This week we have been getting our house back in order after the holidays and enjoying our new toys!  The boys have had a great time playing with all their Christmas gifts.  So far I don't think there's anything they haven't had fun playing with.  I have gotten all the Christmas stuff packed away and the house back to it's normal look.  I have also washed the baby clothes, blankets, etc. and brought up the baby gear from downstairs and washed it so we are ready for this little one when she decides to make her appearance.  Only six weeks to go!

Austin has had a good time checking out all the baby gear.  Every time he sees something new he says, "I like that!"  I had the car seat in the school room yesterday before I washed it and I walk in to find that he had made himself comfortable in it.

Here is a little preview picture of the baby's room.  Austin loves her little pink chair!  He sits in it to read quite a bit.  Her room is done except for her bedding and the decor above her crib.  Hopefully her crib bedding will be in the mail next week and I can order the decor for above her crib.  Then I will post pictures of her room.  I think it's coming together nicely!

And, I took the basket part of the bassinet off to wash the cover.  Austin made himself at home in the storage bin on the bottom.

Gavin got Viking and Knight stencils in his stocking and he has been using them to make neat pictures.

Austin loves his new monkey pajamas!  They are nice and cozy!

That has been our week.  Not super eventful.  We did go to the park on Thursday but I forgot my camera.  We will start school again on Tuesday and go until the baby is born.  Then we will take a few weeks off as we get used to our new addition and then start up again!

Our Bible verses for January will be Psalm 23.  I won't copy it here because most people probably already know it.  In history we will pick up with the American Revolution and in science we will start a unit about the weather.  Our artist of the month will be Norman Rockwell and our composer will be George Friedrich Handel.  



The Christmas season is in full swing at our house this week.  We have had a couple Christmas theme meals.  One was Christmas tree quesadillas:

And one was English muffin reindeer (they didn't look all that great but the boys really liked them).

We also had some Christmas theme pasta...a random find at Big Lots.  It was a tri-color pasta in star, Santa and Christmas tree shapes.  The boys have been very excited with their Christmas meals.

Gavin received a letter from Santa in reply to his wish list.  This was also very exciting!  Gavin promptly wrote a thank you note to Santa to leave next to the fireplace on Saturday evening.  He is finally starting to sound out words and try to spell them correctly rather then just writing gibberish!  I'm very excited about this development!  He wrote a whole sentence himself and only left out the 'n' in Santa but spelled the rest of the words correctly.

Today was a super exciting, hard-to-contol-ourselves type of day at our house.  It is Gavin's birthday so he knew we were having his 'real' birthday party this evening.  I made Christmas cookies this morning which the boys got to taste test for me.  They even got to lick the batters of the mixer when I was making molasses cookies!  In short, they were super excited and full of sugar...

This afternoon Gavin went to a cookie decorating party at a friend's house...yet another excitement.  Our phone was ringing every few minutes with calls to wish Gavin happy birthday and we had two neighbors stop by and bring more cookies and treats for us, even more excitement.  Needless to say, we have a lot of cookies in the house right now and two very tired boys (and mom).

Gavin did get his birthday party.  We had baked macaroni and cheese, steak and green beans (Gavin's request).  Then he got to open presents.  Usually he only gets a few presents on his birthday but this year he had quite a few for some reason.  And, apparently he likes military stuff because everything was related to the military except for an 'I Spy' memory game our neighbor brought over.

But, he got seven or eight books about knights and Vikings.  Mostly chapter books for us to read before bed.

He got some more Civil War soldiers to go with the ones he got this summer.  These ones came with cannons!  He's been saving his money to get more when we go back to that toy store next summer.

He got $6 cash!

He got a few 12 inch G.I. Joes that have realistic uniforms and weapons from different wars.

And, what he declared the 'best gift ever' a Lego Medieval Village set, complete with working mill and animals.  I was kind of surprised he liked this so much since he hasn't really gotten into Lego but he was really excited about it.

And, because there aren't enough cookies in the house, he got a cookie birthday cake.  I wasn't going to do anything for dessert, just let him eat Christmas cookies, but then I started to feel bad about not having a cake (even though I made him a birthday cake for his party a couple weeks ago).

Austin always appreciates the cake!

That has been our week in a nutshell.  We've been reading Christmas books, listening to Christmas music and enjoying the time off from school and running around.



First up, the boys' poinsettia pictures from Monday...

Today Gavin read and practiced cursive handwriting.  Austin did a puzzle and then several worksheets.  I gave him the cow matching because he wanted to do 'school' and then he kept asking for another one so I gave him a worksheet where he circled the smallest object and then he did a shape/shadow matching worksheet.

Here is Gavin's handwriting page.  He is reviewing letters and learning how to put them together to form words.

For our '25 Days of Christmas' activity we made gingerbread cookies.  I cheated and bought Pillsbury dough which I rarely do but these cookies will be gifts for teachers and our '25 Days of Christmas' activity for Friday is to take some cookies to our local fire department as a thank you for keeping us safe and working through the holidays.  So we focused more on cutting and decorating then the actual mixing and cooking.  First we made some reindeer cookies, then the boys took turns cutting the dough with Christmas cookie cutters.

Gavin decorated the cookies.  I didn't let Austin because they were still hot.  He was disappointed but happy to watch Gavin and offer advice.

Here are the reindeer.

Hard to believe this is the last week of school until January!

Yesterday we read these books:

Today we will read this book.  We haven't actually had time yet but we will get to it!

In 'Boys of Grit' yesterday we read about Walter Scott (I had no idea he was lame) and today we read about Samuel Morse (I had no idea he was actually a painter).  Gavin seems to be really enjoying the stories even though some of the vocabulary is a little hard for him.  He gets the main story and we talk about the meanings of new words.

And, John Paul is officially a sailor now, although still a cabin boy.  We are enjoying this book as well!



We slacked off a bit last week it seems like so this week we are trying to get back on schedule.  Gavin read a book to Jackson (his dog) this morning.  He really enjoys reading to Jackson.  He read the book twice and then came and read it to me.  Then he worked on cursive writing, phonics and langauge.

Meanwhile, Austin colored a Christmas theme coloring book our church gave to the toddlers.

Then he played with Play-Doh.  As you can see, he didn't get dressed until after lunch.  I offered to get him dressed several times this morning but he just wasn't interested.

Gavin did a color sheet using a color code that revolved around place value.  He is able to read numbers up to thousands place.

Then we read a couple books about poinsettias and did a craft.  We used construction paper to make a poinsettia.  Then used pom poms and glitter to decorate.

They are still drying due to gobs of glitter but I will try to get a picture of the boys with their work this afternoon.  Here are the books we read today.

We are still reading about John Paul Jones before bed.  We had several late nights last week so we aren't getting through it as quickly as we normally would (we don't read if we are out late).

At lunch today we started this book called 'Boys of Grit who Changed the World'.  It's a great book, part of a series, and each chapter focuses on a different man.  Some are well known like George Washington, others are not so well known.  Today we read about Thomas Eaton, who I have never heard of, but we read about how he was able to start one of the most successful department stores in Canada through hard work, forward thinking and innovation.  I like that the stories focus on the good qualities of the people that allow them to do great things and also acknowledges the difficulties they faced and overcame to be successful. 

I thought the stories might be a little much for Gavin but he really liked the chapter we read today.  We'll try another chapter or two and if he still enjoys them we will keep reading.  If not, we will put it aside for later.