Christmas Countdown

I don't know why these two random pictures went to the top of the post but I can't figure out how to move them.

Little E loves eating real food. Isn't he cute?

I'm sorry it has been so long. We have been pretty busy around here. We had a great Thanksgiving in Saint Louis but the pictures are temporarily lost because I didn't back them up and my other computer died. I may go back and do a post on that later, but for now I'll skip to Christmas. I wanted to do something fun and meaningful to countdown to Christmas so I came up with 24 fun family activities and wrote them on cards (most of them pretty short, but I also threw in regular Christmas traditions with it). The kids pick the card each morning that tells us what we will do that evening and we do that along with reading scriptures about the birth and life of Christ. Here are some pictures and quick updates on everyone.

We've each had a turn picking a book to read and this was Daniel's- The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher

Little E doesn't do many of the activities so I'm just throwing pictures in of his first Christmas :)

Making Christmas cards- We never actually got to the card part. The kids wanted to make wreaths to put in the cards so they got their cousins done then left to deliver them because Daniel needed to pick something up from their house and we never made it back to finishing the cards.

Downtown trip- horse and buggy ride

Downtown trip- eating a snack

Downtown trip- Little E's first carousel

Mr A- He has started taking wrestling and he LOVES it! Daniel goes with him and helps out working with the kids and it has been great for both of them.

We go to our friends house for preschool once a week. She and I take turns teaching and its just our kids. Its been fun...her daughter is 4 but is already learning to read so they are both doing a more Kindergarten type curriculum. Its been good for him, he's learning a lot. We do "mommy school" together but its fun to have one day to be with friends.

He has also been going to speech once a week but his teacher told me he's about done. He has worked hard at focusing on his sounds and is a lot better now at the C, G, L, and Th sounds.

He has been so cute about Christmas this year. He loves giving, so he has picked out toys of his and "wrapped" them and put them under the tree for friends and family. I'm not sure how many will actually be handed out and how many people will actually appreciate the thought that he puts into these used gifts, but I love him for doing it.

He has a CD of songs he asked Daniel to burn for him that he likes to listen to. It consists of Aerosmith "Dream On", Beach Boys "Surfin USA" and REM "I am Superman". How funny.

Doesn't he look like his big brother as a baby?

Miss H's book pick. She also picked I Love to See the Temple but since that isn't a Christmas book we let her pick two :)

Mr A's letter to Santa. He wanted to go put it in the mailbox himself but he can't reach so he brought a stool :). It was in the evening and I watched him from the window marching off to the mailbox with the stool, in the dark, by himself to send his letter- it was very cute.

Little E- As I mention down below, he loves climbing. He doesn't crawl yet but he scooches everywhere and if there is anything he can get up and over he will.

We've started giving him some real food which he loves. He's not super crazy about most baby food but toast, rolls, noodles, and cheerios are his favorites. And he still loves to nurse.

He is such a happy good baby. I love his cute little personality and listening to him babble and play and giggle is a lot of fun.

This kid loves to climb already!

Mr A's book pick

Miss H- She is busy trying to potty train herself. So far I haven't mentioned it or done anything other than take her diaper off when she says she has to go and then celebrate and give her a treat when she's done (so when I do actually potty train her if she doesn't succeed in doing it herself, she will think positively about it). She has been going a lot the last few days but we'll see what happens.

For her we do music time with friends once a week. Its actually for all of the kids but mostly geared towards her age. It has been fun. We usually do it at our house and we just sing fun songs, sometimes read a book, eat a snack, and play.

The last few days she has been more clingy than usual and I am loving it. She has always been great at playing by herself and usually isn't overly lovey so I'm enjoying all of the extra hugs and cuddles.

Miss H has also been cute about Christmas. She talks about what she wants for "her birthday" (which means Christmas). She talks about how Christmas is Jesus' birthday and she talks about how santa says ho, ho, ho. She did not like sitting on santas lap though.

She is still very helpful and cute and protective with her baby brother. She LOVES babies. Real ones and not real ones.

We wanted to do service but we had a hard time coming up with something the kids could do that would be meaningful. At the last minute we came up with the helping elves idea. We started at home and each of them secretly cleaned the other person's room and left a treat to show that an elf did it.  Miss H still talks about how an elf cleaned her room and left her a treat.  Mr A wanted to wear green so he would look more like an elf :). We then headed off to an undisclosed location to do a little more secret elf work. It was a fun day and it is something I want to expand on and do every year.

Some other things we've done that I didn't get pictures of is deliver toys to a toy drive, drive around to look at Christmas lights, go to jump planet, and watch home videos together. And just in case you're dying of curiosity, my book pick was The Berenstein Bears Think of Those in Need. Coming up we have things like watching a Christmas movie, delivering cookies to neighbors, play a board game, go on a treasure hunt, have a pillow fight, bundle up and take a walk, and act out the nativity. It's been a fun month and it helps the kids not be too antsy for Christmas because they understand that "Christmas Time" is so much fun and once Christmas is here Christmas Time is over.

Daniel has been super busy with work and his calling at church working with the youth but we are so grateful for him. He always spends all of him time at home with me and the kids and helping out as much as he can.  Miss H will tell you whenever anything breaks that daddy can fix it and she is always right :).

If you spend a day with me you'll see that life with three young and active kids at home can be crazy. The house is usually messy and there are often behaviors that need to be worked on but I can't complain.