Snow Day and Much More!

On December 3rd we woke up to some snow!  Yep, just enough to cover our driveway.  But, that didn't stop Aleah and Cade from playing in it.  They got all bundled up and I was sure that they would be outside for about 5 minutes.  It was really cold and windy!  To my surprise they stayed out for about an hour and a half.  They loved it!  When they were done they told me, "It's nicer to make snow angels in Alli's grass!"  I bet that it's not so nice to try to make a snow angel in a pile of rocks.

Making the first footprints!

They were so cute trying to scooch down the driveway on their new sleds.  They earned those sleds by being good for their baby-sitters.

They figured out that pulling each other was more fun.

Since we didn't have a tree until five days before Christmas last year, we decided that we needed it up a little extra this year.  We put up our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving.  This tree is so beautiful, I really love it!

The day after Thanksgiving, we decorated our tree.  Cade and Aleah are so good at hanging up the ornaments!  They did a really good job spreading them all over the tree.  They loved climbing the ladder to get ornaments up on the top.

When we finished with the tree we put out our nativity.  Cade stood on the ladder for a few minutes just looking at it.  So sweet!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the wedding of one of my cousins.  Cade was getting a little restless so Brad let him take some pictures.

The kids were cute dancing to my sisters beautiful harp music during lunch.

The Monday after Thanksgiving Brad had to travel for work.  We miss him when he is gone!  He went to Oklahoma and then the next week he went to Nebraska.  He is the best husband and Dad, he took the super super early flight home from Oklahoma so that we could see him as soon as possible.  This is the beautiful view that he had from the airplane.  He was able to switch his flight home from Nebraska to an earlier one so that he could make it home in time to have Aleah's birthday dinner.

Sunday the 8th we had our Santa Party.  It's always fun to see Santa!

The kids acted out the story of Christ's birth.  Cade was a Wise-man and Aleah was an Angel.

Cade and Aleah were very excited to see Santa.  They even made him a Christmas card.

Santa asked Cade to give him his best smile.  He is such a teaser!  Santa tickled out some good smiles, along with a bunch of giggles.

Aleah had a really good talk with Santa and a sweet hug.

Here are some things I've been doing with the kids while Brad was gone.  We made relaxation jars.  The idea is that they watch the glitter settle at the bottom and as they are watching they are able to clam down.

We went to Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum a couple of times.

We even got to see the lights and the reindeer one night.  On a side note, Aleah and Cade think that all deer are reindeer.

I started a new incentive program with the kids.  It's called, I can listen and follow instructions!  I am tired of saying things a million and a half times.  So now I line them up, tell them their instructions and then they are off.  If they follow my instructions the first time then they get a sticker on their chart.  If I have to ask them again, then they don't get a sticker.  If they really are not following instructions then they loose a sticker from their chart.  Once they earn 15 stickers they get a prize!  They are doing really well with this.  I am loving it!  Sometimes I have to say things like, "Oh, I hope you get to earn a sticker!"  Most of the time that is the only reminder I have to say.  It is really helping me.  Getting four kids in and out of the house all day is tough!

Preschool is wonderful!  The kids love it and I love it.  We have such a great preschool group this year.

Aleah and Cade made a funny face picture to send to Brad when he was on the airplane.  They are so cute!  I wanted to add it because I forgot to take a picture of Aleah's eye and this was taken a couple of days after she got hurt.  We were shoveling the snow and Brad started a fun game where you shovel the snow and then throw it in the air to make it snow.  Aleah and Cade were doing it with their little plastic shovels.  They got a little too close to each other and Cade's shovel went right into her face.  I thought that it was her eye at first.  She was just screaming and covering her eye.  Thankfully the shovel hit right below her eye and thankfully she didn't need stitches!  She got really good at telling her story, the next day at church, to everyone who asked her what happened.