Christmas time is here!

We'll be visiting Grammy and Papaw and Grandma and our extended families for Christmas, so we did our family of four Christmas together this weekend. We went to see Santa Claus. I must say I liked his reindeer a lot better than I did him. We opened presents and I got a Cubbies bat and some games, movies, and a pretend doctor set. The bat and ball were my favorites, of course. I helped Deklan open his gifts and then spent the evening playing with Mom and Dad. I can't quit talking about baby Jesus' birthday. As I am blogging this, I am looking at the pictures of me opening presents and saying, "Birthday, Jesus, happy birthday Jesus!" I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and please remember as you open your gifts that you've already been given the best gift of all. Merry CHRISTmas!

11 days and counting!

 This week has been another exciting one, full of learning, playing inside and out in the snow, and preparing for Christmas! I can hardly wait! We covered letters H (Holy Spirit), I (inn), J (Joseph), K (King of kings), L (lamb), M (Mary), and N (Names of Jesus) in our Advent study. I play with my Little People set everyday and even showed Deklan who Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are. One of my new activities is to count the figures in the Nativity set. I started doing this on my own. I told Mom, "Hey, let's count them!" and she obliged. Speaking of counting, there are only 11 day until Christmas!
I have been playing with the tree and Christmas decor a lot around the house, especially the snowmen that sit on the fireplace. Mom DVR'd a bunch of shows for me, including Polar Express (choo choo train, as I lovingly refer to it), Frosty The Snowman and Frosty's Winter Wonderland. I can't watch them enough. I sing the Frosty song several times a day and even practiced my belly whoppers and thumpty thump thumping on the sled. I had my buddy Emerson join me for that. It was his first time sledding, and since I'm a seasoned veteran (sledding with Mom and Dad in Colorado previously) I showed him how to do it.

We went racing down the hill and trudging back up together and with our Moms, over and over again. We had a great time...even if it was longer than expected due to a garage door debacle. Any proper sledding experience must be capped off by a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. All this Christmas talk has helped me learn how important giving and sharing are. God gives abundantly, so we should do so as well. I am getting a little better at sharing. Emerson and I shared the sled today, the Buzz mobile, hot chocolate (I even shared with Woody and Jessie), and lots and lots of hugs. Friends are some of the best gifts that we can get!

See you next week!

I want to play in SNOW!

If I've said that once, I have said it a dozen times already. The first snow hit the ground last week and I had a blast playing in it. Something about the stuff just makes me laugh and ready for Christmas, even more than I already was. This snow was great for making snow balls, but not really for making Snowmen. That didn't stop me from singing "Frosty Snowman" over and over again though! Check out my snow day movie here.
This past week we started our Advent study. We're going through the ABC's of Advent. A is for Angels, B is for Baby Jesus, C is for City of Bethlehem, D is for Donkey, E is for Evergreen, and F is for Family. Today we learned about G for Gift as in God's gift to us (grace through His son Jesus). Each day we cover a new letter all the way up til Jesus' Birthday on Christmas. I used my Little People Nativity set to help me remember our lessons better.
We usually wrap up each day with a prayer and then a Christmas cookie...because everything is better when cookies are involved! So, that means I've been making cookies. I helped Mommy roll them out and helped Daddy cut them and I even licked the icing off the beaters. Yum!
 

See you next week!

Giving thanks!

I am such a blessed boy and have so much to be thankful for. No wonder I'm always smiling!



There's my new little brother, my awesome grandparents, and all my family and friends, there's also a warm place to live, plenty to fill my belly, and of course an amazing God who made me and moon and stars. To celebrate Thanksgiving, we headed north to visit with our families.
We gathered with my Grandma and Aunt Nessa, Uncle Tyler, Cadence, Kyrie, Brayson, and Brannen to give thanks on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I had a great time! We played A LOT.

I was a pretend barista, brewing coffee and drinking several cups of it, I practiced some parenting with a little babydoll, and I watched Jungle Book with my cousins just to name a few things.
I ate like a champ, but that is easy to do when you're putting away delicious turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and hand made butter horns. Seriously, I cleaned my plate! To show Grandma my appreciation I helped out with the dishes.
We helped Grandma set up her Christmas tree, too. This year, she got a toy train that steams around the base of the tree. I sat and watched as it roared through the family room.

For the remainder of the weekend we went to Grammy and Papaw's house.
Papaw put me to work as soon as I got there, helping him paint the trim on the patio.
I showed Woody around the place, since this was his first trip there. Grammy introduced me to Frosty the Snowman while I was there. I cuddled up next to her to watch the famous film.

Then, I asked to watch it over and over again as the weekend went by. We stopped by to see Owi and she had a Frosty that sang and danced.

I was a little intimidated at first, but then I warmed up to him, giving him hugs and letting him sit on my lap.

We helped Grammy and Papaw put their monstrosity of a Christmas tree up, as well. That thing is humongous!

On Sunday we went to church and then went over to visit Grapes Grandma. She had a feast prepared for us! I ate like royalty once again and then played at her place. She had her Christmas tree up and decorated too, so I played with the lights. I took a break just long enough for a hug though.


Advent is here! Mom and I are starting our study today as we prepare for Jesus' birth at Christmas. Last night we put up our Christmas tree. I helped hang the ornaments on the tree. As is our tradition, we ate Christmas cookies and drank special hot chocolate. I helped decorate cookies this year (a big fan of the green sprinkles if you couldn't tell) and also got to try the special cocoa for the first time! It was tasty. Daddy and I cheers'd to the Christmas season!

I hope you had a great weekend reflecting on all that you have to be thankful for. May this Christmas season be a blessed one, focused not on shopping and presents but rather on THE gift of our Savior!

Full House!

This past week we were blessed with lots of visitors. My Grandma, Aunt Nessa, and four cousins came to see us! We played ball, cars, read, and of course I introduced them to my Buzz and Woody toys. We had a great weekend.

Lots of our family and friends came too see my little brother get dedicated at church.

The surprisingly warm temps resulted in one last trip to the park for Emerson and I. Usually we stick to the slide, swings, and other playground essentials, but on this final outing for 2010 we thought we'd play bleacher drums and find precious rocks. Our Moms think we are hilarious!

I am continuing to put sentences together. After dinner with our friends, I proceeded to tell Mommy that "I had good time with Daniel, Yorn,Emerson tonight." What made it such a good time? Well, we made turkey hats, ran around the house, and had races down the stairs on our bellies!

My new night time routine involves a look out the window or a walk out on the deck. I do this because I have taken quite fondly to looking at the moon and stars each night. I tell my folks that "God made moon, God made stars. Goodnight moon. Goodnight stars. See ya tomorrow!" Mom just eats that stuff up.
This week I found some new friends that I like to see each day: the Monsters of Sesame Street. I like Elmo a lot. I even learned his theme song and like to sing and dance to it. I am a pretty big fan of "Abby Dabby" too. There's Murray and Big Bird and Ernie and Oscar. I look forward to watching it each time Mommy feeds Deklan!
I stopped by to say hello to Great Aunt Mimi and also spent half a day with Grammy and Papa recently, too. I love seeing my family. With next week being Thanksgiving, I can't wait to spend some extended time with them!
Safe travels to everyone this coming week!