December: New Traditions

I saw online a tradition a friend was starting and loved it! 

December 1st you bring out the manger and talk about how Jesus did good works and service throughout his life. Throughout the month of December as we strive to be like him and do service or nice things to others, we will add a piece of "straw" to the manger. By Christmas morning, the day Jesus was born, we'll be able to look at the manger filled of straw, talk about some different things we did to put it in there and then lay a baby in the manger. The more straw we get in the manger the softer the cradle will be for baby Jesus. 

I couldn't wait for December first. haha. We did it the saturday after thanksgiving. I had also made the whole family pajama pants! Me and Brynlie had the same ones and Wyatt and Brock had the same ones. It was SO cute watching their faces open the gifts and seeing that we would be matching them. I also got them a "find it" christmas book. Brynlie was IN LOVE with this book. She has every single item memorized in the first 2 days. It was crazy! 

So our new Brock and Emily Gibbons family traditions: the manger, matching pjs for the girls and boys, and a book. All to be opened the beginning of December to help start the Christmas spirit.

November

November was pretty chill. It was hard staying inside all the time with the cold weather. I completely forgot what it was like for the kids to be stuck inside all day, making constant messes and being bored. We survived though! :)

We received another box of clothes and shoes from the Thorne's for Brynlie. Wyatt even got some stuff this time, which he was SO excited about. They both got some water boots that they loved! 

My mom and I made a quilt for a scout auction. I loved it! I was hoping to have a girl so I could get it, but my mom didn't even win the auction on it. So thats ok.

We said goodbye to our BY FAR favorite toy, the tramp. Jason and Karyn hadn't gotten around to coming and getting it all summer. So the kids fell in love with it and got attached. When jason showed up to take it home in November, wyatt and brynlie were both out there jumping on it. It was a sad sad day! (wyatt actually started crying even though he knew it was theirs)

We did a lot of preschool/learning activities, playing, building and making messes in november!

I started teaching wyatt the sounds each letter makes and was shocked to see how many he already knew! This child is a visual learning. He remembers everything he hears, but school wise and letter wise, I'm pretty sure he's visual. 

For family night one night we went ding dong ditching to our gibbons side families. It was NOT a success. The kids colored turkeys and we wrote "We are thankful for your family" on the paper. We got caught at ALL 3 stops. haha. Kids had fun though.

We had some frost on the ground that looked like snow and the kids were so excited to go play in the "snow." Brynlie made it all the way around the house once before she was crying because she was so cold. haha. It took about 15 minutes to get them all ready to go outside, and they were out there for 2-5 minutes total. Story of my life. Kids are hard sometimes!

I made this cute thanksgiving plate with my silhouette. I LOVE my machine so much!

Brock made me this manger for Christmas. I am SO in love with it. I'll explain it in my december posts. (it's on this post because he made it in november)

We were at Gibbons all day for Thanksgiving this year. Like usual, Joni did a great big gorgeous meal. I was in charge of the mash potatoes and did a HUGE pot. I hardly have any pictures from when we go to Gibbons because I usually don't bring my phone. We hung out all afternoon and played some telestration to (our favorite game). We went to my moms a couple days later and she had saved the legs from their turkey. The kids thought it was fun. 

Sibling Pictures

For my birthday I really wanted a nice camera. I had to convince brock I would actually use it a lot, so I went and borrowed Karyn's to snap some pictures of the kids. We used these for our Christmas card because I was NOT about to be in a family picture looking so huge. (and it was a lot more work trying to get the whole family organized to do it)

I think they turned out just fine. Love these 2 little ones! To keep them excited about it I promised hot chocolate at the end. (I put marshmallows in their cups to keep them happy too!)

I need to get an editing program. These were just slightly edited by the one that's on my computer. 

October

The summer came to and end and it was pretty sad. We had so much fun enjoying cousins and playing outside. Jande and Karyn and I started in september swapping kids for "town day." It worked great! We would rotate who would watch the kids and we'd be in town normally 9-3. So nice getting stuff done!

Wyatt filled his fuzzy jar for good behavior, so we went to fujiamas and bowling. It was a great family night. Brynlie was pretty scared of the fire on the grill at fujiamas. 

I don't know what changed, but it seems like every time I go grocery shopping, we need EVERYTHING! The bill went from about $70 at walmart, to about $130. I am working on keeping our food budget down and I just can't seem to do it! I do know a difference is I used to go weekly to the store, not it's pretty random. Anywhere from 7-10 days between shopping trips.

September-October meant HARVEST. Which also means no daddy. One particular time Brock had gone to California for 4 days, came home to busy harvest here, problems in Quicy, Hermiston, and else where. So he called one day around 2:00 and said he was heading around taking parts and said we could go with him. YAY! We staying in the truck almost the whole time driving til 8:00 that night. But just being with him and was good for me. I think the kids liked it, but I really needed it. They did get to ride on the digger in Quincy with a farmer and they liked that.

We filled our no daddy time with trips to the park, crafts, sewing, and LOTS of messes! I started feeling better about this point, which thank goodness since brock was gone a lot. The house and toys just seemed to be left everywhere and I got used to a constant mess. Oh well, we survived.

Wyatt's preschool went to the Country Mercantile for a field trip. Kids loved it. Brock's office is in King City so he ran here real quick, stay for 5 minutes and had to leave. 

I pretty much dislike september and october. Brock had been gone so much with harvest and then harvest slows and hunting begins! He was gone for the 2nd year in a row on halloween for hunting. (we won't even mention it's my birthday!) But we still had a fun time trick or treating. We went around here to just a few houses, then went to CBW for their trunk or treat. Brynlie caught on real quick when she saw people were giving her candy. That girl LOVES her candy! They had a carnival and chile feed at the church the week before which was fun for the kids. This year Wyatt begged to be Batman. He wanted a mask and cape. So I showed him some pictures online and he wanted me to make it. Of course brynlie has to be just like him, so she was bat women. It turned out great.