december daily 6

December Daily 6

Today was a great day of traditions. 

Every year Ryan's work brings in a Santa for the kids to take a picture with him & Mrs. Claus.  My kids think of this Santa as the real one!  You can see the past pictures with Santa in this post.  Yes, the pictures have definitely improved over the years...no more screaming kids or the need for mom & dad to be in the picture with them ;).  I love having this yearly tradition and hope they always want to sit on Santa's lap!

Let's first begin with Mr. Elfy...he was trying to hide out in the bathroom!

It was an early start to go see Santa...because if you don't get there when they first open your wait is really long...and that's just with Garmin employee kids!

Here's a look at the result!  They are getting so old!

The work brings in Santa to an indoor ride/arcade place so we get free reign of all their rides and games...but again you have to rush through them to beat the crowds because it can get crazy busy!  The kids do look forward to this morning every year!

Bounce time with Daddy.

Avery now refuses to ride this train...too old :(...Evan said he didn't want to ride it because Avery wasn't, but at the last second changed his mind and jumped on it with Ellie.  That's right buddy...no need to grow up too fast!

She was my only one on the Ferris Wheel.  Ellie told me the other day that she never wants to grow up and that she hope she can go back to wearing diapers and not being too big for me to carry her everywhere...I guess she will always be my baby!

When you have three kids someone is always left out, but Ellie is always happy to ride by herself!

Playing games to get lots of tickets to turn in for "awesome" prizes...those "awesome" prizes will be ending up in the trash pretty soon.

Then the rest of the day was pretty lazy...watching Christmas movies...seeing Mizzou getting defeated in the SEC championship game :(....and you guessed it MORE pugopoly!

Lastly, here's a look at this year's Christmas card!  Ellie does look a little sad in it {she was too cold according to her}, but it was the best we could get :).

Merry Christmas!

december daily 5

December Daily 5

Today was about memory making.  

We had a full day, but made lots of great memories with some special people in our lives.

Elfy returned this morning in his Creeper Minecraft mask playing on his iPad.  The boys loved it!

Before our evening events even started we had babysitting, school & gymnastics.

During babysitting this morning Evan taught the babies we watch how to play ring around the rosie...I am not sure who enjoyed it more Evan or the babies :).

Evan also got to sit in for warm-ups during Ellie's gymnastics class :).  Love how Ellie gets to do it with three of her good friends!

Then we had a great time at a friend's house after school doing crafts and decorating cookies!  {love}

And lastly, we went with some other friend's to their church for their family advent night and the children's choir performance.  There was more cookie decorating :)...

It was a great performance and we all loved it!

{love}

We truly are blessed with the best friends!  Love memory making!

december daily 4

December Daily 4

Today was about getting a lot of things accomplished on that to do list!  

We had no obligations this morning so Ellie and I did a huge, quick errand run that involved going to 6 different stores and 4 drive through stops...all in less than 3 hours while Evan was at morning kindergarten {because I do not take that boy shopping if I can help it all...he's the worst!}.  It feels good to get all that accomplished! 

 I love my superstar shopper who rarely complains and doesn't whine about getting something all the time!

Then after school we watched one of our Christmas movies, Jack Frost, that I just picked up from the library.  You have to love free library movies!  While the movie was on Evan also wrangled me into playing Pugopoly again...this boy wants to play it all the time!

We finished the day with our activity, which was making a snowman hand print family.  It turned out pretty cute.  I think you can guess which one Evan's is...the one who never wants to go with the norm...{his "family" was just him & Bella}.

Then they wanted to paint more scraps of wood...

And we can't forget Santa Elfy today.

december daily 3

December Daily 3

Today we fit a lot in between school, homework, my babysitting, chores, and doing church night at home.

Elfy returned with a note that said Santa had received our letters :).  Yeah!

We opened up our daily Christmas book fist thing this morning, but we wait to read it until dinner time because things are TOO crazy in the mornings trying to get out the door.

Then before dinner Ellie helped me mix up our recipe for our cinnamon dough ornaments.

We did our Jesus activity and talked about how Jesus is our brother.  They were supposed to draw Jesus in our family, but the boys decided it was better to draw God in our family.  I love how in Avery's picture God is wearing a shirt that says "I Love God" :).

Next, it was time to roll and cut out our ornaments.  The kids thought it was crazy that we put glue in the recipe!

They are still baking in the oven so we shall see how they turn out, but my house smells wonderful!

We finally got this year's ornaments hung on the tree...I almost forgot about them!  Don't you love their pjs Elfy brought them??

december daily 2

December Daily 2

I feel like December is already going by in a whirlwind...please slooooow down!

Elfy returned this morning with forms to fill out for Santa...he filled one out for himself too!

Today was another busy one...drop off boys at school, a super quick trip to Target, a MOPS steering meeting with some lovely ladies, a fun playdate with some friends of Evan's after half day kindergarten, a trip then to Walmart to pick up our Christmas cards, then time to pick up Avery from school...

and then after all that we managed to fit in some fun too this evening...

First, off some Pugopoly {you know the Pug version of Monopoly that Evan just got from G&G for his birthday and both boys have LOVED playing it}.  I really didn't feel like I had time to sit down and play this after school with my boys because I had a to-do list a mile long...but I am glad I took a time out to spend with these guys...even if the game only lasted 20 minutes before they were done :).

Then it was dinner time.  That pile of books right there is an accumulation of Christmas books opened that day (& yesterday because we never got to it), our Laura Ingalls Wilder book we have been reading aloud, two boys who go to the school library for checkout on the same day, and homework...we work on it all right after dinner is finished.

We also did our Jesus-centered Advent activity from MOPS.  Today we talked about how Jesus is our cornerstone building block and without him our whole tower will fall down...we built our tower with our block nativity we actually made from MOPS a few years ago.

We wrapped up the night with our letters to Santa!

Here's what each of them asked for.  I loved this form because it also had them write down what good things they have done.

december daily 1 & Evan's birthday

December Daily 1

Here we go on our 25 days of Christmas!

On the first day of December...
we start off with a bang because today is Evan's birthday!  
This sweet, 
crazy, 
question-asking, 
pug-loving,
number-counting, 
more question-asking,
snuggly,
pj-wearing,
even more question-asking,
middle child of ours turned SIX years old today!

He is getting to be such a big boy!

What kind of birthday party would this boy want, you ask?
Well a dog birthday, of course!
He really only wanted dogs invited to his birthday party...crazy boy!
So that's what we had while we were at G&G's house over Thanksgiving...a dog birthday party.

Here's some pictures from his party...

A "pugamonga" cake.

Pinata time.

Evan also made a cake for the doggies!

{The perfect shirt for our pug lover!}

Then fast forward back to today...

Our Santa Elfy returns!!  He brought a note and some gifts for the kiddos...three pjs with his face on them ;).  The kiddos were very excited to have him back!

We got our final, real Christmas tree up and decorated today!  The decorating is finally all complete around here!

 Then more celebrating with this boy!

Aunt Tamarin came over for a little play time.

Happy Birthday buddy!