Project Life 2012 - Week 51

December 16 - 22

December is just whizzing by...

 On Sunday, Bennett got to acolyte with his good friend Cole. I'm not supposed to take pictures during the service, so please don't tell anyone :) 

He was super excited to get to wear the white robe!!

 Also on Sunday we went out to eat with Evie (and Gigi and Bubba too, of course!!) Going out to lunch with them is one of the highlights of our week! Cousin love...

 On Monday, the 17th, Brad was post-call so after school we surprised Bennett by taking him to the movies. Nana came along too! The movie was great!!

 After putting Bennett to bed on Monday night, I couldn't find Brad anywhere. Finally, I looked out the kitchen window only to find him bundled up outside on the patio, studying for his upcoming test while on the look-out for deer. It just  makes me laugh. Sadly, he's not seen any deer yet :(

 On Tuesday, Poodle (Bennett's elf) left him a fleece blanket for us to make. It was a fun project!

 Even daddy got in on the project!

 On Wednesday, Bennett and I ventured to the $ store to purchase a gift for the gift swap for his school party. After much debate, he picked a bag of cookies 'n cream santa candies. He hopes to bring it home with him after the swap!!

 The 20th was a sporty day... We started off with Coach D (a GREAT lesson!!)

 and ended up with a little basketball practice.

 On Friday, it was party day! The party started at 9:30 and Bennett was so excited because both Brad and I could attend. This is the first year that Brad has ever been able to attend! FUN!

 Bennett drew #14 in the 'Dirty Santa' game, so it was a pretty good chance that he'd get a good gift. Here he is hiding his cookies 'n cream santas behind his back...

and it worked! He brought those bad boys home with him ;)

It was a super fun party and we were heading home by 11. Bennett went to spend the night with Nana and Brad and I went to see the Hobbit. It was a fun date afternoon.

On Saturday, Nana gave Bennett a lesson in how to make her famous yeast rolls. I'm really hoping that he gets good at it ;) 

She reports that he is a great helper...

Santa is coming soon!! Hope you've been good!

Project Life 2012 - Week 50

December 9 - 15

Welcome to week 2 of December Daily!!

On Sunday, we were so surprised when Bennett was asked to light the Advent candle during the Sunday School assembly. How exciting!

On Monday, we Bennett made our Rudolph gingerbread house. He had been DYING to make it!! He did a great job - he is quite and artist!

On Tuesday, Bennett wanted to go shopping for the Christmas gifts that he would give to the family. He spent his own money to buy gifts for everyone - it was SO much fun :)

I wonder what he got me... ;)

12/12/12 at 12:12!!!!!

Bennett's teacher was kind enough to let me come to his class during recess and snap a few pictures at 12:12. I was so happy! 

They were playing football when I got there...

I was even happier when Bennett came running to me when he saw me :) I love my boy!

On the morning of the 13th, we had our first deer sighting! I was so excited - I paged Brad at work (he had found a little nest up on the hill a couple of days before he had bought a salt lick and some corn for the hill) FUN!! Yes, they are in this picture - but you have to look veeerrrryyyy carefully :)

 On the evening of the 13th Angie and I hosted our annual Girls' Christmas party. It was SO much fun!!

This is our little ornament that each of the girls got to make at the party. Love it!

Here is Bennett wrapping his first Christmas present! I taught him how to do it and he is really good at it!! I mean, REALLY good!!

On Saturday, we had another baking day. We made ginger snaps, chocolate cherry cordials, and nutter butter cookies. YUM! Bennett was an excellent helper - and an expert taste tester ;)

We love the holidays and everything that comes along with it!!

Project Life 2012 - Week 49

December 2 - 8

Welcome to December Daily! One picture (ok, probably more than one on some days!!) each day for the whole month. Let's get started :) 

December 1st - remember... it was back here.

December 2 - our beautiful poinsettias. Please note that they are still alive :)

December 3 - Just a normal homework day.  He still cracks me up!

December 4 - I hosted bookclub tonight and it was so much fun! I tried a new centerpiece on the table and I think it was so pretty!

We did a CRAFT at bookclub!! Yea!! We made trees from old books. It was a little hard to to tear up those books, but look how cute those trees are!! Once everyone got into the tearing, it wasn't so hard after all!!

