Easton's Half Birthday

Easton Brooks celebrated his half birthday yesterday.

It may not have been the most delightful celebration. We started the day off waking him up around 5:15 am to get him ready to go to the hospital. It would have normally been time for him to eat, but he wasn't allowed to eat after 1 a.m. So he was just tired, hungry and cranky (as are most of us at 5 am).

We arrived at the hospital, waited around for awhile and then he went in to get tube in his ears around 7:30. He came back, tubed up, around 7:45, ate and was still pretty cranky. We took him home, he took a 3 hour nap and woke up a new baby. The doctor told us he was able to clear out lots of yucky fluid in his ears and so I am sure that helped. The tubes will now help whatever fluid accumulates in there to empty itself out, as it had been unable to the past 2 months that he's had constant ear infections.

While not the greatest thing to have done to your 6 month old, it is definitely an answer to prayer. There have been many naps and many nights where I have just had to pray and ask the Lord to take away any pain he is experiencing. It's awful to know your baby is in pain and not be able to do anything about it. So, all that to say, this is a good thing and I believe his world is getting back to normal. The happy, "easy E", as we call him is back.

He slept great last night (all through the night) and I am sure that's why. It's been months since that happened.

As far as milestones this month, our little man is almost crawling. I can't believe how big he thinks he is. I guess he sees the other two and wants to do what they are doing, but I am tempted to push him down when he tries that crawling action. Not cool for a 6 month old. He's not trying to sit on his own yet and we haven't tried solids yet. He grabs at everything and is actually very coordinated. He did not get his great hand-eye coordination from me, that's for sure.

Here are some pictures of the precious fella:

And a few of the other two cuties:

Gospel Powered Parenting, Ch.1

I LOVE this book.

I am not one to just swallow a book whole, but this one I did and will continue to.

This is the ultimate parenting book. I love Shepherding a Child's Heart and it is my old favorite, but I think this book is so foundational that it wins out. Every chapter in this book brought me back to the Gospel and seeing all aspects of parenting in light of the cross, seeing ourselves in view of God's character and His great mercy toward us.

The author, William Farley, talks often about the importance of the father on your children. As a matter of fact, much of the book is directed specifically to the father. He says this,

"The common denominator between success and failure seems to be the spiritual depth and sincerity of the parents, especially the spiritual depth and sincerity of the father."

Farley says we "need the grace that comes to (us) through the Gospel" since parenting is difficult and because we are imperfect. I have often wondered how people raise children without the Lord. I have so many days where I just want to give up...I think I would despair if I didn't have God to turn to...if I didn't have a refuge.

God is sovereign but he uses "means" (parents) to reach our children. Holding God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in tension is what Farley emphasizes in the first chapter. He says, "It is fatal to presume upon God's sovereignty by neglecting parental faithfulness. Yet it is also a mistake to assume that it all depends on us."

He also takes a stab at those who shelter their children from the world and taking a defensive standpoint when instead he says we should take the offense and equip our children to overcome the world. He says it is our job as parents to give our children a God-centered worldview by "going after their hearts."

A few questions he asked and I had to ask myself:

What assumptions have affected my approach to parenting? (am I assuming parenting should be easy, am I assuming God is sovereign and I am responsible and holding those two in tension, am I pursuing my childrens' hearts and making the Gospel attractive, am I assuming my children are believers just because they do or say the right thing, is my house child-centered or God-centered)

Which pressures from our culture make these assumptions difficult to believe or apply?

What do you think? Have you learned or are you learning this through your parenting journey?

Happy Birthday to him...

to the one who jumps vigorously...

to the one who samples lots of concoctions...

to the one who "catches" butterflies...

to the one who consents to my decorating whims...

to the one who loves and gives and serves his heart out...

yeah, you. Plus 28.

Happy Birthday.

We love you.

Taylor Joyisms & Beckettisms

Taylor Joyisms used to be monthly feature here at the Duty Chronicles and since Easton was born, they are sadly down to a semi-annual basis. It's not that hilarious things aren't being said, but they are laughed at and forgotten most of the time.

Here are a few that we have kept up with in the past month, with a few from our newly verbose son, as well.



Taylor Joyisms:

"Daddy, you're the exercising boy that's the exercising boy!"

"I meant to do that on accident"

(pointing to her sippy cup) "N - U - B - Y. That spells cup."

"Since Beckett was coughing two times, I burped his back."

"Daddy, you're a sneaky potato!"

