Children's Christmas play

I am so thankful for our church and the amazing people that work with the kids.  Each year they have done a laid-back, but very cute musical of some kind.  I like that it is low-stress and we still get the benefit of worshiping Jesus with this kind of event.

Sean was a wise man.  He wore his button-up shirt because he wanted to look nice.

Proud mommy moment when Sean read his verse.

Luke was a sheep.  He (and others) were picking the cotton balls off of his shirt.  Amanda oh-so-casually scooted up to sit by him.  He didn't last long singing before he was in my lap.  

Other shots of Sean during the play.  

I am so thankful for the memories we are making!

Love of the Titanic

A  new interest has sprouted up around here.  It started with reading the Magic Treehouse, Tuesday on the Titanic.  I just picked up some books at the library on it to see if Sean would be interested in learning more.  Who knew?

He has made the Titanic out of everything he owns.  When he eats, the food becomes the Titanic sinking.  We even made a video complete with iceberg and music.

Luke is even getting in on the action.

We have watched videos and documentaries.  There are other ships he is interested in.  The sister to Titanic is Brittanic.  He knows all about her, too.  :)

We are planning to take him to the Titanic Museum for his birthday in February if he still wants to go.  I am blown away at how he gets attached to a certain topic and immerses himself.  

Decorating our tree

  We typically have a snack dinner and sparkling wine to celebrate putting up the tree.  We did, in fact, enjoy this tradition, but there are no pictures to prove it.  Imagine that.

Jeff practicing and look at our itty bitty tree in the background!  It had to be Eli-proof!

Boys playing with the nativity I got after Christmas last year.

Matt and Becca came over to enjoy family time.  Hugs from cute little guys are just a perk.

And apparently she stole my camera at some point.  

 Hugs from cute, big guys are also a perk... I am not sure Matt would agree, though.

I don't know what he was doing, but I love this picture..

And this little guy is the hardest child to get a picture of!  I think he runs when he sees the camera.  Well, not this night, my little offspring!

 The boys decide to try their hand at making a nativity from paper.  Notice there is no "after" because there was... no after.  But it's always fun to cut and glue paper.

Cutie-pie Luke and Matt.  

I love decorating for Christmas and preparing the physical part of our home for richness of celebrating Christ!

December beginnings

For the first time I did and advent activity calendar for the boys.  I made a list of fun things to do and acts of service and tied them up with some chocolates for each day.

Our nature cubbies turned into the advent countdown.

We did a lot of the things and the boys loved opening the packages each day.  Luke was odd and Sean was even.  

Luke kept up with some "green" projects.  He liked the water coloring.  I used a thick wood cutting born his Papa made as the base.  It worked great and Luke's picture was really nice.

 

Sean finished his ETC workbook just in time for a break.

Colder days mean tea time around here.  The boys got way more excited than I expected and pulled all their buddies out and set them a place, too.

Who  says little boys can't have tea parties?  :)  

Thanksgiving and celebrations

We got to spend thanksgiving with family at a cabin in Clayton, Georgia.  I did a pretty ol' horrible job of getting pictures.  Jeff and Eli were sick and we were pretty sleep-deprived.  Although it was a fantastic trip, we were in a sleepy fog!

Cousins :)

 The cabin was on the side of a mountain and it was covered in leaves.  Jeff took them out several times to play.

I did a little photo shoot for my sis and her sweet boyfriend.  Here is one of my favorites:

I got zero pictures from Thanksgiving Day (?!?!?!).  The Friday after we had Luke's party.  He was so excited!

 He requested a strawberry monster cake.  

The family also brought me birthday gifts since mine is about a week after Luke's.  Then we had a baby shower my brother and his fiance.  Lots to celebrate and be thankful for! 

Happy Birthday, Lukie!

We had a quiet morning for Luke's birthday.  Cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a prize awaited him on the table.

Someone is not very festive...

Play-Doh crane!

His party happened over thanksgiving while we celebrated with family.

My sweet, four-year-old Stinka-

You continue to be my dreamy, cuddly, sensitive boy.  You like to do mostly what your big brother does.  You love PJ's and would wear them all the time.  You have the sweetest singing voice and your laugh is contagious.  You pick me flowers when you go outside and get excited about all kinds of things.  You like to shake your hiney because it made us laugh.  You like a drink of water before bed and eat lots of carrots and peppers (which you call Dr. Peppers).  You give the best hugs and I'm so glad you're mine.

Creative play

This is what happens when you declare a TV-free week :

The kids decided to play with produce.  They made up a game of passing it back and forth and had a "picnic."

I moved the table to the warmer living room for afternoon tea.

Just a few shots of Luke working on colors and counting: