Winter Fun

Here is a potpourri of winter photos!  Below, Makayla had fun making and wrapping gifts for Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles.  She was quite the helper for wrapping this year and didn't want any help when she was wrapping!  We spent several December afternoons wrapping gifts and, during that time, she did most of the wrapping for cousins and grandparents and Chad's gifts!

These are the ornaments that the girls made (or helped me make) for family!

Lydia made and wrapped one ornament.  She did the wrapping completely by herself and she even wrote an "L" on the tag so Grandma and Grandpa knew it was from her!  It was pretty funny when she had my dad open it; she grabbed the ornament back and wouldn't let him keep it!  Good thing Makayla had wrapped one for them too, so they just shared the one ornament between the two of them!  Lydia really didn't have much interest in wrapping gifts after this, so she typically just played while Makayla helped me wrap gifts!

Chad has taken the girls out in the snow several times this winter while I've been able to stay inside and relax (or more realistically, get some things done around the house!)

The girls enjoyed helping put the Christmas tree up!  We put it up in the basement again this year since it worked out so well last year!

Before we even had the tree decorated, Makayla had to put all the gifts under the tree that we (she) had wrapped!

Makayla had a Christmas concert at school.  Here are some photos of her class singing!

Lydia had a small program in her classroom too!  Here are some photos from her program!  The kids sang a few cute Christmas songs, opened some gifts for the classroom, and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and enjoyed some birthday cake!  Lydia was very proud to have her own program...especially since she watched Makayla's programs last year and this year!  She is also wearing her absolute favorite dress!!  She loves this dress and is very particular that I do NOT tie the strings in the back...she likes to let them hang down.

Eating birthday cake for baby Jesus's birthday!

Makayla had PJ day at school on the same day as Lydia's program...which is why she is wearing her PJ's in the photo above!  We let Makayla skip a few minutes of her class because she wanted to watch Lydia's program!  :)

Makayla and I made these cute string cheeses for her school snack one day!

Makayla and Lydia love playing with all the baby "stuff" that we have stored in the back room.  Here they lined up all the baby toys from one storage tub.  Makayla was all ready to wash them and put them out for our baby...unfortunately, it was about 2 months or more before my due date, so I made her pack them back up for a few months!  She has been a huge helper with getting the baby clothes washed and stocked in the dresser, packing the baby's bag for the hospital, and getting the nursery ready!  She was also ready to spread burp cloths out around the house...at least 6 weeks before my due date!  I convinced her that it was a bit too early to do that activity, so we just washed them and packed them in a drawer in the nursery!

I might have already shared this art board, but if not, here it is along with another art board and some random art projects!

The girls made these turkey's at a Holiday bazaar at our church!

These are a few projects that Lydia has done at the Kaukauna Library story time!  She made an extra of each of them for Makayla since Makayla always misses story time because of school.  Lydia and I just love the Thursday morning story times with Miss Mary!  It's a fun and educational activity for us to do together and Miss Mary is so great with the kids!  We also like to meet our friends Angie and Hunter there too and Lydia likes to drop a few pennies into the collection bucket for the new library fund!  Makayla gets pretty jealous of missing story time and our library visits, by the way.  We had to go to the library over Christmas vacation so that Makayla could get a turn to go.  Unfortunately, we didn't go during story time, but Makayla still had fun checking out books!  She loves the Rainbow Fairies book series and checked out at least 12 or 15 books!  I end up reading these to her many afternoons and evenings and, as much as I enjoy reading to her, I'll be so happy when she can read the books herself!  Hopefully I'm instilling a love of reading into both girls....and hopefully our baby too...he's listened to hours of me reading to the girls!

Every now and then Makayla like me to Google art projects or look on Pinterest for an art project.  Here is one that she spotted and then enjoyed making!  Both girls just love art!

We made some new friends right before Christmas.  I totally clicked with the Mom, Katie, and the girls had a blast playing with her daughter, Ella, and son, Deacon.  Her other son was at school during our playdate.  Katie's children as spaced almost identical to ours, only they are each about a year older.  Her little boy turns 1 in January and ours will be born in January!  Ella is a bit younger than Makayla and her other son is about a year older than Makayla.  Katie and her hubby went to Michigan Tech too and she and I are in the same sorority, although we were not there at the same time.  Her hubby is from my home town and she is from a town about 20 minutes from my home town!  Crazy small world and super fun to make new friends!  As we were leaving, they gave us a few sugar cookies to take home and decorate!  This was awesome since I really didn't do much baking this year!

Lydia's finished cookies!

Yummm...of course, Lydia needed to eat a cookie!

And she had to eat the sprinkles...she about licked her plate clean!

Makayla got pretty frustrated while trying to spread her frosting and ended up throwing a small plastic bowl of sprinkles on the floor...of course they were those stupid little balls that roll all over the place!  After her time out, she spent a while vacuuming up sprinkles!

We visited Santa at the Colonial House in Freedom.  He is sponsored by the Freedom Business Association and we love going because the line has never been very long and he's a very friendly Santa!  The girls even made it on the front page of the Freedom Pursuit Newspaper this year!

The girls had fun making their stained glass jewelry and window ornaments that they got from Ella, Jayden, and Blake for Christmas!  Makayla was very meticulous to follow the coloring pattern that was shown on the packaging of hers.  Chad had to help her get it just right!  Lydia, on the other hand, had a blast making hers a mixture of all the colors in her package!