Easter !!

For our Easter celebration with our family, we will be doing a 5-day Easter Unit Study as part of homeschooling this week.  The unit study is from "The Teaching Home" Newsletter I receive weekly.  You can find the full study online at www.theteachinghome.com.  We will be using the main themes of the study to share with the children about the celebration of the Lord's resurrection.

Our 5-Day Easter Unit Study 

Activities for Each Day
Day 1:  Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem 
Day 2:  Celebration of the Passover (Last Supper) and the Garden of Gethsemane 
Day 3:  The Hearings and Trial 
Day 4:  The Crucifixion 
Day 5:  The Resurrection and Ascension

May we use this precious time to - 

•  Teach our children the heart of the gospel so that they will thoroughly and accurately understand this most important doctrine.

•  Proclaim to the world the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ — and salvation through faith in Him.

•  Remember, reflect on, and appreciate what the Lord has done for us — then thank and praise Him!

The Good News of the Holidays!!

(From the Teaching Home Newsletter)

The spiritual significance of Christmas and Easter is the very essence of the Gospel – the Good News of God's love and gift of eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christmas: The Incarnation of Jesus Christ
Jesus is God's gift of love, celebrated at Christmas. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
Easter: The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
The gospel includes four historical facts (celebrated at Good Friday and Easter) concerning the God-man Christ Jesus, the object of saving faith. "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel, . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time" (I Corinthians 15:1-6).
1. He died for our sins.
The death of Jesus Christ in our place is God's only provision for man's sin. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9).
2. He was buried.
The burial testified that His body was really dead. "And Joseph took the body . . . and laid it in his own new tomb . . . and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb" (Matthew 27:59-60).
3. He rose again on the third day.
"He (Jesus Christ) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Romans 4:25).
4. He was seen by many witnesses.
The record that Jesus was seen by many assures us that the resurrection was genuine. "To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs" (Acts 1:3). "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). 

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you" (I Peter 1:3-4).

We will also be learning this song this week!  

Christ, the Lord, Is Risen Today by Charles Wesley, 1739

Christ, the Lord,     is risen today, Alleluia!

Sons of men           and angels say, Alleluia!

Raise your joys      and triumphs high, Alleluia!

Sing, ye heavens,     and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Love's redeeming work     is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight,     the battle won, Alleluia!
Lo! the Sun's     eclipse is over, Alleluia!
Lo! He sets     in blood no more, Alleluia!
Vain the stone,     the watch, the seal, Alleluia!
Christ hath burst     the gates of hell, Alleluia!
Death in vain     forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened     paradise, Alleluia!
Lives again     our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death,     is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died     our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory,     O grave? Alleluia!
Soar we now where     Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our     exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him,     like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross,     the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Praise God for the Gift of His Son, Jesus Christ!

In Christ,

Coree

The unit study material and information are by Cindy Short and Sue Welch,  

"Copyright 2010 by www.TeachingHome.com. Reprinted by permission."

Children's Choir at the Gallo Center

The kids were able to perform their Spring concert at the Gallo Center last night.  We had such a great time!  All of the kids involved did wonderfully, and our honor choir always amazes me.  They are 3-8th graders and are all so talented.  It does help to have a wonderful choir director, Mr. Thompson!  Below is a link to the Modesto Bee article on our group - it also shows a video, you have to check it out to see what an amazing job our Honor Choir does!  It includes my favorite song of the evening, and I didn't get a chance to tape it, I was so happy to see it online!!

Hickman Charter School performance at the Gallo Center

Modesto Bee - About 100 homeschool students from Hickman Charter School, seen during rehearsal, performed on the Foster Family Theatre stage at the Gallo Center for the Arts Tuesday evening. The honor choir performed in addition to the jazz band. An art show was also featured in the lobby of the Gallo Center for the Arts, featuring student works. Hickman Charter School was started in 1994 and wanted to celebrate their continuing commitment to arts education with the performance for family, faculty, and friends. Mar. 23, 2010. (Brian Ramsay/bramsay@modbee.com)

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

•   Hickman Charter School Foster Theatre Concert

If you haven't noticed, I havn't posted much lately... so sorry. I always have such good intentions, but... I have a hard time posting without including a few pictures here and there. And my "regular" computer decided to not work on me after we got home from a Disneyland trip the first week of March.  I have such cute photos of the trip too!  I love my computer, I have it all set up with just the right programs to efficiently post pictures, make movies, all my homeschool files, and other numerous files, etc...  But at the moment, fixing it has not been on top of my to do list, and I have my husbands lovely laptop to check emails at least!  So one of these days - after housework, laundry, school work, kiddos... I will get a chance to haul my computer and get the little thingy fixed - I did try to fix it myself, to no avail.  It will just come down to necessity and priority, when I absolutely need a file for church or something then it will get fixed!  Then I can post all of our lovely pictures of the concert and of the kiddos singing as well.

