Well, when you work almost 30 hours a week, drive two kids to two different schools every day, nurse an infant, potty train a toddler, try to keep the house clean (riiiight), and throw in some exercise here and there, it gets pretty difficult to find time to blog!! So, here's a super update of what's been going on in the Follett home. Hopefully you'll hear from me before another three months go by... but yeah, no promises. :)
Halloween this year was fun-- not too cold, not too warm. :) We tried to pull together a "Toy Story" theme, but I didn't find a fitting costume for Hudson, so we settled for mismatched costumes this year. Brayden went as Max from "Where the Wild Things Are", Landon reused Brayden's "ring bear" costume from Corey's wedding and went as a bear, Gavin wore the frog costume which has been worn by both Brayden and Landon in past Halloweens, and Hudson borrowed a Dalmatian costume from the neighbors (which was totally adorable).
Last year our candy lasted us well into February, but this year with Gavin old enough to eat candy, our stash somehow disappeared in just two weeks! That kid LOVES his candy.
We had a fun time counting down for Christmas this year. Gavin is TOTALLY into Santa, so we had that weird decision to make of whether to let him believe in Santa or to tell him the truth about Santa. Anyway, the kids were so excited about Christmas coming this year, so we did some fun activities to get ready for the big day. We made a countdown calendar out of Santa's beard (thank you Pinterest) where we cut a little bit of Santa's beard off every day as we got closer to Christmas. We went and looked at Christmas lights at a super cool neighborhood that was completely decked out, went to the Christmas eve service at Willow Creek (always a highlight), and made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and vanilla frosting. As seen in the photos, Gavin had a lot of help from his aunt Kaylie, Brayden had a bit of help from his PopPop, and Landon did his all by himself. :)
Christmas eve/morning was a whirlwind as usual. We visited Ronnie's side of the family for Christmas eve, where the kids stayed up and played together until 11 p.m. Then, it was up at sunrise to open our own presents under the tree, then over to my side of the family to celebrate there. Ronnie surprised the kids and dressed up as Santa, and I absolutely get a kick out of the picture with him and the boys, because Gavin is staring at the unopened gifts under the tree with so much anticipation!!! Hudson was a good sport and wore some reindeer antlers (too cute). You know you are the fourth child when your parents decide not to buy you any gifts on Christmas because they know you won't remember or care. :) But he enjoyed chomping on some wrapping paper. I love Christmas-- especially Christmas music-- and this year's most popular Christmas CD was the Promiseland Christmas CD. We even found ourselves singing those songs last night as we walked across campus together.
Well, that wraps up our major catch-up post. Hopefully I'll post again soon. Right after I tackle the giant mound of dishes in our sink. :)
We had a fun time counting down for Christmas this year. Gavin is TOTALLY into Santa, so we had that weird decision to make of whether to let him believe in Santa or to tell him the truth about Santa. Anyway, the kids were so excited about Christmas coming this year, so we did some fun activities to get ready for the big day. We made a countdown calendar out of Santa's beard (thank you Pinterest) where we cut a little bit of Santa's beard off every day as we got closer to Christmas. We went and looked at Christmas lights at a super cool neighborhood that was completely decked out, went to the Christmas eve service at Willow Creek (always a highlight), and made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and vanilla frosting. As seen in the photos, Gavin had a lot of help from his aunt Kaylie, Brayden had a bit of help from his PopPop, and Landon did his all by himself. :)
