The kids got to be in the primary nativity again, during our annual Branch Christmas Party. Belén was assigned to be a sheep, but I asked if she could be a cow again since I still had the costume from last year. Here is Shae (wise man) waiting for his turn to go up.
The cutest little cow I ever did see. I love her shy face.
The wise men dropping off their gifts.
Always so fun to watch them up there.
We easily had our coldest December here in Ithaca this year. Snowy and COLD. I mean, cold to the point where we couldn't even go out and enjoy the snow. This was one of the rare days that the sun peeked out for a few minutes and we were able to go out--for like, 20 minutes.
While Ibu was here we took a super quick trip outside to check out frozen Ithaca Falls. Someone had used all the rocks to make chairs, which the kids enjoyed.
These poor freezing souls. It was really cold. But beautiful too.
Just snackin' on an icicle.
It was so fun to have Ibu here to celebrate New Years Eve with us. We kept it pretty chill, which was perfect. Shae and I made up a little plan for our New Years Eve food and then chose some activities/games to include in the party. We put out all the food around 5 and then spent a couple hours having our kid friendly party.
Getting the Bingo boards set up...
....and poor Shae not getting the blue board.
Ibu took the kids out to pick up these party hats and M&Ms and some silly string which they fully enjoyed.
Pretty sure that one of them was cheating at this point...hard to tell who it was, but I don't think it was Belén. Cheating at Bingo. Tsk tsk.
We had our first ER kid visit during December. Poor Belén got her finger shut in one of the big metal doors at church. It was quite the bloody end to church. They were very nice at the ER and gave her a big stuffed puppy to take home after shoving her nail bed back in to place, pushing the nail back down and stitching it in to place.
She was such a brave little girl.
A big bandaged finger couldn't stop her mischief.
She did a great job taking baths with her finger on her head so it wouldn't get wet (sleeping was a bit harder for the first few days).
Shae learned how to make snowflakes and worked on them nonstop for a few weeks.
We went to a really cool live nativity in Trumansburg one Saturday evening before Christmas. They gave us a CD as we pulled in and had explanations of each different spot. At the end of the loop we gave them back the CD and they gave us cookies. The kids liked it so much that we did the loop twice.
Some adorable toddler school dress up.
There was a week in December where Shae was always walking around with a note pad and pencil making his McDonalds menu. He would ask us what we wanted to order and then give us a paper with our order number on it. He even held on to it while watching tv, and of course Belén had to follow suit.
I loved going to Shae's school Christmas party with him. Belén was sick that day and stayed home with daddy. While I know she would have loved to go too, it was kind of special to just be able to focus on him and really enjoy singing Christmas songs with him and what not.
FHE before Christmas, making our presents for Jesus for the next year.
We did FHE in a fort that night. The way Shae would do it every week if he had his way. The kids were enjoying their pudding pop snack:
Loved this book. It went along perfectly with our FHE that night.
My sweet friend Thao made hats and scarves for the kids for Christmas.
We spent a couple days at my parents house before Christmas. Shae really wanted to make gingerbread men (more specifically, Gingerbread pirates, from one of his favorite Christmas picture books--The Gingerbread Pirates).
A couple of the pirates that we saved for Santa (or Sinterklaas as Shae started calling him after reading A World of Cookies for Santa. That is what they call him in Indonesia).
The kids loved getting to open a few presents from their grandparents and Philip before the actual day of Christmas. They got some really great presents! Shae was especially excited about his set of lego people and paper airplane book and Belén loved her doll and shopping cart.
So sweet to see Belén brushing Ibu's hair one afternoon.
This Christmas present from cousin Rylan was a huge hit! The kids loved it so much that I couldn't help but grab another set when we saw it on a great after-Christmas sale at the Bon Ton. Now we can build even bigger things!
We finally went on our ice skating date!! We planned this date 2 years ago, and then the night before Darin crazy sprained his ankle. It was so fun to do something new with Darin. I haven't ice skated since college and he never has before, so it was totally outside our comfort zones, but a blast nonetheless.
He's a quick learner.
First Belén selfies that I have discovered on my phone. I love these so much.
Belén's first distinguishable drawing. It's me and her. Cue my heart melting?
Speaking of melting...it was SO cold for a few weeks in December (teen temperatures were high during that period). One day when I tried to lift the kids black-out blanket up, I couldn't because it was frozen to the window! The window was totally iced over and I ended up having to cut some of the yarn off the blanket because it was so stuck.
