The Season of Advent - Day 2

While most people know or have heard of advent calendars and Advent for December, not everyone knows that the true Season of Advent starts 4 Sundays before Christmas. That means that  this year November 28th was the beginning of Advent.
We want to teach our children about Jesus and God at an early age. One way to begin to teach children about the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the Advent season and explain take the time to explain it to them each day.
It can be hard to teach young children about something and know that they are really understanding it. I had seen a great post on Advent calendars and making your own over at Keeper of the Home, and it made me start thinking about Advent season in our house and how we can celebrate it. I wanted to make our calendar this year with LJ, but that isn't going to happen as we have had to much going on. Then while I was out with my mom on Saturday I saw the cutest thing at Walmart. It is a set of wall/window clings that are the Manger Scene.

There are a ton of stars with this so there are more than enough images for the entire Advent season. I like that the images are kid oriented so my son loves it.
We didn't get to start putting this up yesterday like I had hoped, so I did two images today. I got my son together with me and we cleaned the wall to make sure the clings would stick. Then I picked what would be the best images to start with: the manger and the words.

First, i put up the manger as this would be the center of the rest of the season. LJ wasn't too interested in it at first, but then he saw that mommy had put something on our wall, and that made him want to see what I was doing. I explained to him that we were starting our advent season and that this is when we celebrate Baby Jesus being born.

Once the manger was up I told LJ we were going to put up one more picture and I read what the words said. After peeling it off of the backing, I had him help me put it on the wall. He really liked helping me put something on the wall and making sure it was stuck on.

I think this is a really cute manger scene. One thing I like it that it can come off and be repositioned on the wall. I don't know if it will last more than one year, but at the price I paid, it wouldn't entirely matter and maybe next year we will finally be able to make our own family Advent Calendar that we can use year after year.
I look forward to seeing what picture LJ will want to put up tomorrow. I am going to let him pick the picture each day and then before we leave our house on Christmas Eve we will put up the last cling which I will of course make sure is the Baby Jesus asleep in the hay. :)

How do you celebrate the Advent season with your family? Do you have a calendar you use each year or some other tradition you have in prepare yourselves for Christmas? I would love to hear from you!

Until next time... Happy Advent!

Ring in the New Year Event!

I have found a great new blog (well, new to me). Her name is Bargain Mom. Starting December 1st, she is host her biggest event to date. Well, that might be all well and good, but why blast it to the world? Well, I will tell you why. She is having a giveaway a week for the month of December and there will be a grand prize winner for the event that will be drawn on January 1st.

What is the grand prize? Well, how about a $500 DeluxeCard Visa gift card plus over $1,500 in prizes from her sponsors!
How awesome is that!?! She hasn't listed all of her sponsors yet, but they will be up soon. I can't wait to see what all is in store for us, but it is sounding like this is going to be one great way to Ring in the New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving! I know that this can be the beginning of a very busy Holiday Season. This year we will have a nice busy but fun Thanksgiving having two different meals with family. First we will eat with Hubby's family, and then we will head over to my parent's house for some dessert and such. Of course as it turns out, the two meals are going to be starting about an hour or so after each other. That is why the dessert is at the second place and not another full meal. :) I was hoping there would be even a few hours between the two meals, but that is how things go.
I hope everyone has a great day and a good weekend! Let us all remember all that we have to be thankful for! I know there is so much for me to be thankful for this year, but that is another post. For now, I must go and begin this great long weekend with family.

Until next time... happy eating!

30 Week Update

Well, Wednesday will mark 30 weeks for me. I can't believe I only have ten weeks left before we meet Baby C. Monday afternoon I had my doctor's appointment.

I was really anxious for this one because it was my first one since getting my 28 week blood work done which included the glucose tolerance test. With LJ I was told that I passed, but I was pretty close to the cut off. I really did not want to have to take the 3 hour test or be told I had gestational diabetes. Luckily, my doctor said all my test results came back completely within normal ranges. I was so happy to hear that. He didn't even act like they were close to cut off numbers either. Big thumbs up!

Everything else also checked out with Baby C today. My weight went up a good number since my last visit. I think I am at about 14 pounds gained so far. After the start I had, I think this is pretty decent. I mean I did only gain 24 with LJ, too, so I wasn't expecting big numbers anyway. The nurse didn't tell me my blood pressure but said that it was good. Baby C's heart-rate was in the 140s when the doctor listened to it on the doppler. I knew she was sleeping as she hadn't moved around much before then. Actually, she hasn't moved too much all day. I think her most active times of day are the night times when I want to sleep and such, of course.

So, things are going well so far. I am already at the point where I want to meet her and get this over with. She really like to stretch out and make me uncomfortable.
The other day I realized that we really had not taken any pregnancy pictures this time around where as we had tried taking pictures every two weeks or so with LJ. So, this past Sunday I had Hubby take a preggy pic so we can have at least a few pictures of this pregnancy. So, without further adieu,

taken at 29 weeks and 4 days

There are a lot of great things that will be going on in the next couple months and so here's hoping we can all keep up and enjoy the holidays and I can keep you all up to date as to what is going on. :)

Until next time... Happy Living!

First handmade baby blanket

Baby C now has her very first handmade baby blanket ready and waiting for her arrival. Yesterday after church the family went over to Hubby's grandmother's house for some visit time. We go most weeks really.
Yesterday as I was sitting at the counter after eating some lunch, Hubby's Nan came out with the cutest little blanket. She crocheted it just for Baby C. I just had to share it with you because it is so cute!

The blanket in all its glory

A close up of one of the bears with its pink bow

This is the third blanket like this that she has made but the first one that she could put pink on instead of blue. :) The blanket is the perfect size for draping over the baby's car seat during the chilly February weather that we have here. I just love it.
I think this may have even renewed my desire to make sure I get the knit cap done that I am knitting for Baby C to wear home from the hospital.

Until next time... Happy Living!