Days 9-15

 Day 9 We made a winter craft, paper plate snowmen with our friends Lucy and Maxwell.

Day 10  we had Hot cocoa and read a Christmas book (not pictured)

 Day 11 we played board games by the lights on the Christmas tree. Its always a fun time playing Chutes and Ladders with a 2 and 1/2 year old and a very competitive 5 yr old!

On the 12th day of Christmas we put our PJs on and drove around looking at Christmas Lights. Kreg and the kids would rate the houses from Gold being the top and a piece of Tin being the lowest ha ha I just had fun dreaming of all the fun ways to decorate a home with lights!

On the 13th day we made pizza shaped like a snowman and had bubbly to drink! The kids love to make pizza and put the toppings on themselves, they also love Martinellis!

On the 14th day we went swimming! We love swimming all year long and there are some great indoor pools around us. We are swimming again for another day activity so I will post pictures after that.

On the 15th day we were lucky enough to wake up to lots of snow, I was worried because playing in the snow was our activity but the night before we had none so I thought I was going to have to switch days up but when we woke up the kids were excited!

Phone Photos

 Oli was so happy about having celery for lunch on this day, the next day however, he said celery was gross.

 This is what Oliver does when he is trying to convince me that he is happy and not a grouch. "I'm not grumper Mom, see I happy!" I think its his way of counteracting sad eyes or tears when he is upset. It makes me laugh every time! This specific time we were at the store and he was being super whiny so I told him he was going to have a nap when we got home, he said "I not tired see I happy!"

 Cecily plays makeup a lot, she did her own this day and it actually looked good!

 We have had such nice weather lately (like Modesto Christmas weather) So we get to play outside and have sword fights with sticks while we eat our quesadillas!

Cecily likes to come home from school and teach me how to do her home work. She is a little smarty pants and because he work is easy for her she thinks she knows everything! We are hoping she will get into a really great Charter school for next year.

She has a name!

                                                                          30 weeks

31 Weeks

We have been going back and forth between the names Cora and Claire for our baby girl. We finally decided on Cora Kathleen! My good friend Rhonda has a little girl named Cora and she is a doll! Rho and I were pregnant with Cora and Oliver at the same time, so we have known and loved Cora her whole life! Oliver and her were such great friends as well as CC and her big sister Ruby being great friends! Needless to say this family is special to us!
    After we moved to UT we got to see Rhonda and the girls and I told Rho that if I was having a girl I was really thinking of naming her Cora, she said she loved that idea so I felt really good about it (I wouldn't have done it if Rhonda wasn't OK with us using her daughters name). I have really felt this should be our baby's name since we knew for sure she was a girl but we also liked Claire, Claire is just so popular so that held me back, Cora is pretty and unique as well as old fashioned like our other kids' names. Kathleen is after my Paternal Grandmother Kathleen, She and I are very close and I have a special relationship with her. I lived with her for a while after I graduated High School and we became even closer. She is one of my best friends and such a great support to me! We talk all the time and visit when we can. I am so so excited that she and my Grandpa just bought a home in St. George so now I can see her more often!

We are so excited to meet our Cora Kathleen and can't wait to cuddle and love on her!

8th Day of Christmas

 On the 8th day of Christmas we went to the Rudolf Party that Gram had for the grand kids! It was so fun and full of treats! The kids each got their own Christmas apron and reindeer antlers to wear, they decorated gingerbread houses, cupcakes, got to watch the Rudolf Movie, play musical chairs, Make Rudolf ornaments, have Hot Cocoa, eat a yummy hot dog dinner, and even Santa stopped by for a visit! The kids had so much fun doing all the fun things but even more fun just being together and playing as cousins!

7th day of Christmas

For the 7th day of Christmas the kids got to go on dates. Cecily got to go on a Date with Gram, Sarah, and Reagan to the nutcracker ballet in Ogden at the Egyptian Theater. She had so much fun and loved the dancers and pretty costumes. She and Reagan loved dancing in the aisles during intermission!

Oliver got to go on a date with Mom and Dad to Chuck E Cheese! He loved the Pizza and root beer and all the sweet games! Especially the air hockey with Dad and driving the big Truck! He won lots of tickets and got a Nerf rocket ship, which was ruined by the end of the night.

