show a little love!

John 15:17 (NASB) - "This I command you, that you love one another!" (exclamation added by me)

Pretty short and simple, isn't it? Love one another. This is one of the commands, or rather, the greatest command that our sweet Savior Jesus Christ gave us. So if it's short and simple, why can't we do it? Why can't I do it? I mean come on! It's so super easy to love those that love us back. Isn't it? it's easy to love and accept those that are similar to us, those that do nice things for us, share the same beliefs as us. But, what about those that aren't like us, maybe are a little mean or arrogant toward us? What about those that don't share the same beliefs? I tell ya, if you want to be like Christ, if that's the deepest desire of your heart, you must love those people too. Because after all they are "another."

Lord help me to love the unlovable! Help me to reach out a hand to those that my flesh wants to shun. Help me (us) to be more like you sweet Jesus.

my little golden arrow.

i just love this little cutie. she's sporting her golden arrow gear! my friend sarah made the shirt and my friend angela made the bow! :)

oh the joy!

Oh how I love being a mommy! Isn't it just the greatest job ever! My words could never express how thankful I am. It is such a joy to watch Spicer learn as I teach her new things. I believe that it's one of the greatest joys I will ever experience.

SB is absolutely loving "Tot School." She wants to do it just about every day! Her favorite part is her little "tot pack time." She has a tot pack for Brown Bear, Brown Bear and I just made her a new one for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. When we first started the tot packs I thought we'd just give it a try. She probably won't be able to do it, but it's worth the exposure. Boy was I wrong. She loved everything about it. It took her a week or so to pick up on everything in the pack. But by the end of the second week she could even match heads and tails of animals! I highly recommend "tot packs" for your little one. They are so easy to make, don't take much of your time and so great for your little tot! You can check them out here.

It is just unbelievable how God made us to learn. He designed us to learn from such a young age. That's why it is very important to me that I teach Spicer as much as I can about Him, even at her young age. Which brings me to another favorite about tot school, bible story time. Spicer likes to get her pointer out and point to the words as we read the scripture. Just this past week she actually started repeating the words of the scripture for me! I have to say, "I'm one very proud momma!" Hearing her say those words is the most precious thing I have ever heard!

Another fun thing Spicer and I like to do is play on her playset. She loves to go outside and head straight to the backyard! Usually we swing and sing songs first. Then we head up the steps to the fort to go down the slide. She does this over and over again and loves for me to do it with her! Sometimes she likes to pick up sticks and throw them into our fire-pit. The other day while we were outside we started collecting acorns. We did this for about an hour! She is such a hard worker and loves to do things like this. And I love to do it with her!

a touch of fall...

finally. a touch of fall in my kitchen...

i'm hoping to make a fall wreath later this week. i just love this time of year!

this and that

We love the occasional rainy day around the Fowler house. A rainy day usually means we get an unexpected fun day with daddy! Today was nothing short of that. We started our day by heading to Mickey D's (as Jared calls it) to get some breakfast. We love their smoothies and breakfast burritos. After we were finished eating Jared and Spicer played on the play place. This was Spicer's first time to do this at McDonalds. I kinda cringed at the thought of my little girl crawling around in there, but ended up letting go of my germ-a-phoebe tendencies to let her have some childhood fun! lol! I also had to break the rules in order to let her play. It says ages 3-12 can play, well SB is only 22 months. I know, I'm such a rule follower! It's sad. :) Anyway, S and J had a great time playing and to my knowledge she's just as healthy now as she was when she went in there!

On a different note, SB turned 22 months old yesterday! It's so hard to believe that she will be 2 in a couple of months. Yesterday I decided on a party theme for her 2nd birthday and I'm pretty excited about it. Now that I'm a little party planner, lol, I've got to have enough time to make and gather everything needed to pull of the perfect little party! :) I definitely want it to be special for her.

Spicer is really talking a bunch these days. She can pretty much say anything except for "I love you and thank you!" Jared and I think she can say it, she's just holding out on us! For both I love you and thank you she says something like, "doot-doot!" Really anything with two syllables. Cracks us up! SB is really putting many simple sentences together as well. The other day she said, "Watch me daddy." She had to make sure he was watching her slide! This morning she said, "Put my shoes and my socks on." I love hearing her little voice, it's so cute. Jared and I always talk about how we never want to forget these precious times. We've been talking about that a lot lately. I think it's because here lately she really seems to be growing up a lot.

Last Saturday night she starting using the potty regularly! YAY! She still has a few accidents, mainly wet, but for the most part she's well on her way to being potty trained. M & M's were the trick for us. My friend gave me this tip and it has worked wonders for Spicer. All we had to say was, "If you pee/poop on potty you get an m & m." and she walked into her bathroom, sat on the potty and pooped! Now that she's been using the potty for almost a week, we don't have to reward her everytime. She doesn't even ask for it. Awe, such a big girl!