I love each of these ladies! We had a great time together tonight! Oh, and we did discuss the book... it was Winter Garden :)

On the 5th Bennett's class went on a tour of 2 downtown cathedrals (because they had been studying cathedrals and architecture in school). I love being able to be involved with things that he does at school! It was a great trip - and I learned SO much! We visited the Greek Orthodox and the Catholic churches. Fascinating.

 On December 6 I went to my Community Bible Study for Christmas fellowship and our last study until 2013. This is a picture of the gift that I gave to my group leader (more about our family's month of giving in a later post...)

On the 7th Brad and I went to our Sunday School's party. It was fun - and I always enjoy having a little alone time with him! I wanted a picture of us together before we went out, so we dusted of the tripod and snapped a few - not so bad :)

On Saturday the 8th, we went to Nana's house to bake cookies. This is one of our favorite traditions :) This year Evie even got into the decorating!!

Me and my boy... he is so grown up and so much fun! He stuck with us through all of the decorating and even made Santa's cookies again this year! Fabulous!!

We've had a great first week of December!!

Project Life 2012 - Week 48

November 25 - December 1

As we wrapped up November, we continued to be thankful! In fact, we kept on being thankful for the whole month!! On the pantry white board we each wrote one thing we were thankful for each day...

 (b=Bennett, A=Amy, B=Brad) 

I love it!! I think we could have gone on for the whole year!

On December 1 we went to our church's 'Walk Through Bethlehem', which was a new event that they tried this year, and it was a great success! It let the kids see what it was like to go through Bethlehem beginning with the census all the way through to the Nativity.

 Brad went early because he was volunteering in our Sunday School's woodworking tent, so Bennett and I got there right when it opened. Evie, Gigi, and Bubba joined us.

 Here they are at the Scribe's Tent. I think that was Evie's favorite. 

 Here is Brad instructing a citizen on how to drive a nail :)

 Brad left to go and help with another mission project with our class, so Bennett filled in for just a little bit. He loved it!!

In the afternoon, we went to our friends' house for a craft/sports extravaganza! 

We had a blast!! The kids (and moms :) made fleece blankets, magnet boards, snow globes, candy advent calendars, and magic reindeer food. It is a day that we look forward to to start out Holiday Season. Yea!!

Happy December!! 

(I'm taking a picture a day for December for December Daily, so get ready :)

Project Life - 2012 Week 47

November 18 - 24

This was such a busy - and FUN - week!!
We were so blessed to have the whole week off from school so we were able to have a few days of just relaxing and hanging out. It was fabulous!
Then we got busy...

On Wednesday, the 21st, we met Evie at the mall to visit Santa.
Evie wasn't so thrilled to visit Santa, but Bennett was an old pro at visiting St. Nick.

While Evie was crying in Santa's lap :), Bennett patiently waited and showed me his letter. Now, I know that it looks really long, but if you can read it, he is asking Santa for some old Ninjago sets and figures (and listing that ones that he doesn't have so that Santa can just choose which ones he'd like to bring). He also asked for the Skylanders Giants Wii game. It also starts 'Dear Santa, I have tried to be good this year. (Hey, Nobody is perfect!)'. Ha! 

I think he's been pretty good :)

Thankfully, Evie got some candy from Ho-Ho and she got happy again. 
And we all ate some lunch. Such a fun day!

On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving! 
We celebrated at Gigi and Bubba's house again this year and it was wonderful!

We brought Papa's baked apples, 

 these cute little cookies, and 

 a cherry pie. 
Bennett did a great job with the turkey on the top, don't you think??

Bennett's thankful card:

Brad's and my cards:

After lunch, we took some family pictures. 

It really was such a fun and relaxing day. I didn't want to go home! I think we should have brought our pajamas so that we could have spent the night :) 
We have so much to be thankful for - and family is at the top of the list!

Oh, and we can't forget the big day on the 23rd!

Brad turned 40!! 

We had a wonderful time celebrating Brad - and we started celebrating 40 days earlier by making a 40 piece puzzle with a picture that Bennett drew on one side. On the other side, each piece had something that we loved about Brad on it. We had a great time telling him all the ways that we loved him! He is so special to us!!

On Saturday we had the family over to celebrate his birthday and to watch the Iron Bowl. The game didn't go the way we wanted, but we weren't surprised :)

 We had a great time just hanging out with everyone. So fun!

We wrapped the festivities with some homemade cupcakes.
We loved celebrating Brad!
Such a fun, blessed week!