For our Advent activity on Wednesday Dec 5th,
we visit Bethlehem!

The Antioch Baptist church in Conway does this really cool reenactment. Every year for 3 days they have mock up of what the city of Bethlehem would have looked like during the time of Jesus' birth, in a field out by their church.

First they have you register. We got our number for the group we would be touring the city with and then head into their auditorium to listened to some fabulous live worship and Christmas music until our group was called.

When our group was called, we all wondered through their church halls until we came to the side exit that lead outside to the city they'd built.

{sorry for the cell phone pics...can you believe I forgot my CAMERA for such a cool outing?!?}

The Prophet Isaiah started us out with the telling of the coming of Immanuel.

Our kids were mesmerized!

When they guided us into Bethlehem they gave everyone shekels to spend as we tour the ~2o fun vendors they had in town.

There was story time.

Izzie was of course Pumped about the livestock they had roaming the streets.

We had the kid's names written in Greek.

The kids bought bells and toys from different shops.

We listened to the Prophet reading from the book of Isaiah concerning the coming of the Messiah. Straight up reading the Hebrew text off a scroll no less!

We make candles!

The poor boy didn't feel good most of tonight.

We visited the fish market. Izzie toted this dead fish around showing it to everyone as if it were a hamster or something.

Passed up the apothecary but stopped by the fabric vendor for some headbands, bandanas, necklaces, and "hats" all made from strips of fabric and then off to let Maggie help make bricks. This guy said he'd put in a good word for her with Caesar. Lol

We tasted goodies and even picked up a recipe.

Maggie made these women tell her the name of every single herb/spice on the table.

The Bethlehem Revisited was awesome. I'm thinking this definitely needs to be an annual family trip!

The grand finale.

Maggie was so exited to go though the Inn, hear the announcement a birth and then heading out to the stable to see baby JESUS!

Is there something cool that people do in your town?
What kind of family tradition do you have?

Rothacher Advent 2012 Adventures

Friday December 7th

Life as usual. Sorta. I spent then entire day trying to play catch up, cleaning, making fix-quick meals, and packing...again. My sweet in-laws showed up to have a sleepover with my babes while I raced off to collide with Matt in Little Rock's when he got out of prison. We met at Gauchos for a Super Summer leadership team Christmas party. Can you say "Meat Fest"!?!?! It was fun to hang with adults but I still miss my hubs though! When I only have 3 hours a day with him, I'm not good at sharing him for 2 hours of {well needed} conversation with friends over a yummy dinner and don't like spending 30 minutes of it in the separate cars, 30 minutes settling into a hotel room before the poor dude passes out just in time to get ~6 hours of sleep trying to catch up on all the 4 hour nights. I don't know how shift-worker wives do it. I'm ready for this season to be over.

Saturday December 8th

Today. Today I thought I'd sleep in. Since I was in fact in a hotel room All By Myself after Matt left for work ~4:15. No kids coughing. No kids needing to be fed. Cable! {we don't have TV}. WiFi with all-inclusive silence. No need for a shower because I prepared and brought a Hat! ;o)

How long did I sleep in you ask? 5am.

Ridiculous! The earliest I normally get up with the kids is 6:30-7am. I couldn't go back to sleep. After an hour I got up. Turned on the TV just because it was there- disappointed by HGTV. That's usually my go-to when I have cable. Then I broke out my laptop and thought I'd get all kinds of writing done. False. After a couple hours of fart'n around I made myself slightly presentable and with high hopes, decided to go shopping for jeans! I tried this last weekend and went home with meager self-esteem & slightly depressed.

Not that I'm counting or anything, but that's 30 pair of jeans {I didn't post the official-mom-high-wasted pair} that didn't fit. THIS is why women hate their bodies. Evil clothing manufactures don't make clothes for everyone. If they fit in the thighs they gaped huge above the butt. If they fit around the waist they made my butt look bigger than normal. If the butt decor was okay then they were a foot and 1/2 too long. If they were the right length they squashed my butt and thighs. Anybody relate?

I caved after over 2 hours and bought a pair that weren't awful. Did I mention I haven't bought jeans since I was pregnant with Izzie 3 years ago? Yeah...and my size shot up as well. Booooo I've been wearing the jeans around this afternoon...within every 5 minutes I have to pull them up at least 3 times. They are defiantly going back!

