Christmas Preparations

There have been a lot of Christmas preparations going on at the Lightner house this year -- decorating the tree and house, opening the advent calendar, making Christmas crafts, shopping, having play dates, shopping online, attending Christmas parties, etc. BUT through it all, the most important preparation that Danny and I hope is being done is in our hearts this Christmas. We pray that our children will anticipate Christmas not for the presents, but for the greatest gift... Jesus. That is something that comes from the top down... as they see the hearts of Dad and Mom.

Throughout the year Grace has memorized Bible verses... some to teach obedience or another Biblical trait while others are more for building "doctrine". So this Christmas Grace has memorized a verse from Luke 2. We hope to make this a tradition that will help her to see the real reason for Christmas and prepare her heart for it.

Enjoy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

SNOW DAY!

Well, yesterday was the second snow fall of the season, and the first time for all of the Lightners to get out and play in it! I bundled up the girls and met Danny outside for some winter fun! The last time Hannah was out in snow was when she was just a few days old! Boy, has time flown!

We went sledding down the driveway and got very snowy!

This was Hannah's first sledding experience!

After having a lot of fun outside, we were glad to return inside where the wood stove was roaring and hot! It was nice to get warm and dry.

I am thankful to have two daughters who truly love each other!

Advent Calendar Project

Last year for Christmas my mom gave me a wooden advent calendar. It is a really nice one with numbered doors to open and close. After researching online about ideas to do with the calendar, I decided to make this an activity calendar with things to do for Christmas. Grace LOVES projects, so I came up with a project, gift or activity to do each day. Every morning at breakfast we will open the door and read the paper that tells us what to do that day. Yesterday -- day one -- we had a craft play date. (I have coordinated several craft play dates for December, January and February!) We had fun with friends and made some decorations for the house and tree.

Well, today was day two... the activity was making a popcorn garland for the tree. Grace couldn't wait for Hannah's naptime so we could get started! We popped popcorn -- we just used microwavable popcorn (with butter). That probably is NOT how it is supposed to be done, but she loved it.

Then we got some string and a needle to string each of the garlands. It was easier for me to put them through the needle and then Grace pushed the popcorn to the bottom of the line. She did a great job!

Of course, her favorite part was EATING the popcorn!!!

Here is the finished product -- ready for the tree!

Our Tree with the new popcorn garland!

"Mommy, what project will we do tomorrow?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness, Come before Him with joyful singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God.
It is He that has made us and not we ourselves.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful unto Him and bless His Name.
For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is everlasting.
And His faithfulness endures to ALL generations."
PSALM 100

Busy hands

When I was young -- maybe around ten or so -- I became fascinated by my mom's ease at making afghans. She crocheted so fast -- the needle and yarn zipping through her fingers. I asked her to help me learn and through MUCH PAIN and EXTREME PATIENCE, I was able to make my first afghan. It was pink. Those of you who really know me are probably chuckling at that. I can't believe I actually picked out that color, but I did. It must have been a moment of much persuasion or I could have been getting sick. :)

Through the years I have made a few other blankets, using "granny squares", but this Christmas I wanted to make at least one blanket to give as a gift... it may become a tradition. Mom always got these blankets started for me, so this time I had to go online and see a video of it being done. (Isn't the internet great!) I decided to do a different pattern in my blanket. Here are pictures of my handiwork.... I still have a long way to go!

I love the color... I think it is turning out great. It is now 6 feet by 2 1/2 feet. I am getting really attached to it. Will I have the strength to give it away?

MOPS Crafts

Our monthly MOPS meeting was Wednesday. I love seeing the ladies at MOPS and getting to spend a whole 2 hours with other ladies. The time in the Word is great as we learn how to be better moms and wives. This month we learned about how to make our homes an honoring place for our husbands. We shared ideas of how to honor them and give them the place that they deserve in our homes. One of the areas that I am going to work on is making sure that the house is picked up more when he arrives. I know approximately when he is going to be home, so having a clean up time in the late afternoon will honor him so he doesn't need to feel the stress of the toys everywhere (even though they will just get taken out again when he plays with the girls!).

