What we've been Up to

These last few weeks have gone by so quickly and I haven't had time to blog all that we've been doing. Here's a long post (sorry) of what we've been up to the past few weeks. 

I LOVE putting up Christmas in the house and always want to get it up right after Thanksgiving. Spencer...not so much. I tease him that he's a Scrooge. But this year, I did get the Christmas tree up earlier than December 1st and Spencer was willing to forgo his "scrooginess"  and get lights up on the house. 

last but not least, the star on top

 We've also been getting to snuggle with Katie's baby, Kaleb. He is known in our house as "baby Kaleb" not just Kaleb. If you leave out the "baby" part, Tate goes "Kaleb what?" until you fix it and say the whole title. 
Ayden can't get enough of him and will hold him as long as he can.

 Ellie loves holding him too and especially loves his toes. "they are so tiny" she always says! I love that she's wearing curlers in her hair for this picture. It was in preparation for a Christmas Party.

 We also have had a few family parties to attend. The first was a bowling party with the whole Shaw family. 

goofy boy!

 All the kids had a lot of fun, Spencer is included in this category too. He played in a game against all the men in the family. I'm not sure who won, but I do know it wasn't him. All his hours of Wii bowling did not pay off. 
Ayden didnt want to have to use the ramp and wanted to bowl all by himself. Half way through his game, I think he came to understand the value of the ramp for little arms!
Ellie loved it, and no matter if she hit a pin or not was just happy that her ball made it all the way down the lane. 








 Our next family party was with my Aunt Paula and Dave Millett. She's not really our aunt, she's my dad's cousin, but we've always called her Aunt Paula. And they were kind enough to invite us to their family party. Santa even made an appearance. Tate was the only one who didn't want to sit on his lap.

Ayden asked for football cards

Ellie asked for Tinkerbell fairies

Tate was too nervous to sit on his lap, but he did whisper to Santa what he wanted while I held him, which was football guys. 

I was able to help in Ellie's class for her Christmas party. My neighbor Keisha and I put the party together and it turned out pretty cute. The kids got to make reindeer headbands and Christmas ornaments using their fingerprints as snowmen, and of course decorate cookies. Their teacher invited all parents to come for small Christmas concert.

Ellie loves singing so this was her favorite part. It's adorable how they all paid special attention to their teacher for their hand actions. I love Ellie's face in this picture, she was so excited! 
Miss Andrus does a wonderful job with her class and we are so thankful Ellie has her as a teacher.

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We've had a very busy month and are looking forward to some days together as a family. The kids have been doing our advent calendar and "count down to Christmas" blocks. We also started a new tradition called the The 25 Days of Christ.(see the link) Every day has an ornament that corresponds with a scripture, picture, movie, and quote about Christ. It's been a wonderful thing for us to do together every night. And the kids love it, they always ask what ornament is next. We would recommend this for everyone. We wish everyone a beautiful holiday and can't wait to enjoy ours!

watching Christmas movies together