Other December Festivities

This year we put activities in the advant calender instead of candy, so there has been lots of games, crafts, cooking treats, watching movies with popcorn, going to look at lights, hot chocolate, sledding and all that fun stuff!

Making gingerbread houses- look at Ari's house completely covered!

 The girls had a little dance performance at dance that I got to watch, and at school the kindergartners put on a Christmas show for the parents. I love that they have them dress up...they were all so cute!!

One of these faces is not like the others....lol

 that's better

 Also Scott joined cub scouts! He is soooo excited! And just in time for the pinewood derby too- it's next month! :)

A few of the kids dressed up Sunday

 Jay was NOT liking his church shoes

 Yesterday's activity was to go iceskating. Our ice rink is about a mile from our house and it also has little walkers for the kids to use so that they (aren't suppose to) don't fall

 Hailey picked it up really quick like everything else she tries. She is so athletic. She was having a blast and flying around the rink even trying to do spins! 

Arianna didn't want to skate, so Kevin and I traded off watching Ari and Jay behind the glass

Finally we just brought them onto the rink and put them in the box so they could watch

after a few rounds in her boots with Dad at the end, Ari decided she would like to try next time

We use to take the kids to Sun Valley at Thanksgiving with my parents, and always did this with Scott and Hailey when they were babies.

 so cute

Scott was having a hard time. He has to try twice as hard it seems like because sports just don't come as natural to him. And then he gets frustrated because he's so hard on himself!

He said, "I'm just not an iceskating kinda guy" lol

 Showing off her 2 missing teeth! The toothfairy even got stuck in a snow storm on Saturday night and didn't show up! Luckily the next night had clear skies lol

 Pretty fun! I can't believe it's Christmas Eve! It has been such a wonderful month with all the things we have done together as a family. I just LOVE this time of year!

Bye bye for now! :)

Scott the morning of his birthday-

He was so excited they had a read athon at school and he got to wear his jammies and everything!

Much like presents, he didn't care what kind of cake he had this year either, so since he likes Scooby Doo I decided on this one- he thought it was pretty awesome!

 I gave him the option of me bringing him his choice of lunch to school, or taking him out for lunch, and so of course he choose to go out. We picked him up from school and he wanted sonic, so since that's not really a sit down place, we came home and ate and then I took him back to school. After Dad came home, we ate his favorite dinner- asian chicken skewers and then sang, opened presents and had cake and icecream!

 Scott gets up every morning and puts on his robe. He loves it. When I noticed it was about 3 inches too short on the sleeves, I looked through the blog to find out when his Aunt Bre gave it to him and it was when he was 4! lol He has been wearing it for 4 years! So Aunt Bre updated his look this year :)

 I got him some oragami books and paper. He LOVES oragami right now and was super excited!

 Hailey got him some bendastix, Ari some legos and Jay the game jenga...but it was Dad who had to go outdo himself and get him a bow and arrow. He was pretty excited! He had been guessing for the past few weeks what it could possibly be in that odd shaped present.

 I decided to let his best friend David across the street come over and have cake and icecream and hang out.

Jay- thoroughly enjoying his cake!

 I will say it again, but our kids favorite part about their birthday is getting to stay up past bedtime with mom and dad. I told Scott he spent it doing the same thing he did last year- putting together his legos. 

One one of the best presents of all...going to the Scouting office today to pick up his uniform and supplies. First pack meeting tomorrow night. Pretty exciting! :)

My oldest is 8 today! Crazy!!

Scott has always been a sweetheart. He is (usually) always a very polite, kind hearted and caring boy. Lately he has just been pulling on my heart strings with some of the things he says. He wouldn't give us any ideas for his birthday or for Christmas and didn't even write Santa a letter. Instead of writing Santa a wish list, he wanted to draw him some pictures and make a present for him, his reindeer and his elf. He even put little tags on them and they are sitting in his stocking awaiting Santa's arrival. He has just been all about giving lately....it's pretty darn cute!

