Our Christmas Card

Here it is...

our Christmas card this year.

Right here on your computer screen.

As likely as it would be that we were too lazy to send them out, that isn't the case.

As likely as it would be that we were being cheap by not sending them out, that isn't the case.

As likely as it would be that we were too late to make mailing them worth the effort, that isn't the case.

This year, we just chose different.

As a family, we've decided to make some changes with purpose.

And one of those involved our Christmas cards.

...and this is coming from a girl who loves Christmas cards and all the beautiful, sentimental things they embody...

We decided to take the large small sum of money that we would use in printing cards and mailing them to make a small large difference in the life of a person. 

Actually a family. Or two.

We chose to buy a water filter for a family on the other side of the world so that parents can give their children the gift of clean, drinkable water this Christmas.

 Somewhere, the is a mother who loves her children, much like me.  

She wants good for them, much like me.  

She wants health for them, much like me.  

And clean water, unlike me.  

You see, I give my children water each day. 

 It's clean.  

I've never worried otherwise. 

Now, that mother can give her child(ren) and her husband and herself clean water. 

It's a small gift from me: a wealthy girl in a wealthy country.

But its a big gift for her: a impoverished woman in a poverty-stricken country.

Really, this is nothing big.  Nothing new.  Many of you do things like this each day.  I'm not trying to act like we are any different or receive any praise.  It's really not about me.  But in it not being about me (huh?), I really wanted to be able to show off my family.
This is a win, win for me: utilize technology to send you love and use our financial resources elsewhere.

So as our family and friends, we want to say thank you for loving us so much that we feel free to love others as we've been called.
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has not pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? {1 John 3:17}

And maybe if you feel led, you could buy a water filter {or two}, or sheep, or a blanket, as well.  Because wouldn't it be fun to be part of the group that takes what the Lord has given us and distributes it all over the world?

Hoping you have a wonderful Christmas. Much love to you.


Celebrating,
Brad, Ashley, Noah, Kayt and Emery

Our photo was taken by my ever talented brother, Blake.  You should use him, too. 

25 Days to Remember

This is our family's Christmas countdown calendar!  

And it's full of fun family activities that I thought I would share. 

The kids excitedly open the corresponding card each morning... it's the first thing they do when they crawl out of bed.
This is what each of our cards say:

1- Make a chain to count down the days until Jesus birth

2- Fancy Dress Dinner: Choose your own fancy attire for a fun family dinner

3- Make Christmas Cookies (make extra)

4- Package and take cookies to the neighbors

5-Make snowflakes to decorate the windows

6- Sing and Dance to Christmas music... you choose the tunes

7- Write 10 things you are thankful for and post it where everyone can see

8- Candlelight Bubble Bath

9- Read "Let it Snow" and play with snow inside! (snow=shaving cream)

10- Go to Pop and DeDe's to help them with a chore

11- Shop for our Angel Tree family

12- Make Christmas Cards for 3 friends

13- Play musical chairs to Christmas music

14- Do something kind for someone today

15- Go out to dinner and go visit Santa (this is Emery's birthday so it will be a fun night out for us)

16- Have popcorn and play a board game

17- Make edible gifts for the birds and squirrels to hang from the trees in the backyard

18- Have hot chocolate and read a Christmas story by the fire

19- Watch a movie from the tent in the living room

20- Go look at lights! (and get a special Christmas drink)

21- Use your money from December chores to go buy Christmas gifts for your family

22- Go out to breakfast! (I was planning to do breakfast in bed, but our friend, P, comes to clean that day so we will be going out instead)

23- Wrap and decorate your Christmas gifts (this year we are wrapping all gifts in brown craft paper/paper bags and the kids get to decorate them)

24-Birthday party for Jesus! Make special treats to take to your family. We will be making these.

25- Spend time as a family thanking God for the greatest gift, his son!

And that is what we, the Ingram Gang, will be doing in the days leading up to Christmas Day.

Of course this is created around our schedule.  Brad and I have several parties this month, so on those days... the less time consuming activities.  I put most outings on the weekends so that we can block time for them.  The actives are basically the same, but the nights have changed from what we did last year. 

For me, I made a run to Dollar Tree earlier in the week and purchased the following:

-shaving cream

-construction paper

-bubble bath

-pretzels

I had everything else on hand

This is just a great way for us to ensure special family time (during a season that has the potential to be overly busy) as we talk to our children and help them prepare for the coming birth, advent... if you will.  

This week our family verse is Luke 3:4 "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight"

And that is what we plan to do:  

remember the gift that brought grace and mercy packaged in flesh.

Sharing laughs and conversation with my family is just one of the ways I can live in a state of remembrance.

I have also planned out Advent activities for the 12 days leading up to Christmas that I can share if anyone is interested.  This will be our first season to do an Advent tree and evening devotions.  Brad and I agreed on 12 in the days right before Christmas Day because of the age and attention span of our children.  Maybe someday soon, we will use the entire Advent season.  

