Some Christmas Traditions

As I have mentioned I was trying to do more fun things with the kids, building new traditions, that kind of thing. So here are some things we did this Christmas.

Few years back my sisters and I made the above advent Calendar. One year I put candy in the holes. This year (because the candy always wanted to fall out and I am not a huge fan of candy) I put pieces of paper, each paper said something like "Token, Extra 15 Mins, Book, Candy" The child with the best behavior for the day got to remove the number and reap the reward. Kids really enjoyed this.

Another advent calendar of sorts that was a lot of fun for the kids. The picture changes almost every day as the children took the pieces on and off and moved them around.

(they attach with velcro)

This year we started a tradition my sister started a couple years ago. You wrap Christmas books and each night starting on the 12th (12 days of Xmas) you gather as a family and read a book together. With 2 kids reading and 1 getting close I thought this would be fun. The kids really looked forward to the books. (I bought most the books used from amazon for $2) Couple of the books I had never read and will probably get new books to replace them next year since I was not a fan of them.

We have a friendly elf that comes and visits us during Christmas time. Kids love looking for him in his new spot every morning. Our elf's name is Joey Jingles.

Made my first batch of Christmas Crunch and it was a HUGE hit. I am thinking about renaming it to Holiday Crunch so I can make it for every holiday of the year...very addictive.

We also baked a lot of bread and such but it was gone before the pictures happened.

Our Christmas Tree.

We stayed with tradition and went up to Apple Hill and cut this bad boy down. It is alot of fun!

My village...had nothing to do with the kids but when I was first married I always wanted a village to set out during Christmas. I am not a fan of Santa decorations I prefer winter theme more- Snowmen, Nativities, and the Village is what you will find in my house. So for a few years I would buy a village house to add to my collection. Well after my divorce and moving around I never had a spot to set my village up. This year I really want to set it up so I thought and thought were is a location big enough out of the reach of kids. On top of the kitchen cabinets! I was so excited about my idea I went out and bought a Fire Station to add to the village.

Girls Night

I am a little behind in posting so this event happened a few weeks ago....Boys were gone so girls went to dinner and then home to watch Tangled in our pajamas.

Good Times (pictures posted however blogger felt like)

"Thanks"giving Tree

Okay so the picture is not the best. But it is the best I could get given that the wall is brown and so was our tree trunk.

This year I thought it would be good for the kids to write down what they are thankful for. So we traced our hands and after reading the book the "Giving Tree" we wrote on our hands what we were thankful for and than attached them to the tree trunk as leaves.

Trying to be a better mom....

I am trying to do more things with my kids and/or for my kids. The holidays make it easy to come up with ideas. Here are some of the things that were created...

Scarecrow Cookies- Grandpa made these

Carved Pumpkins...(in order left - right Mason, Lucas and Jill)

Mason picked the face and mommy carved it

Lucas picked the face and carved his all by himself.

Jill assisted in carving

Glowing....
Close up of Jill's...so proud of the bat-cat

Mummy Dogs

Swamp Creatures

Paperbag Turkey

Look who can ride a 2 wheeler...

I am lame and put off teaching my sons how to ride a 2 wheel bike because to me that is somewhat of a dad thing to do. Well there is no dad here so mom did it and Ta Da!!!

Riding a bike is the new best thing at our house now that the bike only has 2 wheels.

Notice the standing up...he thinks he is so cool.

But he is not my only 2 wheeler...

That is right...Mason has it figured out too.

Dude I rock...2 down 1 to go

This little guy came to play and throw things. He is too cute not to take a picture of.

Watching his cousins race on their bikes

Aunt Tracy trying to fix the stuck tire following a minor incident with a child, a bush and a curb.


Aunt Tracy showing off her mad skills

Ballet Class

For Jill's birthday she was given Ballet Classes. There was an issue with the first company we tried in that we showed up but they didn't. So I had to find another class. Saturday was her first day at the new place. Sorry you cannot see her face I was seated behind her. She is in the light blue outfit. She had a lot of fun.

Sorry the pictures are not the best I had to zoom to get close. I will try to take better ones at one of her other classes.

Mason Graduates Kindergarten

It is official next school year I will have 2 kids is school all day YAY! Jill actually will start pre-school in July too so all my kids are going to be in school. Kind of wish I could stay home a enjoy the quite but I will be at work....so you're welcome Janicca (she is our loving daycare provider).

Both Lucas and Mason did awesome this last year. There were bumps along the way don't get me wrong and stuff we still need to work on to inprove but overall awesome, and I am so very proud of them.

Mason promoted from Kindergarten to 1st grade...here are a few pictures of the celebration.

Singing the color song

What a cute boy

Receiving his certificate


Mason and his teacher Ms. Stone

Mason and the Best Grandpa ever...love these guys

New Colors

I just got the inside of my house painted. When I purchased the house all the walls were painted in a VERY flat off white color. The color was boring and due to the flatness of the paint the walls did not clean. With 3 kids I needed walls that could be cleaned. So I was asked to posts some pictures for those of you who cannot come and see it first hand.

Before I do this I should tell you that my pictures are not the best. My children enjoy finding my camera and taking pictures. Like when we are out shopping and they are in the cart, to keep them quite I let them take pictures. So I have finger prints on my lens and I cannot get them off. Please know if you see bubbles in the pictures it is not a bubble but a finger smudge because of child taking pictures like this.

Okay so here are a few pictures of the house.

Wow I have a lot of stuff on my fridge