HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!!!!

We ran to Wichita Falls to meet

Heather and the girls at 

Chuck E Cheese's

to celebrate Grace's Birthday.

We had planned to have a family birthday

party this coming Sunday - but,

because Dustin had to work the Friday

after Thanksgiving and they ended

up staying home - they will be going

to visit their other grandparents

next weekend - so they can spend time

here and not on the road 

on Christmas!

But - Grandpa and I 

and Brilyn and Asher and Brandy

and Andrew were all able to

go to Chuck E Cheese.

So Grace had a nice little party!

(hopefully, they can celebrate again in Mo.)

And - she got something she has wanted

for a long, long time!

 

Look at the excitement on that face!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRACE!

 

Happy Birthday, Weston!!!!!!

Can you believe this sweet

little boy is ONE!

 TODAY is his birthday,

but we celebrated Sunday!

His Daddy is working out

of town and couldn't be here

today - and will be working

next weekend, so he

got his gifts a little early.

I think he was happy about that!

Now - some grown ups in his life

might be getting a little more

exercise, helping him play with

his toys! He seems to need

a wagon ride!

Yay! It's A Give Away!!!!!!!

I wanted to share this

from my other blog.

BRING BACK JESUS

You enter by sharing the blog or the

facebook page. 

Please help me promote

CHRIST in this upcoming CHRISTmas!

The Give-Away is for this:

 A WONDERFUL Advent Devotional

for family devotions.

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift.

So - go share and enter!

Our Trick or Treaters!

I have been swamped
with work and am trying

to keep my new

BRING BACK JESUS

blog up and running, so I

haven't been around much.

 But I did want to stop in

and share our little 

Trick or Treaters.

 Brilyn was Anna and Asher was Olaf.

I was the Fall Fest Photographer

for the local Farmer's Market

Fall Fest, and Brilyn and

Asher modeled for me.

These pictures were the 

Sample Images and they went

on the Fall Fest Flyers.

 

Three Kids At The Park!

One Friday when I was watching 

Weston, we invited 

Brilyn and Asher to join us

at the park!

 

 And guess what EVERYONE'S

favorite piece of playground equipment was?

 Yep... it was the swing!

The BABY swing!

Brilyn sometimes, enjoys being

babied a bit, too!

After all, the boys can't get

ALL the attention!

And don't forget to go 

follow my

Bring Back Jesus

blog!

And if you have special ways

of keeping the focus of

CHRISTmas on CHRIST,

please share!

Guest bloggers are 

welcome and needed!

An Amish Store and Restaurant

While my husband and I

were traveling to Hilldale, Ok

to take pictures of a high school football

game for CBS's Max Preps

I saw this sign.

 

We had left early and had time to

spare, so we stopped!

It was such a neat place!

 We didn't eat at the restaurant,

but we did take a look around and

we got a couple of things from the shop.

There were all kinds of jams and jellies.

 

 Honey and Bee Pollen

 Amish made tea towels and things.

 Fudge

 And a pie case full of delicious

looking pies!

I bought some fudge and it was delicious!

I also got a little book of 

Amish Home Remedies.

And while a lot of stuff was Amish made,

the store was probably more

Amish Inspired - than truly Amish.

The servers in the restaurant

wore English clothes

and there was no shortage of

electricity!

Look Who Is Turning Into a Fish!

Look at this girl go!

 

 She can put her face in the water

and go under!

 And pop up!

 With a smile! She's not swimming

underwater.... ALL OVER THE POOL!

She has done so well this summer!

Go, Gracie!

The Dallas Arboretum

Another field trip we

went on was a visit to the 

Dallas Arboretum

It had a really cool Pumpkin Patch!

 But - it was filled with people, so it

was not the best place to get

good pictures!

 And while all of those pumpkins

were beautiful, I think there were

enough pumpkins there to feed an entire

village for week. All just sitting out in the

sun and wasting away!

 Of course - it would be expensive

to ship them to a village of

starving people.

But - it really makes you stop

and think. How blessed we are to live

in a country that has plenty!

And we are even more blessed it we

live in a household that has plenty!

If you have dinner on the table

tonight, remember that!

Take the time to be grateful, and 

Thank God for His provision!

YOU are BLESSED!

Dallas Children's Garden

The Dallas Children's Garden

is a pretty fun place!

 

There is a fun play area, where

Olivia rode a Giant Ant!

 

 And Grace got to pretend she was

a baby bird!

 Here, I think she is a 

HUNGRY Baby Bird!

 The girls got to discover little critters

that were pulled from the pond.

(this was pretty fascinating - we saw tadpoles and dragon fly larva)

 They got to climb on things!

And they got to cool off in the

water at the splash pad.

If you go - you might want to remember

that there is a splash pad and

bring a change of clothes.

Most kids are going to want to get wet!

Sharkarosa Home School Day

I went to stay with Grace and Olivia

for a few days so I could 

attend some field trips and 

go to Grace's Classical Conversations

Home School Coop.

 

 The first field trip was

Sharkarosa Home School Day!

Notice that Momma Kangaroo 

has a pouch full!

 At Sheirkarosa we saw lots of animals

and we played on a playground.

 It was very hands on - which we liked!

 Grace isn't afraid of many critters!

She even likes snakes and spiders!

 We got to ride in this little barrel train!

 It was fun - but Grace said that 

our driver drove too much 

like Grandpa!

That means - he was a little too

wild and crazy for her.

However, Olivia had no complaints!

 We went on a Safari and saw 

Zebras and Camels.

And we got to pet them!

