Now that it's officially winter, I figured it was time to go ahead and post our favorite books from this fall. Read past lists here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
Favorite Books This Fall:
Do Pigs Have Stripes? by Melanie Walsh- This book was super cute. On each page it would show a small part of an animal and say, does a _____ have ______. Then on the next page it would say, no, but a _____ does. Elise loved the book and we read it over and over. Then she started reading it and was so proud that she could read it. It was adorable.
Don't Blink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal- This was a cute interactive book where the owl tried to keep you from blinking. Elise would blink on every page and then just laugh and laugh. It was adorable!
My Friend Maggie by Hannah E. Harrison- This was the sweetest book. It was about a girl whose best friend, Maggie, was being bullied. Instead of sticking up for her, she joined in with the other kids. Then those kids later turned on her and started bullying her and her friend, Maggie, came to her rescue. It was so surprising and wonderful. It started a great conversation about being a good friend and how you should be a good friend even when someone isn't being a good friend to you. The bully was a cute, little dog. Elise hated that the bully was a dog and said she couldn't be a bully because she was cute. That opened up a conversation about how bullies don't look different from other people and just because someone is cute, doesn't mean they are nice. Elise was still adamant that the dog wasn't a bully, but she is 4, haha!
Maybe Tomorrow? by Charlotte Agell- This book was about carrying around sadness and how sharing the sadness with a friend won't make it go away but can make it lighter or easier to carry. It was such a beautiful illustration for children, especially those encountering grief. I am adding it so I can remember it for the future.
Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty- Carter loved this book and was excited to read the other books in the series. It was really cute and super interesting. There was also a book about the moon and a book about the sun. He loved all of them and we read them multiple times each.
Ice Boy by David Ezra Stein- The kids enjoyed this one but it's on here because of me. I loved how it taught about the water cycle in a really fun way. I want to remember it for when I teach about the water cycle again
Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey- Carter's teacher started him on this series in Spanish, Hombre Perro, and he absolutely loves it! It can be a little bit odd at times, but anything that gets him to read for 2 hours straight is a win in my book! He prefers reading them in Spanish because it's easier to figure out tricky words but he's getting really good at reading them in English too. Carter got a box set of 4 of the books from his Uncie Taco for Christmas and we got him the others through book orders and the book fair and he is so excited he has them all! I think he's a couple short of the full set in Spanish but has them all in English.
Fly Guy series by Tedd Arnold- Elise adores these books. Every time we go to the library she picks out at least 2 of these books. I think we've read all of them and a bunch of times each. I'm getting a little tired of reading them but she never tires of them. We got her a set of them through a Scholastic order for Christmas and she always picks them to read.
Otto series by David Milgrim- Early on in the fall these were a favorite of Carter's because they were super easy to read. Then Elise got really into them. We got a set of them for Carter for Christmas but by the time Christmas rolled around, his reading ability was way beyond these so we decided to give them to Elise instead. She thinks they are hilarious.
Christmas Eve morning we were still in Topeka. That morning I was getting ready to go for a run and Elise really didn't want me to go. She decided she wanted to go with me so I decided to just run a mile for my running streak so she could run with me. She ran a solid 3/10ths of a mile before wanting to walk and pretty soon thereafter decided she wanted to play on the playground rather than run. So I ran out and back from the playground over and over while she played. Then she needed to use the restroom so we ran over to the bathroom. Afterward we ran back to the playground and I was almost at a mile so I ran a few laps around the playground while she played. She wanted me to play on the playground with her after I finished my run so we stayed to play for a bit before heading back to the house. We packed up and headed home a little after 10am. We had a few stops on the way home and one that took much longer than anticipated so we didn't make it home as early as I'd hoped. It was pretty rushed getting unpacked and then getting dressed for church in time to leave the house around 4:20 after getting home at 3:30 but we got it done! I wanted to get to church early to make sure we could get seats together. Thomas stayed behind to help mom and dad unload their car so they wouldn't have to worry about anyone stealing stuff out of their car while we were gone. Thomas, mom, and dad arrived at the church a little after 5:00, luckily we had saved them seats, otherwise they wouldn't have had anywhere to sit. The church was packed which was awesome to see! We enjoyed a beautiful service with a full orchestra, choir, and lots of Christmas carols. The best part is always singing Silent Night by candlelight. The look on Elise's face when I peeked at her holding her candle was magical. I was so glad the kids chose to go to service with us instead of going to their classrooms for Sunday School.
