Rainbow Crayons

Filling the muffin tins & bread pan (for the rainbow crayon).

Can you tell she is having fun?
Watching to see what will happen.

The finished product- she drew with them for over an hour!

Yesterday Grace & I did a fun art project. We made rainbow crayons. I had noticed a lot of our crayons were broken and went ahead and bought her some new ones to add to her crayon tin when they were on the back to school special. So I have been wanting to clean out the broken pieces. I knew you could melt them down but just hadn't gotten around to it. So yesterday I got on the internet and did some searching. Grace really got into this project. She helped unwrap the crayons and put them in the tins. We did two different types. The easiest was just putting the pieces in muffin tins. The second was more difficult but by far her favorite! We lined up crayons in the order of the rainbow in a foil lined bread tin to make an crayon that actually makes a rainbow.

My suggestions if you wish to attempt this project:

1. Crayola crayons are the most difficult to unwrap but melt the best.

2. The Roseart crayons don't melt great-don't use them for the rainbow crayon. (ours is missing a yellow stripe because of how it melted)

3. Some directions say you don't have to use muffin tin liners. I wouldn't suggest this method as some crayon residue was left on the pans and was hard to get off!

Here is a link to directions for the rainbow crayon.

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/rainbow_crayon

When I first started doing these projects with Grace she was pretty little and they were more for me then her. But now she truly has fun- making it way more enjoyable!!

I have been doing a lot of evaluating lately. Our schedule has been so hectic and I constantly find myself spending my time on the urgent (what I HAVE to get done). 500 invitations for the Fall Fling at church, the laundry, all the cleaning jobs I neglected over the summer, etc. I say my priorities are the following: 1. My God 2. My Husband 3. My Girls. But it doens't always seem like that is where I spend my time... So it might be easy to see this blog and think,"Wow, what a neat idea; she must be a fun mom." But the truth of the matter is focusing on the to do list comes naturally to me. Jeremy is the one who excels at playing with the girls. I have to work at the fun carfree activities. Its not that I don't enjoy them-I LOVE them. I just have to discipline myself to let go of having everything in order and remember to spend my time where my heart is. So I'm thankful for moments when I totally focus in on my girls and make a memory like rainbow crayons.

One Last Summer Adventure

Photobucket Album

One Last Summer Adventure Part 2

Last week the girls and I headed out on a road trip to take advantage of the last full week of "summer." Our first stop was Sadie's house (or you might know it as Marc & Kristina's house) Grace was very excited to visit Sadie and see the fish. Kristina and I took all three girls to Chicago to the Shedd Aquarium. It was a really fun day. I enjoyed hearing Grace's oohs and aahs at all the differet fish & turtles. She was especially impressed with the monkey they had in a special display. Lunch was a little hectic getting the strollers parked and our lunches unpacked for all three girls. But overall it went pretty smoothly. The real challenge for the day was trying to take three little active girls who had been in their stroller all day to the dophin show (Strollers being parked was a requirement.) Kristina took Sadie & Grace to walk down and have a closer look at the water. But Grace was not impressed when she decided it was time to come back up and join her sister and I. She was really asserting herself. (You can see this if you look at the picture slideshow!) I was helpless because if I moved to go help Kristina I would loose our seats. Anyway I really didn't understand why she was so upset until we got to my parents the next day and she told my dad she went to see the fish. She then proceded to tell him, "I wanted to swim with the fish. They wouldn't let me! I tried." We kept telling her people were going to swim with the fish-apparently she thought that included her. Needless to say that is why she was hanging on the railing and refused to leave the dophine pool. We got a little lost on the way home making for a longer trip so we decided to spend the night before continuing our trip. We took the girls to the local ice cream place and I let Faith have her first taste of ice cream. (I know, I know I never would have done that with Grace at 10 months!) She loved it!

On the way back we stopped to see Grace's Nana (Jeremy's mom) at the hospital which she thought was fun. She told her dad, "I go to see my nana at WORK." We then headed on to my parent's house for a short visit. The girls were going to spend the day with Grammy and Papa while Jeremy and I met do some planning for the youth ministry this year. That never happened because my granmother was in a serious car accident. She is doing better now but has a lot of healing to do. We finished the evening off with Jeremy and I attending a Casting Crowns concert. It was really good. I am not a concert peron but I truly enjoyed hearing the lead singer talk about his struggles and what inspired him to write the different songs.

Growing Like Flowers...

I always say my girls are growing like flowers because they are too beautiful to say they are growing like weeds! Here is an update on how the girls are growing.

Faith is on the move!

Well, it seems like one week Faith was content to sit and play and the next she was crawling, pulling up, and cruising!! When we left for CIY she wasn't crawling and when we got back she was. I'm not sure how this happened since she spent most of her time in a stroller but it did. She is all over the place now and into everything. (uh oh-that includes her sister's toys!) She is really starting to loose her chubby cheeks now that she is so active. She is very friendly smiling and flirting with strangers but if anyone comes close she hooks her arm around me and holds on tight. She has started to sign a little bit but it is pretty inconsistent at this point. I'm sure that is partially because I'm not quite as focused of teacher as I was with Grace. At her 9 month well baby check up (actually it was closer to 9 1/2 mo.) she was 27 & 1/2" and 20 lbs 3 oz.

Grace keeps me smiling with her words!

It amazes me how fast Grace is growing. Recently her grandma came to visit and said she is loosing that toddler look-she is starting to look more like a preschooler. I looked at her and realized it was a prefect description for how she has changed this summer. She is quite the little "mother" telling baby, "NO!" now that Faith can get into things. Grace also loves to show Faith sign language. Althouh she no longer uses signs to communicate she still remembers them all! Her and Faith are also really enjoying playing together in their room (instead of going to sleep). Recently we were pulling into the church parking lot on a Sunday morning when Grace said to me, "Mama, I'm ready to have fun!" I said well its time to go to church and go to your class. And she replied, "My class is fun." What a wonderful attitude-when was the last time you went to church thinking I'm ready to have fun!? She really amazes me with the things she comes up with lately. She is also enjoying eating her favorite summer food, corn. She LOVES corn on the cob. She has even talked Grammy into letting her have it for breakfast before. She is quite a skilled negotiator. The more developed her vocabularly becomes I can see more clearly her independent thinking. I am often amazed at how accuartely the book Aaron's way (about strong-willed children) describes how she sees the world.

The Ozarks in Pictures

Missouri Fun in the Sun

After a week of CIY and a week of VBS we were really tired! Jeremy headed to camp High Hill for the week with his Jr. High Studets. We went to visit him on Monday. It was fun to let Grace play at the "park" and go swimming. She was really brave-she went down the water slide into the deep end all by herself. We have it on video so maybe I can figure out how to post it. We also got to visit with our family friends the Chesnuts. Above is a picture of Faith with the flower girl from our wedding she is getting so grown up-doesn't that make us feel old! Jeremy had a great week and survived the summer heat.

After visiting him we went to the Ozarks to meet my parents and my sister & her boyfriend, Mark, for a mini vacation. We also saw my brother and his girlfriend, Jess. It was a lot of fun. Grace loved every minute of staying up late, swimming, and going to Minor Mike's (an ardade). One of my favorite moments was watching the girls ride in a car together. (Like the kind you put a quarter in and get a short ride) They both were giggling and having a blast. I really missed having Jeremy with us. It just didn't seem like vacation without him there. We enjoyed spending time with "my" family but I missed "our" family being able to experience the fun together. So check out our vacation album & see how much fun the girls had yourself.

Outrigger Island-Vacation Bible School

The week after CIY was VBS. (Like I said it has been crazy!) I taught a Bible class for 4 year olds-1st Grade and Jeremy was in charge of games for the older kids. Every year I get stressed out with all the preparations of planning the lessons and decorating my room. The age I teach is challenging since two classes haven't been to school and two have. I have to really adjust my lesson for each age group. This year's theme was a fun island one so I had a pool full of colored sand they got to dig in and find objects for the story. This was very popular with the littlest ones. It is priceless when you are telling the story about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and the kids say, "Wow," when you tell them the ground was dry! Or when they gasped as I tore up the scroll that Jeremiah had written God's words on. That is why I keep teaching Bible each year.

I was very nervous going into the week about Faith going to the nursery because in general on Sunday morning she is not a fan. Pretty much 80% of the time I have had to go pick her up after five minutes. But she did great!! She stayed in the nursery the entire time each day from 8:30-11:45. I was very excited. I was also excited for Grace because this was the first year she got to attend the Preschool VBS program. She loved making crafts, playing games, and singing songs. This was also the first time she was in the closing program on Friday nights. It was so much fun going to her first program. She didn't sing but did the actions with enthusiasm. She had quite the audience as her Grammy, Papa, Aunt Jo Jo, Mark (Josie's boyfriend), and Great Grandma Holst all came to see her performance.

