I completely thought with Neland starting kindergarten I'd have more time to get things done. For some reason I feel like I have less time than ever before (maybe because Neland no longer entertains Teague during the day). We've been enjoying the season and the inside time it brings.
Teague made a Lego giraffe all by himself.
I've noticed these two are getting too big for baths together. I still love hearing them play and will not be ready for the inevitable showers that will replace this time.
Speaking of showers, anytime I hop in the shower after Neland is at school, Teague will play in our bedroom. He'll bring whatever he wants, trains, playmobil, and recently every stuffed animal he owns.
Thanksgiving festivities included a feast at school and cute hats. Neland also had a feast at school, minus the cute hat. Teague is having such a wonderful year in preschool. He has a sweet class, sweet teachers and is so excited every day he goes. I love coming a little before pick up at 1 to spy on him. They sing the cutest songs before heading home.
We made handprint turkeys for his teachers. He "wrote" his name on his turkeys.
Teague loves to help me cook. Neland used to be just like him, but it seems it was a phase. I'm hoping Teague will be my cooking buddy. Even if there's only one last step, he wants to do it. For Thanksgiving, he helped make pie crust, pumpkin pie, our turkey brine and, the cranberries.
On Thanksgiving Day, Neland was very excited to watch the parade and Teague was very excited for our feast. Teague fell asleep on the chair, and only the next day did we realize the poor guy was sick. He spent the weekend with a fever.
Lots of games were played after our feast.
The best family picture we could get.
Neland and Teague made placecards for everyone.
(sorry the pictures are all out of order)
More slightly out of order pictures, the day before Thanksgiving it is a tradition for us to see Santa and pick out a new nutcracker to bring home. Teague told Santa he wanted a remote controlled train and Neland asked for the Playmobil Hotel (he at first wanted a train until I suggested Santa may expect them to share one train instead of bring two)
We continued our tradition of foot/handprint ornaments and this year the boys painted a few decorations as well. I love how the differences in their personalities come out in such slight ways. While painting, Teague was completely focused, every detail was addressed and no amount of screaming from other kids could distract him. Neland was excited to paint and to see everything that was going on. There were multiple reminders to look where he was painting, or to finish certain spots that were left blank.
After ornament painting we picked out our perfect Christmas tree. It is a detail decision that requires running through the trees multiple times.
We realized this year it may be a little more difficult to get the tree into the house. The van is a bit wider and taller than my old car.
The boys loved going through the ornaments. Neland was determined to decorate the tree, and worked so hard putting each one on.
Teague claimed every bird ornament and played with them the entire tree decorating time. And if put a few down while playing with others, and you tried to hang one he wasn't playing with on the tree, he would know and find it and pull it back off. Eventually they all made it on the tree.
Santa visits church before Christmas. On the way to dinner at Church the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" was playing and Teague kept arguing Santa was in town already since we were going to see him. Teague loves to argue. The week before our church had their annual Christmas Crafts night. I don't have pictures because this year I helped run it and Chris had trouble wrangling the boys, but it was a lot of fun and Neland made some really cute crafts. The boys made gingerbread houses, but the next morning told me daddy said they could have them for breakfast. It sounded fishy but I wouldn't put it past Chris, so I gave them some pieces. Later I asked Chris and he said he'd never said that, so the houses went in the trash. I told Chris I wasn't sure which was worse, the fact the kids lied or the fact that I thought he'd actually say they could eat them for breakfast.
We made and decorated cookies the weekend before Christmas.
I think it's pretty obvious which were kid decorated and which were adult decorated. I love the kid theory of the decorations that fit the better. And Teague was determined eat of his cookies have a least one Swedish fish (I was thinking maybe that goes along with a Catholic tradition of fish on Christmas Eve? maybe?)
Dali puts up with sooo much from Teague. I'm not sure if this is exactly how you would check a dog's blood pressure.
She even put up with bandaids on two feet.Although I guess she didn't have too much of a choice.
We tried out rice krispy treat houses this year. I don't think the boys had actually ever had rice krispy treats.
Teague had a PJ morning that involved a trip to the grocery store, snowman pjs, and puppy dog slippers included.
Teague's classmate invited everyone over to decorate cookies, unfortunately the evite app on my phone had a different time zone (sometimes it is off, and sometimes it isn't). It has been six months since the last time it was wrong (I was pretty sure Neland's friend's bday party wasn't from 8:30-11pm), but it was wrong for the party and Teague missed it. I felt terrible. We hopped on the train to meet daddy uptown for hot chocolate and the singing bears instead. Unfortunately the bears weren't singing (they were setting up for an event), but the hot chocolate and train went over well, even if I still felt terrible.
