it's that time of year...

...for not just one December birthday, but two!

Stella turned 8!  I honestly can't believe it...sigh...  She wanted peace signs on her cupcakes.  Peace out.

...for making gingerbread houses!

I ordered 6 of these gingerbread houses from amazon for Stella's birthday party; thinking they could make them for a fun little activity.  Welllll... I felt how heavy each box was and I decided against it and sent each sweet girl home with one instead.  I was expecting them to be hard but they ended up being very easy, just big and a little messy.  They smell real good, though.  Every time I walk by them I smell them and want to take a bite out of it.  I have a feeling that they might smell better than they taste. 

...for my house to smell like baked goods

My winter *coat* is getting pretty thick.  I'm guessing it would be better for my thighs if my house smelled more like vegetables rather than cinnamon rolls.  But good golly those cinnamon rolls are gooood.

...for the Fed-ex man and UPS man to become my good friends.

Nobody mailed me diet coke (if you noticed the diet coke box on the bottom left) but if someone did, I'd drink them all and be so thankful.  It's that time of year for diet coke, too I guess. :)

...for being excited to check the mail!

It really is one of my favorite things about this time of year.  I love, love, love getting Christmas cards.  They bring a smile to my face.  Maybe one year I'll get smart and buy one of those cute Christmas card hangers during the after Christmas sales... maybe.

Merry Christmas!

xo

(update... found a card holder and it was on sale!  word.)

Christmas card outtakes

Saturday was the day; the day to take a photo for our Christmas card.  Since it gets dark here at like 1pm (maybe a little sarcastic...maybe) and Sean leaves every other weekend to go down to Seattle for school, this Saturday was truly the only day that worked for us to get a family photo.  Welllllll, Saturday decided to be a cold rainy day.  Dumb la nina, or whatever they are calling this crazy wet weather.  I said goodbye to the vision of hazey sun, blankets and playing in the grass and said hello to frizzy hair, pink runny noses and cold hands.  Sweet.

We started out on the south end of the island.  Keep in mind it's raining, and then add a little wind to that rain.  You got that in your mind?  We get out of the car.  I set up the tripod and Sean tried to get the kids in line.  Oh man, it was so funny.  The weather made Jonah a little crazy, as you can see in the picture above.  Ava kept saying "it's freeeeeeezing.  I'm freeeeeeeeeeezing!..." and Stella started to get watery eyes, the tearish kind of watery eyes.  It. Was. So. Cold.  We got one photo that worked.  It's the one that is actually on the card.  It's nothing to brag about, but it works.

Then we headed out to the red barn.  The rain started to lighten up and, while in the car, our hands started to unthaw.  We were ready for some more picture fun -Woo!  I wanted to capture a few fun shots of the family.  I had bought some fake mustaches at the toy store here in town and the kids were dying to wear them... well, Stella and Jonah were, Ava was like -whateves, I don't do mustaches - but she wore it, because she's cool like that.

If you look close you can see the rain in this one of Jonah.  Annnnd, Jonah and I were having about the same kind of hair day.  Awesome.

Even though things didn't go exactly as I had planned, I mean really when does that ever happen, I am so glad we still went out.  Rain or shine, I love my family.  A lot.

oh baby

She kinda likes babies... or so it seems.

yesterday she was 2. today she is 3

We celebrated Ava's birthday yesterday with the family.  She's been telling me for months that she wanted a pink cake for her birthday.  She got her wish...well kind of, it's brown underneath the pink.

Today she had a few friends over for a little fun.  We went with the mini pink cupcakes.  They were a hit...

well, at least the tops were a hit.  Ava slicked the topping off of all 4 of them that she had throughout the day.  If I was smart, I would have just refrosted the same one all 4 times. :)

Happy Birthday, Ava.  You, my sweets, are so loved.

a Jonah day

First we played some basketball.  I whooped up on him.  

Then he wanted to show me how fast he was on his bike.  I messed with the camera settings to enhance his speed a little. :)

Then he wanted to show me how fast he can run.

The boy is fast, what can I say.

Then he wanted to whoop me in some Smash Bros.  He asked if he should wear his helmet.  Seeing that he can barely see through it, I encouraged him to.  I'm no good at Smash Bros.

Then we decided to get our little fakey tree out from the storage room and put her upstairs.  We put some lights on her.  She's cute.  We're doing the big fakey tree tomorrow night.

I love Christmas tree bokeh.  You'll be seeing a lot more of this I'm sure.

And that my friends, is 3 blogs in 3 days.  New record.  Does this make you happy?  It does me because it means things are sloooooowing down.  I like that.

Good night.  xo

Today

Today my house and myself smelled like roast beef.  Dinner was good last night, but not good enough to want to smell like it.  My parents dog gave me a few extra sniffs when I saw him.  All that smoke from yesterday found it's way into the bedrooms.  Sweet.  Oh and the gravy Sean made was black.   I'm guessing the drippings from the pan were more like charrish bits rather than drippish bits.  It didn't taste burnt, just had a flame broiled taste.  I called it a flame roast.


Today we got a package from Nana and Papa.  It was full of Christmas goodness, from crafts to candies.  Here's a little peek at what went down tonight.  I'll try to take photos of the kids actually doing the crafts tomorrow.  I was in charge of making the house.  It may look like a young child put it together, but it was me.  In my defense, the glue we have in this house is no bueno.  I told the kids they could decorate it tomorrow when the glue dried.  And hey, the glue can act like icicles, right?  Right, that's what I was thinking.

Icicles.  Right?  Right. :)

husband in the kitchen

I woke up this morning and came out to make some coffee, because that's what's most important when you first wake up.  However, as I was getting it ready I noticed I was really dizzy and having trouble standing up straight.  Then I started to feel sick.  Really sick.  So sick that all of the sudden coffee didn't sound good.  I went back to bed, pronto and spoke the dreaded mom words, "I don't feel good."  My husband is awesome.  He called in sick for me and took over the motherly duties.

There is nothing my husband likes more than dinner ready when he gets home from work.  And he loooooves that dinner to be ready in a crock pot, which means I can't wait until 4:30pm to start thinking about what's for dinner.  I'm working on it.

Sean took it upon himself to get dinner ready today.  Bless his huge heart.  So after picking up Jonah from Kindergarten, he opened up P-Dub's cookbook and started rummaging through the cupboards in search of the perfect dinner.  He decided on a roast, and seeing that we just purchased a 1/4 of cow, it's a good choice.

Sean's not afraid to wear an oven mitt.

He had a little excitement with his roast.  So much so that I got my sick self up to snap a few photos.  I missed the flames.  It was the first real cooking fire we've had in the house.  Do you see that hazeyness in the photos?  It's smoke.

  Lots and lots of smoke.  So much smoke the alarms started going off.  Ava slept through it.

He even cleaned up after himself.  I love him.

xo