Moments of Joy | For my children

Sharing the Joy of Christmas Fun!

Christmas is here and we are filling our moments with fun and wonder!

Meet our Buddy the Elf, he is reporting nightly to Santa!

Trying to capture a perfect shot for Nana’s Christmas cards of five little faces…not too easy!

Sweet smiles and attitudes, but always one wanting OUT of the picture…usually Isabela!

All said and done, silly fun memories for these precious little cousins! What’s funny, they just go along with what we ask of them!

Crafting and coloring with my little man!

Sweet girl making a bell necklace.

Posing at the tree in Market Square with Nana

Above our table, Jackson was thrilled to see his name as well as the word vine!

Isabela found her finger in the dip…yummy.

Abigail caught eye of this sweet puppy, but she loved the pet stroller it was sitting in. She has asked Santa for a pet stroller!

My countdown to Christmas man, he is so excited!

December 18, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Pre-Christmas Fun! 12/14/12

The time of year to celebrate the joy in our little people’s eyes!

Finally our anticipated meeting with Santa! They were really excited and a little unsure(Isabela) at being with the man in red! Abigail always looking to her big brother for comfort or to see his reaction.

Such sweet smiles!

Isabela would only get near Santa if we held her. No way she would sit on his lap!

Cousin Jayden and Elijah

Craft table fun

Nana and Isabela

Thanks Papaw for inviting us to the Bush’s Kids Christmas Party! We had fun!

Reading his letter

December 15, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Abigail’s Day!

Many days have passed since our last update. We have continued to celebrate our sweet girl turning four!

We’ve moved into December, healed some runny noses and belly aches, and tried to maintain some sort of schedule!

We’ve been happy!

Birthday girl spent some time creating a new friend at Build A Bear on her special day.

Brother and sister also joined the fun!

We had a fun afternoon picking out accessories for each and naming our new friends.

Meet Sparky the Big Dog, Sister Bear, and Pinky the Birthday Bear!

Celebrating her day with a special lunch and dessert.

Our sweet happy girl!

Our second sweet happy girl, loving the freedom to walk on this cold afternoon.

December 7, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos, Uncategorized . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Sweet Abigail!

Abigail had a celebration for her fourth birthday on Sunday. We celebrated with a Little Golden Book theme of the Poky Little Puppy and The Shy Little Kitten. As she said, a puppy/kitty party.

I can’t believe you are four!

She absolutely loved the cake. The pictures match the characters of the puppy and kitty perfectly.

You were so excited to see the decorations of balloons, streamers, and books when you woke.
We have this tradition that daddy and I decorate when we put all babies to bed. We cover the tables, add some decorative bling, and stage balloons throughout parts of the house. The morning excitement of seeing our modest creation, lights each of your eyes like lanterns, as you shuffle through balloons scattered throughout the floor!

The really sweet thing about Abigail is she always expresses her appreciation. She thanked us out of the blue for decorating, the puppy and the kitty being on the cake, and for “making her special!”

Daddy is holding a small picture of you on your first birthday. My how you have grown!

Making a wish with Jackson and Elijah!

Love the gifts! You received books, puzzles, clothes, two pairs of boots, two dolls, and money.

Adding to her Calico Critter collection, a bunny family.

Your favorite from Papaw and Nana, your first big girl bike. A basket for your animals in the front and a carrier in the back for your baby.

It didn't take you long to understand the brakes and gain confidence. Slow down is all you hear from your mommy!

A happy brother with a new truck

Waiting their turn for a ride on the new bike!

Happy new baby sissy with a new pink phone

Making music for their birthday girl sister!

A VERY happy mommy and daddy! The story of your birth is a wonderful memory for us. Your daddy took me to the emergency room on Thanksgiving morning. As he pointed at my about to explode belly, he said he needed a doctor because I had swallowed a turkey! You joyfully joined our family at the same time many families were sitting down to enjoy their Thanksgiving Feast! You were precious!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl! You are AMAZING! Thank you for making our family so special!

November 27, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Being Thankful

I am so grateful for this family, their love, their health, and the incredible joy they daily bring!

We read many books about blessings, pilgrims, and the feast. This book has been a favorite here for a long time, but they especially have enjoyed the connection between the turkeys in the book and crafts we have done recently. The book is titled “Gobble, Gobble Crash, a Barnyard Counting Bash” by Julie Stiegemeyer. The words are an easy to read rhyme with colorful sweet pictures of all of the farm animals, and it has a repetitive flow that each of them enjoyed chanting throughout the story.
It begins as, “Fireflies danced in the dark summer sky, and crickets in the garden played their music in reply. The farm was very quiet as the night replaced the day, while ONE lonely mare nibbled softly on some hay.” It continues counting to ten with cows, cats, lambs, geese, chickens, mice, goats, pigs, and robins. Each of the mother animals are annoyed at the Gobble, Gobble, Crash noise the turkeys make as “Mama Hen grew angry, and she scolded loud and quick, Turkeys, can’t you calm yourselves, think of my SIX chicks!” It isn’t until the animals hear the farmer scream out the window about the gobbling turkey mess proclaiming, “I’m gonna have a turkey feast,” that all the animals together decided to save the turkeys hiding each of them among the barnyard families. The story finishes by counting backwards from ten as the farmer thinks he’s dreaming and the barnyard bash is enjoyed by all of the critters for the rest of the night!

