I guess you know which stocking is mine.

This might have been the easiest Christmas in 14 years of April and Alan family Christmases. We only had to travel two hours, and we woke up on Christmas morning IN OUR OWN HOUSE. Have you ever??? I mean, we had almost never!! Do you do this? Do other people do this every year??  It was so nice!

I mean have you read my other Christmas stories???

Our Nightmare Before Christmas

The Funeral, Christmas Trip

New Years in San Francisco

Well, I’m happy to tell you this is NOT one of those stories. We did go and see our families, but we were able to do all of that and still be at our own house on Christmas morning.

Around 7 or so a.m., we heard Boy #1 begin talking to Boy #2. They simply chatted calmly in bed. Some of the boys woke up the other boys. I don’t remember who got up first, but a miracle happened…..

No one came and jumped on us…..

They gathered themselves in the living room, just the four of them in the living room to patiently wait for their parents to get up.

Whaaa???? We were so pleased with all this that we didn’t make them wait. We went ahead and joined them.

I love watching my children open their presents. Christmas is a whole other level of special for children. When is it that we lose that? Let’s get that back.

Yes, he’s actually CLAPPING. He’s so excited. There were a few To: Caleb and Daniel presents this year. They may look ages apart, but it’s actually only a 3 year gap. Some kids are tall. Some kids are shorter.

SO HAPPY

Be sure to see the 50 second JD video on Facebook, and share in the excitement.

We all went to church together. It was nice, though nothing topped the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas Eve service

There was something about the meaning in lighting these candles and taking communion with so many fellow believers that made Christmas more real to me this year. We sang Silent Night, and I wanted this moment to never end.

Too quickly, we were all headed back to our houses when so often I just want to curl up at the altar and soak it all in…

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”       Luke 2:10-12

…But it was back to Christmas as usual, and I can’t help but wonder. Are we entering a new phase of our lives?  There simply isn’t a BABY anymore. JD is 3 1/2 now. No one is a baby. Life is c-a-l-m-i-n-g down. No one wore a diaper, no one carried a sippy cup, and no one got out of their seat. No one even colored on himself.

Wow.

I think I might cry!

No one was sick this Christmas either. JD caught a cold, accompanied by a very pink eye, but even that ended in two days.

OH, and guess what! Once Christmas day was over, Alan took my minivan to the shop, and I now have a clean minivan, with a heater that heats, and a functioning defroster! Somebody get this man a trophy!!

I feel like we just had the perfect Christmas. I can safely say that because Christmas is fully over. Saying Christmas was perfect can’t possibly jinx it now.

Of course, I did find one baby to hold.

Ah, sparkling pretty lights. I may never take my Christmas tree down. Plus, I’m hoping Alan will do it for me. Hmmm…I wonder if Alan is hoping that I will do it. I seriously don’t even want it taken down. Let’s just leave it up until next Christmas!

Hallelujah! And may we never forget what it’s all about. This is an incredible excerpt from the Passion of the Christ. You do have to click the link to YouTube to watch, but it’s so worth it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDm-myjQgdM

Wishing you all a blessed 2017! May your kids behave. May your rain be snow, and may all your prayers be answered.

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”        Luke 2:13-14

The post This Christmas: 1st Year at Home, 1st Non Disaster Story appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

YES, I KNOW.  It’s just too much cuteness.

So today Daniel graduated from Pre-school. We are a low-drama family, I think. Okay, well, we are 5/6ths low drama, plus me. I bring the emotions, for sure. They started out the ceremony with this video of painting the nursery and the baby gradually getting bigger and bigger, and yes, I was crying.

Mr. Comedy

Daniel came strutting out like a rooster when they called his name. It was pretty hilarious, but then he got on stage and went silent on us. Our kids definitely get the stage fright. I feel their pain. I used to get it too.

His teachers coached them well on how to pose for photos when they receive their diploma.

We love our Dan man. And yes, of course, JD took his shoes off during the ceremony. He and I have a thing about wearing shoes.

I was thrilled on our trip home, when Caleb got Daniel to sing one of his graduation songs for us and even caught it all on video.

This video is extremely sweet, and listen closely because Caleb has one well-timed funny line at the end. Watch it. You’ll be glad you did.:

For those of you reading via email, here’s the link: April’sblogvideo

And now we are all so FREE! Alan has been completely done with his thesis, even with approvals of the thing, for a week now. Joshua finished his school year today. Caleb finished his school year yesterday. Dan graduated. Now I have only to finish up my grade book and report cards, pick out a new house, and move out of this one. Bring it on, y’all! I still can’t believe it’s all really happening!

The post Daniel Sings the Gospel Fuzzies (And it’s ADORABLE.) appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

He takes about 10 steps a day, but he still crawls most of the time. Apparently JD is a gradual, gradual, gradual learner. 🙂

My life is seriously adorable at the moment, and I am so thankful. It is a TON of work though. We bust our rears on this whole parenting gig.

We were hoping to go to Moss Landing today and check out the whales. But not so fast. My friend Sarah found a used fence for sale for me, so instead, Alan is digging fence holes today. We bought a chain link fence. It’s required in our neighborhood to put up a trampoline, and you know my boys have to have their trampoline.

