Halloween Photos 2009

I finally got around to downloading a few of the photos from Halloween this year. It turned out a slightly colder day - which the day before had been beautiful! So we were hard pressed to get Noah out of the wagon even when candy or 'special treats' were involved. Lexie of course had no clue what was going on other than a fistful of pretty wrapped packages that smelled pretty good but she couldn't quite get inside.
And Josiah, well he fully got Halloween for all of the CANDY associated with it and was happy to run up to each and every house, whether or not they even had a light on!
So after we got home, Larry did what he does best - dumped out all of the bags of candy and took out what HE liked best!
We also gave out candy at our house which the boys really loved to help out with this year. And we definitely did not run out so we still have a large bowl full of candy that we are eating through - and not needing - so if you are in the area please feel free to come trick or treat way after the fact, please!



One of the few times Noah was motivated enough by candy to get out of the wagon!


Hmmm...looks like he is seriously plotting how to manage to eat all of his candy?!


Lexie is trying to eat the candy through the wrapper.

What would Halloween have been this year without Ironman!

Lexie's First Words

So far here is the account of Lexie's first words, there seems to be an emerging pattern here. I can most confidently say that her first word was 'Mama', 2nd word 'Dada'. And after that the next words were as follows;

Amen (very slow and deliberate)
Jesus (courtesy of her Praise Baby DVD which she absolutely ADORES!)

And just tonight, 'Bible'.

Since we seem to be on the biblical word road here, I thought I might try Hallelujah next!

She has her own unrecognizable renditions of 'thank you', 'more' and 'please'. Working on those all the time....

Whereas Josiah's very first word at 9 months was 'HOT', I find it really interesting that her first words that she fully understands are amen, Jesus and bible. And she loves to say amen at the end of meal prayer (which is really where she learned it from).

I am quite surprised that Noah's first words were not 'sausage' since he is affixated on this now, even today he was thanking Jesus for bringing the sausage to breakfast. Crazy kid that he is :).

That's it for Lexie's words update - more to come later - much more to come I am sure!

Parenting by the Spirit

I've recently been reading through a book by Kathie Walters called, "Parenting by the Spirit". Here are a few excerpts from that book and the significance that I believe it bears upon me / us.

This is very simple & profound here - "If children are going to learn to obey God's voice then they must first learn to obey yours."

"The Christian life is not difficult and boring. It is exciting and adventurous, because it is supernatural."

SO...

"Be simple, ask the Holy Spirit to show you how to return to your first love. Fall in love with Jesus again, and enjoy your relationship with Him."

This next quote is really well written and so true - I loved this quote from this book and plan to sow this truth on a regular basis into our children. The author states this during use of discipline, however this is just as much valuable during any season or walk of life with them I believe!

"When you have to discipline your children tell them constantly how much God loves them. Tell then He wants them to be saved and to know Jesus and tell them about the great plan that He has for their lives. Tell about the great annointing they will come into as they give their lives to Him. Let them know they were ordained by God, before the foundation of the world, they have a place that no one else in the whole world can fill. A great destiny, what a privilege, what a special person they are."

As I think more on this, it is key to teach our children, even at a very young age, that there is something more than the instant gratification of life. I don't believe it's impossible to start instilling these things within them either. More than anything for them to always hear of how much God loves them as I believe that will open doors within their hearts.

** A small disclaimer here, as with any book that I read, I do pull out the key things that speak to me the most (applicable to our current situation) and even as I was reading through this book, there were some things that I didn't necessarily agree with per say however the TRUTH that was still contained and lines up with the Word of God is still TRUTH. Enough said!

The Doors are Sick

Noah announced today that the doors in our house are also sick and need medicine. I asked him how he knew that and he 'showed' me by opening up a few doors saying, 'See? They are sick!'. He then let me know everyone in the family including our nanny, Miss Lisa, along with the doors and then the sausage were all sick - hence everyone needs medicine.

I never thought about a door needing medicine before today...and quite honestly I do not know if I will again unless Noah could be onto something and notifying me of the need to disinfect the doors / handles in the house - now that logical thought process I can actually do something about! However giving medicine to sick doors, well, I have no idea just how to begin that one...

Wonderful Waffles

Made these waffles the other day out of cookbook someone had given me entitled 'Waffles'. I'm amazed at all of the uses of waffles - many being a complete dinner meal! I haven't tried those yet however I have tried these lovely granola whole wheat waffles (that the entire family loves) and just recently a very basic classic waffles recipe. My first try with that one and they were fantastic - here's the recipe;

Best-Ever Classic Waffles

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup milk
2 large eggs, separated
8 tbsp butter (melted and slightly cooled)
2 tsp almond extract (Jenn's addition!)

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg yolks & almond extract until completely blended. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until firm, but not stiff.
Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture until just blended. Add the butter in a slow stream until incorporated. Gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour generous 1/2 cup batter per waffle, spreading to edges of waffle maker. Cook approximately 3 minutes until crisp & golden brown.

** So for me, I did not pull out the heavy duty mixer for beating the egg whites and they still turned out just fine.
** And it's got to be all that lovely butter that makes them so delicously crisp!

Either way, this waffle recipe is here to stay! Waffle Wednesdays everyone :)...

Pretty & Nice & Cozy

Noah requested me to hold him this morning, he's starting to not feel so well himself although it has a lot more to do with the fact that he wants medicine like Josiah than anything else. I keep on taking his temperature and saying, 'No, no fever - that's great news!' to which he responds - 'I want a fever, I want a fever, I want a fever!'. Nutso kid.

He is coming down with some form of a cold though and sniffles are beg -as I picked him up to honor his request, he said to me, 'Mom you are so pretty and nice and cozy'. And then proceeds to snuggle up close to me. You can't get much better than that! How I love the children's honest and simple affection. Noah's very aware of all things nice and cozy and continually likes to express his desire to be nice and cozy. And helps me to know now as well that I am a nice and cozy Momma :).

Home Sick

It seems since the beg of October that someone in the Finkler household has not been feeling well. It started off with Larry, so fair enough, we'll just blame him for it all! He came down with cough, cold, fever and other like symptoms earlier in the month of October and he STILL has this cough lagging on. Since that point, our nanny Lisa's been sick too on and off, myself a few weeks back along with Alexandria and now Josiah.

After missing the church meeting last week to stay home and get some rest myself, I'm again missing today to stay home with Josiah (who has been running a fever) and Alexandria (sneezing and coughing all over the place). I feel now it's been ages that I've even been in a church meeting as I was teaching in with the 2 to 3 years olds the week before that! I know this is a season and we will all get through it but it seems as if you miss so much of life's routines, like Sunday morning church meetings, etc, when you have little children that inevitably become sick. I am believing soon and some day to make more of our church meetings than not - I wholeheartedly miss worshipping with our church body, hearing the prophetic words and teachings brought. But again, to remember it is a season and praying to be a SHORT one at that.

At one point today with Josiah running a fever still and knowing that he's just miserable, he put his head on my shoulder and said, 'ah Mom, I just think my head is broke'. Poor guy!

So back to another round of DVD's and wiping runny noses and dishing out Tylenol and Motrin like candy...