Happy Valentine's Day!!

Josie Today I was blessed to get to take my work lunch break early so I could go to Josie's party at school. They did a cute "I love you to pieces" picture frame craft. Then they put their valentines in each other's boxes. Josie was SO excited about her Frozen castle box. Last, they had cupcakes & popcorn for snack. I'm so thankful I got to share this fun day with her! I'm so blessed to have bosses who know "family comes first" and encouraged me to go today.

Josie & her friend Lola

Josie & Emma

The Red Birds Team

Josie lost her first tooth!

Tonight Josie lost her first tooth!  We noticed it was loose a couple of weeks ago, but haven't really talked much about it.  Tonight as I was turning out the light to go to bed, I heard her call for me.  I walked into her room and she said "Uh-oh, Mommy.  I think I made my tooth too loose!!!"  After an inspection, I quickly discovered it was about to come out.  I asked how she got it so loose while she was asleep.  She said she was dreaming that she was chewing and she couldn't get her food to swallow.  I'm so glad she woke up and didn't swallow that tooth!  She was very brave and after a little wiggling, the tooth came out!  She was so excited to finally get to use her Tinkerbelle Toothfairy pillow.  

Preschool Theme: Snowmen!

The most important thing going on for us lately is that I am officially back in the working world!  January 7th was my first day teaching at Children's Christian Center at West End Church of Christ.  I absolutely love teaching preschool and am excited to be back!  I really enjoy researching and finding new ideas and crafts.  So, from now on I'll be posting some of the themes and activities that we do with my class.
Our theme for last week was "Snowmen."  I filled 3 balloons with water (this was a humorous process given that I let it slip off the faucet a couple of times.  Ooops!) and put them in the freezer overnight.  During group time, we stacked the ice "blocks" to build a snowman.  The kids got to help decorate him with felt eyes, mouth, nose, buttons, and scarf pieces.  Then, we made a graph of how many days each child thought it would take for our snowman to melt.

 We also made these cute snowmen with styrofoam cups. 

This is a math game that we played.  The snowman has a pocket on his belly that the numbered snowballs go into.
We played two different ways:
1.)  I laid the numbers all out and called on students to come find a certain number to put in the pocket.
2.)  I handed out numbers to the students and had them listen for me to call their number to put into the pocket.

Sorry -- I couldn't get this picture to rotate.
This is a Build-a-Snowman game that we played as a group.
The students took turns rolling a dice to see what piece they got to put on the snowman.  

Snow!

The weekend after Christmas, we got a little bit of snow!  It was really just a dusting, but it was enough that Josie just had to go out and play in it some!  It was very pretty and peaceful to watch.  We were actually driving back from Alabama when the flakes started falling.  For a while, it was melting as soon as it hit the ground.  But once we got to about Columbia we could see it accumulating on the side of the road.   Once we got home, Josie got bundled up to go play in it.  She only lasted for about 15 minutes before she got cold and went back inside.  But she had a great time making snow angels.  This was our first "snow" in our new house. 

Making snow angels

Josie's green "snow" angel

Our miniature snowman made on the back of Daddy's car

Merry Christmas!

Here's some of our family events leading up to, during, and post-Christmas.  

Josie's reindeer sandwich that Nana made for her

Josie and Papa's "Gingerbread Village", complete with a cottage, bakery, and candy shop.
We made a road of chocolate chips and sprinkles.

Josie's preschool Christmas program.  Massive chaos.  

Josie in her special Christmas nightgown that Nana made for her.  Cousin Lily also has one that matches.

Sims Family Christmas
This is Josie with 1st cousin once removed (my 1st cousin--believe me, we looked this up), Erin
and 2nd cousin (my 1st cousin's daughter) Ava.
They had SO much fun playing together!  

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake I made for the Sims Family Christmas.  It was good, but not good enough to be worth all the trouble of making it.  I probably won't make it again.  

Josie showing cousin Lily how to watch Dora in their matching Christmas dresses.

Christmas with Lane's family in Lebanon, TN

Putting out food for the reindeer

Peppermint Cheesecake Cake I made for the Widick Family Christmas.
This was AMAZING!!! Peppermint cheesecake in between 2 layers of chocolate cake.
This will be a traditional Christmas dessert for us now.

Christmas at my parents' house in Alabama

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday, our church hosted a Breakfast with Santa event.  This was Josie's first real interaction with Santa.  We ate breakfast, made reindeer food (which Josie sampled--luckily, it was all edible), made crafts, and played games.  Most importantly, all the kids got a chance to sit with Santa and chat for a minute.  Josie wasn't scared at all.  She told him she wanted princess and Tinkerbell stuff.  

Santa's goody bag

Making Reindeer Food

Santa sticker craft

Christmas button craft

Josie and her friend Rachel

Christmas at our New House

Josie looking at an ornament of her first sonogram picture

Decorating the tree (which one can only do while wearing a neon green tule skirt)

All done!

Lane's first Christmas ornaments.  These are VERY fragile and have to sit in a bowl, rather than hang.

Lane's special tree of all his baby ornaments

Lights!