Advent Day 2 & 3 - Christmas books and Gingerbread Houses

Day 2 - We opened our new Christmas books for the year. Nothing really picture worthy.

Day 3 - For Family Home Evening we decorated Gingerbread Houses and invited Grandma and Grandpa to join us.  This was the first year that Reese insisted on doing all the decorating. I helped her a little, but only when instructed to do so and told exactly what and where to put the candy. She is very proud of her little house.

And in case you're wondering about Anni...well she just ate candy all night. She's now sleeping peacefully in a sugar coma.

Advent Day 1 - 2012 ornaments

A few years ago I decided to give up my fancy themed Christmas tree and start a new tradition with my kids. Each year they pick out a new Christmas Tree ornament. It's so fun as we get out all the ornaments each year and remember the past years ornaments, along with a small collection I had from throughout my life. Reese loves to hear the stories of where I got each ornament and who gave it to  me. She also loves to hear the stories of why or how she picked out the ornaments from previous years.

One of my favorite ornaments is a little bird that my grandmother gave me. (see this post for full story) Reese loves it too and always wants me to tell her about my grandma when she looks at it. So when she saw these cute little birds and nest and Porters, she immediately wanted to get them for our tree. I told her that they could be her 2012 ornaments. She picked the big white bird.  Of course, as soon as Reese had a bird Anni had to have a bird, so she picked the little red one.





This is the bird my grandma gave me...as you can see, he is safely placed at the top of the tree where no little hands can destroy him. He is very very old...and I just love him.

2012 Advent...

It's that time of year again...

The plan:

Dec. 1 Go shopping to pick our your 2012 Christmas Tree ornament.

 Dec. 2 Open your first Christmas present of the season. (Christmas Books)

Dec. 3 Decorate Gingerbread Houses for Family Home Evening. Invite Grandma & Grandpa to join us.

Dec. 4 Christmas Craft (letter ornament/mini trees)

Dec. 5 Make a birthday cake and card for Grandpa. It’s his birthday tomorrow. Go to Grandma’s for dinner to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday

Dec. 6 Write a letter to Santa and to Logan. Put together Logan’s Christmas package.

Dec. 7 Make a fun little present for your teachers…today is the last day of school.

Dec. 8 Go on a special Daddy date – dinner and shopping for mommy

Dec. 9 Open a fun early Christmas Present (Christmas activity books for church)

Dec. 10 Watch a very special Christmas movie and make a fun treat for Family Home Evening

Dec. 11 Invite some friends over for a Christmas music dance party.

Dec. 12 Make and deliver treats for the neighbors.

Dec. 13 Go to the ward Christmas party.

Dec. 14 Make a special Christmas Craft (snow globes)

Dec. 15 Play in the snow outside. If there’s no snow, go to a special place to play (McDonalds)

Dec. 16 Tonight you get to have a special candle light bubble bath

Dec. 17 (FHE) Story of Nativity – Make a Birthday card for Jesus.

Dec. 18 Have a special beauty day with mom (condition hair, paint nails etc…)

Dec. 19 Invite a friend over to play

Dec. 20 Make paper snowflakes to hang in the window.

Dec. 21 Go out to dinner and drive around to see Christmas Lights

Dec. 22 Go visit Santa

Dec. 23 Make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies.

Dec 24 It’s Christmas Eve. Have a special Christmas FHE and open one special Christmas present. Don't forget to put up out cookies and milk for Santa.

Thankful

Thanksgiving day is probably my least favorite holiday...as a woman I spend the entire day (and several days leading up to it) cooking and cleaning, while most everyone else relaxes and does nothing. It's long been a pet-peeve of mine. But I do love the idea of Thanksgiving and the month of November as a whole. I've tried to instill in my children the idea of true thanks and giving by implementing traditions that focus on just that...being thankful and giving back for all those things we have been blessed with. We always start the month by sitting down and writing down all the things to which we are "thankful". We then place them on our Thankful Tree...

This year even Rowan made it onto the tree...Reese really misses her best friend!

During the month our FHE lessons will focus on Gratitude and Service as well as activities where we can give back or perform random acts of service. I truly hope my children will grow up knowing that Thanksgiving isn't just about turkey and pie.

A dream come true!

Since moving to Idaho we see a lot of horses. On our way out to Uncle Brady's we even count all the horses we see. Reese often looks longingly out the window and says, "mom do think that one day I'll be able to ride a horse?" My sweet girl loves animals so much...she must get that from her dad, because she doesn't get if from me. But I love seeing my girls dreams come true. Like today, when our awesome neighbor, Cody, invited Reese to come ride her dad's horses...or pony and donkey really. The big horse was a little too spooked by all the kids, they decided to keep him in the trailer. But that didn't matter to Reese, she was in heaven! After her first ride she excitedly proclaimed, "I think I really like Idaho now!!"





At this very moment the horse went "heee heee" and Reese got really excited and said, "oh!! he just say hi to me!!"








Reese got to ride the donkey with a couple of her new friends Alli and Mayli.



Even Anni got in on the horse (donkey) riding. Shockingly she didn't have any hesitation. Cody's sweet little boy, Kannon, offered to take her for a ride. Anni got right on and loved every second.







Pretty girls, Alli, Reese and Malee



And after all the horse riding...there was a lot of horse playing!



Rolling down the hill!

Happy Halloween!

You can't really tell but this cute little pony has been sick all week. She did however make a  miraculous recovery for trick-or-treating. Something tells me I'm going to pay for it tomorrow. She was such a cutie though...and so excited to be her favorite "my little pony", Rainbow Dash.

At the end of the night she proclaimed..."this has been the best night of my life!!"


This little pumpkin was so exited to head out for free candy. She was so cute marching up to each door. She walked the entire way. All three streets, up and down. She finally let Grandma carry her for the last couple houses. She also had a death grip on her treat bucket. It was so heavy, but she would not let go.


First house!!!


First free piece of candy!! She was so proud!

Yep...it's time to carve the pumpkins!

Two years ago Reese had a blast helping to clean out the pumpkins. Last year she wouldn't touch the insides with a ten foot poll...but this year she was elbo deep and loving every minute of it!





This kid just played with the aftermath and looked super cute doing it.






Grandma and Grandpa stopped by to help do some of the carving.

First "big" snow in Rexburg...

...Reese was in heaven! As far as she's concerned, we've moved to paradise!



















It was even more fun when daddy got home to build a snowman!

First Snow...

It only lasted for about 30 minutes and about 10 minutes after that the sun came out and we were back to beautiful fall weather. But for those 30 minutes Reese was pretty excited.

She and her new "back door" neighbor friend, Emry, met in the middle to enjoy the snow.



And then they came in to warm up with a little hot chocolate and lots of marshmallows.