December 3rd

Another day, another advent calendar post.

Today we first read our scripture from Isaiah 9:6-7 and talked a bit about how the prophets before him and spoken of Jesus' coming.

We then moved on to our activity, which was short and sweet; we wrote letters to Santa.  I found a great pin the other day and had to save it.  It was a template for a letter to Santa, and in addition to being cute, it had great prompts.  I loved to watch Lily think of ways that she had been nice this past year.  She had trouble picking an item that she needed, I'm not sure that she understands the difference between a want and a need yet (better get on that), but we had fun filling it out.  Lily even helped me to fill out Charlotte's.

December 2nd

It has been a rough day in the Hansen house.  Poor Charlotte is just as sick as can be with a stomach bug, she can't keep food down, has been running a fever, and has been sleeping most of the day.  This afternoon, after a good long nap on the living room floor (her choice, not mine) she woke up and smiled, so I got our advent package down for today.  We read our scripture, Malachi 3:1 and talked a little more about who John the Baptist was.

Our activity for the day was to learn a new Christmas song.  They were not cooporating on video mode, so you will have to settle for a still image.  I taught Lily the words to Christmas Bells and I think that she almost has it down.

Christmas bells are ringing,

Hear what they say to you,

Jesus is born, in Bethlehem.

 Short, simple and to the point!

 Afterwards the girls spent some time coloring in the Christmas coloring book that Grandma Hansen gave them last year.

 I found this great pin a month or so ago and printed the images out, laminated them, and the applied a magnet strip to the back.

 The girls loved it!  Hours of play this afternoon with some pretty interesting story lines.

Advent Calendar: December 1st

Some of you may remember the Advent calendar that I did with my girls last year.  We had such a great time with that project that we are doing it again, but a little differently.  Last years was rushed, I only decided to do it on November 28th so there wasn't much time to think up activities or create a cute calendar.  This year I put our activity list together a couple of months in advance, but again left actually making the calendar for the last minute.  I came up with decorate baggies strung along a ribbon. 

 Inside each bag there is an activity for the day, a scripture to read as a family, and new this year a Christmas song to listen.  There are also a couple of chocolate kisses in there; sweets for my sweeties.

  Today's activity, just as last year on the 1st, was to decorate the Christmas tree.  Pay no mind to how they are dressed in this photo, I left early this morning and dressing them was up to Tyson.

Our scripture for the day was Luke 1:11-17.  We are starting out talking about John the Baptist and how he prepared the way for Jesus Christ.

Lily was so excited to put up the tree, and the lights and the star that goes on top.  She kept calling the ornaments the ingredients, but she loved hanging those all over the bottom 3 feet of the tree as well.  Charlotte didn't get to participate much because she became rather sick this afternoon and didn't feel up to doing much more than cuddling.

Charlotte's First Haircut

It was time.  Charlotte is 21 months old now, it was about time to trim her hair, not because she has a lot of hair, but rather because the way that it was growing in.  The girl had a mullet, and it had to go.

I had to search through pictures to find a good "before" shot.  Thankfully Lily had taken my camera and gone on a spree and along the way nabbed this one.  This photo is a couple of months old, so it was longer.

 Overall she was good about letting me trim it.  The girl is not great about sitting still so it was a job to get her to sit still long enough to make just a few simple cuts.

 Every time I tried to take a picture of the back she would throw herself backwards on Tyson's lap and laugh.  She thinks that it is funny to drive me nuts like this.

 I finally managed to get a picture.  Nothing fancy, just a straight trim along the back.  Hopefully I can let it grow for a while now.  I'm not expecting much though, it takes a while for my girls' hair to grow.

Speaking of hair, Lily finally has enough for my to really get to play with.  I'm loving it...and she tolerates it well.

Thanksgiving

The last few years each Thanksgiving has been so different, either with my huge family, on our own, or with Tyson's extended family.  This year we opted for a simpler day and planned to spend the day with our friends, the Jenkins family.  Tyson of course still had to work so we planned to eat at noon so that he wouldn't miss out.

Since we were all so on top of things and baked like crazy on Wednesday, we were able to relax a bit on Thursday morning and the kids made some turkey hats.

 They were very excited about them, and Charlotte was very excited about the glue stick.  Kinda made her mad when I took it away.

 They sure turned out cute though!

 While we were getting the final items ready for dinner the kids disappeared.  I found them in the crib playing with the light-up toy.  Good thing the baby was asleep in another room.

 This is an AFTER dinner shot.  I had to look twice to be sure because there is an awful lot of goodness still on that table.  It was delicious!  Plus we had 8 different pies for 6 adults and 3 small children.

Tyson had to go right to work after dinner, but the girls and I stayed to play, go for a walk, and then the grown-ups played a few games.  It was a really great low-key way to spend such a great holiday!

Five Years

Yesterday Tyson and I celebrated our fifth anniversary.  I had a friend tell me that this was the first "big" anniversary, the first real milestone.  It got me thinking back about everything that has happened in the last 5 years.  We've bought a home, added 2 beautiful and rambunctious daughters and 2 dogs to our family, started college, earned an associate's degree, along with about a thousand other things. 

Things aren't always perfect, but the future is bright!  

Halloween

Halloween was very busy this year with a different activity every day of the week.  We decided to opt for trick-or-treating in my parents neighborhood, they have a great little program of parading through the park and trick-or-treating there and it is very convenient with my little girls since Tyson usually works on Halloween.

Lily decided that she wanted to be a mermaid this year.

 She also decided that Charlotte needed to be a mermaid like her.

After trick-or-treating with the family we went to some friends' home for donuts and chili and the girls got to do a little bit of traditional trick-or-treating with their friend around the cul-de-sac and Lily is very well with it, Charlotte was just a little small and had a hard time keeping up with the bigger kids.