Before going into each enclosure

they filled buckets on the side of

the Safari Tram with feed

for the animals, so they came

right up to us!

For Grace and I this was probably

the best part of the day.

Heather, however, made sure she sat

in the middle of the seat, so she

had people on both sides of her 

to keep the animals away.

And don't forget to go 

follow my

Bring Back Jesus

blog!

And if you have special ways

of keeping the focus of

CHRISTmas on CHRIST,

please share!

Guest bloggers are 

welcome and needed!

PLEASE DON'T SHOUT

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalm 127:3

I'm writing this to parents everywhere.

Old parents, new parents, first time parents of babies, parents of teens and even parents of adults.

Parents, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't train your child with a shout.

Consider the value of a whisper.... or a soft spoken word.

You see. When you shout, you teach your child to tune out the soft spoken word.... to ignore the whisper...   You teach them to be inattentive to your every day voice, and you don't gain their attention until you shout.

This is sad. But, even worse, it's dangerous!

It's puts your child in harms way physically and spiritually.

A child who will not obey until you shout at him, does not come when called and will step into a dangerous situation unless you are there to protect him. He doesn't obey, because he really doesn't hear you when you are not shouting. He has learned not to listen.

It is important that children learn to listen. It is important that they learn to pay attention and take in valuable instruction. YOU can teach them that - by training them with a soft voice... and an occasional whisper. Doing so will be of great benefit for your child spiritually. That's why it's so, so important.

You see..... God often speaks to us in a still small voice within our heart. It is most often soft and gentle. God does not usually shout at us. He softly calls to us, by speaking to our hearts. A child who cannot hear a whisper could miss this call. For that reason, a child trained with a soft voice will most likely be more receptive. He knows how to listen, while the child who is trained with a shout has learned to ignore.

Isaiah 55:3 tells us "Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." 

We live in a world where many people do not hear or recognize God's voice. In our noisy world, we have pushed aside that still small voice. We have not inclined our ear  and heard what the Lord is telling us. And if we don't do so, we shall not live. We shall not receive an everlasting covenant or the mercies of David.

Do you see how important it is to listen? Please, teach your child to LISTEN to a soft voice and to incline their ear to a whisper. Just TRY IT! A whisper is often used as an intimate way of communicating within a close relationship. Get close to you child. Talk softly. Be the parent God wants you to be.

And if you don't know what it is that God wants from you, open your Bible and your heart. READ and LISTEN. The book of John is a good place to start.

You don't have to rely on a church or a preacher or an elder or a priest. God Himself through His Holy Spirit will teach you if you will simply get into His word and prayerfully read it and listen!

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalms 32:8

Our Little Photographer

Grace has been using my

play camera since she was 

two and she's becoming

quite the photographer.

 On a recent field trip, I took this

picture of her taking a picture!

This is the picture she was taking!

She does quite well, 

don't you think?

And - I have been busy,

busy, busy lately.

But please.... read the last post I

posted if you haven't already.

CHRISTmas will be here

before we know it.

Please join me in honoring

CHRIST this CHRISTmas.

Preparing for CHRISTmas!

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:11-14

Last year, I looked and looked and could not find a

Nativity Scene for my front yard at a reasonable price.

(Hobby Lobby has one for about $1,000.00)

So - this year, I made one.

I am not an artist - and it is not perfect - but it sends

a message to those who drive by my house.

JESUS is the REASON for the SEASON!

It's CHRISTmas!

The day we celebrate the birth of CHRIST!

And God's Greatest Gift!

I will be gone much of this week,

but I want to invite all of my fellow bloggers

to help me share the story of CHRISTmas

this upcoming season.

I am creating a new blog titled

BRING BACK JESUS

to encourage others to glorify Christ

this CHRISTmas. 

Please help out by guest blogging.

E-Mail me a blog post complete with pictures

so I can upload it to share.

And once the blog is launched, share the blog

with others so they can be encouraged.

Let's not stand by and watch secularism

take over for one more minute.

Lets leave an impression on our children's

and grandchildren's hearts and let 

them know why we are celebrating,

and that Christ indeed is the 

best gift of all!

E-mail your blog post to patty.patterson@sbcglobal.net

The new blog will be 

BringBackJesus.blogspot.com 
please FOLLOW!

 

  

Tea Party at The American Girl Store's Cafe

Another thing we did

while I was in Texas, was go to

the American Girl Store!

 

We had afternoon tea in their cafe!

 The girls each had their dolls and

were given a doll sized cup and

saucer to serve them with.

After serving her doll, Grace served

herself some sugar!

They had unsweetened tea and I think

sweetening her own tea was Grace's

favorite part of the day!

 This is what they serve for Tea Time!

This column is Tea for Two - so

you see two of everything.

 Two chocolate mousse's, two frosted

cookies and two frosted cupcakes.

Two pigs in a blankets, two turkey burgers,

and two cucumber sandwiches.

 Two fruit kabob's and two muffins!

 We also ordered a dessert sampler.

It was mid-afternoon and we were only

having a snack, but we didn't want to 

leave hungry.

After eating we went to the 

American Girl Showroom

and looked at all the dolls,

doll clothes and accessories.

And these sweet girls were so, so good!

They showed us what they liked

and let us know who their 

favorites were, but they did not

ask for a thing. And - they left 

with smiles on their faces and 

grateful hearts - just happy for the 

chance to go LOOK.

We did not buy ANYTHING.

I was really impressed with their

happy little attitudes. 

It is so hard to go into that store and

not want to spend $500.00.

There is so much - and it's all

beautiful. 

I am one very 

PROUD GRANDMA!