Christmas: Round 1

Now that we're on the holiday downswing, I have some posting to catch up on!

We've had a super relaxing and enjoyable time celebrating Christmas with both of our families. The first part of the holiday was spent with my family, during which time there was never a dull moment. I wish Allison would post some dang pictures already because she got some hilarious ones. Since she's a slacker (haha), you're just gonna have to be okay with the ones I got.

{Christmas Eve Eve}

We went to my parents' for dinner (complete with Blue Bell for dessert!) before Matt and I took the kids out to look at Christmas lights. Avery calls the lights "fancies" and just gets so excited every time she sees them, so we thought she'd love our little drive. Um, she loved it alright. She loved having our undivided attention, which she used to tell us a story about a lion for an hour straight. The story went something like this: "Guess what the lion did?" "What did the lion do?" "The lion ate Landon." "Uh, yikes! Was he okay?" "Yeah." And then she repeated the story, changing out the fated lion dinner each time.

Anyway, we thought about driving through Interlochen or Highland Park to see good lights, but we ended up just looking at some different neighborhoods in our town. It wasn't a spectacular light show or anything, but we didn't have to sit in crazy traffic or drive 30 minutes away either.

{Christmas Eve}

I got one picture of Christmas Eve. We decided to let Avery forgo her nap and just watch a movie instead. Maybe that was a bad idea, but oh well. Live and learn.

I love Christmas Eve. My parents always have a big party at their house, complete with tamales, chips and queso, lots of dips, and more desserts than can fit on the counter. It is a feast of YUM. It's family, it's friends, it's food, it's fun.

And next year I will take pictures.

{Christmas Day}

We stayed up past 2am every morning the week leading up to Christmas (one night we even stayed up until 4), so by Christmas Day we were exhausted. (Whose idea was it to do a handmade Christmas?!?) We were still up with the kids by 7:30 though, and we started our family festivities.

We did stockings first, and then we opened gifts one at a time. (We did three gifts for each kid, plus some necessities in stockings.)

Matt and I don't buy each other gifts, we make them instead. He did so good this year! I mean, he usually does, but this year he really surprised me. I had this great pair of red cabochon flower earrings that I used to wear all the time. And then they broke. So he replaced them with 18 pairs of cabochon rose earrings in every color I could possibly want. I'm not even kidding. They're perfect! He also made a library check out system for my OCD self so I can lend books and DVDs without having to wonder where they went if they are, ahem, not returned.

I made him an iPod case, an "I love you because" dry erase board, and a collage frame of the kids with outlines of their hands. (Thank you, Pinterest!) I love the way they all turned out!

Our gifts for Avery were a magnetic dress up doll set (Costco), pretend medical kit (Toys R Us), and a Dr. Seuss matching game (Target). Landon got a Leapfrog activity table (Craigslist!), sensory ball set (Costco), and stacking cup toy (Target). They also got to open their gifts from Uncle Justin and Aunt Miriam! Avery loved her digital camera, and Landon was fascinated by his cell phone (while I loved the shirts they sent him!).

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we got the kids dressed up for church and then went to my parents' for breakfast with the family. My mom always makes baked French toast and Orange Julius on Christmas morning, so we devoured some sugary goodness before heading out to church. We had a great service worshiping with our church family; we even got to light the advent candle.

After church we went back to my parents' house and all the kids put on PJs again so we could have our Christmas "morning." We always do stockings in front of the fire in the living room before we move into the family room for presents by the tree.

Sneaky, sneaky!

Waiting not-so-patiently...

Squish!

Looks like somebody's ready to try a sippy cup...

This was the first time I've spent Christmas day with my brother Aaron in over 5 years, so it was really fun to have our whole family together again.

Best game ever! Thanks, Allison!

Ugh, all that work and a stupid clip fell off! Sorry, Brittany!

Uncle Vernon, Aunt Tina, and Ral and Maddie came over for lunch (steaks, the best potato casserole ever, baked green beans, and blueberry jello salad), and the rest of the day was just chill. We stayed over there way too late playing Ticket to Ride (Aaron always brings over weird new games for us to play), and Avery finally put herself to bed on the couch because we were neglectful parents who kept her up well past her bedtime.

These kiddos got lots of fun things!

My precious niece, Evelyn!

Ah, it was a fun day with family and way too much food. We are so incredibly blessed to have such amazing family and more food and tangible things than we could possibly need. We don't take it for granted, and my prayer is that we're able to share those blessings with others.

Happy birthday, Jesus! And stay tuned for the post of Round 2 with Matt's family...

