Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

a full weekend of fun!

We had such a busy but fun weekend... I'm still recovering this morning, lol.

On Saturday we went to a kids program at our church. The program was so much fun and entertaining for the kids... though, I think the adults might have gotten a little competitive with the games, lol. The first game was a pass the sheep game, which our side lost but we had a bit of a disadvantage in that we had more people to pass the sheep by. Isaac had so much fun waiting for the sheep to come by us.
and then we had a toss the large ornaments game to which our numbers of people on our side became an advantage. We started with 4 ornaments on each side and had to toss them back and forth and stop when the timer went off... the side with the least number left on their side won. The adults got a bit competitive so there was one round where only the kids could participate and Moriah had so much fun.
and then we watched a really nice drama done by some of the kids and Isaac was in love with the doggie... he kept yelling out "doggie" the whole time, it was so sweet. We loved the drama and the carol singing and Isaac loved pointing out "Baby Gee-goff" I just love how he says Baby Jesus, too cute!

After the program we went to the gym and built our gingerbread nativity. Pretty much Mark built it and the kids decorated... I mean ate the candy. We were both so distracted that we missed that Isaac was eating the whole cupful of Mike and Ikes. It was rather funny watching him try to chew a mouthful of them.
Moriah had to show off the pretty heart she made out of the candy canes.
and the kids had a blast sprinkling (I mean dumping) the sprinkles on the top of the stable

Meanwhile, I had several people asking me when I'm due and shocked to find out I have another month... I'm pretty sure that if I had a penny for every time someone says that I look like I'm gonna pop any second now, I'd be rich, LOL.

Afterwards, Mark and the kids went to Costco for lunch and shopping while I stayed at the church for what would be my last rehearsal of the year and for a few months. I always have so much fun singing and worshiping with my friends and it was so awesome to be singing with the choir and orchestra. When we left it was raining and cold and just plain icky. Though, I'm glad it was rain instead of snow because that would have been a lot of snow.

Sunday morning we all got up super early so that we could drive in the snow to church... we were told it would be a snow storm/blizzard. It actually wasn't that bad, which was good because we were running late, but still got there in time for sound check. Going home was a different story though since it became super super windy, so it was a bit slower of a drive home. It was a great morning of worship though and I'm so glad that I was able to sing one last time before being off for a few months to have our little dude and recover. The rest of the day we spent resting from our busy weekend. I think we're still recovering though. I'm glad we don't have to be anywhere today and can just relax and recoup.

Charlie Brown Christmas

I was so excited when the UPS man pulled up to our house and dropped off several packages. One of them was a movie I got basically for $.50 thanks to Swagbucks. The kids never ate dinner so fast because they were so excited to watch the movie tonight. After dinner we all snuggled up on the couch and watched it. Isaac was totally distracted after a couple minutes but then settled down with a few crayons and a coloring book. Moriah sat on Mark's lap and really enjoyed the movie even though Isaac was totally distracting. I think we may try to watch it again during Isaac's naptime another day. I enjoyed watching a movie with my family that I loved watching as a kid and a movie with such a great message.

We love coloring...

I found some great Christmas story coloring pages online and printed them out for the kids to color today. They had a total blast. I totally love how Isaac says, "Baby Jesus" and I'm so excited that he has such an interest in Christmas. My hope and prayer is that they will always be excited about the Christmas story. Since it's so late and I'm really exhausted, though I won't be able to sleep thanks to some wicked heartburn, this will be short and sweet!
Here's a couple pics from today :)

Christmas In July?

Moriah thinks so... despite the weather being in the teens... actually when she gets dressed in the morning it's in the single digits, she insists on still wearing her summer dresses. I tried convincing her to at least put on some leggings underneath and a sweater on top, but she's pretty stubborn like her Mama. Well, she's not complaining so Christmas in July it is here in our household.

Today's activity was to make a paper chain to decorate our tree with. They had so much fun. They split up the paper strips and Isaac grabbed the green ones and Moriah grabbed the red ones which worked out perfectly. I showed them how to do a few of the chains and then they pretty much did it themselves... I was impressed at how well Isaac did with the stapler. About 1/3 of the way through they got pretty bored though and left me to finish it up. They were too excited when it was complete though and couldn't wait to put it on the tree.

