New Year's Eve

I am really REALLY excited about this new tradition! I can take no credit for this idea as I've seen it in a few different places. Namely here and here. However, I can take full credit (well my mom can since she is the one that came up with the idea but she doesn't blog) for the confetti idea. I may be recounting this idea in a few days when I'm still finding bits of confetti all over the house but for now it sounds so fun!

The idea behind this activity is each balloon has a time on it. We decided to let the girls stay up until 8:30pm so I just counted back from 8:30 with the 12 balloons I got. So we started at 3pm with the countdown. Each balloon is filled with money and confetti and each girl (E&A) will take turns popping the balloons to countdown to "Happy New Year!" We did every 30 minutes.

To say the girls were excited when they woke up to this is an understatement. I had decorated the tree with hanging stars, star garland, the Happy New Year party hat, and noise makers earlier in the week but didn't add the balloons until last night. I found all my decorations at the dollar store in their half off christmas isles! With the exception of the hat and the noise makers. Those came from the party store.

I'm really excited to add this to our holiday traditions!

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve

Last Christmas Book Read: Check
Christmas Cookies for Santa: Check
Christmas Pajamas opened: Check
Baths, Hair and Teeth Brushed: Check

Let the wrapping begin!

Evyn Kate 9 months

Wordless Wednesday.

Surprise! Surprise!

My mom called yesterday. "I'm coming to stay with you! I'm leaving tomorrow!" she exclaimed. I was shocked. This is not my mother. She doesn't do things spur of the moment. But I liked it! And while speechless I excitedly welcomed her to stay as long as she wanted!

She wanted to surprise the girls. So I was happy she had only called the day before to tell me she was coming. It was a hard secret to keep!

We kept the girls up later than normal waiting for her to knock on the door. They were beyond thrilled! So much so they couldn't get the door open!

Happy week for us!

MawMaw showed up just in time to read our Christmas book for the night....


And Ginger was over the moon about the company. She loves my mom!

Elodie's Christmas Party

Elodie had her Christmas Party yesterday. She had a half day today and is out for the next 2 weeks. I'm really happy to have her home, to have a slower pace for a bit, for Addysen to have a playmate, and to do a few fun Christmas crafts together. We have a few things planned out and we are kicking off the break with a weekend trip to San Antonio! We are taking the girls to see Santa and we have heard great things about the Riverwalk around this time of year. Since this is the first year we will miss the Mesa Temple Lights we are excited to have something to fill that space.

Happy Last Weekend Before Christmas.


Addysen was THRILLED to be in the classroom with Elodie.



EK was happy to tag along too.

I brought a Christmas book and read to the kids while they ate their snacks.



Instead of playing games or doing a craft the whole school did a book exchange. They played the left/right game with a Christmas story and kids had so much fun with it!



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And the winner of the Christmas Banner is Jen Larsen! Woot! Woot! It's in the mail Jen!

10 years later...

I could say some clever things. I could be sarcastic. I could get mushy. I could talk about how much I have relied on him the last 8 months. Or how in this year our relationship has been tested and strengthened. There is a lot I can say. And a lot I don't want to say.

I love you Chris.

Wordless Wednesday: Signed, Sealed, Delivered and A Visitor

Snowflake FHE

I saw this idea floating around pinterest and knew it would be perfect for family home evening last night. The only down part to this activity is you have to wait until the next day to see your ornament take shape.

-First you will need white pipe cleaners, borax, glass jars, and boiling water.

-Start boiling your water.

-Shape your pipe cleaners into what ever shape you want. Elodie wanted a gingerbread man, Addysen wanted a pretzel, I attempted an actual snowflake, and Christopher did a star.

-Place 1/3 of a cup of borax in the bottom of each jar. I used old peanut butter jars that were plastic. It worked but since the water was boiling hot, my jars didn't hold up. I had to toss them all afterwards.

-Pour your boiling water into the jars. Enough that you know your ornaments are going to be covered but not to the tip top.

