December...

Here's a few things we've done this month... decorated the Christmas Tree. Isn't that cute?? Randall took the kids to a wedding. They had fun dancing with all their cousins. Visited Santa Baking...these are part of the gifts we gave to Tripp's class for Christmas along with a paper bag reindeer craft they can make drinking hot chocolate. I gave them marshmallows, crushed peppermints, and white chocolate chips to add. Christmas parties at school Pecan Grove hayride to look at Christmas lights making gingerbread houses at the local Randall's And just having some fun! December seems to be flying by!

PIctures of Brooks

Brooks Aldon Collum was born November 12th at 4:01AM. He was 9lbs 6oz and 22 inches. The nurses said they only see a 22 incher only every 4 months or so. The Dr. kept calling him Bruiser. He's so sweet and we are loving him so much. The kids adore him and have been wonderful. Lexie is my car helper. She feeds him a bottle in the backseat on the way to school usually. She will often say, "I sure hope he drinks it fast, because my arm is tired." However, she loves being the little mommy back there. She calls him Boo Boo. She will say, "where's boo boo?" Tripp talks in a sweet little voice to him. He will say while stroking his face, "little baby, sweet baby." He always tells me he loves baby. He's proud when he can get him to quit crying. Love all my little munchkins. Poor Brooks though definitely doesn't have very many pictures though! He's eating about ever 3 hours...sometimes 2, sometimes 4. We have no schedule!

Things I love but hate

My kids always end up undressed. You will see many more examples in one of my next few posts. I've always said I want my kids to just be kids. I want them to make messes, have fun, and build great memories! My house was somewhat chaotic growing up and we always got to make lots of messes and do things many parents wouldn't let their kids do. Those are some of the things I remember the most growing up, so they must have been fun! Now, I'm not saying I just laugh and smile when I see things like this. I actually take a deep breath, put my hand on my hip, and get irritated with them, but when it's all cleaned up and over, I'm so glad it happened. Love it, but hate it at the same time!

SMILE

I know, I know, I am way behind on the blog, but let's face it, I am BUSY! I think being Christmas time is making it that much crazier! Everything is going great though and we are enjoying our sweet boy, Brooks, so much! Love him to pieces. I'm actually enjoying this baby much more than the others! Ha! Just wanted to share his first smile with you. Ok, so it's actually his 2nd, but I was so happy to catch it on video. He's sick, poor thing! Gotta love brother and sister touching all over his face constantly! After the second smile in the video you can turn it off because it gets long and he doesn't smile again.

Our Christmas Crafts

Tripp does not like the organized crafts. He doesn't like directions. He likes to just do free art. So most of his things don't really turn out too cute! Ha! He loves to use glue, scissors, and paint. Lexie loves crafts. Often she has her own ideas on how she wants to do things. I like things they can do mostly on their own so that it's really their own work to be proud of. I try to stay out of it and not persuade them to do it how I want it! That's hard though! paper bag reindeer puppet. This is just a craft kit from oriental trading that we had ordered as presents for the kids' classmates. snowflakes! I used to make these when I was younger. I showed her about 3 or 4 times how to fold the paper and cut them and then she did them herself! She had fun! Lexie's snowman. She told me what she wanted to do and I assisted her. She's quite sure of herself! Lexie came to me that she wanted to make a penguin craft. We searched on the internet for ideas together and this is what she picked. Lexie did this stocking all by herself. I did not help her one bit. She's so fun! We made our own green play doh and put peppermint extract in it to give it a Christmas smell. After playing with that we cut some shapes out, baked them, and made ornaments. The kids painted them. These hand print Santas turned out so cute. Lexie made several of them and then decorated the inside to make Christmas cards. She delivered them to people. snowman cupcakes

Christmas Play

Aww, I love the kids' new school! Their Christmas plays were so sweet! We were so grateful for our family who came to watch them. The kids may not seem like they would care, but they do! They always notice when people are missing. Sadly, we had to miss cousin Colin's play at his school because it was on the same night as Tripp's. :( They always ask who is coming to their things! Thanks everyone! Tripp was adorable! He wasn't shy at all! He swayed his hips back and forth the whole time. They sang twinkle twinkle little star. Lexie's class sang "in a stable" and then they all sang Happy Birthday Jesus at the end. Lexie looked so shy during the first song, but opened up for the happy birthday one.

Character Breakfast

This was so cute. Again, another reason I am loving their new school! We ate pancakes and many of the Disney characters walked around to talk to the kids and sign their books. So fun! However, I laugh because after you've been to Disney world, you hope your kids don't look too closely at these characters! Cousin Colin and Aunt Jen came with us. batman

Crafts

My kids love crafts! We do crafts everyday. Most days it's nothing organized. I just set everything out and they create what they want. Usually during a holiday time we do more organized crafts. Here's a few from October and November. This kind of looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. It's scrawny, but we had fun making it. We just got a small branch and hooked some fall leaves onto it. Just painting a random toilet paper tube. Lexie's turkey with lots of glue Tripp's fall leaves Our nature wreath. They traced their hands and made this thankful tree. We added things throughout November. Lexie added Brooks' name after he was born. Just a random piece of cardboard that Tripp said he wanted to paint.