The kids and I have been playing Christmas movies; I introduced them to the Original Miracle on 34th Street today! We also did our Storybook Bible Advent reading but didn't feel very purposeful about our Advent the past few days. Oh well. We're enjoying one another and learning more everyday!

So, how was your weekend?

Rothacher Advent 2012 Adventures

Wednesday December 5th

December 5th was spent on the run. Matt was off {WOO HOO!} and we had tons of things we need to accomplish. We were so excited to take the kids to their first play! Maggie's preschool HIPPY group allowed us to attend the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas play for FREE! It was so cute and our kids did fabulous. Actually way better than I anticipated. I'd picked our seating based on their nearness to the side exit door on the end of the row as to not tackle anyone on my way jetting toward the door to escape with one of my foreseen screamers. Never happened! The place was packed with preschoolers all the way through {I think} 2nd graders on field trips. I felt so bad for the 3 performers as they trudged through the consistent chatter in the auditorium {score for the new vocabulary word for Ms Mags}. I was way distracted by the low murmur of moving and giggling kids, but not my 3. They were mesmerized! Even J. He'll only be 2 in January. Iz the biz stat fairly still and was so excited to watch as those actors captivated her for an hour! I took the girls up to the stage to meet the performers after the show and you would have thought they were meeting Bob & Larry from Veggie Tales- PUMPED! Speechless!

After that fun we headed to Vilonia for Matt's dentist appointment. Nothing like packing your couple days off with pure fun...

I sat at my in laws while the kids napped & Matt got down in the mouth. As soon as he was done there we realized Jamin had fever and ran to grab some meds on the way to our apportionment with a builder.That poor baby was so crabby. The fever lasted several hours and then was gone. This seems to happen a lot in our house. Anybody know why??

Anyways, don't get too excited about the meeting with the contractor. He was a friend of a friend and we were just checking out all our options for if and when we ever get to Vtown... Oh, and by they way. We got an offer!!! It was slightly less than desirable but the couple has been super sweet each time they've come to view the house and even in presenting their offer. During our drive up to the dentist, we'd called and counter offered. It's Saturday...we still haven't heard back from them. We not desperate yet, God knows exactly who is going to live in our home next. With His grace and perfect timing we will sell this monster for the perfect price.

Okay, so after the meeting we ventured out to grab some of our fav {"chick-a-lay"} on our way to Bethlehem! Yep!!! This being the original reason we headed all the way up to Vilonia, we were so excited to see what the cool Antioch Baptist Church had in store for us. I was awesome! This definitely has the potential to become an annual Advent activity for our family! Downer- didn't have time to run back to the house for my camera- TEAR! I'll share some of the pics from our phones though. Here is how the tour of Bethlehem worked.

Again, my kids surpassed all expectations I had of them. They began to get a bit crabby and of course were having a bit of trouble making good choices toward the end. When we got to the van and realized it was 9L30pm, I was SUPER impressed with how well they'd done an hour & 1/2 passed bed time!

While in Rome...since we were already in town we followed our friends across Conway to look at Christmas lights. Now these were more than Christmas light! The 1st street we looked at had multiple houses covered in lights. The next street is known as the Conway "Dancing Lights"!!! These crazy awesome neighbors have their houses decked out AND dancing. If you tune your radio to the station they have announced on the sign as you enter their street you can hear the music they are all dancing to. I was so cool. J was snoring in the backseat and the girls were about there but wanted to see the lights so we did something they've never done before...while we were parked in the cul de sac we let them get out of their car seats and sit in our laps up front. They hung their heads out the windows and chatted about all the lights, their favorites, and how they did that. Snuggles! As the parade of cars in front of us moved forward or left the street we inched forward. Kids still in laps... Izzie's face as she got to hold the steering wheel while Matt drove a few feet forward was priceless!!! Soon we switched laps and Mags got to 'drive' forward the next time. After re-buckling, we went a few blocks of to were pure crazy lives. Matt captured this:

there are no words.

Thursday December 6th

We slept in. As much as parents of littles can. Because we were staying at my in-laws new home, the kids had the privilege of having toys in their bedroom. They anticipate waking up so they can go at'm!

I headed out to do some more shopping for our Christmas families. I got to hang out with my sweet friend Brandi while I dug through her deals! While I did that Matt and the kids did lots of playing, ate lunch, and took naps. When I got home it was time to leave town and hit up SAMs club for our monthly attack. This weekend proved to be full of fun and too much eating out.

How's your advent season going with the fam?