Our Christmas Week

Christmas is over now, but my family room is now filled to the brim with new toys and activities.  We did our best to focus this time on Jesus and less on the commercialism of Christmas, but it is hard.  We did a great Advent devotional by Ann Voskamp this year, which helped us start each morning re-directing our thoughts.

We did have plenty of family time too.  Nicholas went last Saturday and baked cookies at a local kids’ cooking school.  He had a great time and apparently plenty of cookies.  Each child was to bring home 2 ½ dozen cookies, but Nicholas only had 16 in his tin.  Evan said that when he picked Nicholas up, everyone was chowing down.  It was worth it for the experience though.

The tin with the "dozens" of cookies.

On Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with my mom’s side of the family.  There are plenty of little boys on this side.  Nicholas is the oldest, followed by Daniel.  Then, there is a 1 ½ year old boy and a six-month-old boy.  We just found out that another baby will be joining our family who will be born in late June/early July.  I told Nicholas that he should start a little babysitting business for family functions.  He could make a nice little amount. 

Daniel is "helping" his cousin open his present.

Just a little excited . . .

My grandma with her daughters and great-grandchildren.

On Christmas Eve, we went to our church’s first service.  It was both amusing and a little nerving to watch Nicholas’ fascination with the candle he was holding during the song, “Silent Night”.  Daniel was in the nursery.  We’ll see if he’s ready to join us next year.

Afterwards, we went to my parents’ house for some soup and sandwiches.  The boys were able to open their presents from my parents and my sister.  Daniel was definitely getting the hang of the present opening aspect.  He would get all excited and show everyone the package.  In pure Daniel fashion, he stacked his presents.  I can’t wait to see what that child does in the future.

Nicholas opted for less toys this year and more activities.  I looked at his pile of gifts and I like that they were on the nerdy side – art kits, a globe, and a briefcase.  That’s my kind of kid.  I love nerds and I’m proud to be one.  :)

The beginnings of his present tower.

He loves being Jake.

Our dessert

On Christmas morning, I was somehow the first one up.  We read the last day of our advent book before heading downstairs.  The boys got a handful of presents from us, their stocking, and one present from each other. 

I set up the gifts that morning while everyone was still in bed.

The stockings went over well.

Very well!

"Jake" holding Jake.

Lego Star Wars ornament

More Jake toys

Magic kit!

A book I really wanted.

Evan's gift from the boys.

Evan also made cinnamon rolls, but he’s thinking of changing it up to a French toast casserole in the future.  He ended up making that for his parents’ house that afternoon.  We decided to have brunch this year.  So, while we got things together, the boys played.  At least, I shouldn't hear “I’m bored” for a little while (at least a week).

The boys got to play with their cousins and of course, open a few more presents.  Daniel also enjoyed plenty of chocolate kisses off the peanut butter blossom cookies.  No one left hungry.  

Cousins picture

Evan's parents with all of the grandchildren

 Now, I’m sitting here, trying to figure out where to put all of these toys.  The tree will come down sometime in the next week.  And, then we’ll have to get ourselves back into school mode.  All in all, it has been a nice Christmas.  Now it is time to focus on the New Year and what God has in store for us.

Quite a Week!

We had a pretty good week! It was our last week of school for 2014.  And, we ended with a doozy of a letter – Q.  I had Daniel decorate his Q with q-tips.  He kept telling me that Daddy puts these in his ears.  I told him that only Daddy puts those in his ears.

He made a quarterback out of the letter Q.

He even stopped to trace his hand.

He did more of his gluing.

Daniel dot painted a queen.  It is really driving Nicholas crazy lately that Daniel keeps picking to use the pink paint first, but that is Daniel’s preference.

Counting the paints

He did even more gluing later this week.  He even used the glue stick all by himself.  In fact, he decided to peel off the little papers he had glued on just so he could glue them again.

This past Monday we had a really nice time with my family.  We all decided to go bowling.  We were going to bowl 2 games, but there was a league coming in that we didn't know about, so it cut into our time.  We ended up playing one quick game.   Some of us bowled entirely with bumper bowling, while others started on the bumpers and moved to non-bumpers due to the time constraint.

I think we all enjoyed ourselves and Nicholas really enjoyed his first time bowling.  The computer even gave Nicholas a free strike even though he didn't knock all of the pins down.  I bowled pretty well for not bowling in about a decade.  We’ll probably do it again sometime – when there isn't a league to worry about.

Still has the same form from when he taught Amy and me to bowl.

Afterwards we went to dinner.  Then, we went to see Christmas lights at our local fairgrounds.  Both boys were enamored.  I feel like I’m seeing Christmas in a whole new way this year because Daniel actually knows what is going on.  Everything is so exciting to him (and Nicholas too).

Later this past week, my mom and Nicholas rang the bell for the Salvation Army.  This was their second year doing it.  Nicholas may have been told that his cuteness is what encouraged people to give.  It may have been his enthusiasm and good manners too.

He even had a visitor - G.G.

  

Nicholas is headed to bake some Christmas cookies today at a local kids' cooking school.  Then, our Christmas gatherings start tomorrow.  We're looking forward to spending time with family this coming week!

Daniel’s materials were found from various websites, such as:

www.royalbaloo.com

www.1plus1plus1equals1.com

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

http://ateachingmommy.com/

www.makinglearningfun.com

www.3dinosaurs.com

http://teachingmama.org/

www.homeschoolcreations.com

www.123homeschool4me.com

www.hsclassroom.net

Potty Trained!

I think I’m going to say that Daniel is officially potty-trained.  He hasn't had any accidents in a long time.  Even when we had to put him in a diaper last weekend, he kept it dry.  He wore underwear out of the house the past three days, including church this morning.  It has been pretty easy.  We just have to work on nap time.  Then, we’ll see when he’s ready to be diaper free at night.

The potty training works well with our letter of the week – P!  Daniel decorated a P with paint.  I’m not sure if it was purely coincidental, but the first two colors he chose to use were pink and purple.

He colored a piece of pizza.  But, he had more fun playing drums with the pencils than he did coloring. 

Daniel also worked on his tracing skills.  He had to draw a line from a policeman to the bad guy.  He enjoyed this activity.  I think it is because he and Nicholas always pretend to fight bad guys.

He did some more pasting.

We brought the dot paint out again, so he could paint a penguin. 

Cheese!

I also surprised him by letting him play with play-doh.  He learned how to flatten the play-doh and use the cookie cutters to make shapes.

Daniel also continued to work on his stacking skills this week.  I have a system with my groceries where I bring in all of the boxes first.  He pulls them out of the bags and gets right to work.

Finally, Nicholas also got into P week by – performing.  It was his turn to sing a song at church.  He did a great job and also stayed to perform at the 2^nd service as well.  I brought Daniel in to watch him at the 11:00, but he wasn't interested.  He just wanted to play a game on the Kindle.   But, at least it kept him busy so I could watch.

Overall, it was pretty good week.  Evan has a 4-day weekend, so we’re enjoying the time with him.  We have even more fun activities planned for this coming week.  We also have to figure out some fun things for the letter Q.