Ok... that's all for now. Better go before I start crying!

bsf

Bible Study Fellowship or bsf, is a bible study that meets all around the world. It begins in September and continues until May. Basically it's a school year. The group that I'm attending meets on Wednesdays for a couple of hours in the a.m. I must say, I feel as though bsf was created just for me! I absolutely love everything about it! SB gets to go with me and they teach her a bible lesson too. AWESOME! We meet with a small group to discuss the questions from that week and then gather together in a large group for lecture.

This year bsf is going through the book of Isaiah. Already, I'm so challenged by this book of the bible. I know it is going to be a year of tremendous growth for me as a child of the Most High God. I'm so up for the challenges this study will bring and the changes it will make in my life! Thank you Jesus for leading me to this study and giving me the opportunity to participate in all that it has to offer!

For more information about bsf click here.

break from fb

i heard on air 1 last week that they were taking a break from fb this week. it got me thinking. could i actually live without fb for one week, well monday through friday anyway? i decided to take the challenge for myself. i am now in my second day of my fb break. i'm not gonna lie, i miss it! it's way hard not to log on and check to see if i have any updates. but, i think i can make it. at least i hope i can!

i usually only blog once, maybe twice, a week if i'm lucky. well, this is my second blog entry this week and it's only tuesday. so i guess instead of fb, i'm finding myself blogging while sb is napping. :) maybe i'll blog each day i'm away from fb?! i mean i've got to have some contact with the outside world! lol.

ready for gymnastics!

My little Spicer Beth is one 21 month old (almost 22 months) who absolutely loves gymnastics! Last night I said, "Spicer, we get to go to gymnastics tomorrow!" and she got so excited! She started saying, "Sheena" which is her teacher's name and pointing to her hand because she gets a stamp at the end of each class! I absolutely love her excitement about the things she enjoys!

When we first get to her little "mom and tot" gymnastics class she can do whatever she wants. She usually heads over to the trampoline. Spicer loves to jump and she loves to try and jump as high as she can. She always says, "high!" Today, after jumping on the trampoline, she wanted to hop in the foam pit, which by the way, i love hopping into myself! lol! After a few minutes of free-play it's time for shape time. Spicer will run over and grab a shape for herself and for mommy. It's so cute watching her follow directions. During shape time we sing songs and stretch. Spicer watches Miss Sheena intently and makes sure to do exactly what she's doing, or at least try it! When shape time is finished it's time to go around the big circle doing the various "gymnastic" activities. Spicer likes to flip down the wedge and hop like a frog. She also loves to swing on the bars! If Jared is there, which he usually is, he'll lift her up to hang on the rings and she loves that. :) During this time we usually find ourselves back at the trampoline or foam pit again! Today I noticed Spicer trying to get her teacher's attention to show off what she could do. She would yell across the gym, "Sheena!" The kid cracks me up! Finally, at the end of class, Miss Sheena gets a large parachute out. All the tots and their parents grab hold and sing a song with the parachute. We then make a big tent for the tots to walk into. SB loves, loves, loves this! When class is finished Spicer walks over to the line, sits criss-cross with her hands in her lap and waits patiently until it's her turn to get a stamp and sucker. And that's it! I always tell Spicer she can eat her sucker when we get to Wal-Mart, and she's usually ok with that! :)

Our little family just loves gymnastics! I'm so thankful that we're able to do this together. Like I said, for the most part, Jared gets to join us. It's just wonderful! Thank you Jesus for all the wonderful blessings in our lives, I never want to take anything for granted!

such a big girl!

My sweet "baby girl" is quickly becoming my sweet "little girl." Thank you Jesus for blessing our family with Spicer Beth! She has brought more joy and happiness into our lives than we could have ever imagined! Just the other day while I was changing her diaper she looked up at me, smiled, and said, "HAPPY!" I said, "Are you happy?" She said, "Yes, Happy!" Awe, melted my heart! :)

homemade fire-pit

I absolutely love fall-like weather! This past Labor Day Weekend, we had just that, a fall preview. When the weather is like that, I want to be outside, period. On labor day our little family spent the day shopping around. I've been wanting a fire-pit for a while now, so I was casually shopping with that in mind. We looked at fire-pits at Lowes and Atwoods. Looking around at them really got me wanting one. The fire-pits we liked were around $80. Not to much, but we didn't want to spend money on that right now. So, Jared said, "we can make one!" I was like, "Sure! Why not! We can do it!"

