Little Builders

Christmas Eve Morning I had a few little builders in the house. :)

I was busy trying to get food prepped for dinner with the in laws and the boys were being a bit rowdy.

So I told them to go to their room, get out their blocks and build me something!

I was quite impressed with the out come.

First Zander came running out to show me what he had made:

"Rawret Ship" = Rocket Ship

"Bobot" = Robot

"Hewacocker" = Helicopter

Wow right!?!

I was totally impressed with his creations!

So of course I said... lets get pictures!!! haha

Gosh I love those big blue eyes!

Kissy Face!!

Brucey came out next.

He took a little more time and made a Castle! :)

This picture reminds me of Wilson! haha

My handsome little boo.

Doesnt he just have the sweetest smile!?

I Love my little builders!

We had a wonderful Christmas by the way.

We spent Christmas Eve with the in-laws.

Christmas morning we woke with the kids to open presents, then went to church and after that had my family over for Christmas dinner.

All the kids really loved and appreciated everything they got, which wasnt a whole lot this year.

But everyone had fun and were thankful. 

It totally melted my heart. :)

How was your Christmas?

Flash Card Confusion

Something that I truly love about my kids is that they each have such a thirst for knowledge.

Kiah and Zander are more "book smart" and love to read and solve problems... 

They have both been found at one time or another, alseep with a book clenched in their sweet little hands! *hehe*

Brucey is more "street smart" he is SUCH a quick learner and has amazing hand eye coordination.

He takes after The Daddy that way. He is our little athlete. :)

But they are all love to learn!

So I decided it would be fun to buy some flash cards.

Since Brucey has gone into kindergarten he is more excited about learning new things,

showing off his reading, spelling, & counting skills!

Zander who is a SPONGE when it comes to learning drinks up anything he hears from Kiah & Brucey.

So he already knows his ABC's, How to count to 15 (before he starts making up numbers) and most of his colors.

One night I got out the flash cards, and they each crowded around, its so fun to see how excited they get to do them. Zander LOVES to count. He likes the cards where you have to count how many of an item is in the picture. You can see him in the picture below, counting. :) And Brucey gets so eager to should out the answer.. is covering his mouth to remind himself he has to let Zander answer some too! :)

They were being so adorable, I went ahead and let Kiah take over the cards to I could take a few pictures of my little learners! And thats when Zander got a little goofy! :)

Kiah pulled out a new flash card, it was of a white crayon. 

Zander was supposed to tell us what color it was....

His answers had us all crackin up! :)

Green? He guessed.

No, not green.. you know this one buddy! :)

Purple?

Nope, not purple.

YELLOW??  Blueberry!?... GRAPE!??

Haha He was simply adorable, I love his determination not to give up.

We finally told him it was white.

"Oh, White!" he said.

Oh how I love my little learners. :)

Isnt it so fun to see young ones learn?

How Not To Get Caught Up In the Hype Of Christmas Shopping!

While I was driving yesterday and listening to the radio either K-Love or Air 1. The radio show host was talking about not wanting to get caught up in all the hype and excessiveness of shopping and gifts and buying things that her family didn't really need.
She was talking about how much her family has, and her kids have plenty of toys. And that she wanted to concentrate on being thankful for all they were blessed with, rather than thinking of what else they can get.

I can totally relate to this! It seems like my family has it all! Shopping for them is hard.. my kids have so much, and actually we are planning on going through all their toys and such to get rid of all the stuff they don't need or use anymore. And I always try to remind my kids to be grateful and thankful for everything they get. Though sometimes it really is so easy to get sucked into all the hype of Christmas shopping, with black friday deals and sales, coupon and toy flyers being sent in the mail, all the eye catching commercials and so on...

Well the radio show host talked about a lady who did something different. I thought it was so neat that I wanted to share this idea with you too. When it came to Christmas this lady's family knew they only got 4 things! Something they WANT, Something they NEED, Something to WEAR and Something to READ! How brilliant is that!? So smart, and I loved that it rhymes. haha Well Ive already done Christmas Shopping this year... And though I know it didn't go crazy this year, I have before. So I think I may adopt this idea and use it next year to help keep me and my family in line and help us focus on what Christmas is really about; The Birth of Jesus. :)

In America we really are blessed with so MUCH. And most of the time we don't even realize it. We take it for granted and at times we can be so greedy. I don't want to be like that, and I don't want my kids to be like that either. Which is why we got involved with Operation Christmas Child this year and plan on making it something we do every year! So I'm really loving this new idea of "Want, Need, Wear, Read" to help my family focus more on our blessings, being thankful, and the real reason for the season and less on what we can get. :)

Do you have any special ways to beat the hype of excessive gifts?
How do you set the limit?
What do you do to help your family stay grateful this time of year?