Celebrating Advent: Our Jesse Tree

This is one of the ways that Tom and I have decided to celebrate Advent with the girls. We found this idea on (In)Courage and all the work was done for me. There is an ornament for each day of Advent and a scripture reading that explains the picture and it's connection to the story leading up Jesus' birth. The kids are really enjoying it. Because of our Bible readings at breakfast, Lelia can sometimes tell us what story the picture goes with before she hears the reading.

Uma and Grandpa Jack

Goofing Around...

Classy!

We are breaking out the potty pants once again, for Lelia (not pictured above, please note). We wanted Lelia to get excited about wearing big girl underpants by having some time wearing them when we weren't actually training her. Clearly, it turned into a dress-up time for the whole family, Sedona style. She decided how she and Daddy were going to wear thier pants. Thankfully, I was spared :)

Family Activities

We got the kids all dressed up (in thier pajamas) and took them to Lights on the Bay at Sandy Point State Park. We drove around and from the comfort of our own car seats looked at all of the many lights displays that were set up. It followed a very nautical / Naval Academy theme for the most part, not a big shock being that we live in one of the sailing capitals of the world. The girls loved it. We heard lots of Oooos and Ahhhs from the back seats. That was my favorite part!

We took the girls to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum for the afternoon. I think the bulk of the excitment centered around the metro ride into DC and that's where most of the energy was expended too :) We only lasted about an hour inside the actual museum, and that might be stretching it a bit. I was walking through the museum with the girls totally aware of all of the wonderful things we have in our area to educate our children. We have so many resources right at our fingertips for our kids to actually experience the things we want to teach them about. I feel completely blessed to live in this area at this time of my life. I never thought I would say that after all of the many years I was "dragged" through these same museums for multiple field trips every year all the way through my education. It's amazing how drastically your perspective can change!

Thanksgiving Dinner

We ended up haivng dinner at McCormick and Schmick's in the Annapolis Mall on Thanksgiving. The kids had grilled cheese (see above), mom had seared tuna and dad had the traditional turkey dinner. After wards we went and played on a merry-go-round in the mall (see above). We figure this was our last year to have a "wing-it" Thanksgiving meal because next year the kids won't let us get away with this. It was a nice Thanksgiving but I think I can speak for both Tom and myself in saying that it just wasn't the same as the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with family. We hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes + Macy's Parade

One of our family traditions that started last Thanksgiving was eating chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Last year we ate them on couch and this year we thought, hmm, now that we have 2 that are wiggling all over the place, eating chocolate chip pancakes on the couch is going to be much more messy! So, we opted to move the girls' chairs out to the livingroom in front of the TV while they ate thier pancakes. Lelia was all about it, Sedona not so much...what's wrong with her?! Still, more pictures to come...

Our Little Native Americans

We had a blast Thanksgiving morning making Native American headresses. Daddy was still asleep when we made them and the kids went into his room making Indian noises. Daddy had as much fun as the girls did. More pictures to come...

Goofin' off with Daddy

Make-up Artist

I left Lelia alone for a few mintes and she had colored her lips with blue marker. I hope this isn't a symbol of her make-up choices as a teenager :) These sorts of things are the little things I am going to miss as she gets older...so I'm trying to enjoy the silliness now.

A Fun Friday!

We had such a nice day today with friends. We ran into friends at Target for an impromtu girls lunch with the Cantor girls. Followed by naps. Then a visit from Lelia's future husband David. Both sets of parents and both children believe marriage is in the future! We would be honored to have the Entwisle family as in-laws. hahaha :)