Christmas 2008

Dear friends and family,

Wrapped up in the advent season, preparing for Christmas and the coming of Christ we are reminded of the joy and blessings the Lord has bestowed on us this year. Most especially our friends and family! This fall we have been trying to recognize and use the gifts that we have been given! Starting with Matt, who has been given the gift of joy to spread to the family around him.

My favorite Christmas’s have been the ones where I have a new baby in my arms, reminding me of how our Savior chose to enter the world. On May 20th the Lord blessed us with Matthew Lawton. He arrived in short order, with active labor lasting 2 hours. Unlike when Josh was born, this time we made it into the building. His arrival has once again shown us that our hearts capacity to love is constantly growing. Matthew looks much like Josh, enjoys eating sweet potatoes, carrots, and applesauce. He also loves his grandparent’s arms and the love that he constantly gets from them. On a daily basis he loves seeing and playing with his brother and sister.

Ellie has been given the gift of compassion and knows when you need a hug or some cuddle time and is always there for you. Elizabeth turned two this year and with that her personality has continued to develop. She is learning what it means to be the only girl around as she is loved by many! This year she has learned to count, recognize her colors, and sing the ABC’s. She loves cooking in her kitchen and Dora is her favorite. Ellie has found her independence this year has a new favorite phrase is “me do it, me do it”.

Josh has been given the gift of service and will help you do anything!! He is a big helper around the house, helping to put clean clothes away, wash the dishes, and shovel the snow. Josh will shovel sidewalks, driveways, decks, and even the grass! He is especially helpful with his new brother, reading to him when Mom is busy with something and loves to kiss on him! The phrase, “what a difference a year makes”, holds true this year for Josh. He LOVES his new preschool and his teacher Miss Becky! Jen is lucky if she gets a kiss at drop off! He loves the construction toys there! A highlight this fall was when he was a featured artist in the art show. He still loves baseball & football with a new found love of Spiderman! And when he starts laughing, beware…its contagious!!

To quote Josh “Mom is good at letting me not take naps and pancakes” so we decided that Jen has been given the gift of showing mercy. With three at home under the age of 5 much mercy is needed! Our hearts have grown in capacity to love and our minds are being challenged to grow in knowledge with all the new questions the little people think up. Jen has renewed her passion for crafting this past year. This fall she has been in 3 different craft shows were she features t-shirt quilts and juice box purses. Jen has also been a party planner extraordinaire for Josh’s classroom parties, but she has most especially enjoyed being part of MnM’s (her moms group). She is also thankful that bed rest is not something she has to do on a permanent basis! She has also loved blogging for those who aren’t around on a daily basis to live the chaos that is the Stickle family! See pictures and follow us around at: www.themainstick.blogspot.com

To quote Josh once again, “Daddy is good at bringing home the bacon.” While he knows this means that I go to work, he doesn’t really know what he is saying. We are blessed that PRIMROSE Homes is still building and growing in this crazy time! Something we thank God for daily! It keeps me busy and on my toes! I am continually thankful for the opportunity we have been given to live closer to family. We are blessed by our proximity to both of our parents. They have helped us in many ways over this past year from being with the kids when Matt was born to wrestling on the floor with them. I am also blessed to have the opportunity to be a husband and father that is surrounded by joy, compassion, service, and mercy on a daily basis.

In the new year, in addition to the anticipation of the children growing and changing more, pushing us to grow and change more, we look forward to the wedding of Jen’s brother Ben to his beautiful fiancé Danelle! May you find the gifts of those you encounter today and may the Lord bless you during the holiday season. For those of you we don’t see often we would love to see you during 2009 so please let us know if you are in the Pittsburgh area.

Love, the Stickle family

Trying so Hard to be Merry

enough said.

i'll post the good one after my mother-in-law mails her christmas cards so i don't ruin them

Christmas preparations

In addition to the decorating going on at Nana and Papas for the holiday celebrations (including 225 people through the house when it was on a house tour!) we have been doing many things to get ready for the holidays!!

When Nana and Papa decided not to get a real tree this year, we decided we were going to get one (good thing since we didn't find the base to our fake tree when we opened the box!) So we were on our way to the tree farm, and convinced Papa to come with us! Now we both have real ones!! and, we got a fraiser fir...from the mountains of north carolina! i was so excited!!

So here we are with our treeEllie dancing for Matt during the decoratingEllies candy cane sectionputting on the stockings!!Matt helping with the star!! ~
Another one of our nightly traditions is to see "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse"

One of the houses a few blocks from our house has a HUGE light display!

