We're expecting #2! I'm right around 5 1/2 weeks along right now and have a due date of August 25, 2010. I've taken 3 home pregnancy tests and been to my OB/GYN and received a positive test in her office as well. I go back to see my OB on January 21. I think we've gotten past the state of shock and we're getting excited. Paige is excited too, which makes our excitement much easier!
I love making my Papa’s Chocolate Pie…it’s my all time favorite dessert recipe, plus it reminds me of him. I made a pie last week for our KCP Teacher’s Christmas party and Paige got to help me for the first time. She did really well!
On our last day of preschool before Christmas break, we had a “Happy Birthday Jesus” Christmas party. We had each student bring a $3 gender neutral book for our book exchange. In my class, I had Christmas tree shaped donuts for my students when they came in the room. Then we watched a Veggie Tales Christmas movie and had popcorn for snack followed by a pizza party for lunch! No birthday party is complete without a birthday cake (or mini cupcakes in our case)! We had a great day and now I’m so glad to be on Christmas break for 2 weeks!
My kiddos are singing “Happy Birthday Jesus” and loving it! We had so much fun that day…tiring for me, but incredibly fun for my students.
Looking at these pictures makes me miss my students already! How is it that you’re so ready for a break and then on the first day of break I want to hug and squeeze them again? I have a great group this year and that makes it amazing!
Our town’s Christmas parade was 2 Saturdays ago and Paige and I went without Stephen because he came down the the herpetic stomatitis that Paige had! We had a rough couple of weeks at our house with sickness and I’m so glad for everyone to be healthy again.
Paige says her favorite part of the parade was seeing her cousin, Hallie, on the cheerleader’s truck. Hallie made a special effort to come to the side of the street that Paige and I were on so Paige could see her. She also like the realty company in town that had a Mr. Grinch and Cindy-loo-who float. It was really cute!
Back row: Hannah, Paige, and Hallie
Front row: Parker, Kelby, and Tatum
Bannings don’t produce “Y” chromosomes, so there are no Banning grandsons around our houses. We wouldn’t change a thing!
I’m late posting about this, but better late than never…right?
2 weeks ago, our 2nd oldest niece, Hallie, came to our house after school. She had her Christmas choir concert (which was GREAT!) that night and her parents had to go to her older sister’s basketball game. So, we had the pleasure of having Hallie for the night! She’s an incredible help with Paige…she doesn’t mind Paige constantly wanting her attention and always wanting her to play with her or teach her new cheers.
Paige convinced Stephen and Hallie to play CandyLand and they both obliged her. It was nice to have someone around to keep Paige entertained while I got supper cooked! Thanks, Hallie!
Last Wednesday my mom brought Paige a Santa Claus gingerbread cookie kit and on Thursday we braved the goopy icing and made a Santa! Paige, of course, loved every second of it and I actually made myself enjoy this experience with my daughter. It was a lot of fun for both of us!
Do you think Paige was very excited? She loved making the gingerbread Santa!
I read this on Jenn’s blog this afternoon and had to share it here:
From Beth Moore's study, Jesus - 90 Days with the One and Only. Beth Moore is very clear, "... this is stricly fiction. I just invite you to imagine with me what Mary's first moments might have been like..." Enjoy.
Her body lay sapped of strength, her eyes were heavily closed, but her mind refused to give way to rest. She ached for her mother. She wondered if she yet believed her. She heard the labored breathing of the man sleeping a few feet from her. Only months before he was little more than a stranger to her. She knew only what she’d been told and what she could read in occasional shy glances. She had been told he was a good man. Over the last few days, she found out he was far more than a good man. No man, no matter how kind, could have done what he had done. She wondered how long it had been since he’s really rested.
A calf, only a few days old, awakened hungry and could not find its mother. The stir awakened the baby, who also squirmed to find His mother. Scarcely before she could move her tender frame toward the manger, He became to wail! She scooped Him in her arms, her long hair draping over His face, and she quietly slipped out of the gate. She gingerly sat down and leaned against the outside of the stable, propped the baby on her small lap, and taking a strip of linen and tying back her hair, she began to stare into His tiny face. She had not yet seen Him in the light.
