Holiday Baking!

Over the last few days we have been baking and decorating!!! The kids and I have made peanut butter tempation cookies, traditional Christmas cookies and our reindeer cookies! It is so much fun to bake with the kids and to give goodies away.....we just need to get everything out of the house so we don't eat it all:)The kids this morning putting frosting and sprinkles on their cutout cookies!

Kailyn kept with it and ended up doing about 10 cookies before she was finished and I think that was just because she had run out of frosting!I found these reindeer cookies in the "Family Fun" magazine last year and they are just so cute and easy! This morning Kailyn's job was to put on the chocolate chip eyes and Will's was to put on the nose......well Will kept eating the M&M's so I took over his job:) All in all another wonderful season of baking completed! This year was so much more fun with Kailyn really getting into it and being able to do alot of it herself.....can't wait to see what Will does next year:)

Sled and Shovel.......

After work yesterday, Ryan went on an errand of love for the kids! We desperately needed some sleds for the kids and he even came home with little snow shovels for each of them:) Will was so excited that he used his the rest of the night indoors....he watched TV in it, sat with daddy and pretended to ride down a hill and even took it to his room when it was bedtime!It goes to show that it doesn't take much to entertain our kids....I think Kailyn would have probably done the same if she hadn't had the stomach flu:(

Snow!

Although we didn't get as much snow as the surrounding areas, we had a blast playing in the snow on Friday morning:) Snow angels were up first and then it was a free for all including some swinging and a baby snowman!

'Tis the Season!

Tuesday night was a busy one for our family!!! Ryan and Will headed to the parade of lights downtown and had some great father-son time watching the floats. Will came home exclaiming that he saw the "Grinch" and lots of dogs! What a mild, beautiful night for a parade.Kailyn took Grandma and Grandpa to her school for the "Over the River and Through the Woods" grandparent night! They got to do some crafts, games and hear a story, as well as some snacks.

Kailyn eating a yummy cookie!
Picking just the right pinecone to make her ornament:)Showing grandpa around.Thanks for a great night Grandma and Grandpa....I know that Kailyn had a great time!!!

And while everyone else was away, I actually had almost an hour and a half at home by myself......I can't tell you the last time that had happened! So..... I washed the floors, took a bubble bath with a good book and painted my toenails (all while listening to my favorite Christmas CD)....it was great!!!!!

Just chillin'

This was Will the other day while watching Diego.....the beanbags were a Thanksgiving gift meant to be used in the basement, but since we aren't quite finished the kids had fun with them in the living room! Such a little stud:)

Helpers:)

As our basement project continues, I thought I'd give you a glance at all the help that we are getting:)

The kids have loved helping in any way possible! I think Will's playset tools has found a new home on the stairs too!!!

Christmas Parade!

We kicked off the holiday season this year, as in the past, with the Hudsonville Christmas Parade. It's tradition for us to meet good friends at McDonald's for breakfast and then head outside for the parade. This year the weather was amazing and the parade was longer than I remembered. The kids got tons of candy and the company that we kept was awesome:)Passing the time by coloring and doing stickers!All the other friends that showed up and we were able to sit by!

Loving it!
All the bags filled with candy and Will even got a football.....it doesn't get any better than that!

Giving Thanks!

In an effort to teach my kids about Thanksgiving I set up this display on our slider. On one side we make sure to thank the One who gave us everything and on the other side we write the things we are thankful for on turkeys! This year has been so fun because Kailyn knows what she is thankful for and Will just repeats everything she says:) We have also been reading many books and doing tons of crafts! I love special holidays and seasons when I can focus on the real meaning of things with my children....it was one of the things I looked forward to the most with having my own children!We even did some baking and turned this sugar cookies into turkeys! This is one of the highlights so far and will definitely get more fun as the kids get older and can do more by themselves. But they loved putting on the candy corn feathers and the M&M eyes and of course....eating them!What follows are just a few of the crafts that we have done this year....we'll probably do a few more as Thanksgiving approaches but we've done most of the good ones. The kids also enjoyed just coloring a picture of a turkey and trying a color-by-number turkey!On the feathers are some of the things the kids are thankful for!

I had never done hand print turkeys with my own kids.....we even made some on a Happy Thanksgiving sign we made for great-grandma...she said she had never seen anything like that!We can't forget the pilgrims and what they went through so that they could worship our great God!

Thank you Lord for everything that you have blessed us with......we are truly grateful!

Oh, Christmas Tree......!!!!

Last Sunday night we decided it was finally time to put up the Christmas tree! That's right it was only November 15, but that is actually a little late for the Stehouwer household to be getting up the tree and all the trimmings! Will and I had cleaned the living room really well one day while Kailyn was in Threeschool in preparation! I had just started to get out a few things here and there but was ultimately waiting for Ryan to finish the basement......which we concluded would not be until after Thanksgiving. So after moving a few things around and turning on some Christmas music (Mercy Me) we hauled up the tree and the trimmings!In our family, one of our Christmas traditions is that every year the kids get to pick out an ornament to put on the tree. This year Will chose a football helmet and Kailyn picked a ballerina (no big surprises there if you know our children)!

Finding just the perfect place on the tree for their special ornaments!Will and Kailyn stuck with it for a long time, putting on almost every ornament that they could find or were allowed to put on.....needless to say the bottom of the tree was spectacular:) I ended up having to move at least half and disperse them evenly on the tree!
The finished Christmas tree!!! Will was in awe and Kailyn was loving it as usual. Thank you Lord for special moments and traditions!

Dolly and Me Tea Party!

Today Kailyn and I were invited to a dolly and me tea party to celebrate one of Kailyn's friends, Kaitlyn's, half birthday! Kailyn needed to dress in her finest dress and jewels to go to the party (which is right up her alley) and her dolly, Emma, needed to be dressed up too! When we arrived a craft table was set up for the girls to make a crown and a princess bracelet.

Then we headed downstairs where there were tons of things for the girls to do after they dropped their dolls off at dolly daycare (which was a room full of cribs and diapers and rocking chairs for the babies). There was a nail painting/stickers station, a place for the girls to pick out stick-on earrings and a ring (which Kailyn picked Ariel from the Little Mermaid). There was also a place for the girls to buy their dolls dress-up outfits and even a dressing room for them to get them dressed!!!!! There were also vanities where the girls could do their nails or put on make-up or do their hair.....Lindsey thought of everything:)Kailyn in the dressing room with Emma......Lindsey is taking a picture from above so Kailyn is looking up!
Washing Emma's "hair".....she then proceded to blow dry it and curl and comb it!!!!
Driving the "van" with baby Emma in the carseat way in the back:)

Once the girls had a chance to play for awhile they gave a fashion show!!!! Lindsey rolled out a roll of wrapping paper as the runway and the girls eached announced them and their dolls before twirling down the runway!!!All the girls and their dolls!
After the fashion show, we headed upstairs to have tea. Their was a little table set up with enough highchairs for all the dolls and even play cookies and cake and teacups for each doll. So the girls first served their babies tea and goodies and then headed to the big girl table!The girls singing "happy half birthday" to Kaitlyn before heading to the goody table that had all sorts of yummy treats! They also got to drink princess tea (pink lemonade) from real teacups!
The assortment of treats!
Kailyn's plate of goodies that she got all by herself!!!! Thank you so much Lindsey and Kaitlyn for inviting us to share such a special party with you and for the adorable fuzzy purse filled with special princess things:)