12/8

Last night Joy was doing some stealthy intel on the boys ...

For our activity today, we had another craft.. A nativity scene. 

It was a ton of foam pieces that you stuck together to make the scene. Well, not only were we missing a few pieces, but it was harder than I anticipated.  It ended up cute though. 

The temp went a little above freezing today so we decided to venture into town for some lunch.  We live at the end of a court, so our road was pretty icy. This was taken on a more traveled section of our road, but still not great.

The closer we got into town (and encountered the heavily traveled roads) the better it got. 

Lunch was a welcome break. We ran and got a few things at the grocery store and then headed back home. We spent some more time outside enjoying the sunshine.

My three boys checking the output on the windmill.

Reed made a snow (slush) angel.

In amongst these trees is our future home site - yippee!!

Since the roads were still very wet and icy and it's supposed to freeze again tonight, school has been cancelled again for tomorrow. The boys were very excited. :)

12/7

This morning Joy decided to warm up with a nice marshmallow bubble bath.

Here's what really happened... I fell asleep early last night. I woke up at 5:30 to go to the bathroom and suddenly remembered Joy.  I went into the living room (only to find each kid on the floor asleep from the "Christmas tree camp out").  I stepped over the sleeping bodies and reached for Joy... And she wasn't there.  Brian had moved her to my bathroom and said that even if the boys couldn't find her, at least she will have moved.  (He couldn't care less about this whole elf business, but he knows I do so he helps me out in little ways like this.  In other news, my husband is awesome.) so anyway, then it all came to me. Since I was about to take a shower, I thought Joy might want to do the same and there you have it.

Moving on to our advent calendar... Sigh. This winter storm has thrown an icy road wrench in my advent activity plans.  We were supposed to stay at the Gaylord tonight and do the ICE show tomorrow… but we needed to stay home.  We had freezing rain/sleet all Thursday night and there is about an inch of ice covering the roads and it's not supposed to get above freezing until tomorrow afternoon.  I LOVE the Gaylord, especially at Christmastime, so I was fairly disappointed when I realized that we needed to cancel. But I moved some things around and it has been just fine.  This morning the boys got to open another activity present and it was a perfect one for being stranded in the house - another Shrinky Dink tree!

We colored the Shrinky Dinks and decorated the tree skirt. 

And I chose the elf just so I could color him with the correct color scheme... ☺️ 

They LOVED the one we did last year, so I was super excited to find another version of it online.  It went over just as well this year and it turned out great. 

They have gone outside a couple of times - Hudson threw a "snowball" (translation - ice chunk) and hit Reed in the eye and then Hudson slipped and hit the back of his head on the ice covered driveway.  Now we're watching TV… it's much safer. :)

12/6

The news has been warning us that we had a winter storm coming our way.  We woke up to a cancelled school day and a very cold elf this morning...

And it looked like this outside...

It was a lot of freezing rain/sleet, so the boys were sad they couldn't make a snowman. But they did enjoy playing outside.  (And a side note, Reed is wearing my coat. Sigh. I need to put a brick on that kids' head to keep him from growing.)

"Mom! Watch me slide!"

In between outside fun, we had many warm up sessions of candy cane cocoa and the Rainbow Loom.  What did we do with our time before the Rainbow Loom?

After dinner, we did our activity for the day… a Christmas Tree Campout!  We made a pallet on the living room floor, watched a movie and ate Grinch cookies (chocolate chip cookies tinted green with some Andes mint pieces thrown in).

We're snuggling in, looks like another COLD night ahead!

12/5

With all the hoopla that's been going on the last few days, we caught Joy relaxing with a nice drink and a little recreational reading. 

The boys got to open their first activity "present" today... A Lego train!

The boys worked hard and I never ended up getting a picture of the finished product… The trains ended up getting taken apart and turned into 'canons' about 45 seconds after being put together. :)

12/4

Joy decided to get in on the Rainbow Loom craze... 

Our activity for today was to have a little treat and watch Elf. When Reed pulled out the tag, he said "Yes! I've been waiting to watch Elf!!"  

I even wore my new shirt to celebrate (Sorry for the blurry picture, but it says the best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear. :) )…  

(Just a quick P.S.A. - If you haven't seen Elf, I highly recommend it.  It's very slapstick, but I save it to watch only at Christmastime and I laugh out loud EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  It's just that good.)  Moving on, we were supposed to have hot chocolate, but since it was 83 degrees outside today (seriously) we had mini cupcakes instead. And with this warm weather, I was able to wear flip flops and admire my Christmas pedicure! 