We made these sweet turkey treats to go along with the flapping wild turkeys in the story and had chocolate icing everywhere!

Isabela was happy to hold her treat that Jackson and Abigail made her.

This was Jayden’s project from school. She had to disguise a turkey so that it wouldn’t be eaten for Thanksgiving! She started with the outline of the turkey and had to come up with the rest.

Way to go! She won first place!

ONE of Nana’s yummy turkeys for the feast!

Another chance to light candles for the Thanksgiving/Birthday Girl!

And, another chance to blow out trick candles!

Relaxing on this holiday.

Playing on the slide.

Eating lettuce from the garden.

I can’t decide who is the silliest.

Thankful to be together!

Silly Isabela….

November 25, 2012
Categories: Literature Favorites, Moments of Joy . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

We Loved Halloween! 11/1/12

What a fantastic day full of wonderful memories!

These three were excited from the moment they woke!

Cloudy and cold on the days before, once the sun came out on this day, they were over the pumpkin with happiness.

Happy to capture some pre-dress up moments with my bright eyed three!

A pig and a dinosaur, an unlikely combo!

The pig has the Dino by the tail!

Pink puppy Isabela

Daddy and Isabela enjoying treating in downtown Dandridge. Prior picture of Abigail, so confident with her curly tail, wand, crown, and wings. Love her enthusiasm!

Finally, he gets it! He actually had joy in approaching people and receiving their treats. He enjoyed the costume, walking with his sisters, and feeling good about talking to others.

It didn’t take Isabela long to see how the process of putting your bag up equals someone putting in a treat! We were really excited at her enjoyment as well as how she looked at every person that treated her!

We finished up a fun day playing in the leaves. We love this time of year!

November 1, 2012
Categories: Memories, Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Newest Cousin 10/22/12

We were finally able to meet Saxton’s new sister, our newest cousin Synclair Presley Peters! So tiny, beautiful, and sweet! Jackson and Abigail couldn’t believe how dark and shiny her hair was. This was Isabela’s first real look at another baby and she couldn’t keep her eyes off of her.

It was great seeing the little cousins play together. It was hard breaking Jackson, Abigail, and Saxton away from the trucks and blocks to capture a few photos.

My mother was so happy to meet this baby!

My girls were too! We look forward to visiting with Amanda, Bill, Roger, Saxton, and Synclair again.

October 24, 2012
Categories: Moments of Joy . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Isabela’s School Time 10/1/12

This is a little peek at Isabela sitting at our school table in the loft with her Daddy. She loves to act like her brother and sister and hold a pencil. She really makes us laugh. Interacting with her is so fun! I hope she continues to be excited about life and learning. Enjoy the video!

October 3, 2012
Categories: Isabela's Work, Moments of Joy . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Butterfly! The Conclusion to our Science Experiment 9/29/12

We’ve been busy around here watching, observing, and of course waiting for our science experiment to reveal herself. We have answered LOTS of times, how many days might be left, as well as why it won’t be able to continue living here once it has transformed into a butterfly.

Saturday morning we noticed some color showing in the chrysalis so we knew it wouldn’t be long.

Abigail wanted to examine it closely to see if she could see her caterpillar friend.

Honestly, looking minutes later, this is what we found. A very fragile looking butterfly with small crumpled wings and big eyes.

Each of them couldn’t believe what a beautiful butterfly was in our jar.

Abigail can’t decide if she is happy or sad. Her caterpillar friend is gone and now we have to release the new butterfly!

Isabela couldn’t decide if she was happy or scared. Lots of sounds and emotions from this girl.

The tiny details of this creature were amazing!

After being silly on the back porch, we decided to take the butterfly to Nana and Papaw’s house to release.

Once out of the jar it immediately took hold of Jackson’s finger! He was amazed by this.

Jackson placed the butterfly on Isabela and it never offered to fly away. She wasn’t too sure about it but didn’t cry.

I love this picture! A happy boy proud to have learned and witnessed this amazing life cycle. Finally the butterfly lifted off of his finger and took flight. We watched it disappear into the trees and were thankful our cat or a bird didn’t capture this new fragile life.

By Abigail, she wrote her name, drew her picture, and copied my word BUTTERFLY.

By Jackson, he summarized his thoughts with some help on the spelling and then illustrated his butterfly.

September 30, 2012
Categories: Abigail's Art, Abigail's Work, Jackson's Art, Jackson's Work, Moments of Joy, Observations . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Final Weekend of Summer 2012 9/16/12

We say it each year, “where does the summer go?” We love to see it come and feel relief as it begins to exit. We’ve been smack dab in the middle of these long days of extreme heat, uncounted hours of mowing, and the extra hours of the days filled with countless other to-do’s.
Taking a much needed break, we humbly captured Jackson and Abigail having some innocent moments of fun in the back yard with each other and sprinkles from the hose. Final summer weekend fun!

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Can’t believe how fast this boy is growing!

Love this girl’s favorite thing to say, “This is the best day ever!”

Together they made a see saw from things they found out back. They loved their new invention!

After her nap, Isabela joined some of the fun even though she wasn’t too happy being contained by big brother as Abigail was in front “driving” the truck. Check out those long legs!

These two are so sweet. I love watching them play together. I love it even more that they can find satisfied fun right in their backyard, rarely tiring of each other or what’s around them.

September 17, 2012
Categories: Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

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