Advent Begins today!

An "Advent" is the coming or arrival of something. We had a very neat opportunity tonight with our church family on this first Sunday of Avent. This is definitely starting a new tradition with us. The children's department of the church, which is amazing, put on a night to make Advent Wreaths for our homes. We had pizza, made the wreaths (with little help from Wells), sang some Christmas songs (which the kids loved), and the children's minister gave a brief description of what the candles meant and the importance of starting the Christmas season focused on Christ. It was SO much fun! The kids loved just being around other children, singing, putting in a few twigs, eating (claire), lighting the hope/prophesy candle, and seeing the dark room light up! For those who are not familiar with the candles and their meanings, there are five candles. There are three purple, one pink, and one white. The first candle is a purple candle and it symbolizes hope/prophesy- The promise of Messiah and of His return. The second candle is pink and is the JOY candle- God coming down to dwell with us. The third candle is purple and stands for love- Proclaiming the coming of Christ to all people. The fourth candle is purple and stands for peace-"God is with us", and the fifth candle in the middle is white and stands for the purity of Christ and that when He returns it will be as King and Lord over all. Each Sunday begins the next week of Advent and you light the next candle. The fifth/white candle is lit on Christmas eve. I strongly encourage you to study this further and talk about it with your kids. It can be a time of celebration for the entire family to remember those who longed for the Messiah, to anticipate Christmas Day, and to look forward to Christ's bodily return to earth. It was so exciting for me to focus on this with my family today and I got teary tonight realizing how truly blessed I am. I do not deserve all that I have. My biggest prayer daily is to focus on CHRIST this season and all that He does and has done for me...beginning with His birth. Here are the scripture readings our church suggests for this week if you want to look at(i'll post new ones each week of advent):
sunday/today: Genesis 12:1-3,
Monday: Isaiah 7:10-14
Tuesday: Isaiah 9:2-7, John 14:27
Wednesday: Isaiah 11:1-5, Revelation 5:5
Thursday: Isaiah 61:1-3, Luke 4:14-21
Friday: Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 2:1-7
Saturday: Matthew 24:36-44, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

here are some pics of the night (from the phone unfortunately)
claire is clapping to the music...notice the glasses are gone. another pair down the tubes! off to get new ones tomorrow!

Wells had a blast, but was hard to contain!

Here is the advent wreath. It looks much better
than we thought it would!!

Merry Christmas everyone! The decorations
are up, the gifts are wrapped and under the tree (for now!)
and I only have two to go. I told you I'm enjoying the
Advent/Christmas season!! I pray we all do!

new post below and hopefully a thanksgiving post soon... i know, out of order!

A Visit With Friends!

We had such a great time last Sunday catching up with good friends who live in Boston. Mike, Sandi, and Avery Reinold visited from Boston with Birmingham friends all weekend. Mike and Chris used to work together and Sandi and I became fast friends! They are so great and we were so sad to see them leave, but they were excited to get back "home" in Boston where they grew up. And Mike has a really cool job there as well!! We were so honored that they chose to spend some time with us as they were only here for a quick weekend. Avery is only a couple of months younger than Wells and they played GREAT together! We would have weekly playdates if they lived here! She is tiny just like him and they had funny/spunky personalities! Thank you Mike and Sandi for such a fun Sunday and it truly made our week!! :) We love y'all!

Okay...so we staged this one, but how hilarious!
They both love the iphones so it worked!! :)

Big talkers...just like their mommies!

Lots of FIRSTS in November!

This has been a CRAZY, but exciting month around the Sheheane household! Last week, Claire began cutting FOUR teeth (three molars) so there was no sleep. Then she decided she was going to talk some and started saying mama, dada, baby, dog, and even thank you somewhat clearly! It was hilarious! She is trying to talk up a storm (just like her brother and yours truly). This week, she jumped right up on her walker and pushed it all over the house! I thought surely she'd lose her balance or get going too fast....but nope! Here she is so proud of herself! Maybe she'll really walk on her own soon. I don't really care either way :)!


Then we have Wells who also has BIG firsts! He really wanted to bring his tricycle indoors and since it's gotten cold and I am just worn out, I said "sure!" So just as I thought he would use his feet to push around the house, he started to pedal! We were so proud! He's getting really good at turning too. So fun!!

He also decided no more diapers for him! He has been using his elmo potty for fun for a couple of weeks, but really wanted to try pull-ups since they looked more like his big cousin Max. Well...these weren't good enough.

So....we were onto big mickey mouse undies!! And I thought, "well, if he wants to go with it, I'll just go with it too and try not to stress about accidents." The first two days he had about 8, so I was already over it. But he pushed to keep trying and I loved the attitude of not giving up....

So now he is really potty trained!! He has gone to church, school, and a total of 6 days now in big boy undies!! He only had 1 day of a couple of accidents (when mama wasn't around). I am SO PROUD of him! I was shocked he got it so early, but I love that i didn't do the rigorous training and just let him go with it. All in all it was a good month of going before he did it all the time, but to me that is great! We still use pull-ups at nap and night but they are usually dry. fun times!! His favorite part is washing his hands (by himself of course while standing on the elmo potty) afterwards. Check out that proud face!

Now, I think all the excitement wore us out because this weekend all four of us are hit with the stomach bug or high temps. Prayers again please as we hit fall and winter!! :)

Halloween Week!

Well, last week was CRAZY! It was such a blast, but crazy! Robyn and I had three Christmas Shows, it was my birthday, and we had four different halloween dress up parties! By Sunday night, the kids were over it and totally fussy. Happy Halloween to us! Claire was a butterfly and Wells was the itsy bitsy spider (his favorite song in the world) for halloween, but we were Charlotte's Web for our family parties. Chris and I were the Zuckermans and Claire was wilbur, while Wells was charlotte (yes, i know wrong costume for male and female....that is the costumes they had though). Oh well, after Wells got some candy in him, he was ready to go! My little spider socialite didn't just knock and say trick or treat, but he walked right three or four homes and sat on their couches! Not only that, but he talked and talked like that was the right thing to do! :) Oh well, he's only two, right?! Claire didn't trick or treat this year, but went right to bed after the neighborhood block party. We really did have a blast, but we are glad the week is over! Now onto the month of many thanks!