Happy 10th Birthday Bailee!

A few highlights from your 9th year!
Bailee is usually the first smiling face I see in the mornings. She is the first one ready for school and after she downs her glass of OJ she sweetly goes out to Riley's car and warms it up.
Not only is today Bailee's 10th Birthday but, yesterday Bailee received a Citizenship Award. Her sweet teacher nominated her with the nicest letter... "Bailee adds to the support and learning in our classroom every day. She demonstrates careful listening, accurate work, and active participation. She takes ownership of her own learning and strives to produce quality work on all assignments.
She works well in groups or with a partner, planning and carrying out activities and projects. Her caring attitude and respectful manners are present at all times. She is a model citizen of fourth grade!" Please excuse me while I have a proud Mama moment!!
When she and Riley and Hallie get bored in the summer they love to have photo-shoots!
She caught a Catfish and several Skip-jacks that day!
She has her green belt in Tae Kwon Do now!Bailee Grace Banta, Daddy and I love you so very much and are extremely proud of your accomplishments!

Another Favorite Devo

OBEY Devo

This is one of my personal favorite Devotionals because it gets the kids to clean up while we are having Devo and they are having fun at the same time! This is how it usually goes... before bedtime Brady and I come into the living room or go down to the basement whichever was the messier room. Brady and I plop ourselves down in the middle of the room and call out "devo time" whichever kids weren't already in the room would come running. Have them sit down and happily tell them we are going to talk about how important it is to obey.

Scriptures we like to read:

Ephesians 6:1 Children obey your parents in everything for this is right.

Col. 3:20 Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord.

Deuteronomy 4:16 Honor your mother and father, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you. ( It is the only one of the ten commandments that contains a promise.)

Then we play our "obey game" have them individually obey a quick little command. For some reason they really love doing this, maybe because they have an audience. "Charlie show us you know how to obey by putting three of the toys into the toy box. Jay can you show us you know how to obey? Please put the pillows back on the couch. Bailee will you please put all the wii games and equipment away!" ect. We praise them and thank them for quickly obeying. Close out Devo time with a prayer asking God to help all of us to always obey, even Mommy and Daddy!

Then the next day or the next week, when it is time for them to get out of the bath tub or time to go to bed and they are less than eager to obey, I remind them of our Obey game and how pleased the Lord is when they quickly obey. It is so frustrating and humiliating to have a disobedient child out in public, speaking from much experience here. Again, I think the audience comes into play when it turns into a power struggle. This has been the most effective way to positively teach obedience as opposed to discipline for disobedience. Although, discipline for disobedience works too!

The reason why we believe it is so important for our children to obey us is because we ultimately want them to obey God. We want them to follow the commands God so lovingly designed for us to follow so that they will love life and see good days. We also want them to quickly obey what their heavenly Father asks them to do when they are making their own life decisions.

L-O-V-E

When I was younger, umm actually I still do this... I cover up my written mistakes with a heart. Like when I was writing a note and I would misspell something which is quite often I would just turn that into a cute heart. (BTW, I must thank you kids for so faithfully correcting my grocery lists. Of course, I L-O-V-E and depend heavily on spell check!) Anyway, Bailee has been working on a time-line of her life thus far. She has been putting plenty of time and energy into this important 4th grade project and unfortunately last night she misspelled February with a Sharpie. (I always thought February was a tricky one.) Panic almost set in until she remembered the little trick I taught her. A darling little heart fit right on top of that mistake. Especially since she was born the day after Valentine's Day. Last night when she came up to kiss me we were talking about it and the Holy Spirit reminded me of a scripture hidden in my heart. 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Thank you Jesus that your sacrificial act of the deepest love covers my sins.

Christmas Day 2010

We started off Christmas Day with Cupcakes for Jesus' Birthday! We sing "Happy Birthday" to HIM and yes, we ate cupcakes for breakfast! YUM! And yes, it was still dark outside!The kids going through their stockings!
The day was so beautiful, everything was frosted!
The high was about 20 degrees.
The kids got sleds, so of course, that afternoon we had to try them out. Brady and I even jumped on them a few times. Hallie and I's favorite "run" was the snow-stuffer. She appropriately named it because your coat gets stuffed with snow!!Bailee's, Jay's and Daddy's favorite run had a nice jump in the middle.
Mimi kept saying these kids are fearless!Brady made an amazing smoked Elk roast for Christmas dinner.
Christmas 2010 for our Brady Bunch was fun. Even though, we still miss all of our southern friends and family. Each year I keep waiting for it to get easier to be so far away.

Christmas 2010 Slideshow

December in Montana

I took these pictures just outside the front door (because it was about 2 degrees outside). When a fog settles on the trees it makes our whole town look like Narnia. It comes about once or twice a year but, usually only stays for about a morning and then it blows off the trees or melts. This fantastic frosty freeze stayed about four days. We've already had two big snows and it isn't even Christmas. I, like most, absolutely love the snow in December. I love to go ice skating with the kids and Brady takes them sledding. We just aren't as enchanted when it is still coming in April and sometimes May.

We've been in Montana for four and a half years now. I'm still trying to get acclimated to the below zero temperatures. I've been told it takes five years to feel at home where we live and I definitely need six more months.

Elk Hunting Trip

The boys and I invited ourselves to go on Brady's Elk hunting trip. We didn't want him to get too lonely on his week long visit with his Uncle Greg and Aunt Maria in Ridgeway, CO. However, things didn't go quite as we had expected. This is a picture of Brady staring at his stuck truck on the first day. Not to worry, in a matter of minutes a one armed smiling angel came to our rescue and pulled us out. Needless to say, that was the only day the boys and I actually went "hunting" with him. We kept ourselves busy by swimming in the hot springs at Ouray, a day in Telluride and a day in Ridgeway, of course. I'm just sayin' don't feel too bad.
The boys did find time for a snowball fight that day.

Nice one Jay!
Charlie has a great arm, too!
I LOVE Maria and Pearl! Two of the nicest girls you will ever meet! While we were there Maria and Greg insisted we stay one night at The Historic Weisbaden Lodge. It is in Ouray, Co. and has a flowing natural hot springs vapor cave. God's version of a steam-room. It was amazing!
Did I mention this is Ralph Lauren's Ranch, the RRL Ranch.
Brady's Uncle Greg took him to the best spots on the ranch to hunt.
After five days of hard hunting Brady did get an Elk. I am beginning to figure out why they are called trophies.