amberherron

~ Easter Best ~

My two kiddos all dressed up for Easter Sunday!

 

Being this beautiful is exhausting!

 

 

~ Valentine Traditions ~

Tiny Prints sent me an email asking the question, "how do you make valentine's day special for your kids?"  I realized that I have never shared our valentine tradition with Josiah. 

Jonathan and I have never been huge on celebrating Valentine's since it is mostly a "Hallmark holiday."  My mindset changed with regards to our child when I thought about my own childhood. 

One of my best childhood memories with my grandparents was from Valentine's Day.  My grandma cooked a nice dinner for us.  Grandpa bought us the big box of Whitman's Sampler - a big deal to a 7 year old!  He also bought us a stuffed goose with a straw hat.  It was a simple moment.  It didn't involve spending lots of money, a fancy restaurant, or expensive flowers.  That is all part of what makes it my favorite Valentine's memory.  Grandma and Grandpa spent quality time with us and showed us their love for us.

We decided to show our love for Josiah on Valentine's Day through the gift of books.  Surprise, surprise, right?  (it's no secret we are HUGE book lovers here!)  Each year, I scour tons of children's books to find the perfect one.  It is always a book that talks about how much we love Josiah.  I also try to find a book that emphasizes similarities to Josiah's personality or developmental stage.  Once the perfect book is selected, I write a letter to Josiah inside the front cover explaining why we chose it and how much we love him!  I figured he would appreciate that part when he is much older.  To my surprise, when I get those books out to read, he wants me to read the inscription to him repeatedly before the story.  He will have these books to hold on to and always know he is loved!

Some of the titles we have chosen include:  The Yummiest Love, How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You, Wherever You Go My Love Will Find You, and I Love You Little Monkey.

What about you?  Any fun or special Valentine's Day traditions?

*Thanks to Tiny Prints for inspiring me to share these thoughts!  You can find tons of unique and creative Valentines for something extra special this year by visiting their site.  You can also follow them on twitter(https://twitter.com/#!/TinyPrints), facebook(https://www.facebook.com/tinyprints), or pinterest(http://pinterest.com/tiny_prints/)!

~ Make Christmas Greetings Personal with Tiny Prints! ~

Have you discovered the gem that is Tiny Prints?  You still have time to check them out for your personalized holiday greetings this season!  They have so many unique and creative options.  I will warn you it is hard to even decide what card to select!  Here are a couple I loved that just might show up in your mailbox this Christmas from the Herron family...

Aren't they just beautiful?  Tiny Prints offers a convenient side-bar filter to narrow down your choices and show you the various options.  Take a look for yourself here!

~ My Day in Pictures ~

I am LOVING my Canon EOS that was a birthday/early Christmas gift from my AWESOME husband!  I try to take pictures every day to improve my skills.  Here are some from today's events...

The day started with getting some sugar cookies in the oven...

Once all the dough was cut out and baking, Josiah and I had some downtime with his cars!

Josiah headed off to school for his Christmas party and Jon & I visited a little cafe downtown for a lunch date. 

This afternoon, we headed to the library to see the reindeer!

We ventured inside in search of cookies and cider.  We immediately noticed that "Santa" goes to Colwood.  As I have shared before, we have an attitude of redeeming Santa.  We couldn't pass up getting in line.  Once it was our turn and "Santa" miraculously knew Josiah's name, he became shy boy!  This lead "Santa" into coaxing me on his lap to lure in Josiah.  Wow!  It's been a LONG time since I sat on Santa's knee - the things you do for your kids!

Doesn't Josiah face look like this is all a fun game to play on mom?  LOL.

We came home, ate dinner and then decorated our cookies!

A day that ends with eating a frosted sugar cookie is a great day!

 

~ 2010 Herron Family Christmas Cards! ~

We decided to go with a photo card this year.  It was so hard to choose one out of the many great choices, but we decided on this one from Shutterfly!  We love how it turned out.  Merry Christmas!

 

Merry & Bright Holiday

Shop hundreds of holiday photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

~ Josiah's Christmas Program 2010 ~

Josiah's class had their turn to do a Christmas performance today.  He hammed it up just as we expected.  The first service, he basically turned to me and performed to me alone.  The second service, he was very concerned with getting the teen girls & Miss Katie to laugh the whole time (as you probably saw in the video!).  He definitely inherited his Daddy's funny bone! Now if Jon and I could just get that little song out of our heads...

 

 

No performance is complete without a bow!

~ St. Nicholas Day ~

I found this blog post in my drafts from last year.  I can't remember why, but I decided not to post it.  Jonathan and I were anticipating what we wanted to do with Christmas, Jesus and Santa when we were planning to become parents.   After much research and looking into various ideas, this was the solution we came to - celebrating St. Nicholas Day. 

This weekend we will be celebrating St. Nicholas Day in our household.  We started this tradition last year and think it offers a good balance to the season.  Why have we decided on this approach?  This conversation from earlier in the week gives a glimpse...

Me:  Josiah, what are we celebrating at Christmas time?

Josiah:  Santa Clause!

Me:  No, what are we celebrating at Christmas time?

Josiah:  Presents!

