Jesse Tree Update

A few weeks ago I wrote about how we wanted to start a new Christmas tradition this year by doing nightly Jesse Tree devotions. Because the ornaments I wanted were pricey, I decided to make my own. So, I enlisted Jen and Erin to join me. We gathered one day while the older kids were in MDO, hired a sitter for the younger kids and went to a coffee shop to craft. We had precut the green felt circles and we would each make three of each ornament. At the end of the day we had completed almost all of the ornaments. We each took home a set to embellish later with embroidery, beads or whatever we had.

Starting December 1 we have done a nightly devotional. There were several different versions of the Jesse Tree so we chose the symbols and stories that we thought would be easiest for our children to understand. Ever night we read a story from one of our children's Bibles. We have 4 Bibles that we read from plus a Jesse Tree devotion. By reading from a children's Bible, the stories are shorter and written in a language that Katherine understands. Plus there are illustrations for her to look at as we read the story. The draw back is that not every Bible includes every story, hence the four Bibles.

The Bibles that we use are The Toddler Bible which is very short, basic stories. This was Katherine's first Bible and I had not planned to use it because they are so short but she went to get it out of her room to read one night. My favorite is The Big Picture Story Bible. It shares the Bible as a narrative that points to Christ which is the point of the Jesse Tree. I love how it is written. It does not have every story though. I also like the Rhyme Bible which we have had on our shelf for a long time but had not really read much. Each story is a long poem. The last Bible we are using is The Bible for Children. I just went to 1/2 price to find any good story Bible to fill in the gaps left by the other Bibles. It has every story but it is written at a higher level than we are right now.

We have our special Jesse Tree set up in the living room so we do our nightly devotions in there. The rule is that Katherine has to get ready for bed first. She is excited about our Bible story so this usually helps her to get ready for bed faster. We are planning to use the Jesse Tree devotions as a way to establish a better ritual for doing a family Bible time each night.
I don't want to paint a perfect picture of our devotion times. They can be a challenge. Katherine loves to read but for some reason she really has a hard time sitting still. She is distracted by the tree and the ornament as well as the fact that our harpsichord is right there and so she wants to sing a song.

After we read the Bible story Katherine gets to hang her ornament on the tree. Every night her goal is to hang the ornament as high as possible.

We are 10 days into it and you can see what our tree looks like so far.
And here are some close ups of some of our ornaments. Some of them are not 100% finished. I had great intentions of spending time each night by the fire embroidering the finishing touches but life is just too busy.

Creation
Adam and Eve and The FallNoah's Ark and the FloodAbraham's tent and a promise of a nationThe sacrifice of Isaac and God's providing of a ram

Jacob's Ladder

Moses and the burning bush

The passover lamb - Katherine was really interested in this story because twice it talked about blood. We talked about the plagues and then about the passover when they put blood on the doorposts. I am not sure why she was so interested in that detail but she keeps asking about the blood.

The 10 commandments and God's lawRahab

Doing our Jesse Tree has been a special time. I really look forward to this becoming a yearly tradition as well as it transitioning into a nightly Bible time.

I have had several other friends start a Jesse Tree this year as well. Melissa and Julie made ornaments by gluing these pages onto wooden disks and then using Modge Podge to seal them. They look really nice. Chrys and her extended family made ornaments that are all different over the holidays. She has done a wonderful job of writing nightly about their devotion. If you have not started the Jesse Tree this year, it is still easy to do. You can even just print off these pictures to have your kids color each night.

Out for the count

Today Katherine spent the day with Nana so I could do some Christmas shopping. She was supposed to take her nap there but told Nana she was not tired. Plus, she said she was wearing her "morning clothes" and not her jammies. So, I went to pick her up and take her home for a nap. It was one of those days where I really was not sure if I should just skip the nap or make her take a late one. I decided a late nap was better than a cranky toddler all evening. So, she went down at 5 pm. It is almost midnight right now and she is still asleep. She woke up once and I went in and she wanted to go back to sleep. This is not like my daughter. I am scared of what time she will wake up in the morning so I am headed to bed myself.

