Bragging

Thought I'd brag. Today I have TWO children who are one year's old...and they're not even twins. How many of you can say that?? I'm so LUCKY!!

Ethan's 1!!

Exactly one year ago I was stuck in a hospital trying to push a watermelon out of a pea-sized hole. This begs the question...why do the "kids" get to celebrate their birthdays? I think the mother's should be celebrated instead. I mean, I was the one that brought you into this world a year ago.

Anyhow, we love our little dude. Full of smiles, laughs, and overall cheerful thrills! We love you, Ethan. Happy Birthday!

Christmas-TWICE!!

You guessed it!
We spent our first Christmas together as JUST a family in...
SUNNY FLORIDA!

It was filled with swimming, shell collecting, sand castle building, and (admittedly) a little bit of shivering. Just a little, though. You still need to be jealous that we were at the beach in December.
See our awesome get-up? Nothing like "making do".
We acted out the Christmas story (as well as we could with the little ones) and then built a tent and sipped hot cocoa and munched on cookies while watching "A Christmas Story". By the way, not the cleanest movie ever for little kids!


Christmas morning we woke the kids up (miracle, huh?) and served them Santa pancakes.

Then, check out the mouth gaping!!




Then we came home and did it all again a few days later. Sometimes the excitement needs to be divided up!

We had an awesome Christmas--thanks to all who thought of us--especially mom and dad for letting us go to the condo!

It's Time to PARTY!

FONDUE PARTY!
Only the best kind of party....EVER!

Then we had a TIMED gingerbread building contest.
This was really a lot of fun. I would totally recommend it.

We gave everyone 20 minutes to do their thing. Everyone came with their own structure and then went to. How cool is mine? (It's the Eiffel Tower) Only thing...dang hard to do much decorating with so many windows. Needless to say...Hutchings didn't take home the crown!

The winner is:
The ark!!
That little thing second to the left.
It's cooler than it appears.

Like our village?

One of our more adventurous white elephant gifts. Jake actually got stuck with our own white elephant-a bottle of Chardonnay and a bag of coffee!

Winter Craft Time

Since we've finally finished going through the alphabet for craft time, I've decided to take a brief hiatus and focus solely on winter crafts. It's been really fun and every one has a song and movie to go with it which makes the day go by splendidly fast!

First, candy trains! Who doesn't love candy trains?? We read Polar Express, made the trains, played with trains, and then watched the movie...

I could NOT find LifeSavers anywhere!
Loved this one. We read "If You Give A Moose a Muffin", sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (moose/reindeer=same thing in my book), decorated yummy "muffins" (muffin=cupcake in my book), and then watched "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

*Notice the drink in the background? That's mine, not Cooper's. Here's your sign: we went out to eat the other night and Cooper told the waitress he wanted a diet coke. That is sad, real sad. And no, he didn't actually get a diet coke! I'm not that bad of a mom!

Our fleet of reindeer:

Today we read a snowman book, sang "Frosty the Snowman" and "Once There Was a Snowman" then made a super colorful snowman. Then we made a snowman for window art.
You see that sad face? Cooper got a hot glue gun burn. Blistered right away. So sad:(.
I got this cool window art thingy from co-op this week. Coolest art stuff! Cooper is really good at them and has 10 x's more patience with me with filling in all the empty places.

Honey Nut Cheerios Christmas Candy Trees! Yeah for sugar!
Just because they're so darn cute!


How cool is this? My mom's buddy made this for her. I love it!

Xmas Gift Sharing

Okay, I'm kind of proud of these so I'm going to share. I'm giving to Jennefer this year and she is into wreaths. I made these "4 Seasons of Wreaths" for her. Hopefully she'll like them and hopefully she doesn't check my blog...she's never told me she does!
Winter

Fall

Summer

Spring

What Do These Have In Common?

Look closely at these two photos (above and below). What is the common theme?

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You're right! No Luke! What is the point of trying to get a family photo picture if one of the family is terrified of Santa? Not much point. That's exactly my point. This is how Luke occupied his time...which is way more difficult than it looks because Jake wasn't there for either pic opp. Oh well! One day I'll look back on these days and laugh!

December Goals

First of all--I added lots of posts. Look all the way down!

We're gonna do some new ones and some ones from last month that I didn't accomplish.

1. Reach my goal weight--FINALLY!
2. Make Froot Loop necklaces--and eat it!
3. Plan a fun, different, creative date for Jake.
4. Spend 10 minutes per day with Cooper.
5. Spend 10 minutes per day with Luke.
6. Spend 10 minutes per day with Ethan.
7. Throw a Christmas/Fondue party.
8. Make a Christmas list for Jake.
9. Stay within my Christmas budget.
10. Act out the Christmas story with the kids.

Who loves Ethan? I do! I do!

Who can resist that cuteness? My little baby is getting so big. I'm sad!