December Fun 2016

Lots of fun time in December.  Although we were stuck inside because the snow outside never melted away, with all the fun and excitement of Christmas it didn't bother me too much.  Now just wait for January and February.  Bleh.

 I was really slow about getting around to decorating, but we did have this wall of countdowns.  We had 4 this year.  There was a advent calendar, Dexter's school chain, LDS Light of the World, and then my new paper bag advent.

Online there were a few posts about cute felt trees.  It was super easy to make.  The ornaments are very simple.  I even tried to be a fun mom and let them decorate them with glitter glue.  Sooo did not work.  Ellie thought it was actual glue and tried gluing a stack of 10 together.  Lots of crying when it didn't turn out.  Also, they played with it for like an hour all December.  More fun in concept than my kids actually cared for.

 Got hair cuts

 I love hot chocolate!!  It's necessary up here on cold days.  A store was having a sale...so I picked up a few flavors to try out.  The Mexican Chocolate one is our favorite.  Cinnamony and wonderful.

 Helping me decorate the tree

 He went to nursery all by himself.  It was a couple months early, but our nursery leaders were okay with it.  Surprisingly Ellie loved having him in there with her.

 Helping me wrap and decorate presents.  Kyle didn't like it (he likes fancy, which I don't do), but the kids enjoyed making them.  So the kids won.

 Ellie got a balance bike, but due to snow and coldness outside we let her test drive in the basement.

 I'll be torn when we finish the basement.  It's nice having so much open room, but it'll be wonderful to not be freezing, have electricity, a bathroom, and a new guest bedroom all down there.

 I was ambitious and invited some friends over to decorate cookies.  They're really well behaved girls that we love to play with, so it turned out great.

 I made some royal icing for me to practice.

 The final result of my icing.  Not too bad, but still needs work.

 Old tree....

New tree!  It's perfect because it's a slim tree, which is the right size for our small front room (parlor).  Target was running their 50% off christmas trees 2 weeks before Christmas, so I grabbed it then.

 Another snowstorm, and this time we remembered to stick a bowl out to catch the fresh snow to make snow cones!

 Flynn can climb the bed.  He is a tough one to watch and keep out of trouble.

 There was an amazing rainstorm that rolled in.  I looked out front and just watched that dark cloud cover the whole sky in just a few minutes.  It was beautiful and scary all at the same time, since it was quite a strong storm.

 We made treats for neighbors and delivered them too...even though it was only 15 outside.

 Yummy hot cocoa!

Smith's is my kids' favorite store.  They get fruit, cheese samples, cookies, and if we go on the right day...balloons!

 Dexter showed this colored picture to me in church, and I was so happy.  He has come a long way.  When he was little I'd ask if he wanted to color or draw.  The answer was always a strong no!  If there was something in preschool or primary that asked him to color...he'd do like 4 lines and call it done.  No cajoling could make him do a bit more.  So you can see that when he showed a fully colored in picture that he did willingly and was so proud of, I was so proud of him too.  It was even a big enough deal for his kindergarten teacher to mention at SEP (parent-teacher conference) that he no longer cried when it was time to color.  Big improvement!!

 Playing Chomp! A war game based on fish food chains. 

 Snapchat is still always fun!