Grace's Big Adventure

While we were at CIY Grace stayed with Grammy & Papa (my parents). This was very difficult for me! It was the longest I have ever left her. The night before we left I was laying in bed still thinking about just packing her bag for Papa's house into my van and taking her along. But I knew this wouldn't work and I was just going to have to get through it. One of the things I did was wrap a little surprise for her along with a note for her to open each day we were gone. Little did I know just how hard it would be. Our phones were on roam in Carbondale so I had to borrow a phone from another youth sponsor to call, giving me one chancea day to talk to her. Two of the days she was sleeping and I didn't get to talk to her. Mom put her down for a nap at 3:00 p.m. and she slept till the next morning at 5:30 am!! She must of been REALLY worn out from all the fun she was having.

She got to ride a horse (My brother & his girlfriend have horses). Grammy said she was VERY brave and even wanted to lead it around. She also helped make my dad's birthday cake and made cookie bars a "surprise" for us. Grace loves to cook. She opened her gifts inlcuding a play camera, bracelets, a coloring book and crayons, a gluestick (she really love to glue!), & princess book with cd. Her Nana came to visit and brought her "num nums." (a happy meal) But her favorite thing might have been the playhouse my parents bought her and surprised her with. She loved "her" house. It was over 90 degrees but she still played in it a lot. Check out all her adventures in picture format above. (My mom is the talented person who does all of the fun collages)

CIY Move Conference

Well, it has been awhile! I have missed being able to update my blog. We have been traveling and very busy with summer so I am hoping to blog several times over the next day or so to get caught up. The beginning of our crazy schedule was a trip to CIY. On July 11th Jeremy, Faith, & I took off for Carbondale, Illinois with 32 highschool students. It was a great trip. I am always torn when there our youth trips about whether or no to go. Let me back up a little. The last couple of months I have really been doubting my effectiveness as a youth sponsor. I really love getting to know the highscool girls in my small group. But the past year has been challenging. I lost several girls from my group the previous year which I was really close to. Also, I experienced trying to juggle having a newborn and filling this role. (When Grace was born we weren't in youth ministry yet.) Trips are always a challenge because I don't leave my babies when they are still nursing so they come along. Now this sounds exciting to be a fun young mom and youth sponsor, but the reality is it is a challenge. My kids operate on a schedule and they require sleep two things that CIY doesn't exactly provide. But we figured out a plan to help me feel like I could partipate as much as possible. My best friend Ashley is the children's minister at our church and helps out with the youth too as time allows. So she went and we took turns caring for Faith and participating in the conference. I still bounced back and forth between missing being able to fully experience the conference and feeling guilty for not being super mom to Faith, but overall it worked out pretty well.

The first night of CIY I was ready to come home. Faith had been spiiting up all day and was not feeling well. I was back at the dorm for several hours while she slept and I "missed out." Satan was working on me big time, but I'm so gad I stayed. I think there are two things I really took from CIY. First, I loved the day we focused on the Holy Spirit. It was a great challenge to look at our life and decide whether we do things based on the prompting of the Holy Spirit or our own leading. I know I am often guilty of my own agenda! That night at the main session the sound of wind blowing was in the background the entire time the speaker was giving the message. At first I thought-okay that is going to be super annoying. But it actually was a great reminder of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Since we have come home every time I hear the wind I think about it. Second, my passion for ministering to the girls in my small group was renewed. I remembered why I really want to be a youth sponosor even though it is challenging as a mom of two little ones. I choose to serve in the youth ministry because I thought it was important for Jeremy and I to invest in the same place. Youth ministry is a HUGE part of his life and this makes us closer. That commitment is what kept me serving this past year. But after CIY I have a heartfelt desire to impact the girls in my small group for Christ. I found myself deeply desiring for them to make changes, to finally start reading their Bibles, etc. I'm so glad I had Ashley to watch Faith so I could lead a D-group-it really blessed me.

Here is Faith hanging out in her Pack N' Play at the dorm & snoozing on the way home from a trip to the mall. The yellow ball was a gift from a boy in the youth group. As you can see she liked it!