advent calendar

we have started our little advent calendar. each day the kids get to open a door and a book (they alternate days). i took all of their christmas books and wrapped them to make them more fun. so our little morning tradition is to do this after breakfast. they open a book and open a door and find out what we get to do that day. there is a piece of paper and a piece of candy for each of them in each little cubby (they get the candy after nap). about halfway through the month it changes from candy to a little toy. i got this package of squinkies or something- barbie and superhero.

here is our first week of activities:
1. decorate christmas cones
2. put money in the salvation army bucket at the grocery store
3. go see arthur christmas at the movie theater
4. go to the church christmas service at the paramount
5. make a felt christmas tree
6. make christmas wreaths and watch the elf on the shelf movie together
7. write letters to santa

ice cream cone trees-





here with us at the paramount-


the tree is far from perfect but i had two little helpers-




making christmas wreaths-


letter to santa-

other christmas things we have been doing...

wrapping presents-


this year i decided to put pictures instead of name tags on all the gifts so that the kids can hand them out. make it a little more about giving maybe?

make cookies with mimi-

kitchen

the kitchen might be the biggest transformation of the whole house and my favorite room! i spend a lot of time in the kitchen and it is so wonderful to have a working/practical kitchen. there are still a few things to be painted and done, but for the most part it is finished.







and here's what it looked like before:

snow!

we had our first snow day of the season! sawyer came in and woke me up and said, "mommy it's a special day. is it christmas?" they were so excited about the snow and wanted to go outside to play right away. they wanted to make a snowman and have snowball fight but there was not that much snow. they still loved playing in it though. i got cold pretty fast though, my snow pants are too small and my coat wouldn't zip!

tea party

this weekend sawyer and i went to the mad hatter tea party at church. we painted tea pots, made hats and painted nails. she loved doing all of this and mason was so upset that he didn't get to go. he was in a bad mood all day friday because he wanted to go. poor guy.

thanksgiving day

we had a great thanksgiving. we had the meal at our house for the first time ever which was so much fun. the kids watched the macy's parade and read books with the guys while the girls cooked.







we decorated the tree, dressed as spiderman and wolverine. and took family pictures that i will post later!









so thankful for such a great family!

logan paige

we found out yesterday that we are having a baby girl in march! the baby looks perfect but i have placenta previa so they are going to keep a close watch on things and i have to be careful so i don't end up on bed rest. but tadvick thinks everything will go fine.



i really wanted to tell the kids in a fun way if the baby was a boy or girl so after they woke up from their nap I had blue and pink balloons all over the living room for them to play with until the grandparents and eric got home. sawyer asked me if we were going to find out what the baby was and then put it back in. she had lots of questions while we waited to find out. is the baby going to sleep in my room? are we going to get the baby out today? after the baby comes out are we going to keep it? after the baby comes out are we going to get another one?



eric brought home a reveal cake from mckays (which by the way is amazing again). my mom and chrys came over, kim and jen got on skype and we cut into the cake (my dad was out hunting).







mason has asked me multiple times why the baby can't be a boy. poor guy. sawyer is excited that it is a girl though! she told us a million times today that the baby is a girl.

thanksgiving in austin

we went to austin for the weekend to have thanksgiving with aunt jaffy. on saturday we went to the texas v kansas state game. it was the kids first time to go to a live football game and they did awesome. they took it all in and had so much fun.











they were getting pretty tired by 4th quarter and the excitement had kind of worn off so they played on phones for the 4th. thank goodness for iphones!


we had our yummy thanksgiving meal that chrys cooked.

thanksgiving crafts

we have done a few thanksgiving crafts this week. i haven't been very good about taking the time for these because things have been so busy. i am kind of looking forward to things slowing down in december.

we colored puzzles.


and made turkeys.




we had our first thanksgiving meal at school on friday-


and started a very fun tradition. they named their elf finner. i love listening to them look for him every morning and tell everyone about him.