the holiday season

This holiday season was such a great one! We carried on with our tradition of an Advent Scripture reading and an activity of some sort each day of December. To be honest, even just this simple tradition wore me out this year. Of course that's because we're all still adjusting to having Reagan around--and she was still waking up in the night at this point-- but this Christmas I felt like God was reminding me that Christmas would still "feel like Christmas" (what does that really even mean when we say it??) even if we didn't do all the Christmas activities we usually do. [Side note: I've noticed how easy it is for me to become attached to traditions rather than spending my time, energy and focus on the Lord, so I've been purposefully letting go of some traditions in order to detach from them. Its freeing! And its also freeing to know that those traditions can come back next year or look different next year, and it'll all still be good.] Simple activities with the boys were just enough to make the season special from the rest of the year and to be intentional about spending time with them and talking about Jesus' birth. And thanks to taking it simply in this area, we had plenty of good memories in between the fun planned activities.

Jake and I raked the leaves from our one and only tree in the front yard so that the town truck would kindly collect them the next day. The raking went quick and then there was time for the best part-- jumping in the pile you just worked so hard on! When Reid woke up from his nap he got to join the fun too.

It made me cringe when Jake buried himself like this, thinking of all those scratchy leaves! Glad he enjoyed it. I declined his invitation to jump in too and told him straight that I *do not* like that feeling! ;)

This ride-on Thomas was given to us when Jake was a year old and we lost the battery charger during the move. So for over a year it sat in our garage and I always said we needed to find the charger so Reid could enjoy using it. I finally order a new charger (for a whopping $12-- why did I wait so long?!) and Reid got a few days out of it before he dropped the battery while helping Deric recharge it...and now the battery's broken. Poor kid! He loved it while it lasted.

Baby snuggles in front of a fire with cozy Christmas lights. The best.

Adding jingle bells to our Magna Tiles was such a hit! Jake and I made a town out of toys one afternoon and he had the idea to add the jingle bells to Mickey's house. They looked like Christmas decorations and I loved it!

 

Once again, Reid woke up from his nap and got to enjoy the fun too!

Borrowing big brother's Captain America costume while he was at school one morning! Within the space of an hour, Reid was running around as the Cap and then upstairs swinging slowly and rubbing his nose with his blankie (which he's only allowed to have upstairs). Such a fun age!

Someone thinks its funny to pretend to be a baby! (Thankfully there's been no regression and serious pretending to be a baby--just an excuse to sit in the bouncy seat!)

The boys like to hide when Deric gets home sometimes and this was their hiding spot one evening-- but look at Reid's little fingers sticking out! He was also talking the entire time. Didn't take too long for Deric to find them. ;)

Our first Advent activity-- coloring on cut-out trees with white crayons and watercoloring over the designs! Jake was all about this and he made quite a few trees. 

Next up, our first time making play doh! It was so fun and simple to make and the boys loved playing with the play doh and our Christmas cookie cutters. Jake spent probably an additional hour that night making cookies with the play doh-- he eventually opened Jake's Bake Shop!

Gingerbread cookies!

I about had a heart attack over this particular fort! I came downstairs with Reagan and the boys were minutes away from trying to jump off the top cushions. I had to explain that while it would be fun, they'd most likely get hurt so no, sorry-- time to take the fort down to a more manageable height. ;) This photo was after they took some cushions off the top!

Naps on a Saturday morning...

...and you're hungry but just too tired to stay awake to burp!

Deric took Jake to a basketball game downtown one night and it coincided with a reading of The Polar Express at Barnes and Nobles, so we each got a date night with the boys! Reagan got to spend time with our neighbors while I took Reid in his pajamas to get hot chocolate and cookies with his friends. They dutifully listened to the story but you know they were in it for the treats. ;)

Our Life Group Christmas party encouraged festive attire-- so we got festive! It all came because of Deric's idea to wear his tux to the high school Christmas party rather than an ugly sweater, so we went all in for our Life Group party a week later. Even Reagan got fancy!

Caught the boys in a sweet moment one morning as they looked through a Look & Find book together. Reid's hand on Jake's shoulder kills me!

Another Advent activity-- going on a neighborhood walk to see Christmas lights! We lucked out with a really mild night and its a great memory.

Baking with my Christmas elf! 

And whew, we made it to the last few photos! On the coldest night of December-- I kid you not, it was something like 8 degrees-- we went to see the Christmas lights at the zoo with friends (and get pizza first!) It was unbelievably cold so it was a quick walk through the zoo before everyone just about ran back to their cars, but it was still so enjoyable to be with all of our friends.

