25 Days of Christmas: Day 20

Tonight is our "Christmas Eve".  We will be spending Christmas at my parents so we will be doing our little Christmas tomorrow.  Tonight we made pizza and had popcorn and watched Elf.  The boys always get excited when it's movie time.

25 Days of Christmas: Days 17, 18, 19

Day 17:  We made gift tags for our family presents.  We cut gingerbread men out of sandpaper and then rubbed a cinnamon stick over them to make them smell yummy!

 

Day 18:  We wrapped some gifts.

 



Day 19: We left a little something for our mail carrier.

 

While we were on our way to the mailbox our garbage man came to get our trash.  Teagan was so cute smiling and waving at him.  Teagan also noticed that the garbage truck was playing Christmas music.  When the garbage man was leaving he waved and smiled at Teagan...I'm pretty sure that made T's day!

25 Days of Christmas: Days 14, 15, and 16

Day 14:  We went and watched Polar Express at our church.  The church provides popcorn and hot chocolate and do some interactive things during the movie.  They also have a couple of guys dress up as the conductor and punch our tickets as we walk in. 

 

 

Day 15: We delievered our Christmas goodies to some friends.

 

 

Day 16:  We put together a Christmas puzzle.

 





25 Days of Christmas: Days 11, 12, 13

Day 11:  Today we picked out some toys to donate.  I was amazed at how well Teagan got what we were doing.  He really thought about what he wanted to give up and kept asking when we were going to give it to the "other boy."  I wasn't sure exactly who to give the toys to so I put it out on Facebook that I was looking for somewhere to take them.  A former co-worker let me know that someone that works with Child Protective Services was looking for some gently used toys.  I was able to catch up with my former co-worker and she was able to take the toys where they needed to go!

Day 12:  Cookie Cutter painting was on the agenda today.  I didn't get any pictures of them doing it because we were having to much fun and I forgot!

Day 13:  We made Christmas Cookies!

 

Can you guess what kind we are making?

 

For those of you who knew my Mamaw Reedy...it's the only Christmas Cookie there is!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 9, 10

Day 9:  Teagan and I did a little shopping today.  We picked an Angel Tree kid at our church last weekend and today we went to buy the present.  Our Angel Tree child is a two year old little boy who wanted cars and trucks.  This is what Teagan picked out...

 

Day 10: Our local library has a tree set up to collect mittens and hats for those who need them this Christmas, so on our weekly trip to the library we took a couple of hats and a couple of pair of mittens to donate.  Teagan picked them out himself on our shopping trip yesterday.

 



25 Days of Christmas: Day 8

Today Teagan delivered his cards and presents to his friends.  He was so proud of what he made and excited to give them to his special friends.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 5, 6, 7

On Day 5 Ryan and I did a lot of Christmas shopping!  I had an eye appointment in the morning and then we spent the rest of the day shopping.  We haven't done that, just the two of us, in a long time.  It's amazing how fast you can get in and out of stores without the kids!

On Day 6 the boys decorated their little trees for their rooms.

 

 

On Day 7 they made some presents for some special people.  Here's some pictures of them making them, but you'll have to wait for another post to see what they made!

 



25 Days of Christmas: Day 4

We trimmed our tree tonight.  Both boys got into it, but it was so cute to see Eli take it very seriously.  He wanted very much to help out and he didn't really have any trouble putting the ornaments on the tree.

 

This happened a lot on the bottome of our tree!

 

After we finished decorating, the boys watched Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

25 Days of Christmas: Days 1, 2, 3

Day 1
Tonight we went to Ryan's work Children's Christmas Party.  It's held at the YMCA and most of the amenities are open for us to use.  They also have some cookies and juice and you can see Santa if you so choose.  We spent most of our time in the indoor playground or on the track.  That is always Teagan's favorite spot!  He loves to run.
After the party we drove through one of the parks in Rockford that has a huge light display sponsored by local businesses.

Day 2
Today was tree picking and saying hi to Santa day!  It was THE warmest day I have ever picked a Christmas tree.  It was so nice to not have to bundle up a 19 month old!

 

The boys loved running around in the tree's and playing with sticks they found.  They used them as "saws" to cut down trees.

After picking our tree we went to see Santa and surpriseingly this year neither one of them had a problem with talking with him.

 

 

We happen to know Santa so that might have helped too!  After that we enjoyed the animals and finished out the day.

Day 3
We put together our Christmas cards today.  I did our families and Teagan did his own.  I'm pretty excited for him to get to give his out!





Thankfulness

As some of you may know I have been doing "school" with Teagan this school year.  We call it Mommy School. We have a theme each week and with Thanksgiving being in November the whole month was kind of dedicated to Thankfulness and being thankful.  Not just for the "normal" things but the little everyday things too.  To help Teagan get in the habit of being Thankful daily we created a Thankfulness chain.

 

Here is what Teagan was thankful for this month (in his own words):

"my house"

"my family"

"Eli"

"that I get to go to school"

"for Mommy"

"my Daddy"

"Lego's"

"paper to color on"

"Thanksgiving"

"Teagan"

"I get to watch shows"

"my bed"

"my toys"

"Christmas"

"my semi trucks"

"for animals"

 

Disclaimer:  I did not prompt him with any of these.  They are all his own thoughts.

 

I love how his little mind works, don't you?

 

To practice writing I wrote each thing with a highlighter and then he copied it.



A Year of Dates: November

Yes, I know I skipped a month.  We went on a family vaction to Florida in October, so with that and the rest of the month being so busy we had to skipped the date night.

For our November date we went to dinner at Bamboo, it's an Asian resturant in downtown Rockford.  I just love the atmosphere and the food is great!

After that we went to a Rockford Icehogs game.  I don't totally understand hockey but I like to go and watch it.

 

The Ice Hogs are in the colored jersy's.  It was fiesta night so they were giving out free marachas, Dora the Explorer was there and they had a Mariachi band to play in between periods.

 

 

The Ice Hogs won 2 to 1.



 

At 18 months you...

* can climb up on almost anything
* are saying many words
* "sing" along with most songs you hear
* are a dancing machine
* love Batman, fishies, doggies, and shoes
* want to be anywhere your brother is even if he is bugging you
* like to color and do stickers

A Year of Date: September

In September we went to an Antique Flea Market called Pec Thing.  It's at a near by county fair ground and it happens twice a year.  I like old things and I like to figure out how to repurpose old things so this was my playground!

 

 

 

 

Here is our loot for the day.

 



 

The two frames I'm going to repurpose (more on that later).  The bushel basket will either be used for decoration or for some sort of storage.  The little stool I plan on putting in our basement bathroom (when it get's done) for guests to put their clothes on when they go to shower.  I can't wait until the next one in May!

A Big Boy Bike

For Teagan's third birthday we got him a big boy bike.  He was very excited about it at first but it took him until the end of  summer for him to really want to try and ride.  When he actually wanted to try it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So proud of my big boy!





A Year of Dates: August

August was Ryan's turn to plan a date so we went to a place called Volcano Falls Adventure Park. There is a variety of things to do there...putt putt, laser tag, go-karts, batting cages, and arcade, but we decided just to play a round of putt putt.







The course is set up around a "volcano" so it's not just a boring flat course.  One time before Ryan and I were married I came here for my birthday with a bunch of family and friends.  This next picture is for my sister (she'll understand why!). 

 

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It was a lot of fun to just get out and have a little competitive fun.  The score was pretty close the whole time but in the end Ryan won.