Happy Month of Preparing the Way!

Disney World Extravaganza

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Noah and Kayt started asking about Disney World.  They wanted to know all about it and had mentioned several times how fun it would be to take a trip there.  Brad and I decided to surprise them with a trip for Christmas.  It was quite atypical for my type A personality, but I decided to join my adventurous husband and plan a spontaneous trip.  I am so, so glad that we did! We surprised them Christmas morning and left eight days later.  After debating, we decided to leave Emery with my grandma. One is a tough age for a Disney adventure.  As much as we missed her, we know that it was a wise choice.  And besides, not taking her guarantees that we will go again in the future.  We went the 3rd through the 7th of January.  The weather was great, the crowds were low, and the trip was something we still talk about daily.  Brad and I knew that we would have a great time watching the kids enjoy the magical place, but we failed to realize how much we would love the adventure ourselves.  It was oddly relaxing and easy.  Here are a few of our favorite pictures and memories::::

Lunch at Epcot

Breakfast at Chef Mickey with Minnie and the gang

Noah the Viking

Eskimo kisses before dinner at Akershus

Showing off her cheerleading moves with Daddy

The infamous Epcot ball

Kayt's favorite, The Tea Cups

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

Fun at Animal Kingdom

Hugs for Daisy

Breakfast at Donald's Safari

Excitedly watching a parade

Our first meal after arriving at our hotel

Waiting on a bus

Loving this place

Riding the Carousels 

Dusk at Magic Kingdom

Gotta love Cinderella's Castle

Noah's friend, Woody

Pluto at Animal Kingdom

Family time on the Tea Cups

Princess dinner with Snow White

Princess hair

Posing while waiting for the boys

Princess dinner with Ariel

Digging for dinosaur bones at Animal Kingdom

Brad and Noah after they rode Mt. Everest

And that's a wrap!

Disney World is really worth all the hype, especially for a three and four year old!!!

Love from my baby brother

My bother sent me a text last week that said this:

Hey I was looking at your blog and noticed one interesting fact. 

Entries about Noah: 41

Entries about Kayt: 28

Entries about Emmy: 5

Entries about Brad: 18

Entries on you: 44

What's that all about?

Moms are supposed to be selfless right?

He keeps me grounded. 

I can't wait until he has children...

The Stuff Memories Are Made Of

There are things that are normal in our home that are abnormal for most. It is one of the sweet things about families.  Each is unique.

It is the stuff memories are made of.

Common events in our home: worship and preaching. It is not from the one spends his weekdays in a church office or the Momma who spends her days lovin' Jesus. It is from our offsprings. 

On a daily basis, my oldest two 'lead worship.'  Noah's room is equipped with a stage, two acoustic guitars, one electric guitar, one drum set, a bongo drum, and a microphone with a sound system.  I know I have said it before, but my boy is a music lover.  And I beleive with everything inside of me that he is Supernaturally gifted especially musically.  His younger sister has followed suit and I believe one day she will be the sweet harmony to his songs.  Trust me, Jesus has used their songs to minister to me on many, many occasions.  Frustration and anger are a bit harder to come by when I hear these voices in unison. 

Back to our family being abnormal. 

One evening over a month ago, our day concluded like this:

Noah introduced our worship leaders for the night...

Then Daddy and Kayter-bug lead us in a worship set...

While Noah, Emmy, and I worshiped with them in the audience...

Ending with Noah preaching...

(When he preaches he always refers to Jesus as The Lord, Jesus Christ. Very formal. ;)

I am not sure how well you can hear this, but it's pretty cute.  Brad didn't catch the beginning of it, which was super entertaining and very true.  Noah was telling "how The Lord, Jesus Christ came to Earth.  He came to Earth and he died and three days later he rose to heaven.  How did he get to heaven anyway? I'm not really sure.  I don't even know how that happened. But it did! It did happen. The Lord, Jesus Christ did go up to heaven. I'm very sure about that!" 

What I love about this particular video and the thing that makes it one to commit to memory is that he ends with the age old question... WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM?  

Something on every child's mind, right?

Did you hear Kayt in the background asking about praying? Funny girl.  Don't mind the text that came through on Brad's phone, the all encompassing iPhone. :)

There you have it. 

A normal night in our home. 

Nothing produced here, nothing made up, this is just how we live.  

I pulled the pictures and video off of our computer just to prove... we are abnormal & unique!

This is what our memories are made of!

F-Bombs, Four-Year-Old Style

Firefighter Noah turned four a few weeks ago.  We fanned the flames of fun at fire station number nine.  Family and friends joined the festivities as we learned out about super fast fire trucks and heroic fire men.  Jr. Firefighters even got a turn at the fascination as they flung the hose and flailed through the truck.  A big fire sized thank you to the fans who helped extinguish the fun! Thus far, firefighter Noah thinks that four is fantastically fabulous!!!

Enjoys the fotos...