-Take your shapes and tie a string around them. In the blog where I found the idea she attached her string to a pencil. I didn't do that part. I just had enough string so that it hung over the side and there was no chance that it would fall into my water.

- Then put them in the water. Like this:

-They have to sit over night but when you wake up in the morning and pull your ornaments out of the jars they will look like this:

Addysen's Pretzel

Elodie's Gingerbread Man


Chris' star

Cool huh? They are all so sparkly and the girls thought it was the neatest thing ever. That borax. Who knew all the things you can do with it!

Christmas Banner and a giveaway!

So....

I finally finished all of the family photoshoots I did while I was in Arizona. 13 total. It was a lot of hours in front of the computer but I did it. Put the last one in the mail last Wednesday. 3 days later than my original goal. But everyone was patient with me and I appreciate that!

Because all of my naptimes and after bedtimes were spent editing pictures, I haven't been able to do anything for myself. Which means the Christmas fabric I bought before Thanksgiving has sat in the JoAnn's bag it came in for a few weeks now.

Not anymore. My original plan was to have this done last week. But then I ran out of red thread. So it had to wait until Friday. Then it rained all weekend which means I couldn't take a picture of my banner. And while it's still overcast outside, it is what it is. As for the banner. It came out even cuter than I thought it would in my brain. I say that every time. Which is a good thing because why would I put up a decoration I didn't love.


I especially love the green pompom trim. Cute to look at, not so cute to sew on. Don't look too closely.

And no banner is complete without a fabric flower. As Addysen would say "DUH!" We dislike that she says it but it's not the D word (AKA: Dumb) or the S word (AKA: Stupid) And don't worry. I have since ironed out that wrinkle. Don't deny it. It was the first thing I noticed too.


This fabric will make a reappearance once I get started on the girls Christmas skirts. Oh the fun to be had!

I made 2! DUH! Who wants the other one? Leave a comment and I'll have the girls pick a winner Wednesday night. And because there is confusion sometimes as to when the giveaway closes, lets say you have until bedtime Wednesday night. AKA: 7:30pm SHARP! Because we don't mess around at bedtime!

*I will mail it on Thursday. The 15th. AKA Our 10 year anniversary.*

Lately

-Her favorite word is "BUSTED!"

-She says she will stop sucking her thumb when she goes to preschool.

-She is still overly obsessed with leggings. I got her a pair of leopard print ones for Christmas and can't wait to see what kind of outfits she comes up with.

-She loves Taylor Swift and Justin Beiber. Just the music, she is only 3 afterall. She calls Justin Beiber "Baby,Baby, Oh" and her favorite Taylor Swift song is "I am not the kind of girl"

-We have a dance party every single night before bed and every single night she cries when it's time to go to bed.

-She calls Evyn "Evie" I hope it sticks.

-She misses her friend Graycie in Arizona and ask about her a lot. More now since my recent trip. Questions like "Does Grayce still have a purple room?" and wants to know if Graycie has specific toys still. Like the rocking horse. It makes me heart hurt.

-She has an imaginary friend named "Ellie" and just today was so sad because Ellie went to Utah to visit her family. Ellie also left her phone at home so Addysen wouldn't be able to talk to her ALL WEEK! It reminded me of when Elodie had 2 imaginary friends named "Hundra" and "Tinga"

-She ask for a Sonic Every. Single. Day

Fashionably Warm

We had a cold front come through these last few days....and we take that very seriously around here.

Wordless Wednesday

Conversation with Addysen.

I don't do this nearly enough....

While I was feeding Evyn oatmeal this morning this is the conversation I had with Addysen.

Addysen: "Mom, can I feed Evyn with the spoon?"

Me: "Not today. When Evyn is a little older you can" (We have let Addysen feed Evyn before and she ended up ramming the spoon down Evyn's throat!)

Addysen: "When I'm older too? Like when I'm a teenager?"

Me: "Yep."

