The Letter L

I taught joy school the week after Thanksgiving. We learned about the letter L, the number 11, and the color red.

On the first day I had the boys take turns drawing a L word out of a jar. We would do an activity (or a few activities) for that L word and then draw another word out.



Ladybug - we did a ladybug pom pom magnet picture and some ladybug puzzles (found here).



Then we had a ladybug snack (apple slices with raisins stuck on using peanut butter).



Lion - we went on a lion hunt.



We found lions with the numbers 0-11 on them and then put them in numerical order.



Lemons and Limes - we stamped using lemons and limes (cut in half) on a L. And then we drank pink lemonade.



Lamb - we glued cotton balls onto paper plates to make lambs.



Llama - we read the book Lana Llama's Little Lamb.

Lizard - we read the book Where's My Tail? and did a Lively Lizard tracing worksheet.

Legos - we built L's out of legos and ate candy legos.



The second day was more Christmas themed. We did a lot of Christmas light activities.

We did few different Christmas light pom pom magnet pictures (one found here, the other I can't find at the moment).



We ate rice krispy treats shaped like Christmas lights.



And while we ate, we watched a YouTube video of Christmas lights set to music.



We made Christmas lights with fingerprints.



I attempted to have them do some patterns with Christmas lights (found here), but they were so not into that...



We made a Christmas tree craft.



We played a Christmas number game (found here).



And finally did some color sorting with Christmas pictures.



It was a lot of fun! Although I'm really glad I got my week over with at the beginning of December. I can't even imagine having to host this week (or even last week) while also trying to do all the last-minute Christmas prep!

A Colorado Thanksgiving

We had a most enjoyable trip to Colorado that included:

*A delicious Thanksgiving feast.

I was in charge of rolls - a responsibility I took very seriously. I made the World's Best Dinner Rolls. (I also made cranberry punch and whipped cinnamon butter.)



All the big kids "enjoying" their Thanksgiving feast - except Jaxon who was taking a nap. Our darn kids hardly touched theirs and ended up eating corn dogs.



*Black Friday shopping. I hit up Kohl's Thursday night and then we did the outlets Friday morning.

*A visit to Rex's house to admire his new Xbox One and try out their tramp.



*An awesome impromptu road rally in Grandma and Grandpa's basement.

Corbyn on the big wheel.



Me on the scooter and Jaxon being pushed by Irving on the bike with training wheels.



Peyton on the Didi Car. (Yeah, I just had to look that up.)



(And not pictured, Aiden and Sam on the other Big Wheel.)

*A shower for Taylor and Martha's little girl coming in January.

I was in charge of a drink and a game - I did a hot chocolate bar and the game where you cut a string to try to guess how big her belly is.



Funny story about this penguin toy we got them. We bought it while Black Friday shopping at Carter's... Taylor and Martha were checking out at the same time and we could tell they were thinking about buying it, so Rog stepped in and told them we had one that broke really quickly - a total lie that accomplished its purpose. They didn't buy it and we all had a good laugh about it when she opened it!



*Hanging Christmas lights. My husband is a dork!



*Grandma Dixie's cookie party.



*Exchanging Christmas presents. We did our sibling (and spouse) gift exchange, the cousin gift exchange, and gave Mike and Dixie their big gifts we all chipped in on.



I also gave out all my homemade gifts. Rocky and Taylor and Martha's little girl got their monkey sets that I gave to everyone else back in 2011 - glad to have those done as they are a labor of love (in other words, quite time consuming).



*Dinner at Crave - cut short because Peyton was sick with McKae's stomach flu she had on Thanksgiving. (And Corbyn got it a few days later - no fun!)

*Rocky and Mason's baby blessings - so glad they could do it while we were all there!



*Playing with baby toys.



*Corbyn hanging out with his cousins and fitting right in.



Grandma Dixie and Grandpa Mike with all 8 of their grandkids - one of these is not like the others. (Peyton is excited for Taylor and Martha's little girl to join the party!)



It was a great trip! We had fun celebrating Thanksgiving (and Christmas), throwing a shower for Martha, blessing Rocky and Mason, and just spending time together as a great big Phillips family!

19 Months

I realized the other day that since Peyton started walking at 9 months, she has now been walking for longer than she wasn't. Kind of crazy considering some kids don't walk until 18 months!

PJ at 19 months:

*Says Peyton.

*Had a permanent goose egg most of the month where she cut her forehead. (Jason says this is because the blood vessels were weak from trying to heal the cut, so whenever she hit her head they would swell up.)



*Says down all the time, but it sounds more like another 4-letter d word - such a potty mouth!

*Since she won't sit in her booster seat anymore, she loves to play musical chairs during dinnertime.



*Tells us to come here, hold her hand, etc...

*Blows her nose.



*Answers most questions with, "I don't know." (Even if she does know.)

*Loves to color on the bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker while I'm getting ready.



*Got her first molars on top. She has 6 teeth on top and only 2 on bottom!

*Likes to layer on as many blankets as possible (on herself or her dolly).



*Fights getting dressed - especially in her pajamas.

*Jumps.



*Demands we give her horsey rides.

*Won't wear her winter hat/gloves for longer than a few minutes.



*Loves to hang onto the sink in our downstairs bathroom and lift up her legs. (I suspect this is what she was doing when she pulled my table down on herself.)

*Quite suddenly decided she doesn't need to be rocked and sung to before bed time/nap time. She just wants to be laid down, covered with a blanket, and given her doll or stuffed animal. (Makes me so sad - she's not a baby anymore.)

Five on Friday

1. CheapShots Photography was at the Lighting of Riverwoods doing free pictures last week. They posted them on their Facebook page this week and we ended up with this (pretty cute) picture. If we didn't already have a picture for our Christmas card, I might have used this one.



2. I'm kind of obsessed with chalkboard prints right now, so when the Wood Connection posted this one on their blog, I had to make it! Today they posted another one and yeah, I'll probably have to make that one too!



3. I realized that I'm hosting joy school the week after Thanksgiving, so I decided it would be wise to plan ahead. I still have a few things to get ready, but I know all the activities we are doing, I printed everything out, got the books I'll need from the library, and bought all the supplies I'll need. Um hello, this is so unlike me! It feels so good to be on top of things and I know I'll enjoy Thanksgiving so much more not having to worry about it!



4. Today Rog and I went to the temple to do sealings. We were able to seal together Grandpa Phillips' grandpa and grandma - so Rog's great great grandparents. We've been doing their work for the past few months - it was great to get it done!

5. Tonight for dinner I made District 11 Bread in honor of the Catching Fire movie that just came out. I don't know when we're going to see it, but it will likely be soon!