Crafts and a snow day!

Happy Leap Day!

Ava is making progress every day in her vocabulary. She said "ready go" the other day.

We had an unexpected snow day today! Jack couldn't wait to get out in it. I think we all are a little stir crazy lately. I keep trying to find things to work on in the house. Jack jumps around the furniture, and Ava even runs laps around the kitchen/dining room circle.

We are looking forward to our missions month at our church, having some new mission works presented, and enjoying our Taste of the World night. So March and April will be busy with missions, vacation, awana, and finishing up our moms group and ladies fellowship meetings before our summer break. And spring and Easter will be here soon!

I have been reading the book Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. It has really impacted me. The main idea is that God has created us to crave Him and Satan wants to replace our cravings for God with any fleshly pleasure he can use to entice us. So anything we feel we can't give up, we are relying on that thing more than we are relying on God, and therefore sinning. The book mostly deals with food cravings but again the principle applies to anything we put before the Lord. After having Ava and dealing with postpartum issues, I became emotionally attached to food and was afraid to give up certain foods I was attached to. As soon as I read the book, I gave up those foods. This was almost 8 weeks ago, and I have lost almost 20 pounds. I still have a ways to go, but I'm glad to finally be dealing with this. As Lysa says in her book, we were made for more than this!

So that's our week and a look into the next few. Everyone is healthy and happy, so praise the Lord! February has been kind of quiet which we've also enjoyed, but come on March!

Weird Winter

This has definitely been a strange winter here in Minnesota. I can't remember a winter here being so mild and snowless. There have been some cold days but nowhere near as many as usual. Along with the cold days we had some days in January when we were close to or at 50 degrees. That's unheard of in Minnesota. Last year was one of the snowiest years ever and this year has been one of the least snowiest ever. Today was not exactly warm but it wasn't too bad so I took Jack outside and we rode bikes for a while and played a little baseball.

New word

Ava has said shoes a few times now and points to them, so I know it's not a fluke! She has lately started sitting on the counter while I get ready in the morning. She likes to try to put the lipstick in her hair. Luckily she hasn't figured out how to roll the tube up yet.

Jack is growing up more every day. He copies phrases we use like Ava is out of it when she's tired. He wanted to know how many more sleeps until we go to Florida. And there are 50 just in case you are wondering too!

Top Ten Facts of Jack David Fure at age 5

1. Right now he loves to play Lego video games and Legos and superheroes.

2. Loves to chat. A couple of times he has been home with Matt while Matt was working on a project. Matt doesn't talk when he works. So Jack has made the comment that "it sure is quiet in here!"

3. Very social. He loves to shake hands with people at church and to see his buddies.

4. He will be starting school in the fall.

5. He is a picky eater like his father. He would prefer to live on chips rather than all these strange foods I ram at him.

6. He still likes to know everything we are doing every second of the day.

7. He likes to count our family and he was #4 because he was 4. Now he thinks we need a dog so the dog can be #4 and he can be #5.

8. He loves our family and is ecstatic about having a baby sister even though she gets in his Legos.

9. He asks questions about God but doesn't understand salvation quite yet.

10. He says mommy about 1000 times a day and even though sometimes I can't focus on the task at hand when he does that, I would never put a stop to him calling me. It's such a short amount of time that I have him at home and even though I look forward to his future too, I am holding onto him and this time as long as I can!

Happy 5th birthday, Jack!

We had a great time with the family earlier in the week and an awesome time with Jack's buddies yesterday on his birthday. It was fun to have them all over, and we were able to use the downstairs so they could run and play. So it was a great birthday week!

Happy January!

January brings many birthdays in our family and friends circle so we have been busy with Aunt Nanny's and mine and gearing up for Jack's 5th birthday party. Also Chelsie's birthday is on the 15th. Wish we could celebrate with her! And also many friends have had birthdays so we have lots of parties in January. Fun!
And what beautiful weather we have had with multiple 50 degree days that allowed us to be outside more. We cleaned the garage and went to the zoo. Both were fun!