Addysen: "Daddy doesn't want me to be a teenager."

Me: " I don't want you to be a teenager either! I want you to stay a little girl forever."

Addysen: "NO! I want to get bigger. I want to be a teenager like YOU!"

Addysen is obsessed with growing bigger. She also says all the time that she can't wait to be a high school girl. I can't remember if this is something Elodie did too.

Make this tonight...

Found it on Pinterest. Came from this girl. The whole family loved it. Made bread and a salad. Seriously. It's GOOD!

Make it. Tonight.

Lasagna Soup

for the soup:
2 tsp. olive oil
1-1/2 lbs. Italian sausage......I used ground meat
3 c. chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 T. tomato paste
1 28-oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes.......I used stewed tomatoes because it's what I had on hand.
2 bay leaves
6 c. chicken stock......the pasta sucks up a lot of the liquid so I ended up adding 2 more cans of chicken broth AFTER the noodles were done.
8 oz. mafalda or fusilli pasta.....these noodles are SO CUTE. Evyn loved them!
1/2 c. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

for the cheesy yum:
8 oz. ricotta
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of freshly ground pepper

2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese for the top.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into bite sized pieces, and brown for about 5 minutes. Add onions and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and stir well to incorporate. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the tomato paste turns a rusty brown color.

Add diced tomatoes, bay leaves, and chicken stock. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. Do not over cook or let soup simmer for a long period of time at this point, as the pasta will get mushy. Stir in basil and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the cheesy yum. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.

To serve, place a dollop of the cheesy yum in each soup bowl, sprinkle, ladle the hot soup over the cheese, and then sprinkle some of the mozzarella on top.

Servings: 8

Let the countdown begin!

I am so excited about this new countdown! Every year I try to come up with a fun way for us to countdown the days to Christmas. And this one is sure to be a winner!

I can't take credit for this idea. I found it HERE. And the numbers are a free printable from HERE.

The idea is every night before bed the girls will take turns opening a Christmas book. Each book is labeled 1-24. We had 3 Christmas books at home and I went and raided our local library for the rest. I also bought the girls a new Christmas book for them to open on Christmas Eve. That way we can add to our collection and still count the new book as a Christmas gift!

I bought butcher block paper to wrap the books in and then used strips of scrapbooking paper to add some color. It took me about a hour to wrap them all.

The girls are so excited about opening the presents. They know the presents are books but it's fun because they don't know which ones I got.

I'm also working on a Christmas Scripture paper advent chain to go along with our book each night. That way we can read one fun Christmas book and then read a scripture about Jesus and the real reason we celebrate this time of year. You can find the download for that HERE.

New View

Now that Evyn is out of the webble wobble stage she's got a whole new view to enjoy. I especially enjoy the fact that I can actually see the front side of the grocery cart! I was constantly banging into things because I couldn't see over the car seat.

At the park: We tried the baby swings and she seemed to enjoy them.


In her stroller: It may just be my imagination but she seems to sit up a little taller. As if she knows she's a big girl now. Just don't take the turns too quickly...we learned that one the hard way! The stroller went right and Evyn went left. Thankfully she was buckled but it scared her!


And the grocery cart: That cart cover has served us well. We bought it when Elodie was getting ready to sit up. I remember specifically picking a gender neutral color. Just in case we had a boy. Ha! Jokes on us! Even still it has served us well and it keeps my cringes to a minimum. And in Wal-Mart that is hard to do!


And just for fun...

Elodie and Addysen in the cart and stroller HERE

Addysen in the swings HERE

Sneak

Because I'm pretty sure this isn't the one I'm going to use for our Christmas cards this year. Little things no one else would notice but me make it not the winner. Evyn isn't wearing her necklace and Addysen is a little too far apart from the other girls.

All the same...I'm thinking this would look AMAZING in a canvas print above our fireplace. I love these girls! They drive me crazy and make my heart swell all in one day!

And during this time of Thanksgiving and family time I feel so blessed to be their mom!