Giving this Christmastime

OK So blogging has not been my strong suit the past few weeks...Okay, months... Things have been pretty quiet on here because my life right now is completely opposite....CRAAZAY..... I wish I could tell ya all exactly all the craziness right now but let's just say we can't complain about things being slow or boring..... Levi is doing amazing. He is growing like a weed, learning to communicate
and even how to fight like the rest of the kids lol.... I will update and back date post soon... I hope....

SO ANYWAYS.... I had to take a moment before Christmas and blog about something important to me.... The past few years we have been really trying to refocus and turn upward in our Christmas season as a family. We so want to focus on  Christ and the true meaning of Christmas and how we want our kids to experience it. When we first got married Christmas was all about presents and buying lots of them for each other as well as family and friends. We knew it was about Jesus but other than going to Christmas service we didn't really reflect that in our time or giving.... then little Evelyn came along and it made us start to think...we talked about what we wanted to teach her and how we could make it not about presents and Santa..... well I can just say 4 years later we are still a work in progress... we have tried different things and I am sure will continue to talk about and find new ways to focus our families attention towards Christ during this season.... the one thing I wanted to share about is that we are trying to focus on GIVING.... well that seems pretty easy since that's what so many do focus on... giving
gifts to each other, making Want lists, etc... but I am talking about giving to Christ... it is HIS birthday now isn't it? But how can we give to Christ?
Well when we look at His word He talks about giving to the least of these... to those who are poor, outcast and truly needy... SO at Chrsitmas time we look for ways that we can specifically do that... we try to give and give more in those ways than giving fun and
extravagant gifts to each other.... we have birthdays and other special times we can spoil our kids or each other and we don't want Christmas to be that time...

SO I wanted to share about 3 Ministries that are dear to our hearts. These are ministries in Uganda that we have visited while we were there,  shared meals with the board members/staff,and believe are most definitely doing the Lords work to minister to the least of these.

#1 Sixty Feet- God put sixty feet in our path about 2 years ago. He honestly shook our little world upside down when He opened our eyes and hearts to the Children that this
ministry is working with. They have been and are doing AMAZING things in Uganda and we were blessed to go and serve in 2011 with their fist missions team. We now call the board members
good friends and continue to see God moving mountains for these children through this ministry. Children and prisons should not be used in the same sentence... read about this kids HERE.

#2 Ekubo Ministries- I somehow met Christie online and we chatted back and forth for a few months. When I was in Uganda this past Oct for our adoption I knew I wanted to go out and see the work Christie and her husband George were involved with in their village. This was one of the best days I had in Uganda. It was wonderful spending  time out in the village and getting to talk with Christie. She is very real and straightforward and we got along very easily ;) She invited me into their home and also gave me a tour of their land where they have a couple small classrooms, a small church, and an unfinished clinic and babies home. They have opened their home to more than a dozen children at a time and many call them mom and dad now as they raise funds to legally adopt them. They always have open doors even when their 2 bedroom house is full beyond full. They are the real deal and Gods doing awesome work through their family. Right now through Christmas they have a matching grant up to 10k to help so they can finish their babies home where they will be able to take in more children while they seek to reunite them with family. Read about Ekubo HERE.

#3 Ekisa is amazing.... this was definitely the one of the highlights of our time in Uganda this past Sept. These girls and their staff are the straight up the hands and feet of Jesus. Started by Emily and Emily :) Ekisa is a ministry in Uganda whose main purpose is providing a home to children with various special needs. These children are amazing and truly are living a full life at Ekisa. They are happy and full of joy and SO well loved. On top of this Ekisa also puts efforts towards educating families and the community about special needs and on top of that their entire staff are Ugandans who either have some kind of special need or their child has a special need. They are doing some amazing things and God is doing some awesome work through this ministry. Go HERE and read about Ekisa and how you can help with their 25k in 25 days fundraiser!

I encourage you to pray and consider how you can give a gift this Christmas that can make a difference in the lives of others whom Jesus called us to love and care for, a gift worthy to be given to the King of Kings.

A Room For Levi

I am not able to post much right now so I wanted to share some photos of our little guys room that I took on my phone before we left. Josh had the vision and did a lot of it and I helped. :) I think it turned out really great and was fun to do. Something he can grow into that's not really babyish. Hoping he will like it and like his crib. I think he will really like rocking chair. 

Josh painted the Canvas's

We made the mobile from little stuffed animals from UG 

Can't wait to rock our boy to sleep :)

These were Josh's when he was young, made by his Grandma C

Teddy from Daddy (all the kids have one) 

Josh painted this, he made a stencil. 

