Christmas is almost here-- So Busy!

Christmas is getting so close and I can hardly wait. But before we celebrate the big day, we had a few things to check off our holiday bucket list.

On Saturday we had pizza with Santa. I got the kids dressed in their cute little Christmas outfits and we met some friends at the pizza parlor.

Here is Bailey in her Christmas outfit. I love her tutu. Its so fun to get her dressed everyday! 

Here is Tanner in his "Jingle Bell Rocker" shirt.

He loved it. He kept singin' "Jingle Bell Rock" all day.

We picked up Uncle David on our way. My kids are so happy to have their Uncle David home.

Bailey and I waiting to see Santa

Even Chris got to meet us for pizza during his lunch break.

Here's Bailey with Santa. She wasn't scared of him at all after he gave her that candy cane. She was quite content sitting on his lap.

Kiddos with Santa

Love this shot of Tanner talking to Santa. He told Santa he wanted "toys" for Christmas. When Santa asked what toys he wanted, Tanner replied "I don't know".

Haha. The only thing he told me he wanted for Christmas was "Star Wars pods" and "Bubbles". Pretty easy kid to please.

And here's Bailey telling Santa her Christmas list.

Kids lovin on the Santa

Then on Tuesday the kids found their tickets for the "Minivan Express" while they were getting ready for bed.

Tanner was so excited when he found out what the tickets were for. I told him they were tickets to get in Nanny's minivan and drive to see Christmas lights. He was so excited. We had hot cocoa in their sippy cups and they were dressed in their Christmas pj's already so when Nanny and Papa pulled up, we were ready to go.

Here we are right before we loaded up in the minivan

Tanner giving Nanny his ticket so he could board.

Bailey boarding.

Kids in the car, all ready to go. Bailey was chugging her hot cocoa.

So excited!

Tanner loved looking at all the lights. He told us he loved the blue lights the best.

Here is one of the yards that was full of lights and Christmas inflatables. Tanner loved this yard.

After we got home, Papa read the kids their Christmas book for the night and they were off to bed. How cute is this picture though?

We had a great time. We saw some really great lights. Some houses were even set to music. Oh and the old truck done up like "Mater" from cars that has lights that dance to music. So fun. Tanner insisted we sign Christmas carols for the entire last half of our trip.

 

On Thursday the kids and I made our annual gingerbread house. Only this year it was a gingerbread train. Tanner is still obsessed with trains so it was perfect.

Look at this sneaky little face. He loved adding the candy.

Almost done. He had so much fun.

So intent on his important candy placement.

Kids and I with the finished product

Tanner with his train.

Now that's its finished we'll wait til Christmas eve and the kids will smash it with hammers and eat it. That's the tradition anyways.

 

I finally finished the kids Christmas letters.

Here's Bailey's letter

Tanner's letter

How precious is this picture? I absolutely adore these kids and i love even more that they adore each other so much.

Then last night we had a Christmas pizza movie night.

Tanner helped me make it and he was so excited about it.

Pretty cute huh?

Look at that face, he couldn't wait to eat it.

Here are the kids and I snuggled up watching our Christmas movie, "Frosty the Snowman", hence the snowman pizza.

 

Then here are the kids today in their Christmas church outfits. They looked so stinking cute at church today-- all dolled up. Love it!

Bailey's sweet ruffle dress

My little stud

holy cheeseball!

Sometimes it takes a bunch of pictures like this....

To get one good one like this.

Well Christmas is only 3 days away, can hardly believe it! Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Preschool Month 4: Letters M- O

Here is Month 4 of Preschool. I think Tanner and I both really enjoyed this month. Some of our favorites were monsters, M&M's and ninjas. Here are the lesson outlines.

Letter M week: M is for M&M's. Wow- Tanner loved this lesson, but mostly because he got to eat a ton of m&m's. We talked about the letter "M" and made the "mmmm" sound. We traced the letter "M". Then we divided M&M's into groups by size. Then we graphed them by color. Then we did m&m painting (you just put m&m's in a cup and add water, it changes the water the color of the m&m's- then you paint with them.) Tanner loved that. Then we made an m&m Christmas tree and made m&m Christmas lights for our craft.

M is for Monsters. Tanner really loved this lesson because we love MONSTERS in this house!!!! It was fun. We did some tracing of the letter "M" and we did color by number worksheets. We did a shadow monster matching game and some clothespin number cards. Then we did a count and color worksheet. We read "Tickle Monster", "Leonardo the Terrible Monster" and "Birthday Monster" and then we made these darling monster magnets.

