December

December is always a very busy month and this year wasn't any different. We love the Christmas season. It has been a month of shopping and wrapping and all the fun December things that happen with school.

At the beginning of December, Paige was able to go to a birthday party of a friend and they went to this craft shop in Maple Valley that also does workshops. Paige was able to make her own blanket by hand crocheting it. It is so pretty and soft and looks perfect on her bed.

The first weekend, Paige, Baylor, and I went and watched two of the young women in our ward and our friends perform the Nutcracker. They did amazing and I loved watching Lizzy be the rat king because the roll and the fun part of the role fits Lizzy's personality perfectly.

December has also been filled with gymnastic practice and meets. Paige is doing great. There was a couple of meets that she was a little hard on herself. The last meet before the break, she was an all-around so she got to do all four events and got to do bars for the first time. For this one, I made sure that her focus was just to have fun and enjoy the experience. She did amazing!

Paige and Baylor also had concerts. Paige had an orchestra concert and she did amazing. She plays beautifully and the school's orchestra is really good. They have an excellent teacher which always helps. I didn't get any close up or individual pictures of Baylor at her concert but she did amazing. They did amazing and I loved watching her. I almost teared up because she has progressed so much over the years with her confidence. She was much more herself and had fun with it.

Paige and I have gotten to enjoy some really fun youth activities this month. First off, we got to experience Snowflake Lane for the first time. It has always been on my bucket list and it was so fun. I would love to go again with my family another year. Then we went ice skating. Another activity, we made homemade decorations for our tree that we got to decorate for the ward party. We also did cookies and caroling with the young men and also had a temple trip to kick off our winter break.

Mr. Elf returned for December and has been moving all around the house making the girls stay on Sant's nice list. He has had some fun.

The tooth fairy and Mr. Elf were roaming our house one night so we had some extra excitement in our house.

We have been going to indoor playground in downtown Kent with our neighbors. McCall loves it and they had a special Christmas one and Santa even visited. McCall's face was a pure frown when we first arrive which was so funny. She very slowly warmed up and even willingly took a candy cane from him and smiled in the group photo.

The last few weeks there has been a lot of flooding in our area. We are fortunately way up on the hill, so it didn't affect us. There has been so much damage and evacuations. It is sad to see. Nate and I drove to downtown Kent to see some of the areas affected near us. It was crazy to see all that water.

I was able to do science in Baylor's class at the beginning of the month and then I volunteered the class for her class party on the last day of school before the break. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad that I am able to be her class as much as I am.

These three!

We watched the first Wicked with friends in our ward during Thanksgiving break. Then since the second one is still in theaters we went with them to see it in theaters to kick off our Christmas break. It was so good and I will never be able to watch the Wizard of Oz the same. It was such a fun outing!

Last night, we did our annual tradition of going to look at Christmas lights and see the Very Merry Christmas house. They put on quite the display to Christmas music and it's close to home which makes it the perfect spot for us to go see. 

We are looking forward to Christmas and all the fun traditions. I'm so grateful for the birth of my Savior! I can't believe it is already almost a new year. We are going to enjoy our break and time with family.

 

Letter M

We made it halfway through the alphabet! I only planned through letter M so during the break, I'll have to plan the rest of the school year out. Letter M was a good one and we did lots of fun activities.

Monday, McCall created a mouse out of the uppercase M. I cut out the M and she cut out the ears and the whiskers. I helped her glue all the pieces on and it turned out very cute.

Then we had fun with some music. I got out of bin of play instruments and we sang different songs and listened to music.

Tuesday was our macaroni day. I had printed out the block letter M and McCall decided that she wanted to color it first. Then I was impressed with her persistence, and she glued all the macaroni noodles on by herself. 

Wednesday, she first did a monster craft. I cut out the body and then I just gave her some paper scraps and she cut out the rest of the pieces. I would guide by asking how legs, arms, and eyes she wanted her monster to have and then she would cut everything out. Once she got all her pieces glued on, she used a marker to add details. The cutest thing was how she put eyebrows over each of the four eyes. Then she drew the ears and mouth. Then she glued on some crazy hair. It is a pretty cute monster!

Then we made some "mud" pies. She helped make the chocolate pudding and then we each got a little bowl to make our own pies. I had some different toppings and we had fun and had a delicious snack to enjoy.

Thursday, she did marble painting. I cut a piece of paper to fit inside a pan and then out some blobs of paint on the paper. Then she put a marble in the pan and tilted the pan back and forth so that the marble smeared the paint together and created lines on her paper.

Then we did some M&M math. She first sorted the M&Ms into red and green. Then we would take a small handful and count how many M&Ms we each had. Then we would eat some and count some more.

Friday was our mitten day. I cut out the mittens and then she decorated them with stickers and markers. Then we stretched a cotton ball out to glue on the bottom of each of her mittens. Then I printed out a mitten matching and counting game that we did together.

Festival of Nativities

We did one of my favorite Christmas traditions last week. We drove up to Bellevue and went to their annual festival of nativities. It is an incredible event that is filled with the true meaning of Christmas. This was the first year that they had the giving machines at the church. The girls decided on getting some chickens and school lunches.