2 Years Old

My littlest girl turned 2 today and we are so so blessed. We are thankful first for just being here to celebrate with her since we leave in just a few days! We had a party for her last weekend and then today made it special for her and focused on her big day! 

 Zoë Hosanna. You are a beautiful and sweet little girl with the most precious blonde curls and blue eyes. You love horses, pillow fights, playing at the park, wrestling with your sister, watching movies, climbing and snuggling. You have such a sweet personality and love to laugh. We are so blessed to have you in our family and pray that God does mighty things in your life and that you love Him with all your heart. 

She was So excited for her present! 

Loves loves horses

I love this girl. 

Buy A Print- Help Bring Our Son Home

I know I have been bombarding everyone with new opportunities to help support our adoption but here's one more that I have been working on. I designed these prints and opened up my own Etsy shop. I am actually pretty happy with how they turned out. 

My Etsy Store is For This Child I Prayed 

8x10 Prints are $12.00 plus shipping if needed 

11x14 Prints are $15.00 plus shipping if needed

4 Years

My little girl is 4 years old today! We are so blessed and thankful to have such a beautiful and sweet daughter. We love her so much and pray big things for her life. She definitely dances to the beat of her own drum and we love that about her. 

Happy Birthday Evelyn Mae

Making a Mess aka Toddler Art

I am always looking for fun and easy art projects to do with the girls and I have been really diggin using Pinterest in my search. There are a ton of great ideas and I love being able to easily sort them to go back to later. Here are a few things we have made recently. 

Toilet Paper Roll Butterflies

Materials:

Toilet Paper Roll

Paint

Construction Paper

Googly Eyes

Pipe Cleaner (for antennae)

Glue 

Paint Brush

Scissors

Glue Gun (for pipe cleaner)

Painting with lot's of enthusiasm 

I had the girls paint their tube and then they decorated the wings I had pre-cut out (older kids could do this themselves but we are still working on cutting with E). When it was dry enough we glued on the wings, eyes, and antenna (the pipe cleaner needed to be hot glued so I did that myself)

Lettuce Flower Stamps

Materials:

Romaine Lettuce End (sliced off with knife)

White Construction Paper

Paint or Ink

I first saw this and thought it looked so pretty and one afternoon Evelyn asked if we could do an art project and I thought I would try it with what I had on hand. I think it would have turned out better with a larger head of lettuce than we had and ink instead of paint but the girls had a blast anyways and it turned out cute.  

Finished Project

 Toilet Paper Roll Circle Stamps 

Materials: 

White Construction Paper

Toilet Paper or Paper Towel Roll

Colored Paint

This was really easy and super fun. Zoë could hold it and stamp on her own really easily.

{Hmmm..... I am starting to see a little 

pattern with the whole toilet paper roll thing. 

Wow didn't realize so many of our art projects had that in common} 

Toilet Paper Roll Binoculars 

Materials:

2 Toilet Paper Rolls

Yarn

Hole Punch

Markers, paint, stickers (whatever you want to decorate with)

Hot Glue (stays better than regular glue)

Evelyn had a date with daddy to go to the zoo so while he got lunches packed and everything together we made some of these for her trip and she had so much fun looking at all her favorite animals with them. 

Adorable


Penguins

Materials:

Construction Paper (black, white, orange, blue)

Big Googly Eyes

scissors

Glue

For this I cut out all the pieces for Evelyn but an older child could do some of the cutting themselves. I showed her what it looked like put together and then just gave her all the pieces and let her do it on her own. Pretty easy and fun. 

Look Who's Walking Now!

Last week our little Zoë really started taking off! She is walking all over the house now and getting more and more steady on her feet! The expression on her face in this picture is just priceless, she was SO excited and every time we clapped for her she sat down and clapped too. I am sure will be running after her big sis any day now. It's hard to believe how fast the past 14 months have gone and that my little baby is not so little anymore. 

Fall Fun

Carving Pumpkins, Zoë loved getting messy and trying to eat it.

The finished product, a kitty per Evelyn's request

Annual costume party with our play group

Carnival fun

S mores in the backyard

Pumpkin Finger painting 

Local Farm trip to get a pumpkin and see the animals

Caramel Apples

Over The Rainbow {1st Birthday Party}

For my little girls 1st birthday I wanted to do something bright and fun. The rainbow made from streamers turned out great and looking at it just made me smile. I made her tutu and the cupcakes too.

Doesn't it just make you feel happy!

Tickle time

Gotta love the rainbow tutu

Mostly pre-made food blamed on jet lag, but I did make the pasta salad!

I thought the cupcakes turned out so cute, I got the decorating idea from here and the recipes for the cupcakes here and the cream cheese frosting here. 

Messy Face, she loved it!