Highlights of Christmas break

We had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas break. The kids had lots of fun opening and enjoying the gifts they were blessed with. We took the kids swimming three times. Twice to a local motel pool and once to Kings Pointe in Storm Lake as part of their Christmas gift from us.

Our family on Christmas Eve before we opened gifts!

Addi got really good at going across the floating circles!

Ella has gotten braver and braver. Here she is going down the water slide with Dad. Later she did it by herself.

Cheese!

Tearing into and showing off presents!

All the great grand kids with Grandpa and Grandma Eason.

Joy to the World

Kole has turned into quite the singer in the last few weeks. I have heard "Go tell it on the Mountain" as well as "Silent Night." His favorite is "Andheavenandnature sings!" Aka Joy to the World. Here is a peek of him singing.

Gingerbread House

Yesterday Koleson and I got to visit Ella at school and help her construct a gingerbread house. She insists that hers is called a gingerbread girl house because she's a girl!

First we put frosting on our milk carton base so the graham crackers would stick. Notice Kole has already started to eat some of the candy from Ella's decorating bowl.

Ella found as we continued in the process of making the house that things stuck to the plate better than they did to the actual house. I had to keep encouraging her to put candy on the house.

Final product!! After Ella got home from school she then asked if it was time to eat her house!

Christmas Programs

Over the last two weeks the kids have had their Christmas programs. Addi was in one at school and at church. Ella was in the one at church. Kole is eagerly awaiting his turn to be in the program at church next year. The video is of Addi and her class singing "Showbiz Snowman."

The program at church was held at night in place of their weekly Pioneer Club. The room was dark except for the spotlights so this is the best I could get picture wise.

No more crib :(

Well after having a crib set up in our home for almost eight years we finally are not in need of it! Mr. Koleson is quite attached to his crib and wasn't really very wild about not sleeping in it anymore. We decided that maybe it would help if he helped Daddy take it down. So the boys got out their tools and set to work. Kole loved 'helping' take it apart and seemed to be ok with not having a crib anymore. Then bedtime came and there were many tears. I told him he didn't need a crib anymore because he was a big boy! Kole's answer "I not big boy! I little! I want my kib!(Kole speak for crib!) He has told me this several times in the last week, but I think he is finally getting used to his big boy bed.

Kole even got to hold the real screwdriver when Daddy wasn't using it!

Helping daddy take the crib apart! I not sure about needing a hammer to take it apart, but Kole loved hammering on the side of the crib.

Christmas Cookies

This week we made and decorated Christmas cookies. It was entertaining to watch all three of the kids decorate. Kole decorated a total of 6 cookies. I didn't let him decorate more than that for the two reasons seen in the next pictures!

Kole liked to lick his knife after each spreading of the frosting. Then he decided that it would be more fun to eat the cookies rather than decorate them. His cookies were put in a special container when we were done since he kept licking his knife!

Both girls were very into the decorating. Ella was especially excited about all the different things she could put on top of her cookies. Notice the crazy amount of sprinkles. After we were done decorating they got to eat one and when I suggested to Ella that she eat one of her creations with many sprinkles this is the response I got. "No Mom there are too many sprinkles for me to eat those!!!"

Addi was fun to watch because she has matured to the point that she wants her cookies to look pretty. Look at the concentration as she works!!

Frosty Ornaments

This past weekend we made a fun winter project. Addi found the idea in her Ranger Rick magazine that she checked out from the library. The project is called Frosty Ornaments. We started by filling muffin tins with different things from nature such as field corn, evergreen needles, pine cones, sunflower seeds, cranberries, orange slices, etc.

Kole was very excited to fill his and we needed to take some of the corn out!
The next step was to fill them to the top with water, put ribbon in the water and set them outside to freeze.

Trav and Addi are working hard to get the ribbons in place.

The next morning we went out and they were all frozen. We picked them up by the ribbons and hung them on various trees around our yard.

The idea is that when it gets a little bit warmer the birds will eat what is frozen inside. Even if the birds don't eat them it was a great family time activity. Addi has already asked if we can make it a tradition to do every year!