We watched this video at church on Sunday and it made me giggle. Then it made me so thankful for my family and the opportunity we have to live life together. via ...
holidays
Red, White & Blue!
We had a pretty spectacular fourth of July. We spent the day in the water, eating good food and followed it up with a fantastic evening of fireworks and front yard football. Wanna see? Kalli & Ella Sophie relaxing in her ring Best buddies, Molly & Ella Of course, they had to pose! My two favorite girls Look at those bellies?! / Sophie & Heath at Thunder on the Mountain Quite possibly my favorite family snapshot ever More family shots on the bluff Isn't this gorgeous? We tried a new spot this year A patriotic walk around the neighborhood before dark Sophie & K watching the boys play football / our sweet daddy is his favorite shirt for some perspective on our spot, here's Vulcan Park And some simulated fireworks so you can see the scale. My girls ...
Insta Holiday
Two days of pool, food, friends & family. I hope yours was just as wonderful! ...
Guess who came to visit?
At almost two (4 days to go!), Sophie is at the perfect age to enjoy most everything. Talking about her birthday and the arrival of the Easter Bunny has elicited much excitement at our house for the last several weeks. Sometimes I wonder how much she's really understanding, but when I went into their room to announce the EB's arrival, she was giddy and couldn't wait to check out the goods. I know that everyone celebrates a little differently when it comes to Easter. Sometimes, baskets aren't even a part of the equation, some people do candy only and others make it look like Christmas. I try to find a happy medium and fill our baskets with things we would otherwise need for Easter along with a few fun surprises. I also let up on our limited sweets mantra and we indulge a little for the ...
An Egg-cellent Time
I don't usually procrastinate about holidays, but somehow we managed to wake up on Saturday morning and we still hadn't dyed our Easter eggs... or boiled them. Okay, okay, I hadn't even bought them! I also discovered the night before that Ella's basket might have a little more in it than Sophie's, so Josh & I decided to grab dinner (at Chuy's!!) and up pick a few more things. After dinner, we bought eggs and new pajamas for the girls and came home to get our party started. They were exhausted after their second day without a nap and I was surprised we actually made it through the evening with no meltdowns. I'm always stressed about these moments... that my OCD will prevent me from letting the girls have fun and experiment, that my photographs will turn out horrible, that the mess will ...
Sweet Treats
For Valentine's Day this year, I wanted to make homemade treats for the girls to share at school. There is nothing wrong with store-bought cards and I know that someday, I will have to give in and allow iCarly or Spongebob love notes. Until then, I figure I better take advantage of my littles' lack of concern and make something crafty instead. Since Sophie isn't quite two yet, hers weren't as big of a deal. I printed simple cards on our color printer and had Ella go through and write her name on them. Aside from opening an untold amount of lollipops and stealing the scissors, she wasn't much help. She was, however, awfully cute to look at during the process! The other plus was only having to create nine little treats for her friends! That made this little craft super cute AND super ...
Valentine’s
Valentine's Day was low key at our house this year. That is just the way I like it! The girls wore pretty shirts from Tootlebug's to school -- I loved all of the mismatched pink and polka dots. Yummy. Of course it took about ten tries to get a decent photo of the two of them, only I'm not sure I would even call it decent. At least they are both in the frame and nobody is crying. That's success as far as I'm concerned! Ella made us this pretty Valentine's heart at school. Isn't she doing great with her printing? I love that she throws that extra line in her E -- that's my favorite part. We used it as the centerpiece on our dining room table. We had this yummy chicken & rice for dinner. Score 100 points for putting V-Day dinner in the crock pot before leaving for work. SD ...
Kraft & Twine Advent Calendar
Affiliate links appear in the following post. Although shopping the embedded links won’t cost you any additional dollars, it might earn me a small commission on your purchase. Your support of this blog always appreciated! I've been saying for years that I was going to create an advent calendar for the girls in the days leading up to Christmas, but this is the first year I've actually made it happen. Not only do I think it's fun for them to have some little gifts to look forward to each day, but it is such a wonderful way to remind the girls of the reason we celebrate. Ella & I went shopping a few weekends ago and picked up clothespins, bakers twine and kraft paper lunch sacks. I snuck off to the dollar aisle and grabbed twenty-five days worth of tiny treats while she wasn't looking ...