December 2016

I feel so proud of myself. I am just about caught up on my blog. Here's a look at our December (minus Christmas, that gets it's own post).

Kaliya

Kaliya (and Makai) are regulars at the library for story time. Kaliya enjoys reading new books, making a craft, and spending time on their kid computer. Many weeks we are the only ones who go.

Kaliya cutting up Makai's banana.

Family Photos

We had planned on having professional photos done but time got away from us. So with Christmas drawing near and wanting to get our Christmas cards, we headed across the street to the baseball fields and took a few of our own. We recently purchased a tripod which made everything much easier. I was pretty happy with the few pictures we took. The kids were awesome and sat still with happy faces for the pictures. When we were looking at them and thinking of new positions, they ran around the field to get energy out and warm back up (it was cold and starting to snow). But like I said, they turned out well. Maybe next year we'll pay someone to do it. 

December's Day of Catastrophes

One day we had a lot of catastrophes. Makai fell and split his lip in two places. So he was not a happy camper. I was, of course, occupied in the bathroom when I heard him crying, and thinking it was just a normal fall, didn't hurry out. One he did make his way to the bathroom door, he had blood all over and even dripping it on the floor. Poor baby. 

Then later in the day, Kaliya and Carter hit heads. Her chin smacked the back of his head and they both got huge goose-eggs. I told Laken he better just sit still and not do anything for fear he might be next. And I couldn't have that since his Christmas program was that night. Thankfully he made it through the night without any big bumps or bruises.

Elflandia
In the evening, we headed to the school to watch "Elflandia!", Laken's 1st grade Christmas program. It was a little presentation about elves that have never seen a human before and don't believe they exist. Then they see one with Santa and take a picture. It was cute - at least the parts I could understand. 

Laken in the front in the red.

Every once in a while between songs, a couple kids would come forward for a speaking part. Laken had one and delivered his part well. I wasn't sure if he would get stage fright but he did it!

Little Cuties

Makai found a bag of apples that I had just bought. He grabbed one, took a bite. When I saw what he had and took it away, he went back to the kitchen to get another apple. I think he was on his 3rd apple when I realized he wasn't taking his sibling's apples, but getting his own out. Little turkey!
Laken wanted his picture with Misty. Usually she fights Laken when he hugs her like this but that time she didn't so the picture actually turned out fairly well.

Makai's First Haircut!

Little guy had long hairs at the crown of his head and I decided it was about time to get rid of them. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. He sat so still when I used the clippers on him and he looked so much better afterwards.

Ginger bread Houses

One of our Christmas break activities was making "ginger bread" houses out of graham crackers and frosting. The kids each helped build their own house, pick out their roof type, and decorate with icing, sprinkles, and candy. They worked on them for quite a while and enjoyed eating them later.

 So here's Kaliya working on her house.

Carter and his house

Laken and his house

Another Catastrophe

Bad picture but this time Makai tripped and fell into the corner of the tv stand and cut his eye. He had a nice bruise there too for a while. Thankfully it wasn't deep and stopped bleeding fairly quickly.

Pre-K Presentation

Carter had his preschool Christmas presentation. Unfortunately it was a day that he didn't have school so I had to take him to meet his teachers. But when he saw his teachers, and all the other parents who came to watch, he wasn't too sure about participating. Thankfully when his teacher walked around collecting her students, he did go to her and walk up to the stage with her. While he was waiting to start, he started crying and crawled over to a teacher aide. His teacher came over, took his hand and brought him right in front of her. He stopped crying. I could tell he was still nervous and didn't want to do it but when it was time to stand up, he did and did some of the motions. By the last song, he was actually starting to sing (or at least mouth the words). I was so proud of him.

Makai Moment

Makai disappeared for a while. When I found him he was by the basement stairs stacking cans of beans. 

Toothless

Laken started his Christmas break with a loose tooth. He has had a couple loose ones but none that were ready to come yet. We had been checking every other day for one that was ready and finally we found one. At first he was pretty nervous about it coming out and didn't want anyone to try to get it out. But we watched some youtube videos of kids having their tooth pulled out different ways and talked about how the tooth fairy would come visit. Finally he decided I could try to pull it out. It took a couple of tries but it came! It was funny to watch his expressions. He was shocked and not sure if he should cry because it hurt but then he saw his tooth and got so excited that he ran to the mirror to check out his hole. That night he walked around with his chest puffed out because he was so proud of himself for loosing his first tooth. And to top off the night Carter said to Laken, "we are very proud of you for being brave and having your tooth out!" (I love the things that kid says). 

Looking in the mirror to see the whole in his mouth.

His new toothless smile.
And getting ready for bed. With his tooth in his new tooth pillow waiting for the tooth fairy to come.
She brought him a shiny dollar coin.

SNOW!

I love when we get snow on the days that Jared is home. Because it is so much easier for him to go out and play with the older kids. One of the first things on their to-do list was a snowman. Next was a snow-fort. This snow was actually the "good" snow that sticks together and worked to make a real snowman. So they had fun putting that together. Then they started working on the snow fort. Jared hauled snow from all over the yards to make a giant pile to dig into.  Carter and Kaliya spent between 1 1/2 - 2 hours in the snow while Jared and Laken stayed out for about 3 hours. Laken LOVES the snow and would be in it all day if he could.

Snowman

RWC

One of the things we couldn't pass up was a discount for a year membership at the Regional Wellness Center. So we took the kids swimming one cold day. They had so much fun. Carter is usually the shy, timid one but once he got to the pool, he was so excited to be there he continually walked away from us to do his own things. Laken and Kaliya also walked around and found things to do as well. Unfortunately Makai wasn't feeling too well so he didn't have too much fun. And Kaliya made the mistake a few times of running where it was wet and slippery and fell. By the second time, she had scrapes on her upper thigh, toes, and elbow. So she was done for the day.

Artistic Kids

Laken drew the tiger - without looking at anything.
Carter drew the car with a driver.
Kaliya drew the flower.

Update: Finally got pictures from Jared's phone.

I think this was the first real good snow fall. We took the kids to the nearby hill. It's a pretty small hill but close and the kids do well with it. Laken would love to go to a bigger hill but the others prefer this one. They had a fun time and even Makai enjoyed it.

Next on the to-do list was build a snowman. I think for this one, the snow wasn't very good so Jared and Laken headed down to the nearby church parking lot and found some good size snow balls to bring back and build a snowman with.

And one night while the other kids were in bed (I assume) and I was busy with a Christmas project, Makai got some quality time with dad.