Day 11: Downtown lights

Last night we bundled up and headed downtown for a tradition that Kevin and I have done every year. A night of lights on the river walk. I waited until it was cold because there's not much Christmas feel if you're in shorts. Jman was so excited from the moment I said we would see lights. The whole time in the car he was asking for "lights?"

The river walk was not crowded so it was nice. Jack enjoyed the lights, next year we may try the river barge. One of my favorite Christmas's was when my whole family rode the barge at Christmas. Although I am a native of San Antonio and not a tourist at all I like the barge. I do know all the answers they ask. :) So downtown walk was a good night out. (Don't worry Grace were happy to go again!)

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Day 10

So life happened and between doctors appointments and 3 birthday parties we missed a few days. Oh well. We did accomplish some Christmas shopping and had an impromptu Christmas lighting drive. Jman LOVED it and the whole time said "Lights! I want more. More lights!"

Day 10: We made gingerbread cloud dough, read the story and made gingerbread men. Cloud dough may be my new favorite thing! It looks and acts like sand but not sticky like sand! Yay. I hate sand. Jman loved the "Run run as fast as you can" part. He kept dancing. I think he thought it was a song. I couldn't find my favorite version of the story. Hope I didn't lose it so this version will have to do.

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Day 4 and Day 5

Day 4 - Sensory Christmas Shaving Cream Fun- Today we played in red, green and white shaving cream and painted the bath tub while jamming to Christmas songs. He had a blast today and wanted me to help him paint :) (sorry for diaper pics)

We also dropped our donataions off at the church.

 

 

Day 5: Volunteer and help others. I've been wanting to find volunteer opportunities for us to do so I thought why not start with the obvious, our church. I LOVE our children's ministry and have helped off and on since college. They have helped me grow in many ways. They are more than just the people that plan activities for Jman. They are very special to me. So I emailed figuring this time of year they need help. Actually I know they always need help. Must do this more often. So the past two days I've been cutting 300 ovals and 150 sheep heads! :) Certainly brought me back to my days of preparing for centers the past 7 years. This was a volunteer opportunity for me but J liked it as well. We will start looking for more things we can do together.

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Day 3: donate to those in need

Christmas often is a time when people want to give to those in need. Which is great but its something that should be thought about all year. I want J to grow into a giving, caring person so helping others is something I want him to really experience at a young age. Christmas is the perfect time to start this with him.  I wish for him that he sees Christmas is about others and showing love and giving to others.  It's not all about us. So I decided for us to donate to the Pure Mercy campaign at our church. I don't mind giving money but I also like to donate tangible things. So today we went and bought tooth brushes and toothpaste for the kids this campaign is for. This cause really tugged at my heart  from being a former teacher and my love for kids who need help and might not have the happy home they deserve. So we are doing what we can. Jman approved of the toothbrush selection. We will take the donations to church tomorrow.

We also played with our Christmas pompoms mats. He did really well putting the pompoms on the dots. These are really great. This set came with 16 different mats.  You can find them at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BUSYLITTLEBUGSshop?ref=seller_info. She has so many great printables to use. I want them all! And on her website she offers Freebie Friday!

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Day 2

Day 2 activity is introducing Jman's felt tree and nativity. He of course at first showed no interest. Later on he finally went over there. His favorite part is pulling all the pieces off and leaving them on the floor. Hmmm just like the real tree. :). What do you expect from a full blown energetic toddler boy?

He really likes the nativity and finding the star and listening to who everyone is. He went up to it and said "that's a star!" Well done Jman. Here's to hoping all that cutting will be used over the next month.

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25 Days of Christmas

I have had too many ideas to make for Christmas (thanks Pinterest) and now I've put them off too long and I find myself overwhelmed. But we'll get around to to them or there's always next year. One of my projects was to make an advent calendar for our family full of activities to celebrate the season. I got around to picking 25 activities but haven't made the calendar yet. Oh well forward we move with the activities. I chose 25 activities to do that focus on Christmas, serving others,giving to others,  having fun and most important the reason for the season Jesus. I plan to do them all but since life usually happens we may miss a day here and there. And the great thing is if something doesn't go well we can improve it for next year. Christmas around here is a Santa free zone. This has been something I've struggled with for years. Prayed and thought about how I want to approach Christmas once children were in the picture. And we've decided as a family to not introduce him. If you are curious about that feel free to ask, maybe I will post my reasoning if enough are curious. But let me say that this is my own personal choice, I do not care if your family celebrates him. To each their own. So no judgement from me, I promise. But I understand many do not understand this choice.




Day 1 for our activities : Light the tree and share the Christmas story and act it out with the nativity. First of all I have felt so crazy behind because I always have my tree up the day after all that turkey. So all week I have been frantic about it not being up. But it was up by Dec. 1. Jman came downstairs and said "wow" and was quite excited. Immediately he found all the "balls" on the tree. We talked about how to treat the tree, we'll see that goes :).

 

 

 

Jman may think the Spiderman ornament is for him, but it is his mommas :)

 

 

 

We read the Christmas story and acted it out with his nativity. I plan to do this every morning until Christmas. Hopefully by then he will understand Baby Jesus is important! It will be our Bible story every morning. He already knows the Bible is special and can distinguish it from all the other books.  He loved all his figures mainly because they are "new" to him at least. While telling the story he picked up Jesus and said "Baby!" and started rocking him. (he's going to be such a great big brother!)  Christmas around here is focused on that little baby so here's to hoping today was a good start to our 25 days of Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Baby Jesus!

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November Sensory Box

I'm a little late this month but with good reason. We spent all of last week laying on the couch watching movies. But little man is back to his normal self. Non stop running and eating me at out of the house :). And he just now conquered the fridge water and is helping himself. Sure did miss my busy boy last week.

Today I emptied out the Halloweeen box which came with a lot of crying. Someone didn't like that idea. Since I live in the the state of two seasons, summer and more summer, there are no pretty leaves around here. Bummer. So I had to buy fake pretty leaves for our box. I did snatch some pine cones when we were at the renissance festival a couple weeks ago and found plenty of acorns in our yard for our box.

 

Jman is not very impressed with this box. Probably because it does not make a mess! What fun is that? He finally started to explore in it once he accepted the fact that there are no rice and beans to pour everywhere.

 

At least we can work on more colors with this box. We have blue down, now we can work on red and yellow. Even though J is not impressed I LOVE FALL!

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Take a look, it's in a book

Jmans book nook is done! I decided to turn his closet into a reading area, because we may have a few books in this house. I sorted through my hundreds of books and pulled in my reading barrel and some of my stuffed animals. (Still wondering what do with all my other teaching stuff) I love how much he loves books. We spend most of the day piled in books. I printed some of my favorite child quotes and hung them up. And now he has a space in can use for years.

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The Calm of the Storm

I love my little boy. He is the happiest, busiest guy I've ever met. He brings me more joy than I ever imagined. I really don't know what I did to be blessed this much. Our day consists of him running non stop, with about an hour nap in there. He would live outside if I would let him. I love how he has his set routines and as soon as he wake up he says "books books" and hands me his Bible to read a story. I love that he thinks he wants to watch TV and then sits still about 5 minutes for It. He is constantly busy working at something. Whether its finding yet another acorn inside, trying to screw things into the wall, wash dishes or hugging his bear. I wish I could see his thoughts because I know they are grand. He runs from toy to toy and back. He's beginning to make sound effects and mix his toys and create things. He is always covered in dirt even after a bath. It just always there. And somewhere amongst the running and full day of action, he stops and runs and hugs me. He takes a break from his busy mind and feet and expresses his love. Sometimes its one hug and he's off, sometimes its multiple hugs, or sometimes its snuggles. He is always sweet and kind but he takes the time to show it. It makes me so happy to see all these sides of his personality developing. And of course makes me melt that he wants to hug his momma. I love seeing that he is strong, smart, sweet, loving and funny. Here's to hoping Jman continues to grow into someone amazing and someone God will be proud of. Jack was a gift to me and the greatest gift I can give back is to raise Jack to be someone that brings glory to God.

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Knights, pirates and fairies. Oh my!

This weekend we traveled into the fantasy world where knights roam the streets and fight for their country's honor, Pirates set sail, fairies fly, men play with fire, people dance in the streets, and Tarzan swings in. That's right we went to the renaissance festival. We love this weekend of make believe and enchantment. People are decked out in costumes and easily engage you in their conversations. You will see the most beautiful to the most embarrassing of costumes. You can throw tomatoes at people and fly in giant swings. (Which Jman hated, sorry baby). Jman received his first sword and likes to start battles with it. There are so many things that go on that you just have to see it. It's an event we like to see each year. And sometime we will go in costume! Here are a few pictures but they do not grasp the true scenery of it all.

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