Well, lastly, I have to post this!  My sister found us a car, or should I say transport vehicle!  Check it out below.  Thanks Angela!  And thanks KC for the great graphics.  (This actually would work out better than any SUV, hee hee).  Would I need a different license for this??   Do they actually sell these to the public?  I guess if you ever see me driving one, you will find out!
God Bless!
~ Coree

Adoption

Redeeming Silent Souls - Conference Trailer from Joseph Horsefjord on Vimeo.


Close friends of ours are in the beginning stages of adoption... which is such a blessing for them as well as the children they will be giving their love and home to.  I ran across this video Elyse Fitzpatrick had posted and wanted to share because we tend to forget about the children that are out there who are not only in need of families, but of the love of Christ displayed in the lives of those around them.  May God put it on our hearts to touch the lives of others - whether by adoption or the simple act of sharing the Word of God.

(From what I can find, this is a trailer for a film coming out on adoption, the link referenced does not work at the moment, so it must not be up yet.  Elyse mentioned that two couples she knows are in the upcoming film, I will be keeping a watch out for it!).

In Christ,
Coree

Psalm 23

A Mighty Love - An Animation from Joseph Horsefjord on Vimeo.


I love Psalm 23 - God's love is a Mighty Love!

Crock Pot Blog

I have been making yummy soups all week.  I love a nice warm bowl of soup on a cold day!  Plus they are so easy to make.  I love recipe websites and here's one I want to share:
 
The Crock Pot Blog
http://www.thecrockpotblog.com/bow-tie-chuck-wagon-soup/

They always tend to have great tasting ideas and recipes just for the crock pot.  I love being able to start dinner early in the morning, especially on those busy days!  The recipe listed for today looks especially good, plus it consists of items I usually stock my pantry and freezer with, which is a double bonus.

Now an update on the home front:
We are busy getting back into the swing of homeschooling.  It takes about a week or so after a big break for the kiddos to get used to the old schedule and to stay on task, we're finally there.  In my mind I like to just keep on having them work, but the reality... it's nice to give them some time off and have fort building and fun adventure days.
We have also been enjoying these rainy days.  We sat on the front porch yesterday, drank some hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows, and watched the thunder and lightning.  What a beautiful sight!  We talked about the awesome power of God and how he is in control of all things.  It was a great visual to show them His power and might!  What a blessing!  Our God is an awesome God!

Now for a picture of the day:
Here are my little ones who raided the dress up box - Robert is the baby bear from the three bears - we have the whole set thanks to some friends at church, and Geneve is my little mouse.  They have all had a lot of fun putting on plays that older sister Bella likes to put together.  They are such a joy to be with!  Thank you Lord for these little blessings!

God Bless,
Coree

Maximum Capacity

As most of you know, we are expecting our 6th child this May.  We are overjoyed and are excited to see this new creation God has blessed us with!
We will now be a family of 8 and have come across a few issues in the space department.   The first, with our car, it seats 7.... ouch.  So I am trying to come up with some options.  One option is a company that installs additional seats into your car, and the seats match your interior too.  Plus they are local, which is nice, they told me to come for a visit!  This is a great option and we are thinking of doing this anyway, but the problem is - where would I then put groceries, and adding one or two seats still does not allow me to takes guests or additional family members and such.  (And yes, most of the time, we all trek down to the grocery store, we get a lot of looks, probably since they are all still pretty little).
For my next options I have photos!  So I want some feedback.
First is a Sprinter van.

At first blush, this does seem a little large, but realistically it would work very well.  It can seat from 9 up to 15 depending on how you format the seating.  I went on my birthday to test drive one and they laughed at me and called me the "Crazy Lady."  They were nice, but I have resolved that yes, I am probably a little crazy, but I don't mind.  Bill still chuckles when we think of our initial car dealership experience.  We had hoped there would be one in stock to check out, since it was listed online, and when we got to the dealership, nada.  I tried to let the gentleman know that he had one parked out back, needless to say, it was their shuttle van.  I convinced him to let me check it out anyway, that's when I got the "crazy lady" title.  When Bill got to check out the real thing, he asked me..."You won't drive a mini van, but you'll drive this?"  Yes, I admit, I am crazy. And I don't just want the small one, I want the big extended one, groceries and guests, remember?  So in order to decide, at least on this particular option, I need to test drive one to see if this is something I can even handle!!

Now for option two, extending an Excursion.

