a new tradition

Bryce made his Christmas list for us again this year, but Emmy is still at the age where she doesn't care/know what she wants for Christmas.  We knew we wanted to get her a dollhouse (which will be from Santa) but I didn't have anything else for her and I wanted her to have something to unwrap.  I decided to take Bryce out to shop for Emmy and get her a gift from him/us.  We started off at Chick Fil A for lunch (complete with a milkshake)!

 

 

Bryce requested that we sit by Santa so we could watch him while we ate our lunch!  He posed for a photo after we ate.  He needed Emmy next to him to fill the empty spot!

 

We headed to Toys R Us after lunch.  Bryce picked out princesses for Emmy's Disney castle right away.  After shopping the whole store, he told me there wasn't anything else that he liked as much as the princesses.  I told him it was kind of small so he could pick something else.  He thought about getting her a baby in a bathtub, but finally decided on the Little People school bus.  I was pleased with his choice because now they will both have a vehicle to transport their Little People.  They are always arguing over the airplane!

 

Advent day 17 - sheep

The shepherds watched over the sheep as Jesus watches over us (his little lambs).

duck the halls

You may or may not know that we enjoy Duck Dynasty.  I haven't posted our Christmas card picture to the blog yet, but once you see it, you will see that we also have jumped on the Duck Dynasty bandwagon.  Of course, Jason would deny that a little bit.  He will tell you that because he is a duck hunter, he has always been a fan of the Duck Commander (Phil Robertson) before their family ever thought about being famous.  At any rate, we enjoy their show and merchandise.  My parents gave us their Christmas c.d. the other day and it's really good!

 

 

These Truth in the Tinsel Advent activities have caused me to step outside of my crafting comfort zone.  I am not a crafter and these things don't come easy for me.  At least the lady behind these ornaments has made things pretty simple and we haven't had to buy many if any supplies and have been able to improvise on some things when needed.  I've become a master with the glue gun lately!

 

 

Day 15 - manger (we used play dough to make the manger, baby Jesus' head and hay-even if they do look like bananas).

Day 16 - cloths (we wrapped baby Jesus in cloths).

playing catch up again

 I seem to get so behind on life starting on Thursdays.  I subbed on Thursday and Friday this week so I didn't have as much free time for fun stuff!

 

 

Bryce had his Christmas program at school on Thursday night and it was SO cute!  I just love that he goes to a Christian preschool and that the program focused on Jesus!  I'm getting so sad at the thought of him leaving there next year and going to kindergarten in the real world.  Sigh!

 

 

Bryce and Thomas

 

 

Bryce and Aiden

 

Bryce and Emmy enjoyed a cookie after the program.

 

 

We helped Keagan celebrate his second birthday this morning at his fun train party.  Aren't the kids cute in their train hat party favors?!?

 

 

Advent day 12 - census.

 

We filled a jar with rice to represent all the people that were counted.  We used bouncy balls to represent Mary and Joseph because there were special since God had chosen them to be Jesus' parents.

 

 

Advent day 13 - Bethlehem.

 

Advent day 14 - stable. 

 

All caught up for another few days!  It won't be long before I'm behind again.

books, books, and other stuff (bet you thought I was going to say more books)

Bryce's school book order came home today.  The teacher in me LOVES ordering books and I can't restrain myself.  I did good this time and just got each kid one book and a book for Bryce's school book exchange for Christmas.

 

 

Bryce got books in the mail today as part of a "chain letter" book exchange I decided to participate in.  He was so excited to get so many books!  I'm glad he enjoys books and reading.  I remember not enjoying to read in school and the teacher in me is so happy he's not like me.  Even as a teacher, I preferred teaching math and science.  Reading was my least favorite subject to teach!  But I'm doing the best I can to instill a love for reading in Bryce and as I've posted before, I'm already starting to teach him to read! 

We drove around and looked at Christmas lights tonight in our Christmas pjs!

 

 

My mom had told me that she was going to "jail" today as a fundraiser for MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association).  We were over at her house today when they came to "arrest" her.  I had no idea it was that involved.  I thought she was going to drive herself to the restaurant where she would be "locked up" until she made her bail.  The kids loved this!  If you're interested in donating to this organization, go HERE. 

 

Advent day 11 - Jesus' name.  Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. 

 

So far, tonight was my favorite night of Truth in the Tinsel.  After reading Matthew 1:18-25 for the past three nights, Bryce could fill in many of the important words as I paused for him to finish my sentence.  When we got to "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means....." Bryce's eyes lit up and said "GOD IS WITH US".  This was music to my ears.  Not only am I happy knowing we're doing a great job teaching him the true meaning of the season, but he's also learning a lot at school.   

celebrations

Monday was Pap's birthday so we went out to dinner.  This would have been Bryce's week to pick the place and Pap was nice enough to pick the place Bryce has been waiting weeks to go.  We have watched a new restaurant be built and Bryce couldn't wait to go once they opened!!

 

 

Might be one of my most favorite pictures EVER.

 

We had a MOPS birthday party for Jesus today at a local clubhouse.  Emmy was happy eating an Oreo to celebrate Jesus.

 

Bryce went for the cupcake!

 

We had our small group over for dinner tonight.  It was a good excuse to get the house cleaned and to use our fine china!  Love nights like this!

 

We made Joseph for day 9 of Advent and a pillow for day 10 to represent Joseph sleeping and the angel coming in a dream!

catching up

I was off to a great start last week and thought that I might actually get in a post everyday, but not so much!  Apparently my weekend started on Thursday and I got too busy to blog.  We had MOPS on Thursday and Bryce had fun celebrating Christmas with his class.  This is his teacher Ms. Eileen.  He really enjoys her and she just adores the kids. 

