More Advent Fun

Geez, I totally forgot to update all the fun goings-on with our advent calendar in the last week or so! Here's what we were up to in the days preceding Christmas:

17) A visit to Santa! - Kind of a big ol' phooey on them though. Santa's elves and the powers that be decided that no more personal cameras were allowed and the only photo option was the terrible pics that they end up taking. So, we bought a 5x7 that I've yet to scan in & talked the head elf into letting me take a quick pic of Camille with Santa.

Anticipation!

Santa & Camille

18) Today's little box was stuffed full of red, white & green pom poms. We made a super-cute pom pom garland decoration. Brandon thinks it looks a little like something you might find in Whoville. Oh well, Mr. Grinch....we love our crafty creation!




19) Did you know that a Littlest Pet Shop pet fits perfectly inside our advent boxes?!!? Camille got a cute little panda inside today's box!


20) Because she had been totally wanting a nutcracker this Christmas, I stuck a paint-your-own nutcracker in today's box. We had lots of fun painting this cute guy!


21) Today we made an adorable reindeer purse. I use the term "we" a little loosely. I did all the stitching while Camille played around, and then she glued on the felt pieces for Rudolph's face, ears, etc. We stuffed him silly with yummy candies and whatnot!

22) Today we finished up our Christmas ornaments that we would be giving away. Not going to post any pics of those just yet - - I don't want to ruin the surprise for a certain "mountain gal."


23) Camille followed a trail of yummy candy to the cookie jar where she found a package of Chewy Sweetarts. A tasty little treat & a welcome day off from crafting for Mom! LOL!

24) It's time to get our reindeer food & Santa's cookies ready cause Santa Claus comes tonight!!


25) Christmas joy & mahem :)


Phew!! What a ton of fun we had this year with the advent calendar. It's kinda sad that it's over and nothing to count down for! I think that we might have to do a bit of a birthday countdown for Camille in January perhaps. Here's a little LO I made to highlight this new tradition for our family:

O Little Town

Despite our run-in with all things yucky in the last weeks with the girls' being sick, our December and count-down to Christmas has been so much fun! We've done some great things together & it's been a blast watching Camille have such a fantastic time this holiday season!

Continuing on with our advent calendar:
12) Let's take a trip to the town where Jesus was born! Camille and I read several books about Jesus' birth today in preparation for our trip to Bethlehem (in Burnet). Oh, what a great time!! This was the first year that she was really into it, and it was just fabulous! Aunt Carol & Granny came down and we met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Thomas & Lauren as well. It was so much fun!

Daddy & Lily all snuggled up!

Camille petting a camel w/ Grandpa

Joseph & Mary with baby Jesus. Um, apparently the wise men brought a construction paper collage for baby Jesus and placed it on the hay!! hee hee!

Day 13) Candy cane -- We made some yummy peppermint candy together to give as gifts!

Day 14) A little note led Camille to the cookie jar. Inside, there was a monkey puzzle that you could color & decorate. Such fun! Our little monkey loved this activity!

Day 15) Another monkey! Today, Camille received her Christmas ornament from us - a Webkinz monkey. So stinkin' cute!! I gave Brandon his ornament as well - - a Texas Tech ornament I made for him :)

Day 16) A little note lead Camille to the cookie jar once more. This time she got a Build-a-Bear tin box with candies inside!

In the midst of all this fun & Christmas merriment, I've managed to create a few LOs as well!

Counting Down!

It's so much fun beginning family Christmas traditions and this year I began something new with Camille - - the advent calendar. We have done the countdown calendars before, and last year we added marked the days by adding a cotton ball to Santa's beard and cap until he was all fluffy white and Christmas was here.

I really wanted to do something more - - and those advent boxes are Target were so calling to me!! So, I picked one up and we've been having the most fun! Camille excitedly runs downstairs every morning to see what the day brings for her - - a fun surprise and one day closer to Christmas :)

And, just because I want to remember.....I'm going to list all the things we've done for this advent season:

1) "Let's make something together" note from Mom - - We made glittery snowglobes.

2) A clue leading to the cookie jar where Camille found a Build-a-Bear notepad.

3) A little teensy-weensy duck that grows when you put him in water.

4) A birthday candle - - a reminder of Jesus' birthday that we are celebrating. The candle also represents light - the light of Jesus in our hearts!

5) A popcorn kernel & a red bead. We popped popcorn, watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, then made a cute Rudolph craft.

6) Two beads - one red, one white.....another fun craft day making candy cane ornaments.

7) A sweet note reminding Camille about how precious a gift she and Lily are to us. Family is a wonderful blessing from the Lord. She got to choose a way that we could all spend time together today. As it turned out, we made the candy cane ornaments from the day before!!

8) mmmmm.....My Little Pony lip balm! Perfect for those wintry chapped lips!

9) Crafty clues: a foam snowflake and a mitten. We made a cool snowman scene!

10) Today Dad got a surprise! The clue in the box was for him, and led him to his stocking where Camille had hidden the movie Christmas Vacation.

11) Yet another crafty day - - are we sensing a pattern here?!?! Today we made a felt penguin door hanger.

I'll be popping in to update this list as the month goes on :)
We have seriously had so much fun! It's been a great way to really focus on spending time together and making the holidays super-fun for my sweet girl!

Brinner Date

My sweet Camille was needing some mommy time. She has been asking about having a Mommy-date, but everyone's been sick and timing just hasn't been right. Today, as she sulked about me not playing with her while I tried frantically to sweep & mop the downstairs, I knew that it was high time to take my monkey on a date!

I let her decide where we'd go for dinner & she chose IHOP. Um, big surprise there! My girl loves some brinner (breakfast for dinner ;). She was hoping for the Horton Hears a Who pancakes, but since that was just a short promotional thing - - she had blueberry pancakes and we rented the movie afterward! A super-fun brinner date :)

The Land of the Sickies

Oh my goodness, have things been crazy around here. Both girls have been sick for about a week. We thought that they were just suffering from allergies, but once the fever set in, we knew something else had to be going on. We ended up going to the doctor's office on Friday - Camille had a respiratory infection and Lily had an ear infection. Both are definitely on the mend since beginning antibiotics. I pray they feel better soon and that this passes quickly.

Here's my sweet Lil' fast asleep in her high chair - - just too exhausted to do anything but crash!

Although we've been under the weather, I've been super-busy trying to get things done around here. I guess the upside has been that Lil' has been taking longer naps, allowing me the time to get some things knocked out. Our recent dining room - to - playroom conversion is still underway, and I added this photo grouping that I'm pretty happy with. Now, no looking too closely! I dropped one of the frames, broke the glass, and will have to replace it :)

I am loving the way this turned out. I actually got the idea from Tara Whitney, whose pictures far surpass my own humble shots, but hey, a girl's gotta start somewhere, right?

Camille has already been getting so much use out of this room, and I'm glad that I finally let the dining room go. It's been nice to have a place for her to play downstairs, and I'm sure that once Lily is moving about, it'll be great to have a place for her as well.