Oh, Christmas Tree

Day after Thanksgiving...time to setup and decorate our Christmas tree!Step 1: hide behind the tree while Daddy puts it together.Step 2: take a break under the tree skirt.

Step 3: hitch a ride on Daddy's back... so that you can put the treasured star on top of the tree. With four kids in the family, it's many years before you get another turn at such an honor so Beth was sure to enjoy every second of the moment.

In addition to getting our tree all decorated, on December 1 we started our 24 day Advent Countdown to Christmas! We only bought one so the kids are taking turns opening a door and getting the treasured chocolate piece. It's fun having something so special to look forward to everyday. I'm just hoping to keep Jesus in our Christmas countdown as well as the chocolate. This is all to remember His birthday after all!

Daddy's Orange Girl

Jill has definitely become a Daddy's Girl these past few months. Her favorite thing to do is pick out her orange shirt and Daddy's orange shirt so they can be matching. She's always so proud when they wear their "matching" outfits. Thank you, Daddy for playing along so well!

Adam writes...

Today Jason and Beth summarized our recent lessons for a notebook page. I wrote their summary on the whiteboard for them to then copy. While doing this, Adam was drawing on his whiteboard, a common activity for him. He usually draws pictures or practices his letters or writes his name. I honestly wasn't paying much attention to him as he worked until he was two lines in and I realized he wasn't writing random letters or doodling. He was doing the same thing as Jason and Beth. He was copying the Revolutionary War summary. I was shocked, impressed, and proud. And little does he know, but he just showed me a little of what he's truly capable of, hee, hee, hee...

What he's written: The Colonists thought the British were unfair. They wro...and then he ran out of room (in case you're wondering, They wrote the Declaration of Independence, fought the Revolutionary War, and won!) I do find it somewhat amusing that he doesn't write left to right but rather zig zag - left to right on line one, right to left on line 2 (the T and S are reversed) and left to right on line three and right to left on line four ending in the U of unfair which continues on the next line. He's adorable and I can't wait to see what he does next!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I've been fighting it since Halloween. We do not celebrate Christmas until after Thanksgiving. But today, we went to the mall and discovered Christmas cannot be avoided. Santa is already there! Why fight it...we just embraced it and rode the reindeer.

We even watched the carolers and clapped along...Merry Christmas!

Adding our John Hancocks

I am loving our study of American History. I'm learning right alongside my 1st and 2nd graders. We just read and read and read some more. It's been so much fun! Today we made blueberry ink and signed a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Where are the adults?

I traveled an hour and a half north today to visit my cousin who was in town. This was a last minute trip but I hadn't seen her in over two years, and we don't know when it will happen again so I made the drive with the kids. It was a great evening just chatting, catching up, and being with family. You'd think I'd come back with a picture of us together or at least of her...nope.

I took pictures of the kids but there are no adults in my photos except this great one of Great Grandma Mae chatting with Jill. Next time, Amy!!!

The Cheesy Head Tilt Pose

Jill is obsessed with this tilt the head, cheesy grin pose! It was cute at first...but it's just not coming across on camera as much as it does in person (it's actually very adorable to watch her tilt her head and say cheese!) See for yourself...

I'm hoping we can get her to move on to something else very soon!