Christmas Fun

 We've been trying to do lots of special Christmas-y things this season since this is the first year Avery's really been into it. We've been doing the advent activity calendar, but we've been pretty, um, flexible with our activities. Let's just say that there are days that we pull out the day's activity and tell her that it says something completely different.

We're supposed to open a new Christmas book and we forgot to buy it? That's okay, Avery can't read that little slip of paper yet. And that day's activity quickly becomes "eat that candy cane you got in your bag at Breakfast With Santa." Haha, we're good parents, I promise.

Here's some fun stuff we've done this month:

Decorate our (teeny tiny) Christmas tree. It can't even hold up our tree topper, but we love it. It's so skinny and pre-lit and perfect, and we don't even have to move any furniture to fit it in our living room.

Watch the Polar Express at bedtime! Landon didn't really stay up much longer than the opening credits, but Avery was enthralled. I was shocked that she watched the entire thing. I had forgotten that it's kind of a boring movie, but she didn't seem to think so.

It might've helped that she really loves popcorn. I think that's genetic. I've never seen a family who loves popcorn more than mine. We're weird.

Breakfast with Santa.

January is going to have to be our "get off the sugar high" detox month. I think the girl was happy to be decorating some cookies! Shoot, give me cookies and a bunch of icing and sprinkles and I smile that big, too.

Avery just adores Ms. Amy! She helped her make some reindeer food at Breakfast with Santa.

"Daddy, stop taking all these pictures of me already!"

We packaged up some snowman poop to give Avery's classmates at their Happy Birthday, Jesus party at school. Yes, my child is the one who will give yours poop. What can I say, she really likes poop.

We've also done some more stuff like make a present for Matt, buy an Angel Tree gift, make paper snowflakes, eat lots of baked goods, and other stuff that I didn't take pictures of, but we're having a great month celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Although I'm pretty sure I'm going to be very tired of singing Away in a Manger by the time Christmas actually gets here. It's her very favorite song and she wants to sing it all the time. If we can just get her to like singing solo, we'll be golden.

Speaking of Christmas actually getting here, I still have a KAJILLION presents to make and I'm just sitting laying here on my couch writing a sub-par blog entry as to avoid doing anything productive.

Mmm, I could really go for some hot chocolate right now. Anyone want to make the recipe I posted here and bring me an oversized mug full of it?

I would love you forever.

Peas and Hot Chocolate

Ewww, not together.

But this little guy has finally decided that he likes to eat real (okay, pureed) food! Yippee! No more trying to force open his mouth! That was getting exhausting. And messy. Well, it's still messy, but hooray, Landon likes peas!! (And sweet potatoes. And bananas. And applesauce.)

And Avery likes hot chocolate! But who wouldn't like this fantastic recipe?!? Seriously, it takes a couple of hours in the crock pot and it's more expensive than Swiss Miss, but it is fantastic and completely worth the tiny extra effort to throw it all together.

Here's the recipe:

• 1.5 C heavy cream
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
• 2 C milk chocolate chips (I just threw in the whole bag)
• 6 C milk (I used 2%)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Whisk all the ingredients together in the crock pot and stir every now and then. (Helpful hint: put the chocolate chips in first so you don't splash milk all. over. your. kitchen.) The recipe says to heat on low, but I was impatient and put it on high. It still worked, you just might have to stir more frequently. It makes 6-8 servings.

Add marshmallows when serving. Or don't. But you will probably want more than one mug of this rich, chocolatey goodness, with or without them.

You are welcome.

Friday Five: Linky Love

Once again, I don't really have time for a real post, but here are some little gems from zee internet.

1. This season of the year always makes me think. A lot. Now that Avery's getting old enough for all the Santa stuff, we've been talking about how much of the jolly ol' fellow we'd like to include in our celebration of Christ's birth. Gifts are also a struggle. I mean, we have SO much and I hate buying stuff for people if they're not going to love it. I love giving gifts to people I love, but I want them to be meaningful and not just more junk to fill up the house.

All that to say, this article really made some good points and put into words a lot of the things I've been feeling.

2. Another one was this article about loving others. While I don't agree with the author 100% and it's a VERY long read, I thought it was a well-written reminder about how I should be living my life.At the very least, it'll make you think.

3. My sister's so stinking talented. I've said that a million times, but she really is. Here's the link to our recent family photo shoot. And really, why have you not hired her to take your pictures yet??

4. Speaking of talented, my friend Rachel has one of the cutest Etsy shops I've ever seen. I can't remember if I've ever linked to it on here, so I'm doing it now. She makes bibs, burp cloths, and lots more cute kid stuff. It's not too late to order Christmas gifts, and handmade is a great option! (Or hey, at least keep her in mind for the next baby shower you're invited to.)

