Praise the Lord He has seen fit to grow our family!! New baby Francisco coming August 2010!

Looking ahead to next year Christmas, here’s a craft project that all you moms can start on now and maybe have for advent 2010! This is the Jesse Tree, a Christmas advent calendar tracing Jesus’ earthly heritage (recorded in Matthew and Luke). From Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,” this family tree advent calendar represents the ancestors of Christ and the patriarchs and prophets God used to keep the promise alive. The suggested people on the tree are: Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Ruth, Jesse, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Esther, Joseph, Manger Scene, Risen Christ. (Contact me if you want the Scriptures that accompany the list, and the ideas of symbols you can use to represent each person).

The Jesse Tree was a very special tradition in my family growing up. One of my best Christmas memories throughout my life is putting JESUS! on top of the Jesse Tree on Christmas morning! And I was really shocked at how well Geneva did with it this year. We would read the corresponding Bible story every morning and then add the symbol to the tree and after a week or so she was going over to the tree saying “this one is Adam and Eve, this one is Noah, this one is Abraham, etc. etc.” SO cool. And it REALLY helped her understand that when we put JESUS on the top of the Jesse Tree it was finally His birthday!

My mother made the one pictured here, which is the same one we still use today. You can make it too! She used two pieces of burlap with batting in the middle, finished with a woven red ribbon. She embroidered (using the sewing machine) the front piece of the burlap with red thread to make a family tree. She sewed and glued one side of the velcro to the tree and hot glued the other to the symbols and voila! EASY project and SO special. If you are here in the Springs, I’d love to get together and do a Jesse Tree workshop sometime! Let me know!

My dad and step-mom Mary came to Colorado Springs for a nine day Christmas visit this year! We had a great time together, and thought it’d be special to take some professional pictures to remember our fun Christmas! Here are some highlights from the Baumgardner photo shoot:

Is here! (tab above)  Enjoy and check out all the great pictures Christina has added to our family website.

Calling all H.A. Rey lovers!! Everyone with children go out and buy this precious pop-out book!! From the creator of Curious George, this activity book “A Christmas Manger” gives you all the beautifully illustrated characters of the Christmas story to pop-out and use as paper dolls. The inside covers of the book open up into a backdrop of the manger scene, and the only text inside is straight from the gospels of Matthew and Luke. LOVE IT!!!!!!!

we love CO, where we can have snow on the ground and blue skies up above! A special thanks to Grammy and Brown Rogers for the wonderful snow gear!!!

oh, and you might notice a certain small brown dog in the picture!! That is the latest addition to our little ever growing family! Her name is Liberty and she is seven years old and a miniature Australian Shepherd. We inherited her from Michael’s family when they moved to DC and we love her!!! (esp. now that she’s finally housebroken! She and Geneva got to go through potty training together! haha)

She is SO one of my very FAVORITE things.

Geneva gets a new ornament every year, usually representing something from that year. This year she got a hand painted green nutcracker from Germany. For some reason this year she’s become really enthusiastic about Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. She can watch the ballet performance over and over and over (we skip the rats, obviously). She’s getting giddy excited about taking ballet next year, and wants to wear her frilly dancing skirts EVERYWHERE. So she has a nutcracker ornament this year, and just like in the ballet, loves to take him out of the tree and dance around the house with him. <3

This fall Michael’s dad was offered a new job in Washington D.C., so after 40+ years in Los Alamos, NM, the Franciscos packed up, sold their house (PTL!), and made the massive move to Northern Virginia!! They graciously and generously flew us all out to see them for Thanksgiving!!!!! What a treat!! We loved seeing where they are living and working now, and enjoyed sightseeing, playing games, shopping, putting up their Christmas tree, looking at Christmas lights, and even riding a ferris wheel in the freezing wind!, but mainly it was just so wonderful just being with our family. It was so good for us, it flew by way too fast, and we can’t wait to go back. Love you guys!!

Thanksgiving Family Picture!

i love my girl!

weeeeeeeee! Daddy's the best!

playing with papa!

best.pic.ever. YAY Auntie Debs!

Geneva and Mimi

I LOVE YOU MIMI!

ta-da!

We discovered a great little farm in the outskirts of the Springs this fall. It was a drive out there, but boy did they have things for us to do and see!! Highlights included:

a very bumpy and very fun hayride around the farm!

riding a pony

"they smell, mom"

feeding the animals! G was so brave!

the animals feeding on us!! OUCH!!

riding the barrel train

playing in the tires

"YE-HAW! YE-HAW!"

Happy Fall Everybody!

(allrighty, I know I owe you all about a hundred posts. well, here are at least a few after the fact, but still heartfelt, posts about out recent happenings. thanks for hanging in there with me.)

Back in september…….

Auntie Debs came to visit!!! We had a blast with our favorite hockey writer, with lots of great talks, trips to the Zoo and park, and of course a great Rockies game! (where mom was not present and Auntie Debs did like all good Aunts do, and spoiled Geneva rotten with lots of ice cream! She’s really going for that “favorite Aunt” title.)

So we had yet to take professional pictures since Geneva was born until last month. My sweet mother-in-law had offered to take Geneva to get them done, and we did so on her most recent visit. They turned out SO cute - hopefully this will make us get our act together and get them done on a more regular basis. (oh, and for all the grandparents, great-grandparents, surrogate grandparents, aunts and uncles. etc. out there - your hard copies are coming in the mail soon!)

Geneva told me at lunch today “Mom, may I please have butter? My polenta needs seasoning.” hahahaha. LOVE her!

I needed this truth from the Word today.

“The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:16-17 ESV

Most of you (whoever you are out there reading this) know that I’ve been working through a program called Biblical Foundations of Freedom for about the last year.  The focus of this has been rooting out all the seemingly “respectable” sins in my life (bitterness, fear, unforgiveness, etc.), and the areas I’ve given Satan footholds in my life and, consequently, in my body. It focuses on repentance, binding the demonic, taking back ground, and renewing yourself in the Word. Recently I found myself so burdened and weighed down by the process, I realized I had begun to miss the grace in it, and I was reminded that restored relationship and fullness of Christ in me was the goal, not my physical healing. So today I was grateful for this reminder from the Lord, that sure, I have all power through Christ over the demonic forces in my life, but neither my joy nor my focus should revolve around that. My heart and hope should rejoice and center around my position in Christ, who is my Savior and my God.

Here’s also the poem about these vereses that John Piper posted on his Desiring God Blog today.  Blessings!