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!