Christmas Morning

The five of us spent Christmas morning at home and enjoyed opening our stockings, eating french toast, reading the Christmas story, opening our presents and playing with new toys.  It was fun to see the kids get excited about what their siblings were opening.

 

We inundated Sylvia with art supplies.  According to her she got more than a hundred million papers.  Eric got a set of three wooden puzzles from us.  There was a train, construction equipment and a fire truck. The train puzzle quickly became his favorite.  We bought some new blocks for Drake to add to our set.  Dan made me a growth chart that looks like a school ruler.  It's now hanging in our bedroom and is ready for me to measure the kids.  He also got me a new Iowa shirt.  Sylvia helped me pick out new shoes for Dan and Eric chose a new gym bag for him.  As well as their gifts from us, the Sylvia and Eric picked from the World Vision catalog as part of the Christmas gift.  Sylvia chose to purchase chicks and medical supplies and Eric picked out ducks and seeds.



Checking out the new computer game he found in his stocking.

Drake got a new bib and sippy cup in his stocking.



Sylvia got an orchid in her stocking from daddy.



Sharing her new book about the solar system with daddy.

My and my pajama babies.

Eric opening his new puzzles.

Sylvia made us an ornament at preschool and we waited to Christmas day to open it.

Drake was pretty sure his blocks were made for banging together.

I mentioned that Sylvia picked out the color, right?

December Snow

We've only had one snow this winter and it was back in December.  I'm thankful I got the kids out to play and sled on our tiny little hill.  They had fun pulling each other around, sledding down the hill, making snow angels, swinging and eating snow.  I'm hoping for at least one more big snow so we can take them sledding on a real hill.

Purple Day

Sylvia had fun collecting purple things from around the house for her purple picture.  I say she did pretty good.

 

Sylvia's Preschool Christmas Program

 

Christmas with the Kacs

Rather than shipping a box off to Texas, we got to celebrate in person with the Kacmarynskis again this year.  It's been such a blessing to have them here in town.  Our families enjoyed a meal together.  It will be a few years before we can capture a picture of that.  Meal time is pretty active with five kids five and under.

 

Emily made Sylvia and Macy new dress up aprons to wear while playing doctor.

 

She also made Eric a puppet theater which he loves setting up in our basement.

 

The boys checking out Parker's new air hockey table.

The kids watched a show while we finished up a few things.  I promise they were more excited than this to be watching TV.  They're just too distracted I guess.

December Fun

We had a fun filled December as we looked forward to celebrating Jesus' birthday.  Each day we opened a small box which listed a fun activity for the day.  We took treats to our neighbors, drank hot chocolate, donated toys and food, looked at Christmas lights and much more.  Here are just a few of our other activities.  We also did a Jesse Tree advent book and decorated a small tree with an ornament for each Bible story we read.  I loved watching our kids excitement grow as Christmas approached.  Sylvia told me her favorite thing about Christmas is Jesus!

 

Checking out the stockings (which were hung just within his reach).

Telling the Christmas story with our Little People nativity set.

Decorating our felt Christmas tree.

Undecorating our felt Christmas tree.

Taking a look at our Christmas books.

They picked the first free they saw and it was beautiful.

Most of our decorations were near the top of the tree so Drake couldn't reach them.

I'm not sure I would have gotten our tree decorated without Grandma coming over to help.

Daddy helped the kids decorate ice cream cone Christmas trees.

Taking a closer look at the tree.

The kids helped make Christmas spice cookies.

Drake's 1st Birthday

In an attempt to make the holidays (a little) less busy, we celebrated Drake and Katie's birthdays at a combined family party.  Becky was kind enough to host and provide dinner.  I brought the cakes and birthday boy.

 

Drake took one look at his cake and was ready to eat it.  I don't think his piece of cake moved away from his mouth while he ate it. 

 

He didn't quite get the hang of opening gifts but he liked what he found inside once he had help getting into them. 

We're so thankful to have family in town to celebrate these occasions with.

 

Drake's birthday accomplishment was taking his first steps!