Catch Up Again: Days 14-17

Okay, it's been a busy week.  It was my last week at work before 23 days off.  That's right, 23.  This is the time of year when I love my job the most. :)  But to make that happen, I was running around like a mad woman wrapping up so much stuff. Needless to say, I'm exhausted, but looking forward to some much needed time off with all three of my boys. So let's recap the past week's holiday activities:

Day 14:  Make puppy chow.  In case you aren't aware of this deliciousness, it's basically wheat Chex coated with melted chocolate and peanut butter, and then shaken in powdered sugar.  It's pure sugar crack.  Anyways, Austin helped me make it and ate his fair share in the process.  And we made some snickerdoodles that came out absolutely perfect.  Jordan, who usually isn't a fan of snickerdoodles in general, consumed about a dozen of them on his own. :)  And Chase enjoyed both treats, as he waited at my feet in the kitchen for more!

Day 15:  Make Christmas gifts for the teachers.  Using the puppy chow previously made, we made these cute little Santa jars filled with puppy chow for each of the boys' teachers.  I was very happy with how they turned out!  I also made these same things for all of my staff and seniors that work for me.

Day 16:  I was able to attend Austin's Christmas party with his class on Friday.  I loved that I was able to be there and see him interact with all the other kids and teachers.  He really is a good kid at school!  After the festivities were over, we left Chase at school while we went to have some Mommy-Austin time.  We got his haircut, and then I let him go pick out a Christmas gift for both Daddy and Chase.  While picking out a toy for Chase, he was easily distracted by toys he wanted for himself, but in the end, we were able to find something great.  And he did a good job on Daddy's gift too.  That evening, I let him help me wrap both of the gifts he got for Daddy and Chase, picking out the wrapping paper, gift tag, and bow.  Although, when Daddy got home from work that evening, he promptly told Daddy that he bought him a new tie!!! Okay, so we definitely need to work on the keeping gifts a secret part, but he was just so excited!!

Day 17:  We went to a cookie swap party at one of my college friend's house.  This is the third or fourth year I've been, and it's such a great idea.  Everybody that comes bakes about 5 or so dozen cookies.  And then we swap and everybody gets to take home a big box of a mixture of some delicious cookies.  And the fabulous hostess got little gifts for the kids, too.  Austin got a Toy Story soccer ball and Chase got a play cell phone.  It was a great party, if you forget the part where I locked my keys in the car (first time in my life!) and my sister and Logan had to drive an hour to go to the house and bring me a spare.  Ugh, it was so frustrating!

Whew, there's your recap. I'm sure this week is going to be even busier.  I've still got some Christmas shopping to do and lots of presents to wrap.  But we've got some more fun stuff coming up this week, including a trip to Gaylord ICE! and snowtubing there, too.  And maybe a trip to Rainforest Cafe if we can squeeze it in that day.  I still can't believe that Christmas is a week away from today, eeek!!

Catch Up: Days 8-13!

Okay, so I've been pretty busy lately and keeping up with the blog has been near the bottom of my list. So, we're going to do a quick recap of the past few days' Christmas activities.

Day 8: Sing Christmas carols.  I bought a CD of Christmas songs the other day and Target.  The boys and I had a blast singing and dancing around the living room to all the songs.  And Austin busted out the guitar playing, as usual!

Day 9: We went to our annual (okay, it's only in the second year!) cul-de-sac Christmas party.  We have a wonderful group of neighbors and enjoyed their company at a potluck celebration.

Day 10:  We went shopping for a stranger.  At work, they were doing a toy drive for a charity for teenage mothers and their kids. I explained (well, tried to, at least) to Austin that we were going to pick out a gift for some kids who didn't have alot of toys.  He did a good job helping me pick out some good ones, but also managed to sneak in a DVD for himself as well.  Hey, if it prevents a meltdown in the middle of the aisle, I'm doing it. Don't judge!

Day 11:  We went to a Christmas Cookie Decorating Party for Ladies and Gents.  This required my boys to sport ties. Austin opted to wear one of Daddy's ties, like he was going to work.  Chase wore a clip-on tie for a short period of time, as his neck is too thick and I could barely button the top button on his shirt! 

