This is a day with Grace.

She wanted her owl to have small eyes. I said but Grace we just learned the reason owls have big eyes is so they can see better in the dark. We get in a whole thing about it. She gets sassy with me. I walk away because mmm I’m not ruining my day over owl eyes…

Timmys like oh mommm grace finished her owl… like he’s telling on her.

She’s says look my owl has sunglasses on 😎

Lortttttttttttt give me the strength

Today’s drama. How is it that she’s only 6 and we are already having these conversations.

So Timmy just comes over to me saying grace is saying that BRYNN is timmys girlfriend.

Ummmmm

So Im not sure at this point if they know what that means but maybe bc theyve watched barbie. so I say no boyfriends or girlfriends in this house we just have friends.

“But mom Brynn told me she loves Timmy”

Well that’s nice grace but Brynns mommy and your mommy only allow for regular friends.

Grace starts crying

“Didn’t you have a boyfriend”

Yes when I was 17. When you’re 17 you can have a boyfriend.

Starts hysterics. Full on crying becauseeeee She already has a boyfriend.

I die a little. I’m like whooooo is your boyfriend.

Max

The way Lydia screams Daddy’s home when she hears his car coming down the road.

The way she screams Mommy when I pick her up from playground coop.

Lydia who are your friends? Lydia Gracie & Mimmy.

How excited she was that I let her stand on the end of the cart. She thought it was the greatest thing. She kept laughing and saying sooo fun!

How excited Timmy and Grace get when I roll down the windows and their hair goes wild.

That Grace gets Lydia out of her crib and dresses her before they come out of their room in the morning.

How grace does her own hair now and adds a matching bow.

Timmy told me how much he’s gonna miss me on their 1 day camping trip.

How much Lydia lives school. She tells me today, “I don’t want to eat I just want to go to school!”

I told Lydia that she was so goofy and she said no I’m Minnie Mouse.

Grace made everyone lunch yesterday. Even my dad. She’s turning into such a big helper. Then she sat on the couch and said ok now the cooks can eat.

Today she made marshmallow soufflé which was crackers with banana, marshmallow and cheese. My husband actually had to eat it because she was so proud of her creation.

My girls are in a really sweet stage. Grace is Lydia’s mommy now. She dresses her and everything. Holds her silly cup for her. Lydia even fake cries for her. It’s so adorable. Timmy isn’t feeling it tho.

Timmy & Grace took Walkie Talkies to bed last night.

My brother came over and taught Timmy how to skateboard. When he left Timmy cried. “He’s just so cool mom I wish he could stay longer!”

This child 😂

Grace says mom open your mouth so I can yell a message to the baby.

Timmy wants to put me to bed real nice he says. He just brought me a blanket and tucked me in. Now he’s going to get a book to read to me.

I saw this Santa Spa idea last year from this really over the top mom named Katherine Marie. All her ideas are pretty amazing.

Last year we had a huge spa party with all our friends but this year it was just us and next year I hope we get to include Madeline and Matilda.

It makes me so happy to make them feel special. I set their bathroom up like a real spa. Candles and all.

They were following me around trying to get a sneak peek. The boys were at a Christmas party but I did buy Timmy a gingerbread boy bath bomb so he can have a little something special too.

I cut foam sheets into Christmas shapes to stick to the tub wall and target had Rudolph bath puppets.

They stayed in for an hour and got super wrinkly. Then we used the face masks and did nails. I hope they remember this always and do it with their kids.

Now it’s time for makeup!

Gracie made Tim a birthday card and she wrote, “Daddy I love you you. Your heart is like a rainbow.”

Tonight it’s just me and Lydia. We shared some blue box Mac & cheese and popcorn while we watched Hallmark. Now she’s hanging ornaments on my toes and grabbing my face with her cheesy little hands.

At church whenever they start to sing Lydia grabs my hands and stands on the pew and we dance. For every. single. song.

These two love dancing. This was the sweetest show I e ever seen.

I took a bath in the kids tub because for some reason the water gets hotter in there. Lydia thought it was the funniest thing. She was hysterical putting her little hands over her face like she could not believe I was in her tub.

Lydia is the tickle monster now. She puts her hands up to warm you that a tickle attack is coming only her attacks are more violent then tickling. But we all fake laugh anyway.