I was in charge of the crafts for the month, so the steering team asked me to make TP Pumpkins and fall luminaries. I had a large budget, but because of the generosity of my Nana, I came in WAY under! She gave me fabric and ALL of the canning jars for the luminaries! YEAH! I love that! Here are the pictures of what we made:

Amazing!

It is just amazing to me how awesome our Creator is! I was just thinking about how this time last year I was pregnant with Hannah and now she is crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on the furniture and saying things -- like dada, mama, nana (for Hannah)! In one year she has just transformed before our eyes! She has grown up... from milk to food. And boy does she LOVE food!

All of this growth is amazing, but I wonder if I am growing spiritually like that! I want to grow like a weed, to be so hungry for the Word that I just have to have it and have it NOW!!!! I am thankful that even though my kids are still young they seem to teach me things about God all the time!

Soccer finals

This school year has been very different for the Lightners. We are used to having Calvary up and running, but God had other plans for CCS this year. It has been a hard adjustment for all of the teens and for us. It has been really weird not seeing a lot of them every day and keeping up with all that is going on in their lives. That is why it has been even more important this year to make it to as many games of the teens as possible. We went to MANY soccer games, field hockey games, one volleyball game and even a football game. It was a lot of fun -- when the weather was nice.

On Saturday we went to the state class S girls finals. One of our teens -- our favorite baby sitter -- was playing for Derryfield. The game was at SNHU. We bundled up the girls in their snow suits and went to the bleachers. We were armed with lots of books and snacks. In this household that is all you need for a good time with friends -- maybe a puzzle or two some times.

We sat with the Durants and JD. I was so glad that we were all bundled up. (Notice that there were no pictures of my cute outfit!) After a full game tied 0-0, we went into overtime! I didn't get to see any of it because Hannah was starving. I went into the students' center to feed her baby food. When I came out the sudden death overtime was over and DS won! YEAH! (It is really weird to cheer for DS because in HS they were the enemy! We hated playing against them!) We were really pleased for Kelsey -- winning a championship your senior year is really special!

CONGRATS, Kelsey (aka KAKA)! We love you, babe!

Costumes

Our family doesn't celebrate Halloween, but since Grace LOVES dressing up in costumes, we usually get her a little something from the thrift store and dress her up. She has been a duck and a tiger and now she was a lamb. She was a great lamb, especially with special sound effects to go along with it. I think she was the most ferocious lamb you have ever seen!
As you can see we dressed Hannah in the duck costume that Grace had at this age. She was really cute with her round cheeks sticking right out! When she bent her head down you could really see the duck head -- it made me laugh every time.

After taking a few pictures, we took the kids to our neighbors' house. They don't know Jesus yet, so we take every opportunity to go over and share our lives with them. They loved seeing the girls in their costumes, and they distinctly remembered that we DIDN'T see them last year! OUCH! So I am VERY glad that we went this year. They gave Grace a ton of chocolate (she had no idea why they did this!) which melted all over her white costume on the way to the Illian's house! Oh well! She wasn't a spotless lamb anymore -- good thing, right? We spent a little time with the Illians and got to see Sadie in her ladybug costume! So cute!

Long time; no write

Sorry, that it has been so long since I have posted something on this blog. I will have to post a few things tonight to get you up to date on what is happening with the Lightners.

"The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives."

The youth group has been going through the study of Francis Chan's Crazy Love. The quote above was taken from that book. OUCH! Danny read it a while ago and thought it was a MUST for the kids. They are doing the whole program with the video series as well. I just finished with it this morning in my devotional time! WOW! What a lot of thinking and changing there must be in my own heart! Basically he challenges us with the idea that God has a crazy love for us and we must reciprocate with that same kind of love. BUT most of us don't. We live in the luke- warm which is disgusting to Him. With all that He has done for us, we can't even live on fire for Him. Our God deserves our radical, obsessed, crazy love! I challenge you to read it as well. LIFE CHANGING STUFF HERE!!


"Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly."

Morning with Friends

A friend of mine had to be at church for a rehearsal, so I offered to watch her two girls for the morning. We had a great time here.... Grace loved being with Contessa and Hannah loved watching Bailey. (Yes, Bailey is the little girl who's hair Hannah likes to pull in nursery!!!)