Then we started with the gym which is filled with hundreds of nativities. The girls got a scavenger hunt and we hunted and searched for specific things throughout all the nativities. 

McCall went from nativity to nativity, pointing at Jesus in every single one. It was pure goodness and sweetness even with the constant reminder of we don't touch, just look.

Then we made a stop so the girls could dress up for their own nativity. There were so many costumes that they could choose from and of course McCall chose a cow. I thought it was funny, cute, and so McCall. Baylor wanted to be an angel and Paige being a teenager wanted the simplest and decided to match McCall and was a sheep.

Then we went to my favorite room It is an instant feeling of the Spirit and the love of Christ that just washes over you as you walk through this room that has pictures and scriptures that depict the life of Christ. First starting with His birth, to growing up, the miracles, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, His Crucifixion, and Resurrection. 

I love how they use the baptismal font to create the empty tomb which is so cool.

Then they have a snowflake room with more nativities of course more finding baby Jesus.

Then I went through the life of Christ room again by myself because I love it that much and could go through much slower. I walked into the activity room and got to see this. The girls and Nate working on puzzles and doing some fun nativity activities together.

It was pouring rain but they had lots of lights set up by the temple that I wanted to walk through. McCall was the only one brave enough to join me. We we walked through the lights together and she loved to see the temple and all the pretty lights. Nate and the other two stayed warm in the car and picked us up in front of the temple.

It was a long drive home with traffic and even more than usual with roads closed due to flooding. I know going late on a Wednesday afternoon isn't ideal for the time we are driving home but I like going at that time so there are less people there. It was a wonderful evening spent together as a family!

Letter L

Letter L! We are almost halfway through the alphabet. McCall loves preschool and the fun crafts and activities that we do.

For the letter L,  first I had her trace the uppercase and lowercase L on Monday.

Then she did a lion craft. She cut out the head and then drew the face on. She drew on the mane and of course had to do a "roar" for her picture with her finished product.

Then we did a fun Lego activity. I got different objects and we used Legos to measure the different objects. She would put the Legos together for the length of the object and then together we would count how many Legos high each object was.

Tuesday was our ladybug day. She cut out the circle and the line down the middle. I cut out the head since it had the antennas on it and I knew that would be a little tricky. Then she used a black ink pad and her finger to put the dots on her ladybug.

Then we read a fun ladybug book.

Wednesday was our leaf day. First, we did a leaf rubbing.

Then I just gave her the leaves and she cut them into pieces and had washi tape and I just let her create and have fun.

Thursday was our lemon day. First she drew with a Q-tip with lemon juice. Then we cut a lemon in half so that she could see the inside of a lemon and smell it.

Then she did lemon volcanos. First she poured baking soda on top of the lemon halves. Then she put some food coloring on them and then had the measuring cup of vinegar. Her reaction was so cute and fun.

Then Friday was our light day. First, she created a lamp craft. She cut out the lamp shade and then colored it how she wanted.

Then we did this cool Christmas light craft. I cut the bulbs out of paper and taped them on the paper. Then she used oil pastels and drew lots of little lines around the bulb. Then we used our finger to smear the lines together. I loved her reaction when we took the paper bulb off so she could see the colorful shadowing of her Christmas lights. It was such cute "wows"!

Letter K

We took the week of Thanksgiving off for preschool and then December rolled around and we are back into the swing of things. Letter K was a fun one with fun activities.

Monday we started off with a kangaroo craft where McCall got to do some cutting, gluing, and drawing.

I showed her of a video of a kangaroo and then she bounced around, jumping like a kangaroo.

Then for Monday's activity, she played with kinetic sand. She often plays with it daily so she enjoyed this one.

Tuesday was a simple day and she created a king craft out of the uppercase K. First she colored the block letter K, then cut out the crown, and last, she put jewel stickers on the crown for the final touch.

Wednesday was a fun kite day. First, she made a kite out of a paper towel roll. She colored it and we taped streamers to the end and a yarn handle to the other side.

Then first she tried her kite out in the family room.

Then she tried it out in the backyard. She wanted to take turns with me and it was fun to see the joy in her face with just a simple, handmaid kite that you have to run around to get it to fly.

Then I had different shapes and colors of kites cut out into four pieces and she had to match them all together. We talked about which ones are big or small and what colors the kites were.

Then she picked a few of the kites and glued them together on her paper for display.

Thursday, she first painted with a knife. I didn't focus on knife too much since it doesn't have the "k" sound but she had fun especially mixing all the colors together.

Then we made some Rice Krispy treats.

And last, she did kitchen play. I gave her some bowls with flour and sugar and some measuring spoons, bowls, and a whisk to have some fun with.

Friday she did a simple kiwi craft. I cut out the letter K and glued it all together and then we looked at a picture of a kiwi so she could see the seeds. Then she used her finger and black stamp ink to make the seeds on her kiwi.

Our last activity for our letter K, was matching kisses. I taped lots of things that start with the letter K and taped them on the bottom of candy kisses. We then played memory to match them all up and then of course we enjoyed eating some of the kisses.