Moving once again...

Well, in case you don't know, our family is moving once again.  We have been in GA for 2 1/2 years and it is such a nice area, we really hate to leave it.  Especially the weather :)  God is leading our family else where.  We don't have a definite place yet, but God has opened doors for us to go to Slidell, LA.  Please pray for us over the next few months that God will give us a peace of what and where He wants us to go.  All we desire to do is serve God with all our hearts.  We will be moving back to MI for a couple months to kind of take a little rest.  I will be working on school as I have recently started and we will be doing some work on our house in Harbor Beach.  Please pray for the selling of that house as it is much needed in our family.  Thanks for the prayers!!!

Christmas Day at the Church's

Christmas So far...

This year has been a little different for our family during this Christmas season.  We don't always know why things happen when they do, but that doesn't matter cause God does and we count only in Him.  A week ago today, Amanda got a phone call from her dad letting her know that her Uncle had passed away.  Immediately, we bought a airline ticket and AJ and Amanda flew out the next day.  Please pray for Amanda and her family with the loss of a family member this close to the holiday season.  I know that they will appreciate it.  

With Amanda and AJ in OK, that left me with just the boys.  I have loved my time with them as we don't get to hang out as much as I know we should.  We have done lots of things together, like gone to McDonald's and again went to McDonalds, and then we actually had mexican, then it was back to McDonalds.  :)  I probably let the boys get away with more than usual, like staying up late, camping out in my bedroom, and having coke and chocolate cake right before bedtime.  But hey, it is not like we do that all the time right?  They are finally flying back to home tonight and we are very anxious to get them home. 

As for other things, I have greatly realized that my wife does so much for this family.  As husbands, we know that our wives do a lot, but it is when we are put in their shoes that we realize we take it for granted sometimes.  My wife is the best and I want everyone to know that I love her so much.  I realized these things while she was gone, while I had to do all the baths for the boys, laundry, cook (a little) do all the Christmas Cards (probably forgot some) and bake 100 cookies for all the SS. teachers at church.  Usually she would have done most of that, but when I had to do it all, it gave me a greater appreciation for my wife.  Husbands, if you are reading this, remember what your wife has done and thank her for all she still does for your family.  They are precious gifts that God has given to us. 

As for Christmas ideas for family this year, we made a DVD of our family, so I thought I would put it on our blog.  Just photos mainly of the kids over the years.  Hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas to ya'll!

Family Movie from Nick Church on Vimeo.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Shopping and Other Busy Things

This past weekend we took the whole family Christmas shopping. It was fun to be out with everyone but it was also pretty tiring. We all went on the Christmas train ride in the mall so that was the boy's highlight. Baby girl is really growing up fast. She is talking all the time now it's really cute. Her favorite thing is phones. She loves to pretend she's on the phone and walk around the house (I think she's imitating daddy).

On a separate note, our long awaited neurologist appointment for Zeke is finally here. We are really praying for a doctor that we can talk to and will answer our questions. He's been doing pretty good lately but still occasionally has issues. Please, please, please pray for him this week. Our appointment is on Wednesday. We appreciate all the prayers and support we've had thus far.

Little Indians

This week in school we learned a little about the Native American Indians. The boys made little Indian feathers to wear on their heads and painted symbols the way the Indians did to tell stories.
The boys have been doing really good in school, I am very proud of them. They both work really hard and most of the time they are pretty good. Next year we'll be starting Bryson on First Grade material since he's doing so well in reading. The program I have does cursive handwriting, so I'm a little nervous about doing that. I guess we'll just see how it goes. I'm not going to push it too hard if he's not ready. Zeke is very close to reading more fluently. He can read now but sounds out each sound. He's starting to blend the words together in his mind and then read them. It has been such a blessing to see each of them learn to read....God is good!

And then there is our sweet baby girl...she's been growing up fast. She's got quite the personality and has been talking a lot. Her most frequent words are "cookie," "juice," "night-night," "stinky." Pretty much her day...eat, sleep, poop :).

Here's also some pictures of AJ waking up from her nap.

What's Your Learning Style?

I thought this quiz was really helpful for those with young children. Since I home school, I think it's really important for me to know what the learning styles are for my boys. I've especially been thinking about this lately since Zeke is starting to read but doesn't learn the same way Bryson does. He is very bright and capable (and only 4). This quiz revealed that Bryson is an auditory learner, that's probably why he likes books so much and Zeke is a visual learner. Zeke will study all the details of the illustrations in books and learned most of his letter sounds through the LeapFrog letter factory video.

Anyway, here is the link, hope it helps someone else like it did me :)!

http://parenting.quiz.kaboose.com/25-what-s-your-child-s-learning-style

Tis the Season to be Busy

Our poor blog hasn't gotten updated in awhile so I just thought I'd write something. We are quickly approaching the holiday season and are already bracing for a very busy season. Every weekend pretty much until Christmas is filled not to mention all the Christmas parties in between. In a way I dread how busy it is because it really is one of my favorite times of the year. I know it's not Thanksgiving yet but we already have the Christmas music playing (the new Casting Crowns Christmas CD is really awesome). The boys of course are really excited about Christmas. They, like the rest of us, like all the presents. I'm praying the Lord will help our family really focus on Him this year. I know that there is nothing we could give God that could ever compare to what He has given us. But since it is the celebration of His birthday, I would like to honor Him as such. If you have any ideas of what your family does to help remember what Christmas is all about, I'd love to hear them. I know we can read the Christmas story and I thought about getting the new Nativity movie that just came out (it is really good too).

Anyway, that's pretty much it from our little part of the world. I'll hopefully post some pictures and stuff soon.

Fall Time in Michigan

Well, for those that didn't know, we are here in Midland MI right now as we are here for my mom's brain surgery that she will be having tomorrow.  We have been up here for a week enjoying the time before my mom has to recover from her surgery.  While we have been here, we have seen friends and family we haven't seen for a while and done some fall things that we miss here in Michigan.  We have gone to the pumpkin patch, and of course our favorite, Baynes in Freeland.  There we ate Cider Donuts and had warm apple cider.  I sure miss the season up here even though it is really cold.  It has hailed a couple times since we have been here but you can just smell the fall time in the air.  I miss that.  Here are just a few pics of some of the fun we have had up here.  Thanks for all the prayers for my mom as she has her surgery tomorrow and her quick recovery.

Bryson's Science Project

We finally finished up Bryson's science project for a science fair I signed him up for in November. He made sugar crystals and then watched them grow. One was "seeded" meaning had been soaked in water and rolled in sugar and the other one was not. Now we just have to learn all the science type stuff of why that happened and so forth and then put the presentation together. I think he had fun with it.

The only other thing going on really is getting ready to leave for Michigan. We got all the sweaters and winter stuff down from the basement. We even had to go buy baby girl a new coat. We are looking forward to seeing everyone. I've been getting a bunch of car stuff together so we can have an unconventional school in the car ont he way there. We might as well since we'll just be sitting for two days :). It will be good to get away for a bit and the fall is my favorite time of year in Michigan.

Keep praying about our house selling. We've had it now for two years and we'll be putting it back up on the market in March since we have renters in it right now. We've had quite the ordeal with our home insurance company so we have to go up and make a few repairs to get it insurance qualified. It seems to be such a burden but everything in life we can learn from. The thing I've learned the most is that God is in control of every situation...He knows our needs and is faithful to supply our needs. I'm so thankful for that today and have to remind myself of that truth as I trust Him for our future.