Thomas took a family picture for us before we left for church.
Carter sitting over by himself to hold seats for Oma and Opa.
Ready to sing Silent Night.
Lighting their candles.
Elise super thrilled about her candle!
I love the photo ops our church sets up for holidays!
I had dad sit because I thought it would be easier for him, I didn't think about the boot being in the picture. He was recovering from surgery to fix his heel spur.
The outtakes leading up to this picture are hysterical!
When we got home from church we had dinner. Elise was so adorable reminding us all to cheers partway through dinner. Then we let the kids choose one present to open early. Elise knew exactly which present she wanted to open and it turned out to be the Frozen Lego set we got her. Carter chose a present he could tell was Legos as well, his was a Toy Story 4 roller coaster set. They both wanted to work on their Legos which put us past bedtime but we went ahead and let them. We set cookies and milk out for Santa. When we were making the cookies Elise said she wanted to give Santa a small cookie because he is fat and she doesn't want him to get too full. Carter chose a large cookie so Elise decided Santa just needed one cookie. The kids were so cute in their matching Christmas jammies!
Christmas morning I woke up at 4:30 so excited to see the kids open their presents I couldn't fall back to sleep. I didn't fall back to sleep until after 5:00. Every noise I heard after that I jumped to attention thinking maybe the kids were awake. There were a few false alarms. I woke up at 7:00 and decided to read for a little bit while I waited for the kids to wake up rather than attempt to sleep any more. That worked out perfectly because the kids were up at 7:15. They were excited to show us they got Ninjago Legos and an Usborne book with stamp pad for making fingerprint pictures under the small tree in their room. The kids and I played in Elise's room for a while. Elise made pictures and started her Legos while Carter put together his Lego set.
Oma came in and told us Opa was awake around 7:30 so we went ahead and headed out to see what Santa brought the kids. Elise was really excited about her Elsa "Barbie" she saw at Sam's and asked for. Carter got a Lego remote control car and they both got slippers, a water bottle, and a Frozen Lego set from Santa. They were really excited. They had a blast checking out their stockings as well. While we waited for Uncie J and Uncie Taco to arrive, the kids ate breakfast and then opened their dig kits. Carter had a pirate dig kit and Elise had a gem dig kit. Then Carter wanted us to open our Santa presents so Ty and I opened ours while everyone looked in their stockings. Thomas arrived a little after 9:00 and Jeremy arrived a little before 10:00. After they ate breakfast and opened their Santa presents, it was off to the living room to pass out and then open presents. Carter did a great job reading the tags and passing out the presents.
It was so cute to see the kids watch each other open the presents they got each other. Elise was so excited to see what Carter thought and Carter had a hard time not giving Elise hints! Elise was adorable hugging people after opening the presents they got her. She told me "You and daddy got me so many books because you are nice!" She stopped to look through almost every book she got. She also wanted to open almost every present she opened as she went. Carter stayed more on task and made it through his presents quite a while before Elise did. She took a break to wash her Scruff a Loves and Carter helped her with that. Carter opened a box of Kinder Joy eggs. Elise really wanted some and found a box that looked like the same size as his. She was thrilled when she opened it and found it was a box of Kinder Joys! When the kids finished opening their presents, they went off to play while we started opening our presents. We play a game where you guess what your present is. If you are correct you get a point and you can add extra points by being extra specific. I won the game again this year. I was super disappointed because I tried to trick Ty by taping empty wrapping paper rolls to his slipper package, but he still guessed it correctly. While we were opening our presents, Elise came back in all dressed and ready for the day. She had a headband in her hair and was wearing her new purse. She also had makeup on. It was adorable! She sat with Oma the whole time Oma opened presents. Then we found a couple presents she missed and didn't open and she was thrilled to get to open more presents! One of the highlights was a joke book Thomas got dad for Christmas called Dad Jokes. Dad read us jokes and was just cracking up over them. Then Carter took over and started reading them. It was so entertaining!
This is how to open presents, haha!
Carter reading out of dad's Dad Joke book Thomas got him for Christmas.