 

 

Ms. Eileen gave each of the kids a gift, but Bryce refused to hold it in the picture with her, so I finally got a picture in the parking lot.

 

We've still be keeping up with our Truth in the Tinsel Advent activities.  On day 5 we made Mary and used Gabriel from day 4 to retell the story of Gabriel telling Mary she would give birth to Jesus. 

 

On day 6 we made Mary and Elizabeth and on day 7 we made a cd for Mary's song and learned how they rejoiced in God's plan. 

 

Today we made a sun because Zechariah describes Jesus as the "rising sun" coming from heaven to "shine on those living in darkness".  And just like the candle we made on day 1, we are reminded that Jesus is the Light of the World.

Emmy at 22 months

Emmy has really come to life this month!!  Her vocabulary has quadrupled x 10!!  She knows many words and repeats many words.  She is putting them together to form 2 and 3 word phrases.  She has started showing more interest in learning her letters and numbers.  I have heard her count to 10 and only leave out a couple of numbers, but usually she says 1-3-9.  She sings along to the ABC song, but I can't necessarily make out any of the letters she says!

She is showing some interest in potty training and she has been wearing underwear around the house for the past two days without any accidents.  Sometimes she'll tell me she needs to go potty on her own and others she says she needs to go after I ask her.  I would love to think I could get her potty trained an entire year earlier than Bryce!!

Emmy loves to cuddle and be held (unlike her brother at this age) and she is much better about being away from me than Bryce was at this age.  She is very particular like her mama and everything has to be put away or cleaned up in order for her to be happy!

 

She is wearing size 4 diapers, size 5 shoes, and mostly all 24mo/2T clothes.  Her hair is getting long, but still not coming in much in the front!  She continues to be a great sleeper and is so good about going to bed and nap!  

 

I wish I were better about keeping notes throughout the month because there are so many cute things that she does and says, but I just can't remember them all when it's time to post them.  At least I only have two more month posts to do!

And for fun, HERE is Bryce's 22 month update.

a few fun things

I was subbing again today so the kids stayed with my parents again.  Bryce had school this morning, but when Emmy took her nap this afternoon, he and Nana made some fun, edible ornaments.  I sent myself some pictures of Emmy making one after her nap, but apparently the iPad is smarter than me, because I never got the pictures! 

A friend from MOPS sent me a "chain letter" book exchange.  I had to send the letter to six people in hopes that they would then send it to six people who would then send us books.  We are supposed to get 36 books by the end of it, but that's TOTALLY not going to happen.  Jason told me not to do it, because it wouldn't work, but I didn't want to let the kid down that I had to send a book to, so I kept it going.  Thankfully, one of my friends was really good about following through with it and Emmy has gotten 3 books.  Unfortunately, none of the letters I sent with Bryce's name have been completed, so he hasn't gotten any mail, but he's a good sport and he and Emmy share!  The kids were excited about the Ten Little Ladybugs book we got today because our copy is all but destroyed!   

We're having a great time with Truth in the Tinsel.  I did the first two lessons with Bryce, but since I've been subbing the past two days, we haven't had time until after dinner.  It's been fun doing it as a family and reading the Bible together and talking about the stories and making the craft. 

 

Advent day 4 - Gabriel

christmas sweets

Fall is over and I've moved on from my pumpkin obsession to all things peppermint!  I LOVE peppermint and chocolate (especially dark chocolate).  We headed to Menchie's tonight after dinner and they had this yummy yogurt flavor!! I'll be frequenting there quite a bit this winter!

 

 

Also on my list of peppermint favorites:

 

Chick-Fil-A Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake

Cold Stone Creamery Dark Chocolate Peppermint Ice Cream

Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark

Hershey's Peppermint Bark Bells 

Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate (with an extra pump of peppermint)

 

Any other things I should try?

 

Advent Day 3 - Zechariah

 

After reading the story of Zechariah, we made him on a plate with a bubble wrap bubble as his mouth because he couldn't speak.  Bryce could really relate to this example because our librarian always tells the kids to catch a bubble in their mouth so they won't talk during story time!  We later popped the bubble. We learned to always believe God's words and know they will come true at their proper time.  Luke 1:20.  

christmas cuties

We are so ready for Christmas around here.  When Bryce was getting ready for school this morning he asked me if he could wear his Mickey Christmas shirt.  Now that December is here, I told him of course!  I bought him this shirt on clearance from Old Navy last year and he's been dying to wear it.  So of course Emmy had to be like Bryce!  I asked Jason to take a picture of them tonight to capture their festive attire.  This is what I got!  Don't you love Bryce's shirt?!?  He is so obsessed with this catfish pillow that he was so worried about getting a Santa hat on it for the picture, Jason missed the shirt.

 

 

I asked Jason to get another picture later......at least we try!

 

The kids are spending the night at my parent's house tonight since I'm subbing tomorrow and my mom is awesome for suggesting that they stay with her!  Jason and I took advantage of the kid free night and did a little Christmas shopping.  We showed back up at my parent's house after we dropped the kids off to deliver their Christmas present!  Isn't this awesome??  If you know my parents, you know their love for their dachshunds!  They were thrilled!

We continued with Truth in the Tinsel today for the second day of Advent.  Today's key word was kingdom and we made a crown because Jesus is our King!  For unto us a child is born......he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:2-7