It is not Christmas without...

I asked Nate to fill in the blank. "It is not Christmas without..." We both came up with lists of things that we love and want out of our Holiday Season.  Yes, I love the day of Christmas, but I adore just as much the days leading up to it.  I love the happiness that surrounds Christmas Day and the focus on celebrating and appreciating our family and friends.  Nate and I grew up with many different Christmas traditions and over the years we have created our own as well.  I took the lists that Nate and I made and we started a Christmas countdown. Everyday the kids move the snowflake to show how many days until Christmas and then they pull a sheet of paper out that has a Christmas activity for us to do together as a family.  Some things are traditions that Nate or I did as a child that we want to continue with our children, and some are traditions that our family has created on our own.  Doing one every day makes sure that no traditions are forgotten. It is a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas everyday and to give us some quality family time in the middle of all the hustle and bustle.

Here is what we have done so far:

Had a pajama party, drank hot Cocoa and watched the Polar Express

Made Oranges with Cloves

Baked Peanut Butter Cookies

Watched Charlie Brown Christmas

Made Chocolate Fudge with Nuts

Visited Santa at the Train Station

Read the Story of Jesus Birth and acted it out with our Nativity scene

Made Paper Chains

Went to Trent's Winter Concert

Baked Cranberry Nut Bread

Cut Paper Snowflakes

and we still have 14 more days and traditions to go!!!

So how would you finish this sentence?  It is not Christmas without...

Aliya's Pretty Voice

Aliya loves to sing. Her favorite songs are Happy Birthday, Elmo's Word, and Frosty the Snow Man. She is so cute that I had to record her and share it with everyone.

Trent's Winter Concert

Trent had his first winter concert the other night and he did a wonderful job. He had been practicing for months now, so it was fun to finally see his performance. It was a wonderful time for our whole family. We were so happy to see Trent up on stage singing his heart out. He has a great voice and we couldn't be more proud!





Trent looked very handsome in his new dress clothes. Dylan insisted on wearing a sweater vest just like his big brother.

Aliya's 2nd Birthday!

It is hard to believe that my baby girl is already two years old.  She can say absolutely anything now.  She talks non-stop (as long she is comfortable with the people she is with).  She loves to climb, play baby dolls, play horses and do anything that her brothers are doing including trucks, transformers and dinosaurs.  The other night she looked up at the moon and held out her hands and asked "Daddy can I hold it?"  He responded with "I'll do my best to give it to you Beautiful."  "You can do it Daddy!".  I love how much confidence she has in her family and in  herself.  I hope that never changes.  She is adorable and every moment of everyday I am thankful to have her in my life.

We went to see Santa at after Aliya's birthday party but Aliya fell asleep in the car.  She had enough excitement for one day!

Missing You...

My mom (being the amazing Nana that she is) had a sleepover with six of her grandchildren last night. They all called and sang a beautiful Happy Birthday song to Aliya. After hearing it my kids decided to send their cousins a video. And here it is...




PS: We didn't forget about cousins Aubrey and Lillia, they just are still to young to go to a sleepover with Nana.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Playhouse Disney Live

We got in the car on Saturday and I told the kids that I had a surprise.  "What is it?"  was the first thing out of their mouths and the next was millions of guesses.  "Are we going to Xochimilco?" Dylan asked.  "Are we going to see Daddy?" Trent asked and on and and on they went for the entire 30 min. car ride there.  As we got closer Trent noticed our local hospital.  "Are we going to go get shots, Mom?"  I assured him that it was a fun surprise.  When we got to Playhouse Disney Live the kids were so excited.  Just the lights, smells, and people had them jumping up and down and the show hadn't even started. The show completely captivated them.  They were lost in the music, dancing and everything Disney.  Every time a character said to stand up, wave your arms in the air, or sing a song all three kids would do it.  They loved being so involved. At the start of the show Dylan leaned over and asked me how all of the characters got there, I said probably by car to which he responded "or maybe a van because there are a lot of them, actually it must have been a rocket ship" he smiled to himself and then went back to watching.  They were so happy there, which made me one very happy Mom.

The kids waved and screamed good bye to the characters at the end of the show and Aliya asked the whole car ride home "Where did Mickey Mouse go?" "Can we see more Mickey Mouse?"

Trick or Treat

Aliya was having respiratory trouble on Halloween this year, so she was not able to go trick or treating, but she still wanted to be dressed up like her brothers. Luckily, my friend Bridget was able to take them trick or treating while Nate worked and I gave Aliya breathing treatments.  The boys had a wonderful Halloween and all three of them looked adorable! 

Three months of pictures

You are about to see three months of smiles! Enjoy!

Sheryl and Aubrey came to visit! It was so much fun, to see my sister and meet my sweet niece.

 

Sleep time at the hotel was a challenge, but we somehow made it work! 

The best part of the hotel...the pool!  The kids liked helping while we cleaned up after the tornado.

We have spent a lot of time in the van over the last few months.  Some of the time it was because we needed to go some where and some of the time was just because the kids needed to be in a comfortable and fimilar place and the van filled both of those needs.

Playtime in the hotel.The first thing that we replaced was our swingset.  Trent was very sad to see his old swing set in pieces, so providing a new place for him to play was very important to us.

Dylans first day of Pre-school.  My little boy is so big.