Like I mentioned before, I'm not much of a mini van fan, so the thought of still being able to drive an SUV is a good option for me.  When I first saw this, I thought, maybe no one would notice the extra door.  And for some strange reason, I still think of myself as young and hip, thus the reason for this option.  We actually found a reasonable way to do this ourselves - well at least we know the right people who can do this for us.  This will seat around 11 and still have the full space in the back for strollers and stuff I tend to haul around, in addition room for those groceries.
Additional considerations - since I think I am still young and hip - at heart at least, I have not listed the traditional 15 passenger van.  Yes it's functional, but I am going to try out these options first.  And both of these options are reasonably priced as well, since we have the resources of converting these ourselves.
So, what to do?  Any additional ideas?  Am I really crazy?

The next space issue is with the house, it's getting a little tight.  But so far, it's very doable, but if we have more, (I'm not saying we will and I'm not saying we won't), we may need to look into more options!!   I won't worry about that one until we get there.
God Bless,
Coree

Snow Time

We started a new tradition this year and went to the snow for Christmas. We had a ton of fun! We headed up to a cabin on Christmas Eve morning and stayed for three days. There was the perfect amount of snow outside the cabin for the kiddos to play and sled in the snow.  When they were tired, we'd drink hot chocolate and get warmed up for the next round.  Bill built them a sledding area behind the cabin - complete with a little hill to stop them at the end.  They thought it was great.  And of course we had "Pie in the Sky" Pizza for dinner on Christmas Eve!  We read the Christmas story, acted out the scenes with Jesus at the manger and talked to the kiddos about the true meaning of Christmas - Jesus Christ!

On Christmas morning we had breakfast and opened some presents.    We then went out to do some sledding on some bigger hills.  It was such a beautiful day!  We didn't need our jackets at times. 

Heading up to the mountans was a spur of the moment idea which Bill thought of, and we liked it so much we are thinking of doing it again next year!  What great memories we made!  What a blessing!  I praise God for all that He gives us and the joy we have as a family!!

Bella and Will building a snowman on the lower deck.

Sledding on Christmas day!

Winston liked sitting with me watching the action

Going down the hill!

Win Checking out the scene

The kiddos went up and down the hill, hauling their own sleds, they loved it.

Robbie in his Lightning McQueen snowsuit

Bella and dad

Will, either resting or waiting for his dad to fling him down the hill as fast as he could!

At the cabin, Winston is the blur who ran out of the picture.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

In just a few days it will be 2010! Where or where does the time go? I taught the kids to say, "See you next year" to our friends and family that we will see after the 1st. They didn't get it at first, but when mom explained, that's all they want to tell people now. These kiddos crack me up!

Well, as you can see, I have been very behind in posting... my vision was to get caught up by posting three months worth of activities in order, with their individual post. The reality? I will probably not get it done without putting it off longer and thus not posting a thing. So, I am going to just jump in with some current pictures.

First is our Christmas pictures. We headed out the Stanislaus State after Thanksgiving and shot some photos for our Christmas card. Reed Douglas took our pictures for us and did such a great job. He had a lot of patience for 5 wiggly kids on a windy day! Overall, we ended up having a fun time, the kids especially, who got to climb and jump on rocks to get to places to take photos.

My favorite pictures of Winston




Robbie

Will

A family shot... but Winston is contemplating something...


His sister's hair looked so tempting to pull. But Bella is a trooper, she kept smiling.

Jumping rocks


Bella


Winston





I loved this picture in the leaves, but it didn't quite make the smile cut.




I also loved our candid shots


Happy New Year Everyone!
May God Bless you and keep you,
The York's

Bella's Birthday!

Today is Bella's 8th Birthday! Wow, how time flies. I can see her growing into a young lady before my eyes. It seems like yesterday, she was my first little baby who I got to dress up, take numerous pictures of, and of course learn from! I am posting some pictures of her throughout the years and am amazed at how many photos I have, I took pics probably every week, maybe daily at times. They are titled, Bella, this and Bella that... I had to include some of her first year pictures, they are too cute! I Praise God for this sweet girl, I am very thankful for her and enjoy her immensely.

1 Day old and already decked out in pink!

She was a teeny tiny little thing!

With Nana, more pink!

Playing with some dolls

Working with her Grandpa

Working with her dad

She worked at the office a lot!

Look at that room! Number 5 is lucky to have a space in the corner right now!

Her first photo shoot, already posing!

What a cutie!

Photos with her Cousins Ava and Boston

I love this photo, she looks like a little elf

With her Papa and cousin Ava

Bella's first birthday

One year old and no hair! First Birthday photos


Skipping ahead a few years!! These could go on and on!

Bella's 6th Birthday

7th Birthday


This past year...
Bella and Geneve

Flower girls! She is getting so big!!!