Cookie Day #2!

As if we hadn't baked enough sweets yet this month!

And by friends, I mean little friends.

13 of them!

My friends (the mommas) do such a good job of keeping the kids busy and helping with EVERYTHING so I can just enjoy and not get stressed about MESS (not always easy with 13 kids!).

Lots of sampling going on.

Mmmm....

Isaac had to make an iconic "jumbo freestyle" cookie again. This time: a snake.

Tea Time

Aunt Cindy came for a quick visit last week so Mom and her sisters met us for tea and lunch after picking Cindy up from the airport.

We surprised Isaac by picking him up early from school to join us.

Isaac is telling Mimi about how he lost his tooth. 

And then he quickly plugs in to the nearest device.

What a special lunch!

A Glimpse of Omniscience

^{I recently encouraged my friends and family to watch the "Life in a Day Video".  Then later I felt it might be too dark and if I didn't explain my reasoning for promoting it, it would simply be depressing.}

^{I liked it because the depravity in nearly every shot (one way or another), reminded me of God.  It so clearly shows our need for a Savior.  And it also gives us the slightest impression of what He must see in any one omniscient moment.   It reminded me of these verses from Ecclesiastes 12:}

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

      Fear God and keep His commandments,
      For this is man’s all.
       ¹⁴ For God will bring every work into judgment,
      Including every secret thing,
      Whether good or evil.

I had a similar, but more uplifting, moment watching Isaac sing with the elementary students in "big church" last Sunday.  Isaac was placed on the floor-level (not on the stands), which seemed great at first because I was sitting in the front row and we were practically eye to eye.  But there were more kids and they lined them up on the floor level in front of Isaac's row.  So Isaac was blocked by two taller kids.  I was straining to see him, smiling at him, waving, and blowing kisses, pouring out all my mushy momma-love as I watched him sing.  Isaac was lost in the crowd to anyone but me; though he was the smallest and least visible, I had eyes only for him.  And that's when I realized that God sees each of us that way ALL the time.  We are small and seemingly insignificant, but God sees us with more clarity and love than I saw my son through the crowd.

So, twice in a very short amount of time, God has used circumstances to help me see the way He sees ALL the time.  Just an interesting glimpse into His omniscience.

Moments

Some fun moments of the past week:

Abby playing dress up in my winter clothes.

Bitsy dreaming of a better life (ha!).

Isaac lost his third tooth on Sunday (first top tooth)!  With his "no pulling policy" his teeth stay on the verge of falling out for weeks before they finally succumb. 

The kids wearing their new winter coats (2 sizes too big...you know, so they'll last a few years).  We love driving out to different parts of the neighborhood and then walking a few blocks to tour the lights.  

Cookie Day!

The family drove down to my house today for a cookie day.

Ready!

And willing (to taste-test!)

DD showing the kids how to make stove top cookies.

Time to decorate the sugar cookies.

Isaac decorated ONE cookie...

...A nativity scene of baby Jesus (front), Joseph (left, with his staff), Mary (right), and angel (middle, back).

We attempted to get a family picture between batches.

This was the best one by far.

Now we're getting serious.  Too many cooks in the kitchen.  Yum!

And the grandpas enjoying the game and staying out of the kitchen.

Here's one of each cookie,

Christmas Decorations

The last two Christmases were so crummy with one or the other of my parents feeling sick with chemo and cancer.  So this year, even though we are not yet fully cancer-free, I have decided to go all-out with my decorations and really enjoy the fact that both my parents are still with us and both feeling great.

I had the kids unpack all the boxes and set up a Christmas "store" from which I could select decorations.

We attempted to string popcorn for the first time.  In real life, it looked like: Isaac eating popcorn, even though it was unsalted; Abby handing Daddy pieces of popcorn; Daddy doing all the work.

The kids also decorated some ornaments for our "craft" tree.