Seriously, if you have little boys and room for a trampoline, there’s nothing I could recommend more highly.

We get the kind with the safety net, and they spend hours on it. I don’t do fence holes, so my goal is to catch up on laundry and maybe unpack a box.

I’ve noticed that I tend to exaggerate towards the negative.

The truth is we only have 4 boxes upstairs and one downstairs left to unpack. It has been that way for a week. We do have about 10 left in the garage, though. Alan needed a bucket today, and we couldn’t find one!

So here’s what’s new with us this past week: the craziness on camera

That was all during “seatwork” time.

I met an angel in disguise at the curriculum fair where I bought my A Beka books.

She said, “Now your schedule is not going to look like your friends’, and that’s okay. When those babies take their nap, that’s when you are going to teach the math and the grammar. Those are the things where the big ones will really need your undivided attention.”

I have treated that as gospel truth. There was one day where I tried to do Caleb’s phonics and reading while JD was awake: huge mistake. JD wanted to practice walking to me and get lots of cheering, but Caleb really needed me to listen to him read. Lesson learned.

The modern method for teaching writing, which was used at my kids’ last school, worked great for my first son, but failed my second son completely.

They have open-ended questions that kids as young as kindergarten are supposed to answer and just spell their words phonetically.  Since my second son could not read and did not have any kind of grasp on phonics, he would just panic and not write anything at all. Therefore, he was learning nothing about writing at school for the past two years. His papers would be blank.

Instead, I am using the Classical method of teaching writing for him. This way my son writes all day, but not from his head. He copies. He copies, and copies, and copies. I give it to him in attainable chunks. This way he is learning through actual writing. He is seeing how words are spelled correctly. I think this will pay off big time.

Even if I send my kids back to public school in the future years, this could be used to help a struggling writer in the after school hours.

Daniel tossed this puppet in the trash can about 5 minutes after we finished it. Oh well.

I know I’m his mom, but I was seriously impressed with Caleb’s snail drawing. He is seven. Way to go, Caleb!

So two weeks down!!! I was definitely a nicer, less stressed person this week than I was last week. I don’t think I handle heavy stress very well.

I have tried everything to get JD to sleep better at night.

Nothing has worked. Finally, two nights ago, I gave it over to hard, devoted prayer. There are many ways to pray: half-hearted, absent-minded, and then there’s the hard core prayer: where you are begging God for help. He listens really well to that last kind. For two nights now, JD has gone from sleeping 5 hours straight only, to sleeping 8 or 9 hours straight.  My prayers were answered. I’m going to keep praying.

Do you know what the hardest part about living here is? I know that this amazing ocean full of sea mammals is minutes away from my door, and I’m always too busy with work to get out there. It’s calling my name, and I cannot answer!!  Yesterday I had two errands to run: Staples and grocery store. I snuck off to the beach on my way. I only stood on the sand for 5 minutes and watched the waves crash into the shore, but it still helped!!  I VOW to take all of my family to that beach before Labor Day Weekend is over.

Yesterday I just reminded myself: No, I do not have free time, and life is a whole lot of work right now. But you know what? I have something way better than free time. I am important. I am needed. I have an abundance of purpose.

I remember when we first got married, and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do or be. I felt like I had no purpose. I cannot even imagine that now. This craziness, these children, this life is the greatest blessing I will ever have. Praise the Lord.

The post Home Schooling 4 Boys: So Much Work, But So Fulfilling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

These videos crack me up. It’s just so Daniel. He’s “reading” a book about John Smith, the best leader that the Jamestown settlement had. He kept focusing on the photo of John Smith, wounded in the Indian camp. Daniel read it as, “Him dead. Him died. meh meh meh meh meh….” Perhaps a lot of what I say to Daniel is simply translated as something from Charlie Brown’s teacher.

To get the full story, you ‘gotta’ watch both movies! 😉

I thought Joshua’s, completely oblivious to his surroundings, comments were also funny!

The post About John Smith: “Him died. Dead. Dead. Dead” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

That’s us at a Washington Nationals game on Memorial Day. We love baseball games, and that was really fun.

Plus, we’ve gotten to see some wonderful friends this week. Thanks for having us over, Pastor and Terri!!!

Their dog is probably still recovering from what Daniel seemed to think was their ‘play date.’ Poor Annie.

So good things have happened, and a few crummy things have happened, but nothing all that terrible. I think the main thing getting to me is just the stress of this humongous move!!

So three thoughts for today:

1. A good night’s sleep will fix a lot of things. I’m hoping to go get one in a minute.

2. A grumpy baby will ruin anyone’s day. If you don’t believe me, then it has obviously been a long time since you hung out with one.

3. The world still turns. All of today’s problems will be forgotten three weeks from now.

4. No matter how early I get up to have coffee, every child in this house will be awake before I’ve gotten the coffee poured into my cup…

But they are ADORABLE. Here’s your weekly dose of adorable. Just watch this video of JD crawling over to wake up his brother:

Choose joy….choose joy…..choose joy….I’ll just keep repeating it to myself.  Never mind that the dryer and the washer are both full and I want to go to bed. I’m choosing joy…….

How’s everyone else’s week going?? I could use some GOOD news. Or some misery company…ha….

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