Baking

Brian took each kid to a basketball game at Northwestern on different days.  So that meant that I only had one kid at home with me.  I took the opportunity to do fun things with them.  Noah and I played games, baked cookies and played.  Natalie and I did about the same too.  I tried to get some pictures of them while they were home with me.  It was fun to have one on one time with each of them!

Here are a couple pictures of Noah at the Northwestern basketball game that Brian took him to.

Brian took Noah to see his study carrel at the library.  Noah does not seem so impressed by it.

Babysitting

We watched our niece Chloe one day in December.  We warned N2 that they couldn't play with their little toys while she was awake.  We don't have a lot of baby toys but we do have big blocks.  We told N2 that they could build towers for Chloe and she would like to knock them down.  We basically just played with big blocks the whole time she was awake at our house!  Chloe really took to Natalie!  She pulled herself up on Natalie's collar at one point and Natalie had no idea what to do.  After a minute I took pity on Natalie and moved Chloe away.  Chloe is a tricky one to get to eat.  I had to follow her around and get her to take sips here and there.  She was too busy being on the move!

Cutting Down Our Tree

After we went to see Santa we went to cut our Christmas tree down (N2 did change first).  It's our tradition to go to the same Christmas tree farm, take along Grandma and Grandpa Weidner and search for the perfect tree.  Well I search for the perfect tree while everyone else follows along.  They had HUGE trees this year.  They were too big for me to see the shape so it took us a while to find the tree.  The tree we chose was quite large and we left a couple feet at the bottom.  I picked out a different kind of tree this year-no White Pine for us this year!  It was a nice day out-not too cold so no one minded being out for a while this year.

 My kids like to balance on stumps and pretend to be the angel on the top of the tree.  I think Grandma Weidner started this a couple years ago.  This year there were tons of branches laying around and N2 picked them up and pretended to have umbrellas and be peacocks.  These pictures of them are them being peacocks.

 Here they are with our tree.  See how huge it is???  Then came the daunting task of trying to cut it down.  It had quite a large trunk!

Now the tree is down and we have to carry it to the tractor.  Noah was such a big help!

Going to see Santa

We decided to take N2 to Home Depot of all places to see Santa.  During one of their kid's workshops they had Santa there.  I had them all dressed up to see Santa and then they did the workshop project too.  Santa was great and really paid attention to what they were saying plus he really talked to them.  He is definitely the best Santa we have seen!

They were supposed to have painted the projects and then put stickers on but we decided not have them paint in their nice clothes!

Peanut the Elf

I know Christmas is over but I thought I would share with you what Peanut, our elf, did this year.  He started out the year by putting post it notes all over the hallway to stat that he was back.  N2 were very excited that they could read his note.  They even wrote him back.

 

The paper says "Peanut" "Noah and Natalie" and the top note says "we can kiss you peanut."  Those were written by Noah.  The other two notes say "We love you Peanut" and "We can hug you Peanut."  Those were written by Noah.  I think Natalie probably copied Noah's format but that is just my guess.

Peanut made them elf donuts one night.  Brian didn't even get to see them!

Peanut taught some squinkies, firemen and lego men how to read.

After we set up our tree, Peanut decided to help us try to decorate the house.  He was not quite successful.

N2 have been fairly short with each other this month.  They have been pushing each other's buttons and arguing.  Peanut wrote them a note one night.

Peanut took a ride with Barbie in the Barbie car one day.  N2 enjoyed pushing the car around the house.  The next day he disguised himself as a snowman.

Peanut planned a scavenger hunt for N2 and hid in Natalie's boot.

Peanut wanted to bake cookies one day. Another day N2 hadn't put away their laundry so Peanut found their underwear and put it on the tree.

 Peanut called Santa one day because it was on his to do list.

Peanut cut out mustaches and put them on N2's pictures around the house.

Poor Peanut was sick one day.  But another day he was well enough to fix Barbie's car.

 A favorite in our house is elf pancakes.

And last but not least, Peanut read all the Baby Jesus' from the nativity scenes the story of the Nativity.