Merry Christmas from us!!

Around Here

Our neighbor is home from college for the holidays and the little peeps are thrilled to have their playmate back.  

 My little bookworm.

 Drawing handmade wrapping paper!

 Cutting stuff

 One of my favorite christmas areas...our little nature spot/advent table.  Beck is trying to grow that little pine tree!!

 We've had lots of babies in our days, lately!!  Which makes us happy.

 Sunshine picnic

 Beck, engineering something to go over the little baby play gym for Baby E.

 Hot chocolate has been popular!

 With the number of marshmallows that corresponds to the kiddo's age.

 He still loves gumballs.

After school today.

After this picture was taken, they proceeded to cover themselves head-to-toe with sand and mud, so they had a little quality time with the outdoor sink and hose, washing their bootsthemselves...and then hot baths!  She put on the gloves so as to not get her hands sandy.  Then covered the rest of body in it....that girl.....and her sidekick, who can be talked into anything.

My fall decorations

I always have a hard time getting into the Christmas decorating swing...I actually dread it.  I reallllly love my fall stuff and am so sad to put it away and get out the Christmas stuff.  But I sucked it up this past weekend and it now looks a lot like Christmas around here!  I snapped some quick pics of my fall decorations.  I do my mantle differently every year, so I like to keep a record of how I change it up from year to year!

 My favorite pictures of my kids from past falls:

Mudpie kitchen boy

Our mudpie kitchen lived up to its name this weekend and was truly a muddy mess, with mud and toys strewn everywhere.  But this guy sure had fun out there!  He built a "refrigerator" (on the ground to the left of his feet by the yellow shovel) because "I'm a good carpenter, Mom!"  He loves being out there cutting stuff with the butter knives or his spade!  

 He and I thrifted this tea jug last week and it is the newest addition to the mudpie kitchen.  They love having water easily accessible for all their creations.  And Beck comes in the house with soaked pants every time he plays out there.  He gets a little over-ambitious with the lever.  :)

Winter's come!

It finally feels a bit like winter here!  Which my crew is glad about.  We had a cold and rainy weekend and Monday, today.  

Beck and I still take our nature walk when it is cold or lightly raining, so we bundled up today and headed out.  He had puddles to stomp and holes to dig, and I had greenery to cut!  

 Quinn and Mimi went to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat on Saturday night, which Quinn loved!

 Sunday morning (early) Quinn and Daddy went to Bammel to help collect Christmas gifts for Impact, so Beck and I had a bit of time before we had to get ready for church.  I'd set up a little cocoa station in our kitchen, so I taught Beck how to make cocoa.  Such a good skill--direction following, fine motor, measuring, a little bit of chemistry....He loves it and made his own cocoa today!  He especially likes using my little immersion blendy-thing to mix it up!  And adding 5 marshmallows (since he is 5).

Matt is trying to see how long he can go without turning the heat on....So we are bundling up here.  Beck had on two pairs of socks over his shoe jammies.  :)  

 Sunday night the kids wanted to play outside but it was super rainy and cold and we didn't want them filthy right before we had company over for dinner, so Matt took them to the garage to build airplanes, which they loved!  Seeing them engaged in open-ended building makes my heart happy!

Around here

Post-hike happy doggy....

 We had a relaxing Thanksgiving break, which we really needed.  These two give a good indication of life around our place last weekend.  Nice and slow!!  Except we took less naps than these two.

 Quinn got a bee sting, along with a handful of fireant bites, and ended up getting cellulitis (most likely in the ant bites), so her hand got terribly swollen for about a week now (much worse than this picture shows) and she got to make a pedi visit and is on strong antibiotics 3X's a day for ten days....

 My last Bible study for the year....

And him, on his last day of Bible Study (he goes to the nursery).

 I bought two old socket boxes at a garage sale for .25 and Beck claimed them for his "cutting kits."  He hasn't been too into cutting and was pretty terrible at it, so I have been intentional lately about exposing him to cutting activities that would interest him.  He has gotten into it for sure!!

 Quinn's microscope is also a big hit.

 Grandsue baked him his favorite persimmon cookies, which he had each morning during morningtime (our morning literacy and Bible time).

 Great weather for games on the patio!

 Making Mimi's bday gift...which he had a hard time handing over.  :)

 Morningtime