Little Handyman

Makenna Telling the Christmas Story

Better late than never.

All through the season of Advent, we as a family tried hard to make the time preparing for Christmas about Jesus.

We attempted this in several ways. Our Jesse Tree was a main way we did this but as you know we have young kiddos and a new story everyday even if they all center around God's big picture gets confusing for small kiddos.

Another way we tried to really drive home the importance of Christmas was by telling our kiddos the story of the first Christmas often. We did this by reading straight out of the Bible, reading the story out of our Jesus Storybook Bible, and reenacting the story with a nativity set.

Let me just say that with the current age of our kiddos the reenacting was by far the favorite. Within just a few times of telling the story this way Makenna decided to try to tell the Christmas Story herself. Also, both kids LOVED to play with the nativity set. As you can see in the video below Colin even gets involved at one point.

Currently the nativity set is still not packed away with all the other Christmas decor. Mostly because the kiddos love playing with it so much.

So all that said here is a video of Makenna's take at the age of 3 on the story of Jesus birth.

Disclaimer: The white card Makenna is using has a picture of an angel on it. She had to use this because we somehow misplaced the angel to the nativity set. Also, please ignore my constant questions...I just wanted to encourage Makenna and see how much she remembered about the story.

Snow

Finally we got enough snow for the kiddos to enjoy.

It doesn't take much because as you can tell by the pictures there is hardly enough snow to cover the driveway. But I guess that says a ton about expectations. Makenna and Colin didn't expect any snow so when there was some to help Daddy shovel they were excited.



We even broke out a sled to let the kiddos take a couple passes down the street. Needless to say they had a blast.

For those of you who noticed....Yep our neighbors got tee-peed....in January.

Pregnancy Number 3 : 29 Weeks

Pregnancy Number 3 : The Birth Day

I guess the big news right now is that a day has been chosen for Baby 3 to be born. It is kinda funny because most of the time you think that when you are going to have a c-section you will get to pick the day your baby will be born.

But not the case for the Willises. Our doctor picked our baby's birthday for us. I know that if we had a major conflict with the day our OB would have changed the day but we really don't. It wouldn't have been my first choice because our niece will have the same birthday. No big deal though. It will make it easy to remember for Grandma Janelle.

So that brings us to the announcing of the day.......

MARCH 26, 2012

That is unless baby 3 decides to make his/her grand appearance sooner.

Christmas Songs

Makenna has definitely found a few Christmas songs that she really enjoyed singing the past month. Most of the time she would rotate between Hark the Harold Angels Sing, The Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, and Away in a Manger.

Here are a few videos showcasing her musical talent:)

Colin's Big Boy Bed

If you didn't guess by the title of the post, I'll make it very clear. Colin is now sleeping (both nap and over night in his big boy bed).Yep that's right no more crib for Colin.

We started him with just sleeping in his bed during nap time on Tuesday. His only objection was to the pillow. Which I gladly removed and as a result he slept great.

For over night we have been giving him a choice as to where he would like to sleep and he would choose his crib. But last night when Jared gave him the choice, he pointed to his big boy bed. And to everyone's delight he slept great.

I will say though that we have been dealing with him getting out of bed for some time now because he had figured out how to climb out of his crib. So the whole "you can't get out of bed" talk has been previously dealt with. Not that I think we are in the clear yet as he hasn't attempted to test this out with his big boy bed. But here is to hoping this milestone is all taken care of.

In other big boy bed news. As of now both the crib and Colin's big boy bed are in the same room. No that does not mean we know that baby 3 is a boy it is just the most convenient place for both the crib and bed right now. Also, the bed was made by my dad and given to Colin as a Christmas present.

Here are the pictures of Jared and the kiddos putting the bed together.

Colin - An Update

This is a quick update on Colin at 20 months.

He has recently accomplished some pretty big things. It is funny how all of a sudden a child can surprise you with what they already know and are capable of learning.

Colin has done just that, completely taken me by surprise with what he knows and is able to communicate. (Well communicate in toddler language that only his mama can understand most of the time)

Here is a brief list of update about Colin:

• He recognizes his colors and can say most of them.
• He recognizes simple shapes. And as of just the other day proved me wrong when I said he knows his shapes but cannot name them. He did this right in front of his Nana and Papa. I think this will be Colin's personality though. Not let you know that he can do something until you give him the chance to prove you wrong.
• He has become quite the chatter box. This is relative because compared to Makenna he hardly says anything. But lately he will pretend to tell a story, try to explain something to you or just talk while playing with his toys. (All of this chatter is just that, chatter. Sometimes you can pick out a few words but most of it is toddler speak.)
• He really enjoys coloring, writing, or anytime he is allowed to use a writing utensil. This is completely opposite of how Makenna was at his age. All she wanted to do was scribble if that, but Colin seems to try to draw things. He even holds a pen correctly, better than Makenna. It is just how he does it. No one showed him how.
• He loves cars, tools, tractors, boots, going outside, food, books, trains, dinosaurs and puzzles.
• He continues to impress us with his facial expressions. He can roll his eyes with the best of them.
• He also has a very high pain tolerance. Here is an example: At his doctor's appointment a few weeks ago he had to have two shots, one in each arm. Instead of crying he just watched the nurse sick him in the first arm and then the second all the while staring at her with a look that probable meant "Is that all you got lady?"

That's Colin in a nutshell right now. Well at least the things that stand out to me.

Makenna's Name

Makenna has recently taken to wanting to write her name. Let me just tell you that this is no easy task for a 3yr old who has a 7 letter name.

She has been able to write an "M" for almost a year now and the "A" was shortly after that. But "K" has been a difficult and so much so that for a while she didn't even want to learn how to write it.

I have not pushed her to learn to write her name mostly because she just turned 3 in October. But I have encouraged her to learn how to write her letters as that is part of what she is learning in her preschool. This is not something that has come easy to Makenna but she recently wants to practice writing more and more.

So because I am so proud that she has conquered such a hard task, you all get to see her first successful attempt at writing the first 4 letters of her name in succession.