I sat outside today on a blanket and read a chapter book with the kids. It was so nice. We would take breaks between chapters to just soak up the nice weather. We actually watched the bees collect pollen and then we were quiet enough that a daddy cardinal landed in our bird feeder so we watched him eat. That’s how slow our December days have been. So slow that the highlight of our day was watching the bees. And of course Grace picked me a lovely weed bouquet. I love these days.

I’m making peanut butter cookies and I go to eat one and Timmy says heyyyy those are for St Nick. And I tell him I’m just making sure they’re not poison. And he says, “don’t be ridiculous you’re the best cook I know!”

Lydia thinks that every decoration is for Jesus. Every time she sees a house with lights or a Christmas tree or anything Christmas she yells, “ooooo baby house!”

We take all of December off from “formal” school work to do all things Christmas or to do nothing at all. I just want to soak it up while my kids still believe in all the magic.

I planned simple and easy themed days and the rest of our time was spent reading Christmas books. Our read aloud is Family Under the Bridge and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Christmas Tree

We read the book Who Would Like a Christmas Tree that was all about how the tree is home to many different animals all year long. Then we watched a kid video about how the evergreen tree became a symbol of Christ. I couldn’t have said it better myself it was so sweet saying that the boughs of the tree stretch out to God and the tree is like an arrow to heaven. I didn’t know the story of Boniface so I learned something too. Then we made tree ornaments.

Polar Express

We watched and read Polar Express then built trains. Lydia actually put together the train herself for the first time. Then we had hot chocolate and added our own Polar Express under the tree. Last year we went on the Polar Express train. It was magical.

The Grinch

We watched all three versions of The Grinch. Gracies favorite is the Jim Carey one because you get to see the Grinch as a baby. Timmy likes the one in the movie theatre. I’m partial to the original because it reminds me of my own childhood. We made Grinch kabobs for snack.

Then I read to them How the Grinch Stole Christmas while they painted a Grinch of their own.

Our Grinch even got in our the Elf fun.

Home Alone

I love these classic movies that bring me back to the good ole days. I like looking at how different life was like in this movie she’s talking on a corded phone with her friends or trying to use a pay phone to find her son. My kids didnt even know what it was when we saw one. I asked them what they would do if they woke up like Kevin and no one was home. Timmy said he’d eat all the candy then take all his money to the pet store and buy a snake. Grace said she’d get on her bike and go find me. Apparently Timmy has plans lol Lydia keeps putting her hands on her face and screaming 😱

Frosty the Snowman

Our elves brought us a snowman breakfast and we watched the movie.

Then we made some pretend snow. Even I played with it because it’s so cool. Then I broke out the snow cone machine and we we got our gloves and played with the closest thing we have to snow. Timmy even made a snowman.

The Elf

My favorite movie! We painted our own Buddy Elf.

And then we decorated or hallways like Buddy decorated the store. Making these snowflakes was so much fun. Each one a surprise. The kids were so amazed. We also made paper chains. It’s came out so cute!

The Gingerbread Boy

We read 3 versions of this book. They bit said their favorite was the Gingerbread Friends.

Then we made homemade gingerbread and brought some to the neighbors. They came out so delicious!

Seven sounds so big. He’s turning into a little man. And the sweetest one ever. Just tonight he came up to me and said, “Mom your face is so beautiful.” I don’t know where he learned to be this complimentary. It’s a part of him.

The other night we went for a car ride looking for the best Christmas lights. If the person was outside he would roll down his window and tell them what a great job they did. He just make my heart smile.

For this special big boy birthday I woke him up super early and took him to Disney just the two of us. He was so surprised. The whole car ride there he thanked me. And the whole time at the park and the whole drive home until he fell asleep. He said, “Mom I don’t care what rides we go on I’m just happy to be going and I want you to be happy too so you go ahead and pick what we ride first.” He really talks like that. Sincere and sweet.

The plan was to ride all the big kid rides that he’s never been on and that’s just what we did! We actually ride them all twice. First thunder mountain, then pirates, splash mountain and space mountain. I couldn’t believe who brave he was. Last year this would have never happened. He’s really grown up in a year.

I’m so blessed to be his mommy. I’ll never forget this day.

There just isn’t anything better in my life than these little people. They are so blessed to grow up along side each other. These group photos keep growing every year and I love it!