He says, "I don't care what I get. Well...there is one thing- I don't want coal! As long as I don't get coal- I'm good!"

He has been preparing for his baptism the first week of January, and is so excited! He can hardly wait! He even gets to start cub scouts this week and can hardly sit still for that one!

He still loves the outdoors and camping, and absolutely loves to build with his hands and has lego and oragami creations all over his room.

 He is just a sweetheart, truly.

Happy Birthday Bud!! We love you!

Jay took his first big steps on Sunday, December 8th! Only Dad got to see, but he has been making small steps all week and I FINALLY got it on video! 

Jay Walking from Nicole on Vimeo.

And while I was trying to capture walking footage, I got his cute little crawl on video. He is so funny because he crawls on the carpet and then the second he touches the wood floors, he uses his feet instead with his little bum in the air. It's seriously the cutest ever!

Jay's crawling style from Nicole on Vimeo.

Oh, and he's getting taller too! Wanna know how I know that? Well he use to just demolish my bottom kitchen drawers and now he's working on the uppers! lol

Jay getting into drawers from Nicole on Vimeo.

Hailey got this hat at school and wore it the ENTIRE day of her birthday! 

I started the tradition with Scott that they get to have their first "friend" party when they are in kindergarten, and Hailey couldn't wait!

 Of course she had her plans made months in advance and decided on a cooking party since she is always in the kitchen with mom! Her invitation looked like this...(but on cute paper printed from home)

RECIPE:    Hailey's 6th Birthday

Cook Time: 2-4 pm                         Serving Size: lots of fun

INGREDIENTS                                          INSTRUCTIONS

1 birthday girl                                                     Mix all together on Saturday

6 good friends                                                       December 7th at 2 pm

make-your-own pizzas

a sprinkle of cupcakes                                              Young Chef’s Academy

a pinch of imagination                                                   (our address)

1 cup of excitement                                                     

1 large bag of laughter                                          RSVP by December 2nd

                                                                 Call or Text Nicole @ (our number)

 I let the kids decide everything on their big days, so she wanted zebra and animal print themed plates and cups and a monkey cake! Doesn't really exactly go with a cooking theme, but like I said- they get to be the boss! :)

Ready to go and patiently waiting for kids to arrive

She invited 4 little girls and 2 boys...with their aprons decorated (Hailey is being shy with her hat over her head in the middle)

 The kids had SO much fun decorating their own pizzas. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Kids at this age are just adorable!

 A little "pin the candle on the cake" while the pizzas cooked

Eating their masterpieces

 On to decorating cupcakes. The kids couldn't believe I let them make and eat 2...but we had tons of frosting and sprinkles so why not :)

 Scott enjoying the party

 A little shy listening to friends sing to her

We had so much fun! The kids were adorable and had a great time. Hailey and I made up a "take home recipe" bag for each of them instead of a goodie bag. We put all the ingredients to make my favorite Kool-Aid playdough at home along with the recipe (and their new little rolling pins from the pizzas too)

After the kids all went home and after a little bit of rest, we ate some dinner and then it was onto family time opening presents and eating cake

 Money is always exciting for kids right? So funny!

 What she wanted, and also asked Santa for was a hair model. A doll that you can do her hair. She was pretty excited. She can braid really good for a 6 year old!

Another tradition...getting to stay up an hour past bedtime to enjoy your toys and attention from mom and dad :)

I didn't get a picture with her presents, but it is kind of fun to look back on what things you liked so I will write it instead. Dad got her the hair model doll, Mom got her a little lap desk with some new colored pencils, crayons and paper, Scott got her a motorcycle lego set, Arianna got her some beads to make jewelry and Jay got her a huge crayon tower...and then of course a few things from grandparents and aunts! :)

Anyway it turned out to be a great day! I told her today when I dropped her off for school that she left school on Friday a 5 year old, and came back Monday a 6 year old. Pretty awesome stuff! :)