The Mary and Joseph Wedding

 One of our advent messages told us to have a pretend Wedding for Mary and Joseph.  So we used streamers to decorate for the wedding, we used hooded towels as our head dresses and we used special rings to marry Mary and Joseph.  Lauren was super pumped to walk down the aisle to her groom (aka her brother).  They exchanged rings and kisses and were married. 

Schmidt Family Christms

 At the beginning of December we went to Rockford for our Schmidt family Christmas.  It was fun.  All the kids got along great playing games and doing crafts.  Nick was able to sell some of his art work and made, I think, over 3 dollars (suckers!!)  We bought one and I tried to throw it away 3 times and Lauren kept finding it and would hang it back up. 

 Jay and Luke trying to play a game.  I think Jay gave up once Luke knocked all the guys out of place.

 So now Great Grandpa will give it a try.  Grandpa thinks Luke is pretty special and Luke thinks grandpa's pretty special.  I love that both of my grandparents are around to see and interact with my 2 children. 

 The whole clan.  Except for Max's 2. 

 Opening presents.

 Playing a little music....which got a little out of hand so we had to close the lid.  Notice how Luke is playing the piano with his face!!

Luke feeding grandpa a cookie. 

2 peas in a pod

Do these two look like they love each other or what?  They really do.  They are always hugging each other and playing together.  Luke's new thing is to ride Lauren....which goes ok for a few seconds then he falls off.  Whenever Lauren has to go to her room because she is in trouble Luke gets really upset because he wants Lauren around.  He doesn't really know what to do with himself when she is not playing with him.  Lauren is really patient with him, which can be hard at times because he doesnt' have much of an attention span and he likes to destroy things.  He tries to play nice but it is hard. 

Christmas Pictures

December is always my favorite time of year.  I usually have my tree up before thanksgiving because I love having it up as long as possible.  I love looking at Christmas light and listening to
Christmas music.  My kids are at a great age to help and enjoy all the fun with me.  Which is nice since I am married to scrooge!!  We have an Advent calendar that has little doors and each day has a message in it.  I did an alphabet theme this year.  C is for candy cane (then I got them each a special candy cane), W is for wedding (we had a fake wedding pretending to be Mary and Joseph) M is for movie (they got a new movie)  B is for bible (I read a bible verse and they lite a candle around the Advent wreath)  O is for ornament (they got a new ornament to hang on the tree)  L is for light (we went to watch the light show)  And that is just a few.  We went to see Santa.  Lauren was really excited and talked to him.  Luke was excited from a far.  He did ok on his lap but you could tell he wasn't so sure about this fat guy.  I took Lauren to the dollar store to pick out gifts for the family.  It was really cute and thoughtful.  You could tell she really knows the people she loves.  A few examples:  She got poppy fake flowers because "Poppy loves flowers soooo much".  She got Nick a play tiger (which totally looks like something Nick would love).  When is was time to pick something for Uncle Mike I say "Lauren what should we get for Uncle Mike?"  she thinks long and hard and says, "He likes knifes!"  Yes he does.  We went to the knife aisle and got him a pairing knife.  She got Aunt Amy something from the clearance shelf....which means it was 1/2 off (50 cents!!).  Merry Christmas!!!

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Happy 5th Birthday baby girl!!

I can't believe my 2 lb miracle is 5!!!!   She was so excited to be five.  We woke her up Monday morning before school on Dec 3.  She wanted to open presents right away.  We fixed her favorite breakfast....Cinnamon rolls.  She got new pinkalicious cupcakes and a cupcake stand.  A new doll and a pretty princess game.  And lots of clothes.  She was excited to go to school.  Aunt Amy came to have lunch with her and brought her birthday treats (donuts)!!  That night we went out for pizza and then to Nana's for cake and more presents.  Nana made her a special pink elephant cake (at Lauren's request).  Nana and Amy got her an awesome Dora gymnastics doll and grandma and poppy got her a new camera.  Aunt  Mindy got her a cuddly warm blanket.  What a great birthday for such a special little girl. 

Princess Gymnastics Party

This was Lauren's first big friend party.  She wanted a princess gymnastics party.  We had it at Rising Stars.  It was fun.  I think we had about 16 kids. We had Disney Princess cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla).  The kids had a ball playing on all of the equipment.  Her favorite present was a barbie dog trainer.  She had about 5 friends from school and all the rest were my friends children.  She got some fun craft items that we had a lot of fun with on Thanksgiving. 

Luke 22 months

This little guy is full of it!!!  We have started to introduce time out which he now thinks is fun.  He does mind most of the time but does need a warning quite a bit.  He still has his pacifier.  We try to only let him have it a bedtime and naptime.  He is such a happy little person.  He loves to sing and dance.  He is not as into women's shoes as he used to be.....now he's into naked barbies!  He is really really fast and likes to run.  He is getting much better at communicating.  He is hard to understand but we can usually figure it out.  His words:  stop it, drinky, Lauren, more, done, gobble gobble, ho,ho,ho, blankey he calls it ni-ni, paci he calls ba, Santa, elmo (momo), and yuck (that's my favorite).  He knows all his body parts and points to them and knows some animal sounds.  He doesn't really like playing toys or watching TV.  He just wants to be doing anything that Lauren is doing.  He loves to eat.  He is a little more picky but can still put it away.  He loves sweets. 

Lauren Grace 5 years old

Lauren can be very shy at times especially around other people.  But at home around loved ones she is so silly sometimes.  She is learning so much at school.  She is a little bossy and sassy but super sweet and cuddly.  Her favorite food is bread and ranch and McDonalds chicken nuggets.  She loves wearing fancy dresses and skirts.  Something she might say:   "that's ridiculous", "Stoooop it (which is now Luke's favorite word).  "Daddy you are being inappropriate", "I want to be first" "You're my best friend....or  YOU ARE NOT MY BEST FRIEND".  She is helpful and a pretty good listener most of the time.  She is really into barbies, stuffed animals and baby dolls.  Her favorite game is hide and seek.  She is a really good hider.  She hides from me every night when it's bedtime.  Her favorite TV show is sponge bob....even though I don't really like to admitt that we let her watch it. 

Trick-or-Treat

Here's the Seasme Street Clan!!!  We had so much fun trick-or-treating this year.  It was chilly but not too cold.  Both kids thought it was great going door to door.  And we got a ton of candy.  Luke was able to knock on the door himself and say trick-or-treat. 

Scarecrow Day

Instead of having halloween parties and celebrating with costumes Lauren's school has what's called
Scarecrow Day.  They dress like scarecrows and have all sorts of cute scarecrow activities.  At the school I teach at we do the same.  We have a Fall Festival and dress like farmers.  Aren't we cute!!

Carving pumpkins

Yes it's almost Christmas and I am blogging about Halloween!!  I was having some blog trouble but now I'm back in business.  So watch out I will have a lot of posts!   I always enjoy carving pumpkins every year.  Craig does not but he humors me.  Lauren was very excited and helpful.  She helped me pick out the face.  Luke, as you can see, thought it was really awesome to stand on the table and hold the big spoon.  He did try to dig in the pumpkin a little.  Once we got the candles lit he really like looking inside the pumpkin.