Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Santa came to Playday at the community center this morning. Brady eagerly went up to Santa for a picture and toy. There was no way that Amie was going up to him! She eventually got a toy and ran away. I rarely get photos of just Amie and Brady together. And they were playing very well together this morning.

We've done many Christmas activities this month with our advent calendar.  I don't like to give candy every day (we have plenty of cookies), so many days we have an activity to do together. On our one snow day, we made a giant poster of winter scenes to hang on the wall near one Christmas tree. Amie, who will not pose for pictures, kept photo bombing my attempts to take a picture of the poster! That is marker on Amie's mouth.  She "helped" too. Ta-da! One night, we drove to Altoona to see the Lights on the Lake at Lakemont Park.  Brady was so excited all day long.  I had to hear him ask me if it was time to go pick up Natalee ALL DAY LONG!  After we picked up Natalee from the bus, we finally drove to the lights. Brady made a goofy face.  We were waiting to get into the lights. This is always my favorite part of the lights display.  Saturday, we made Christmas cookies with Gram and Mamma.  They drove up ...

Every year we make ornaments for our trees from salt dough.  We rolled the dough and cut shapes on Monday.  Today, the advent calendar activity was painting the ornaments. We also painted ornaments in 2009 with Lilly , 2010 , 2011 , and 2012 .  Okay, that made me feel a wee bit guilty.  Apparently I let Brady paint the ornaments when he was Amie's age.  Next year. Natalee imprinted her hand into the dough for an ornament. This year, both kids had thought into their designs. For the most part, they wanted to paint each thing what color they really would be instead of just randomly painting. They even came back and painted a second layer on some of them, like ornaments on the trees  This was the first year that it held Brady's attention the entire time. Natalee's hair is getting to be really long.  She accidentally dipped it in the white paint!  Yes, we chose to do this activity while Amie was napping :)

I finally finished my picture slideshow from last year.  As in the year 2012.  Usually around Christmas I compile a slideshow of my favorite pictures from throughout the year.  However, after we said our final goodbyes to our dog, Meg, I could not bear to finish the slideshow.  I just did not want to look at the pictures. This past week I have been feeling really ill, (and Jesse had off work) so I had plenty of time to finish last years slideshow.  (I almost have this years done too!) This shows how old the pictures are.  There are pictures of: Amie just after birth, Mount Rushmore, Idaho, Glacier National Park, North Topsail Beach North Carolina, Lake Tobias Wildlife Park, Ryan & Brandy's wedding, and much more.  I also compiled some pictures of Meg throughout her life at the end.  With all of that, be prepared with some time to watch the slideshow (with music-- you'll want to turn up the volume).  We did a lot of awesome adventures...

Since rain is in the forecast, today's advent calendar activity was putting up the outside Christmas lights. It was a lot warmer today, too. Kudos to Jesse for his help with this. It takes a lot of patience to do this activity with kids! I couldn't do much because of still feeling ill.

Sunday PSU played UConn. I thought it was a good game even though Penn State lost. I got some good pictures out of it.

Earlier this week, nearly all of the leaves from the tree out back came down overnight. There where a ton of leaves after I blew them off of the driveway and into this area under the tree. Amie went down the slide with Natalee but then she didn't know what to do.  She just stood there! I had the camera on the wrong setting, but I still wanted to show what they were doing.  They were having a blast holding onto each others feet while going down the slide together.

On a rainy day last week, we made some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  By looking at old pictures I realized that I don't let Amie do some things that I let Natalee do at this age.  So, I decided to brave it and let her help.  Which is why I had to vaccuum later. Brady did a lot of the measuring by himself. Yum! Messy face!

Brady has been sick the past two days with a fever and sore throat. This morning he was complaining about his throat. Brady: Every time I drink, my throat hurts. Me: That's what happens when your throat is sore. Brady: Why? Me: Your throat is irritated and raw inside. Brady: Did you not cook me?

This was one of the many times that I feel fortunate to live near family that are willing to help me. Dad stayed at the house with Brady and Amie while I went to Natalee's school to help with Fall Fun Day. I was placed with some of my friends at the Pumpkin Rolling station, which was a relay. I felt like the PE teacher in me had to come out for a few hours! I felt a bit rusty at first, but it was fun (and COLD!). I had some hot tea when I got home :)

This day didn't go as I planned.  It was kind of disappointing.  I wanted  this to be a family event.  Brady, Natalee and I had been going on training runs.  Momentarily, they wanted to run the entire 5k.  I had them convinced to run the one mile race with me, but then they decided they just wanted to do the kids fun run.  When they decided that, I signed up for the 5K and then I could still see them in the fun run. BUT, Natalee came home from school on Thursday with a fever and it continued on Saturday.  Jesse stayed home with Natalee and Amie.  Brady wanted to invite his Gram anyway, so she picked him up and met me for the start of his race.  I ended up running that with him, too, despite the fact that I didn't feel the best either! Brady was really proud of his medal!  He did a really good job running.   Here are a few shots I took outside last week.  Brady didn't cooperate, so it's only Amie. My scar...

 This year, both I coached both Natalee and Brady's soccer team.  Natalee definitely gained a lot of confidence this year.  When she really wanted to, she was really good! Unfortunately, this was the only game that Brady played on my half of the team (we split our team in half and play two games at the same time).  I sent him with the other coach because that is what he wanted.  From what I heard, he started really trying and improved! Our poor family members that came to watch had to watch both fields at the same time! It was so fun coaching this team.  I'm sad that it is over already :( I would love to have more pictures, but since I am the coach, I do not have very many.

Today, I was quickly gathering my last minute things for Play Day. I mistakenly left Brady and Amie downstairs.  Brady decided to get out the markers. I returned to the basement to see Amie holding a marker and coloring her nose. (She had already colored her hands and shirt) I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since she has a fascination with noses right now! At least she didn't color her belly button this time. All I could do was grab a wet washcloth and wipe her nose as good as I could. We had to leave! She had a slightly pink nose all day long.

Back one day in September, Brady was really missing being able to play with Natalee.  So, we went out and set off his rocket.  Brady was extremely excited about it. It worked quite well with the new baking soda.  But then I made the mistake of having him try to do it himself. The vinegar activated the baking soda before he was ready. He wasn't very happy about it.  Then, he only wanted me to set off the rocket! While I was pruning the rose bush, this preying mantis gave me a fright.