It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Time spent with family is always the best! Here is a look at our blessed Christmas!

My nephew, Luke!

My nephew, Grant!

All of the grandkids (6 altogether) made sugar cookies with Nana! AJ got the party started!

Sarah had fun making her cookies!

Finished product!



My baby girl!

Christian having fun on Christmas Eve!

Tink getting ready to go to the family Christmas Eve party.

Nana, Me, and the girls....

Pawpaw and his girl!

Gidgi's babies!!! We are so glad Gidgi spent Christmas with us.

Having fun with family! My cute hubby is in the middle!

Cousins!

Uncle Jamie and Sarah

Nana and Pawpaw!

My cute babies!

Aunt Summer and Baby Avery!

Christmas Eve traditions: Mommy reads "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Then Daddy reads the Christmas story from the Bible

After putting out the milk and cookies for Santa we put reindeer food our for the reindeer!

Christmas morning and Santa brought Christian the only thing he asked for: a skateboard!

Sarah gets Strawberry Shortcake!

Gidgi and Lucy watch CJ open his presents!

The kids go on a scavenger hunt all over the house in order to find their final present:

Mickey/Minnie shirts for the family! WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

The kids are so excited!

Making a Gingerbread house with Nana!

What a wonderful Christmas it has been! We are so blessed with amazing family and wonderful memories. But mostly, we are blessed that God loved us so much that He sent His only Son into the world as a baby boy! Happy Birthday, Jesus! It's all about YOU!


Jill

'Tis the Season

As we prepare for the birthday of our blessed Savior our family took the day off to do some of our favorite Christmas activities! We cooked, made homemade hot chocolate, read Christmas books, and watched Christmas movies. The Nativity story was the first movie, followed by Muppet Christmas Carol! Here are some pictures of our cooking experience:

Peanut Butter Clusters were the first recipe on the menu.

We tried a new recipe that I'd heard of: Santa hats! I had to go based on the info that I'd been told and I'm sure there was a better way of doing it, but they had fun! Vanilla wafers, a half of a big marshmallow, and melted icing drizzled on top (with sprinkles of course)! Yummy and messy!

She's didn't want to partake in the messy icing, but she loved licking the leftovers!

Making fudge! We have a great 5 minute fudge recipe that we love!

Best part of the day, licking the bowl/spoon!

Once it's set up I will take the can out of the middle and it'll be a fudge wreath!

And now we eat!!!

Jill

Changes

Wow! So much has happened in the past few months that I don't even know where to begin. I'll start with the big news: the Kyser family is moving to Malawi, Africa to serve with African Bible Colleges. We are so very humbled and excited at this calling from the Lord and can't wait to begin serving Him there. We don't yet know when we're going. The ABC directors want us there yesterday! :) And if we had our way we'd be there already! However, this is a mission totally of the Lord and we are raising our own support to go. So we'll go when the Lord is ready! If you want to know more please check out my family blog and have a look around. It also has links to the ABC website where we'll be serving. I'll keep everyone posted. We'd appreciate your prayers during this exciting time in our lives! God bless!

Jill

Summer Schedule

We have decided to go on and begin our summer schedule. The wonderful sunshine and nice breeze we've been having recently has called us outdoors many many times and since we live in the deep South we are enjoying it while we can. I know that all too soon that horrible heat will find it's way to our home and we'll be cooped up yet again until after 5 in the afternoon. So, with that said, we spend most of our time outdoors. I love it. We even do school outside a lot of times. Most of the time they just pretend play and make up games...kids just being kids. I hate that most of my friend's children are still stuck inside a classroom in the local public school. By the time school lets out for summer it's already way too hot to play outside. Ah, the joys of homeschooling.

Our summer schedule consists of our most fun things and things I need to catch up on. We're not done with Saxon 3 yet for Dd7 so we'll be finishing that up this summer. We're also digging a little deeper into Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece. We are loving this history section and we're spending a lot more time on it than I had planned. No problem though, another joy of homeschooling. We will also continue with our Astronomy science and finish that up. The kids love history and science so that's our main focus. We also will continure with a literature selection daily. Right now it's PollyAnna. They're loving this one. Dd7 is independently reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as well. It seems like a lot but it's a good mix of things, I believe. When the heat of the summer arrives we may add the rest back in since we'll be inside longer. But then again, it IS summer... ;)

Jill

A Heart That Prays

While doing my quiet time this morning I came across this poem in the book I'm reading (it's my favorite book ever, btw). Elizabeth George, in A Woman After God's Own Heart, is writing about how to have a heart overflowing with "Motherly Affection". She says, "beginning each day by praying for your children benefits them in countless ways even as it draws them deeper into your heart". May we all be women with "motherly affection" for our children and remember to pray for them daily!



Some have had kings in their lineage,
Some to whom honor was paid.
Not blest of my ancestors-but,
I have a mother who prays.

I have a mother who prays for me
And pleads with the Lord every day for me.
Oh what a difference it makes for me-
I have a mother who prays.

Some have worldly success
And trust in the riches they've made-
This is my surest asset,
I have a mother who prays.

My mother's prayers cannot save me,
Only mine can avail;
But mother introduced me to Someone-
Someone who never could fail.

Oh yes...I have a mother who prays for me
And pleads with teh Lord every day for me.
O what a difference it makes for me-
I have a mother who prays.

-Author Unknown

Beautiful Spring

We spent an afternoon earlier in the week outside in our "back-back". It's so wonderful to see how excited the kids now get about exploring our little piece of God's creation in our backyard. They hurridly grabbed their nature journals and pencil/crayon boxes and I grabbed some books and a blanket. That was all that was needed for our afternoon outside. The kids love running and playing in the trees, leaves, and flowers. They spent lots of time picking flowers for Mommy (some may call them weeds...but to a 7,5, and 2 year old they're beautiful flowers!). Dd7 drew a beautiful nature journal entry showing a butterfly that they'd seen as well as a snake that scared her in a hole. She and dd2 were walking towards the tree line and she happened to look into a hole that was mostly covered with dead leaves. There sunning himself was a little black snake. I tried to go see it with my ever inquisitive son but all of the screaming from Dd7 must have scared him back under the leaves. Still, I have the beautiful drawing from my daughter to help.

We have been seeing Mr. Redbird around our back patio quite a bit recently. He's been a favorite of Ds5 so we decided to look him up in our Handbook of Nature Study. As we were playing in the back I gathered the children together onto the blanket for a quick science lesson about the Cardinal. We learned all about this beautiful bird and his mate. We saw picture of their nests and learned that Mr. Cardinal is a very attentive mate and father. He brings Mrs. Cardinal all of her food as she's nesting on the eggs. And once the eggs have hatched and Mrs. Cardinal is busy working on the next set of eggs, Mr. Cardinal cares for the little baby Cardinals. We had yet to see Mrs. Cardinal...but to our surprise, this morning as we were doing school Dd5 saw our Mr. Cardinal in a tree outside. We went over to watch him and who was there beside him but Mrs. Cardinal. We watched them fly off together into our neighbors yard and talked about how sweet and loving they must be to each other.

Needless to say, we are so very glad that Spring has finally arrived and we can't wait to spend more time out in our Lord's playground. I wonder which creature we'll discover next??

How Great!

How deep the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He would give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure ...

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross

My guilt upon His shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no powr's, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom