Jenni is enjoying ballet as much as ever. Her teacher is wonderful! We learned that J can start tap when she turns five so she might just start that next year!
Bible Study Fellowship
Oh, how I love the study of Acts and Hebrews!
Teaching the Christmas Story
We spent this month telling the Christmas Story to Jenni and Joshua. We included basic biblical truths, discussed the story, repeated the story, and read aloud from Scripture. Our goal was to read Luke 2:1-20 daily. While discussing the true meaning of Christmas, we introduced the children to the promise God made in Isaiah 9:6 and the record of the fulfillment of that promise in Luke 2:11. Jenni and I worked on memorizing these two verses of Scripture this month. In addition we sang Christmas carols to teach and reinforce the truths of Christ's birth.
Holiday Tea
Uncle David put the boys to bed while Andrea and I were at the dinner. Sweet sleeping Joshua!
The kids and I traveled to Austin to join my sister at her church's annual Holiday Tea. We had a lovely time! While Andrea and I were at the dinner, Dave stayed home and watched the three kiddos! :)
I asked Jenni for a report of their evening. She said she and Uncle David played Candy Land and Go Fish (so sweet of him!) and that she rocked Gavin in his "baby swing." I asked what Joshua did and she replied, "He walked around doing boy things." I asked what "boy things" meant and she said, "I don't really know since I was paying attention to Baby Gav." :)
The kids and I traveled to Austin to join my sister at her church's annual Holiday Tea. We had a lovely time! While Andrea and I were at the dinner, Dave stayed home and watched the three kiddos! :)
I asked Jenni for a report of their evening. She said she and Uncle David played Candy Land and Go Fish (so sweet of him!) and that she rocked Gavin in his "baby swing." I asked what Joshua did and she replied, "He walked around doing boy things." I asked what "boy things" meant and she said, "I don't really know since I was paying attention to Baby Gav." :)
Family Time
Eric scheduled some time off from work this month so that we could spend some good quality time as a family enjoying each other and many holiday activities! After he had been traveling, we were quite thankful for some fun family time! To read more about our adventures, click here.
Homemade Laundry Detergent
We were running low on our previous batch of laundry detergent so we made more for the upcoming year. The last batch I made was in January so it lasted a solid 11 months. Since I already had all the ingredients, I didn't have to buy anything, which makes our cost for laundry detergent for roughly the next year amount to nothing. Pretty awesome.
Gingerbread House Decorating
We had fun decorating our village of gingerbread houses. Jenni and I enjoyed decorating our houses with frosting and colorful candy. Joshua enjoyed breaking his gingerbread house apart and eating the candy instead of decorating with it. :)
Six Flags Over Texas: Holiday in the Park
The kids and I ventured out to Holiday in the Park one evening while Eric worked late. We love it. We have been so often the past couple of weeks that the workers smile and say hi to us and let the kids ride the rides again without getting back in line. Sweetness. I asked Jenni what her favorite part of the night was and she said "everything." :) Joshie really enjoys all the characters at the park - they are so sweet to him.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
What I love about Joshua - he is so chill while opening presents that he keeps a cracker (or a car) in his hands throughout it all :)
We asked Jenni and Joshua to close their eyes while we got their final presents (bicycles) from the garage. Jenni sweetly shut her eyes and Joshua laid down :)
Gavin meeting Clifford
Gavin and Joshua reuniting :)
Jenni surprised us all with handmade crocodiles at dinner..and then again in our stockings :)
Such a sweet face! Gavin is beyond precious.
Cousin picture!
My Birthday/New Years Eve
We had a wonderful day celebrating my birthday. My sweet Jenni kept calling me "the birthday girl" ex. "What does the birthday girl want to do today?" :) We enjoyed a relaxing day sleeping in (until 10 AM!!), lunch at our favorite restaurant, my annual cookie cake birthday cake, fun at the park (where I enjoyed taking pictures with my new fabulous camera!), a trip to the mall, and enjoying a night of bowling (the kiddos loved it!). Hooray for birthdays and the new year!
Sweet Snapshots
My mom made the kiddos gingerbread brownies. I put them in a baggie to bring home for them to have later. Sweet Joshua found the goodie bag, and I found him with his back turned to me munching on his little brownie :)
Sweet sleeping girl
Bundled up on a chilly day :)
Sweet J
Like I have previously stated, Joshua likes to get Jenni's attention however he can. For example, he took off his shoes and socks, smelled his toes and said, "Mmm." Jenni turned to Joshua and said, "Yucky, Joshua. That's gross. Your feet are smelly!" Which made Joshua laugh like crazy...and then he did it again.
Sweet Jenni J in her awesome Christmas outfit from Grandma Linda :)
Joshua and his awesome facial expressions.
The three items my boy loves: his car, his puppy, and his football :)
Joshua listening to a new Chris Tomlin CD. He loves the music.
We love Joshua Gabriel!
While I was packing for Christmas, Jenni was putting together her new princess puzzle.
Tools for little hands!
Jenni drawing and coloring some planets :)
Overheard
Jenni: "Mommy, did they put a special ingredient in this?! It tastes so good!"
Me: "I'm glad you're enjoying your food, J."
Jenni: "Mommy, just taste this! It's so good! I promise!"
Eric was out of town. Every noise that slightly resembled the garage door noise, the door opening or shutting noise, or any noise in general, Joshua thought was Eric returning home...
Joshua running toward the garage door yelling, "Dada! Dada! Dada!"
Jenni: "Joshie that isn't daddy. Don't you remember me and mommy telling you he is out of town. Don't worry, Joshie, you still have me and mommy." :)
While running errands one afternoon, Joshua was being unusually loud in his car seat...
Jenni: "Mommy, is that an appropriate thing for Joshie to do?" I love her sincere questions and building vocabulary!
While I was sick I mentioned to Jenni that I really wanted to eat some soup...
Jenni: "Mommy, let's pretend that I'm a chef at a restaurant."
Me: "Ok."
Jenni: "Have you had a chance to look at your menu?"
Me: "What menu?"
Jenni: "Mommy, your pretend menu. We're playing pretend."
Me: "Oh. Well let me look at the menu for a minute. I think I want some soup."
Jenni: "Well, since this is my restaurant, I'm only serving snake soup."
Me: "Jenni, I don't want snake soup!"
Jenni: "Well, I'm sorry. I guess I won't be able to make you feel better!"
While Joshua was being particularly messy at lunch one day...
Me: "Joshua, when you get old enough, you are going to go with Grandpa to a men's dinner at the church where they eat a lot of meat and man-food with their hands."
Jenni: "Do they at least use napkins?"
Me: "No napkins. No silverware."
Jenni: "Well if Joshua goes to a men's dinner I want to go to a fancy dinner with fancy forks and fancy spoons and wear a fancy dress and wipe my hands on fancy napkins!"
Oh how I love the differences between boys and girls :)
Jenni talking to me:
Jenni: "I love you so much. I'm not going to stop loving you!" :)
While we were traveling home from Six Flags after Jenni got an awesome picture with Scooby Doo...
Jenni: "Mommy, do you think Scooby Dooby sleeps at the park or goes home?"
Me: "I think he goes home to sleep."
Jenni: "Do you think he sleeps alone or with his family?"
Me: "He probably has a family he goes home to."
Jenni: "Like a Scooby Dooby family?" :)
(I then had to explain to sweet Jenni J that inside "Scooby Dooby" is a person wearing the costume...)
Jenni surprised me with a few things she had said...
Me: "Jenni, how are you so smart?"
Jenni: "I listen to everything people say...and I ask a lot of questions and you answer them." :)
One night while the kids were sleeping, I set our table with a Christmas tablecloth and set out our china and crystal for the next evening...
Jenni (the next morning): "Mommy, what is this!"
Me: "We are having a dinner party tonight."
Jenni: "Oh my. If we are having a fancy dinner, I am going to wear a fancy dress!" :)
Joshua's favorite thing to say this month, particularly to Jenni...
Joshua: "Bad! Bad! Bad!"
Jenni: "Mommy, I'm not bad am I?"
Me: "No, Jenni. You are not bad. Joshua just likes to practice saying his new word."
Jenni: "Oh. Joshua, say baaaad." :)
Joshua: "Bad! Bad! Bad!"
Me: "Joshua, no one is bad."
Joshua shakes his head.
Me: "Joshua you are not bad. You are good. Can you say good?"
Joshua: "No good. Bad. Bad. Bad."
Grandma Linda made a new Christmas treat for us to enjoy...
Jenni: "Grandma, can you write down that recipe for me?" :)
While we were out for dinner, Jenni was drawing in her menu...
Me: "Jenni, what are you doing?"
Jenni: "I'm coloring some planets."
Me: "Oh, wow."
Jenni: "I colored Mars red and I'm coloring ours green and blue."
Me: "Jenni, how do you know what Mars is?!"
Jenni: "I read a lot of books from the library."
Me: "Jenni, I don't remember us reading a book about the planets."
Jenni: "Oh, I remember. That's why I'm drawing this."
(Sweet Jenni J has a seriously good memory :) )
In the car Jenni was sweetly rubbing Joshua's hand trying to help him go to sleep...
Jenni: "There's nobody like our little man." :)
An update on Jenni
Sweet Jenni J is still sweet Jenni J. She has enjoyed the Christmas season and is wondering when it will actually snow. Every night this month she has tried to stay up much later than her regular bedtime. Her reason for staying up - we haven't had enough time together :) I sweetly remind Jenni that we have spent the entire day together, and she sweetly tells me that that is still not enough time. I do love my sweet girl. :)
An update on Joshua
Oh my sweet boy is such a boy. He likes to get Jenni's attention however he can. This month he enjoyed his job of turning on and off our Christmas tree lights, the big one and the small one. Each morning when he woke up he would run to both rooms turning on the Christmas tree lights and when we were getting ready to leave he would yell, "Off! Off! Off!" and run to turn both lights off. This month he has been saying words in groups of three (off off off, bad bad bad, good good good, etc.) He has started calling Jenni "enni" without the /j/ sound which is pretty cute. And anytime we are getting ready to leave he runs to his room and grabs his little cars and stuffs them in his pants or coat pockets and carries extras in his hands. :)
We are looking forward to the month of January and the start (and whole year) of 2012! Our sweet little man turns TWO on January 14! What a blessing he is to our family! What a wonderful year 2011 has been! Happy New Year!
