Tis the Season...for photos

Well...this is my first attempt at Christmas pictures. Tomorrow I am hoping to find an outdoor location in Tucson for Round #2! Getting both kids to sit still, look at the camera (let alone ask them to smile or at least not look angry) is no small task. Wish I had a better camera and could set it to take continuous pictures...but I don't. If I can get some great natural lighting tomorrow, then maybe it will go better?! Anyway, here's some of the attempts.

Birthday Party Part 2: The Guests

Some day Logan will have a party with kids his own age. We are so blessed to have so many amazing students in our lives that are like family to hang out with Logan on his birthday!

Birthday Party Part 2: The food

The color theme: green and black. Why? It was more like, why not.

Jello Jigglers. I used a muffin pan that was dinosaur shaped, sprayed it and followed the instructions for jigglers on the package.

This pan was shell shaped (I think you make macaroons in it?). I stuck a gummy worm in them for affect (and because I bought them at the dollar store thinking I could figure out something to do with them).

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I used cookie cutters so they were also dinosaur shaped.

Birthday Party Part 1: Dino Cake

The supplies: pans, cake mix (decided the assembly would be enough so I opted not to do homemade cakes), wax paper, eggs, oil, spray.

Not pictured: frosting, candy corn, food coloring, toothpicks

The assembly. I found the idea HERE. I made a rough draft on paper to get an idea and then cut out paper to trace all the pieces. I made the cakes 2 nights before, let them cool, wrapped and put in the freezer. Then, I cut and frosted before they were thawed so that I didn't have to deal with crumbs.

Final Product. The brown lumps are not dinosaur poop, just mountains (or extra cake that I was afraid if I didn't use as part of the scenery I would end up eating by myself). Used candy corn for nails, teeth, and eyes. Also, his head wasn't very stable so I stuck a fondue stick in it and since it looked odd I put a happy birthday sign on it so it looked planned. It still looked like it would topple over so I put a sippy cup upside down with gummy worms in it to rest his head on it (he was a hungry dinosaur).

The Happy Birthday Boy. I asked if he wanted to wear his Halloween Costume to the party (glad I splurged and spent the $3 at the thrift store for this outfit. Couldn't have made a costume for cheaper...well unless it were solely made out of paper bags or something). I like how well he matched the cake!

Keeping It Colorful

I am thankful for a husband who does almost all our grocery shopping ("almost" meaning the only time I am getting groceries is for little items that I need for baking something specific). Chris is an efficient shopper, probably in part because he is great at having a routine! Anyway, two of our favorite grocery stores are Trader Joe's and Sunflower Market. Part of the reason we love these stores is because of all the fresh produce and choices...plus Chris has figured out which place has the better prices on specific items.

Here are a few of the healthier meals we've made lately. I enjoy trying to see what colors we can have included because I've heard (not sure where) that more color means more vitamins and nutrients (wish that applied for frosted doughnuts or skittles).

1. Logan about to enjoy salmon...he was more excited about the picture though. He's been "testing" us lately and sometimes he sits at the table over an hour before he'll eat his food. Eventually he eats what we give him, but he can be stubborn!

2. I started putting my omelette on top of spinach (I like the crunch & I figure it counts as a salad for the day). If I remember, this omelette has some cheddar cheese (not low fat b/c I hate the way low fat cheddar tastes), red & orange peppers, salsa, fat free plain yogurt (instead of sour cream), and avocado. Breakfast of champions!

3. Turkey burger, green beans, sweet potato fries, strawberries.

4. Salmon (click HERE for the recipe), Quinoa, green beans, corn

Now if I could just curb my desire for sweets & sugar! I won't put pictures all the "crap" (for lack of a better word) that I've eaten recently...mostly because it hasn't been homemade!

Idolatry of Image

We've been doing a series at our weekly meetings about idolatry. Chris and I did a joint talk about the idol of image this past week. (You can click HERE to download any of our weekly meeting talks). I think God is helping me process through a lot of the deep deep sin issues in my life. I am thankful He doesn't throw everything at me at once, but that He continues to help me work towards total freedom in Christ.

Even sharing some of this with our students this past week was rather freeing. If I am totally honest with myself, the reason I often worry so much about how I look is because I do want to impress people and for people to think I'm pretty so they will like me more. Ha ha, for some reason when I say it out loud (or type it in this case) it sounds pretty ridiculous. It seems like the movie (can't think of the name) where the guy tells himself things like "people like you, you are a winner". I do want Christ to be glorified in me, but for that to happen I need to stop focusing so much on ME, ME, ME. It is moments like this I realize how much I need God's grace, mercy and forgiveness because so often I take Christ off the throne of my life and put all these other things in His place. All I can say is: I'm glad God's not done with me yet!

Family Photos

We are thinking of getting some real (as in we aren't taking them ourselves) family photos sometime in the near future...but until then we hold the camera out and hope for the best. We captured these after church yesterday.