When we got home that afternoon we got to work, with SB tagging along (i love that she is getting big enough to help). First, we chose the perfect place to put the fire pit. Then we headed over to another area of our yard to load up the rock. Little did I know that we had this super cool flat flagstone rock. Awesomeness!!! I got super excited when I saw it! Spicer and I helped daddy load the rocks onto the tractor (spicer loves the tractor, and she loves to help). After this, we took the rocks back to the special "fire-pit place." All three of us helped place each rock in just the right spot. Jared of course is really good at this kinda thing with his landscape experience, so I kinda let him do most of the placing. :) Then, finally, it was finished! Jared gathered the wood and started the fire while Spicer and I headed to the local market to get the hotdog supplies and marshmallows.

After all our hard work was finished we enjoyed a wonderful evening roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in our own backyard! This was Spicer's first "fire-pit" experience and she absolutely loved it, especially the marshmallows! :) And I think I like our homemade fire-pit much better than any one we would have bought at the store!

21 Months!

Spicer Beth is now 21 months old. And she is full of it! She is doing and saying so much these days. It's like all the sudden a light bulb went off and she can talk! She is saying an avg. of 5 new words per day and beginning to say more and more sentences. The other day she said, "Daddy I got a pickle." This amazes me! I just love watching her little mind at work.

Things are in full swing around our house. Spicer is going to her mom and tot gymnastics class every week. Which she loves! We've just started going back to "toddler time" at the library. She likes this, but it takes her a few minutes to warm up to her teachers. Then again, it was our first week back since last spring. Tot school is up and going. We've had three sessions this week. I set out to do at least two per week and more if she wanted. So it's nice to know she's enjoying it and wants to do more! And finally, a big milestone. At least for me. Spicer has started going to a "sitter," for a few hours, one day a week- so I can get some things (i.e. cleaning) done! She went this week and loved it! I don't even think she wanted to leave. She loves Miss Debbie! I had looked at doing a MDO one day per week but this option works best for us. It's in town, I don't pay if she doesn't go, plus it's with someone we know. And quite honestly, I just don't think I'm ready for MDO!

So, Spicer's 21st month has been a big one for her so far! It's so much fun watching her grow and develop. I'm very thankful to be her mommy and I love all the fun things we get to do together!


Me and Spicer in the foam pit at gymnastics this week. So much fun! (notice she is wearing her lime green shirt, yep it's still her favorite!)

tot school

"Tot School" is off to a great start. We began our first session on Tuesday. I had planned to go to the library and then head home for school, but it didn't happen that way. Tuesday was a very busy day and we ended up not getting to have school until that evening. It worked out great though. Jared was able to watch her first session that way!

We began with calendar time. I bought a little hand pointer for Spicer to use to point to the calendar as we talk about it. She loved doing this. Then we did the alphabet chart, a, a, apple, /a/a/a/ etc. After the alphabet chart we headed over to the number chart and counted to ten, making sure to touch each object as we counted (1 to 1 correspondence-very important). Next, we had a short bible lesson. I made a chart from the Sunday School lesson her teachers sent home with her. The chart included the picture she colored, short lesson, title and scripture. (Note to self, think/research fun ways to teach scripture.) Then, finally, it was time for the much anticipated "tot trays!"

I sat out two trays for Spicer to choose from. One tray had cups, bowls, spoons, beans and a measuring cup. The other tray had play dough, cookie cutters, mason jar lids, and a spatula. She chose the bean tray first and absolutely loved it! She played with that tray for about 15 minutes and then chose the play dough tray. She loved that one too! This was only her second time to play with play dough. She kept chuckling as she played with it, a mom's delight! The next day when we were in the playroom (this is where we have school also) she wanted me to get the trays out of the closet. She kept going to the closet saying, "plees." So cute! And of course, I let her play with them again. Needless to say, the "tot trays" were a huge success with miss beth. :)

We finished our school session with a few books. Spicer loves books!

All together we focused on "tot school" for about 45 minutes the first day. I think that's a great start and what can be expected from a 21 month old. :) I'm super excited about the other ideas I have. I made a "tot pack" from the same website I got the "tot tray" idea from yesterday. It is centered around the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?. It has a mini book, abc fold out page, sequencing activity, matching heads and tails game, counting activity, and a coloring book! I also look forward to making some fun file folder activities as well.

The teacher in me gives our first attempt at "tot school" an A+! It was fun for all involved! Even the hard work of getting it all organized and put together is so worth it. Plus, it allows me to express the teacher in me with my very own sweet little girl! I think "tot school" is going to be great for both me and Spicer!

Here are a few pictures from our first "tot school" session:







You can learn more about "tot trays and tot packs" by visiting http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TotSchool.html. :)