Salt Dough Ornaments

We needed some crosses for our Easter tree so we made some from salt dough (water, flour, salt). The kids loved mixing if, forming them with cookie cutters, and decorating them with glitter paints.

Our Valentine Party

This year we planned and hosted a Valentine Party for a few of the kids' friends.  It was on February 13, and both kids helped plan the party.  They helped choose the food (Capri Suns, cocoa banana muffins) and made the decorations.  

Most of the time was spent eating and playing with toys in the living room.  The  boys ate so many muffins!  EK was happy to have so many people at home to play with, and both children liked that two babies were in attendance.  We planned an art project, but only my kids spent much time making the V day cards.

It was a pleasant time, and I think that it was a good last party to have in our house!

Valentine Balloons

We had a little valentine play date today, and Dan brought out a gift for the kids a day early- a heart balloon. This is Daniel's fourth consecutive heart balloon and it was a hit this year, too. He wanted to run with it, bop it, and see if it could lift objects and fly them.

We also had balloons out for our party to play with. Daniel tried all weekend to blow them up, with minor success. He bathed with a balloon one night and used one inside his pjs as a new baby belly poof (his term) another night. Today the boys wanted to draw faces on the balloon. Daniel wanted happy, but the other sillies wanted sad, so we made ones with two faces. Daniel loved it.

Singing Christmas Carols

Daniel has really enjoyed singing Christmas songs during the last six weeks that we've listened exclusively to Christmas CDs and the holiday radio stations.

Some of his favorites have become O Holy Night! He's learned most of the first verse, but when he was just learning it, he'd sing "O hooooooooooooooooooly niiiiiiiight. Oooooooooo hoooly niiiiiight" in a very high pitched voice, over and over.  We had him sing this carol over the phone to his grandparents, and it basically knocked their socks off in the cuteness factor.  As the season went on, he learned more of the words and sang, "O Holy night! The stars a brightly shiiiiiiiiiiining, a night of a dear say-ers birth."

He started the season out recognizing several songs the second time he heard them, including Feliz Navidad, Rudolph, Little Drummer Boy.  He sang, "Feliz nami da, feliz nami da, wish you a merry christmas!" and "Daddy the nose nose reindeer had a shiny nose!" and "Rum pa rum rum!".

Around he week of Christmas, I noticed he was singing most of the lyrics to Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rockin Around the Christmas Tree, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

He sang, "Frosty the Fo man was a foooooooooman!" often, and another favorite was "Go Tell Upon a Mountain Jesus Christ is born!"

Daniel's singing was a major highlight to our Christmas season!

Adorable Christmas Faces.

New Nativity Set.

On December 1st, we gave the kids a Christmas gift.  Daniel AND Elsa helped unwrap, but Daniel was more excited about the gift.  He instantly told us who each person was, but was really drawn to the small wagon and hooked it up to the donkey, cow, camel, and sheep.  

I hope he gets a lot of enjoyment from this special Christmas manger scene toy and it helps to bring the Bible and our Faith to life for him.

Helping Do Christmas Decorations, December 1 2011

Daniel loved getting to help his dad dress up our house for Christmas.  In these photos you'll see him hug the Holy Family, jab a candy cane into the ground, inspect a Christmas tree, and climb a ladder to the roof, all of which happened in about a 5 minute span of time.