Celebrating the Season!

We had fun doing more of our advent chain activities. And who knows, there may be more still to come. I'm sure it will be no surprise to you that we didn't get to do everything, but we did our best. No one's complaining, we had a busy & fun Christmas.

Give everyone crazy hair!

Decorating nativity pictures 

 You may not have know this, but something I found out while decorating the nativity pictures was that the wise men brought Jesus - "gold, Jupiter, and Mars" We are definitely going to have to go over the Christmas story in a little more detail from now on...

And the painting of the toenails was a popular activity. Daddy is NOT a fan of polish for his little girls but their feet did look so sweet and they loved it!

Paint everyone's toenails

More favorite sites

To continue my earlier post, my second favorite web site right now is Pinterest. Now Pinterest is not for everybody. But it's great for moms or people who like to do crafts. People who decorate or like to cook or bake. Or if you have any hobbies, or just like looking at funny or interesting images. Or anyone who just wants to waste/kill time. So, pretty much everybody :)

It's too hard to explain what Pinterest is, just pretty much the ultimate time-waster, ha! But I have made 5 or 6 things that I found, and used it to get some picture ideas. I would do a lot more if I actually did have time to do some of the things but for now I just like to look. I'm gathering ideas for our basement and future crafts for the kids, that sort of thing. My favorite quote about Pinterest, found on pinterest is "Thank you pinterest for helping me feel creative even though I've just been sitting at my computer for three hours". So true :)

 And now, a picture of the kids visiting Santa. We are doing HIPPY again. A Home based education program for 3 & 4 year olds. I am actually fortunate that Kaleigh & the twins get to do an extra year b/c their birthdays fell in October. So Kaleigh was able to do a 5 year program, as will the twins. Anyway, they had a little Christmas party and Santa was there. True to her word, Avery would NOT sit on his lap. He didn't seem up for a screaming kid so I didn't do that to him, but Alexis & Emory sat with him.

Making snowflake ornaments

scooping out reindeer food for Christmas Eve

Avery Enjoying her snacks

My favorite web sites...
I thought I would list some of my favorite web sites over the next few days, just for fun. 
It will probably not come as any surprise to those who know me at all, that my favorite web site is amazon.
Oh, my dear amazon, why do I love thee so? Let me count the ways...
(1) Obviously for shopping. During the holidays when many people are running around town from store to store buying things, I'm sitting on my computer clicking "add to cart". I have free prime through amazon mom and anything I get is free two day shipping. And gone are the days when amazon was just for books. Oh no, if you can think of it, amazon has it. I once purchased some unstretched canvases and guess where I was able to find very affordable wood stretcher frames? I've been buying diapers through them for over a year. I was able to get Pampers for cheaper than WalMart brand and sometimes way cheaper! Unfortunately, their prices have recently risen on diapers and thankfully two of my three in diapers are about 90% potty trained. Their prices can be really good, but I always check around to be sure. Prices on amazon fluctuate constantly.
(2) Amazon is a great place to check for reviews on items, especially toys. Have you ever spent $25 or more on something you were sure your kid would love, only to find it didn't work properly or was falsely advertised? Well, if you check amazon, you can almost always avoid this type of scenario. You still have to take it with a grain of salt, but if something gets 4.5 out of 5 stars, you can probably be confident in that purchase.
(3) I use amazon to find new books to read. I don't buy them from there, I just follow the trail of suggestions from a book I enjoyed to similar type books, read the reviews, then request them from my library. I've found many books this way that I never would have otherwise.

So, if you have time to kill, go on over & check out all the wonders that amazon has to offer!

How has so much time gone by since I last blogged? It really does boggle my mind. Somehow we also haven't taken any pictures in the last month. I'm pretty sure there won't be a Christmas card this year :( But that's okay. Christmas will still go on...

Since I last blogged Nathan's been hunting twice. He got 3 deer (or something like 2-1/2). We had a little holiday, that's nestled in between Halloween & Christmas, called Thanksgiving.  And I'm most excited about the fact that the twins are pretty much potty trained. Avery did just as I predicted. One day out of the blue she wanted to go and within a couple of days was staying dry. Nathan and I refinanced our house to a 15 year mortgage. We are so excited to know that we will have so much more paid off when the time comes to move again (which will hopefully be a while).  His work Christmas party was Friday and we came back with $60 worth of gift cards. Not too shabby. And the kids sang at church last night, it was a really neat program. It really did get me in the Christmas spirit.

I really want to make this season special for the girls. We can't do a lot with two 3 year olds and a gettin crazier every day almost 2 year old! But I made a little advent paper chain and each link has an activity on it for each day. We're a little behind already but so far they got to have a bubble bath and make salt dough ornaments. Just something special to look forward to each evening.

My sister's wedding is now 12 days away, so we'll be busy with those preparations too! It's still strange to think of her being married but I'm excited for her & Brett.

So that sums up the last month, but much more excitement to come for this month...