Christmas Program

Last night was our church's Christmas program and Jacob was in it for the first time. For the past month or so we have been practicing the music and 'commotions' as Jacob calls them. The boys both loved learning the songs and Isaac was nearly as good at the motions as Jacob was!

Jacob did such a good job doing the motions and even some of the singing. I was afraid that he would get up on stage, see all the people and freeze. Nope! He actually seemed to enjoy performing.
Like a good mother I took a ton of pictures and we recorded it too.

The boys were so excited to put on their new outfits and go to church so we left a little early and decided to try to get a picture of them in front of the big, pretty Christmas tree in the foyer. Ha HA!


My handsome boy all ready to start singing


Doing the 'commotions'


I love how they all clapped for themselves! It was SO cute!!


During a couple songs there were 'glory' choruses where they were supposed to wave their arms in the air. Jacob did that great at home, but once on stage he kept his arms much lower and he looked like he was doing a Frankenstein dance!

His favorite was the part where they sang, 'Tippy toe, here we go. We are the shepherds.' Here he is doing his 'tippy toe'


More Frankendancing

My dad sang in an octet for the program and they did a very nice job. Jacob thought it was pretty neat that Boppa sang in the program too!

Advent

I am loving doing the Advent calendar with the boys! I feel like Jacob especially is really getting Christmas this year. I am keeping it Bible-based so all the little gifts they get relate in some way to the true meaning of Christmas. We do stockings too so I figure that is when they can get the other little treats and gifts.

Here is the half-finished Advent calendar. And here is my busy mom confession: I'm not going to finish all 25 mittens this year. I did 11 or 12 and I'll just re-fill those as we go and do the rest of the mittens before next Christmas. I just have other projects I want need to work on.

The first night the boys got Nativity stickers and had a lot of fun using them. Jacob did a really nice job of putting the characters (mostly) where they belong. We hung it on the fridge and he is so proud of it!

Isaac preferred to put them on his face!

We read the Christmas story and afterward Isaac wanted to keep reading the 'Bible book'.

One of the nights they got Mary from the Nativity set. Isaac loves her!
The next day we were playing outdoors and I heard him go inside. He ran back out with Mary and played with her in the sandbox, then put her on the lawnmower and gave her a ride.

Then he gave her a ride on his bike too. He is just so cute! He calls Joseph 'Jofess'. He knows he is saying it wrong because when I ask him to say it he goes, 'Heeheehee Jofess' with a mischievous little grin on his face.

We've also been talking about the meaning of candy canes, especially because this is Isaac's favorite book. He's brought it to the grocery store, Target, Baby Boot Camp. He just loves it!

Jacob talks about the candy cane all the time. He says it is shaped like a staff. I ask him what letter it is shaped like and he says, 'J. J is for Jacob and also for the Baby Jesus.'

Christmas cookie party

On Tuesday we had a Baby Boot Camp Christmas cookie decorating party/potluck. The boys had SO much fun!!

It looks like Jacob may be contemplating throwing that football at the snowman

Isaac latched on to this Thomas the Train ball and would not let it out of his sight!

The riding lawn mower was a huge hit!


Daniella and Eli enjoying the delicious lunch.

Yes, I am aware of the hideousness of this picture. I look pained and a bit sweaty from my workout, but I am posting it anyway because its funny. Isaac did NOT want to pose for a picture. He was way too busy having FUN!


I love the frosting dripping from his nose.



YUM!!



I love my Baby Boot Camp friends! It is such a fun and nice group of ladies and the kiddos always have a blast playing together!

Christmas decorating

I've gone back and forth trying to decide if I want a Christmas tree this year and after hearing all kinds of stories about kiddos and Christmas trees, we decided to forgo one again this year. Isaac is just too much of a curious little stinker and I just know he wouldn't stay away from it. I don't want to have to hoist the tree off him several times. I know that would happen. He's a rascal!

Anyway......
Like last year, we went over to my parents' to decorate their tree since we don't have one of our own. I took lots of pictures.

First one of me to prove I was there. I put the ribbon up before the boys started decorating with ornaments.






The gourd was a favorite. It has seeds inside that make a cool noise when you shake it.

Reading Christmas books by the tree.

Pointing at the ornaments, doing a good job of not touching them.

Oops! That didn't last long! Guess it was unfair of us to ask him to not touch them when he had just been allowed to while decorating.

Dancing to some Christmas music.

Leaves

Earlier this week I raked some leaves in the backyard while the boys played in the pile. By the time I was finished raking, Isaac was done playing in the leaves so most of the pictures I got were of Jacob. He was really into posing for the camera that afternoon. A rarity!




One of Isaac - he wouldn't look at the camera

I thought it would be cute to get a picture of the two of them in the leaves together. That didn't work out so well.
Isaac is making a run for it.

Here Isaac is poking himself in the eye with a stick and Jacob has that cheesy grin.

Oh well. Maybe next time I can get more of Isaac and one of them together. There are plenty more leaves to rake!

Christmas Parade

The boys in I walked in the Christmas parade this past weekend with our Baby Boot Camp group. It was a ton of fun! We all decorated our strollers with garland and lights. Mine was a bit on the pathetic side, but it was festive enough. The boys were just in awe of everything happening around them. I hardly heard a peep out of them the whole time!

These pictures are horribly dark, but I'm posting them anyway.

Our cool banner

Me waving like a goof.

This is my good friend Daniella and her son Eli. I met her in prenatal yoga when I was pregnant with Isaac. We were due two days apart and ended up having the boys two days apart, so Eli is just 2 days older than Isaac. We met up again at BBC and have lots of play dates. My boys love Eli and talk about him all the time!

We left after we were done walking the parade route because I needed to get the boys in bed. There was no way we were staying for the whole thing anyway! Groups were still waiting to start walking the course when we were finished. It is an insanely long parade and I am glad we were group #23 instead of group #103!!