Thanksgiving in Searcy

This Thanksgiving we drove to Searcy, AR to visit my parents and relatives.

It was almost like a mini family reunion with all my Dad's brothers, their family, and my grandparents too. Since we were all still getting into town on Thanksgiving we waited until Saturday to have our HUGE Thanksgiving meal.

It was good to see everyone and we were pleased that Abby had a good time too. Everyone was oohing and ahhing over Enoch. He is the cutest little baby... I may be a little biased, but nahhhh he is :)

Thank you God for family, friends, shelter, and good food!

Fun with Friends

Abby had such a fun time playing with her friends Bethany and Nathan.

We are so thankful that Abby has such good friends.

Enoch's Baby Dedication

We were privileged to dedicate Enoch to the Lord with our Fellowship Bible Church family as witnesses.

We were sent the video of the dedication. I am trying to get it into a format where I can post portions of it, but as of now the above pictures gives the idea.

We dedicate little Enoch to the Lord. We pray that God will give us the wisdom, strength, and patience to raise him to know and love the Lord. God has blessed us with two precious children and we love them dearly.

Walls of Jericho

We learned about Joshua and the City of Jericho. Abby loves to act out stories.

This time we used our blocks to make the wall and city and used her doll house people as the characters in the story.

Circle of Safety

Andrea and I attended a Tedd Tripp seminar last month and since then we have been teaching Abby the meaning of Ephesians 6:1-3

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother' — which is the first commandment with a promise — 'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.' Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

In order to teach these concepts, we put an old table top on the floor and labeled two parts with "Obey" and "Honor" and the other two parts with "Go Well" and "Long Life".

We explained that when she obeys and honors her Mommy and Daddy that she moves into the Circle of Safety and then things go well with her and she will have a long life.

For the next week or so we repeated these concepts and tried to reinforce them with games, practice, and rereading the verse.

Enoch @ 4 Months

We continue to be pleasantly surprised at how sweet and easy going Enoch is. He goes with the flow and hardly ever complains.

He is still in the first percentile for weight, but has gained some. We've finally put away the newborn clothes and pulled out the 3-6 months clothes.

Enoch is such a joy to our family!

Enoch's Surgery

We are so thankful that Enoch made it through the surgery well and has recovered so quickly.

I was a little surprised at how emotional I was when it was time to hand him over to the nurses when he would go under anesthesia. God was so good to send a friend from high school/college that I haven't seen in years to take him back to the operating room. I was at peace as I handed him over.

Praise God for taking care of our little boy! Thank you for all of your prayers. They are truly appreciated!

Center Hill Chalets

This weekend we stayed at the Center Hill Chalets in Smithville, TN.

Several months ago, I won a weekend away at this lake house as a 1st place prize for loosing weight in our neighborhood.

We stayed the weekend with Andrea's parents and had a great time there. It was good that I recently upgraded to the iPhone 3G because the GPS came in very handy finding the lakehouse for the first time at night.

We had a great time playing games, hiking around, eating great food, and resting :) Unfortunately, I was sick for the whole trip so most of my time was getting a lot of sleep to feel better.

Thank you Melissa Eubanks (Realtor, Co-Owner, VP) for providing the Center Hill Chalets for our family!

Preschool Fall Fun

Abby's preschool had "Harvest Day" last week. The children went out on the nature trail and found pumpkins with their own names on them in the pumpkin patch. Parents were invited to join the class for lunch as they ate "stone soup" based on the story they read that week. Abby and I made pumpkin sugar cookies to share with the class. I had a sweet mommy moment as we were frosting the cookies at home. She looked up at me with the sweetest smile and said, "Mom, I love you. Thank you for making the cookies." Those are the Mommy moments I live for! She was so proud to take those cookies to school and share them with her friends and teachers.

I will admit I have not been doing much of our "home preschooling" the last few weeks. Even though we haven't done anything "official," I've tried to incorporate the things she's been learning at school in our day. She's had lots of opportunity to learn while helping me with every day tasks like cleaning, cooking and grocery shopping. Maybe we'll get back into it soon, but I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself for now. I've been focusing on nursing Enoch and making sure he has enough to eat.

Fall Family Fest

We went to the Family Fall Fest at the Western Hills Church of Christ.

Abby dressed as Elmo and Enoch was the cutest little clown you've ever seen!

The church had hot dogs and chili for dinner, then trunk or treating, a hayride and smores.

We had a great time there with the Tally family.

Chattanooga Here We Come

Pops and Nana (Andrea's parents) joined us on a trip to Chattanooga to enjoy the fall foliage. There is so much to do there.

We had so much fun at the Children's Museum. The Aquarium was amazing and we watched an IMAX movie there, as well. We also rode the incline railway up Look Mountain.

