Homemade Graham Crackers are Yummy

 

Christmas in January!

Poor Nana was really sick over the holidays, so we just finally caught up with them to exchange our Christmas gifts. The kids were delighted to see Nana and Grampy and delighted at the chance to open some more presents!!!

 

 

 

 

little bit of snow

Virginia has been missing out on all the big snows, but we did have a bit of snow in January - enough for little snowman making, snow tasting and a bit of sledding.

 

 

 

 

This is how we do it

A few weeks ago, I took both the girls (separately!) ice skating for the first time! With Ada, i learned pretty quickly that just three is not a good age for ice skating (she was slipping all over the place)...so I was quite thankful when they brought out the buckets for inexperienced skaters. And so was Ada - especially when she discovered how fun it was to ride sitting balanced on top of the bucket while I pushed her around the rink! Josie had a better experience and progressed from bucket to side of the rink to skating hand and hand with me.

 

 

 

 

One out, Three In

Christmas day was a big day for teeth! Josie's tooth had been wiggly since October and since her adult tooth was almost already in, we had made an appointment with the dentist for the week after Christmas to get it checked out. Josie was so worried about having to have her tooth pulled by the dentist ("will he at least ask me if it is okay to pull it out, before he does it?") that Ben overheard her praying to God that her tooth would fall out on Christmas day. Her prayers were answered and sure enough that tooth was ready to come out on Christmas day. Although it was completely flopping over, it was no easy task to get the tooth out (since her adult tooth had come in behind the baby tooth it hadn't completely eroded the roots)...all that to say, it took some tears and at the end (after avoiding the task by fasting and not talking!) some super bravery to pull that tooth out. It was rough going, but finally amidst much drama, she did it!

The tiny little tooth was put safely into a little monogrammed silver tooth box (given to her by a family friend) and placed under her pillow for the tooth fairy to take. After I had said goodnight to the girls, I rushed back upstairs when I heard Josie sobbing..."Mom, I don’t want the tooth fairy to take my tooth. I want to keep it as a reminder of my childhood. To show my kids. That is if it doesn’t get moldy. Then I’ll have to throw it away." So, we wrote a note to the tooth fairy, who thankfully was very accommodating and left the tooth and a golden dollar!

With much less drama and heartache, Jude cut his first two teeth on Christmas day!

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We celebrated a sweet Christmas at home with just the five of us. It was pretty magical to wake up to softly falling snow (and good morning greetings from my faovrite 5-year old girl)!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

I have a hard time even thinking about posting these pictures...when 48 hours later pretty much the entire family came down with the stomach bug. "yyyUCK" as Ada says. We did enjoy thanksgiving, however, oblivious to the impending days, and Jude especially loved being snuggled by his great-grandma and cousin Anita.