Caleb and I embarked on a spiritual discussion in the car the other day that stemmed from a song we were listening to.  Well, Scripture we were listening to, really.  It was Ephesians 2:8-9 put to music.  I paused the music and I tried to engage with him about what it meant that we are saved by grace and not by works.  This is something we try to stress with Caleb as he can beat up on himself pretty badly about things he does that are wrong. 

Anyway, I was talking to him about it and he just puts his thumb up.  I say, "Caleb, I'd like us to be able to talk about things and have you respond to me with what you're thinking."  Then he says, "Mom, I did this."  And then proceeds to give me a thumbs up again.

I told Caitlyn's Kindergarten teachers about this the other day and Mrs. T insisted that I had to write this down somewhere so that I could share it with his future wife one day.  She's sure that his wife will treasure it.  :)

We'll see...it seems so hard to sit and write on the blog now.  I think I  need to change my expectations of what I'm going to write on here.  Maybe shorter little tidbits that I want to remember...

Right now Caitlyn is still up.  It's 8:17 pm on a school night.  She came down and said she had a bad dream and thought that maybe she could sit down here for a while.  I told her she could stay downstairs if she helped Daddy with the dishes.  Guess what she's doing right now?  Washing dishes.  Well, at least it's helpful!  If I had made the same offer to Caleb he totally would have gone back to bed.  She cracks me up.

We have had a wonderful Christmas here in the Currier household.  Many blessings and we are thankful.  I have GOT to get back into blogging and will soon, but for now here's a story I don't want to forget...

It always makes for a weird Christmas when it falls on a Sunday.  We typically wake up, open stockings, eat breakfast, clean up from breakfast and then settle in to open presents.  When Christmas is on a Sunday we go to church and it throws our schedule a little off.  Please don't think I'm complaining.  I mean really - going to church to celebrate Christ's birth on the day of Christ's birth isn't a bad thing!

So here's where I'm going with this...We went to church this morning and they had a children's sermon.  So all the kids 5th grade and under went up to the front to hear the sermon.  Typically it's interactive so that the kids are really engaged.  So Kevin Kelsey asks the kids who opened presents and who didn't, etc.  Then he asks what the best thing they've gotten is.  The first child says, "glitter crayons" and the second one says, "a light saber!"

Next we hear Kevin call on Caleb who in the most serious tone replies, "Jesus' love."  Of course everyone laughs and people start looking over at us, some giving us the universal thumbs up sign and some asking if we prepped him with that answer.  Within seconds I'm brought to tears between the laughter and the pride I have in my sweet boy.  Not weeping tears but laughing tears.

Caleb comes back to the seat afterwards and immediately asks us why everyone laughed at him.  We tried our best to explain why people would laugh at the answer.  I tell him that his answer was the best gift he could have given me for Christmas.  That seemed to help.

We fielded the multiple questions about whether or not we prepped him, fed him the line or had rehearsed it.  Nope.  That's just my sweet boy.

This was our first experience with croup. We have been fortunate enough to escape it all of these years, but Cameron got a touch of it early last month.  The warm steam shower seemed to help him.  We took this picture while he was in our shower and I think it is ADORABLE!  Well, Cameron is for sure!

Caitlyn's class went on a field trip to Two Tails Ranch in Williston and had a great time!  They got to see elephants, zebras, emu, turtles, and camels among other things.

They got to touch a tortoise that would live longer than most of us and grow to be just about as big.  They also got to see and touch a hedgehog.  Isn't it cute!

This is Connor.  Caitlyn wants to marry him someday.  I have to say, he is such a sweet boy and his family is amazing.  So that wouldn't be so bad.  :)

 
In the meantime, Caitlyn has a bosom friend in Allie.  I love watching the two of them together.

Oh yeah, and there were elephants.  :)

And we got to RIDE on them.  In Gainesville.  Say what?

Love my kiddos!

Homeschooling took a different turn as we were wrapping up our work.  I stepped outside to start putting out our fall/Halloween decorations and saw something move in our bushes.  I yelled to the kids to stay inside, went to the garage and grabbed a shovel.  The kids grabbed a spot on the couch and watched through the blinds as I attacked and killed a snake.  We've had moccasins out by our house before so I don't take chances.  After some good jabs and a couple of whacks on the head, I emerged the victor and received multiple thumbs up from behind the blinds.  Once it was clear, the kids piled out of the door and Caleb exclaimed, "Mommy, that was awesome.  And I thought that was 'Daddy' work!" Turns out it was only a black racer.  Kevin got home shortly afterward and the kids were thrilled to show Daddy their "surprise".

A couple of days later I saw another snake in bushes.  I couldn't tell which color was touching which color in the dark and while it was moving.  So, I killed another snake and found out that it was only a milk snake.  Thankfully, we have been snake-free ever since!

Lauren came back from Tanzania for a few months and we were thrilled when she came through Gainesville and stopped to visit with us for the afternoon!