Our first week back to the routine has been pretty good. We haven't struggled too much with waking up early each morning and tackling homework and after school craziness each afternoon. Thankfully our evenings have been free and that's made it super nice and still given us plenty of time to unwind and relax at the end of the day.
My favorites span this week all the way back to before Christmas. Basically anything I captured on my phone that wasn't at a family gathering. So this week I'm catching up and making note of favorite little moments I want to remember....
*This year I decided to display as many photo Christmas cards as I could on this little photo hanger thingy. It hangs in our kitchen right above the boys little table so it was a good central spot to have our cards on display. Hopefully in the future I can make more room and squeeze everybody in. Love these families lots!!
*Christmas Eve morning is when we finish up our Advent Calendar and it's so special to see the whole Nativity scene complete. I love this tradition and the way it begins our mornings and leads us into each day during the Christmas season.
*A sweet little Christmas card from our biggest. Love him.
*Over the Christmas break Garrison's panda had to have surgery. Performed by Garrison and Austin of course. Thankfully everything went well and I was given updates throughout the whole thing. Panda has since made a full recovery.
*Layton Thomas is really starting to take note of what his big brothers are doing...then doing the same. One morning over the break the big boys asked to watch something after breakfast so they grabbed a pillow and got situated on the floor. And look who decided to join them. =) I hope the 3 of them have the closest, sweetest friendship forever.
*Over our break Layton also decided he was ready to be a passenger in the big boys' dune racers. He's a pro now and doesn't think twice about riding shot gun with either one of them.
*This Monday was our last day of Christmas break and while Baby A and Layton were taking afternoon naps, we did a few activities to go along with the book The Day the Crayons Quit. The boys got it for Christmas (along with The Day the Crayons Came Home) and they LOVE it. It's the cutest, funniest book. All the crayons write a letter to their owner, a little boy named Duncan, complaining about various issues like being overworked or naked (from having their paper peeled off, haha) or only used to color certain things, or only being a little stub, etc. So we read the book together again and then did a slew of activities.
We did a little quiz where they tried to guess what crayon I was describing, we colored a silly picture where all the crayons got to be something they normally aren't... a yellow sky, a blue banana, a purple dog, etc. I found a couple of word searches, dot-to-dots, and mazes, and we graphed crayons from our container we've had for years. We laughed at the ones that were stubs or had the paper peeled off or the poor white crayon that doesn't get used much. Then we analyzed our graphs. Can you tell they're thinking hard? It was a fun little project on our last day of the break. Both boys really enjoyed it. =)
*On our last day of the break we also made a trip to the library. Garrison had asked to go while he was out of school but our library closes almost the entire Christmas break so we had to wait until Monday. It was a successful trip that I'm glad we were able to squeeze in.
*Family Game Night! The big boys loooove this new game they got for Christmas. Everyone works together and has the same goal so it's a team effort start to finish. We've played it several times and it's still a huge hit.
*A little handwriting practice for Austin before going back to school. The letter G is a tough one!
*My mom retired right before Christmas and this week she started keeping Piper when Anna went back to work. So we couldn't resist a visit. =)
*Cousin love!
*We were also desperate to get outside this week even though it was freezing. We lasted maybe 15 minutes. Ha.
*Layton's new cheese face. =)
*We turned Layton's carseat to forward facing this week. He'll be 23 months next week and he's just too big for rear facing now. He was pretty impressed with his new set up.
*Garrison Cade gave his heart to Jesus this week. *All the heart eyes* He's been asking questions and talking about it since this summer but this week he was ready. He knew for sure he wanted to ask Jesus to come into his heart and save him from his sins. We watched a video and prayed together and have talked lots about what it means to be saved and to be a believer. January 6, 2016 his new birthday. =) We are praising God for Garrison's salvation and we're especially thankful for all he's learned this year from his 1st grade Sunday School teachers. It's our prayer that our family circle will never be broken for all eternity. He wants to join the church soon and make his public profession of faith through baptism. We are so proud, so thankful, so excited, and give God all the glory.
*Skip Bo Junior has been another HUGE game favorite! Austin got this in his stocking and the big boys love it! We've played this game tons since Christmas.
*We heart robes around here. That is all. So cozy, comfy, warm, and perfect. =)
This weekend we're looking forward to resuming Friday night movie night, a laid back day on Saturday, hosting our first guests of the new year on Saturday night, and a pretty regular Sunday. Happy Friday!! Have a great weekend!
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