"I'm a really good killer. I can kill them really really hard." (about the flies in our house)

"oh, pink it!" (she says it in the same context of "aww, man!")

"it's like a rock star" (if something is really cool)

(with her new doctor kit) "I can hear your heartbeep!"

"Mommy, do we need to disgust?" (discuss)

"Take it to the MAX!" (when she wants to do something with greatness)

"Daddy, I want to be an adult." Allen said, "No Geet (her nickname), I don't want you to be an adult. I want you to be my little girl." And she said, "But I just want to be an adult." Allen said, "You'll be an adult one day. But for now I want you to enjoy being little. I love that you're my little girl." And then she said, "Yeeeeah, I'll be an adult when I'm four."

Beckettisms:

"mommy...i unt a piece of chocolate milk!"

(after pulling down a table in the kitchen and glass all over the floor) "I sorry. I not do it 'gain."

"I aggle goose" (mommy translation: I want apple juice)

"What doin' dayeee? (daddy translation: what are you doing, Daddy?)

(after seeing a boy hitting in preschool and him being told to "be nice", Beckett walks around patting everyone saying this) "I nice. I nice. I nice"

Beckett also loves to pray and will go on and on until you stop him. I would love to listen to him pray forever, it's so sweet, but often (for time's sake) we have to prompt him to say, "In Jesus' name, Amen." I hope to get it on video very soon.


Hope you enjoyed this installment of Dutyisms. I'll try to keep up with all the Duty funnies until the next time.

How you can help Haiti

This is Allen's post on the NL blog:

By now, you have probably heard about the massive 7.3 earthquake that struck Haiti two days ago. If not, here is a news brief from the New York Times on the event and the country:

“On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck Haiti, devastating its capital. Thousands of people were feared dead. The recent earthquake, the worst in the region in more than 200 years, brought even more suffering to a nation that was already the hemisphere’s poorest and most disaster-prone.

Haiti occupies an area roughly the size of Maryland on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Nearly all of the 8.7 million residents are of African descent and speak Creole and French. The capital is Port-au-Prince.

The country is, by a significant margin, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, with four out of five people living in poverty and more than half in abject poverty. Deforestation and over-farming have left much of Haiti eroded and barren, undermining subsistence farming efforts, driving up food prices and leaving the country even more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its long history of political instability and corruption has added to the turmoil.”

Please be in prayer for the country’s leadership, the believers there, and for the many aid workers already there or leaving to help. We would also urge you to consider donating by purchasing a Help Haiti t-shirt (take a look here). The shirts are $25 each, and 100% of the proceeds go toward Haiti disaster relief through Real Hope for Haiti, Compassion International, and Heartline.

New Life will be placing a bulk order for these t-shirts on Friday. To place your order through New Life, please email Allen by 12 pm CST on Friday with the number of t-shirts you would like and the sizes you need. Then bring your payment to worship on Sunday evening (make checks payable to New Life with “Help Haiti” on the memo line). One of our members has volunteered to bring the shirts to College Station next weekend so we will not have to pay any shipping charges.

For friends of New Life that live outside of College Station, you may order your shirt directly through Aaron Ivey’s website, and the shirt will be shipped to your address in 3–7 days. Shipping charges will apply to orders placed through Ivey’s site.

Thank you for praying or donating to help these hurting people.

Here's a few more ways to help on Justin Taylor's blog, as well.

Praying through this

Thinking beyond myself

{for today}

The Rescue Kids!

Now, for some of the crafts that I have been undertaking throughout November and December that I couldn't tell you about until after Christmas (I love surprises!).

The capes and masks that I made for the kids were huge hit since they (Taylor Joy especially) are in a wonderful phase that includes imagining almost everything they do. I hope this phase lasts! They love to imagine that Taylor's bed is a car that drives us to Chuck E. Cheese or Chic-fil-A and then we get out and order our meal or play pretend games together. They love to imagine they are Word Girl and Captain Huggieface and race around the house "rescuing" each other from the Bad Guys (they usually say that Allen is the Butcher...a bad guy on the show). Beckett is always needing to be rescued from someone who is tickling him. It's just too much fun not to.

All that to say, it's been precious to see them use something so simple to enhance their precious little imaginations. Here are the tutorials I used for the capes and masks:


Superhero Cape and Mask Tutorial

Instead of using an old dress like she suggested, I just used fabric I had or got for really cheap, about a yard for each. I made Beckett's shorter than Taylor Joy's, of course.

I also appliqued their initials on the back of their capes and added a girly bow to Taylor Joy's.

