Praises of a Wife and Mommy

 I don't know about you but when I see Christmas lights I feel all giddy and happy.  The other night we took the kiddos to a nearby zoo that has an amazing Christmas light show.  It is truly amazing and these pictures give  no justice.   I love that there were many local business's that support different sections in the zoo.  I was also very excited to see there was a nativity scene!!  (Did you know Mary was a model?  JK the nativity scene used manikin with make-up...so I had good laugh with our friends.)   The zoo uses over 1,000,000,000 LED lights so the cost is very low with LED!  There is no fee to visit but a suggested food donation to help the community or any cash donation is accepted.   While we walked their was a big selection of music playing that coordinated with the lights.  This is definitely a trip worth making every year as a new family tradition!!  Bundle up and enjo...

  I cheated this year and bought dough rather then making it.  It is so time consuming to make the cut out Christmas cookies that my children love to eat but love to decorate and make more.   Yes, I admit it, I ate my fair share already!  :(  Too much frosting and calories...EEEEK!!! My daughter in the picture was "frosting" her cookies.  :)  This Christmas tree was one of my favorites.  :) 

 If you are searching for a new family tradition for Christmas then look no further.  Our family started making "Happy Birthday Jesus Pancakes" three years ago.  The first two years I made regular pancakes and added sprinkles but this year will be much different.   Instead of using a pancake mix we are truly having a birthday party when we use a cake mix and home made frosting and sprinkles to celebrate our Kings birthday.   Thanks Rachel Ray who inspired me to make these pancakes:   http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/birthday-pancakes/ This is very simple all you need is a yellow cake mix, sprinkles, powdered sugar, vanilla, butter, milk, and candles.   Make the cake mix as directed then add sprinkles.  (My picture does not show the red,green, and white sprinkles very well.)  Cook the cake batter just like pancake batter.  Make a frosting drizzle with the remaining ingredients.   Here is a recipe you can use for Frostin...

Max Lucado, with Randy Frazee, and Karen Hill, present three childrens book in The Story series includes thre wonderful stories to help kids the love God has for them.  The three stories include: The Story for Children  deluxe edition, God's Messages for Little Ones, and The Story of Jesus for Kids.   This series would make a wonderful Christmas gift for any child!   I really enjoyed Max Lucado's narration of the 48 different Bible Stories that have really been awesome at keeping my daughters attention.  It is nice to have the CD's to listen to the stories but the book also provides great pictures with vibrant and detailed images that really please the younger ages. The Story of Jesus for Kids is a book for kids aged 9-12 that will help them develop their faith  with a better understanding of Jesus.  The paperback book has discussion questions for the kids.    

Hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses is what this mom has been doing the last 24 hours. There truly are no words to express the sadness in my heart.  I am only blogging about it because I feel so much sadness and I can't seem to write any other blog post until I let my emotions be heard on here.   I wrote on Thursday night about how my daughter was being used on her school bus and I was very thankful and excited to continue to see God use my daughter.  Less then 24 hours after making that post a tragic event takes place that has ripped my heart apart.  As soon as I heard about the events at Sandy Hook Elementary I started to shiver in fear, I was about to keep my daughter home from her afternoon 4K program.  I did however realize that I am not going to coward in fear, instead I am going to make the devil shiver in fear from all my prayers.  I leaned on this scripture yesterday:  "for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love an...

I am in awe of my daughter tonight!  I felt blessed as she started her prayers which then made for a lot of questions and answers to follow.  I am so thankful for her big heart and her love to listen and hear from Jesus.  So her prayers went a little something like this: Dear Jesus, I am so happy I listened to you on how to help my friend N. on the bus today.  The boys were mean but I was a good friend and I helped her when she was crying.  I like it when you help me be the best friend I can be.  Lord, can you help J. and A. be nice friends with us?  I want to help more of my friends so please help me do that.   (She continued on for a few minutes more repeating and rephrasing some of the same things.)  My heart was so proud of her but my prayer for her is to be a blessing to others.  How often do we pray for our children to be blessed and receive but today I am praying that my daughter continues to have love, m...

My daughter just recently started enjoying the I spy books.  Take the same principle of those books but personalize them with your family photos and you have the "Find Me If You Can"  a book by Bammco .  Thank-you Bammco for personalizing a book for me to conduct this review.  I was not paid for this review and all opinions are 100% mine.  I was very pleased with the customer service and the ease of ordering my book.  I only needed to send the pictures to them and I got my book quickly.   My husband and I had some fun paging through a few pages and finding our faces but I am wrapping this up and putting it under the tree.  I imagine my daughter will truly be searching each page until she finds each of us on them.  I love the rhyming on the pages and the bright and colorful backgrounds.  I have a feeling that by the time she finishes the book she will start all over again.  :)  Every child wants to be the star in t...