A Texas Thanksgiving and gearing up for Christmas!

Right before Thanksgiving we had a visit from Gramsey for Grandparents Day at school.  Clayton was very excited to show her around his Kindergarten classroom.  She also got to attend Clayton's last soccer game of the season and his awards ceremony.  It was a fun filled few days and the kids really enjoyed her visit!

We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving with family and cousins!  The kids had a great time and enjoyed each others company.

Gramsey came to visit!

Clayton's soccer team

Receiving his soccer trophy

Ready for Grandparents Day

Loving on Gramsey before she had to leave!

Cousin time in Texas!

Someone is a little busy!

Cousins!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!

And our friend Clark is back!

And we got our tree...

 Finally getting some help :)

I'm DONE!

Taking a break with the elves

Moving on to salt dough ornaments and gingerbread house!

More pictures to come! Stay tuned!

New Happenings...

Clayton 

- Enjoys building things out of legos

- Really into making robots out of pretty much anything 

- Funny conversation about Santa:

 Me: Clayton what do you want for Christmas?...

 Clayton: Transformers and a web shooter...

 Me: Oh I don't know if Santa knows how to make transformers?!

 Clayton: Yes mommy! He knows how to make everything - even Eve! (Eve is from the movie      Wall-E and he asked for Eve last Christmas and we found out she is "extinct" and he did not get her)

- We went to a Polar Express storytime at PB Kids.  At the end Santa came out and Clayton yelled at me as Santa got closer "That is a FAKE Santa! The REAL Santa has glasses!!"

Sam

- Talking a LOT! He is continuing his speech therapy.  He is talking in full sentences and asking full sentence questions.  

- He is still 3, and I can't wait for 4! :)

- He loves to FaceTime on daddy's phone! Especially calling Nana & Pops!

- Loves to help in the kitchen or setting the table at dinner

- Likes to help vacuum (sometimes we fight over it)

- He wants whatever Clayton has...

- He makes noises when he plays now (sounds of cars, etc)

- Becoming more independent in his play

- Still loving his Montessori school and all his teachers and friends

Happy Holidays!

A little late posting about Thanksgiving. We had a fun visit with Pops and Gigi. We had dinner down on the Plaza at the Intercontinental then watched the lighting and fireworks from the rooftop. The kids had a ball! After Thanksgiving, we attended the Advent Workshop at church where the kids got to work on lots of arts, of course the favorite "art" was the decorating cookies table :) No surprise there.
We are all decorated for Christmas. We even did outdoor lights this year - yay! Check out our pictures from the last few weeks. We will have some more after Christmas of course!

"Dr Connors"


Why is this so fun? :)


Gobble Gobble


Mmmm oatmeal!


Sam with his most favorite toy ever - Cariboo!


In the band with Pops. The painted container is his "drum" and he used his belt as a noisemaker...


What's for dinner?


Clayton with his friend Ellen from preschool (we saw them at the Plaza lighting event)


Clayton with Gigi


Hey Sam - if you smile I will give you a cookie! :)


Sam and Gigi


Time for Christmas!


Advent workshop...


"Advent wreath"


Decorating the tree


Don't forget the candy canes!




Ta-da!




Putting up the nativity


Making salt dough ornaments


Our new friend "Clark" has been playing with our toys while we aren't looking!






This is what happens when you give a 2 year old hot cocoa & a stir stick!


I got to spend the day with Clayton's preschool, he always looks forward to having me come and showing off his things...


Working on a card


Clayton's "self portrait"






His preschool class presented the "Christmas story" and Clayton played a wiseman




Check the video below...


Making our gingerbread house


Ready to be assembled


Finally assembled and ready to be decorated!

I only got this photo of the actual decorating process. After this we got carried away with decorating, I did the “glue” and Clayton placed the candies.

Ta-da!






Clark was checking things out when we got up the next morning

Charlie Brown's house - and Snoopy and his house


Spiderman and a tornado


"At the zoo"


Merry Christmas!

New & Funny Happenings...

CLAYTON
- A few things from the parent/teacher conferences at school.... I always think they are going to tell me at least 1 negative thing, but I guess they figure we know all those already :) Here are a few things, the report was quite long citing lots of examples...
* Very self directed
* Very independent, and relates well to both adults and his peers
* Many friends in the classroom and shows awareness of the interests of others
and encouragement and positive reinforcement come naturally to him
* Demonstrates a knowledge of print concepts and has an extensive vocabulary.
- He loves to "read" to us. Here is a video of him reading Daddy his Spiderman book
- He really likes babies. We went over to see a friend who had a new grandbaby and he entertained the 6 month old baby the entire time
- Here is a great video of his preschool class presenting the story of Christmas

SAM
- He loves music
- He is so lovable and affectionate. When we tell him "I love you" he gives a big kiss
- He likes a song called "Hop like a bunny" that we have on one of our children cd's in the car. Everytime we are putting him into the car he will say "Hop!?" letting us know he wants to hear his song
- He really warmed up quickly to Gigi when she got here, and wanted to be in her lap playing with the remote control most of the time :)
- He likes getting into things and when caught off guard (Hey Sam what are you doing?) his only response is "NO! MIIIINE!"
- He is obsessed with a game called Cariboo - a $2 garage sale find that entertains him endlessly. It has a key that you can use to open compartments and find a ball inside
- He can get up and down from the changing table by himself. He likes to get up there and play with the lightswitch