This and That

Heath is officially on his way back from Taiwan. I couldn't be more excited! It was one of those weeks where the days flew by, but the week seemed so long! I was thinking back to what we did on Friday and it seems like forever ago!  I have a bunch of random stuff to share from the week, and I thought I'd throw it all into one big post! Hopefully the next post you see is one from Heath! He said he had a bunch of pictures, so I told him he should work on writing something up on the plane and I would post it on the blog.

::Here is our Advent calendar! I had pinned some hand made ideas on Pinterest, but then I spotted this one at a Christmas store near us. I wanted one that I could include activities rather than just candy or moving a magnet around a board (we have one of those too). So, on December 1st, Bubba showed up next to this:

Each day has candy and a piece of paper with something Christmas-y to do each day. So far it hasn't been anything too exciting since Heath has been out of town. Lots of Christmas movies, hot chocolate, baking cookies, etc. Our 1st one was fun though...we made Snowmen Pizzas! The kids thought it was pretty fun!

::I haven't been good about posting pictures of the Elf like I had planned to...I'm hoping to be more creative with him next year. This year the kids are just thrilled to find him each morning. I've got a Pinterest board going with ideas for next year! Here are a couple shots that I did remember to take last week! He was sliding down the railing! Brody thought that was pretty funny!

And here he is taking credit for the presents I wrapped!

::Last Saturday it was rainy and cold outside, so we spent a lot of time indoors. I tried to get some good pictures of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, but only Brody was cooperative! I have a few weeks left to try with Madelyn!

The best one I got was a close up of the food in her mouth!

I tried again later, and this is what I got.

::We set up our train on Saturday night! The kids really like it, but they have a hard time keeping it on the track. It is so loud. Someday we'll invest in one that is a little less obnoxious!

::We went to the dollar store one night to get stuff to decorate our Candy Cottage, but I was pretty disappointed in their selection. We picked up some Christmas watercolor things for the kids to do one night. It kept them busy so I could get the dishes done, which made me happy!

That's about it for the pictures I managed to take! We have a busy weekend ahead! Tomorrow we have swimming lessons, haircut, bell ringing and Christmas with the Mallicoat cousins! Then on Sunday I'm hoping Heath will be up for dinner at the Plaza so we can go see the lights! I'd be happy with Winstead's if that's all we do! Last year we drove down there to see the lights and Brody fell asleep on the way! I want to go early enough that it doesn't happen this year!

::Madelyn has never had a fear of the water. She is an animal in the bathtub. I am so anxious to get her into swimming lessons when she turns 2 in February. One night this week, I was trying to get her out and get her wrapped in her towel and she dove out of my arms, head first into the tub...TWICE! She is so lucky she didn't hit her head or her face on the tub. She's a wild one!

::We had our first snow this week! It wasn't much, but it was enough to cause a lot of accidents and slow traffic in the morning. It took me 30 minutes to get to the babysitters. Usually I can make it to her house and then back to work in 25!

::On Monday night I couldn't find a binky, so I put Madelyn down without it. She was not going to have it. After an hour of trying to get her to fall asleep on her own, I dug a little deeper under our bed and found one. She is not ready to give that thing up at bedtime!

I think that's all I have to share. Brody made it through the week with only 1 red body (a way to keep him in line at school) this week! I was worried that we would have a lot with daddy being gone, but they adapted well! He also asked a friend if he could give them a hug. Big step for him! He has been struggling with hugging friends that don't appreciate hugs as much as him. We've been working on making sure the friend wants a hug before we give it.

Happy weekend!