December and Christmas were very very merry!! The kids are at the absolute best age ever! Christmas was full of magic and festiveness and we loved every minute of it.
Courtney is beyond adorable. I am trying to hang onto every millisecond with her right now. I never want it to end. She is the most polite little girl ever. Always says please and thank you (usually thank you so much!). She loves to go shopping and grocery shopping and always helps me load the groceries on the check out. Then she always chats with the sales associate. Conversation always goes like this. "Hello! I'm Courtney. This is Tyson. This is Mommy. How are you? What's your name? Thank you so much! Have a nice/good day! See you soon!" Its beyond adorable. She seriously makes my heart explode out of my chest with both pride and adorableness. She makes me feel like the most amazing mom ever to have this beyond polite and helpful little girl. She loves to play tea party, dollies, barbies, princesses and to read books. She is a very very smart little girl. She has most (if not all) of her books memorized and can read them to me or to herself, almost word for word. She learns songs almost instantly as well, and learning words and names comes very easily for her (so yes, you have to watch everything you say). She can be sassy and her three-ager is coming out a bit.....sad. Sometimes when she gets mad she stomps off telling me that she is going home! Then she will usually slam her little table on her play kitchen and then stop off into her kitchen. She has also disciplined both Brock and I - such as "don't touch my shirt! Anymore! Understand!" Yep - my little mini me. She is miss independent and wants to do everything herself - which is were most of our power struggles set in.....trying to work on fun ways to let her feel like she is doing it herself - while still letting me help where she needs it.
Tyson is also doing great!! He is talking more and more each day. He is using more phrases - he says things like "what are you doing?" "Here we go!" and just generally repeating a lot of things that we say. He is learning the names of the characters from his favorite TV shows more and using more phrases when he asks for things. He loves Yo Gabba Gabba, Dora the Explorer, Super Why, Bubble Guppies, animals and farm animals, coloring, play doh, stickers, and letters. He is a sweet boy who loves to wrestle and play rough.
December started off with setting up our Christmas tree! We got some new decorations that were shatterproof, so we let the kids "help". We didn't want to let them put the ornaments on the tree and then try to explain that they couldn't do that anymore - so we had Brock sit at the table and hand them a decoration and then they got to bring it to Mommy to put on the tree. Oh my gosh - they were so excited! Court was full on sprinting! It was hilarious and a lot of fun.
Courtney helping Mommy fluff up the tree.
Courtney sprinting with her ornaments! So excited!!
Ty was a little more careful - but he was jumping around being super crazy!
So excited to be helping!
Court with a snowflake ornament.
Tyson hanging up his baby ornament.
Courtney hanging up her baby ornament.
Our finished tree and mantle decorations. I loved how everything turned out! And the kids were so good! I really didn't have to be on them too much to not touch it. Very impressed! Ty's favorite activity was trying to throw pluto in the tree because in the pluto christmas movie - pluto jumps in the tree to catch chip and dale.....so that was a bit of an issue - but not too bad.
Playing in the snow!!
Ty plays paleontologist - he covers his seahorse and then carefully digs out his fossil.
Christmas crafts! Making snowmen!
Tyson drawing on his face and smile.
We also made some reindeer! Court drew the face on her reindeer all by herself!
Our cute snowmen! (Ty's is on the left).
Our cute reindeer! (Court's is on the right.)
Playing in the snow.
Sledding! First time out sledding for the season! I was pretty nervous to take the kids by myself - I thought it would be hard to hold them and control the sled - but it was no big deal and so much fun! We had a blast and was one of the most fun days!
Hiking up the hill! No free rides!
There was another family out sledding, so I asked them to take our picture for us.
Happy kids! They loved it!
Court was very excited!
Such a good big brother. He doesn't like to give up that front seat.
Happy childhood memories - watching Christmas movies with the Christmas tree. Ty would even ask to watch different Christmas shows and movies by asking for their titles!
My favorite Christmas craft we did - paper bag reindeer puppets. I traced their hands for the antlers. They were really adorable.