  

   

Family Favorites

This is a BIG week for our family.

Baby girl will be four months old on Thursday.

Big boy will be four years old on Friday. 

Middle girl is having a blast celebrating with everyone else and has no clue this is not all about her.

In honor of our big week, I thought it would be fun to share with you one favorite thing from each person in our family.

Granted, I have chosen this thing without their help. I will venture to say that I am pretty right on though.  After all, Momma knows best. Right?

Let's start with the youngest....

Emmy LOVES her Nap Nanny.  From my understanding, this is a relatively new thing.  I had never heard of it before she received hers.  I love it! In fact, I wish that I had it with the other two. I put it in her Pack-n-Play (with the infant part in so that it sits up high) and lay her in it at night.  She sleeps so soundly and it just looks comfortable.  I wouldn't mind an extra large Nap Nanny for me! It has a safety belt so after they start maneuvering, you can secure them in place, it is firm, but so soft. The cover comes off for easy washing. 

When we have traveled it is so convenient to only tote this light weight (3 lbs), smaller-than-a-pack-n-play item. I toss it in the back and off we go. No more folding and unfolding of the Pack-n- Play. 

I have sat it on the floor and in our bed.  If you do the co-sleeping thing, it would be a safer option than having to worry about rolling over on your child.    

She has had one stuffy episode in her four months and it was great not having to take an extra step to elevate her.  She is already elevated!

Em is a SUPER FABULOUS sleeper. I don't know how much of it is accredited to the Nap Nanny, but I would highly recommend it to anyone.  It seems that it would be especially good for babies with colic or tummy issues.  

Most cities have a local retailer, but you can also find them here.  

Disclaimer: This is NOT my baby sleeping in this Nap Nanny. 

Disclaimer #2: That was only in case you were curious. :)

Miss Kayt loves her Fisher Price dollhouse that she got for Christmas.  It is super cute. All of the pieces are plastic.  Hers came fully furnished and with the family.  She and Noah will play with it for hours.  It really is fun to play with, I play with them a lot!  The most genius part is that all of the pieces fit inside and then you can close it up. It is easy to tote, easy to store, and doesn't take up too much space.  Plus, it provides its own storage for the pieces. 

You can find it here.

Noah ABSOLUTELY LOVES, LOVES, LOVES his football and baseball guys.

Yes, that is what they are called: football guys.  I met an awesome girl last year from OK whose son is a few years older than Noah.  As I talked about Noah, she said how much he reminded her of her own son.  Noah is a sports f.a.n.a.t.i.c.  And i am NOT exaggerating.  Ask anyone who knows him. He is knows for his love of sports, playing sports all day, and ALWAYS sporting some type of sports attire. This may seem a bit passionate and over zealous, but if you know Noah, you know that I am not exaggerating in the least.  

Back to the story... this sweet friend told me about this product. They are similar to army men, but they are sports figurines. They have football, baseball, hockey and soccer.  Noah has football and baseball, but he is getting the soccer guys for his birthday. Shhhhh, it's a secret.  

They come in a cute little carrying case.  It includes players, referees and something else particular to the sport (i.e. field goals, score boards, goals, etc).  

Noah got his first set just after he turned 3 and it was a great age.  If I had known about this earlier, I would have ordered it sooner.  Before this, we purchased the expensive collectors item sports figurines and he would break off the stand and play with them.  This item cost what only two of those cost.  

You can order them here, from Kaskey Kids.  This genius couple created them for their son, who was much like my Noah.  It is hard to find sports items for the avid youngster and I am forever grateful to the people at Kaskey Kids for the hours of sheer pleasure they have brought into my home!

If you are interested in ordering these, let me know.  I have a 20% off discount code that I will email you. I believe a set is $24.99.  Score! 

It would also make a great gift for your special little boy.  If you order the football guys, you can choose solid colors or from several college teams. Cool, huh?

As for me...

I dig this shampoo.  It is from the John Frieda collection and I get it at Target. I love the smell and I love what it does for my hair. 

I've done the expensive shampoo route and the cheap shampoo route.  This is by far my favorite.  It is kind of a middle of the road shampoo as far as expense goes.  I think it's somewhere around $8.  I had used it for a while and at one point I ran out and went back to my I won't name any names old shampoo and quickly confirmed my thoughts on how great this particular shampoo is.  

Did I mention that I L-O-V-E the way it smells? 

I did? 

Oh. 

Well, I do.

As for the Mister, he is cheating on me with his Kindle.  Not really. But he does love it and uses it quite often. Brad loves to read and this has been great for both of us.

Perks for him: 1. all of his books are easily accessed  2. all of the cool features 3. it is slim and trim and easy to carry  4. it just looks cool

Perk for me: 1. no more books to have to find another place for. Can I get a Hallelujah?  Don't get me wrong, I love that he reads. But. Come. On.  A house can only hold so many books. 

There you have it, folks.  The favorite things of the Ingram Gang! 

What are your families' favorite things?