Morning update: Katherine was awake from 4:30-5:30, snuggled with me in her bed and then we slept until 7:30. That is a total of 13.5 hours of sleep!

Trains

Friday night we decided to spend the evening at the mall. There are a number of Christmas related activities so we were able to make an evening of it. The highlight of the evening is the huge train exhibit. There are many tracks with trains whizzing about the room at once. You are able to walk between the tracks and really look at the details. There are scenes from our city, the dessert, Mount Rushmore, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, a creek and a circus. A lot of people buy a train to have their name painted on and it is fun to look at those. Here is our most recent family photos. Neither kid's face is visible. Katherine decided to be shy and Caroline was asleep in the sling.


The kids all get a train conductor's hat. Katherine's head was not big enough to really keep it on. She finally did decide to post and smile though. She can be cute when she wants to be.

Birthday weekend O fun

This weekend was filled with parties. We had 3 birthday parties and 3 Christmas parties. It was fun but full.

The three birthday parties were for the children of my three best friends and therefore three of Katherine's best friends as well. Friday was Evie's 2nd Birthday. Evie was actually born on December 24th but since she shares a birthday weekend with Jesus we celebrated early. Jen did a great job making a cake in the shape of a guitar and musical note. They are actually a bunch of cupcakes put together in the shape and then iced as one cake. Katherine seems to always find the seat closest to the cake. I spent a lot of time making sure her fingers did not explore the cake before it was time.
Evie enjoyed the singing. She loves music which is why there was a musical theme to the party.
And here you see that Katherine loved her cupcake.
Saturday was Ben's 3rd birthday party. He also had a musical theme. Ben received a full youth drum set and it is amazing how well he can play it. He is going to be a rock star someday.



Katherine again is enjoying her cake. She was not happy about the fact that I scraped off half of the icing.
Sunday was Robert's 3rd Birthday party. It had a fireman theme. Here Katherine is decorating her hat with markers and stickers.
I have to point out her hair. Doesn't she look so cute and grown up with a real pony tail and a huge bow? It is amazing that she let me fix her hair like this three times this week though it never lasts the entire day.
Robert concentrates as he decorates his hat.
Evie is proud of her creation.
Again Katherine has a front row seat for the cake action. I think we were all on a sugar high this weekend.

Christmas shopping with the kids

Today was a random day where there was nothing on the calendar. Like everyone at this time of year I have a list (actually several lists) a mile long of a lot of things to do. I thought that I would actually try to get out and do a little Christmas shopping with the kids. In my mind I decided to have NO expectations. I am really good at having a long list of things to do and getting frustrated when I only get to cross off two things. With NO expectations for the day I hoped to reduce my self imposed stress so that no matter what was accomplished it would be a success.

We started out pretty late because my Rip Van Winkle baby decided to sleep until 10:15. If only my early to rise toddler were on the same schedule. I actually gave Katherine the choice of shopping or staying home. I did not have to run these errands and so if she was not going to be in the mood for a successful trip I would have rather stayed home. She was excited to go run errands. First stop, CVS. I had a $5 off $15 purchase that expired today and I can always use some diapers. Katherine behaved, Caroline happy, move on to the next stop, Office Depot. We bought paper and labels for Christmas card letters and a few Christmas gifts. Next stop Bed Bath and Beyond with Best Buy next door, a double whammy. Would we make it. Yes! We bought presents for 4 more people! Katherine did a great job of staying by me.

The surprise of the day though was when we went to Best Buy and I noticed something in our stroller that did not belong to us. It was a stuffed frog key chain that Katherine had played with at Bed Bath and Beyond. Uh Oh - our first shoplifting experience. We talked about how we could not have it because we did not pay for it and that we would have to take it back. She was sad that she could not have it but did not cry or throw a fit. We went back to Bed Bath and Beyond and put it back. I was going to make her apologize but the cashier was busy and she was already sorry. I did not have my camera, only my phone so the picture of her hugging the frog is not that great.I tried to make this a teachable moment. It is a good lesson to learn. I am sure all kids have taken something from a store at some point. I remember for me it was gum or candy. At her age she was not intentionally stealing and we were able to discuss it.