Day 12: Read a Christmas book.  Last year, Austin got a Charlie Brown Christmas book that was pretty good, so after bath time, I curled up with my boys on the couch to read it.  Austin was into it, but once again, Chase was more concerned with trying to crawl off the couch! I'm going to have a hard time keeping up with that one!

Day 13:  I let Austin help me wrap a few presents. I'm trying to have him understand the concept of 'it's better to give than receive'.  He seemed excited, wanted to do more.  However, I couldn't let him near the closet where all his presents were hiding!!

I didn't do a very good job capturing pictures of these events. However, I do have a few from the Christmas Cookie party.

Austin decorating his cookie and licking the icing/sprinkles off his fingers :)

So grown up in Daddy's tie!

Chase didn't decorate cookies, but scarfed them down instead

School Pictures!

It's that time of year again! And I couldn't be happier with how their pictures turned out.  :)

Day 7: Watch a Christmas Movie

Tonight's activity was to watch a Christmas movie.  Definitely should have planned this one a little better, because the only kid-friendly holiday movie I had was The Elf Story that I just got the other day when I bought our Elf on the Shelf.  (I didn't think that watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation would have been too appropriate!) Although, we had already seen the Elf movie last week, Austin was very excited to watch it again.  There's this one song and dance number called 'Extravaganzalorious' that is very catchy and Austin loves to play his guitar and dance along with it.  And I hate to admit it, but I have found myself singing it alone sometimes. :)

Time out from Christmas talk.......Chase is T minus 1 month from the big ONE!

I cannot believe that my baby Chase Cooper will soon be the big ONE!  11-months old today, I feel like time is just slipping by.  His baby days are numbered, I just know it.  He's still such a mellow guy, and surely a momma's boy.  The past week or so, he's been feeling under the weather and only Mommy can comfort him.  He would just lay on my chest and snuggle to go to sleep. I'm definitely taking advantage of every second he wants to cuddle!  He's finally feeling better and back to his usual self, sleeping 11-12 hours at night.  Hooray!

Chase has pretty much mastered walking along the furniture, but refuses to let go and walk on his own.  But that's fine; he can take his sweet little time. :)  And because he's into everything, we set up our Christmas tree in the office this year so that we can keep the french doors to it shut.  Hopefully next year we can move the tree back out for us all to enjoy.  He babbles all the time, but hasn't managed to say anything that I can make out into actual words.  I'm threatening him that his first word better be 'Momma'. It's going to melt my heart, I just know it!

I don't think I ever got around to doing a post about our Thanksgiving holiday, but Chase enjoyed every bite of lunch and dinner.  He devoured everything and practically licked his plate clean.  And then enjoyed some banana pudding and pumpkin pie to top it all off. He has yet to experience the deliciousness of a cupcake or a slice of cake (he was sick and napping during Austin's celebration), so I can't wait til his birthday next month!!  Speaking of, I better get on it!  I'm definitely wayyyyy behind on party planning for his 1st birthday, but I'm hoping that my three weeks off for Christmas break will be just what I need to get my butt in gear!

Learning to push his walker

Chowing down at Thanksgiving lunch at the Harrington's

Giddy-up horsey!

Playing with his learning table

Holding onto his constant companion, Gus

I want to see the tree!

Playing with the lights

Day 6: Make a Plate for Santa

I wanted to have a 'special' plate to leave cookies on for Santa Claus this year.  I figured Austin would finally get the whole idea of leaving cookies and milk for him. So, I browsed around Pinterest and Facebook for some cute ideas.  I ultimately decided to use the boys' footprints and turn them into little elves or something.  It came out okay.  I still need to seal it, so that I can actually put food on it. :)

And sorry there's no pictures of the 'making' of this project.  Anytime there's paint involved, I don't have much time to grab the camera!

Day 5: Coloring a Christmas Picture

Tonight's activity was pretty mellow.  I printed off some coloring pages for Austin to pick from and color.  Even Mommy and Daddy got to help color. :)  Chase didn't want to color, but instead would rather scale the furniture!