advent adventures: days 8 and 9.

i bet you're all sitting on the edge of your seats, wondering about the advent calendar's instructions for days 8 and 9... am i right?  or am i right?!  i was just thinking last night that it would be really awesome to have an adorable little calendar YEAR ROUND with daily messages to john regarding chores and household duties to accomplish.  like, day 2 - FOLD YOUR LAUNDRY.  day 3 - organize your dresser drawers.  day 4 - fix that cabinet door!  anyway, since that's not the objective of this whole thing...back to day 8.

unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures of this one in action, which is a shame because it was probably the cutest day thus far...

(insert the smiling faces of two adorable kiddos enjoying french toast and way too many candy canes)

we invited our neighbors over for a christmas breakfast/playdate.  when baileigh and jack are together, everything moves quite fast-paced, so fast, in fact, that my camera doesn't have a great setting to capture the fun.  so anyway, just trust me that good times were had by all and the french toast bake recipe i tried for the first time was delish!

when we woke up yesterday, the morning of the 9th, i was DELIGHTED to see that it had snowed!  i love winter, and more particularly, snow!  

jack showing his favorite puppy "the first snow"

so, since i am the orchestrator behind the advent calendar, i pulled a little switcheroo and found the envelope (from dec. 21) that said "play in the snow" and switched it for yesterday's.  no one was the wiser, and it worked better with the weather conditions, for sure!  john, jack and i pulled on our boots and enjoyed a few hours outside in the beautiful snowfall.

 showing jack how to make snow angels

 jack's snow angel attempt

 john's miniature snowman family

check out the baby belly on the mama snowman

*and just so you know - john does participate in all of these activities - he's just the designated photog.  hopefully soon, i'll snap a few pictures of him joining in on the fun!