December 2023

Santa came to daycare!  Claire was not liking Santa today but was happy when she got her Santa treat.  Santa had a talk with the boys about getting along and not always fighting. Let's hope that talk helps!

The boys like to solve things with rock, paper, scissors and Claire can't be left out of anything her brothers are doing.  So she has learned how to play.  She doesn't know all the hand symbols so she uses the same one over and over but it is still fun to watch her play.

Blake had his Christmas concert at church and he did a great job!  We couldn't find him for the longest time so I was worried we wouldn't be able to watch him perform.  I found him at the last moment and he did a great job!

The elf brought the kids PJs!  Grant wrote a note to the elf and the elf brought them the next morning.  The kids loved them and I loved this hug from all my babies!

Then Claire and Blake ready a book with Daddy.  Claire had to be included again.

Claire loves princesses and dressing up as one.  She put on every piece of jewelry she owns and went downstairs to show Daddy.  Greg will say "who is my princess?" and Claire will go "ME!" 

Blake had a stay at home day because we had to get some labs drawn to see his iron level.  I was worried about the lab draw since we have had bad luck at Methodist before but the tech and Blake both did great!  After that we went to HyVee to get a donut and found a Santa picture to take. Then we made a trip to the library to get some football books.  It was a fun but busy stay at home day for us!  His labs came back good so we don't have to make any changes at this time!

We did our yearly Christmas tradition of making sugar cookies with Grandma.  The kids all had a blast and loved putting too many sprinkles on the cookies.

We celebrated the first day of Christmas break with homemade playdoh and some crafts our elf, Henry, brought us.  We first made Santa and elf door hangers and then colored some ornaments.  The kids loved making their own playdoh and played with that for an hour and a half.  I call it a fun morning and Mom win!

Claire found the boys costumes and wanted to be Bathman.  She was adorable in the mask!

The weather hasn't been too bad outside, just rainy, so we got the kids outside in boots to play and get some fresh air.  Grant did a great job playing with Claire.  She loves when he pretend chases her and then falls right before he gets to her.

We went to Des Moines Golf and Country Club for Santa's last night and got to see him one more time.  This year they had some reindeer also!  The kids all did great and we so well behaved.  A huge improvement from last year.

We celebrated the Chalik Christmas on Christmas Eve morning.  The kids were so excited to start the Christmas festivities but really just the presents. :)

We went to the Stern's Christmas Eve night and even heard Santa's sleigh bells.  They loved the presents they got but we had to hurry home to get to sleep before Santa got to our house!  They were so excited for Santa to come.  We knew it was going to be an early morning that next morning.

The Christmas tree is so pretty with all the present under it and the lights on.  The kids had a great Christmas and loved all their toys!  It was an early morning but it was fun to watch them open all the present.

Christmas dinner was at Grandma's house for the first time!  The kids did great and were not too riled up.  They got a few more presents and had fun playing with their cousins.

Grant has a tooth coming in way behind his other teeth.  He doesn't have room for the new teeth since all his baby ones haven't fallen out yet.

We went to the Science Center for Noon Years Eve and had a great time!  The balloon drop was very claustrophobic and we had to wait in our spot for 40 minutes.  Blake was nervous about the loud noises and didn't like the sound of balloons popping after the drop but everything before that was fun.  They loved getting their faces painted and decorating their hats.

Grandma came over again a few hours later and we celebrated with the cousins with cake.  Then Kailey watched the kids while the adults went out to dinner.  Kailey did a great job babysitting and we were able to get out to dinner!

This has been a good year!  Lots of ups and downs but we have so many good memories and are looking forward to see what 2024 has in store for us!