We finished our shopping day with a successful trip to Kohl's where I found a "K" ornament I had been searching for and last the Chick-Fil-A drive through. She would have loved to have gone in but we needed to get home for a nap. I was very proud of how the kids did. They far exceeded my expectations.

Gangsta Ballet

I love my preschoolers sense of style. She wanted to wear her tutu. In fact, she has requested that she wear her tutu a lot lately. The problem is that I don't know what she should wear with it. She does not have any leotards and it is too cold and a little odd to wear it with nothing underneath. So, I had her wear her tutu over jeans. I was not sure where we were going that day so I had a turquoise and white striped shirt on to kind of match the turquoise and brown tutu. Then Katherine went to her closet to get a jacket because she was cold. Thank goodness we had a jacket that matched. It is quite a funny ensemble though. I call it the Gangsta Ballerina.

By the way, did you know that ballerinas don't clean up? Katherine told me that this morning after dumping her toys out looking for her ballerina toy. I asked her to clean it up and she said "ballerinas don't clean up". Really? I told her that ballerinas that don't clean up have their tutu put away in the top of their closet so they can't wear it. She cleaned up.

Crafts

Katherine has really gotten into crafts lately. She requests it pretty much every day so at the least we will get out the markers or paints. If I get my act together I will try to have something a little more creative.

I love the Internet because there are so many websites and blogs with cute ideas of activities and crafts to do with kids. Awhile I saw this cute activity on flipflops and applesauce blog. You take a used dryer sheet (good chance to reuse and be "green") and cut it in half. You then paint it. The only paints we have are washable finger paints and it worked fine. I am sure you could use any kind of paint.

Then you cut some antennae and clip it all together with a clothespin. They are cute little butterflies. Ours are hanging by our light in the breakfast room and Katherine talks about them all the time.
You can see behind the butterflies how we display a lot of her artwork. We have a ribbon across the window with clothespins. We never put curtains over this window so it works perfectly. I had great intentions of doing a weekly lesson with Katherine from the letter of the week. I even went so far as to find an unused lesson plan book. I made the learning poster with a section for the theme, vocabulary word, letter, nursery rhyme, number, shape, color, memory verse and bible story of the week. I was gung ho and filled out "lesson plans", really just ideas for the week. I was amazed at how hard it was to fit in simple activities and am ashamed to say that the learning poster still pretty much looks like this with week one on display for the last 12 weeks. We love to paint and every time Katherine paints she decides that she needs to not only use the brushes but finger paint as well. I like seeing her concentration. Sometimes we color using coloring book pages and sometimes I give her a blank sheet. I think both methods allow for creativity and working on certain skills. When she has a coloring page she intentionally colors different sections different colors. It is funny to see what colors she picks sometimes. She has no desire to make them realistic and that is OK.

Katherine loves it when our craft involves scissors and "blue" (her version of glue). She is pretty good at cutting as long as it does not matter the shape that she cuts. So, if we are trying to find animals or something in her magazine I have to help her with the cutting.
I try as best I can to follow up with the lessons at church so we spent a lot of time on the Creation story. You can see her working on the plants. She loves using glue and sand to make a picture.
In fact, every time we go outside she requests that we bring the "blue" so we can make a picture. Luckily we have a sandbox right there on the patio and it is an easy craft.
Over Thanksgiving Grammy had a turkey sticker craft for the kids.

4.5 months

Yesterday I took Caroline to her 4 month doctor's appointment. We were 2 weeks late because Katherine had a school program at the same exact time that Caroline's appointment was scheduled and it was two weeks before they could reschedule.

Caroline's stats for the day:
Weight: 12 pounds 8 ounces (17%)
Height: 25 inches (60%)
Head circumference: 40.4 cm (25%).

