Still having fun

I uploaded some pictures tonight and am really grateful for the life we have.  Jared and Lydia have really been enjoying each others company lately and we have been having fun doing our Christmas traditions and just hanging out at home.  For Home Evening this week we went out to look at lights and give out our award. This is still one of my favorite traditions. Jared and Lydia love that hey get to bring their blankets in the car and wear pajamas.  This year I posted our choice on Facebook and the couple we went with for the very first time (8 years ago in Greeley CO) commented that they went out Monday night too and posted their choice.  It was fun.  This year we headed North towards Barboursville and found some great houses. Lydia and I had gone to play at a friends house there and driven past a house that had tons of old school figurines in the yard so I knew we wanted to check it out at night.  I had also seen an article online about a house that had a long tradition of awesome lights since 1989.  They stopped for the last few years as the family member who loved the lights the most was very sick and then passed away.  This year they decided to put them up again in remembrance. Their lights were awesome.  They set up parking on their land and on Friday and Saturday nights they have free food and hot chocolate and a visiting Santa.  We weren't there for that but we had fun walking around their yard.  On their property they set up a shed and fill it with Santa figurines and they invite you into their basement (there is an outside entrance) to see their collection of angels.  A whole room filled with Angel figurines. It was amazing. I am so glad I saw the article and we drove out there.  The house we picked for the award was just down the street from them.  It was a fun night. 

2016 Best Christmas Lights Winner

It always surprises me how much Jared enjoys doing the activities I plan for preschool.  I adapt them for him, so they are at his level and he really looks forward to them.  Often when we have talk time at night he wants to hear about what we did in preschool. I wonder if he remembers doing activities like this when he was little?  I hope so!  We played reindeer races, decorated a painters tape tree with ornaments, and played jingle bell toss.  We also decorated sugar cone Christmas trees.  Gingerbread houses are nice and really fun but in my personal opinion they are a big expensive headache too!  They rarely stay together and you have to spend a lot of time and money on them.  A few years ago I started doing these trees and I love them.  Super easy and cute too. 

Practicing addition and subtraction

Practicing beginning sounds and coming up with words that began with those sounds. 

Jingle Bell Toss

Sugar cone Christmas trees.  

I found this cute worksheet online that had them count how many "ornaments" of each color they put on the tree.  It was nice to extend the activity some, learning can be fun! 

We went over to the library one day with some friends and made paper bag gingerbread house.  The last few years they have supplied pre-made houses to decorate but this year they went with a craft and Jared and Lydia didn't even seem to mind not doing a candy one.  They had fun supplies on hand and had a fun time.  We also went to a UVA basketball game.  Mark can get really into a game which is always fun to see.  Lydia had fun but would probably not ask to go again at this point but Jared had a great time.  I like going to them and am sure we will go at least once each year. It was fun to watch Jared get really into the game too. We also got together with some really fun people and went Caroling.  I am happy we get to go especially since Mark grew up caroling with one of the families we go with.  It's just so funny that their families hung out frequently in Turlock while they were growing up and now they live 12 minutes away from each other, completely across the country from where they grew up.  It was great to go with the Players, Hong's, and Papin's. All really great families. 

Lydia is super into penguins right now and was thrilled when she saw they had these stickers.  

UVA played Robert Morris and blew them out of the water!  They won by 40 or more points.  It was nice to see them do well but a little more competition would have been nice. 

We've made lots of fun cookies and Mark participated in a cookie exchange at school.  The teacher who arranged it told Mark he could only participate if he brought these mint brownies I made for St Patricks day.  Mark loves them so he was happy to ask if I would do it.  Last Sunday was a little over the top with baking and singing.  Mark participated in a community concert and ended up singing with 2 different choirs.  I made the brownies for the school exchange and then 4 dozen cookies for the concert.  I have been to this concert twice now and while the performers do a very nice job I have decided that it is not really my scene.  I just don't really like their song selections.  I was tempted to stay home and get Jared and Lydia, who was fighting a cold to bed on time but Mark really wanted us to come hear him sing.  We stayed for his first performance and then went home.  We also made Christmas tree waffles which are always a big hit. I mean they have M&M ornaments on them so there is no way they can't be a hit. Mark was happy to participate in the cookie exchange.  It was kind of funny as 2 of his students saw a sign for it in the teachers lounge and asked Mark if they could participate too.  He said sure, and gave them the instructions.  They came and he helped get them a selection of cookies.  What he really liked was that these 2 girls were happy to share their cookies from the exchange with all the students in the class.  They just offered them to all the kids, nobody even had to ask.  It sounded really sweet when Mark told me about it.  They asked if they could do an exchange every month! Its nice to hear stories like this. Mark has had a rough semester with these kids and is looking forward to new classes next semester. 

It is always so rewarding when Jared and Lydia can just enjoy playing with each other.  They read together,  pretend to be reindeer who can turn into killer whales (Jared is really into killer whales right now) pulling Santa's sleigh (running down the halls and sliding in their pajamas), building forts (making a big mess), playing preschool or library and just enjoying each other.  They are creative and awesome kids and I love seeing them together and hearing what they come up with. 

Jared has also been very into history/geography lately so I got some books at the library. Here he is explaining things to Lydia before school one morning.  Mark's Mom tells a story of how Mark's brother David would get Mark out of his crib early in the morning and lay next to him on the floor and read the sports section to him as a baby.  Mark loved to look at atlas's when he was growing up so its fun to see Jared interested in them. He is always asking us to tell him about historic events which is fun for us since we are big fans of history. 

Fun story: I got these stools and rolling cart from a sweet family who is moving soon.  I am not sure what I will do with them, I just really liked them.  In the meantime, Lydia has completely taken them as her own.  Here she is writing some thank you notes after church and later in the day she and Jared filled the cart up with library books and wheeled it around the house.  I often find the stools randomly placed around the house as she has moved them all over the place.  I am pretty sure she would love to have them in her room! I sent this picture to the family and she commented that Lydia was problem a future teacher.  She does often say she wants to teach preschool and work at Kohls sounds pretty familiar.  Funny girl.  We will see where she ends up! 

Just one more week till Christmas!  The presents are all wrapped and we have just a few more things we want to attend.  Mark was very kind and wrapped 2/3 of the presents. He wrapped then I added the bows.  It was nice to do it together. We are planning on attending the Bethlehem Village tomorrow night and driving up to the temple Thursday, staying the night then going into DC Friday probably to the American History Museum. Christmas Eve, friends are coming over to decorate cookies and sing songs and I am looking forward to it.  What a fun Christmas season it has been!  We have our struggles but we truly live a blessed life and I am incredibly grateful.