2014 Advent Devotional

The 2014 Advent Devotional is here!

I hope you enjoy using this scriptural devotional with your family. Last year we passed it out for our families at New Life (our church) and I just kept it "branded" with the New Life logo.

If you would like to use this with your church, please feel free to do so. There are some helpful FAQ on the first page in case this is your first time celebrating Advent.

New Life Advent 2014

2013 Printable Advent Devotional

I did a little tweaking to the Advent Calendar Devotions to make them fit into the 2013 (slightly shorter) Advent season. I also made them a cinch to cut out and fit into your Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar (or whichever calendar you are using). I hope you find it helpful! Click the link below to access it!

Advent Devotional

Let me know if you have any suggestions to make it better! This just started out as something that would fit my family, but I am glad to know that it has blessed many other families and churches over the years!

Homemade Christmas Gifts

Last year one of my tutorials was featured on Happy Housewife and today there is an incredible opportunity to download the e-book edition of ALL of the homemade Christmas gifts that she has featured, including mine.

"Homemade Christmas gifts don’t have to look like they came out of your 3 year-old’s Sunday School class. There are some amazing homemade gift ideas that can be made by real-life moms on a real-life budget! In this book you'll find step-by-step instructions for sixty gifts that you can make using easy to find items and you don't have to be an expert crafter to do it!"

Hop on over to Amazon and download today so that you can get it for free and begin to peruse and decide which projects you will undertake this Christmas to bless friends and family. Enjoy!

Homemade Christmas Gifts E-Book

Last year one of my tutorials was featured on Happy Housewife and today there is an incredible opportunity to download the e-book edition of ALL of the homemade Christmas gifts that she has featured, including mine.

Hop on over to Amazon and download today so that you can get it for free and begin to peruse and decide which projects you will undertake this Christmas to bless friends and family. Enjoy!

2012 Advent Calendar and Devotional

I did a little tweaking to the Advent Calendar Devotions to make them fit into the 2012 (slightly shorter) Advent season. I also made them a little easier on the eyes and a cinch to cut out and fit into your Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar (or whichever calendar you are using). I hope you find it helpful! Click the link below to access it!

Advent Devotional

Let me know if you have any suggestions to make it better! This just started out as something that would fit my family, but I am glad to know that it has blessed many other families and churches over the years!

Happy Heart Day!

Another Use for Stockings

My family had never had stockings before this year. I guess I just hadn't gotten around to incorporating that into our holiday. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE stockings and the way my mom filled them was amazing, but I wanted the stockings to be special
                                                                                         
                                                                                                 and beautiful
                                                                                              
                                                                                                       and matching and...

we have been adding members to our family for the 3 years up until now.

So...all that to say - I finally made some!

And with the idea of continuing our thankfulness - this time towards each other instead of at Thanksgiving when it could be anything or any person- throughout the month of December we will write notes of thankfulness or making creative pictures for each other and put them in each others' stockings.

I encouraged the kids to think of something that they loved in one of our family members and write it down, letting them know. Or giving them the option of writing a note and making a gift for Jesus. These cards for Jesus will go under the tree in Jesus' manger for when he arrives on Christmas Day (yes, He will really arrive in a basket under our tree thanks to one of Taylor's old baby dolls).

The other cards that are in the stockings will be read by all on Christmas Day. This is the first year to do this, but I am praying that its a sweet time of reflecting on the blessings the Lord has given us in our family and in Himself and overflowing with thankfulness for those things.

His grace is so evident in the gifts that He gives, particularly in giving of Himself. I want my kids to connect those dots.

I will probably also throw some other fun items into their stockings as well. It's just too hard for me to see things in the dollar bin that I know they would love and pass them up!

I really hope this will be a meaningful tradition that bonds our family and points us toward our Savior. 

Lent Preparations

Now that Valentine's is over, I am beginning to think about Lent and how to celebrate it with my husband and little ones. There are several no-brainers that have worked so well that we will continue to use, such as:

• Lent Countdown with Resurrection Eggs, counting down each day with opening a new egg. To see how to make your own set of Resurrection Eggs, check this out. 