You may notice that though she gained 2 pounds in 2.5 months, she dropped from the 47% to the 17%. So, it looks like Caroline is going to be a little thing just like her big sister. This time around it is not stressing me out that she is small because I have seen how Katherine thrives even though she is so petite. My pediatrician reminded me that as a mom who exclusively breastfeeds and does not start solids until 6 months I am more likely to have a skinny baby than babies who are on formula or are starting solids at 4 months.

What is interesting is that in my mind Caroline is bigger than Katherine was. She seems to move into the next size clothes sooner and just seems bigger. But, when I look at Katherine's 4 month stats (at 4 months, 5 days, compared to Caroline's 4 months 15 days), she weighed 12 pounds 1 ounce and measured 24.75 inches. She was 20% weight and 70% height so actually a tad bigger. That was a shocker to me.

I was a bad blog mommy and totally forgot my camera. So, there is no photo on the scale. But wait, I remembered that I had my small video camera so there is footage playing on the exam table. She also shows her rolling skills. She has mastered rolling from her tummy to her back, always to the right.

Who is this bearded man?

We don't have a very good track record with Santa. Katherine's first Christmas she was 10 months old. The first visit to Santa resulted in tears. You can see how scared she looks.
We went back later and she did better. She is not crying but she is not smiling either.
Last year Katherine was 22 months. We went to see Santa with her cousin Sophia. As you can see, she screamed. Another day we were in another mall where they had a rocking horse set up for kids just like Katherine. So, she had her photo with Santa without having to interact with him. We already went to see Santa once this year as a family. Katherine refused to sit on his lap. She would only sit on Sam's lap. It is a cute family pic that will be used for our Christmas card.

Today we met Amy, JG and Ava at the mall to participate in all of the Christmas festivities. We started with Santa's story time. Notice that it is the same Santa in the photo each year. He has been at the same mall for at least the last 20 years. I think he is the real deal. He arrived for story time through the chimney.
Next we went to see Scrooge. I remember seeing Scrooge at the mall when I was a child. I still can't figure out how he "sees" the audience and can interact with them so well. Really his whole show is making fun of the audience and is more geared to the adults. We missed the puppets because after lunch the toddlers needed a potty break.
Last we went back to see Santa. When we were there before we took a number so that we did not have to wait in line as long. You can see that Caroline did great.
When it was Katherine's turn to join Caroline she was very hesitant. I told her she did not have to sit on his lap, she just needed to stand by him. I even bribed her by telling her that if she sat on his lap and did not cry we would get an ice cream. I am a horrible mother.
Santa has a lot of experience with hesitant kids. After passing off Caroline he invited Katherine to stand on his stool to look at something. The next thing I know, he actually has her on his lap playing with a toy.
We never did get a smile, but I have a picture of Katherine, on Santa's lap NOT CRYING!

Christmas Cards

I love receiving Christmas cards. It is so fun to see photos of friends and their kids as well as to read what everyone is up to.

I just finished the photo card portion of our cards tonight. It was so easy so I thought I would pass along my source. I used Jamie Wee Little Designs for our card. I also used her for Caroline's birth announcement. Both times it was so quick and easy and I love my custom card design. Both times I looked at a lot of other sites but when I compared the quality, custom card and the price there was no competition.

The card we "copied" for Caroline's announcement.

So, if you have not done your Christmas cards yet, I would check out Wee Little Designs. You browse her gallery and fill out an order form telling her what you want. For Caroline's birth announcement I pretty much used a design she had and just changed the color. For our Christmas card I was more difficult. I wanted the colors of one card, the layout of another and the wording of another. I emailed Jaime my request and my photos last night at 7pm and this morning at 10am I had a proof. She was willing to change anything but I loved it the first time around. From the proof you can either have her print the cards and mail them to you or you can buy the jpeg file. I like to buy the jpeg file because inevitably I forget a few people and have to order more cards. It was only $24 for the file and I can have it printed anywhere. If you have priced photo cards you know this is a great deal.

If you want holiday cards printed by her you need to place your order by December 7th. I am not sure the deadline for just the jpeg file. If you place an order, tell her I sent you.

ps-I get no benefit from your referral. I am just one happy customer that thought I would pass it along.