Christmas Celebrations

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve, we went to the Hahn's for brunch.  We had delicious mush,cinnamon rolls, sausage, and fruit.  We came home for naps and spent the evening at home playing with the new presents.



Em was always ready to open presents.



It was nice to have Uncle Nate home!

The kids opening their stockings.

Grandparents opening their snowmen handprints.

Putting out cookies, milk, carrots for the reindeer, and a bag of sippy cups for Santa to take to needy children! :)

Christmas Day

Christmas was a little tricky this year since it was on a Sunday. The kids were up and wanted to open their stockings right away.  Then we had church and a party at mom and dad's in the afternoon.  The kids rested at my parents and were actually pretty good, despite all of the busyness.

Every gift Landon opened came with the words: "This is just what I wanted!" 
Em started to copy him, especially when she got her very own chapstick!!

Landon likes his new remote control car.

Emmy likes singing karoke on her new Hello Kitty machine.

All dressed up for Christmas

Both kids look happy!  Hooray!!

Christmas 2 Days Later

We hosted the Bergers and Clarks at our house on the 27th.  We had lasagna, opened presents, and played Trivial Pursuit.

Dad and Mom opening the snowmen fingerprints.

The kids playing with their new kitchen from Steven and Kristina
(and it only took 40 minutes to put together! :))

We hope you enjoyed your Christmas Celebrations as well and tried to keep in mind the real reason we celebrate.  We did do a couple renditions of "Happy Birthday to Jesus" to help the kids realize why we celebrate!

Pre-Christmas Fun!

We had a blast this year with the kids at Christmas!  For the first time, they really started to understand Christmas.  Landon enjoyed counting down the days until Christmas and Emmy changed our Advent calendar each day.  We planned some fun activities for the kids before the big day.

We watched "The Grinch" and had popcorn one evening.

We went to the Davis' house for our annual Friend Christmas

Both kids enjoyed decorating cookies for Santa.

All of the kids (except Kenna :)) did a great job with the frosting and the cookies had an abundance of sprinkles!

The finished product...I'm sure Santa enjoyed the cookies!

The kids had a great time painting their fingerprint snowman. 
Gotta love pinterest! (http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/12/hand-print-snowman-ornaments.html)

Our Little Angels

Sunday was our children's Christmas Program at church and basically everyone was an angel. Landon and Emmy were baby angels and did an AWESOME job (especially compared to last year when Landon burst into tears and ran off the stage crying!! :)). Em was content to watch all the big kids do the motions, while Landon had a hayday with the microphone and trying to stand on the "X's" on the stage.  Tyler and Grace were also in the play.  They each had lines to memorize and did a great job, too!  Tyler can be seen in the row behind our kids, but Grace was way on the other end.

The little angels each had a number to hold up for a song.  Landon could be heard saying, "No, I don't want that one!" when handed 2.  He wanted 3 so he rearranged himself after Emmy so he could be in 3rd place.

Landon trying to stand on the X's on stage.

Papa H. was a Wise Man....in the play!

Em wanted to get closer to Baby Jesus, the real meaning of the Season!

Christmas Tree

This year the kids got really excited about the tree.  Every year we go pick out a tree at the Christmas Tree Farm (Wilfong's), but this is the first year that they were really happy about it.  The tree selection was a little sparse because they are getting ready to retire from the tree business.  I think we found a good one, though!

Just a little snow left (mostly mud!)

Yes, Em did eat some snow before we could stop her!

Tree is a little short, but white pine is the best!!

Emmy wanted to decorate as soon as we got home, and it about drove her crazy that she had to wait to "tut baws on tee," as she said.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was a bittersweet time for our family.  It was so nice to be able to get together with extended family (Nate, Steven, and Kristina were all home), but we also had to say goodbye to my dad's oldest brother, Dave, who passed away right before Thanksgiving.  Throughout the whole Thanksgiving break, I was reminded about all of the wonderful blessings God has given me and my family.  Dave's passing has also helped me remember not to take my family for granted.

Before the holiday, the kids and I worked on a Thanksgiving project.  I had done these with my kids at school and I thought my kids would like them.  We made turkey hats using construction paper, cotton balls, and feathers.  Emmy discovered that she loves scissors and Landon took to the glue.  We got a little messy, but had a good time!