• Our Playdough Mountain, inspired by Noel Piper, where we bake a mountain-shaped piece of playdough together and follow the life, death and resurrection of Jesus by moving the little stick figures to where they need to go. For example, on Good Friday, we transfer Jesus to the cross, later that night he is buried in his tomb (which is on the opposite side) and we cover the opening with a stone. On Sunday morning, the kids wake up to see that the stone is gone and Jesus is alive. He is risen! We celebrate and even put out balloons, streamers and such to celebrate that He is Risen indeed! Here is the link to the origin of this:

Noel's Playdough Mountain

• And I am also thinking through making some sort of banner to put the contents of our resurrection eggs once we have opened them each day. Sort of a "display" so that we can walk past it, remember it and have the kids memorize the sequence of events leading up to Jesus' death and resurrection. I will let you know what I come up with once I brainstorm it some more. 

What Lent ideas do you have??? What readings to you go through during the season of Lent?

Advent Activities

Making Salt Dough Ornaments

Ingredients:

1 C. flour

1 C. salt

1/2 C. water

Directions:

Mix the flour and salt together.

Add water gradually (I'm pretty sure ours got dumped and still turned out okay).

Knead into a flexible dough on a floured board.

Roll out and cut out shapes using a cookie cutter.

Use a skewer to poke a whole in each shape to thread string through.

Cook at 250 degrees for several hours (until shapes are hard).

Afterwards, paint the ornaments with water based paint. Varnish with a clear coat so they will last longer. Thread ribbons or string through the holes and add decorative glitter, bows, sequins, etc. Enjoy watching your children give a gift from the heart.

Living Nativity and Christmas in the Park

I enjoyed the live nativity as they presented the Christmas story and then we let the kids walk around petting the animals (as if going back to Bethlehem and the manger scene). I think it gave them better perspective of the story they know so well.

And then we headed across the street to enjoy the lights, cookies and hot chocolate (oh and Rudolph, of course!).

Graham Cracker Houses

We have done this for the past few years and it has been a hit! Not only do I not have to make gingerbread that will never get eaten, it is simple, fun and the whole family enjoys creating their own "house."

Even Easton attempted one...it got eaten, but he attempted nonetheless.

A little nativity, created by yours truly.

A sweet house by the sweetest girl I know.

A stacked house, made and destroyed by the same person...have any ideas?

A precious little church, created by Allen.

All together now...

These are just some of my favorite Advent activities.

Merry Christmas!

Shutterfly Promo!

I am SO glad to have found this promotion from Shutterfly! I ordered 50 cards earlier this month and I don't know what I was thinking! I ran out of cards just in our church, much less the other friends we have in town and out of town.

So in comes this promo from Shutterfly, who I use anyway...equals AMAZING! Thank you, Shutterfly! I have tried other photo sites and have had complete customer service nightmares. Not so with Shutterfly. So, sign up here and you can get 50 free holiday cards, if you are a blogger. Even if you aren't a blogger, they have great deals on supercute cards.

I have also ordered photo books in the past. As a matter of fact, each of my children have a Baby's First Year book that is out on display in our family room. They all turned out so cute. I will definitely do one for each baby we have as a keepsake. I have also done them as our Year in Review, which has been a hit for family members. They are gorgeous books and they include many different backgrounds to choose from. Cute, elegant backgrounds, not chintzy ones. I happen to love these little books.

The great thing about having kids is the photo gift aspect. You can certainly satisfy the grandparents-who-have-everything with gifts of the grandkids' pictures. Success!

Advent Devotions 2010

I just completed our 2010 Advent Devotions and would be pleased as puddin' if they made their way into your Advent this year as well. You can certainly adjust the questions and paraphrase the scriptures to make them applicable for young children. I pray that it blesses your family this Advent season!


Go get it!

2011 Version is here!

Advent Preparations

Just a few weeks before Advent and it's time to get started planning! This is most certainly my favorite time of year. I am in the midst of planning activities, calendar inserts, get-togethers, crafts with the kids, as well as handmade Christmas gifts. It all makes me pretty giddy, as long as I don't look too long at my to-do list...

In case this is the first you have thought of Advent, here are some helps:

Here is my toilet paper roll Advent Calendar

Here is my placemat Advent Calendar

*I am working on updating the Advent Calendar Scriptures...I need to add a few days since this Advent is a really long one (Christmas being on a Saturday.) I will update soon!*

Sample Advent Activities

Here are many other beautiful, simple, cute Advent Calendars that you could surely pull together in time.

Happy Planning!