Christmastime is Here!

I set up Great Pappy's Nativity before the kids woke up. Colleen was so excited to run and get her baby Jesus to show me.

 

Fun with UV lights and his Kiwi Crate. Sweet sharing with his sister too.

 

I still require a rest time on the days that the big kids are home. Austin came out every 15min wanting to know when it was up. Then he fell asleep literally 5min before I was going to let them free. It's so hard to be 5!

This boy has his solid yellow belt now! We are so proud of how hard he's worked in the last 3 months. 

 

They did this puzzle together and then Austin offered to push her around.

"Mommy! Come eat with me!" 

Then she told me to pray for the food and insisted on refilling my water every single time I took a pretend sip. 

It's cold waiting on the school bus now! 

She must sleep with "Doggie" and "Baby". 

While Amelia had a pizza party at her social skills group, the younger 2 and I went to a Peruvian restaurant I found. The food was so yummy, and the kids were so into it. 

 

Let's build Mommy! 

 

Brief stop in to the kids' school winter craft morning.

 

Carla & Diogo had gifted the kids the chocolate advent calendars. They are THRILLED to start them. 

So excited to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas movie. 

A Relaxing Thanksgiving

The kids had multiple half-days for teacher-parent conferences, so the schedule was strange for us as Austin is in half-day Kindergarten and it gets moved into part of the morning. So Colleen and I had a fun Costco trip alone and sharing lunch. She is such a ham when she gets one-on-one attention.

 

This girl lost a tooth in the middle of Austin's karate lesson! All 4 canines are gone now.

 

Pictures that Amelia's teacher sent of her class at the school Thanksgiving Feast.

This is the first year in the entirety of our marriage that we did not have plans to travel anywhere or have any visitors with us for Thanksgiving. We tossed around a variety of ideas of places to go or things to do for the holiday. Then I came down sick on Tuesday night with respiratory junk; we decided that a relaxing holiday at home was in order. It ended up being really nice. We cooked a simple meal but the kids enjoyed eating it on china with fizzy drinks. They loved having a pajama day and working on projects. We are thankful and blessed. 

One of our big projects for the holiday weekend was to let the kids paint these crates that would become toy storage in our garage. 

 

The girls got their nails painted. (Although Colleen woke up late and had to finish her pumpkin pie first!)

 

They each got a playtime bath.

On Friday, I was feeling much better so we took them bowling. It was Colleen's first time bowling and fun was had by all! 

 

 

Then after rest time we put the tree up and decorated it. The kids were super-engaged and interested in the stories behind the ornaments. 

 

 

Playing right next to the tree is currently in vogue.

Colleen got to work on her crate. 

Fun mix of autumn and Christmas

On Sunday, Amelia insisted on wearing this dress that Martha sewed her, even though it was too cold for a sleeveless dress. She found a solution that made her happy.

This girl woke up from her nap cranky and fell asleep on me after church. The sleeping snuggles are rare these days.

Sunday afternoon - hang up the crates! They are awesome with Patrick's snow and rain boot holders.

 

So thankful for 4 days together before the next round of Patrick's traveling.