Christmas Crafts

Sunny has always been very creative and interested in crafts. She has been begging me since she turned three years old to teach her to stitch. Thunder is now getting more interested in crafts, so I thought this year would be a good one for Christmas crafting.

I bought one of those foam DIY ornament kits at Hobby Lobby. They made several individual ornaments, and then we decided to make the rest of them into a garland they can hang at their house. They worked on their ornaments individually, and I was surprised when Thunder took more care making his than Sunny did. I think she got bored.

Anyway, here is the end result!

Thunder

On Mondays and Tuesdays Thunder and Storm are at my house for Grammy Daycare. When Storm goes down for a nap, Thunder and I find something fun that only "big kids" can do. This week we made a garland for him to take to his house for Christmas decor. I snapped this photo of him thoughtfully creating his ornaments. What a cute, sweet, and creative boy!

White Elephant Party

We held our 2nd Annual Family Christmas Party this past weekend. It was a blast! It featured, games, prizes, singing of carols, White Elephant Gift Exchange, Desserts, and Appetizers. Since it's a family party, I tried to find games that we could all play from the youngest (well, not quite, Storm couldn't play) to the oldest.

I had read a blog post about a Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt game that a mom used to teach math concepts to her kids. I adapted it for game night, hiding candy canes all over the house. Obviously the person who found the most was the winner - it was Thunder! He found 32 candy canes. We also played Christmas Bingo. I also adapted a baby shower game by handing out jingle bell necklaces to everyone. If anyone was caught saying "Christmas, Thank you, or gift" they lost their necklace. The winner had the most necklaces at the end of the night - congrats Matt!

The food was delicious, the carol singing was enthusiastic, the gifts were creative, funny, and yes, even useful. I've already started searching Pinterest for games to use next year!

Me, Katie, Sunny, Thunder

Dan and I with the grands

Gabe, Sunny, Katie, Thunder

I love these kiddos!

Me and my girls

The winner of the Candy Cane Hunt!!

Matt and Storm

Matt and Shelby with Sunny

Matt brought the best white elephant gift.

It was a can of Pringles and a gold fish - fish and chips!

Sunny and Thunder were ecstatic that they now own a fish.

Six Months!

Storm turned six months recently. It's hard to believe he's half a year old! He scoots all over the house, is very inquisitive, and is a really terrific eater. He has a sunny disposition and loves to play with his cousins. He's also fascinated by Duke and Rascal. Whenever they come into his view, a huge grin breaks out on his face.

As you can see from the above photo, the main thing Storm has done the past month is GROW! Here's how he looked in the first picture he took with his monkey:

Pretty soon he'll be sitting up and holding that monkey!!

Family

We were so blessed this year to have our entire family together for Thanksgiving.

Katie hosted at her house and a great time was had by all. The forecast high for that day was 82 and we ended up breaking a record at 87 degrees. Of course, we ate outside!

Shelby's brother and sisters were here and joined in the celebration as well as some friends of Katie and Gabe. We totaled 25 - just enough people to have a low roar as you walked up to the house!

Grammy, Gramps

Sunny, Skye, Thunder, Storm

My brother Mark and me

The whole family!!

Tia Janel, Tio JD, and Storm

They came from Kansas to meet him

My original boys - JD and Zach

My boys today - Adam, JD, Zach, Matt, Gabe

Me and my SIL Kelly

Official Five Month Photo

Time is flying by...

Storm and Grammy

That monkey just keeps getting smaller and smaller!

Yes, I'm Behind...

I haven't posted since before Halloween! Goodness gracious, I wish I could give you a good reason why, but I can't.

Today will be the first of my catching up posts. Halloween was such fun this year. We went over to Jessica and Adam's house for trick-or-treating. They live in a great family neighborhood. Tons of kids. Tons of parents out with the kids. Lots of houses decorated to the hilt with scary or funny costumed characters in attendance. The kids got a lot of candy (even Storm!) and they looked very cute in their costumes.

Here's a peek:

Storm chose a Mutant Ninja Turtle costume (haha)

Storm's 1st Halloween

Cowboy, Turtle, and Super Girl patiently waiting to go trick-or-treating 

Let's go already!!

Katie, Thunder, and Sunny at one of the decorated homes

Wow! Great haul for his first time out