Christmas!!

Christmas Eve was very low key, or at least we attempted to be. We just had a normal dinner and then allowed the kids to open one present, which was new Christmas jammies.

The part that made it not so low-key is that C was in one of her "moods" (which really happen way too often) and she was not interested in joining us for dinner. She ended up spitting her dinner in my face which got her sent to her room and me in tears. Fun! So, patient K got to open his present by himself and then (much) later C got to open hers. So the above picture is taken much later. 

Christmas morning we woke up to SNOW!!! We hadn't had much snow yet and I was really "dreaming of a white Christmas" and I got it!

They had seen most of their presents under the tree already, but the two unwrapped ones under the blankets were new.

Lego storage (for the plethora of Lego's he was about to get) from Grandma & Grandpa H.

And a kitchen from Aunt Jess!

There was a definite theme to the kids presents. C got a lot of princess stuff.

 K got a lot of Lego's.

This was the aftermath.

Thanks Aunt Jess for the skates!

The kitchen, with the play phone, were quite a hit too. Thanks Aunt Jess!

The kids stayed in their jammies all day and we just played with all of the new stuff we got. Thank you everybody for spoiling us rotten!! My amazing husband cooked his first turkey, and we enjoyed a much happier Christmas dinner with our little family.

The Rest of the Advent Days

I was a total slacker when it came to the advent activities this year. Not only did I slack on taking pictures of everything we did, I also did not get an activity assigned to each day. Nevertheless, here are a few things that we did do, in no particular order.

Make, decorate and deliver Christmas cookies.

Christmas decorations out of Legos. 

("We" are way into Legos right now.)

Set up and decorate the Christmas tree.

Read the Christmas story from the Bible as well as The Night Before Christmas.

Make paper snowflakes.

Attend K's Christmas party at school.

K is seriously awesome at learning all of the words!

I think one of the things that the kids had the most fun with was our Elf, Clever. He was a sneaky elf who hid in a different spot every night and the kids really enjoyed finding him in the morning to see what he had been up to the previous night. Here are the few that I actually had pictures of:

Merry Christmas 2012

Who Needs Music?

December! (Advent days 1-3)

It's December! How did that happen?!?! Since we told the kids about the new baby we have been saying that the baby won't come until after Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas and Cady's birthday ... now Christmas is almost upon us and before you know it baby will be here!

We have been having fun lately despite the pictures to prove it. One fun thing we have started is our December advent calendar. I made a new one this year, thanks to Pinterest, and I think it turned out pretty cute.

The first day we started another Christmas tradition. Elf on the Shelf. Aunt Jess got the book for us last year and we brought him into our family this year. The kids named him Clever the Sneaky Christmas Elf, and they have fun finding him in different spots around the house every morning.

The second day we set up and decorated our Christmas tree.

This picture makes me laugh:

K got this Santa outfit when he was 18 months old. Last year he kinda fit in it, and this year he was so excited to find it in the Christmas box he immediately put it on and declared "It still fits!"

I love C's eyes in this picture. It is completely natural, no retouching whatsoever.

Today we made a countdown chain with our three upcoming exciting activities. First our countdown to Christmas, then C's birthday and then when baby arrives. Fun times ahead of us!

Victorian Streetwalk

We had the chance to attend the annual Saratoga Victorian Streetwalk. It is such a neat experience to live in a town that has such a great community feel, and does so many community things.

We knew the most important thing this year was to visit the free face painter, so right when we got there we got in line. Seriously, this guy is amazing. (I only had my cell phone with me, and these are the only pics I took.)

 

There were street performers, ballet dancers in the shop windows, food vendors and more and more and more! We also, got free candy, cookies, hot chocolate, toys, balloons and more! K said over and over, "I can't believe we are getting all of this good stuff!!"

 

Field Trips

One of the very fun parts of preschool is the monthly field trips, and especially because CC and I get to go with. In September the kids went to a nature preserve and took a nice hike to look for opposites. Example: high and low, soft and hard, wet and dry. I don't have any pictures of that because it was our first field trip and I didn't know what to expect.

In October we went to my favorite local pumpkin patch. It's got so many things to do. We seriously did not have time to try everything.

They always give you fresh apple cider and apple cider doughnuts.

The kids love the bouncy pillow, and I love the view from this farm.

 All of the teachers are SO great with CC, and help her to participate in everything.

 We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and each kid got to pick a perfect sized pumpkin.

Last week we had our first November field trip and we went to a horse ranch. The kids actually got to ride a horse. It was K's first time, but C was an 'old pro.'

He loved every minute of it and said that he was a real cowboy now.

C and Ms. Brandie. She couldn't wait to get up on that horse!

I just about fell over when these two little girls immediately ran up to K and said in unison "Hi, K!" They were kid-flirting with him a lot of the time, and 1/2 of the time K was trying to hide from them and the other 1/2 he was just oblivious to their "advances." It totally cracked me up.

We went through the stables and each kid got to give 3 big carrots to the horses.

K is seriously loving preschool! He loves his teachers and friends and all of the daily activities they do. When he had a dentist appointment a few weeks ago I gave him the choice to stay home from school and he didn't want anything to do with that, he was going to school no matter what. Besides all of the driving around, I love the preschool too. It is absolutely getting K ready for Kindergarten next year and C is also being exposed to school in a good way. I don't think she will have any problem going when she is 4.

Our Family

I love that K has started including the baby in his family pictures. SO CUTE!!