Christmas Break Activites

The following activities have been the high light of our week. I won't go into the negative details or behaviors that have been occurring as we are feeling stir crazy (and mom lacking energy/movement abilities), as well as the fact that this blog is to high light the GOOD our kids do on a daily basis and reflect upon as they grow up. SO, here is a glimpse of our "active" activities: -)

Joe's favorite thing to do...cooking! Here he is in charge of making home-made chocolate pudding! We have made it twice this week.

Joe flipping off the couch...not one of my favorite activities, but an energy burner.
Caroline popping bubble wrap...the boys blew through their bubble wrap in a matter of minutes!

Jonathan and Joe's indoor version of baseball... a wiffle/golf ball and an empty wrapping paper tube. One throws it up the stairs and the other tries to hit it with the tube. Not another one of my favorites, but an energy burner.

Best activity so far! They cooperated, talked about their building design and constructed this magnificent structure!

After looking at all of these, I wonder WHY and WHAT Santa will bring that could top these activities???

Jingling All the Way

This week was ALL about the jingle bells! The kids had THREE Christmas programs. One was a combined program at church and the other two were their separate classes at preschool. The program at church started the week off. Jonathan, somewhat, participated, but Joe and Caroline "practiced" wonderfully, per the teacher report, but decided to stand glued to each other and not make a sound. That is OK by us as it was pretty overwhelming with all the moms, dads, and grandparents present. Monday the twins had their Christmas program and much to our surprise, Caroline sang every song! And, Joe did too...on the way home in the car and everyday there after. I LOVE our personal concerts! Wednesday was Jonathan's day. We were so impressed and surprised at his participation on EVERY song! I think Thomas and I laughed a ton this week due to the adorably, cute kids we got to see!

Jonathan jingling his bells (back row, center).

Caroline and Joe jingling their bells (Joe first row with collar shirt on; Caroline right behind him).

Santa showed up at church! The boys were very happy to see him... Caroline was a little skiddish of the large man in red and white. She safely waved to him and that was good for her...and us. No need to make such a loving guy scary!

Jonathan's church class singing. He is in the back row, far left on the end.

Joe and Caroline's class singing. They were GLUED to each other and Caroline would not look up or out at the LARGE audience. It was pretty funny!

A Christmas of Firsts

This year we have two Christmas trees. One for the kids and one for the family/decoration. We had this small tree for when the kids were babies and use to put it up on a table where they couldn't reach it. This year we decide to let them decorate it and what a BLAST we had. They were so good and took turns putting ornaments they have made the past few years at KDO. We let them help decorate the big tree (I didn't take any pictures), but a little rearranging was done after bed time :-)

Birthday Continued

The twins were so excited to be 4 this year. They told everyone they saw it was their birthday and they were just so happy to say that the day was their birthday. We had a mellow morning at home, picked out their preschool birthday treats at Hen House, then met some friends for a impromptu play date. That evening we celebrated... just the 5 of us and it was AWESOME!

Caroline got a Lalaloopsy doll and Joe got a new guitar.

November 29th

Is a SPECIAL DAY! Caroline and Joseph were born!

Twins home a few days from the hospital.

Granny and Grandpa had special treats for us on Thanksgiving!

Grammie had a special treat for us too when she was here earlier this month!

WE ARE 4!!!!

Two Boys, Two Girls...

and we are DONE! We can't wait to meet her in March!!!

Halloween Part 2 - the real thing!

Madeline, Curious George and the Brave Knight ready to go!

We couldn't keep up!

Joe, "I want a candy."

hmmm, can't seem to get a good look....

maybe if I climb INTO the bag, I can pick one.

Pumpkin Carving Party!

Three fairly big pumpkins and three excited kids = pumpkin carving party!

Grammie scooping out the guts!
Jonathan scooping out the guts... and playing with them...we couldn't get him out of the gunk!

Mommy "helping" Joe with his ghost pattern

Caroline playing in all the seeds!

TA-DAH! Daddy finally agreed to get his hands a little dirty and carved the spider for Jonathan, and Mommy carved the happy face for Caroline and ghost for Joe.

Pumpkin Picking at the Cider Mill

We LOVE Louisburg Cider Mill and their cider donuts. As fall is somewhat settling in, we have been wanting to go. AND, we needed pumkins to carve for Halloween, so we headed south to the cider mill!
Daddy making sure the pumpkin is "just right."

Joe between bites of some yummy cider donuts!

Jonathan

Caroline, always happy to stop for a picture!

Halloween Part 1

Thursday, Oct. 27th, the kids got to go to Daddy's work and have some Pre-Halloween fun!

Story-teller and Magician show.

Hanging out in Daddy's cube.

Trick-or-treating around Sprint

Decorating Cookies....

and eating, said cookies....Joe would NOT move until his very large, green cookies was in his tummy! We had a blast!

Update in Pictures

Now that school is in full swing for the kids and myself (I work 20 hours at KS State School for the Deaf), we have been busy but getting into a groove with our routine. Here is what we have been up to since August:

CROWN CENTER JUNGLE EXPERIENCE

RIDING OUR BIKES:

The kids ALL learned to ride WITHOUT training wheels on Oct. 1st! SO proud of them. I took video on THomas' phone and haven't downloaded it yet.

PAINTING OURSELVES :-/

BIG GIRL BIRTHDAY PARTY:

Caroline LOVES our neighbors, the "big girls." We "happened" by their house one afternoon and they invited her to participate in the arts and crafts part of one of the girls birthday party. She was in Heaven!

ACORN COLLECTING: