only fit 5 pictures at a time, so I'll post the rest of these tomorrow.

Tom was off for Veteran's Day (11/11/11), so we took advantage of the time and had a family day together. We went to a local park that has a mini-zoo, a petting barn, a train and a carousel. We had a great time, even though it was REALLY cold and windy that day. Because of that, we didn't get to pet any animals at the petting barn because they were all in the barn since it was so cold. The kids didn't seem to care. There was plenty of other fun to have.

Mr. Happy took it all in stride. It was so much easier than our family day when Isaac was just 3 weeks old.

Our children are animal-lovers.

This owl was Peter's favorite part of the day. We had to go back and see him about 5 times. I'm not sure why Peter loved him so much when there were lots of neat animals. He loves the Owl from "Winnie the Pooh" so I'm guessing he associated this owl with that one. This poor owl had really bad cateracts in one eye and Peter kept saying, "Owl, boo-boo eye." In spite of his bad eye, he really was beautiful.

I like these people.

More tomorrow..........

Scripture Memory - November 15

I've been rather neglectful of my poor little blog lately. Life is just plain busy.

Anyway, it's time for our next verse. I had every intention of returning to the Proverbs 31 woman, but the Holy Spirit has been laying other Scriptures on my heart. Here is our next verse:

But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of God." - Luke 18:16

A dear friend showed a special kindness to Peter this week. That one act got me thinking about how important little people are. Sometimes I get so caught up with living - food, laundry, school, life - that I forget that. But these little ones are important, they are important to Jesus. A big way that I can show the love of Christ to them is to let them come to me and not hinder them. I can be available for them, for those things in their world that seem insignificant to me, but are extremely important to them. I need to not hinder them just because I want to get another load of clothes folded or get the bathroom cleaned.

These three blessings are significant to Jesus, so they are significant to me.

Have a good weekend!

Isaac - 5 Months

Our little Mr. Sunshine is five months old today. How can that be?

Isaac is still doing really great. He had a nasty chest cold this month (along with the rest of us), but he got it over it just fine. He also now has 2 bottom teeth. That is the soonest I've seen teeth come in for all three of my babies. Also, Isaac has learned to enjoy his cereal. He wasn't a big fan of the rice cereal (just like Alana and Peter), but seemed to like the oatmeal. I'm even thinking I'm going to start needing to give him a little more because he's eating the whole bowl within 10-15 minutes. I'm thinking that I may start some baby fruits and veggies this week with a "lunch" feeding to add to his "breakfast" and "dinner." The boys LOVES to eat! He still takes three 8 oz. bottles during the day and one 9 oz. bottle before bed.

Isaac is still sleeping well - 11 to 12 hours at night and a morning and afternoon nap as well as an evening catnap. His naps have been rocky for awhile, but I feel like he's slowly getting the hang of it. I also think the cereal is helping his daytime sleep. Isaac sleeps in his crib in the boys room at night and during his morning nap, but he's still in a pack-n-play in our room for his afternoon nap because Peter naps in their room. I'm thinking I may start moving that afternoon nap to the boys room in another month or so. They have done fine together at night and I'd like to have my room back because sometimes Mama needs a nap:)

Isaac is definitely playing a lot more. He grabs toys and of course, everything goes in his mouth. He likes to play with his hands and feet too. He rolls easily from his back to his stomach (and often sleeps on his stomach now), but not as easily from his stomach to his back. He can do it, but he hasn't completely mastered it yet. Often, he'll start crying in this playpen and it's because he rolled onto his stomach and he's tired of it and can't roll back.

Isaac is a joy. A true blessing and a reward. I am so thankful God surprised us with Mr. Laughter (the name Isaac means "laughter").

Scripture Memory - November 1

Sorry I've been MIA lately.....

After the boys and I got over that nasty chest congestion thing we had, Tom and Alana were hit with it and they were both really sick - way worse than the boys and me. Both of them ended up going to the Dr. and were diagnosed with bronchitis (as well as an ear infection for Tom). They've been on a Z-pack all week and are on the mend.

Anyway, it's time for our next verse and once again, I'm going to take a little detour from the Proverbs 31 woman. Here's our next verse:

Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" - Luke 9:20a (ESV)

I had a really neat thought occur to me about this verse this week. You may recall that this is Christ's question to Peter, which precedes Peter's big confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" Jesus first asked the disciples, "Who do the crowds (paraphrase - others) say that I am?" The disciples answered that others had differing opinions - some thought Elijah, some thought John the Baptist, some thought one of the prophets of old. None of these correctly identified Jesus. Peter's answer was the only one that was right.

Like all other women, I struggle with what people think of me. I think this is a temptation for all humankind in some degree or another. What occured to me is that when I am worried about what others think, I'm letting them determine my identity. It's like I'm running around saying, "Who do you say that I am?" I go to Tom and say, "Who do you say that I am?" I turn to my children and say, "Who do you say that I am?" I ask friends, "Who do you say that I am?" And to my shame, I most often look at the world and say, "Who do you say that I am?" But Jesus Christ is calling me to turn to Him with His own words and say, "Who do YOU say that I am?" Because just as Peter correctly defined Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God, so I am defined by Christ as joint heirs with Him, a part of the royal priesthood, clothed in His righteousness, a daughter of the King. The world's definition of my identity are wrong, only who Christ says that I am is right. What a lesson!