Me:  Yes, we do give presents, but that is not what we are celebrating.  What are we celebrating?

Josiah:  I don't know.

Me:  We are celebrating baby Jesus being born.

I have to be honest that my heart sank in the midst of this conversation.  We are not anti-Santa in our household, but we certainly don't want that to be the center of our holiday either.  My 3 year old who has had normal exposure to Santa while at the same time taught about Jesus already formed in his mind that Christmas is about Santa.  We believe that the most important thing we can do as parents is to point our child to the source of life, our hope and our Rescuer - Jesus!  We strive to have all we do in our family be driven by the idea that Jesus is everything.

Here are a few thoughts we have considered on the subject of St. Nick / Santa

1. We value honesty in our relationships.  We personally do not feel too crazy about a magical lie presented to our child.  I am not judging other parents' choice (both of our parents engaged in the folklore).  This is just what our conscience has come to.

2.  We can still talk about Santa / St. Nick and honor him.  We can use St. Nick to point our child to Jesus.  St. Nick was a man who loved God, was generous and kind.  We can teach our child positive qualities of a God-lover through the life of St. Nick.  We can model those same qualities by engaging in charity while encouraging our child to display them as well. 

3.  The attributes of Santa can create some confusion for a child when compared to God/Jesus.  "He sees you when you're sleeping.  He knows when you're awake.  He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!"  Sounds very similar to what we tell our kids about God - EXCEPT it is works-oriented.  Santa accepts you when you are good, but if you are bad you get coal.  Jesus accepts you no matter what!

4.  It is good for our child to know the gifts are from his parents.  He sees that our hearts toward him are generous and loving - even if he has been naughty.  It also permits him to know that the gifts are not coming from a mystical bottomless pit.  We manage our money wisely and in so doing, teach Josiah that he cannot have everything he wants.  He will come to know that Christmas is not a time for a "Give Me!  I Want that!" attitude.  He has boundaries and limits which are for his edification and character building.

5.  Christmas day is not competing with or shared with Santa.  We want Christmas day to reflect Jesus.  He is the reason why we are celebrating, exchanging gifts, etc.  He is everything!

You can find further reading in Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in our Traditions.

How do we celebrate St. Nicholas day in our household?  We spend time reading about the historical Saint Nicholas and where the tradition of Santa came from (for example, did you know the modern image of Santa was actually developed by Coca Cola?).  Sometimes we make a recipe from the culture of St. Nicholas.  We often put together some kind of craft surrounding the historical story of St. Nick.  The most important thing we do is go pick out a toy that Josiah would really like for himself and then donate it.  We might change this a bit this year and donate to a mission's project.  The main point is to not just talk about generosity but to BE generous!  This, after all, was what St. Nick was truly about!

~ Gratitude of a 4 Year Old ~

We did a Thanksgiving countdown with Josiah this year.  I made a turkey out of paper and each feather represented a day until Thanksgiving.  Each day at lunch, I would ask him what he is thankful for and then write it on the feather.  Here is the interesting and impressive list Josiah ended up with by Thanksgiving!

• my puppy
• school
• my toothbrush
• flowers
• my "computer"
• cereal with milk
• Grandma & Grandpa
• Jesus
• cookies
• deer
• Mom's birthday
• Toy Story 3
• coloring books
• library books
• Mommy, Daddy & adoption
• my Thanksgiving card from Grandma & Grandpa
• crafts
• my lunch
• my Toy Story coloring book
• Juliet
• my Mickey Mouse magic wand
• the workers fixing the hot water heater
• my doctor playset 
• my birthday

Cute little list, huh?  My favorite part was watching Josiah's gratitude increase.  By the end, he would go on and on about what his "thankfulness" is! Love it!  

~ 5 Minutes for Mom Annual Christmas Giveaway! ~

It's that time of year again!  5 Minutes for Mom is hosting their annual Christmas Giveaway!  You don't want to miss out on all the fun prizes.  Each year they offer high quality items that just may be the perfect thing to put under your tree for a special little one.  Even better if you win it for free!  Another GREAT aspect of this giveway is the Under the Tree event they hold simultaneously.  One deserving and needy family will receive one of every single item listed in the giveaway.  Now that's the Christmas spirit!

Follow the link above or in my sidebar to find out how to join in the fun!

*This site is TOTALLY legit. I have personally won a few items from other giveaways in the past!

~ Book Review: A Christmas Prayer ~

A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker and Illustrations by Marijan Ramljak

It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas!  I like to have a little collection of seasonal and holiday books on hand to read to my son.  This is a great one to add to our growing selection!

A Christmas Prayer is a board book which would make a great gift for a special little one.  The quality of the cover and pages is perfect for even the youngest of readers.  It is strong and durable and seems to be "tear proof."  Each page has fun and interesting full color illustrations to engage your little one in the story.  The text follows a young child saying a prayer of thanks for the various aspects of the nativity story while the child creates a nativity scene.  The prayer has a fun sing-song rhythm with rhymes that is sure to interest your child.  I look forward to reading this Jesus centered holiday book with my child over and over again this Christmas season.  I appreciate the emphasis the author puts on the nativity as being the greatest gift we receive.  Pick this title up for your special little one this Christmas season!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”