Christmas Time!

 Can I just say that we are blessed in more ways than I could ever describe! We had a terrific time leading up to Christmas. This year we had a few less Christmas presents to buy so we used the extra money to "adopt" two foster babies for Christmas. The picture above are the things we were able to donate. It was a great learning experience for Tae and she had a lot of fun deciding which things to buy. We bought them toys of their wish lists and also bought them books, clothes, hat and mittens, and a few other little things. It was so humbling to be able to do this this year and we look forward to doing it again next year!

 Hensley and Tae made these cute little art pieces for the Grandparent's for Christmas. I thought they turned out super cute!

 We went to this place called The North Pole Adventure. It was an indoor space with Santa, elves, reindeer, and they had different activities set up and even had milk and cookies. The girls had a lot of fun!

 Tae making a yoyo with one of Santa's elves!

 Hensley looking on. Look at that crazy hair, ha!

 They had two reindeer and we learned that they loose their antlers every year around Christmas day. Hensley really like them and kept calling them "horsies".

 This was the girls Christmas eve box that they opened. It had new pajamas, hot cocoa, popcorn, and their last advent book to open. 

 Hensley is not a pajama kind of girl, so they lasted long enough to take a picture and then they were off. 

 Santa came!

 The girls had a great time opening up their stockings and Christmas gifts! They even slept in until about 8:30, which was nice for Aaron and I. 

 She had to have some milky after all the hard work of opening up presents :)

 After we finished at home, we packed up and headed to my folks' house. We had brunch with them and my grandparents and then the rest of the gang came over for dinner and more presents. Don't I have a great looking family? This is my 3 sisters, their families, and then my mom and dad. We had a great time with great conversations, yummy food, and awesome presents. I couldn't have asked for a better time!

 Tae modeling with her bird feeder she got for Christmas after she painted it.

Hensley playing with her fishing game she got for Christmas.

Hensley: 18 month update

I cannot believe this little gal is 18 months! Only 6 short months and she will be 2! How can that be?! She is growing and changing every day. Here is a little update on her:

Weight: Her well child check was about a month ago, but she is close to 25 lbs and about 32 inches. She's definitely slimmed down and has gotten taller. She's wearing 2T clothes.

Food: This girl loves to "nak". I hear it all day long. She is also addicted to sweets, although we try to keep that at a minimum. We've been doing our chocolate advent calendar this month and she jumps for joy when I say it is chocolate time. She is still nursing throughout the day. She usually nurses first thing when she wakes up, then about mid-morning, after lunch (before nap), and then a few times between nap and bedtime.

Communication: This girl is talking up a storm! I don't think there are any words she can't say. She's been putting together 2 and 3 word sentences. She can tell you what she wants and boy does she! She is still using sign language. She uses it more as an emphasis nowadays. She likes to sign "more" really quickly when she wants more of something. She also signs "done" and "eat" a lot. One of the cute sentences she's been saying is "no, mm not", which translates to "no, I'm not". It's super cute to hear her learning to put words together.

Sleep: Her sleep has pretty much regulated since the awful 18 month sleep regression where she was waking all through the night. She wakes up at about 8:30 in the morning, takes a nap from 1-3 in the afternoon, and then goes to bed about 9 at night. She's still sleeping in our bed. Maybe after Christmas we can make the switch to her bed!

Her very first ponytail!

Favorite Things: One of her favorite things to do is read books. She also loves to "cook" in the play kitchen and make soup for me to taste. She also loves to be outside and going on walks. Her and Tae play really well together and can keep each other entertained for some time. Her very favorite thing to watch is Signing Time. We will often pull up the youtube videos and she sings along to the songs and does the signs. She is also very much in love with our cats. She's learning their names and likes to talk sweet to them.

Family Time is THE Best Time!

Here are the rest of our Halloween pictures. I think our pumpkins turned out great! Taelyn was a My Little Pony and Hensley was a cupcake. I was a little worried that she would not tolerate her costume because she hates wearing clothes, but it ended up being pretty chilly that night so she didn't seem to mind. After an hour or so of trick or treating we called it quits. We let Tae pick out a few pieces of candy to keep and the rest we set on the door step for the Switch Witch to come. We like doing this so they can still enjoy the fun of Halloween without having all the candy. I think we may have spent about $10 on her switch witch things.

Our homeschool co-op had a fall festival and it was a lot of fun. It was set up carnival style and we got to go around and play all sorts of games. Hensley had a blast and was excited to finally be involved in the festivities.

Tae had a super great 6th birthday. This year she decided to have it at Gattitown which is a fun place to eat, play games, golf, and go cart. Tae knew all her cousins loved this place and their party packages were a great price. Everyone got to enjoy their buffet and we got a little private party room. They did a great job of keeping the kids entertained by playing different games. They also made all the balloon things for the kiddos which I thought was a nice touch. My mom made Tae's requested rainbow cake and she was excited about that. Each kid (and some adults) got a $25 game card so we had a few hours of fun after cake and presents. Tae (as well as the rest of us) is super blessed by all the family that love her and showed up to celebrate her day!

Tae received a sewing kit as one of her presents. This was a puppy that she (well I helped) sewed. I thought it turned out super cute!

I can't believe this girl is 6 years old! It only seems like yesterday that she was born! She recently lost her first two teeth and was super excited about that. We are doing kindergarten this year and she is learning letter sounds, math (addition and subtraction), and we are also using Five in a Row as our curriculum. So far it has been great and I can tell she is learning a lot!

Sisters being silly. I am so excited that they seem to have gotten really close. They love playing together and they are usually really sweet to each other. 

 We bought gingerbread houses while we were at Ikea a few months ago. Poor Hensley dropped her package on the floor and it ended up breaking into a million pieces. So, we ended up with one gingerbread house to make. I think it turned out pretty cute.

 I love, love this time of the year. It really gets me in the Christmas spirit seeing all the lights, our Christmas tree up, and all the traditions that we do.

 We took the girls down to the Myriad Gardens for the free holiday weekends. It's free and you can go through their botanical gardens. They also have pop up shops and ice skating. We had a fun day!

 They had a lot of fun decorating the Christmas cookies. Hensley would have much rather just eat the candy though!

 They also had carousel rides for $1. Tae decided she wanted to sit on the bench, but Hensley loved riding the horse with daddy.

I resigned from my position about a week before Thanksgiving. Aaron started his new job at about the same time. We have been adjusting to this new way of life. I love being at home with the girls. I feel a lot let stressed and more capable of doing things around the house. We are still working out our routine, but I think the girls enjoy having me home as well. Aaron is liking his new job. I hate calling it a job, because it is actually a career. This is probably something that he will do until he retires. I am so thankful that he got the opportunity to have this job. God has blessed us!

 

We are looking forward to the rest of this month and celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus. It's so great that Aaron gets evenings and weekends off now. I feel we get to do so much more together. He will also get of Christmas and the day after which means a four day weekend for him!