Gingerbread Baby Shower

We had a lovely shower yesterday for a good friend of mine whose second baby boy is due at the end of January.  The theme was gingerbread!

With a hot chocolate bar!  Yummy!  

I got a little carried away with my hot chocolate creation.  I had to have extra marshmallows, and then the peppermint bits were a must.  After that I wanted extra creamy whipped cream and a touch of chocolate syrup drizzled on top.  By the time I topped the whole thing with chocolate chips, it was overflowing and about to spill all over the table.  Luckily, I was quick and grabbed a plate to put under it just in the nick of time!  So.worth.it.

Here's the baby bellies!  

These two are childhood friends with due dates just 2 weeks apart! 

How fun is that?  Both are having little boys : )  

And here we are...the hostesses and Melissa.  For some reason, we didn't put Melissa in the middle...she's the one on the far left.  There's me on the far right, not liking the way I look in this picture at all.  Oh well.  : ) 

I was glad to help host a great baby shower for a good friend!

Praying for a healthy baby and blessings for the whole family. 

New Video! Maddie's New Words

Maddie still hasn't opened up to talk to her speech teacher, but she's coming up with new words every day!

Play Dough and Pony Beads. Our Adent Day #7

I. love. playdough.

Seriously, it's so fun to make and squishing it over and over has got to be some sort of therapeutic, psychological, all-is-well-with-the-world tactic of some sorts.

So, today's activity was as much for my benefit as it was Maddie's...we made Christmas playdough!

I introduced Maddie to pony beads for the first time. They had a lively conversation!

    I think she likes 'em!

Next, Maddie looked at the camera and said exclaimed "pictures!" And this is what she does now...

I think it's her interpretation of me : )

We had a good day, and with this activity and the new books from the library,  I somehow managed to keep Maddie's mind off T.V. for the entire afternoon.  A baby step in the right direction!

Our Advent Day #5

For Day 5 of our advent activities, we read Luke 2:12 and made a Baby Jesus craft. 

I got all of the stuff ready...

a little treasure wooden treasure box from Hobby Lobby, 

strips of fabric, 

shredded grocery bag for hay, 

wooden peg boy  also from Hobby Lobby, 

Paint!!

A baby Jesus book (optional)

Once everything was all set up, Maddie took things and ran with it.  She began painting the box, or uh "manger." 

She was in deep concentration with her tongue out and "humming" a little something...

oops...got some on the fingers!

oh well, carry on. : ) And...

Ta Da!!  Here's our little baby Jesus in his manger.  

Kyle says he looks like a mummy in a sarcophagus!  Ha ha. 

My Latest Photo Shoot!

Things are steady with my photography business.  Just booked another shoot this weekend!  I'm still pinching myself to make sure this is for real. 

I know I say this about all of the photo shoots, but really, this one was so fun!  

I got to shoot two brothers, Max and Eli.  At first Eli was not into getting his picture taken...at...all!  But it didn't take too long before he realized how good he looked and then he was posing and coming up with ideas all on his own!  The camera loves them both!!  It was the perfect day, and I loved that we were able to take them right in my own back yard!  Here's a few of my favorites!

Our Advent Day #2

Yesterday Maddie glued another cotton ball on Santa's beard and pulled the next activity out of stocking #2.  

We made "moldable snow."  

It's super easy to do, just 5 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil.

It smells really nice, feels really soft, and will "clump up" when you squish it together.  

 Maddie was really exited about the sand molds.  

Next time we play might get these penguins from back in January and give them a nice little home.

I think Day 2 was a success!  

Advent Countdown!!

 This is our advent countdown.  Each stocking has a little activity Maddie will pull out and we'll do together that day. 
Wednesday we had no where we had to be so I worked to get our advent activities all planned out for the month.  This took a lot longer than one might expect, so I thought I would share them with you if this is something you want to do and save you the time!!  I sewed this stockings last year ( I used this template from Martha Stewart) so this year all I had to do was come up with 24 activities.

You could just buy the small little stockings and use them...BIG time saver.

Here are the activities I put in each of the stockings...

Make Gingerbread Houses	Look at Christmas Lights	Make homemade Christmas cards
Make Christmas play dough	Bake Gingerbread ornaments	Drink Hot Chocolate
Play Christmas music and dance!	Watch Christmas Show together	Have Birthday Party for Jesus
Sleepover in living room under tree	Santa’s beard advent	Finger paint with Christmas colors
Read Luke 2:8-11 make angel craft	Hide and Seek- find Christmas prayer in house	Read Matt.2:11 and decorate #3
Make moldable snow	Light a Christmas Candle	Drop money in red Salvation Army bucket
Retell Christmas story with puppets	Read Matt. 2:2 and go out and see the stars	Read Luke 2:12  Create a baby Jesus craft
Visit Santa	Make paper chain	Christmas Contact Paper collage

(Hopefully, you should be able to right click, copy, and paste in a Word document.)  If that doesn't work, email me and I'll send you a copy.  
Yesterday we started Santa's beard.  We'll add a cotton ball each day until Christmas!

Some of my favorite activities I'm looking forward to:

Having Hot Chocolate with dinner!

Sleepover in living room under tree!

Reading scripture about the star that shone when Jesus was born and going out to star gaze.

Reading scripture about Jesus being the light of the world and lighting a Christmas candle.  

Make moldable snow - use 5 cups of flour and 1 cup baby oil {super easy}

And here's another option I found for advent activities after I spent all that time coming up with ideas.  I might have to try this next year!

Hope that helps if you want to try doing an advent countdown with your kiddos.  It's not too late to start!!

Maddie is at the perfect age this year to really have a lot of fun with Christmas!  I can't wait to open our next stocking!!