I think Reagan was the warmest out of all of us!

Advent activities throughout December

For Advent this year we decided to read through the Storybook Bible plan and a simple activity for each day. Each night I would write the story and activity for the next day and slip it into our Advent calendar for Jake to find. Most of the activities were really simple and even still, it was hard to come up with ideas some days! I'll definitely use this post as a reminder for next year of some fun activities to repeat. Other activities including bringing cookies to our neighbors, driving to see Christmas lights, a glow stick bath...simple! It was good to have dedicated quality time each day with the boys (or just Jake sometimes, depending on the activity). Next year Reid will get to be involved even more!

Watching Arthur's Christmas on the pull-out sofa bed!

Gingerbread cookies!

Reid was allowed to stir the flour for a hot second...;)

Making magnets for his grandparents out of model magic! 

Homemade hot chocolate with candy cane stir sticks

Celebrating Jake's 100th reading lesson with frozen yogurt!

Helping wrap gifts for Dad!

Using Christmas cookie cutters with our play-doh (and learning how to make play-doh ornaments for his tree)!

Easter weekend 2016

I always look forward to Easter for months, mostly because it signifies the beginning of spring and spring is hands down my favorite season. For the past two years I think, I've observed Lent in some capacity which is a relatively new experience for me and I've realized it makes Easter much more special and meaningful. Last year Deric and I gave up extra sugar and this year, Whole30 was kind of our Lent (but ended up being a major distraction, unfortunately). Still though, sacrificing in some way makes Easter something to really really look forward to-- both on a spiritual level and a chocolate level. ;)

I feel like this year we celebrated Easter all weekend long rather than just on Sunday. We didn't plan to make the whole weekend anything special, but the weekend began on Thursday night with the Seder supper at church. Its one of my favorite traditions and each year I worry if Jake will make it through a rather long dinner, but he's always done great. This year he got to drink the juice with us and break the crackers, and I love seeing his involvement in such a time-honored tradition.

On Friday Jake and I used plastic eggs to paint (for a whole five minutes, but you know). Later we went on a family date to a nearby restaurant and sat outside enjoying the sunny and warm weather. It wasn't anything too fancy but just marking it as a 'family date' (plus the gorgeous weather) made it more special.

We dyed eggs on Saturday morning which was quite the adventure and involved a million mini heart attacks on my part each time Jake narrowly missed dumping dye all over the place. But he had a good time and really got into trying different colors on the eggs and combining the colors as well.

That afternoon, we had the Easter egg hunt at church. I love that the egg hunt is actually the last part of the event and the majority of the time is spent helping the kids interact with the resurrection story in some way. We had ribs cooking away in the crockpot all day so dinner on Saturday was exceptional and easy, my favorite kind of dinner!

^showing me his basket

On Sunday morning, we all woke up nice and early with Jake. I pulled him into bed with us and to give myself a few extra minutes before starting the day, we watched the Bible for Kids app on my phone. It narrates a story from the Bible and the kids can touch various things on the screen to make people move or talk. We listened to the story of Jesus' death and then the Resurrection. In that story, Jake could touch the stone and roll it in front of the tomb and as I talked to him on the way home from lunch, I could tell that it helped solidify his understanding of that part of the story.

Speaking of, Jake was telling me about Jesus dying on the cross while we were winding down for his nap and he started it by saying, "Jesus died on the cross. Yeah and he took off his pants!" So I'm guessing that at some point he saw a picture of Jesus wearing just the loincloth deal?? Shortly after this little tidbit, he told me he was going to sing the song about Jesus on the cross. He's been really into songs lately but usually changes the lyrics to include trucks or whatnot, so I was definitely interested to hear his song. He starts to sing to the tune of Jesus Loves Me but instead of singing the lyrics, his version went: "Jesus loves dying on the crossssss..." I laughed out loud, and still do each time we talk about it. I'm pretty sure Jesus did not enjoy dying on the cross, but he does love you buddy. ;)

Anyways, church on Sunday was followed by lunch with plenty of friends and a small egg hunt for the kids. Jake got to jump on their trampoline with some big kids and had the time of his life. After a delicious lunch we all napped hard, woke up for a simple dinner and then gave Jake his Easter basket from us. Bubble bath, fresh chalk for the summer and a giant jar of bubbles sets us up well for a fun spring and summer, and we headed right outside to break in the chalk and bubbles on the driveway.






Soon after, Sarah and Joel got here and will be with us for the week! My parents are on their way today so the fun is gonna last all week around here. Bring on the cousin and grandparent love!