Got the Christmas Spirit????

Okay, if this video does not put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will?! We had just woken up yesterday morning, and Jonah and Caleb were in the bathroom brushing their teeth. I heard the singing from the bathroom, so I had to grab my video camera. At first the video is black, because my lens cover was on, but turn your volume up so you can hear it before you press play. Jonah is singing the Christmas song "Happy Birthday Jesus" and Caleb is trying his very best to sing along too. They have no idea that I'm videoing, so that makes it all the better. You have to pay attention to how intensely Caleb is singing, even though he doesn't know the words!! Merry Christmas!!

More Christmas Fun!

This is a picture of our school Christmas play. It was so precious and as you can see Jonah is dressed as the cow. I had a lot of cute pictures, but for some reason my camera decided to erase them! Jonah sang 2 songs in the program, but on one he told me ahead of time that he just could not sing Joy to the World. I asked him why, and he said it made his heart feel funny. I tried to convince him that it probably just made him happy, but he was not having it. Those of you who know Jonah, know that when something gets in his head there is nothing changing it! So I told him to at least just lip sing it if it made him feel too funny. When it came time for the program, boy did he listen to me! He was lip singing it so obvious, it was hilarious! Everyone was cracking up! That's my little ham! Then on the last song, Happy Birthday Jesus, he sang with all his heart. You could hear his sweet little voice over everyone. Sweet Moments.
If you remember, in a previous blog, I showed a picture of Jonah's fort decorated with lights. Well, the decorations have expanded. We have now made stockings, as you can see in the background, a small Christmas tree, and presents for under the tree. Christmas is going to have to get here before we start major construction! Adam and the boys hung this up very quickly in the 13 degree wind chill a couple of days ago.

I wanted to include this picture, because it is so representative of Caleb. Caleb is fascinated with flyers! He will sit for an hour looking at magazines or flyers, studying them intensely. It is so funny how kids are different, because you could've never gotten Jonah to sit that still and do something on his own like that. I just love seeing the differences in each of them.

Hannah and her snowman friend. Just a cute picture.

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here...

Just a few quick pictures: Here's my Hannah taking a bath. She loves her bath, I think she'll be a swimmer one day, because as soon as she gets in she starts kicking and gets so excited! She is growing up so fast, I wish I could stop time sometimes. She is such a sweet girl.
Okay, not the best picture of Mom, but I had to throw this one in of "the girls". Everyday I get more and more thankful that I had a girl. There is just something special about having a daughter, that is just different than a son. I call her my "Hannah Banana". I don't know why? We like to change nicknames every few months in our family, so we'll see if that one lasts. I'm just so blessed to be able to experience daughters and sons, there's nothing any greater (or tiring) than being a mom!

This is our school float at the Christmas Parade. Our theme was "Happy Birthday Jesus". The dads at the school worked tirelessly building this thing, and I'm really sad we didn't get a prize in the parade! It's #1 in our heart! The candles on the top were flickering (from a blower) and they were singing the song, "Happy Birthday Jesus" with the music. It was really sweet. All the parents walked behind the float pushing all our strollers. It looked like a baby parade! We had so much fun - and it got us all in the Christmas spirit. Now we have Jonah's School Christmas program tomorrow. Papa and Gigi are coming tomorrow, and we have several people from the church coming to watch too. It's so great to have so many people who love our children! It definitely takes a village to raise a child!!

Last few weeks

It's amazing how time gets away from you! I have a lot of things that I haven't blogged in the last couple of weeks. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The week before Thanksgiving we went to Family Day at our school and enjoyed Turkey and all the trimmings with all the families of the school. The kids did a little Thanksgiving program, and sang a very sweet song about thanking God for everything. Here's a picture of Jonah's class singing and dressed up for the occasion.

At the beginning of Thanksgiving week Uncle Collin (Adam's brother) and Tootsie came to visit us for a couple of days. We had a great time just hanging out and being together. On Monday morning Adam and Collin surprised the boys with a "Treasure Hunt". They had gone down to a nearby park and buried a treasure the night before. The boys heard a knock at the door that morning and there was a treasure map waiting for us. They even got to use a metal detector to help us locate the treasure. Jonah was the most excited guy in the world! He could hardly contain himself! Here they are digging up the treasure with Uncle Collin.

Here's the boys carrying the treasure back to the house. Look at Caleb, such a determined little guy carrying a pretty heavy metal box full of treasure! Hannah was there for the fun, but she was bundled up in the stroller.

On Tuesday, we went to Tootsie's apartment and had an early Christmas, since Collin was in town. G.G. and Grackle joined us too and we all had such a great time eating and opening presents.

On Wednesday, all of the family from my side came and had Thanksgiving dinner. We had so much fun and of course I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures! The boys ran around with their cousins and we just enjoyed catching up with my cousins, uncle, grandparents, brother, sister and all of their families. The highlight was our dessert table with about 8 desserts on it! That's always our favorite part of the meal in our family!

Speaking of food - this is how we started off our Christmas decorating! Everyone had their own little tray of nachos. I had to take a picture of them because they were so good! After that, we decorated the tree. We only broke two ornaments, so we did good considering a 4 year old and 2 year old helped. Then we decorated the house. It was so much fun this year, because Jonah and Caleb really get excited and understand more what's happening.

We painted Christmas ornaments! Such big boys!
Jonah used money from his own piggy bank and wanted to buy lights for his fort outside. He and Caleb and Daddy decorated the fort. We also worked together and made the wreath that you see in the picure above. Jonah and Caleb both decorated and colored the ornaments on the wreath and Daddy helped them hang it on the fort. Jonah was so proud of his Christmas decorations.
This is our Advent Calendar. Every day we open a little door and find a little note hidden inside. The note will tell us what our special activity is that day. Most of the time it is something that we do for someone else. It just helps get our focus on giving and doing for others this Christmas season! The boys love it! We've already: called a family member and told them we loved them, made and took a card to an elderly person, and baked cookies for the people in the office at the school. We're having so much fun with this, and I hope that they will cherish this tradition when they get older. We're hoping to have a very peaceful Christmas this year. I'm even done with my Christmas shopping! Hooray! And bonus...I got the perfect picture for my Christmas cards, pretty much by accident. I was so relieved, because I hate the whole process of trying to get everyone dressed, smiling, and happy for a posed picture. I'm sure we'll have moments of distraction, but I just want to remember the reason for the season this year!
...Sleep in Heavenly Peace!