Hope this can be useful for you and your kids, too!

Christmas Pictures in Review

We had a beautiful Christmas together.

We started off the festivities in Sachse with my family on the 23rd. Spending time with their Nanny, Papa and Aunt B was a highlight for sure. It was brief, but worth it. Nanny and Papa attempted to wrap a picture of the kids' new trampoline, but I'm pretty sure it was lost in translation. It came through loud and clear when Allen put it together the day after Christmas. They are loving it and I have to be quite honest, I like it myself. Practicing my old cheerleader jumps is pretty fun and Taylor Joy keeps asking me, "Mom! Who taught you to do that?" I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to try any flips anytime soon though. We are coming up on our 10 year high school reunion this year. Crazy how that silly thing called time flies!

We headed over to McKinney on Christmas Eve morning to spend some time with Mima, G-pa, Aunt Lizzie, Aunt Cathy and Uncle Ryan. It was way too brief, but so much fun. Notice the wonderful quality of my pictures below? Yeah? Yeah! That's what I thought. Thank Mima and G-pa for that. I think Cathy might win the award for most thoughtful gift this year. She got me this awesome book that I can't wait to dig into.

We headed to Frisco to see our friends Ryan and Cate for an excruciatingly quick 10 minute hello and gift drop-off in the SNOW! Yes, it was really coming down on our way there and back. Beautiful!

We came home to get settled back in and spend a low-key Christmas Eve and Christmas in our home. It was a fun night and day of fire burning in the fireplace, cold weather, sweet devotions together, yummy meals and blessing each other with thoughtful gifts. I am so thankful that we sat down before Thanksgiving and actually planned out our budget and gifts this year. I was able to make gifts for the kids and our family that were thoughtful and also useful and well received. I made capes for the kids since they love Word Girl and Captain Huggieface and love to pretend they are the Rescue Kids. I love it that it promotes them using their imagination, as opposed to another battery-operated toy. We also got them a tent with a tunnel that we thought they would enjoy since they love making forts. I made necklaces for Taylor Joy, family, some friends and myself. I was so blessed by our Advent time this year and hearing the kids recite the entire Christmas story on Christmas when we had gone through the whole thing. Taylor Joy's prayer on Christmas Eve was the most memorable thing about the entire day. Such a blessing to hear her articulate everything we have labored to teach her about Christ and Him coming into the world to save us from our sins. It was a beautiful day to remember the sacrifice that Christ made in coming into the world and to praise Him, not only for that, but also for the evidences of His grace that we have seen in ourselves and in our children in the past year. It was a tough year with lots of changes that took place, but nonetheless a praiseworthy year for the things the Lord did in and through us.

Here's a video slideshow of our Christmas:

Make a Smilebox photobook

Jumpers

Giggles all around and lots of fun being had on our new trampoline. Thanks, Nanny and Papa!

Get yours too!

Bible Reading Plans for the New Year!

Allen and I read through one together last year and it blessed our socks off! Doing it together was fun, and always gave us something to talk about as well. Once I heard a few other people were doing it, it was great because we could discuss what we were learning through the scriptures, too.

Justin Taylor had a blog post last year with many different Bible reading plans to choose from. Last year we read the ESV Bible Reading Plan and this year we are going to try the Discipleship Journal Plan (with catch-up days), which will work nicely if you fall behind or if you want to research something more fully on the "off" days.

So, don't delay! Go choose yours! I highly recommend it.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours...





Thanks for reading updates of our family and joining us in this journey of life. We are blessed to walk through it with you and with a Savior who loved us enough to come to earth as a baby and rescue us from our sin. We are overwhelmed by His goodness and grace toward us as we consider what we really deserved, death. But He who is infinitely holy showed His infinite love to us who are infinitely sinful and instead of giving us the infinite punishment that we deserve, He gave us His infinite grace. What an amazing thing! REJOICE!

Beckett's Birthday

A slideshow from my birthday boy's party...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Funny Photo Friday

Check out this photo taken of my family.

Never has there been a sillier family photo.

The bad and good news of it all:

Bad news: Not one picture was taken where we were ALL looking and smiling (not including Easton).

The Good News: They are pretty talented Photoshoppers and we ended up with a great one of all of us with my family.

Life Group Christmas Party Pics

This must be the week for pictures...I have more coming from Beckett's little birthday get-together and also, the funniest family photo. You'll want to see this.

But, for now, here are the pictures from our Tacky Christmas Sweater Party with the Newcomer Life Group. Enjoy! This was so fun!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Beckett is 2!