3rd, 4th,5th, and 6th days of Christmas

On the 3rd day of Christmas we went Shopping for families in our ward that are in need. Our ward gives the families gift cards so that the parents still have the satisfaction of going out and shopping for their families, which I think is great for them but a little less fun for us. But my kids ironically are obsessed with the gift cards near the checkout at Walmart and Target and are always asking me to "buy them those cute credit cards" so they were as happy as can be to go and pick out the best looking Christmas gift cards to give to the kids that can't afford Christmas. Oli picked a card shaped like a snow man and CC picked a card shaped like a Christmas Tree. We had a little lesson/ Chat before hand about the spirit of giving and thinking of others and taking care of those around us that need our help. along these same lines CC impressed me earlier this week at the store, she had some change in her pocket and when she saw the man outside the store with the bell and the bucket she was so excited to put all her money in the bucket. She said it made her happy to give her money to someone who needed it. Melted my Heart!

 On the 4th Day of Christmas we went downtown to Temple Square and City Creek to look at the lights and the Candy windows. It was the perfect night, warm enough not to freeze and not many people were there so Oliver could enjoy his time out of the stroller running like a free bird! He tends to take off so we usually have to keep him strapped in the stroller when we go to busy places. He LOVED all the blue lights and kept saying "look Mom its my favorite color!" It was fun reminiscing about going to see the lights all growing up. I hadn't been in over 10 years, I loved sharing this tradition with my own family!

 

On the 5Th day of Christmas we Read a Christmas book. Since I have no pictures of that we will take a look back at last weekend when we went to the festival of trees with Mark and Mallory! Another fun thing I hadn't done since I was a kid! It was fun seeing all the neat trees and the kids loved playing games with the tickets Dad and Uncle Mark bought them! Uncle Mark spoiled them and bought them more tickets after their parents were to cheap.He always wins the Fun Uncle Award!

 CC in front of the Pinkalicious tree

 CC and Mal in front of the cute ice cream tree!

 Oli chose the get a prize from the Christmas Tree game

 Oli was a little disappointing that his prize wasn't a treat. He got over it after he wont a sucker from the fishing game and then found another sucker on the floor. This boy lives for food and treats!

CC and Mark waiting in line for the giant bubble. I didn't get any pictures of her in the bubble but I got a video.

 On the 6th Day of Christmas we did a Christmas Art project. For young women that night we had a family of eight kids come to the church so the YW could play with them (their mom just had her 9th child under the age of 11) since it was an activity based around kids and most of the YW leaders myself included have to bring our kids because of our husbands callings or jobs it worked out great to just have a kid party. The kids had a blast playing Twister, reading Christmas stories, painting nails, doing a craft (making Christmas Cards) and having a treat. It worked out perfectly for our advent since making a craft was our activity, I didn't have to do any of the prep work or clean up!

2nd Day of Christmas

Tonight we focused our attention on the True meaning of Christmas. We discussed ways we could do as Jesus would by serving others. We also watched the Christmas Devotional on LDS.org. I love hearing the kids' ideas on ways to serve and be uplifting to others.

Cecily's ideas were: Buying gifts for those who cannot afford it, making treats to take to people, smiling at strangers, and always being willing and aware to help others like opening the door if someone has full hands or getting things they need like refilling the pencil cups at school for the kids.

Oliver's ideas were: Make good choices and be a good listener, and give someone a toy car.

I am always so amazed at how much little kids know. I think being Christlike comes naturally to them, they just need opportunities to act on it.
 Here are some pictures from earlier in the day when we had a face painting party in CC's room. CC painted Oli and Kreg's face and she wanted me to do hers.

First day of Christmas

Our first activity on our Advent Garland we made was to make Santa Clause Beards in a bubble bath. It was a perfect end to a perfect Saturday full of a birthday party, lots of art projects, playing golf in the yard with Dad and a yummy night out for Ice Cream cones! The kids killed two birds with one stone with this activity, warmed up after said Ice Cream and got clean for Church in the morning.