This and That

We woke up this morning to find this:

I had NO CLUE it was supposed to snow. I got up and got ready to go help Rascal's teacher at school. I went and got Baby A out of her bed (she was awake already) and then went and woke the boys up. We all sleepily headed into the kitchen and that is when Rascal stopped in his tracks and said "WHOA!" I turned to look and said the same thing. I turned on the T.V. to find out that schools were closed and we had a snow day on our hands. 

We got dressed and went outside to play for a little bit. It was Baby A's first time to play in snow. It snowed a few times last year but she was way to little to stay out for any length of time and certainly to small to play in it.

She loved it to say the least......

.....but I may have bundled her up a little too much and made it hard for her to walk! 

What can I say, I am a bit paranoid about them getting too cold. You all know they won't tell you if they are cold because that means they have to go inside. 

I tried to get a picture of all three kids but failed.

This one best describes the moment:

Rascal was too busy making snow balls, Baby A hated Scooter telling her to stay and look, and Scooter was the only cooperative one. 

My boys look so big in that picture. My how they have grown since last year. Their clothes are certainly telling that story.

 On to our advent activities.....

Monday night we were supposed to take pictures with the letters J.O.Y.

The boys were VERY wild and would not behave so I had to take their special activity away and replace it with quiet time. We did talk about Jesus being our Prince of Peace and read Isaiah 9:6.

My original plan was to have Scooter hold the J, Rascal hold the O and Baby A hold the letter Y and then frame the picture as decoration. This would have been an annual picture and it would be fun to see how much they grow each year. Needless to say I was the only one who thought that was a good idea.

Last night our activity was movie with special treats.We talked about Jesus being our God and 

read John 20:28.

I rented the movie Zookeeper (which was rated PG and not the most kid friendly movie, it was ok but not one we will own.) and after a light dinner the boys ate popcorn, cookies and had hot chocolate and watched their movie.

 This picture is blurry for some reason but her expression is great. Love it!

 Baby A will not watch T.V.at all.......not even for one minute. She did entertain herself by talking to herself in the mirror behind our chair.

 Baby A is too small for popcorn so she ate fruit snacks and cookies.

I finished all of our stockings! 

Tim is a big Chicago Bulls fan so I made the top of his stocking with some left over fabric I had from when I made the boys pillowcases.

Rascal loves horses. Always has and I am sure he always will. So it seemed appropriate to make his with some of the left over fleece fabric I had from making his new pj pants.

Scooter wanted the top of his to be made with the camo/deer fabric that I made their first set of pj pants out of.  I made sure to put the print the right way this time. 

 Here are all 5 stockings hanging on our mantle. I wanted to do some more decorations on our mantle but that will block the censor on our T.V. and D.V.D player so I am limited on what I can put up there. I hate the T.V. niche above of fireplace. I would love to do something else with it.

 Today we are making gift bows and we may just start that activity earlier since we have a snow day and we need several bows. We will talk about Jesus being our Lamb of God and read John 1:29 tonight.(I just realized that Rascal picked up tomorrow's envelope instead of today's so we will just switch the two days. Good thing he didn't accidentally grab day 9 and ruin the surprise of going to Zoo Lights!)
I may throw a science experiment in the mix too. We tried to blow bubbles outside and see if they freeze but it didn't work. Maybe it wasn't cold enough but I figured with snow still falling it had to be below freezing. That's ok I have a few other ones we may try.