Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, Friends!!

 I hope 2012 was a great year for you and that 2013 will be filled with 

hope, joy and love!

Today we are hanging out as a family running errands, playing games, and making chicken tortilla soup for dinner. We will ring in the new year quietly with all three blessings in bed by 8pm(hopefully). I plan to write my 2013 goals today. I am thinking a lot about commitment, vows, and goals. I plan to write out monthly goals by category. One of my goals is to be more intentional with my boys. I would also like to blog more. The sweet new addition of Corbin to our family in 2012 has kept me from blogging as much as I would like, but that's ok. :) He is a wonderful amazing blessing! 

May your day and new year be blessed! 

Merry Christmas!

JP's Preschool Christmas Program

I am loving where God lead us for JP's preschool experience! It has truly been a blessing to our family! JP goes to Pre-K 2 days a week at an awesome local church.

There are so many things I love about it! Here are just a few:
He has two amazing teachers who love him and the Lord.
He is doing so much for these two sweet teachers that he wouldn't do for me last year. 
He is meeting new friends! 
He learns about Jesus every day.
He is learning so much academically and socially.

I really love that they had a precious Christmas program where the kids learned and shared the story of Jesus' birth.  They began practicing their songs in October and JP ate this up! He LOVES to sing and he would belt out the songs in the car every day. In fact, once my husband asked me, "Does he have a solo in this program?" To which I laughed and replied no. I love that JP loves to sing songs about Jesus. My favorite part of the program was when they sang "Happy Birthday, Jesus" It was so precious!

JP was an awesome shepherd! He remembered all of his actions and signs during the play and sang his sweet little heart out!

They had an adorable nativity set that we snapped a few shots in. Love this crew so much!

M & M Wreath

I found a wonderful activity that included sorting and M & Ms! This activity was right up mine and the boys alley!

First I had the boys sort their M &Ms by color and then they filled their wreaths with M and Ms. Hop on over to Toddler Approved M & M Wreath for the template. It was great fun!

Christmas Book Countdown

This year I decided on November 30th to do a Christmas countdown and Advent Activities! I know a little late, but better late than never, right?! I searched all my favorite blogs for ideas and came up with a ton of ideas all swirling in my brain! To be real honest I was overwhelmed. I wanted to do it all! They were all so creative and wonderful, but one theme that keeps ringing true for me as a mama to 3 now is: simplicity! I wanted to do so many ideas all at once and then I read an awesome blog post by Shauna at Fantastic Fun and Learning that resonated so much with my head and my heart. She encouraged me to keep it simple and manageable. She even encouraged me to use the activities that I already have planned as part of our Advent activities and to use my calendar to help. It was awesome and just what I needed to read at that exact moment! So I grabbed the December calendar from JP's preschool and planned away! I incorporated what we are already doing as our Advent activities. I loved all of her ideas to keep it simple! You can click on the link to hop over to her blog post to read what inspired me!

Some of the activities on our calendar are:
M &M Wreath
Sing Christmas Carols
Attend a Fun Reindeer Parent's Night Out at our church
Make Green playdoh
Make Christmas Tree Shapes
Make Christmas cards for friends and neighbors
Make Christmas cookies
Host a Happy Birthday Jesus party
Play Nativity Memory Together
Drive around and look at Christmas lights
Have breakfast with Santa at JP's preschool
Attend our church Christmas Eve service

I also found an awesome idea to read Christmas books daily as a countdown at Reading Confetti. Thank you, Lorie for the inspiration! I loved this idea and decided I could do this one! So I gathered all the books I own from my teaching days and then went to my local library's website and put a ton of books on hold! I LOVE our library! The boys have loved reading a new book each night!

We were so blessed to have my parents join us for JP's Preschool Program and then dinner at our house this week. I took this precious opportunity to allow them to read the 18th book in our countdown! I loved it! What sweet memories my boys will have with their grandparents!

Overall I want my boys to know the real meaning of CHRISTmas and so as we do so many of the fun activities I have planned I hope to continue to show them Jesus.

Happy Countdown to Christ's birthday, my friends!

Linked up to some of these great parties!