Wrapping skills

Nadia has been helping me with wrapping birthday and Christmas presents for her cousins. As with most things with young children, her "help" actually means it takes longer to accomplish the task, but she is getting practice with cutting wrapping paper and using tape to seal it up. Wrapping presents is actually not one of my favorite things to do, and that is the main perk of doing it with her. She thinks it's a BLAST, and her joy is contagious. Today our pastor wrapped up his three sermon series on gratitude. In that he showed a funny little video about a "complaint zapper." (It doesn't cost anything to watch the video on that page.) Probably all of us would get zapped more often than we think we would if we worse such a device.  This evening in the Thanksgiving service one sentence really jumped out at me. "If you become accustomed to your blessings, you will not be satisfied." He said if the stars only shone one night a year, we would stay up all night to enjoy them, but often we pay no attention to them because we're used to seeing them all the time. May I never take my blessings for granted!

1. I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving service this evening with Nadia and Ian. Nadia was the first child to go up to the microphone to share something she is thankful for. She said she is thankful for her Mommy, Daddy, and her brothers. AMEN! Almost everyone shared at least one thing, wrote it down on a small piece of paper, and attached it to one of many nails on a cross at the front of the room. We also sang songs and many scriptures on the topic of "giving thanks" were read by many individuals.

2. Oliver didn't have any accidents today, and he also stayed dry overnight last night!

3. We've been studying the states in the order they joined the union. The fourth was Georgia, and in honor of that state I made some peach crisp this evening. Yum! Three cheers for the "peach state."

4. Oliver has amazing manners. We've all been taken aback how lately he always says "no thanks" or "no, thank you" rather than just saying "no." Way to go, Oliver!

5. Although they do a lot of whining and complaining (we're working on that!), they also show excitement over little things in life. Nadia was very excited that she lost her fourth tooth this evening! It was the first tooth she lost from her top jaw. She still has two wiggly teeth, so the tooth fairy isn't done visiting our house! She lost her first two teeth in Maryland last December at Grandma's house, and now this fall she's lost her next two teeth at church. Maybe she'll lose her fifth tooth at our house? Ian has been trying to wiggle his teeth. He definitely wants to join in on the excitement of losing teeth, but none of his teeth are actually wiggly yet.