The pictures do no justice, but in the second one, you can see Mickey and Minnie!

St. Nick's Day is a fun holiday in our house!

These are the pj's that grandma gave us

"What Santa doesn't bring, Grandma will."

We got Papa a wii for Christmas...but it is really for us!!

This is Adam teaching the kids how to bowl!

St. Nicks Day Eve...

Movie marathon with Aunt Danelle and Uncle Ben!

Frost the Snowman

Rudolph the red nose reindeer and

Santa Clause is Coming to Town!!

at home with our new curious george's

getting ready for story time with dad...

Dad tells them the story of St. Nick

The shoes are filled!!

The next morning all we heard were

"MOMMY, DADDY!! St. Nick was here!!!"

screaming over and overloving her new movie!

~

and the cookie baking has begun...

Josh's are in the round plate!!

moms are in the box!

Cheerful giving

Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Each year, our family donates some of our toys to children who won't get one during the holiday season. This year, with a four year old, it has been a little harder. I start with throwing out some of the toys that have gotten no love whatsoever or toys that are missing too many pieces to make them worth giving to another. Josh, my 4 year old, found this pile I had begun one night and started to ask his litany of questions. "Why are these here?" "You're getting rid of them!?" "WHY!!??" (add some whining here). "I LOVE THIS TOY!!"
I sat down to explain to him that (a.) you don't play with it, ever and (b.) some children don't have toys in abundance like we do and that we need to share our things. After a bit of pondering he asks, "Will they give them back when they are done?" (add more whining)
I understood that he loves his toys and that he was a four year old and that this was somewhat normal. But I was still sad that he couldn't understand that someone else wasn't going to get anything this year and my explanation wasn't working because it was just something else out of the mouth of mom.

So instead of another mom-ism bouncing around his head, I decided he needed something else to help him rationalize his decision to give away some of his toys this year rather than to just obediently obey mom. He needed prodding from the Lord. A higher power with a bit more pull than mom. So I pull out the kid devotional that I got on the dollar shelf at the local christian book store and start searching for something to help him be a better giver.

"God loves the person who gives cheerfully!" 2 Corinthians 9:7

There is was! So, I wrote the verse on an index card and waited until bedtime when I have his best attention. I convinced him he was staying up a little later (he felt excited and really special to have one on one time with mom, even if it was in his bed!) I talked to him again about how some children don't have as many toys as he does. "How would you feel if you didn't have this diego next to you? How would you feel if you didn't have a train to play with?" I could really see him thinking about the answer and I really believe that his heart was moved for these little boys. Then I introduced the verse to him. I read it to him one time. Then I asked, "what does cheerfully mean" and we decided it meant "happy"

Then, I asked him to repeat after me. "God loves" ("God loves") "the person" ("the person") "who gives" ("who gives") "cheerfully" ("cheerfully")! We did this three times.
After the second time I added the reference "second Corinthians" ("second Corinthians") "nine seven" ("nine seven")

BONUS: I didn't realized that my two year old was still up in her bed across the room from Josh. Wouldn't you know that after Josh and I did the verse the third time, she chimed in with "cheerfully" in her sweet little two year old voice.

I reminded Josh of the verse as I left the room, "remember that God loves the person who gives cheerfully...tomorrow we will talk more about the toys we are going to give away."

The next day, we had an issue with sharing a toy and instead of shouting "you need to share!!" I said, "let's remember our verse, "God loves the person who gives cheerfully." and they practiced repeating after me.
We continued to use the verse when we needed to share around the house. It was working! I wasn't shouting an empty mom-ism, I was calmly helping my children rationalize their behavior, rather than just obeying mom and I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit at work in my children's hearts!

At lunch, during a bit of silence I said to the kids, "Does anyone remember our verse?"
"God" ("loves")
"the person" ("who gives cheerfully")
"second Corinthians" ("nine seven")
Josh (4yrs) was a pro and Ellie (2yrs) was catching on!!

When dad came home we proudly announced our verse!
I said, "God loves" and Josh said ("the person who gives cheerfully")
We did it for the grandparents too and I discovered that my children were already learning how to evangelize...or at least to become comfortable with sharing scripture!
I didn't think that learning the verse would go as well as it did!
As we are amidst the holiday season, what a great time to teach your children to give with a cheerful heart! I know the Holy Spirit has also been working on me through all this as well!

Feel empowered to teach your children scripture just like you teach them their letters!!
Mom verse: Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Cor 9:7
Kid verse: God loves the person who gives cheerfully! 2 Cor 9:7