Teacher Gift

Becca goes to school at the preschool patch and loves it. This year we decided to make her teacher a clipboard for Christmas.

I had this cute American Crafts paper and cordinating ribbon to go with it.

If you look real close you can see the alaphabet on the ribbon. I think it's so cute.

Becca was very excited to hand deliver her gift to her teacher. If you want to see more about her preschool click here it's adorable.

Cutest Santa Ever!

It started about 5 years ago when we still had family that lived in town. We would get together with my sister and her kids and my nephew Mitchell would dress up like Santa and come visit during our party. He came up with the idea on his own and did it for 2 or 3 years until they moved out of state. The boys both remember it and LOVED it. Becca was not born. Well Kyle decided when they moved that he wanted to play Santa. This year they decided Jaden would come along and be Santa's Elf and pass out the presents.

Becca was so cute with them. She just played right along and loved every minute of it. I love the sweet sweet bonds my kids share and the tender little memories they are building for each other.

**Note**

I was so excited I went to the after Christmas clearance sale and was able to buy a cute elf hat for next year. The boys will LOVE it and Jaden won't have to wear a piece of green felt tied with yarn and a gingle bell next time. haha!

Santa's Lap

We took the kids to Bass Pro shop to have a visit with Santa. It was so much fun. They had it decorated really cute. While I held our spot in line Ryan took the kids to different activity stations they had. They got to decorate cookie, write a letter to santa and color some pictures. It was a lot of fun and the line moved very fast. After our visit with Santa we went to Cracker Barrell (our boys LOVE it there) for dinner. We had a lot of fun being together in our sweet little family. All night I kept thinking about how blessed we are. I just love the magic of this season.

Traditions

I LOVE this time of year and am a big traditions kind of girl. We hung up our Christmas advent calendar that Amy made me last year. It's so cute. Each day has an activity on the back of things to do. The kids all take turns reading the activity for the day. Here are some of the things we've done.

We have the tradition of getting in our jammies and the kids gets to open one present out of the basket. They are all Christmas books. Now that the boys are such good readers we rotate readers everynite and Becca always opens the book. Then we say prayers and they each get to pick one Christmas stuffed animal to sleep with. They LOVE it. If they get out of bed, then they have to put their toy back. It has only ever taken one time of losing their toy to make it work.

We made a gingerbread village, have watched some Christmas specials on t.v. and went to see Christmas lights. There is this really neat neighborhood that's a circle and every home on the street is decked out. You park across the street at a park and walk in. It was a lot of fun. There was such a huge variety of decorations. We loved it.

Each year I take the kids out one on one for a Christmas shopping date. They get to pick out a gift for everybody and then we go out for dinner or icecream. Its a lot of fun. When we get home they wrap their gifts, sign the tag and put it under the tree. I have loved seeing them grow and watch their gifts become more meaningful over the years.

Every year we let the kids decorate their own small tree. They get to keep in their room and we have an understanding. I won't touch their tree and they don't touch mine. :)

Its been a good, busy and exciting time of year. I love that the boys totally get the reason why we Celebrate. I have all of my shopping done and most of the gifts wrapped. Now I am planning on taking this week before Christmas to focus on our Savior and the true spirit of Christmas.

Grandpa AND Santa come to town

Ryan's dad called us friday night and told us he was going to come down for the weekend. It was such a fun surprize. He got to our house just after 9 on Saturday night. The kids were way too excited to go to bed. Becca immediately brought out a pile of books and had Grandpa read to her. She LOVED every minute of it. Sat. we went to church and had a nice dinner. Ryans dad did a ride along with him and Monday we all went to the movies together. After dinner we were all sitting in the family room when all of the sudden we heard some jingle bells . Then Santa entered the room. It was sooooo exciting. He gave each of the kids a present. The boys both got a lego set, Kyle a truck and Jaden an airplane. Grandpa and Ryan helped the boys put them together. Becca got a hellow kitty purse and she was in HEAVEN...she wore that thing all night. She immediately got her little shopping cart out and went shopping all through out the house. She loved her purse so much she slept with it. We had so much fun with Grandpa Moody and appreciate him taking the time to come visit us and make such fun memories with the kids. He really helped with my homesickness and brighten up our holiday. He left this morning and we miss him already!

Parent's day

Ryan and I got a kick out of watching Becca during dance at parents day. She did a great job and was all smiles. We just love her teacher Ms. Wendy. She is so sweet and good with the girls.

Becca LOVES to dance and is just so frilly, I LOVE it!!!

Yearly Ornaments

Every year we all get an ornament from Grandma and Grandpa Moody. They always do a great job picking one that represents what ever we are into that year. Once again the ornaments were just perfect. Ryan got an adorable police car ornament that makes sounds. They kids love it. Mine is a cute picture frame that says together is a wonderful place to be, which is like the title of our blog. Kyle's was a basket ball frame complete with a cute picture of him in his uniform. Jaden's was super hero's and Becca's a ballerina which is them to a T. It's always exciting to see what ornament we are going to get. We always love them. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!