A Little Bit of Everything

 This Christmas was wonderful! My mom and sister were able to come down and since Christmas day happened to fall on a Tuesday this year, Michael actually got a 3 day weekend! 

 I let Collin help me make our annual cake balls this year. He really got into it. I might have to bake more with him next year.

 Christmas Sunday we went to Michael's parents house for dinner.

 The food was delicious and it was such a relaxing visit.

 Buddy's legs, Laura, Ken and Mikey

 Becky, Uncle Richard and Aunt Cheryl

 My niece Tiffany won best dressed that night. Isn't she adorable? 

 Ken and Amy

 Collin was spoiled of course.

Check out his head light from grandma Boyd :)

 Tate was passed around and loved all the attention.

 It really was a fun night. Collin was pretty tuckered out when we got home.

 I got up in the middle of the night to feed Tate and when I went to check on Collin this is what I found. Just in case two big bears aren't protection enough, he's got his bat. I seriously don't know how he slept like this. I did NOT move him though. I've learned my lesson :)

 Christmas Eve we went to hear my Aunt Patti sing at her church Christmas program. Sadly the only pictures I took were of Tate's outfits. I retract my statement that boys clothes aren't cute because these are adorable!

 Unfortunately, Tate ended up not being able to wear this particular outfit due to an eruption 

(from the mouth)

 So we dressed him in the back up outfit. The cutest thing about this one was the bear face stitched on the bum :)

 After the Christmas program we rushed to my grandma's house because Tori and my mom were coming in! 

They were going to spend the night with my grandma so we chatted for a few hours before heading home. Collin hooked up with his Aunt Tori right away. She hadn't seen him since he was 6 months old! 

My mom warned her that Collin makes nick names for people so whatever he calls you the first time he sees you is the name you're stuck with. When we introduced Tori to him we said, "This is Aunt T." (Thinking this would be easier to pronounce than Tori) When we pointed to her and asked him what her name was he said, "Boo boo." And her name has been thus since. I have no idea how he got boo boo from Aunt T but at least it's better than the nickname he gave to my little brother, ruff ruff. :)

 Christmas day was packed full of family fun! 

And of course, the day we actually WANT Collin to get up early, he sleeps in!

 Santa brought him a basket ball hoop which he really likes.

 And mommy and daddy bought him extra track for his trains. Not sure who has enjoyed this more, Collin or Michael. Collin plays with his trains for hours!!!

 I love this little boy. Thomas shirt, car shoes, and of course his toy trains. He doesn't go anywhere without them.

 We started Christmas Day back over at Michael's parents where we had another delicious meal.

 

 This has got to be my favorite picture of the day.

 Collin got more presents from grandma. Books! I was pretty excited too!

 We left Bill and Anne's around 5 to go to our 2nd Christmas get together with my family.

The boys fell asleep on the way there and we were really tempted to just leave them in the car :) 

Look how peaceful they are!

 Tori and the boys watched a movie

 While the rest of us ate and talked.

 Tate with his grandma Peeler

 My mom and sister came home with us that night and when we got up the next morning we had Christmas part 3!

 Collin opened his presents from grandma and grandpa Peeler, a lightning McQueen track and more books!

And several little zoo animals from Aunt T aka Boo Boo :) Tori had also gotten him those Lightning McQueen shoes he was wearing in the other picture.

This little boy was in Heaven!

 Tate fell asleep. Guess all the action wore him out. Our old family friend, Norm, came to visit us a few weeks ago and brought Tate that huge bear. He gave Collin one too when he was born.

 And I just had to throw this picture in because it makes me laugh. :)

We enjoyed every minute spent with family!

 School

Tuesday: H is for Hands

The week before Christmas we learned the letter H! I had some hand stickers laying around the house so I let Collin stick them to his H page. I love how Tate is always watching Collin and laughs when Collin talks to him. I hope that's a sign of them being good friends.

  

 To show Collin some things we do with our hands, I got out a few pans and plastic containers so he could beat on them. We had fun with this activity.

Wednesday: H is for House
Collin did this house activity page that you can find on the Preschool Alphabet website under the letter H.

We were also studying the color brown this week so we took a little walk and went on a stick hunt. 
Do you see the white tailed squirrel in the tree? Collin was pretty excited about it.

 Once we gathered our sticks we brought them home and did some stick art.

Very fun and VERY free :)

 Thursday: H is for Hats

Of course we had to gather all the hats in the house and try them on!

 You can never wear to many hats

 Even Tate got in on the action.

The Adventures of Rash Boy and Pork Chop

 I know, I know, it sounds like a comic book gone bad but sadly, "Rash Boy and Pork Chop" are names that accurately describe my children this week. 

Tate is becoming the little chunker .Which is actually exciting since Collin never has been able to chunk up. And speaking of Collin, we think the poor boy has inherited my HIVES!!! He's been broken out all week and we still can't figure out what triggered it :( Fortunately he's been in pretty good spirits and some of the hives appear to be fading. You know it's bad when he brings YOU the lotion and wants you to put it on him. We are praying they clear up soon.

Other than scratching and eating all day..... We finally got Collin the haircut he desperately needed. I watched Cheryl cut it and will hopefully be able to copy it when the time come but if not, Cheryl says she'll be there for back up :) 

 We went to visit Great Grandma Brown and she had some mold-able cookie dough so Collin made cookies!

 Showing off his snake

 After they baked we watched Mickey's Christmas.

 Tate was working the charm on grandma while we baked. He was talking and smiling and grandma ate it up. Look how huge he looks in this picture! He's one month and already wearing 3 month clothes! I'm just not use to that.

 Thursday night Santa came through our neighborhood on a firetruck. The city of Winter Garden does this every year and of course Collin was thrilled! 

This is the best picture I could get of his reaction since I was holding him but believe me, there was lots of ah's and loud exclamations of "firetruck!" It pretty much made his night.

 We ended the week with our ward Christmas party! The theme was from the Grinch so we all got to wear our pj's. We had so much fun!

 The children made special glasses to spot the Grinch with and then gathered around the stage for a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This little girl in the picture below was Collin's first kiss. He pretty much attacked her and slobbered all over her face when he was around 1. Funny how he picked the spot right next to her :)

 The Grinch made several appearances throughout the story, much to the delight of the children. They would all scream, "the Grinch!" Collin just screamed because everyone else was screaming.

 I must say it kept him pretty entertained.

 This is Collin's Best Friend and partner in crime, Ryan.

 At the end of the night we held hands and sang Christmas carols with the Grinch. So, so cute!

 They even decorated the gym to look like Whoville. Don't those mountains look real!?

 Tate enjoyed the festivities in his own way. Wonder how many more months we get before we have a little wiggle worm instead of a sleeping baby? Better enjoy it while we can :)

 School

Tuesday: F is for Feelings

Collin put little "footprints" on his letter F

 We then discussed feelings and I tried to get Collin to make different face to demonstrate those different feelings. Here is Collin's take on that.

                                                                                            

Happy

Sad

                                                                            

Angry

                                                                   

Scared

As you can see, he didn't really get it. So Tate and I decided to help.

 

 

 Tate properly demonstrated feeling startled, and when Collin asked to take my picture I demonstrated mad?... Scary? Not really sure :)

 Wednesday: F is for Fingers
I gathered a few items and put them in a bag. I then had Collin feel inside and try to guess what each item was.

 He thought this game was great and was excited to pull out each new item.

 We also played with play dough since you do that with your fingers and killed two birds with one stone by making 8's. (number of the week.)

Thursday: F is for Frogs
We read one of Collin's favorite books, The Icky Sticky Frog" (a book I picked up from Targets dollar bin)

 And we played with these frog jumpers I also got from the dollar bin. Frogs were everywhere!

 Friday: F is for Farm
We gathered a few animals that would be found on a farm and sang Old McDonald. We also played a game on the computer where you guess which animal made the sound.

The color this week was brown but for one reason or another we never were able to do any of the activities so I'm just moving it to next week.

As always, I got a few of my ideas from the PA website.