It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Christmas will be here before we know it and it's pretty exciting stuff for Avery this year! She is totally into it all; the lights, tree, stockings, music, etc.

We spent Thanksgiving morning setting up our tree(s) and then decorated it tonight after dinner! It was so fun explaining some of the ornaments to Avery, she would hug or smooch some of the ones that were hers. We also had a little tree that has always sat in the bottom of the box and never been set up (my old tree from college). Avery spotted it and suggested it go in her room. And since we don't do anything with it anyway - and she had the room, we said sure! "This Christmas tree is for me and my babies mom" she tells me! 

Avery with some of her new ornaments this year, Doc McStuffins from Grandma Becky, an owl from Great Grandma Pat, and a Gymnast from Mommy & Daddy! 

We hung our stockings, decorated our tree, and put out all of our Christmas decorations!  There is just something magical about the spirit of Christmas! 

Avery's tree in her room, and our Countdown to Christmas magnetic tree.

Our Elf on the Self came back this year, Avery was very VERY sad at first that she couldn't play with her. She spent a whole morning crying about not being able to hug or smooch our elf and not being able to play Memory with her was also a huge disappointment! I began thinking this whole Elf thing was more torture than it was fun... but after calling Shanon and asking her about their Elf she was sure that I wasn't lying to her and we really COULD NOT touch it (thank you Shanon). Avery thought and thought about what we should name our elf; last year she was just Elf because that's all Avery could say, but this year she was going to get her real name! Avery woke up after her nap and had the perfect name for our Elf - Chicken Pot Pie! 

Yes, that's right, she wanted to name our Elf Chicken Pot Pie... We settled on the next best thing, Abbie. She got that idea from we Sesame Street books! 

Welcome to the family Abbie!! :)

Brandon was determined to put lights on the house, as always, but this year it snowed so soon and the whole roof was icy. It didn't stop him, but I was a wreck just watching him slip and slide on the peeks of the roof! Its not as many as usual, but they look great! 

I was on top of my game and had all of my Christmas cards ready before Thankagiving and as of tonight all have stamps and are ready to be in the mailbox! Here are the cards:

Happy Thanksgiving!

In preparation for Thanksgiving we have been counting down the days on our turkey, plucking a feather off each day!

We have been reading a lot of Thanksgiving books: 

We spend Monday morning talking about what we were thankful for and then made thankful turkeys! They turned out really cute! 

In our sensory table this week, I have feathers and tweezers for fine motor building. I also have some numbered turkey bodies for the girls to do some one-to-one matching. 

We have had fun painting handprint and footprint turkeys and doing other fun turkey crafts! 

We made pumpkin pie play-doh, which turned out awesome! I will definitely be using this recipe again! This is the best play-doh I have ever made, and I have made a lot of play-doh! It was soft, not a bit sticky and didn't crumble! When we were done playing, I didn't have a mess to clean up anywhere (AMAZING)!

Here is the recipe: 

We also baked a pumpkin pie for Kinsley and Emma to bring to their Thanksgiving dinner. Avery and I made one at home on Thanksgiving morning to bring with us over to Tom & Ellen's house! 

Let the Hustle & Bustle of the Holidays Begin...

The crazy busy holidays are here and our weekends are jam packed from here on out until after the new year! Last weekend kicked it off! Here is what we were so busy with... 

Grandma Vicki's Birthday:

We went to Dave & Busters for dinner and games to celebrate Vicki's birthday! Everyone had a great time! Avery was a little overwhelmed by all of the stimulation from the noise and lights, but she sure had fun collecting everyone's tickets! 

At the end of the night we piled out tickets together (all 10,000 of them) and got Avery two Nerf Guns! There was nothing else even remotely reasonable for 10,000 tickets! And although she is quite small for these toys now, we did have fun shooting at Daddy when we got home! :) 

Avery's First Day of Sunday School & Operation Christmas Child:

We participated in Operation Christmas Child again this year through church. We made one box on our own and then Avery made two boxes at Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Dave's house when we went per there for dinner last week. Avery packed all kinds of things in each box and helped tape the labels on! Then on Sunday, we brought them to church to be delivered to 3 kids on the other side of the globe! 

While we were downstairs dropping off our boxes, Avery saw tons of kids going I Sunday School. She was asking "mom what these kids all doing?" I told her they were going to Sunday School and she asked "can I try dat?" So, we signed her up as a visitor and sent her in the two year old class with Mrs. Sonya (Mrs. O.). She was off in a half a second and never looked back, so Brandon and I went up to church and were able to enjoy the sermon without spending the whole hour scrambling for books, crayons and snacks trying to occupy a toddler the whole time! She had so much fun, when I went to get her she told me "I'm not ready yet, I'm playing with my friend Barritt" 

Looks like she is ready to start Sunday School I guess?!? 

Gymnastics: 

Avery had a gymnastics make up session in Saturday and she had lots of spectators! Grandma Vicki, Grandpa Dave, Granmda Judy and Great Grandma Johnson (GG) all came to watch! After gymnastics we went to breakfast with Grandma Judy and GG! We had a great morning!! 

Here are a few other gymnastics pictures from this past Monday:

(Bat swing) 

(Avi & Avery)