5. I love my crock pot. It has become my best friend during this soccer season. Tonight we devoured my new favorite Chicken Tortilla Soup. While I know it probably uses too many canned ingredients to be healthy (don't judge me, Mom), it sure was convenient. And yummy. We had some guac and chips with it, and I was in Tex Mex heaven. We're definitely adding it to the meal rotation.

Happy weekend! Oh, and I have a new NIECE! I'll post about her when I have pictures to go along with it.

Landon: 6 Months

How has it been half a year already?!?!

This little dude just adds so much life to this house, and we love him like crazy! His little personality is really coming out now. We've had so much fun watching him grow and do new things!

Sweet Landon, here's what you've been up to this month:

• You had your 6 month check up today, and you're still off the charts! You weigh 20 lb 7 oz, you're 28.5 inches tall, and your head circumference is 18". You wear mostly 12 month clothes, but you still fit in a lot of your 9 month outfits. You're still comfortably in a size 3 diaper.
• You sit up pretty well on your own now, but we usually sit you in the Boppy or our laps because you're still a little wobbly. 

• You're pretty close to crawling already! You roll all over the floor to get to new places, and you've started pulling those knees up to get yourself moving.
• Sleeping is still one of your strong suits. :) You sleep all night (mostly) from about 7:30 pm to 7:30 am, and you nap a couple times a day. You get a 1-2 hour afternoon nap, and the length of your morning nap is hit or miss, depending on our schedule (which means that sometimes it's in the car).

• You make all sorts of fun noises these days. There are lots of squeals and general "yelling," and you really sound like you're trying to talk to us when you get on a roll. Avery likes to translate what she thinks you're saying.
• You've started eating baby food, but you're really not a big fan. So far all we've tried is rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. I think that I haven't been making the consistent smooth enough, so part of your dislike is probably my fault. We were really wanting to wait until you turned 6 months to start you on solids anyway, so we'll really start picking it up now. I think you need some green beans or peas soon. :)
• You have a tooth! One of your bottom ones poked through a couple of weeks ago, and I think you're working on some more.

• Life's a party and you love to play. You grab everything! You love to play with your toys and in your jumper and exersaucer. You also love it when we sing to you and play peekaboo. Everything Avery does makes you smile, and you watch her every move. You two are going to be quite the pair!

Stop growing so quickly. :)

We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Activity Advent Calendar

One of the more important things I learned as an education major was how to beg, borrow, and steal. Why reinvent the wheel when there are so many great ideas out there? Thanks to Pinterest, it's become even easier to do just that.

So our advent calendar this year is simply a Pinterest knock off, but I'm still excited about it and thought I'd share. It is December 1 after all, so the countdown does begin today...

I pinned this calendar and this one for inspiration, and I was going to make a super cute pocket calendar out of scrapbook paper. I even created the base for it and figured out pocket measurements and everything. But then I remembered that, hey, I have no free time whatsoever and what was I thinking making all that extra work for myself. So I bought a $2.50 felt pocket calendar in the dollar section at Target. It's a piece of crap, but it's a piece of crap that took me all of 5 minutes to buy.

My friend April made her own fancy shmancy calendar, and it. is. awesome. You should definitely check out her tutorial for some advent awesomeness.

The point of the activity advent is that you focus on creating memories each day of December instead of getting a cheap little gift that will eventually end up in the trash. 

We came up with 24 activities, printed them out, and stuck them in each pocket. Easy breezy! The hardest part was coming up with activities, so I'm listing the ones we picked in case you need some future inspiration. Or something like that. We coordinated with our calendars to make sure everything would actually be do-able on the date we chose, and a lot of the activities we picked were things that were already on the calendar (i.e. visiting Santa, Christmas concert, etc.). And I didn't include things like reading the Christmas story and a few other traditions that are already a given. We'll do those things throughout the season anyway.

So without further ado, here's our list for this year...

Decorate the tree for your room

Make a Paper Chain

Decorate the Christmas tree

Watch a Christmas movie in PJs with popcorn

Go to Christmas light-up parade

Color a Christmas picture

Make Christmas cookies

Go to the choir Christmas concert

Make a special gift for Daddy

Visit Santa

Open a new Christmas book

Buy a gift for the Angel Tree

Make Christmas cards

Make paper snowflakes

Sing carols at the piano

Go out for a Christmas treat

Go to the Arboretum

Drink hot chocolate in front of the fire

Make peppermint fudge

Deliver Christmas gifts to neighbors

Decorate Christmas cookies

Look at Christmas lights

Wrap Christmas presents

Open new Christmas PJs

Merry Christmas!!