I am awed and astounded that my little boy is 2 years old today.

Sweet Beckett,

Two amazing years ago I had no idea what it would be like to raise a little boy.

I went into the hospital anticipating the blue that was going to enter into our world. The balls and bugs and dirt that would become a part of pink everyday life. I was worried I wouldn't know what to do. Anticipating that I would fall short of what a "boy mom" should and could be able to do.

Two years later and I can't imagine not having my little boy. I now have two boys! Double doses of the joys of boyhood are heading my way. I have already experienced the independence that has marked your second year of life. Part of thinking about this year in regards to the way you have grown and changed makes me want to cry and the other part makes me want to rejoice. I cry because your independence has made you need me less and less. You rely on no one fully. You do whatever you need to do and like to play on your own a lot of the time. You only cuddle before bed. Any other time I am blessed to be able to give you a hug in passing.

But, oh do I relish those cuddles before bed. I still rock you and sing your hymn to you, "How Great Thou Art." I rejoice in how great the Lord is and how great His blessings are to me, especially you, sweet Buddy!

I am overjoyed and praise God for the evidences of His grace that I see in your life. I praise Him that you are independent. You still hardly notice Easton. That's great! That means there is no jealousy to speak of. When you do notice him, you are very loving toward him and I can see that you are going to be a great big brother and example for him.

You are a great playmate to your Sissy, Taylor Joy. The two of you play together often and get along very well. You share with Sissy and the two of you make a great team (Word Girl and Captain Huggieface to the rescue!). I love the way that you use your imagination to play together. It is a blessing and joy to watch as you interact and I think of the wonderful friendship that is being built between you two.

You are a wonderful son, so lovable, such a fun personality. You are quite the character and life around the Duty home would not be the same without you.
We pray everyday for your salvation...that the Lord would draw your heart and grant you faith and repentance in Him. We'll continue to pray, holding fast to His promises and continuing to shepherd and teach you. We love you today and always, Beckett!

Happy Birthday!

A Couple of Weeks Worth of Pictures

Just a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Taylor Joy and her G-pa (Allen's dad)



a little sibling love... and Dinosaur Tales



Allen and Easton at the Christmas Tree Farm



With my family at the farm



On the hayride...



Little helpers watching Papa cut down the tree...



"Easy E" (as we call him) in the Bumbo



A girl who loves to swing...



The smiliest baby I know... Did I mention he made the 4 month mark a couple of weeks ago? So not cool that I missed blogging about it! I'll make up for that later...

In case you thought...

I was done talking about Advent, I'm not.

I wanted to share an Advent Calendar that my friend Sarah and I came up with to do with our MOPS group. It is really simple. Really.




We made it out of a placemat that I found at Bed Bath and Beyond. We purchased an awl at Home Depot and ribbons at Hobby Lobby. Each calendar will need either one roll of Christmas ribbon or 2 rolls of regular ribbon. Choose one that is thin and soft (grosgrain wasn't the easiest...)

So, supplies:

1 placemat
1 awl
1-2 rolls of ribbon
kid's needle (one with a big eye)
Advent scriptures formatted into a square, printed and cut


Steps to make your placemat Advent calendar:

It's never too late to make this now... or save it until next year. But, it really won't take you longer than an hour.

1. Poke holes into the placemat with an awl. Measure and mark 4 dots across and 6 dots down. Then poke 2 holes per dot that you marked. This way there is a hole for your ribbon to go through and one for it to come out. So, you will have punched 48 holes.

2. Thread ribbon through the needle and through the placemat, with the loose ends coming out of the front. Do this 23 more times. (or more reasonably, do it 5 times, take a break, 5 more, get some coffee, 5 more play with kids, and then only 8 are left). My hands hurt a bit after doing this!

3. Print and cut out your formatted Advent scriptures/lessons and roll them up like a scroll. Tie them inside of the ribbons on your calendar and make cute little bows.


Here are the "preschool" Advent pieces we used on this calendar. We have 2 Advent calendars and this one has been way more suitable for Beckett and possibly Taylor Joy, as well. We let each Christmas story fact build on the other so we talk about all that we have already learned each day up to that point, in hopes that by Christmas they will be able to tell us the whole story of Jesus' birth and the way it all went down.

I know you either are or aren't doing Advent this year already, but I just wanted to go ahead and pass this along for those who have asked what we do with our littler kids during Advent.

Happy Advent to you!

