Christmas Celebrating!

This year we decided to stay at home for Christmas. Is was amazing seeing the girls faces as they decorated the tree and shared in new family traditions. On Christmas morning, Taylor was the first to wake up. She ran to our room and exclaimed that there were more presents and that we needed to come see really quickly. We walked out to see what Santa had left for all of us. The girls loved searching through their stockings and were so excited to see their hats, gloves and scarves that they wore them most of the day. Cody was excited about the M&Ms he discovered in his stocking. Then the presents began... The girls searched for their names on the tags and took turns discovering what was under the wrapping paper. If there was a present for Cody they helped him open it up if he wasn't quite fast enough.

One after the next from the tower of presents...

And they were sweet enough to pause for a moment and take a few pictures.

And then there was Cody who was more interested with climbing up piles of presents to get a candy cane off the tree...

Or wading through the presents to get back to his bag of M&Ms...

And then ending on his favorite spot, the biggest present of them all. And Luckily it was his so I knew what was in it.

The morning was magical and the children were practically perfect. It was truly a wonderful Christmas!

Mystery Reader

I signed up to be a mystery reader in Jena's kindergarten class. Since it was right before Halloween I found this cute book "Room on the Broom" and brought it to read along with "There Was An Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything." I got to the school and they called the class to get everyone ready. When I reached the room they were all ducked down waiting to be surprised to see which parent would be coming. When they raised their heads, Jena seemed a little shocked to see me, but she was really excited to sit at the front with me while I read the books. It was awesome! I can't wait to go in to her class again.

Since the witch in the story was so sweet and shared with all her new friends, I decided to make these little hats for all the kids. The had a treat and spider ring inside. A little hot glue, some black construction paper cut into circles, stickers... and here are some little goodie witch hats!

Rice Krispy Treat Jack O' Lanterns

With all the rain this week, I felt the girls needed to do something exciting. And what could be more exciting than playing with marshmallows and chocolate? We started making the rice krispie treats like normal, but before adding the rice krispies we took a little portion out and added green to it. Then we added orange to the rest of the marshmallows followed by the rice krispies. After greasing the waxed paper and the girls hands, we started shaping the pumpkins. Taylor was not a big fan of the stickiness, so I shaped hers for her. When we finally got to the stem part the green marshmallows goo wasn't quite smooth anymore, so I heated it a little more in the microwave and it was back to normal. Add the rice krispies and then finish the pumpkin stems.

Then the chocolate part... I warmed the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth and then spooned it into plastic baggies. Snipped off the end and decorated away. Here are the results.

I helped her with the three on the right and Taylor made the two on the far left by herself.

Jena and I made a vampire pumpkin on the top left, then she made a werewolf pumpkin and a silly pumpkin. Then on the bottom is a sad pumpkin, another vampire pumpkin and an alien pumpkin.

And now on to the eating part :)

Felt Pumpkin Faces

So, during General Conference about a week and a half ago, I started working on these little pumpkins. The first one I stitched around by hand and it took quite a while, but still really cute. Then when the kids saw that it was something they could play with, I knew I had to finish another one quickly. To the sewing machine I went and the pumpkin was done it less than fifteen minutes. Then I just started cutting different shapes out of stiff velcro... and the Jack'O Lanterns were finished!

The hand stitching is on the left and the machine stitching is on the right.

Something's Missing

Jena lost her first tooth today. She was so excited that she woke everyone up early and told everyone she saw during the day what had happened. We can't believe how big she is getting, because it really doesn't seem that long ago that she was getting that first little tooth!

School & Soccer in September

September seemed to come with a few firsts... It was the first time we have ever really had a schedule. Sure we did preschool last year, but if we were late or didn't go it wasn't that big of a deal. Now we are all up and out the door by 7:40am. We take Jena to class, drop Taylor off on the days that she goes and either come home or run errands until it's time to do it all again, but in reverse.

This was the first time we have had a kid in a sport. So far Jena loves her soccer team and LOVES that her daddy is the assistant coach. It's a first for Ryan since he too has a lavender jersey :) She also had her first goal in the second game. Whoohoo!!!

Taylor is really turning into a big girl. She gets very excited to go to preschool, she wants to do everything like Jena and she is finally using the potty. A second huge, Whoohoo!

Cody finds himself being carried around to all sorts of activities and can't wait to get out of the stroller and run around. If he can get his hands on a controller, cell phone, or some sort of electronic device with a cord he is a very happy boy.

We have definitely had a full month of many exciting firsts!

A B C's

While Cody naps, the girls and I have take a little time to do some crafts together. I thought it would be fun to have a different project for every letter of the alphabet. Jena and Taylor get so excited when I start to bring out the materials for the next project... and after mommy's plan is done the these little girls keep going with their own ideas. Jena is now addicted to using scissors and a glue stick and now begs me to use them on a daily basis.

Here are a few of our letters so far...

A is for apple stamping (just cut an apple in half, dry it off a little with a paper towel, then dab it in paint and stamp away)

B is for Butterflies (made with fingers and feet)

C is for Caterpillar... Now I just have to come up with ideas for the rest of the alphabet :)