Emmy's first hair cut

Nov. 19, 2011

Em's hair has been slowly growing for the past year or so.  The front of her hair finally got long enough that it kept falling in her face.  So yesterday, the girls went to the hair salon and both got hair cuts.  Em's doesn't look too different (I didn't want any of the curls in the back cut), but I think it will stay out of her face a little more.  She sat so still and got a "mink" bubble gum sucker afterwards.  She refused to smile in any of the pictures, but I think she still liked it! :)

Em and I went shopping for the materials to make her bow holder and the fabric matches her room really well!

Then after hair cuts, we went to Jessica's for some girl time.  We made bow holders, while the boys took the little boys to Bass Pro Shop for shopping/crafts/ and Santa.  Thanks to the Davis family and Frye family for some fun bonding time!

First snow

The first snow of the season fell on Thursday so the kids had to go out and play.  It was beautiful!  Big, pretty flakes!  I do wish I would've gotten the video camera out quick enough to catch Emerson's reaction the first time she stepped out in it.  She was running, screaming, laughing.  I don't think she remembers snow from last year and she was completely ecstatic that she could eat it as well!  Happy winter!! :)

Library fun

Gma has been taking Landon and Emmy to library every week on Thursday.  The library in Nappanee does an excellent job!  The theme is Curious George, so every week they read a new book and do what George does in the book.  They have done so many creative things and every week the kids get to take home games, toys, and personalized things.  It is great and I know the kids (and Gma!) love it.

Landon paitently waiting for his pizza to be done.  He has to count to 20, either from 1-20 or 80-100!

Emmy cooking blueberry pancakes on her stove.

 Gotta love fun, FREE things for the kids! :)

Halloween Fun 2011

Last week we had a beautiful Sunday afternoon, so we decided to go outside and carve jack-o-lanterns.  Emmy LOVED helping carry the insides on her scooper and throwing them into the woods.  I think Landon just did it because we asked him too.  He doesn't really like getting messy! :)

The kids with the finished jack-o-lantern, Bears pumpkin, cat and spider pumpkin, and the tiny pumpkin we grew.

 We took the kids trick or treating on Friday last week.  We went over to the grandparents, Great Grandpa Vantine, and my aunt and uncle's house.  They loved getting dressed up and saying, "Trick or Treat."

Best picture of Landon as Lightning McQueen

Best picture of Emmy as a princess

We tried really hard, but couldn't get a good one of both of them smiling and looking at the camera!  Maybe next year.
As you can see, there are no pictures from our Halloween Party. :(  We had some people cancel a few days before, so we decided to not decorate/dress up because there would only be 6 people total.  But we did have a great night hanging out with the Fryes and Bergers!! :)

Happy Halloween!!

Favorite Words

I am very much enjoying listening to Landon and Emmy learn new words.  It is so entertaining to hear them try to pronounce new words.  So I thought I'd try to capture a moment in time because I'm sure they will soon have the hang of words and I'll forget how they "used to say that."

Landon (3 yrs.):

• disk-es
• livering room and diamon room
• shore (instead of I do, do, or yes)
• Ems (nickname for his sister)

Emmy (2 yrs.):

• down-day (downstairs)
• ow-eye (outside)
• up-peng (up please)
• baby, bankee, pih-woah, dough-wa (her favorite night-night items)
• na-nan (Landon) 
• To which Landon usually replies, "Ems, why do you call me na-nan?  I am LANDON."

Thistleberry Farm

Yesterday, despite the cool temps and blowing wind, Matt and I took the kids to the Thistleberry Pumpkin Farm with the Shaw family (Bart, Brooke, Bryce, and Cam).  The kids had a fabulous time, although we didn't really look at any pumpkins! :)  They were too busy doing everything else.  They had lots of different kinds of bikes to ride, a cow train, corn box, jumping pillow, huge slide, and more. 

The kids were too small to ride the bikes, so Matt and I had to push them.  We had a hard time convincing Landon to try anything else after he saw the bikes.

The kids rode the cow train (pulled by a tractor) all by themselves without tears!

Emmy LOVED the huge jumping pillow.  Landon wanted to get off right away!

The corn box was like a sand box, except filled with corn.  They had a lot of corn in their shoes and shirts when they were done!

Enjoying chips and cheese for lunch

Mommy and Emmy ready to race Daddy and Landon on the "four wheelers" as Landon called them.

Although we did meet the Shaws there, I realized I didn't get any pictures of them, except from the back! :)  We had great family time and made some wonderful memories.