One Snowy Night

Much to our surprise, we experienced SNOW on Friday. Not a ton (in the slightest), but flurries still make us happy. We played outside and then sent Allen to go get some wood to throw on the fire. Add in some homemade hot chocolate, graham cracker house decorating and good friends and you've got a night to remember.

Here are some pics:







Can you guess which one is Beckett's?

Advent Scriptures for your Calendar

photo courtesy Arvind Balaraman

Here is this years' Duty Chronicles Advent Calendar...

Advent 2013

And in case you haven't seen, here are some ideas for Advent activities to do with your kids. The point being to spend quality time with them, not rushing around trying to get the right supplies or check this off your to do list. Add some to your family time together and just enjoy it!

Hopefully the Advent Calendar + devotional will help all of us to become more consistent in worshipping with our families each day. Let me know if you have any other fun ideas to reinforce Christ this season! Here are some great ideas that our family uses or that I have heard of other families using:

Christmas Card Prayer Box – make a prayer box that will hold your Christmas cards from last year. At family worship every night, have the kids choose one card from the box and  pray for that family.
OR
Christmas Card Prayer Sticks - we are utilizing these throughout the year and the kids love it! They even ask to keep some in their room to pray for them on their own. I love that!

Advent Wreath – a picture of ours is here as well as a description of the 4 weeks of Advent

This goes along nicely with the Advent calendar to reinforce the “waiting” period. We use battery-operated candles so the kids can take charge of doing this without burning the house down.

Kids’ Play – reenactment of the Christmas story, do a scene each day or reenact the whole thing on Christmas. Don’t worry about costumes, pull out sheets to wrap around yourself, grab a kitchen towel and keep it on your head with a headband or rubberband. Get creative! Your kids will love putting their costumes together!

Manger Ritual – putting Jesus in a “manger” on Christmas Day, empty basket under the tree until Christmas (great for small toddlers, with knowledge that you will explain “waiting” to them everyday)

Christmas Songs – O Little Town of Bethlehem, Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, Go Tell it On the Mountain, Angels We Have Heard on High, Away in a Manger, What Child is This (these are just a few well known Christmas/Advent songs). Focus on one song per week so that your kids can actually learn the words and tune.

Stargazing - pretend you are a Wise man, grab a constellation map and gaze at the stars. Imagine where the Star of Bethlehem would have been and talk about how bright it would have to be to guide you miles and miles to the newborn king!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Toilet Paper Roll Advent Calendar

I've been wanting to make a tutorial since so many people have asked me specifics about how I made this last year. Well, after getting the Christmas stuff down from the attic this weekend, I decided to take it apart and re-number my calendar so that it would be a countdown rather than just the dates on the rolls.

So, here is your handy dandy tutorial...for making a toilet paper Advent Calendar.

Toilet Paper Advent Calendar

Materials:

25 toilet paper rolls
25 toilet paper sized pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper
several rolls of coordinating ribbon or tulle
stickers that number 1-24, plus an additional "Christmas Day" sticker (depending on if you are counting down or simply putting the dates)
Decorative accents (rub-ons, stickers, etc.)

Instructions:
1. Cut out papers to fit around toilet paper rolls so that they cover the entire roll. Tape the top piece.


Glue the wrong side of the paper.


And tape the end to secure it.


2. Cut pieces of ribbon or tulle about 6 inches if you want it to stick out and sort of "poof" at the edges (for tulle).

3. Tie two pieces together. Feed through one toilet paper roll, making sure the tied part is staying on the outside. Feed the other end through another toilet paper roll and tie the loose ends as tight as you can. If you fail to tie them tight enough you will be able to see spaces in between toilet paper rolls. Continue this until you have completed.





Make sure you are putting them in the order you would like. Last year I used the calendar starting with 1 and going up to 25. This year I decided I would prefer to start with 24 and end on Christmas Day (0), to make it more like a countdown.

4. To hang the Advent Calendar, I tied a piece of ribbon and fed it through the very top toilet paper roll so that the knot wasn't showing and hung it from a wreath hanger that is in our dining room.



It's just a fun and cute way to remember where we are (in relation to Christmas and how far away it is) and to let the kids feel involved in getting them out each day. It also serves to keep us consistent. My family goes through scriptures of Jesus' birth as well as prophecies that point to Christ. We ask questions to focus our day on Christ and sometimes we have an activity that reinforces what we have learned. We sing Christmas songs and pray as a family.

If you would like a very simple Advent devotional, here is the link to download ours.

Duty Chronicles Advent Devotional

Show some link love if you make this craft or use our devotional. Thanks!