i'm in love!

This Bible is by FAR my favorite children's Bible. It is marketed for kids ages 4-7, but with a little paraphrasing, I think it's the only way to go, even with kids a little younger. I could never do this book justice, so I'll let the description do it on it's own!

Written for children ages four and up, The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the one story underneath all the stories of the Bible and points to the birth of a child, the Rescuer, Jesus. Complete with 44 Bible stories, The Jesus Storybook Bible paints a beautiful portrait of Jesus and invites children to see that he is not only at the center of God’s great story of redemption—he is at the center of their story too. Children and adults alike will be captivated by the beautifully written narrative and the original and unique illustrations by accomplished artist Jago. Lloyd-Jones’ powerful gift of storytelling draws the reader into the greatest adventure of all time in an exciting page-turner that kids (and adults) find hard to put down.

And here's something from the author ::

The Bible is of course an adult book, so in order to make it accessible to children, by its very nature, as you retell it; you’re going to have to reduce it down. Unfortunately, the danger is that you reduce it down into moral lessons. The entire Bible is hammered down into one long lesson on obedience. Almost like a Bible Aesop’s Fables. Each story becomes a lesson so you can fix your behavior and be a better person. Children are then likely to be left with the impression that they must be good for God to love them. Disastrous and inaccurate. It’s as if Jesus never came.
So I wanted to write a children’s Bible storybook that first and foremost told the Great Story of the Bible--the story running under all the stories of the Bible like a golden stream--the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. The Story that at the center has a baby, the child upon whom everything would depend—Jesus, the only, real true Hero of the Bible. I wanted a Bible Storybook that was, like the Bible is, not all about us and what we should be doing--but about God, and what he has done.

We have purchased a few copies for some special little people in our lives, and it will definitely be the Bible that I point people to when I get asked (which is quite a lot!).

It's not often that I find things that I love in terms of ministry to kids. To be honest, I'm extremely opinionated and dislike pretty much everything that Christian media puts out for children; and not because I think I'm too cool, but because inevitably things violate something deep in me...yes, I've been ruined in the best possible way by my job (and don't even get me started on VeggieTales...). This is by far the BEST product I have seen for kids in a very long time! If you don't believe my hype ( I don't know why you wouldn't!), check out the website...www.jesusstorybookbible.com. Take a look around their site, listen to one of the audio samples, check out a sample story, and watch a video of one of the stories (they change it every week) and then let me know what you think. I honestly think you will love it as much as I do!

so proud...

Next time you're in Target, look in the boys section for this ::
It's Alex's design! So fun! We've already got one for Micah and friends and family have been finding them all over southern California, so check your Target for them and buy one! There's another one of his designs in Kohl's, but we haven't been able to find it just yet. Alex is such a hard worker, and probably the most motivated person I know when it comes to following his dream...I couldn't be more excited to see his hard work (and perseverance) rewarded. We are also extra thankful for this little bit of extra income :)

well....

We had our 20 week appointment last week. The one where they check out the baby's anatomy to make sure everything is on track, and thankfully, it was. Funny enough we had our 20 week appointment at 18 weeks because of Christmas and the doctor's schedule :) We were definitely not sad to be scanned early! We were looking forward to this appointment since my very first appointment at 8 weeks! Yes, I am a freak and made sure to schedule this one way back then!

We had everyone on standby to find out the gender of the baby, and of COURSE, our little one decided to be extremely modest (or stubborn...i choose modest!). Our tech literally had to dig just to get all of the medical measurements that she needed, much less find out the gender. Our sonogram lasted an entire hour!! When she tried to move the baby, he would just curl up in a ball or cross his legs! It was comical to watch, but I don't think she thought it was very funny :) So, after an hour, we finally got a look and found out that it's a BOY!

Alex and I were a little bit in shock because we had both thought that there was a little girl in there! We are SO excited to have a little boy! It's fun to be able to refer to him by his name! We are so in love with our little man already! We can't wait to meet Micah Alexander :)

December is the best time of year!

I've been wanting to put up some pics of decorations around our house, because, well, we love our little house at Christmas and we wanted to share the pics! So here you can see that my professional christmas lights man decked out our front area :I glued little bows onto mini clothespins for a fun way to hang our christmas cards on garland.
our new living room set up complete with our stockings and the tree!
i bought these simple letters at Wal-Mart, covered them in Mod Podge and then dumped some glitter on them. so fun! Is there anything you CAN'T do with Mod Podge?!
This is my favorite this year...i found a tutorial for this wreath online, and decided to try. I found a huge pack of ornaments at Marshalls for $5, and bam, a very sparkly, very festive wreath!

I hope everyone is enjoying the season...as for this house, we are well stocked with hot chocolate, egg nog, and tons of Christmas cheer!