Tis the Season for Lots of Photos!

We have had a very busy week trying to get back into the routine of school and dance and work. Being gone for a week makes it difficult to get up when the alarm clock goes off! My bed has never felt so good. We have had a great week and I have so much to post about that I probably won't have time to post all of the pictures today. We visited with my cousin Anna and her precious 7 month old daughter Alexandra on Sunday. They live in Chicago, so this was our first visit with sweet Allie. She is sooooooooo sweet and adorable! Just look at these pictures. I could eat her with a spoon!




There is something so adorable about a thumb sucking baby. You know we still battle with Emma, who will be 5 in two months, about her thumb sucking. It's nearly impossible to get her to stop when she is sleepy. It is engrained. I do have remorse about not doing something when she was younger to stop her but when I see this sweet thumb sucker, my heart melts!







Emma's new trick that "Uncle Jungle Jim" taught her. The baboon walk and face!

Three sweet girls!

On Monday we started Advent with the girls and began making a Jesse tree. If you want to find out more about a Jesse tree, click here. Joe's Aunt Sue sent me this site too and we have enjoyed making our ornaments alongside our Bible story each night. The girls have an advent house similar to this one that has 25 doors, one for each night of December until Christmas. The problem is the doors are so small, that I have to put little notes in the doors about the gift or the activity we are doing that night because the gifts won't fit inside! The girls read the clues and then guess about the gift or activity.

Here is a sample of one of the notes I used this week.



It is a tag from this great digital scrapbooking kit.

The first night of Advent they got this cute mailbox with stationary and envelopes for writing their letters to Santa. (I know it kind of goes against the purpose we are trying to instill in them about the real meaning of Christmas. I didn't think about the contradiction until afterwards.) However, it did warm my heart when Emma and Hannah were talking about Christmas this week and I overheard Emma say, "I love Christmas. I love presents, but they aren't the most important part of Christmas. The part I love most is celebrating Jesus' birthday." So, on day one of Advent they received this cute Santa mailbox that came from Hallmark.

On day two we had a scavenger hunt throughout the house. We had read the story of the Gingerbread Man the night before, so on Tuesday they had clues to search the house to find the gingerbread man.


Reading a clue in the playroom.

Searching their bedroom for another clue.

They ended up in the living room with a paper gingerbread man they had to color, glue buttons on and use glitter glue for his icing.










They decorated their gingerbread men and then their last clue led them to the dining room where I had their gingerbread house set up to assemble. MeMaw had it waiting at our house for us when we came home from PA. They were so excited to find it, that I knew they would want to put it together soon! So, we decorated our house and then later that night we wrote our letters to Santa.




The battery on my camera died just as we were beginning to assemble the house, so we put it on the charger while we made the house and then took pictures of the finished product. It worked out well because my hands were so sticky with the icing, that I probably couldn't have taken many pictures of the design process anyway!








Our first attempt at using the camera's self timer. We weren't exactly ready when it went off!

Take two!



On the front of Emma's letter to Santa it reads, "I would like a potty baby and a diamond castle."



The back side of her letter to Santa reads, "Building Blocks, Butterflies, Liana (a Barbie Princess), and iTeddy, Emma"



Hannah's letter reads, "Dear Santa I would like a Barbie and a Diamond Castle. And I believe in you. I would like a red robot. I would also like (Then she has an arrow and the word "back!")



The back reads, "And a pet shop wii (game). I also would like Lucky the dog."


Mailing our Letters to Santa



On day three they received Snowmen hooded towels for their bathroom. The best thing I did last Christmas was to go to Target and the Christian bookstore the day after Christmas and pick up some Christmas items half price. I bought the hooded towels at Target half price last year and put together an Advent rubbermaid to store gifts in until this year. I love getting the girls new Christmas books each year and this way, I already have new ones to give them this year, but they were half price! Hannah has also started a Nutcracker collection, so I have four new nutcrackers in my rubbermaid to give her during this Advent, that I bought last year on sale.

Lastly, last night they each received a small bag of Christmas colored candy corn from the Hallmark store, that was called Reindeer corn. Emma knows all about deers liking corn, because she said last night, "I bet the reindeers do like this corn because Uncle Rodney puts corn out for the deers he tries to hunt and shoot with his gun!"

The main Advent activity last night was to serve someone else. We have adopted three children for Christmas and purchased gifts for them and so the girls helped me make cards for them last night and wrap their gifts. I want the girls to always know that no matter how tight our money might be right now, there are always those less fortunate and we are still called to serve even when it hurts us. They are so excited about giving the gifts. We picked children their age that were requesting gifts that my girls would love to receive too. Hannah picked a seven year old girl that requested Hannah Montana stuff and Emma picked a four year old that wanted a Dora doll. How fitting! The other child we adopted lives in an orphanage in Africa and she requested a doll house. I was shocked that at Toys R Us and Wal-Mart, I could not find a doll house family that was African American. They were all white families. That seems strange to me, that in this day and age most dolls/Barbies/doll house families etc. are white. There are definitely African American Barbies and baby dolls but not nearly as many as the white dolls. That is sad to me. I forgot to take pictures of them wrapping the gifts...oh, maybe that's because I did all of the wrapping! They did write a letter in the cards but then they were too busy playing to help wrap. Emma did put the tape on the gifts for me, but that was all the assistance I got!

I'll post pictures this weekend of the girls decorating the tree. Have a great weekend.