Aren't they adorable?

playing catch up...

We had such a busy day yesterday that I didn't get a chance to post our December activities. I sang in the morning and then right to our friends' annual Christmas party. We always have so much fun there and am so amazed at how much the crown grows every year with all the new babies and it's so good to catch up with some people that we really only see once in a while. The kids took their shoes off as soon as they entered the door and went straight downstairs where the toys were. I went straight to the food and was so happy to have two other pregnant friends to pig out with. The food was delish like always and the company was so enjoyable. The kids totally forgot to eat they were having so much fun and it wasn't until everyone left that they finally realized they were hungry and grabbed some food. Santa was there but neither of the kids were interested in sitting with him to get their pic taken. It was so fun to see all the kids all dressed up for the holidays... I must say that the girls always look so pretty with their holiday dresses on.

We came home with the craft that the kids never got a chance to do because they were playing so hard and put together their sticker nativity scene. Such a fun filled day and we were all exhausted by evening.

Today we took it easy, plus it was crazy cold outside and there was no way we were heading out. I wasn't feeling very well and had lots of braxton hicks contractions last night, so it was just a really restful day. We did enjoy making hot cocoa after dinner though for our counting down to Christmas activity.

Home Depot Day

Our December daily activity for today was to go out in the snow to Home Depot and build picture frames at the Kids Workshop. It was so nice because it wasn't as busy as usual and we had a great time working on the project together as a family. Moriah is soooo excited and is trying to find her favorite picture of her with her best bud to put in the frame. She loves her friend so much and really misses him and we can't wait to fill that frame with a picture of him and Moriah.
If you aren't sure what December Daily is, be sure to check out my scrapbook blog, basically it's a book to help us remember the holidays and how we spent it this year. Every day in December I try to do a fun activity with the kids and journal throughout the month about it. I try to take a picture a day and I'm receiving some journaling prompts from Journal Your Christmas 2010, though I'm not exactly following all the prompts they are helping me with the daily prompts and photo prompts to make sure I have something to document every day. Now I'm off to go take pictures of the snow we got last night and this morning.

A Wilton Cake Decorator I will never be...

but that's ok with me... I'm learning to let go of my perfectionism and just enjoy my time with the kids...
Here's what we made today as part of our special project or activity a day in December. The old me would have cringed at this (I took Wilton cake decorating classes like 10 years ago, tho I'm totally out of practice) and I admit I was getting a little stressed with the kids touching it, but then I remembered the reason we were doing this was to have fun with the kids. Moriah picked out the design she wanted from the pictures on the box and I started getting to work. I did all the frosting work and let the kids do all the candy placements. Yeah, my perfectionist side came out and I "fixed" the candy placements...
looking back though, I really wish I hadn't... I suppose hindsight is 20/20. I would have prefered a true creation by the kids instead of me telling them what to do... next year, I promise to let them do their magic and I bet it will turn out WAY better than this one did.
when we were done, we had fun eating the rest of the frosting and candies... talk about a major sugar high... even the belly baby was going nuts for awhile, lol.

I LOVE December

It's that time of year when I try to really focus on my family and making traditions. One of my favorite is making paper snowflakes... apparently we loved it so much last year that we kept them hanging for almost a year... I just took them down in November to hang the Happy Birthday banner, lol.

This year Moriah was able to cut her own snowflakes and had so much fun painting them with glitter glue. As soon as Isaac gets up from his nap he'll get to color a few with crayons and I know he'll have fun with that too. Then we will hang them tomorrow.

Next on our traditions list is either to build our gingerbread house, paint our nails or make and decorate sugar cookies...

A Fun Christmas Survey

My friend Darcy shared this quiz that she stole from Janet Phillips' blog and now I'm stealing it because I think it's great!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
definitely Hot Chocolate and more specifically a Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. Though, I still have to have one glass of Egg Nog on Christmas Eve with my parents after church services, lol.

pic from starbucks.com

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

we don't really do the Santa thing... yeah, we're one of THOSE families, lol. Though, we do tell the kids that he's a really nice guy and explain that some families celebrate him every year when we celebrate the birth of Christ and hope they aren't one of THOSE kids who spoil it for those who believe in Santa. Growing up though, I believed in Santa and he wrapped the presents and left them under the tree while we were in Wisconsin celebrating Christmas with my Grandparents.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
most definitely white... colored just looks funny sometimes... I saw some of those icicle lights that people hang outside in colored lights last night and I literally snorted out loud... since when are icicles, red, green, blue & yellow... tee hee... totally being sarcastic... I don't mind colored lights, and think they're fun for a tree but I prefer to decorate my house with the white lights.

this is actually our Christmas tree... having fun playing with my camera and favorite lens :)

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
nope... not sure how I'd hang it with our vaulted ceilings, lol.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
usually the weekend after Thanksgiving or the first weekend in December... originally I wanted to wait until after Moriah's birthday but then we're usually out of town for both her birthday and Christmas so I wouldn't get to enjoy them and now we just put them up early in the month.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?
hmm... can I say all of it? LOL... I seriously love it all, I'm not sure I can pick just one. Though, I prefer turkey for Christmas meat instead of the traditional ham. I love my Grandma's potato salad and I love all the appetizers we have on Christmas Eve after the church service, especially the crab/cream cheese dip and my Dad's meatballs.

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child?
I think my favorite was when my parents got me my very first Opal ring (my birthstone) It was wrapped up in several boxes and I thought I was getting this super huge present from them and was really disappointed in how small the final box was... but was soooo excited when I opened it up to find a beautiful ring.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I honestly don't remember, my parents still played the Santa game though after we figured it out... and I always wondered how my parents got the presents under the tree while we were on vacation. We found out how they did it one year as we were all packed in the car getting ready to go to Wisconsin and realized we forgot our crayons. My brother and I got out of the car and ran upstairs to get them and saw my parents with the presents in arms. We caught them finally!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
when we are celebrating with my parents we do, after the church service... and then we open the gifts from "Santa" on Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
I like a ton of ornaments on my tree, but this year I decided to keep it all packed up and take it easy this year being our last month as a family of 4. So, this year we just have the tree up with lights strung on it and the star on top. Otherwise, it's FULL! Our tree is actually pretty pathetic, which I suppose is what you get for $10, lol... so it needs lots of ornaments to fill it out... though, I'm thinking a fun craft project with the kids would be to make a paper chain garland to wrap around it... we'll see.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
it's pretty, but I sure hate driving in it!

pic of our bushes from last year... we no longer have those bushes

12. Can you ice skate?
pretty sure that wouldn't be a safe thing for me to do at 33 weeks pregnant, lol. Pretty sure it wouldn't be a pretty site to see either, LOL.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
my opal ring, as mentioned before

14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you?
the birth of Jesus Christ... it still chokes me up knowing that God became human to die on a cross because he loves us so much. WOW, seriously blows me away!

Away In A Manger by Traci Reed and Penny Springmann

15. What is your favorite Christmas Dessert?
I'm not sure I have a favorite, I'm more of a salty kind of girl. Though, I usually devour whatever desserts there are in front of me, lol.

16. What is your favorite Christmas tradition?
definitely the Christmas Eve service at church

17. What tops your tree?
A Star... we used to have an angel but it always kind of bothered me that I had bought an angel instead of a star since the star is what lead the way to the manger... so this year I finally got myself a star. Though, I suppose angels announced the birth of Christ... I guess I was just ready for something new, lol.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
giving... it's my love language :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
you're asking a singer to pick a favorite? LOL gosh, I love so many, I just don't think I can pick just one. OK, I'll pick one... O Holy Night, but I really do love them all, especially when sung by contemporary Christian artists.

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?
Meh... not really something I'm interested in, except maybe to stir my hot chocolate... though that would be gross in a salted caramel hot chocolate, lol.

21 Favorite Christmas Show?
Charlie Brown Christmas

22. Saddest Christmas Song?
I don't really know... hmmm....

23. What’s your Wish for Christmas?
for a simple, relaxing month with my family before the chaos of baby #3 arrives, lol... though, we can't wait to hold the little dude in our arms.