1st Grade Christmas Program

Last Thursday night the first grade students at Bailee's school performed some Christmas songs. Here are a few pictures of Bailee and one of her really good friends. They were cute! For a fund raiser after the performance, the faculty at our school played a volleyball game against the faculty from the sister school. (Bailee's school is only K-2, the sister school is 3-5). That was really fun to watch and our faculty won...GO CUBS!!!

Monday Makings

I'm a couple of days behind on posting our Monday Makings for this week...sorry! And I apologize for not having Monday Makings last week...things were a little busy and exciting with our grandma's and grandpa's arriving to us the previous night. But we're back for some fun December Monday Makings! This week G. Mike & G. Vicki were able to join in on our craftiness as we made gingerbread houses! We teamed up and the boys decorated one and the girls decorated one. They both got blue ribbons!

The girl team

Front

Back

The boy team

Front

Back

Thanks G. Mike & G. Vicki for helping us with our Monday Makings. We had a wonderful time and miss you already!!!

"O' Christmas Tree"...

Another tradition of ours is to put up our tree Thanksgiving weekend. It's usually a two day project...putting the tree together and getting the lights on usually happens on Friday, and decorating the tree takes place on Saturday. Brikelle was quite fascinated with seeing the tree and enjoyed helping us put the branches on. I was surprised when we decorated the tree because Brikelle just mostly watched and didn't really mess with the ornaments like I thought she would. I thought she would be rearranging everything we did! Other than fragile ornaments going up on higher branches, Alan and I always have let the kids put the ornaments where they want and that's where they stay...(for as perfect as I like things to be, we're not ones to re-decorate the tree once the kids are in bed). Leaving it the way the kids decorate it is our idea of perfect! Yes, maybe someday when I grow up (and have a big enough house) I'll have two trees...one for the kids and an elegant one for me. But for now, our idea of that perfect/beautiful Christmas tree is one that our kids decorate with all the different kinds of ornaments we have.

Love the look on her face when she got to hold 2 candy canes!

I just couldn't resist posting this one...I love you honey!!!

A quick break to take some pictures

Back to decorating

Bailee's favorite part is the angel

Braden's favorite part is the train...of course! He waited patiently for so long for the train to get set up.

And the end result

Christmas PJ Tradition

This time of year is a time for many traditions. A tradition I started with my kids back when Bailee was 2 and Braden was just a baby, is our Christmas PJ tradition. I get the kids their Christmas PJ's as soon as I can find them at the stores...I HAVE to have them by Thanksgiving. The tradition...to give them to the kids Thanksgiving night. That way they are able to wear and enjoy their PJ's all through the holiday season. This year I added a new tradition with it and actually wrapped their PJ's in Christmas wrapping paper. In the past I've just given them the PJ's. They thought it was great this year to have a present to open! I also make photo ornaments of them in their PJ's and have one for each year. Someday our tree will be filled with ornaments of the kids in their Christmas PJ's!

Thankful Jar

This year we started a new tradition with our kids...we had them decorate a little jar with stickers and then had a little bag of those marble rocks. Each night after reading books we would take turns and put a rock in the jar and say something we were thankful for. We started November 1st and ended November 30th. The kids enjoyed it so much and looked forward to it every night. They enjoyed watching our jar grow with the pretty marble rocks representing all the things we are thankful for. They got to take turns handing out the rocks and passing around the jar. It really made us think of all the things we are thankful for and it was wonderful to hear all the things our children are thankful for. This is definitely the beginning of a new tradition that I hope will last for years, and maybe our children will one day continue the tradition with their own families.

Thanksgiving & Grandparents

This year we were able to enjoy 2 of 3 sets of grandparents at our house for Thanksgiving. The kids have had a very enjoyable time with their grandma's and grandpa's and love all the attention! We had a very nice and yummy Thanksgiving dinner both Thursday and Friday. Thursday we enjoyed an amazing feast put on by Alan's work and Friday we enjoyed a little feast at home put on by the grandma's! I love Thanksgiving and I'm thankful for such wonderful family to have enjoyed it with. We missed you G & G Jones!

Ice Skating!

We tried a new activity today as a family...we were invited by a c0-worker and friend of Alan's to go ice skating with him and his family. We figured why not! Bailee went ice skating for the first time just a few weeks ago for a friends birthday (and really liked it), so she knew what to expect. But this was Braden's first time, and Mom and Dad's first time in at least 10 years! The kids were able to use these really cool walker things that they could skate along with and did really well. Bailee said it was easier this time because she knew what to do...she did great skating. Braden totally surprised us with how fast he got the hang of it and how well he did. He fell a few times but about 10 minutes into it he was practically running and seeing how fast he could go! Although Alan hasn't been in years, you wouldn't have known it by watching him. And as for myself, I was a bit wobbly at first but then remembered how to do it, and I didn't even fall! I didn't go very fast though! Alan even got out on the ice with Brikelle for a few minutes. She absolutely loved it and of course cried when he took her off the ice! We plan to take the kids again and eventually want them to be confident enough to skate without the walkers. What a fun activity!