Michelle Doing Allison's Hair (Dec. 30, 2017)

Michelle was having fun doing Allison's hair and Allison was a great sister and didn't mind her pulling at it.

Steph's New Hobby

I have started a new hobby this year.

It is woodworking. I saw some videos at the end of last year that made me think that maybe I could do that.

I cut Matthew's Pinewood Derby car, but that wasn't a very big deal. 

In October I started actually doing some names and such and it is SOOO fun!!

I LOVE it!!!

I have done probably 17 names so far and they keep getting better and better.

It is so fun and I have learning to to figure things out and what type of wood I like to work with.

Other than the pinewood derby car, this was my VERY first project that I did.

I was thinking of doing keychains for everyone but it seemed like it was a little too big for a keychain and stuff so I opted to just go with names. The first name I ever did was James. I loved it so much and decided to do all names for awhile.

Here are the names I have done so far:

James

Katrina

Chad

Paul

Janine

Jessica

Ben

Sarah

Josh

Luke

Grandma

GRANDPA

McNIVENS

GRANDMA

GRANDPA

MRS. WILLIAMS

MR. WILSON

Then I was trying to think about what to make for the kids' Primary Teachers for Christmas. Since our theme in Primary this year was Choose The Right,

I created this!!

I think this is SO cool.

MATTHEW 

(Spray painted orange because that is his favorite color)

 ALLISON 

(spray painted in blue because that is her favorite color)

MICHELLE 

(spray painted in Purple because that is what I wanted)

There were knots in Allison's and Michelle's so I need to redo theirs.

I wish that I took pictures of all of the other ones that I have done, but I did just do two more that I haven't given away yet. 

Since I had the pattern already I did another CTR for our Primary President

Then Chris' dad has his birthday coming up so I did this.

 (these are both the same)

It is SO much fun and I get so excited to have people see these!!

Christmas Eve Jammies

I REALLY need to do better at keeping my blog up to date. This is my family journal. 

I am just going to start with recent and go from there.

Last year, I didn't do Christmas Eve Jammies and the kids were bummed. I realized it is something they look forward to.

I have ALWAYS wanted to be that really awesome mom that has those matching jammies and this year, I almost didn't get it. I bought these jammies online many months ago and then it took them a long time to get here. When we finally looked at them in Dec we saw that it said 10T. I didn't realize there was such a size as 10T. We compared them to Allison's other clothes and didn't think they would fit, but finally decided to make her squeeze into them for one night. They are on the tight side and the others are on the loose side but I am glad I FINALLY got the matching jammies!!!

I just have to put this on record...that the older kids are the ones that put up all of our Christmas stuff this year. Things were happening and the kids took it upon themselves to actually go to the 3rd floor attic, get all the tubs and the boxes that the tree is in and bring them all downstairs. Put the tree together, found all the light strands and connected them, put the garland on, and then all of the ornaments. I was very impressed that they were able to do so much of it themselves. The start wasn't put up on the tree until about 2 days before Christmas and then I finally got a step ladder out and put it up.

I sure love this bunch!!

Hooded Towels!!

The older kids got hooded towels made for them when they were babies and they have grown out of them. Their necks are just longer than they used to be as smaller kids. 

Anyways, I saw on pinterest how to make hooded towels and these even hand "side pockets" to put their hands in and wrap themselves up!

It didn't seem all that hard so I decided to do it for them for Christmas. I was SO excited to give them to them. I don't think they like them as much as I thought they would, OR that they had so many other cooler gifts that it wasn't all that great but I think they are using them, and liking them.

I think it is SO cool when I ACTUALLY create something all by myself. I just don't do it a lot so it is still VERY cool to me when I can actually achieve those types of things.

Bass Pro Shop Santa Trip

We haven't made many traditions here yet and I have always relied on our Ward Christmas Parties to have a Santa and that was the one time the kids got to see Santa. Well, since our party was cancelled I had to find a different place for the kids to go see Santa.

I had asked on Facebook about where to see Santa and got two different answers.

I decided to take the kids, kind of just on a whim to one of the suggestions, Bass Pro Shop Santa.

I was impressed with it. I had never been in a Bass Pro Shop before so it was cool to go in there. We (I) had to stand in line for a little bit while the kids roamed a little looking at things and killed time. These big kids are SOOOO good with their little sister. They are such a great help!

They had games and toys for the kids to play with while they were waiting closer as well.

Michelle was excited to see Santa and she knew what she was going to ask him...(using her counting fingers to point to each finger for each word on her other hand)...."May I have Candy Please?" That is what she was going to say. 

She says that she WANTS things, like I want water, I want crackers. We reminder her to ask NICELY so then she starts counting on her fingers...."May I have water please?".....then exclaims.....yay I asked so NICELY!! IT is  ADORABLE!!

Anyways, when it was their turn to go see Santa in the chair, she just stopped and wouldn't budge. I am ok with those crying pictures of kids with Santa. Allison has one for the first 4 years, but this Santa immediately got out of the chair and moved away and the kids were able to take Michelle up there.

Then Santa came and kneeled close to the chair for picture time. Michelle wasn't comfortable with him completely but she did get 2 candy canes from him instead of just 1 like the other kids and she didn't cry.

I thought it was a nice set for pictures...though mine are all blurry.

They did give us a free 4x6 picture....I just have to find it somewhere.

Then afterwards, it was really nice because they had some like duck hunting type games and bows and arrows and they had a penguin craft to do and also some coloring pages to color. We had an enjoyable time just doing those things for awhile.

Then we went exploring the store a bit.

The kids liked getting on the four-wheelers and pretending to drive them.

Then we went and found the fish tank and looked at the fish for awhile.

Then it was like a cave that we went through and we got to take some pictures with this guy:)

Allison is probably the best big sister there ever was. She just treasures her little Michelle and usually can't get enough of her. Michelle is one very spoiled little girl in that aspect:) She is SOOO well loved:)

We had a fun little outing.

I was told that we HAD to go to the Santa at the Virginia Children's Museum, it is REALLY good. I thought it cost money at first but I have been told it doesn't. We had just seen this one and I didn't really want to see the Santa's back to back because my kids all still believe and I didn't want them to wonder or think too much. Apparently that Children's Museum one is a Historical Local favorite place to go to see Santa so we might check that one out next year.

December's First Snow

This is our 4th December here in Virginia. We got here the very beginning of January in 2013. 

The first time it snowed was at the end of January but we hadn't ever seen it come earlier that January 8th which is the one snowstorm we had that year.

This year, we were REALLY surprised to see it snow in December, and the beginning of December even. 

We were suppose to have our Ward Christmas Party which included a big Christmas type dinner and it was already prepared when the snow started coming down. We got an email saying that they were still going to have the party and I was VERY impressed with them because everything shuts down here when it THINKS about maybe having some snow. So for them to have it anyways, I was giving them a round of applause....then they cancelled it BUT since all the food was ready, anybody that still wanted to go to the church to have dinner or pick dinner up they were encouraged to do so.

I guess it worked for us since I can drive in snow, not a big deal and I didn't have to worry about finding something else for dinner AND we didn't have to really stay to socialize or anything. It was kind of a win, win.

Anyways, the kids enjoyed the snow.

Allison's 4th Grade Play

Allison was SO excited for her 4th Grade Play and we heard her songs and lines CONSTANTLY before actually seeing the play but she did a good job on her speaking parts and her songs.

The play was called December Around the World. 

There was ONE line in the whole play that Christians do celebrate the birth of Christ but other than that we heard all about Kawanza, and Chinese New Year, and everything else basically was very elaborated upon.

I wish they did more Christmas things in schools these days.

She loved all the songs and "choreography" to their songs and she liked when they used their flashlights.

Little Bike Helmet (Dec. 4, 2017)

Allison has been riding her bike a lot more lately and she has a great little friend in her grade, Carys, who also loves to ride her bike.

Allison found her small helmet for Michelle and was so excited to come show me while I was doing piano lessons with Matthew.

Even though Matthew is photo-bombing this picture, it is a good picture of him and the girls! 

SCORE!!

Matthew's Winter Chorus Concert

Matthew decided to be in 6th Grade Chorus this year.

Their first concert was the end of November, their Winter concert...but there wasn't a lot to do with Winter or Christmas. There were a lot of slave songs and one marshmallow song.

They did fine, I just wasn't impressed with the song choices and Matthew's group only sang 3 songs.