December has been full of fun and has gone by way to quickly. We started the month with the Christmas pictures for the yearly calendar. These were a bit rushed (and the older girls were less than cooperative) one evening but I needed to get them done so I had some pictures for December and could get the calendar printed. One bummer of printing the calendar the beginning of December I never get to put any actual pictures from the month in the calendar. Oh well!
On the first of December we started our Advent activities. This year I got a new advent book called Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voscamp. It is really good (I love it!) and the girls are learning lots from it. We read that and then are doing the Truth in the Tinsel advent for the third year in a row(last year we just did the paper ornaments though as all the craft stuff was packed and lots was missed due to moving). The girls love doing the crafts with Truth in the Tinsel and it is fun to learn about and focus on all the parts of the Christmas story. Here they are doing some painting.
This little girl is miss devious. She loves to push the chairs where ever she needs to go and get into whatever she wants to. It drives me crazy, but can't be stopped. Hopefully she grows out of this phase soon!
On December 6th our church had its Annual Christmas Party. This is always a fun party to go to and get dressed up for. I curled the girls' hair and Raelyn had her first curlers...such a cutie!! Then because they were all done up I couldn't resist the chance to take some more Christmas pictures, before heading out to our event. This year the food was really good (it is always is) and the hot chocolate bar with dipped marshmallows was a hit with the kids (and adults). The program was really well done with lots of beautiful music, a few surprise guests (Elvis and Santa Clause), and a beautiful dance performance by Hannah with Marissa playing the piano. A fun night was had by all!
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Getting ready...first rollers
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Did I mention Raelyn now hates to wear dresses!! So not fair! She should not be doing this already, but everytime I want her to wear a dress it is a battle. She eventually gets over it though...thank goodness!
I love these ones!
And amazingly I actually left a little time for me to get ready too! Yay!
On Wednesday while the girls were at AWANA I took Raelyn shopping and we went to the toy store (which she has never been too). She loved this car! So cute!
On Thursday evening Grandma Janice and Papa Bruce arrived to watch and support Olivia in her first Nutcracker show. Friday Hans took the day off. While Hans and my dad put together a trampoline that we Grandma Mary and Grandpa Eric the girls worked on their gingerbread houses.
These were taken a week or so later, but show the finished houses.
And then there was time for trampoline jumping. Papa Bruce was a good sport and helped the little ones get used to being on the trampoline. I know they will get lots of use out of this! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
Saturday was Nutcracker, Nutcracker, Nutcracker!! Olivia had two smaller parts of being toy where she was a little soldier and then she was an angel in the first scene of act 2. Friday night Olivia had a dress rehearsal and then Saturday she had two shows of the Nutcracker. The matinee we all went to minus Hans and Raelyn who stayed home to get a nap. The evening show the grandparents stayed home with the youngest 3 and Hans and I got to go as a "date" to watch Olivia together. She did really great in both shows and it was a fun day. She loves it! And is already looking forward to next year.
The next morning was the Christmas program at our church. Olivia was Mary in the play and Claire was an angel. Claire also sang with the children. The girls did really great and it was enjoyable to watch.
That night we did "Christmas" with my parents. They brought their gifts so that we didn't have to haul them back with us at Christmas time with our overly full car. The girls were very excited for some early presents. We also went out to dinner at Red Lobster which was really fun. The girls are getting way better to take out to eat again.
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| Olivia got a new ski outfit for her American girl |
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| Raelyn, Aubrey and Claire each got a new bitty baby!! |
Monday the girls had activities like Homebase and dance class so we stayed close to home, but Tuesday we had the day off so we headed to Tacoma to check out the glass museum. When we got there we found out the glass museum was closed so we had to go to our second option the LeMay American Car Museum. The adults really liked this museum, but the kids were less than impressed. They did like family section at the very, very end....of course!
They liked racing the cars around! Which the man let them do for free. That was super nice of him!
The family section had cars you could race, a car you could "drive" complete with sound effects, and a map of the US that you could drive cars around on. Lots of fun in that section!
Surprisingly Raelyn did not fall asleep on the drive back home. But then she crawled up on the chair to read a book and fell asleep about 5 o'clock. So Hans and I snuck out to watch Mockingjay Part 1 at the theater. She had a tough time falling asleep when we got home though. Those late naps are rough!
Wednesday my parents took off back home for Kalispell.
Raelyn likes to put on the Merida wig. Such a cutie!
And a few more of the girls working on their Truth in the Tinsel craft ornaments. We missed a few days while my parents were there so we had to do the paper cut out ornaments...still fun!
Well this is not the end of my December update, but we are in Montana and I am having technical difficulties with getting my camera pictures uploaded so I will have to update the rest probably after we get home. But I want to post this now so it will be in my 2014 blog book.
{Updated}
Here is the rest of the story!
The weekend before Christmas we had a fun weekend. The Chadwick's came over to spend some time hanging out and the girls had their dance show at Irene's. First here are some pics from the dance show. They both had two dances and did great. Claire did ballet and tap and Olivia had a ballet dance and a jazz dance. Raelyn was a stinker during the show, but Riley and Liam were totally enthralled. It was super cute!
That evening we had Christmas and birthday celebrations for the "fall" birthdays. It worked out well so each child had a gift to open because we did group gifts for the Christmas gifts.
Celebrating birthdays with ice cream!
And the next day was beautiful out so we headed to downtown Poulsbo for a walk and lunch before the Chadwick's headed home. A too short but very fun weekend with our cousins!
And since we were behind from the weekend we did some paper Truth in the Tinsel ornaments come Monday to get caught up...A very fun way to stay focused on the true reason for the season.