She had never seen the moon so bright. The night was nearly as light as the day. Only hours old, His chin quivered, not from the cold, but from the sudden exposure of birth. His eyes were shaped like almonds and were as black as the deepest well. She held Him tightly and quietly hummed a song she’d learned as a child. She had been so frightened of this moment, so sure she would not know what to do. She had never held an infant so small, and He was God, wrapped in soft, infant flesh, with bones so fragile she felt like He could break. She had pictured this moment so many times. What would the Son of the Spirit look like? She never expected Him to look so normal, so common. Must have been the part He inherited from His mother. She was so sure she’d feel so terribly awkward. So afraid she’d drop Him – the Messiah – and God would be awfully sorry He had given Him to her! Instead, every fear, every doubt, every inadequacy was momentarily caught up in the indescribable rapture of a mother’s affection.
She remembered asking Elizabeth things she dared not ask her father and mother. Once when they were walking together at the end of the day, the wind blew her cousin’s robes against her, and like a curious teenager, Mary tried her hardest to catch a good glimpse of Elizabeth’s rounded middle. At the time she herself had no physical evidence that God’s promise was true. But she had enough faith to ask endless questions. What am I to do when He comes? Her cousin’s reply would remain forever etched upon Mary’s heart long after He had saved the world. He will tell you what He needs from you. Beyond what He needs, all He wants is for you to embrace Him and talk to Him.
She looked back into His delicate face and watched Him closely as He seemed to stare deeply into the moonlit sky. And she began to talk. “Sweet baby boy. Do You know who Your Daddy is? Do You know Your name? Do You know why You’re here? What do You see when You look out there? Can You see the stars? Do You remember their names? Do You think I’ll do ok? Will You love me too?” A tear dropped from her chin to His. He yawned and made such a funny expression she grinned, wiping her face on the yellowed rags she’d draped around Him. The fussing calf had obviously found its mother. Not a sound was coming from inside the stable. The earth stilled. The infant slept. She held the babe next to her face, and for just a moment, all the world was silent to the breath of God.
She closed her eyes and listened, stealing time like a hidden metronome, as high and as wide as she dared to think, but still she could not begin to comprehend. She, a common child of the most humble means who never read the Scriptures for herself, was embracing the incarnate Word. The fullness of the Godhead rested in her inexperienced arms, sleeping to the rhythm of her heart. This time she hummed a song she did not know, a song being sung by the choirs of angels hovering over her head but hidden from her carnal senses. The deafening hallelujahs of the heavenly hosts were silent to mortal ears except through the sounds of a young woman’s voice who had unknowingly given human notes to a Holy score. The glory of God filled the earth. Heaven hammered out a bridge, but one young woman sat completely unaware of all that swelled the atmosphere around her. The tiny baby boy had robbed her heart. “So, this is how it feels to be a mother,” she mused.
She crept back into the stable, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in the manger. Just down the path, the sun peeked gently over the roof of an inn full of barren souls who had made Him no room.
Fancy name for these lovely misters:
We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of our family on Wednesday night at our house. We’ve never been able to host our family and extended family before because of the size of our house, but this year we were able to open our home to my family and we were so glad! Of course we had way too much food…roast, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green beans with butter and brown sugar, black eyed peas, chicken and rice casserole, marinated meatballs, and homemade rolls. For dessert we had homemade white cake, homemade chocolate pie, fruit salad, and pecan pie. We had so much fun while we ate and after…the girls sat around the dining room table and talked while the guys sat in the living room and watched “National Lampoon’s Vacation”. It was so great to hear all the laughter and joy filling our home! While I had my sister here, she took some pictures of the 3 of us for our Christmas cards this year…
On Thanksgiving Day, I got up and cooked double batches of hashbrown casserole, corn casserole, and green beans with butter and brown sugar. We celebrate Thanksgiving with Stephen’s family at his sister’s house and many of his several cousins and their families come too. I’d say there were 30-40 people, including kids there on Thursday. We had another huge spread of food and enjoyed each other’s company.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, we’ve moved onto Christmas and our house is decorated and ready! We got the tree out on Thanksgiving night and I was glad to have help from Stephen and Paige…
As of late, Paige has taken an interest in helping me cook in the kitchen. She’s actually a really good helper! She’s helped me make chili and Rice Krispy treats so far…
I’m weird about chunky textures in my food, so I blend the tomatoes and Paige got to press the button!
Dumping the chili beans in the pot…
Gotta add some chili seasoning!
Paige really loves helping me in the kitchen and I want her to grow up knowing how to cook and be helpful…this is a great place for her to learn!