Our newest tradition is to celebrate Thanksgiving at home and celebrating Friday with our family. I kinda love it. Thanksgiving day is slow and simple. We make a big breakfast and watch the parade. Then we just hang out and slowly start decorating for Christmas. We do this because Brandon and my mom work on Thursday and we don’t want anyone to be missing. This year I let the kids help me make the lasagna. I love cooking family recipes with them.

And just like Halloween we celebrated Thanksgiving to the max. We started with our thankful tree and decorating the house.

Then we made a place setting for Jesus and read a special thanksgiving book & prayer.

Timmy drew a picture of what he was thankful for and of course it was snakes.

We had a pilgrims and Indians party with our friends. We dressed up and the kids really got into playing the part. The boys were fighting with guns and arrows and the girls were churning butter. And we made some real butter in little baby food jars and it really worked. The kids used it on their biscuits.

I’m so thankful for these babies who are quickly turning into big kids and I’m especially thankful that they get to grow up with so much family close by.

I love this time of year. I just wish I could figure out how to slow it down. We had too much fun that’s for sure and way too much candy.

This was Lydia’s first year of understanding Trick or Treating and SHE IS A FAN. She brought her pumpkin bucket everywhere. And even after Halloween she was still dressing up.

We were the bat family this year all thanks to Daddy’s obsession with bat dad. All my kids talk like that guy.

Even Rosary got in the fun!

We went to Aunt Jessicas to trick or treat with the whole crew. It was so much fun. My kids are definitely getting older because they wanted to keep going all night.

Lydia’s bucket had to weigh 30 pounds da but she would not let anyone touch it. Poor child was walking with a limp but was not willing to surrender any candy. Her little voice saying trick or treat was the sweetest sound and then followed by her even sweeter Thank you. I just love her she has a personality that is like none other.

We probably over did our Halloween celebrations as usual but we started it off right by doing a costume parade at the nursing home.

We went to two trunk or treats. One for cub scouts and one at our church. I really didn’t want to go because who started all this million days of trunk or treating. There was no such thing when I was a kid but Daddy is all about it. I’m glad we went the kids had a blast at both!

We had a spooky party with our friends. The moms went alllllll out! Gross yummy food, dissecting owl pellets and touch & feel haunted house. It was a blast.

I made my kids a ghostly milkshake that cane out so cute I had to take a picture. We also made mummy brownies and pumpkin Mac & cheese. My kids think I am the best when their food is made special. We went to the pumpkin patch with all our cousins. It wasn’t exactly perfect weather. We were sweating like it was the middle of summer but the kids don’t care. We rode the hayride and searched for the perfect pumpkin.

Then we had a family carving competition!

I think that’s it for Halloween.

This month we are focusing on Pumpkins, Seasons/Weather and Mexico.

Seasons & Weather

This book writes a poem for each season so I had them close their eyes while I read and had them tell me which season they thought it was. It’s a really a sweet book. Then we folded our paper in 4 and painted a tree for each season.

We learned about different types of clouds and laid down to watch some clouds go by. Gracie saw a big number 1 in the clouds. We did a cotton ball cloud worksheet.

We made an Anemometer out of paper cups and straws. Luckily it was windy because there was a passing hurricane.

We read Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane and then watched the show on Netflix.

Then we did some experiments from the book. We made tornadoes in a soda bottle.

Then we made clouds in a mason jar. They loved this we had to do it multiple times even Lydia was amazed. You take a mason jar and swirl warm water inside the jar. Then spray hairspray and cover with the cap upside down and filled with ice. It really works well.

Pumpkins

We created our own little pumpkin patch. We painting brown bag pumpkins.

We even had wagon hay rides!

We made the yummiest pumpkin snack.

We read the sweetest book “How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin” that talks about how it’s what’s inside that’s important, no matter your size or color. Then we did our own pumpkin investigation and counted the seeds.

Mexico

Every month will be the same with learning the flag, coloring the map and finding it on the globe. We checked out lots of books on Mexico from the library and learned some Spanish words.

The kids made Quesadillas themselves and were not fans of it. Who does not like quesadillas?! I tried to sell it as Mexican grilled cheese but it was not a success.

We learned about the holiday Day of the Dead. We watched the movie Coco and then went a little over the top. We turned this house into a full blow Day of the Dead festival. We baked homemade sugar skull cookies while listening to Mexican music. We painted the cookies and our faces! Then Grace taught us all how to dance like they do in Mexico and she was pretty spot on. It was so much fun!

We made cinnamon sugar tortillas but only Lydia liked it.