some festivities and school

Last week Nathan's base put on a little Santa visit Christmas party. There was all kinds of fun stuff to do that I didn't want to pass up. Gracie and Nathan were both a little sick so they stayed behind while Levi and I went with our friend miss Rachel. While waiting in line to talk to Santa Levi told me of his specific stipulations on this whole Santa thing. He does not want to actually sit on the guy's lap. He will just stand next to him.

After posing for a picture, Levi also declined the candy cane they tried to give him. He said, "No thank. I don't like those." Honestly, as difficult as Levi is sometimes because he is so sure of what he wants, I am also glad that he's confident enough to stick with his opinions. Doesn't matter too much now with candy canes and Santa, but it'll be very important soon.

Ah Balloon animals. Levi was willing to stand in a pretty decent line three times for these precious treasures.

I didn't even know this place existed, but now that I do, we'll be back. A great inside play area is a treasure for mamas.

They also had an area set up for decorating cookies and christmas cards. Once he had his cookie done he wasn't so interested in making a card.

You know, I take so many pictures of Gracie these days, and go on about how cute she is. But, it all started with this one right here. He is the cutest, creamy faced, little blue eyed boy ever. Though he does have some cousins ranking right up there with him.

They also had horse drawn carriage rides going on. Here's Levi waiting for the group in front of us to finish their turn. I really couldn't get pictures while on the ride but, it was fun. Our group broke out into Jingle Bells half way through the ride. We sat right behind the driver so Levi was asking him questions, naturally. One of them being, "What are the horses' names?" The driver had to say, "I'm gonna wait and tell everyone that at the same time." Way to be on the ball, Levi.

That was a pretty fun outing for just mama and Levi to go on. Doesn't happen...ever really. The next several pictures are just some cutie cutie shots of the picture perfect kids I live with.

I put this pretty pink scarf that Aunti Vera made for me last year on Gracie girl. It brought out her beautiful skin and rosey lips.

She's really good at walking now. I know I said that in my last post, but it's even more true a couple days later. I promise she's actually practicing. I watch her walk and dodge things back and forth across the living room while we're all just hanging out. She's building up her evasive manuvers, which is wise.

Here's just a random nicely colorful photo of the hansome man cub.

I was sitting in Gracie's room just taking pictures of her playing and with her bow in her hair it was reminding me of a baby picture I had seen of myself somewhere along the way. So, of course, I had to make a comparison collage.

While we were having our little picture play time we also got a call in to Grammy. I believe it was her first attempt at a phone call. She mostly just stared like this while Grammy cooed over the speakerphone.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but I started doing some pre-school with Levi here at home last fall. Next year will be kindergarden, and I do want to homeschool. So I started some light things this year to make sure I can actually pull this whole thing off! It started off a little dramatically, as things always do with Levi. But, we've settled into a better feel of things. He's working on knowing letters and numbers by sight and also tracing and writing on his own. And then sometimes we just do crafts to get our school in for the day. Oft-times during our fun crafts is when I see how much he's learning from our other study days. Here we're just making some christmas trees and stockings, but he decided on his own to paint some random letters.

This is one of the things Gracie does while we're busy at the table; take everything out of the cabinets.

He gets very excited at the end of most pages. "I did it!" is what he usually says. It's pretty rewarding to have that be his response now since during the first few weeks his attitude was much more tragic. I'm not sure why or where he got it, but if he messed up he would hang his head and say, "I'm a failure." But we handled it day by day and now he's excited instead of droopy. I think it might take some studying on my part to figure out his learning style with all it's diminsions.

Again...the things Gracie does while we're in the kitchen. She's not extremely helpful yet when I'm doing the dishes.

She's a little climber. She can alrady climb down from the couch without falling (most of the time). And she's able to climb onto and off of Levi's bed. Also, she's obviously able to climb into this drawer.

The other day while Levi was doing school I gave Gracie the chance to do some drawing herself.

But this is what she really wanted to do so it was short lived. Just thought we'd give her a chance. Maybe in a few more months.

These last few pictures are just some playtime one evening with Nathan.

I like the looks on both the kids' faces. A little bit of joy and panick mixed in Levi's eyes. The beauty of hanging from a tall papa's back. And Gracie's face saying, "Oh look who's here. It's Levi."

This one cracks me up. Look at that stair case of heads. Fun to be across the room watching this sort of scene.