My little Christmas buddy

Day twenty

Day twenty was warm here in Iowa (in the low 30s), so we bundled up the girls and played in the snow.  Danny and Kelsey pulled them on the sleds to our park and they went sledding while I stayed home with Josiah who was napping.

  The girls had a blast... so did Kelsey and Danny.  

 SNOW ANGELS

When the kids got home, I had hot chocolate and warm chocolate chip cookies waiting for them!  

What a mom!

Days eighteen and nineteen

Days Eighteen and Nineteen were the dress rehearsal and performance of Joy Story at church.  Grace had to wear her lion costume and sing in the show.  The preschool choir dressed as animals and they came out of the ark to sing a special song.  Grace did a great job... we didn't get pictures, but we did get a video.  Hopefully, we will get to load that soon!

Day Seventeen

We had a great outing today to the Playground for Kids in Ankeny... aka The Bouncy House!  I am never brave enough to take all of the kids there by myself, so it was fun to go there with Kelsey.  Not only did she help me keep track of the girls, but she also went on all of the inflatables WITH them!  She is a big kid herself... I am not sure who had more fun Kelsey or my girls! :) We were very impressed with Hannah... she was able to do EVERYTHING her self.  She climbed up all of the structures and went down every slide --- WHAT A LITTLE MONKEY!

Day sixteen

Day sixteen brought a very special gift to us... KELSEY!  Our KA KA is here!  The girls were SO EXCITED to see her and it was great to introduce her to Josiah! 

Our Little Snow boy....

Advent calendar

Some people have been asking about my Advent Calendar.  Here it is...

My mom got it at TJ Maxx or Marshalls a few years ago!

All grown up!

I just love watching Grace write her name and read!  It is such a cool thing to see her develop and grow!  She has such an active imagination and she is amazing at memorizing.  She has NO TROUBLE with her verses for Cubbies and can retain them!  I wish I could do that.

Here is her name.  She wrote this last night at Cubbies... almost made me cry!

(By the way... she ALWAYS writes GRACIE and not GRACE!)

Days fourteen and fifteen

On Day fourteen we had our special Christmas time at MOPS.  Grace and Hannah love to go to MOPS to do special crafts, run in the gym, eat snacks and see their friends.  Hannah had a special time because her teacher brought cookies for her to frost and eat!  What a mess -- but so much fun!  Grace had a great time making a nativity scene and playing on the cars in the gym. She tells me that she is the fastest in the class... I believe her!

On Day fifteen we got out the playdoh and Christmas Cookie Cutters to have some fun!  It was great seeing them cut out candy canes, snowmen, trees, and stars.  Hannah is getting pretty good at her colors so she requests a certain color to play with -- too cute!  Grace made a special snowman... it wasn't until Danny said something that I realized that she had made a snowman... WITH YELLOW SNOW!  HA!  HA!

Yellow snow SNOWMAN

Day twelve and thirteen

On Sunday Danny got out his Bible and read the Christmas story from Luke 2 to the girls.  They used the Nativity scene that we  have to act out the story.  Hannah loves naming the characters -- but sometimes Baby Jesus is Baby Josiah!  It is hard to keep them straight!  HA HA!

On Monday morning, the girls got to open another present.  This time I just re gifted a present that they got from PopPop and MomMom in PA... large balloons.  These are the kind that have an elastic so you can bang it.  The girls loved playing with them and hitting each other, the walls, stuffed animals, etc.  It has provided lots of entertainment as we have counted how many hits we can make back and forth before it hits the floor (our record is 47, I think).  What a fun activity to do when it is too cold to go outside (we had a high of 9 degrees!)!

2 months old

Our baby boy is now 2 months old!  Wow!  Where has the time gone!

He is an adorable baby -- very happy and we are really starting to get to know what he likes and doesn't like and what each of his cries mean.  He has also slept through the night for two nights in a row.... I am hoping that this will continue.  Because I am a "Baby-Wise" mom, I was a little worried this week when he turned 8 weeks and was NOT sleeping through the night.  The girls had... and the book says that he should by this age. BUT I kept reminding myself that these 2 months were not the typical first two months with the girls -- we took a trip to PA (16 hours each way in the car) -- that would mess with a perfect schedule, he was sick twice -- throwing up one time and a cough the other time.

Anyway... I was VERY pleased when he decided on Friday night to sleep from 10:30-7:30!  YIPPEE!!!

Here are the pictures that I took yesterday... OUR 2 MONTH OLD BABY BOY

Day Eleven

Day Eleven had us making another ornament -- this time without Hannah's help!  I (Sarah) will be teaching the craft time at MOPS on Tuesday and giving the 3+ class their craft.  I wanted to be sure that this snowman ornament was easy enough for the three year olds so I had Grace make one.  Here is how we made it:

We had a clear glass ornament and took the hook off of the top.

Then we opened a bag of mini marshmallows.

Next, we smelled them :) and then put them into the top of the ornament. 

When it was completely full, we added foam circles for the mouth, a foam triangle for the carrot nose and googly eyes.  We put the hanger back on and that's it!   Cute, right?

Yup... easy enough for the three year olds!  Grace loved it and would have made a bunch of them if I would have let her!  :)  

Days nine and ten

Day Nine:  I bought some wooden ornaments at Michael's and let the girls color with markers all over them!  It is amazing how messy markers can be with a 20 month old.  I turn my head for a second and she has it ALL OVER HER MOUTH!  I turn my head again and she has it ALL OVER HER HANDS!  Hannah had a blast, though.  They both loved the coloring part and now they are able to play with them by taking them on and off of the tree when they want to.  It has kept Hannah from trying to take ALL the ornaments off the tree!

Day Ten:  We opened a present again -- this time it was a 100 piece Christmas puzzle to put together as a family... Josiah and Hannah were not very helpful, but it was fun to put it together!  No pictures... sorry!

Days Seven and Eight

Now... time to catch you up on the Advent Calendar:

Day Seven:  The Lightner family LOVES reading and books, so day seven had a great activity for us.  We were told to read one of the Christmas stories together as a family.  All five of us snuggled together in the girls room before bed and read one of the Christmas stories -- not one about Santa or elves or deer.  We are talking about the REAL Christmas story.  Hannah loves to find baby Jesus in the pictures and Grace is helpful telling the story. It was a great time as a family... I didn't want to ruin the moment with my camera... sorry!

Day Eight:  Chocolate!  HOT CHOCOLATE!  Yummy! After eating a good lunch, I made the girls their own mug of hot chocolate!  YUMMY!  I call it HOT chocolate but it was more like luke warm chocolate so they could drink it and not get burned!  They each got a mug of heaven and Grace drank it in record time.  She asked for more, but I wouldn't let her (Nanna would have let her, though!).  :)  Hannah kept calling it "coffee"....like the coffee she makes and drinks with Danny.  They felt SOOO grown up!  :)