M is for Moose. Well M is for Moose and Muffins. Our preschool lesson today was based on the book "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". It was so fun. We started by tracing the letter "M". Then we learned some Moose facts. Then we made Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, while they baked we finished our lesson. We did a Moose and Muffin maze. We graphed different kinds of muffins. Then we did moose/muffin clothespin cards. Then we made hand print antlers and turned Tanner into a moose. After that our muffins were done and we devoured them.

 Letter "N" Week: N is for Ninja. We made more "Na" sounds and traced the letter "N" some more. We did a letter "N" hunt. We did a ninja coloring sheet and we learned some ninja facts. Then we made ninja headbands and ninja juice boxes. Then we met a real-life ninja...(or my brother David- its the same thing.)

N is for Noodles. We talked more about the letter "N". Made the "na" sound and traced the letter "N". Then we sorted noodles by color and size. We graphed noodles according to color. Then we made a noodle necklace and and had a little sensory fun with dyed spaghetti noodles. Bonus- it also double as a snack, since my kids LOVE noodles!

N is for Nuts. We talked about the letter "N". We traced the letter "N". We did a letter "N" hunt. We sorted nuts into piles according to their size. and then according to the kind of nut. We did a nut counting worksheet. Then we made this walnut boat.

Letter "O" Week: O is for Octopus. We learned about octopus. Tanner really loved moving his arms like an octopus. We did a coloring page. We sorted the different octopus according to their size. then we did a cutting practice page. We traced the letter "O" and then we did some clothespin cards. Then for our craft we made this octopus from yarn. Tanner loves it.

O is for Owl. We learned all about Owls. (Tanner is very good at making owl sounds). We did an owl coloring sheet. We traced the letter "O". We sang "Little Owl" to the tune of Jingle Bells. We did he "5 Little Owl" finger play. We did a matching shape/owl game. Then we did a dot-to-dot owl picture and at the end we made an owl cupcake.

O is for "Oh, Christmas Tree". I know it's a stretch, but we had to incorporate Christmas into our preschool lesson somehow. We traced the letter "O". We learned about the Christmas tree. We decorated a worksheet using candy ornaments. Then we did a Christmas tree matching game. Then we learned the song "O, Christmas tree." For our craft we made this card stock Christmas tree with push pins ornaments

We decided to take off next week for Christmas, but come the new year we will be back at it again. Happy Holidays!

Mimi Comes to Visit for more Holiday Fun

The day after our "Elf on the Shelf Kickoff", my mother-in-law came to visit. My kids call her "Mimi". We were pretty excited about her visit and had lots of fun things planned. She arrived Sunday evening and we were so happy to see her. She brought the kids little gifts- which they loved and she completely won them over. Well mostly. Tanner was a bit of a buster. But Bailey loved her Mimi. Here are the kids and Mimi at the park.

It was a pretty fun day. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful Mother-in-law.
Monday night we headed over to ASUMH for their "Jingle on the Green".

"Jingle on the Green" is a big Christmas celebration the university hosts each year.
We were mainly going to see Santa, but there was alot of other fun stuff there too.

Here are the kids and Chris with Mimi walking to "Jingle on the Green."

Bailey in her Christmas dress- yep I busted it out early so she could wear it to see Santa.

Tanner loves to give his sister hugs. I think he's either about to hug her or trying to keep her from falling down---either way she is clearly loving it.

Here is Tanner in line for the bouncy house. We waited in line for a long time, then when it was finally our turn, it took me forever to convince him to go inside. Goof!

Once he got in, he loved it!

Hanging out while Tanner bounced.

Then we found some friends we knew and Tanner and his friend Austin found "Rudolph".

I love Tanner's angelic face...so deceiving.

Then we finally got to go see Santa.
I was surprised by how well the kids did. Tanner really liked Santa and Bailey was very tolerant.

Sweet Tanner Bear and Santa

Then after our turn was over, Bailey tried to climb back onto Santa's sleigh...I guess she really liked him.

The last thing we did was let the kids get their faces painted like reindeer. Here they are chowing down on their candy canes with little reindeer faces.

 

Later that week we finished decorating our tree. Chris and I did the pretty decorating and then we let the kids hang the "family ornaments".

Man- I love these sweet kids

 

Then on Friday night, we went to the Christmas parade. It wasn't all that cold, but there was a chance of rain, so the kids wore their hats Mimi made them. Love the matching sock monkeys

My sweet boy and I (oh and Bailey too...)

Bailey loved the puppy parade

and she kept leaning forward to love on her brother. Tanner is very tolerant of Bailey!

Papa and the Kiddos

Enthralled with the parade

attempting to get a family picture...we are soo unbelievably cute here...

The whole crew.

 

I love this time of the year and I love all the fun activities we are getting to do.

There are still lots of fun things coming up, so stay tuned!