Courtney loved playing with her puppets!
Our cute little reindeer!
Another day out on the sled!
Happy boy! One of his favorite things!
Cute girl!
Happy boy!
We also got Daddy out on the sled one day! We have been getting out sledding lots and lots!
Daddy and Courtney took some selfies! Cute cute cute!
Courtney making snow angels!
Our landlords always get our kids gifts for Christmas and they got Court these adorable PJ's. She just loved them!
All dressed up to go and see Santa! The kids were very excited to go and see Santa! We had been talking about the whole Santa deal with Courtney for weeks. (Its amazing the power of the phrase "Santa's Watching" when presents are on the line. Court was a super cleaner and helper!! Taking no chances). We were telling her that if she was a super good girl Santa would being her presents for Christmas. Since she didn't understand what to ask for, we would tell her every time - do you want Santa to bring you a shopping cart? She would gasp, with big excited eyes and say - that would be fun!! It was so fun to enjoy the magical side of Christmas with her.
Tyson all dressed up and looking cute for Santa. He was so excited to go in and see him!
As expected - my kids didn't want to actually go and sit with Santa. Court got very shy and was hiding behind me and Ty was excited about all the decorations and was kinda just dancing and jumping around. Once Santa gave me a candy to give to Courtney for him, Court decided she could talk to him. Both kids did give Santa a high five - which I was very happy with! Court also said, "Merry Christmas! Thank you so much! Have a nice day!!" While I didn't get a picture - the kids had a fabulous Santa experience and that's what I was hoping for. It was definitely a highlight. Court talked about it non-stop. Telling us she went to see Santa and that she gave him a high five and got a candy cane! Mommy made sure Santa knew what the kids wanted - so we were covered. ;)
Court enjoying her candy cane on the ride home. First candy cane!
Brock and I got new winter coats this year. I love my fur hood!
Happy girl playing in the snow!
Working hard!
Last day of SportBall! Both kids actually waited their turn and went up and got their ribbons and sticker by themselves! Impressed!
So excited about her sticker!
Showing off her ribbon!
Working on our gingerbread house! A favorite activity for sure!
Working so well together!
Happy kids.
The house turned out so cute!!
I went out for breakfast with my girlfriends and I just had to get these festive pancakes! So adorable!
Yummy!
Court dressed up all cute for our visit with Baba!
Courtney and her Gido. She is a big Gido's girl now.
My Baba got the kids little gifts - so sweet! And the kids loved them!
Mommy, Tyson and Baba.
Reading books with Gido.
Big snuggles with Gido.
Baking Christmas cookies!!
Court working on the gingerbread!
Ty working on the sugar cookies!
Court building me a Christmas tree with her sugar cookie dough. It's best if I give her a small ball of dough to play with.....or chaos will ensue.
We went to my friend Erin's house for a little pre-Christmas play date and we decorated some cookies. My kid's favorite activity ever!
Court working hard. She did so good - just decorated her heart out.
Ty trying out the sprinkles. I had never thought to do sprinkles like that - to dip them. Life changing.
Courtney drew me this picture - its baby Jesus asleep on the hay. Amazing!! Very impressed - most of her drawing are just circles, scribbles, and dots. She is just kinda getting into faces and bodies and stuff like that.
My little helper! She loves to help me unload the dishwasher.
Decorating cookies! When I told the kids we were going to do this, Ty started running around yelling, "cookies! cookies!" Yeah - they kinda like doing this.
Ty working on his gingerbread boy.
Court working on her gingerbread boy.
Ty loves decorating sugar cookies - cause I always make lots of different colors of icing.
He loved dipping them in sprinkles! Like I said - life changing!!
Court working hard.
Working very hard.....haha!
She ate gobs and gobs of icing!'
And, when she was done, had some candy cane to finish it off.
Some of our beautiful cookies! I made a bunch of other kinds - but none of those really worked out so well. These were bay far the best. Classic is best I guess.