There's always a silver lining, right?

12/3

Joy went repelling last night. 

Our advent activity was to help decorate Christmas trees for Kids Armor of Hope Christmas party.  We showed up to help and there wasn't anyone there so we came home.  We had a night of Christmas Oreos and the Rainbow Loom.  :) 

12/2

Here is how we found Joy this morning... 

Of course we all know that the elf's four food groups are candy, candy canes, cans corn and syrup, right? Evidently we're out of candy corn and Joy asked to add it to our grocery list... Anybody know where a girl can get candy corn in December? Me either. :)

Our activity for today was to write our letters to Santa. Hudson said "But we already did that!"  (They had paper and a mailbox at the Frosty the Snowman show.)  So we took pictures for our Christmas cards.  Here's an outtake. :)

12/1

Joy made her yearly debut this morning.  She set up the table and filled it with North Pole goodies- donuts, cookies, cotton candy... Yum!

She even brought the boys a few little gifts- Christmas socks, candy cane cocoa, etc. 

The boys also got to take out the first tag of their advent calendar. 

Today's activity was to write Christmas cards for Holidays for Heroes. It's a great organization that passes out Christmas cards to deployed soldiers. So we got a pack and got to writing. 

The cards turned out wonderful- it was so precious to read the sweet wishes and thoughts that the boys had come up with on their own to send to the soldiers. Warmed my heart. ❤️ 

This evening we went to see Frosty the Snowman at Casa Mañana with Gammy, Aunt Sara, Grace and Jake. 

Good times were had by all. 😊

Ready for December!

We're ready!  The advent tree is up...

… and I love my advent tags this year! 

Joy (our elf) is sure to appear tomorrow with breakfast from the North Pole!  Hudson said earlier today "I miss Joy and all the fun jokes she plays on us!"  Fun times ahead!

Into the swing of things...

I just realized that I wrote about my anxiety on the first day of school, then left everybody (all 4 or so people who read this blog) hanging.  :)
After the inital couple of weeks of feeling a little lost, I have settled into a new routine that keeps me plenty busy.  I go to bible studies two mornings a week and then use those afternoons to help at the boys school - one teacher one day and the other teacher the next.  It also means that I get to eat lunch with each kid once a week which is fun too.  The other three days of the week are reserved for cleaning house, grocery shopping, errands, etc., and I tell you, my house have never been this clean consistently.  It's pretty awesome.
All in all, we are doing very well.  The boys love school and have great teachers.  I am so blessed to be able to stay home so I can help with their school parties/events/field trips, help their teachers with copies and other random time consuming things, and then have time to make a home for my family.  Life is good. :)

First Day of School

Our first day of school pics - Hudson was so excited about his ninja lunchbox, he wanted it in the pictures. :)

Today is a turning point in our household.  Reed started 4th grade and Hudson started Kindergarten. I remember vividly leaving the school last year holding Hudson's hand and saying to Brian "Next year we'll leave by ourselves."  I just couldn't wrap my mind around the idea.  People have been asking me if I will handle it okay and I've been saying "Oh, I'll do fine!"  Hudson has been so excited to go and talks about it constantly with joy in his voice, so I thought that it would be so much easier.  I went to work out early this morning and then on the way home I got a sweet text from a friend and it made me tear up.  I got the boys up, fed them french toast and got them ready and as Hudson walked in front of me down the hallway to the car with his backpack that looked huge on him, I felt another twinge.  On the way into the school...

We went in and we saw Grace and had to get a picture.

I helped Hudson find his table.  He was so excited.  Meanwhile, Reed was over with Brian and said "I want to go sit down, tell Mom I said bye."  Hudson walked out with his class and I gave him a kiss and told him to have a great day.  Then I went to go find Reed at his table and he was already headed down the hallway to his class.  That's when I lost it and the tears came.  We left - Brian to work and me to the store to pick up a few things.   It was not fun to go into the store all by myself - my stomach just HURT.  I came home and tried to keep busy.  I made our traditional first day of school treat.

It was finally time to pick them up.  They both had smiles on their faces, loved their teachers and had a great day.   We had to have a celebratory Sonic drink.

 It is a relief to have all my chicks back in my nest.  I think tomorrow will be a much better day. :)