Holiday Happenings

 The Holiday's are in full swing at the Beaman household.  We had our family photos updated for our Christmas cards and they turned out great!  I can't believe how big the boys are getting and they sure are handsome!  I'm one lucky momma!  Tyson is not too bad either ;)

 T.J. is 6 and is thriving at school!  He is so smart!  He is in 1st grade but attends a 2nd grade advanced reading class and spelling class.  He is in a 2nd grade intermediate math class and is learning multiplication!  He even knows his 9 times tables!  Soon I won't be able to help him with his math.  T.J. is doing great in swimming!  He has started learning the breaststroke and butterfly.  Tyson has been helping him with the strokes and its been great bonding for them.

 Spencer is cute as a button!  He is always on the go as you can see from the photo above!  Like I said in his 2 year post, he knows several letters and numbers and is learning shapes and colors.  He is starting to piece words together to form phrases.  He loves to color, especially on my cabinets :( He thinks he can swim because he can hold his breath under water and blow bubbles but he isn't there yet.  Maybe this summer he can start lessons.

Caleb is getting so close to sitting up on his own. He can sit assisted really well, but can only sit by himself for a little bit before he starts falling forward.  He is really starting to enjoy toys and playing with them.  He loves when I put jingle bells on his ankles.  Caleb is a major momma's boy and I don't mind.  I love his kissable cheeks and snuggles.

For Veterans Day, T.J.'s school put on a Veteran's Day Program and invited Veteran's to come and be honored.  T.J. was so excited that Uncle Ryan was able to come and be honored.  It was an emotional program.  I'm so glad that T.J. goes to a school that encourages pride and respect for our country and Veterans.  Patriotism is dying but this program gave me hope that there are children out there that are still being taught how blessed we are to live in this amazing country.

 I was able to attend "Time Out for Women" with some friends in November and it was an amazing opportunity to reset and increase my testimony.  If you ever have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it!

T.J. had been begging me for months to make a snow globe.  We got some baby food jars and finally made some Christmas snow globes.  They turned out so cute and it was a great opportunity to get us in to the holiday spirit!

On November 30, my grandpa turned 87!  He is now in a Nursing Home but we went and celebrated this special day with him.  T.J. picked out a BYU Nutcracker for him to display in his room and also drew him a picture.  My boys sure love their great-grandpa!  I'm glad that they have a good relationship with him and have gotten to know him.

This is just a fun photo of T.J. and me sharing one of our favorite treats....Swig drinks and cookies!  Yum!

On December 1, Tyson and I left on a Vacation.  We went on a 4 Night Cruise to the Bahamas.  It was so much fun and was so nice that we could spend some one on one time together and be in warm, mid 80's weather in December!

 Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas where we went on an excursion to the Atlantis Resort.  We were able to visit their aquarium (which was AMAZING!), waterpark, and private beach.  We had a lot of fun!

 Our second stop on the cruise was Freeport, Bahamas.  This stop was less impressive but still fun.  We went to a private beach where we snorkeled and looked for shells.  While snorkeling we saw fish, stingrays, and a jelly fish!  We tried to find some shells for the boys since the shells we brought back to the ship from Nassau ended up still having crabs in them (yikes!) so we had to throw them back in the ocean.  Freeport didn't have as many shells but we were able to find a few.

 After docking, we headed to Epcot in Disneyworld and rode some rides.  Our favorite was "Talking with Crush" it was a cute experience with Crush from Finding Nemo. 

My friend of 28 years, Tabitha now lives in Orlando so we used this opportunity to visit and stay with her and her family.  We had a great visit and it was so good to see her!  She was an amazing host!  We are so lucky to have such good friends.  Hopefully we can go visit the Manikowski's again and we can bring the boys.  T.J. was so sad he couldn't play with Tabitha's son Beau.

Spencer's nursery leaders made him a count down to Jesus' birth and every morning he has been so excited to take a chain off.  It is so cute to watch him understand what to do with the chains.