Contessa brought her stamps to play with Grace...she had never done these before. They loved putting stamps on each others hands!

After playing with stamps we got out the costumes... Grace was a tiger and Contessa was a lamb. It was really funny to see a lamb chasing a tiger and funny to hear them make loud "BAAA"s and "ROAR"s.

After lots of running around, the girls decided to play "sick". Grace always says, "OK. I will be sick and you fix me up." Contessa helped her learn a new one sentence. She now puts on the stethoscope and says, "OK. Take a deep breath!" So cute....

We ended the morning with some yummy lunch! It is so much fun playing with friends... I think Grace will sleep well this afternoon! :)

So... I have been very busy since my last post. My mom came to visit from Florida. We had a great time. We didn't have any big plans; we just wanted to visit and watch my girls. Here is Hannah playing in her PJs. She really, really wanted to crawl for Nanna, but she didn't quite do it for her!

On Saturday, Great Gramps and Nanna came from Maine to visit and spend the night. We always love visiting with them. They brought potatoes and carrots from their garden to add to Sunday's lunch. Mom and I spoiled Gramps with homemade apple pie and lasagna for dinner! YUMMY! We were so glad that Adam brought his whole family over as well! We never get enough of them! Hannah and Uncle Adam have a special bond... we don't know if it is because they both love Cherrios or what!

On Sunday, we had Hannah's dedication -- or Danny and I were dedicated. We pledged to raise Hannah according to God's Word and try to be an example to her spiritually. It was great having some family there for the special occasion. We had just thought it was going to be our immediate family. Grace loved being on stage! :) (I got their matching dresses at Target for $4.50 each!!!)

It was a fun weekend -- too short, though. We will get to see Great Gramps, Great Nanna, and Nana when we go to VA for Christmas. That is TOO FAR AWAY! I have started playing Christmas music in the car to help the time go by faster!

WE LOVE YOU, NANA!

Well… we all have pet peeves, right? I am sure that some of you hate to hear someone crack their fingernails while others of you are annoyed by slow drivers or incompetent news people. My newest pet peeve? Facebook friends who use their status to complain about their life! I just don’t understand why some feel the need to use their status to tell about all of the terrible things that happened in the day or how tired they are or how misbehaved their children are! I guess I just don’t understand because I am truly blessed with a wonderful family, and I thank God for them every day. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have my struggles, but I don’t need to tell all of Facebook so I can have sympathy from them. Let’s practice what the Word of God teaches: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) Facebook world… please stop complaining about our lives of affluence and be thankful! God has truly blessed us... let's name them one by one!

We had our first "real" snow of the season last night. It came down in HUGE flakes and was absolutely beautiful...well, it was beautiful from inside next to the woodstove! I didn't have to venture out into the slushy mess. We marvel once again in God, the Creator, in His awesome Creation as the brillant trees have white snow on them!

Grace enjoyed her first taste of the snow this season... she wanted to play and build a snowman, but as you can see there wasn't much to play in! :) A little of the snow has hung around even this afternoon, but it will soon be gone. There will be PLENTY more this winter, I'm sure!

Pumpkin Fun

Well, Danny couldn't take it any longer...he just had to cut into his "daddy" pumpkin! Last night he got his knife, pumpkin, bowls and trusty side-kick (Grace) and made the first cuts.

Grace loved watching her daddy and helping him out.

The squishy seeds were really fun to scoop out. Grace helped sort them and then we put them on a cookie sheet to cook them. What a yummy snack!

Danny didn't stop there... we had to make Peter our Pumpkin!

Fun afternoon

Danny looked at the weather forecast today and realized that today was going to be the only nice weather day of the week -- they are calling for snow tonight and other times throughout the week! YIKES! Not weather to go for walks. SO... we bundled up the girls and walked down to the Robert Frost Farm. We have been there many times to walk through the woods -- Grace loves it. Danny carried her in the backpack and I carried Hannah in the Snugli. We admired the foliage and saw inside the farmhouse. Grace loved finding all of the numbered signs and telling us the numbers that were on it. "Oh look, mommy, there is one and eight!" Hannah was just content to look around and listen to her big sister. It was a lot of fun!