We hope to visit Chattanooga again soon.

Enoch @ 3 Months

Enoch is three months old!

He is the sweetest, happiest, easy going little baby I've ever met. He rarely complains. He is so happy, that I didn't even realize that he hasn't been getting enough to eat.

We went to the doctor and he weighed less than he did at his two month visit, he's in the first percentile for weight.

I didn't think it was possible, but since I've been feeding him more, he's been even happier! He smiles, laughs, coos and rolls over. He loves to watch Abby. He's also started laughing just a little bit-it's the sweetest sound!

Chuck E. Cheese Reward

We went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Abby's success with potty training.

She had a great time and loved getting the tickets and prizes.

Abby is so independent these days. She can get herself completely dressed all own her own (even her tights)! She can make her bed and clean her room. She also helps with some chores around the house.

We're so proud of our big girl.

Gentry Farms

We went to Gentry Farms today.

We all had a great time together. Abby enjoyed playing in the pretend country café, the farmer’s market, the hands-on loom, the lincoln logs, a hayride through the historic farm, a stroll inside a straw maze, watching the friendly farm animals, playing in grain troughs, swinging on a tire swing, and more. Enoch slept in the sling happily the whole time.

We went to the farm last year, but Abby seemed to enjoy much more this time around. Abby got to pick out a little pumpkin for herself. We recommend the Gentry Farms if you haven't been yet.

Mustard Seed Preschool

 

We are so excited for Abby!  She gets to go to the Mustard Seed Preschool next week!

We weren't really planning to send her to preschool, but I started looking into it for next year not expecting to get in since the school year has already started.  We got on the waiting list and a spot opened up!

She will go two days a week from 9:00-1:00. I heard the director of this preschool, Diana Beach, speak last year at Mom's Together and was so impressed with her. At that time I thought if we ever send her to preschool, I would want it to be that one.

We are so thankful that she will have the opportunity to learn there. It will be nice to have a little time to run errands, focus on Enoch and plan for the preschool we'll still be doing at home the other three days a week.

Sonic Golf

This evening we went out with our Community Group to eat at Sonic and then headed over to the Europa Go-Karts & Golf to play next door.

We all had a great time of fellowship, prayer, and fun! Abby had a blast running from one hole to the next. She got one of the holes in 3 strokes... way to go Abby!

After Abby, Bethany, and Nathan played some video games and skeeball they won 5 tickets and cashed them in for 5 peppermint candies, which they divided among themselves.

It was fun had by all.

Triple Coupon Savings

Harris Teeter had triple coupon days this week. That means they will triple your coupon up to 99 cents. So, a .75 coupon is worth $2.25. If you have a coupon for an item that happens to be on sale that week, you can get it free, or you can actually make money on it. You are only able to use 20 coupons per day, but I had a stockpile of coupons, so I went back every day of the four day sale. I was able to save $183! You can see all the things we were able to buy in the pictures.

I want to thank Kelly from Fellowship Bible Church who spoke at a Mom's Together meeting a few months ago and introduced me to the idea of couponing in a whole new way. She is so inspirational. She has turned this into a ministry by teaching other women how to be better stewards of money and cut our grocery budgets. If you're interested in learning more about how you can save money on your groceries and toiletry items, visit the money saving mom blog.

First day: spent $15, saved $51
Second day: spent $22, saved $44
Third day: spent $38, saved $52
Fourth day: spent $51, saved $36

Preschool: Week 6

This week we learned the Bible story of Jacob and Esau, the letter D, and "Peas Porridge Hot" nursery rhyme. We reviewed shapes and our five senses. I was pretty busy couponing this week, so we had some catching up to do on the weekend. Elijah did some of the activities with her, thank you!

Edwin Warner State Park

We spent Friday evening at Edwin Warner State Park. We had the best time!

There was a little pond where we could see minnows swimming and big rocks to jump across the pond. Unfortunately, Abby fell into the pond and her clothes were soaked. We did have extra panties and shoes with us, but no extra clothes. We didn't want wet clothes to spoil our evening, so, she ran around in her underwear the rest of the night.

There was an organic garden, we called it our secret garden. We all enjoyed smelling the different herbs and finding vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, and okra. There is also a new play area for children at the park. There was a small cedar log cabin, a sand pile and a huge pile of dirt with a slide on it. Abby had so much fun playing in the dirt and sand and Elijah and I got to talk a little while she played. We'll definitely be going back soon!

Enoch @ 2 Months

Enoch just had his 2 month check up at the Doctor and as of 2 month 1 week old he is 23.25 inches long and weighs 10 lb 9 oz.

As for milestones, he is rolling over from his tummy to his back and he is smiling and cooing more often.

Abby loves him as always and he is such a blessing to our family. I love you son!