December Activities

-Christmas messes give me such anxiety! There are messes ALL around and it gets much worse before it gets better 

Larry puts up boxes to block Roomba

Gift receipts that take over my desk

-The girls asked for money for the school Peppermint Forest and we only had a few days so I decided to give them money and then have them work it off. The best way to have them earn it was to have them scoop litter. They loved it the first day, and got sick of it as the month went on haha.

-We took the kids out to get sibling gifts. I took Cara and Lucy and Larry took Gwen and Pierce. I absolutely love making this part of their Christmas. They have fun picking things out they think the others would like. It's also really fun to hear their reasoning on why they want to get the gift they want (and tell others "if you get me this, I'll get you that" haha)

-So much Christmas shopping:

-Cara is super crafty, She made a silly football field from paper and a player from a cardboard gingerbread man I had them craft. Then for her friend's birthday party she made such a creative card for the birthday girl. I love her creativity.

She included some tic-tac-toe boards
On the back

-Kids workshops (Santa came to Lowe's and he was a GREAT Santa)

-We got our Santa response letters and they are so cute and sweet:

-Th older girls had a fun Spirit week at school and I decided I just had to get them things for it Their days were Elf/Christmas spirit day that I got them very festive dresses for (but forgot to get a pic of), Santa or Grinch day (so we got light up hats), Christmas Concert day, Ugly Sweater Day (my favorite), and then PJ day (Cara's been begging for family Christmas pajamas so I got us all some matching ones. She loved them).

-Cara got her class "pet" Penelope the pig. She wanted this pet for so long and to get it over Christmas break made her even more excited! She loves taking this thing everywhere we go (though I had to give her a separate journal to write in because she kept filling in the class one haha):

-I realized last minute we hadn't gotten Teacher gifts yet. I was stressed out realizing on literally the last day we needed them. Luckily, I am pretty clever and got the teachers a candy, gift card, bath bomb, and some Airborn, haha, from the grocery store that's close to us (for last minute I think it was actually pretty good):

-My mom wanted to take the kids to see the Nutcracker, but I was nervous they wouldn't be able to stay still for such a long show. Lucy loves ballet, but I was most nervous about how she'd do. We decided to show her the movie version on Hulu. Apparently, she wasn't into the beginning...(side note: I did show her the big ballet part the next morning and she did love that part. She also argued she didn't actually fall asleep haha)

-I had my surgery Pre-Op on the 26th. I'm feeling so excited/nervous/ready/need to do a million things all at once. I just keep telling myself "by this time next month I'll be halfway through my healing!".

-Speaking of my surgery, I've been doing what I can to get the house cleaned and getting laundry done so we don't have to worry about it right away. I'm also doing a liquid diet after the surgery so I've been making a little menu of items (so I can just pick what I feel like at the time) so I've got my grocery list filled out with the items we'll need.

-The new kitties had their surgery (getting fixed) on the 30th. They didn't love being dropped off (but luckily didn't meow until we got there). We thought this will be nice because they'll be a bit less rambunctious. Yeah, no. They've been home for a few hours and you wouldn't even know they had ANY surgery, they are still just as playful and crazy and immediately went back to attacking my feet and legs and are jumping all over.

-Back when we went to Hobby Lobby for my birthday celebration day, I noticed they had some REALLY cute room décor (specifically construction stuff for Pierce). I decided I HAD to go get the ones for his room because I couldn't stop thinking about it. With that, I let the girls pick out 2 things they'd want to put on their room walls. Gwen came with so she got to pick her own out, but I sent pics to Larry to show the girls and let them pick from those. Cara picked out a Hello Kitty light and clock, but her clock doesn't work, so we're going to take that back to exchange it (so we didn't get her pics with hers)

This light is SO bright!

-Our local library threw a Noon Years party and I've always wanted to do one with the kids so I decided to take the girls (it was during nap time so Pierce stayed back). Unfortunately, I got a headache right as it started, but tried to do my best to have fun with the girls (having ALL the noisemakers didn't make it easier, but it's fine) It ended up being a lot of fun for the kids, they had crafts, music, a balloon drop, and fireworks videos to play. They really enjoyed it.

-Kiddo pics:

Every kid needs that "sweatsuit" pic
From their toddler years :)