Christmas in Pictures

The drive down to Chicago burbs and extended family....












































Enjoying some appetizers and hanging out ....


























































Kids enjoying Veggie Tales St. Nicholas....































Opening the gifts....


























































Daddy's new Football book....

















J with cousin Henry....they didn't plan the outfits!

















Time for dinner .... YUM!






























Some pics of the sisters' pets....






























In the new jammies....but not bedtime yet...


























































Time for dessert.....































Last thing before bed .... watching the train with Uncle RoRo.

Daddy Time Friday

There is a fun, new blog hop I'm joining created by a fellow blogger and Tot School mom, Patricia. Come join in the fun over at My Tot Learning Time where we get to thank our hubbies and share a little of what daddy is doing with our kids each week.

Daddy's Time Friday

Daddy really helped me out one night when I needed to get some things done by playing with J. Although I didn't get pictures, they had a ball playing in the basement with J's new soccer ball. (We got the soccer ball after collecting a bunch of tokens from our favorite restaurant, Culvers.) Daddy made up a game of using the front loading washing machine as a basket. They took turns trying to throw the ball into the basket. J just loved it! I could hear his laughter all the way upstairs as I worked. Then after play time, J asked daddy to make a bed on the floor. So they got blankets and lay down together. So cute! I love seeing them play together. Thanks daddy!













































Daddy got us all organized to go out and do some Christmas caroling. He went out and printed several Christmas songs and we went as a family with our friend Hans. Daddy called ahead to several friends to see who would be home and we made 4 stops. J did great. He made sure to find the books and toys at each house. Oh, and some candy too! We brought our home made tambourine to keep the beat and each of us wore a Christmas hat. It was so much fun.

Holiday Break & Joyful Wishes

Just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Thank you for supporting and encouraging me in ways you may never know.

Other than a random post here and there, I'll be signing off until after the holidays to enjoy this time with loved ones.



















I was lucky enough to get our cat in the picture ... this is where we've put our Christmas cards up for viewing this year. We used to put them on the pantry door but this year J's wonderful art projects have taken their place.

We Play (Christmas Related Fun)

I love being a stay-at-home mom and feel so blessed to do so. I also love taking pictures of all the things we are doing. In the past, I had been adding my play time pictures to my weekly Tot School post but decided this would be a new and fun way to post them.

Come over to play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up:

Light up Globe






























I got this globe as a Christmas gift several years ago and recently I took it out to start introducing the concept of our world to J. He loves seeing it light up (which I like too). Then we were turning it and it made a creaking noise. J said, "Mommy, it's crying! I'll give it blankie." So he put his blankie on it to "make it feel better". So funny.



Little People Nativity Set






























J is having a great time playing with his Little People nativity set. I've caught him a few times making up little stories and one of them I recorded in my Tiny Talk post.


Marbles Dumping & Sorting






























J asked for the marbles one day. He likes to pour them out of the jar into the container and then put them back into the jar one by one. He did this a couple times.



Daddy Time
















Daddy was allowing me a little free time by playing with J one night. For some reason, he wanted to set up a little bed on the floor. He said, "Daddy lay on the floor with me." I got this cute picture.


Crawling Around Like a Baby






























After making gingerbread houses at my church mom's group, I helped with the clean up while J played. One of the mom's little ones came crawling up to J a few times so he decided to "play baby" with him and crawled around after him.


Santa Hat Fun






























J had fun wearing daddy's Santa hat around the house this week. You can tell it is a little big. He also got a little attached to it and didn't want to take it off while he was napping. I allowed it a couple of times until the one time I heard him cry out on the monitor. He was screaming, "No don't do that!" so I ran in to find him sitting up in his crib with the Santa hat over his face and he was actually still asleep. I took off the hat and he hasn't tried to wear it since.


Gingerbread Christmas Cookie Fun



































































































Here are some pictures of J having great fun with gingerbread cookies. In the first pictures, J had a ball playing with the gingerbread cookie cutters. I love the picture with one eye closed, and then the one with his arms overlapping. He did a little decorating and then the next day I got pictures of him eating them while making quite a mess of himself. He asked me to wash his hands probably 3 times, and each time when I thought he was done he started mushing the icing around again. He must have really liked how it felt.



Home Made Tambourine






























This was a great idea I got from another mommy's blog called Shining Our Lights. I saw her homemade tambourines and it reminded me that J had really enjoyed playing with a tambourine at a play group we were at. He liked it so much he didn't want to give it up when it was time to go. Funny thing was, he was very excited about helping me make this by choosing which stickers to put on and where he wanted them to go, but once it was done he didn't play with it right away. Once I told him we'd sing if he'd play, he asked us to sing Jingle Bells and Where is Thumbkin and he kept the beat for it while we all sang.

Take a minute to hop over and visit the links I'm connecting up to....

Thanks for visiting!