December Happenings

We have had a great month of December enjoying the Christmas season.  Starting December 1, we began our advent calendar.  Each day, we opened up a small box that had an activity for the day, and an ornament to go with a short devotional/thought we would have in the evening related to Christ and the Christmas season.  I didn’t take too many pictures, but some of our favorites were making and decorating sugar cookies, walking down Peacock Lane, making caramels, watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” making Christmas crafts, and watching the Parade of Ships followed by eating dinner at Spaghetti Factory.  A few others were:

Decorating gingerbread houses:

         

Sleepover by the Christmas tree (while also watching A Charlie Brown Christmas):

And visiting Santa at the ward Christmas party:

James was excited to see Santa, but he did not want to get anywhere near his lap.  Landon and Davis hopped right up to talk to him though! 

We’ve also had some nice relaxing time playing some board games, playing with trains, and drinking hot chocolate.

   

The boys have also had fun making Christmas-themed googly-eye pom-pom people (not sure what else to call these).  They have been making them for a few months now, but one night, I found a group of them on top of the bookcase, with even some lined up on a skateboard!

 

It has been a great month enjoying the Christmas season.  I always love this time of year, and this has been one I have felt the most prepared for and have been able to really enjoy.  Most of all, it has been just fun hanging out with these crazies and seeing them enjoy the wonders of the Christmas season.

 

Merry Christmas!

(I don’t really love this family picture, but it was the best I could get with the self-timer before we rushed off to church this morning!)

 

Trimming the Tree

We had a busy but fun Saturday decorating our tree and our house for the Christmas season.  Shane hung up our lights outside, and then we put up the tree, the nativities, and our other decorations.  While the boys waited for Shane to finish the lights outside, they decorated some little tree branches that are now proudly displayed in their rooms.  Once we started the real tree decorating, James was especially good at cramming five or six ornaments on one branch.  I rearranged a little bit when they weren’t looking, but I knew from past experience that it wasn’t worth spending much time on getting everything spaced right because the boys would be re-decorating it all season long!

       

ABC’s and Teasing

I forgot that I took this video.  This isn’t the only time I have witnessed this little exchange between James and Davis.  I thought I’d post it just in case you wanted a little glimpse into my daily life :)  Let me know if you find this as entertaining as Shane and I did.

James reacting pretty strongly to Davis’s incorrect singing of the ABC song.

Thanksgiving

This year, we went to Ashland for Thanksgiving.  It had been a few years since we had been there, so it was fun to go and visit this year.  None of my siblings were able to make it this year, so we had my parents all to ourselves, so we could be fully spoiled by them. :)  We drove down Tuesday evening and came home Sunday afternoon.  Some of the fun things we did included going on a walk in Lithia Park, watching some fun Christmas specials, doing Thanksgiving crafts, the kids going to Science Works, Shane and I going to lunch and to the temple, going to the Christmas parade downtown Ashland and seeing the lights turn on, shopping till we dropped, going up in the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree, and of course, eating a DELICIOUS thanksgiving meal!

 

The boys were in charge of toasting the bread and tearing it up for the stuffing.  They were good workers, even though they got a little distracted half way through!

 

Above, Landon and Grandpa doing a turkey puzzle.  Below, playing Thanksgiving Bingo with Grandma.

 

The Thanksgiving table:

 

Our good friends Clause and Lesley came over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Lesley made these amazing hats for the boys!  She left a few details for them to add to personalize them, and the wore them during the dinner.  So cute!

More turkey puzzle, this time with Lesley’s help, and James just up from his nap:

   

In the evening, after Thanksgiving dinner, Landon and Davis sat here forever with my phone.  I realized later they were taking pictures of Grandma’s thankful tree on my camera.  They were pretty funny sitting there.

Here we are all bundled up Friday, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the Christmas parade:

 

Santa on the balcony just as he turned on the Christmas lights:

And finally, here are a few pictures of us cutting down our Christmas tree.  My parents found on fairly quick, but Shane and I were a little bit too picky and took way too long to decide!  We should have just taken one of the few great ones we found at the very first!  We did eventually find one, and the boys had fun playing in the little bits of snow we could find here and there along the way.

     

And finally, this wasn’t in Ashland, but here is a picture of our thankful door this year, organized alphabetically.  :)

   

Davis at Preschool {November 14 & 19}

Davis had two fun activities in November at his preschool.  The first was a field trip to the fire station.  It was a little disappointing that ten minutes before we arrived, the trucks were called out for a major call and didn’t make it back during the time we were there.  However, the kids still had a great time checking out all of the equipment, and seeing where the firemen eat and sleep.

Checking out the fire pole, and touching the fireman’s suit.

 

Plugging his ears when the fire suit would beep because the fireman wasn’t moving around, and knocking on the glass of the mask.

 

Davis with his class, his teachers, Mrs. Abeyta, and the fireman.

Davis sporting his nice near fireman’s hat, and a picture with his good friend Isaac.

 

The next week, Davis’s preschool had a “feast day” to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Every child brought a feast item to share (grapes, popcorn, crackers, juice, apples, etc.), and they all sat down with all the classes and ate their feast together. 

Davis waiting for the feast to start, and wearing his new leaf hat.

 

Let the feast begin!  And a picture of me and James with Davis.