Sarah: 3 months!

Over the craziness of the holidays miss Sarah Eileen turned 3 months old, so I grabbed a few photos of her! She is getting so big in this basket!

Sarah you are our little squealing baby.  Every time I go get you out of your crib you smile at me and squeal with delight!

Your hair is still intact and getting blond, you are getting the dreaded "bald spot" on the back of her head from sleeping on your back

You are not a huge fan of tummy time, and I think that is partly because of your neck problem, yes you really like to turn your head to one side only and the Dr. thinks you need a little physical therapy for it, but I have yet to take you.  We have just been massaging the muscles on one side of your neck.

You are already grabbing everything!  You love to grab onto your toys and my hair.

You are obsessed with sucking on your whole hand, in fact it usually has a rash from all of the sucking, see, you were even doing it during the photo shoot

You are my little sleeper.  You take about 4 naps a day and you usually sleep about 9-10 hours at night (thank you very much).

You are so quick at nursing and often times you will just stop look up at me and smile, it just melts my heart

You are easy, cute and delightful, you make me want to have more babies, but at the same time I like you being the baby of the family

Monthly Progression

I love watching you grow!

24 days of Christmas

Whew, it was a busy season, I am not quite sure what I am going to do with the girls now that Christmas is over.  Maya keeps wanting to do the advent calendar every morning she doesn't quite understand why we only do it at Christmas time, sad.....

So here are 6 tips for doing the activity advent Calendar.

Tip 1: I was flexible with the activities and switched some things around, 

the girls are only toddlers and they didn't know what was coming, 

so if I switched the activity the night before it was no biggy.

Tip 2: There were certain dates that had BIG activities, 

like going to the Go Fish Concert or Wonderland, 

those activities we were already going to do, 

so I just made them the advent activity.

Tip 3: If we had a busy day (like dance class and errands) 

I would plan something easy, like opening a book.

Tip 4: I tried to plan activities daddy could participate in on the weekends

or when he was done with school or work

Tip 5: It was really important that not all activities were about us, 

so I tried to incorporate the girls doing a few things for other people

Tip 6: Remember not everyday had to be a huge activity, keep it simple

Well here is my over view of our advent Calendar, plus the December 24th advent activity, thanks for keeping up with our crazy lives!

Advent Day #1: Pick a Gift out of the Compassion Christmas Catalog

Day #2: Make Ginger Bread Houses

Day #3: Make Christmas Pancakes

Day #4: Unwrap a New Book and Read

Day #5: Have Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows

Day #6: Make Christmas Popsicle Sticks

Day #7: Make Special Christmas Treat (Candy Cane Cookies)

Day #8: Write a Christmas Card to Someone(s)

Day #9: Pick out a Christmas Gift for another Child

Day #10: Go To Wonderland

Day #11: Send Balloons to Mommy Carrisa

Day #12: Open a new Ornament

Day #13: Dance to Christmas music in Christmas Dresses

Day #14: Make Hand Print Felt Reindeer's

Day #15: Go to Go Fish Christmas Concert

Day #16: Make Carmel Popcorn

Day #17: Watch a Christmas Movie

Day #18: Open a Gift from Jesus

Day #19: Have a Candle Light Dinner

Day #20: Have a Kids Christmas Party

Day #21: Decorate Sugar Cookies & Drive around and see Christmas Lights

Day #22: Bring Treats to Daddys Work or instead, Build a Fort

didn't quite happen

what really happened

Day #23: Go to Starbucks

and Finally

Day #24: Open Stockings after the Christmas Eve Service

Merry Christmas! You can watch our Christmas video on this post

Christmas Video

We made a little Christmas Time video of things we did this month, 

trying to never forget these days...

Christmas 2011 from Brett and Jenni Goodlin on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Jenni, Brett, Maya, Norah & Sarah

Advent Days:21-23

Christmas Eve is today!!   It was a bit of a rough morning to say the least and we aren't doing our last advent activity until this evening so I stepped away for a few minutes.  Let's continues with our Advent Days

Advent Day # 21: Decorate Sugar Cookie & Drive Around & See Christmas Lights (we got to do 2 activities this day!)

Maya's Design

Norah's design

Mommy's Design

Getting ready to see the lights!

It was snowing while we were driving around, so pretty! and there were even a few houses we went to that had music synced with their lights

We had made the sugar cookies to prepare for day #22, but plans changed...

Advent Day # 22: Bring Treats to Daddy's work.... or just kidding Make a Fort.  Because it snowed,  we had to change plans, see

Brett had a delay at work, and since it was still snowing  when he left, I didn't want to drive all the way to his work with the girls in the car with bad roads.  I hate driving in the snow, it gives me extreme anxiety, I think it is that California blood running through me as I drive.  I will pretty much do anything to avoid driving in the snow.

So since none of my children can read when they picked the advent activity, I had to think fast and I just told them that it said "Make a Fort,"  so they wouldn't be disappointed

this what we were suppose to do

and this is what we did instead

love this photo of our cat, Mew Mew attacking the lights as we set up

don't you love the static?

I let them watch a Christmas special in their fort and eat popcorn with marshmallows

Advent Day # 23: Go to Starbucks (yes, the girls love going to Starbucks!)

Picking out a treat and paying for it

sometimes Norah forgets to breath while drinking....

Self Timer Photo, love this one of Norah!

Now off to enjoy the last day of the Advent!