Christmas at Our House

We had a quiet day at home for Christmas. Here is a little peek inside.

Started by finishing off our Jesse Tree stories and garland is full of ornaments

The boys were excited when they saw this

Opening stockings

We ate lots of treats

Talked to some Grandprents on Skype and opened presents

Opening

Happy dance for slippers

We gave them a "snowball fight"

One of my favorite presents to give a collection of stories and a stuffed toy

Trying to read through the new books the first day

Talked to more grandparents on Skype

Baby took afternoon nap

And the two older boys were quietly reading to themselves. Amazing!

Sharing a new story

Getting ready for our family's little "Christmas pageant"

Alexander's first Christmas photo

Andrew's Third Birthday Party: Thomas the Tank Engine Theme

Andrew officially turned 3 years old on the 18th of December. He is 32 pounds and 36.5 inches tall now. He loves to run and jump and has a great throwing arm. he is till advanced in most fine motor skills and can use a computer mouse really well now. Late this fall he has taken off with reading and can now read entire easy readers by himself. He even enjoys it so much now he chooses to read all on his own.

We celebrated his third birthday with a Thomas the Tank Engine party. The grandparents sent lots of presents and huge decorations. We will be continuing to celebrate with special outings from the grandparents that he received certificates for on his birthday throughout the winter.

I sewed Andrew a stuffed Thomas

Waking up and finding the huge decorations

Decorated dining room

Packing his Thomas lunch box

New building train

Choo-choo

Island of Sodor

Making half-birthday cupcakes

Grilled cheese and cheesy Pringles mmm....

Ready to play pin the funnel on Thomas

The littlest brother is happy wearing his Thomas shirt

Daddy building more trains

Ready to blow out his three candles

Merry Christmas

Christmas Holiday Preschool Craft: Cutting Paper Snowflakes

This simple idea is so fun there is a reason so many people do it every year. This is the first year I attempted to cut paper snowflakes with my oldest, who is now four years old. It was great cutting practice for him. I didn't have him fold his paper very many times and I drew really big shapes and easy lines, but he really surprised me at how well he did. Before this activity cutting on lines seemed hard and frustrating for him, but he loves the idea of snow, and making snow flakes was really motivating for him. I really like his big snow flake.

Here is a really good tutorial for how to fold and cut really pretty 6 pointed snow flakes (good for older kids) and in this post is an idea for making snow flakes out of coffee filters.

You should definitely spend a little time cutting out at least a snowflake or two with your preschooler. And then you should put them up by some family Christmas pictures from your youth, or not, that is just what I did with mine.

But if you have a picture where your husband looks like the cutest baby elf you have ever seen, you should definitely put that picture up every Christmas to admire the cuteness, and put a paper snowflake by it just for good measure. :)

Alexander at Two Months

As a kid I could never figure out why my parents and especially grandparents were always saying that time flies so fast, but with each child we have time seems to speed up a little bit more.

Here are some random fun facts about Alexander who is somehow already 2 months old.

• He is over 13 pounds already and growing into 6 month clothing
• He is quite strong, holds his head up well, can push his head up when on his tummy, and loves to practice standing
• If he gets mad enough he has successfully rolled over on a slant and scooted forwards and backwards so we have to watch him
• He likes to coo and can make a lot of sounds already
• He is really good at tracking things visually and has a really long attention span for such a tiny guy
• He is so good when Chinese people hold him, he smiles a lot and seems to enjoy it a lot right now :)
• His brothers (and everyone else) love him soooooo much  

Since Aaron (our first) was an early talker, and Andrew (our second) was a very early walker, it will be interesting to see what Alexander's strengths are as he continues to develop. Right now it seems like either verbal or motor skills could be his strong suit. It seems like he wants to do everything at once to either catch up to his older brothers, beat them at something, or be able to talk back or run away from them when they are loud and too loving.

Count Your Blessings

name them one by one...

And it will surprise you...