That afternoon while the kids played, Jeremy, Thomas, and I headed to Turkey Mountain trails for a run. It was the first time in a very long time that all 3 of us ran together. I got to wear my new Goodr sunglasses I got from Alicia with our running buddy gift exchange. It was the first time I ran in the sunlight since I got them. We had such a wonderful run all together! It was crazy to run in shorts and a tank top on Christmas. I was really glad it was shorts weather because I got a pair of Oiselle running shorts with 6 (yes 6) pockets and was dying to try them out! I had fun running around in them yelling, "Head up, wings out," as I went, before my actual run! That evening we enjoyed leftovers for dinner and played some new games. The kids had a blast with all their new toys. There are Legos all over our house right now. I feel like it's going to take the rest of Christmas break to get our house back together! It was a wonderful day filled with love and memories made. Read about past Christmas' here: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
Topeka got snow on Monday the 16th. The kids were super excited and couldn't wait to play in snow when we arrived. It warmed up a lot throughout the week and I was worried it would all be melted by the time we arrived. I told the kids not to plan on snow so when Friday rolled around and we arrived to snow in the shaded area of Gma and Gpa's yard, the kids were overjoyed. It worked out perfectly because it was decently warm while playing in the snow. The only part of it that was cold was when the snow melted into your shoes and gloves. For the most part it was in the upper 30's and the 40's for our play in the snow. Saturday morning Ty took the kids exploring in the woods while I ran and then we played in the snow when I got back. The kids went sledding with sleds Leina borrowed from the neighbors. Carter was determined to make a snowman and I was impressed that he was able to do so with the little bit of snow available. Some other fun from the day was Leina and both the girls wearing curlers in their hair that morning. Elise saw Amanda's nail wraps and wanted to try one. Once Amanda got it on her finger, Elise decided she didn't like it and ripped it off. It eventually went on Kinley instead who kept holding her hand out to admire her fingernail. That evening I was making mashed potatoes to go with dinner and Elise and Wyatt both wanted to help me. I set them up peeling potatoes. Elise was very carefully peeling her potatoes and Wyatt was repeatedly stabbing his potato over and over with the peeler. Eventually he broke it in half and excitedly exclaimed, "I killed the potato!" That's when I realized he'd misunderstood what I said and thought we were killing the potatoes, not peeling them!
Elise loved feeding Kinley!
Sunday morning we had breakfast with Gigi and Papa as well as Uncle Kelly. After breakfast we opened presents from Gigi, Papa, and Kelly. Kelly got lottery scratchers for everyone. There weren't enough coins for everyone to scratch so Carter went and got a knife instead. Wyatt saw him so he ran and got a knife to use as well. He had trouble with the knife so he then switched to scratching with a large serving fork. Later he decided to sit on my lap while he finished scratching his card and every time he'd scratch off a number, he'd yell out that he won. It was the cutest and I felt like I was a winner since he was sitting in my lap. That evening we went to visit Grandpa Shupe. The kids enjoyed taking him for a walk in his wheelchair and took turns "pushing" him. Afterward we visited Gma Shupe at home. We lucked out to arrive while Ty's Uncle Marty and cousins were finishing up a visit and got to see them as well. It was a busy, full day. The kids were worn out by the time we arrived home.
We did our family Christmas on Monday. We started the morning with presents from Gma and Gpa and presents for kids from us and Paul and Amanda. Carter and Elise were super excited about their remote control cars from Paul and Amanda. Elise got a jewelry box and clip on earrings which she adored. At one point during the day Kinley reached for some earrings and wanted to look at them so Elise put some on her ears and she did not like that one bit! She just wanted to look at them. I was thrilled to get some pictures of Elise and Kinley together in their matching jammies that Elise picked out at Sam's during a shopping trip. The rest of the day was spent playing outside with remote control cars on a beautifully warm day! That evening we made chocolates which is always a hit with the kids. Earlier in the trip Carter was telling Gma how his favorite thing he does with her and Gpa is making chocolates. We had such a wonderful day and our trip was such a joy. It is always hard to leave, knowing it will be months before we see our sweet niece and nephew again. We had to leave earlier on Tuesday since it was Christmas Eve and we wanted to make it home in time to get to church at 5:00 for Christmas Eve service.
