Spanish Class fiesta

Jonas took a Spanish class for 10 weeks and they had a fiesta yesterday for the last class. Here is an amazing video of Jonas hitting the piñata. He is ready for baseball!

More Christmas activities

We are driving to the airport in just 30 minutes to fly to Opa and Oma's house for 2 weeks. But I wanted to download these photos before we left.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of acitivites!

Lookout Mountain Nature Center hosted another Christmas craft day for the kids to come and make gifts. Here we are putting together a Bear gift bag. Jonas, Asher, and Silas.

Candymakers! These chocolate truffles were to die for. Found the recipe on Pinterest called Peppermint Chocolate Truffles.

Off to Grandmom/Grandad's house for a Christmas day with them. What a blast! Nancy showered us with multiple gifts!

What an adorable photo!

We baked a Jesus birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to Him! I love hearing the boys say His name, "JESUS". So precious!

Before we left, Grandmom sat with Silas to read 'Snowmen at Christmas'. What a silly story!

After 5 days of having stitches in Silas' lip, Dr. Tom Sweeney helped us snip off the stitches in the church parking lot. LOL!

Zoo lights! What an experience! The elaborate and brightness of the whole zoo was breathtaking. The kids had a ton of fun. There were 6 families together but it was sure hard to stay together.

Icy sculptures

I am a tiger, hear me roar!

Haley and Jonas staying warm because they both refused to wear a jacket. What silly kids! I asked Jonas what his favorite part of the zoo lights and he replied, "riding in the wagon with Haley looking at the lights." He likes his special friends.

Happy Birthday Jesus! And Merry Christmas to you all!

Jingle Bell mandolin

Matt pulled out a mandolin that his mother gave him awhile back. Perfect size for Jonas to play on.

Featuring Bluegrass Jingle Bells by Jonas Helton

Silas and stitches

Seize the day! ~Silas

I think Silas enjoys life to the fullest! No matter what happens. A few days ago Silas received 2 stitches in his lower lip. What happened? Well, I took him to the hospital right away and here is Jonas story to the doctor. "Actually, Silas was standing on one foot on our wooden chair to climb into the crib. The chair broke and he hit the chair. When daddy got home, we fixed the chair, it should be super good now." The doctor asked how old Jonas is and said what an amazing, articulate little boy.

While Silas was getting shots to numb up his face and then get stitches, Jonas stood by my side watching Silas saying,"are you ok, Si?"It was a tough day! Especially when he needed his tetanus shot up to date as well. He did not like that. He kept saying,"no more". Poor guy!

By the time we got home, Silas acted like nothing happened. We decided to go out Christmas caroling to our friends in the neighborhood and pass out cookies. Back at the homestead, we practiced singing a new song...Little Drummer Boy! Silas is my little drummer boy!

Sledding, charades, and more

Our Advent calendar activities continue with enthusiasm! Every morning Jonas and Silas search for Tommy, the elf, eat their chocolate, place a new part of the nativity scene, hear another verse in the story of Jesus, and detach another ring from the chain link to see what the activity of the day is.

Acting like little reindeer

Off to the sledding hill with friends one afternoon. Jonas, Cohen, and Isabella.

Yipee!

Warmed up with hot apple cider and pumpkin cookies.

Making more crafts.

Making snow! Silas sat here for over 30 mins cutting little shavings of paper. I have never taught him to hold the scissors but somehow he learned and is amazing at it.

Acting out movements...e.g...'spread your branches like a Christmas tree', 'twirl like a candy cane', 'sneak like an elf', 'fly like an angel', and much more. They loved this game of charades. We played it 3 nights in a row.

Bible Study Fellowship surprise performance by the kids.

Baked a huge gingerbread boy, decorated it, and read the story of the gingerbread man.

I would hide the cookie and the boys would have to go find it over and over again. What a fun activity!

Evening with dad! Walked the neighborhood streets to see Christmas lights and made snow angels! They are my precious angels!

Deer hunting

While we stayed home in our warm abode for the weekend, Matt went deer hunting by himself. By now, it's been getting into the teen's at night. But he insisted to camp.

Here is his tent set up and he said,"I was super warm all night."

Less than 24 hours, he shot a deer.

Back home that night(yay!) and the boys wanted to see it the next day. Jonas remembers last year when Matt came home with an elk. He wanted to go again to the butcher. He had lots of questions and said,"I want to watch them cut up the deer." But then he saw the body hanging and said to Matt,"The blood is a little gross." Jonas has decided to go hunting with dad when he is 4 years old. He really wants to go! Maybe bird hunting.

(Sorry for anyone that's offended by these pictures, but I just had to post them for our boys in the future.)

December 3

Continuing the countdown.

Woke up to Tommy reading a book that Jonas has been searching for awhile now. I accidentally came upon it and was excited to have fun with it.

Our activity of the advent calendar, Gingerbread Village making with Aunt Mo. Yes...another tradition since Jonas has been born. This time she brought over a village instead of a house or train. Something new every year.

Silas proud of his 1 house! Lots of licking of the fingers while decorating.

The builders!

Off to Lowe's for a Build and Grow clinic. The project was a caboose. Next Saturday is the coal car and then the next weekend is the train engine. But we remembered that Jonas built the engine last year during this Christmas season. We had to go home and find it! He was so amazed that he built a train when he was 2 years old..."like Silas."

Here is Silas hammering away...loves to pound!

Finished project and you see Jonas using sound effects. Love having my boys!

The night before it snowed 5 inches, so I put Silas down for a nap and Jonas and I worked hard shoveling the driveway before dad came home from hunting. Jonas worked so diligently for 2 HOURS! The best thing for him was to break up the ice with large cutters. So responsible and careful little guy!

Went back inside and made peanut butter reindeer cookies.

And enjoyed a mug of milk with them.

Merry Christmas! Hope you all are enjoying this season as much as we are!

December 2

December 2nd was our Candlelight Walk in Golden. It was frigid and the boys refused to wear warm boots. Oh well!

They shut down the main street,

we lined up with our friends, Cohen and his family,

took a gander at Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus(Jonas was afraid and Silas walked right up to them),

took a picture and walked behind them singing Christmas carols by candlelight. It was amazing!

The end of the street, they had hot apple cider and cookies.

As well as Santa's reindeers watched by his elves.

Our scripture reading was about the angel appearing to Mary. I asked who came to Mary? And Jonas immediately answered 'Gabriel'. I was just looking for 'an angel' answer. WOW:)

Starting of the Advent

December 1st, we decided to begin another tradition in our home. The Advent Calendar to celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas.

We made a 25 chain link, in which we open one link each day. We have included a Bible verse that reveals a portion of the story, the Nativity of Jesus and an activity of the day.

Here is another advent calendar(from Oma) that the boys enjoy. And another advent calendar(from Grandmom) with a morsel of chocolate that they indulge in every day. Thanks grandmas!

Elf on the Shelf

It's a hide and seek activity everyday for the boys to find the elf. They have named him 'Tommy', a scout elf who magical flies to Santa each night to tell him if the boys have been naughty or nice. So far the boys have been lured into the little idea.

Breakfast was pumpkin snowmen.