Our fireplace received some attention and for the first time since our first year moving in, we have enjoyed our fireplace. Neland has told me multiple times how much he loves coming home from school with the blinds open, the tree lights on and a fire going. I think it is so sweet how much he appreciates the little things.
This fall we found out we are expecting a baby girl at the end of May. I thought by the third the excitement might die down, but we have been showered with congratulations, flowers, and even maternity clothes for me. It is definitely a reminder of how blessed we are. This envelope made me laugh when I saw it.
I love how kids open mail. Only one card was the victim of envelope ripping. The excitement of Christmas cards was sweet.
Both boys had Christmas parties. Teague's included a Rudolph hat and ridiculously adorable songs.
Nice days in winter require being outside. We decorated the driveway.
I decided this was the perfect age to take Neland to The Nutcracker. He is old enough to be able to sit through it, and young enough that it's not deemed "uncool" for him to go. He was soo excited to arrive at the theater. He wanted to go straight to our seats instead of seeing anything around the theater. I made sure we had seats were he would have a great view - front row of the mezzanine. It was perfect.
At intermission we grabbed a snack and in line he asked if we could come back every year the Saturday before Christmas, just me and him. Then he added, and maybe sometimes daddy too.
In the weeks before the performance we listened to the music, bought a storybook version of the ballet and I picked up this super cute nutcracker tie. This would have been Neland's Christmas outfit as well, however the boys stayed in pjs all day.
Christmas Eve started with the children's service at our church. We've been every year since joining and this year it was Neland's turn to be part of the service. He was chosen to be shepherd #2 and even had a line. He had a few practices before the performance and received his costume early on as well. The day of his Christmas party at school he told me that kids were dressing up and he knew exactly what he was going to wear - his shepherd costume! I love that triumphed Santa. He also became obsessed on knowing what shepherd #2's name was (we finally settled on the fact that God knows him name, but we do not), and any Christmas story we read we had to point out which shepherd was #2.
They had a prayer before the performance - look at my sweet boy!
After the performance there is always birthday cake (which happened to be Teague's wishbone wish), and stable animals.
We stayed until they packed up the animals.
We spent the rest of the day at home.
Neland drew a picture to leave for Santa.
Teague did too.
We read our bedtime stories at about 6pm because Neland could not wait to get to bed.
We sprinkled reindeer food outside.
Left cookies and milk for Santa
And Neland spent the next two and half hours trying to go to sleep. He finally asked, "If I'm still awake when Santa comes and he doesn't leave me a present, can I open my other gifts?" Such a sweet guy. He eventually fell asleep before waking at 5am, and waiting until 7am to go downstairs.
They looked so thrilled waiting for us to get the camera ready.
Neland saw the hotel, looked through his stocking and was ready to open gifts. Teague saw his remote controlled train and wanted nothing else. He even told Neland he could open all his gifts. At 12:30 (after we'd replaced the train batteries once from constant use), we convinced him to open the other gifts.
They opened our presents and presents from those far away before Grandpa, Grandma and Mumsie arrived. Once they arrived, there was an explosion of presents. It was hard for us to fit in the room.
Neland tore through gifts, where as Teague was done after opening three. We all had dinner together before Grandpa, Grandma, and Mumsie headed back home. It was a very relaxing day. The best quote of the day came from Teague, who said, "I was rude and Santa still brought me presents."
We spent the next few days in a toy coma. On Friday, Chris headed out of town and I promised the boys we have hot chocolate and look at Christmas lights.
There is a house super close to us that has dancing lights set to music. Teague LOVED this house. He even asked to go back by after we'd visited a few other neighborhoods. Then the boys asked if we could go out again on Chris returned, so we saw the show one more time. Teague still asks to go see lights, so I promised him next year we will look up the other houses in our area that do the same thing and see a bunch of them!
While I wouldn't describe the weather as warm, we did make it out to a playground. Neland hadn't been to this one in over a year.
Neland also decided he would make a big leaf pile in the backyard so Chris wouldn't have to blow the leaves when he came home. The pile was much bigger than he was (and he did it all by hand). He is the sweetest kid.
Our tree is still up and our stockings are still hung. It just comes and goes so quickly we like to let the season linger around here.
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