December Daily: Day 14

I'm loving my version of the Christmas apothecary jars on Pinterest.

December Daily: Day 13

 Christmas Candy & Fruit Packing

December Daily: Day 12

 A few scenes from our church Christmas program "No Trumpets Blowing".

December Daily: Day 11

As usual, the Nursery class Christmas presentation was highly entertaining! ;-)

December Daily: Day 10

December Daily: Day 9

Our most played Christmas albums this year.

December Daily: Day 8

December Daily: Day 7

Literally, within the past week or so, Little Miss Attitude has come to stay at our house. Sabrina has always been a fairly easy going (but very stubborn) little girl. She has shown plenty of independence and other typical two-year-old behavior since she turned two in May, but lately she's decided to take things up a notch or two - just to make life a little more exciting around here, of course.

December Daily: Day 6

I love how this nativity set gets so much love from little hands every year. It seems like this year they are enjoying it more than ever. Both Grant and Ryleigh love acting out the Christmas story with the little people and animals. In fact, Ryleigh has promised us a "show" (telling her version of the Christmas story using this set) soon and has been "practicing" for it. It's going to be interesting I'm sure! :-)

December Daily: Day 5

We had our annual church Christmas banquet tonight. As usual, our kids thoroughly enjoyed greeting people as they came in the door with a "Merry Christmas!" and a candy cane for everyone. They all looked so cute that I got my camera out to take a picture of them in action, only to find out that my camera battery was dead. So. Annoying. There were quite a few candy canes left over, so Ryleigh and Grant insisted on decorating the small tree that stands in my dining room with them. It looks cute, but I'm not sure if I like the idea of having candy within such easy reach of little hands. Guess we'll have to see how it goes....

December Daily: Day 4

December Daily: Day 3

The first wrapped gifts to appear under the tree.

December Daily: Day 2

Christmas gifts in the making.

Hello, December!

Wait a minute...is it really December already?? Phew... let's not talk about how long it's been since I posted. Let's just move on with December Daily, okay? :-)

Yes, you read right. December Daily is (hopefully) back again this year. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be doing my December Daily album this year 'cause...well, let's just say that last year's December Daily album remains unfinished in my poor little abandoned storage scrapbook room! Maybe, just maybe, I was a little overzealous. This year I'm gonna try not to be such an overachiever.

So, to kick off this great month, I'm gonna get to have a photo shoot today with this little sweetie here:

It's none other than my adorable niece, Avery Madison Habecker. I was privileged to be there for her birth just about six weeks ago. She is such a little sweetie & her Aunt Shari can't get enough of her!

Of course, I can't mention Avery without mentioning the other special additions we've had to our family within the last few weeks. My sister Brenda and her husband welcomed Kayla and James into the family via the beautiful process of adoption. They have already become so precious to all of us and we are so grateful for both of them!

Hello, Kindergarten!

Ever since she turned five in February, Ryleigh has been asking when she could go to school. In fact, the morning of her birthday, she woke up & asked, "So...when am I going to school?" So, after a flurry of

 filling out paperwork,

 

picking out school supplies (can you tell that this girl loves pink?), 

ordering uniforms, registering, etc., the day FINALLY came.

She looks a little sleepy in these photos, but she was super excited!

A few facts about Kindergarten:

• She has 10 other kids in her class & five of them are from our church. (Yeah, we had a baby boom that year - a total of 11 babies born between February & September!)
• Her teacher is Miss Rachel Thomas & Ryleigh really loves her.
• She says that her favorite part about school is recess & music class. Mrs. Jessica Maloyed is her music teacher & is obviously doing a great job with her students. I was really surprised this past Sunday in church when Ryleigh started pointing out half notes in the hymnal!
• She is my little bookworm & really loves Library Day, when she is allowed to check out a book from the school library to bring home. Seems like she reads constantly & is now starting to read books to Grant & Sabrina. 
• One of her favorite friends from school is Jaron Reese. I was shocked and caught off guard today when she got in the van & she said, "Guess what I did to Jaron, today? I kissed him!" Both Jeff & I said "WHAT?!" which sent her immediately ducking behind the seat with embarassment. She wouldn't talk any more about it for the longest time, but then later said that she had only blown him a kiss. Hopefully that's all it was & it didn't scar him for life! :-)
• Last week she came home with an announcement/permission slip for a field trip to Reptile Land in a couple of weeks. For some reason, she thought we might not let her go & acted so surprised & excited when I told her that she can definitely go. Several times throughout the weekend, she would randomly give me a super tight hug and thank me profusely for letting her go on her field trip. She is such a funny girl!