Christmas Toy Exchange

I participated in a Christmas toy exchange this year. It was fun! There were 9 of us who participated, so we each made 9 of the same things. Most of the items are little things that can be put in a stocking. Some items were bigger, though. Here is what was exchanged!

Felt button coloring matching game

Penguin hand puppet, this is what I made. :)

Bubble Wand

Marble maze

Pretend ice cream cone

Puzzle

Fishing game

Puppet theater

Magnetic/chalk board

Ice Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan

I have wanted to visit the Ice Exhibit before we moved to Germany. It's been that long! This year we finally went. Caden loved it! He's really been into ice lately, making it various shapes, watching it melt, wanted to see it steam. So this exhibit was perfect for him. He literally jumped for joy when he found out we were going to an ice exhibit.

As a special treat, we took the kids to eat lunch at The Rainforest Cafe before we went to the exhibit. Caden and Gracie both loved the restaurant. They both liked seeing the animals and all the excitement that goes on in the rain forest. 

The Gaylord Texan was decked out for Christmas. It was fun walking around the hotel and checking out all of their displays. But the highlight was definitely the ice exhibit which featured over 2 million pounds of ice. This year's theme was Frosty the Snowman. We took Caden to see the play, Frosty the Snowman last year so he was familiar with it. There were some ice slides that were fun to ride down. The exhibit ended with a beautiful ice nativity scene. We are really glad we went, even though it was literally freezing cold! After we were done, we got some hot chocolate to warm us up. We hope to make this an annual event! It really is a neat event. If you are ever around North Texas at Christmastime, I recommend going to see it. Here are some pictures from our visit. The guys from China who come and sculpt the ice really do a fantastic job!

Goofty brother at Rainforest Cafe

Waiting in line for the ice exhibit

There was a lot of excitement

Walking to the entrance, we all got parkas

Large Frosty

Me and my cute snow boy!

Ice slides, lots of fun!

Princess was cold and got tired of waiting for us all to go down the ice slides

It was fun!

The guys!

Caden got an ice apple at the end of our exhibit

He loved his ice apple but we had to give it away because it was melting and messy!

There's also snow tubing

 

They are such sweet kids!

Grace is 10 months!

Dear Grace,

You are now 10 months old! Your life is really changing. You now have 4 teeth, your two front bottom teeth, your upper left lateral incisor, and your top right front tooth. I started brushing your teeth and you love it. You also like your hair being brushed, at least for now. And bath time is another favorite part of your day.

You are standing unassisted really well and last weekend you took a few steps by yourself without holding onto anything. You've done this a few times and before we know it, you'll be walking across the room!

There are several special things we're noticing about you. First of all, you seem to have a natural rhythm for music. Not only do you love to hear music, but you also dance to the beat and do so very well. You are drawn to our piano and hit the keys very well for your age. It will be neat watching you grow and seeing where your early love of music takes you!

You also love books! Especially books with animals in them. We took you to the zoo several times this past month and you LOVED looking at the animals and pointing to them. It was so special and neat to see. We have a zoo membership so we'll be visiting a lot this coming year.

You are making and mimicking more and more sounds. I love to hear you babble and "talk." You seem to call Caden, Baba. You love him so much! I pray you two will always be close.

You are finally eating some solid foots. Apparently you didn't really care for baby food and you don't want anyone to help you eat! I starting giving you chunks for fruits and veggies and you enjoy picking them up and feeding yourself! You also enjoy small bites of chicken and ground beef. I made some taco soup the other night and you loved the organic ground beef, corn, and black beans from it. For the most part, you are already eating what we're eating.

You love your Sunday school class and your sweet friends at church. When I sing you some of the songs from church you light up with lots of smiles and will often dance to the beat.

You enjoy hanging out with me and Caden while he does his schoolwork. Several times you have wanted to sit next to him at his desk.

You enjoy swinging on our swing, crawling under tables and chairs. Standing up and attempting to climb our stairs! You can climb them very well, we just have to watch you closely when you do!

For the most part you are only taking one nap per day. If we're home, you nap in your bed. Thankfully you sleep pretty well at night, about 12 hours. You still wake up once or twice but that's okay. You're still sleeping with mom and dad and I'm not sure when we'll move you to your room. Right now, we're still happy having you in our room.  

We are looking forward to your first Thanksgiving and are truly blessed to have you in our lives. We love you, Grace.

Love,

Mom

 

You started taking a few steps by yourself a few days after you turned 10 months!

 

You like to be right where your brother is!