our christmas at home (2017)

We decided to have our own Christmas celebration a few days after we returned home from visiting my parents, which gave us a couple of days to rest, clean, and get things prepared. Michael ended up wrapping most of the girls’ gifts early in the afternoon on the previous day, but, as usual, we still stayed up much too late on our “Christmas Eve”. I was practically praying that the girls would sleep in the next morning.They didn’t get up until about 8:30, so we were all happy when we finally made our way downstairs!They couldn’t wait to get started on those gifts, but of course, I made them pose for a photo first.BOB books for everyone! I got an amazing deal, so I was able to buy 5 boxes of them. By the end of the morning, Kaya could tell the shape and weight of a box of books even before unwrapping it.“MORE BOB books?!”, she laughed.
Kaelyn is obsessed with dinosaurs. Now I just need to learn the correct pronunciation of all of their names…Preschool practice writing!My little Minnie Mouse-obsessed girl didn’t have her own Minnie stuffed animal, and cried for the one at Grandma Gina’s house when we left after Thanksgiving. So… of course I had to get her one. Skye from Paw Patrol!And a giant Skye! This Chubby Puppies camper was all she could talk about for months, and she has still been playing with it every day!Chubby Puppies for Kaya, too! This was one of my favorites, because when she opened it, she gasped, “My set!!!” She’s been wanting this Calico Critters nursery for a long time.Of course, you need some baby kitties for the nursery!Grandma Debbie sent them the tree house!For Nella, I wrapped up something that we already had, but she had never seen before……the singing Fisher Price puppy! (remember how much Kaya loved this?) Nella was immediately in love, and I just can’t get enough of her smile here.This present ended up being the biggest hit of them all for Kaya… her Bootsie cat! Leading up to Christmas, she kept telling me she wanted “the cat that makes 20 sounds!”, which was just her way of saying she wanted this one, haha. It’s probably the closest thing we’ll ever have to a real cat.We wrapped up this water slide and pretended it was a gift for Michael, which he opened last. The girls were a little confused, but really surprised!I also gave Michael the Pie Face game, which was really a gift for the whole family. I love how he laughed as soon as he saw what it was!Where is Nella?
Playing in the pile of wrapping paper, of course! She also wore her very first pigtails on this day.We took a break from playing with new toys to have some “reindeer donuts”!I love how it is so easy to make them happy with the simplest of things. The rest of the day was spent playing with their new things, resting, and cooking our traditional pot roast dinner. Kaya just loves her Bootsie, who goes everywhere these days.We had dinner at the end of the day!Nella apparently really really likes pot roast! My very favorite part of the day was snuggling up with my sweet girls, playing together, and getting hugs and kisses from them. Those are the best memories.

christmas eve cookies with grandma debbie

All these posts about cookies might make it seem like all we do is bake at Christmas time (which is almost true), but this is the last one that’s solely focused on sweets!

Of course, you have to make cookies when you go to Grandma’s house! Grandma loves her little helpers. They always want to help roll the dough, but it’s still difficult with how little they are.Buddy really wanted some for himself…No gingerbread cookies for dogs!If he wasn’t begging for a cookie, he was stealing kisses.The next night, on Christmas Eve, when Karl and Kaitlyn arrived, we started decorating them!Everyone looks so serious about getting this done, except for Karl! Nella played with spoons the entire time.Ta-da! Quite the conglomeration of cookies.

baking & making gingerbread cookies (2017)

Making gingerbread cookies every Christmas has been a family tradition for my entire life (and my Mom has been making them even longer than that, so over 30 years)! It’s something I always look forward to sharing with my girls. They get so excited to cut and decorate them; we make a giant mess, and then we give away almost all of them.They were both really good at cutting their own cookies this year! Their favorite shapes were candy canes and teddy bears.I always encourage them to use the gingerbread people cutters, since those are my favorites to decorate later. Gosh I just love these sweet sisters.This little angel baby was so happy to just hold a cookie cutter and laugh the entire time. I’m sure she’ll be covered in flour and dough next year!Poof! They’re baked! We waited until Nella had gone to bed so that we could decorate them.I think the girls would have decorated until we ran out of cookies and/or sprinkles, but we let them make five each, and then they headed off to bed. If you’re wondering, we use corn syrup as a sort of “glue”- we paint that on, and then apply the sprinkles and candies. Daddy jumped in and helped do some! We also love to use royal icing. Ta-da! These were some of my favorites from this year. Kaya loaded that house up with as much candy as possible; Kaelyn made that stocking in front, and Michael did a lot of the trees this year. Of course, I had to make my little swimsuit people, too!Now I think I need some more gingerbread cookies. Once a year just isn’t enough!

live nativity 2017

As per our tradition the past few years, we headed down to another local church’s live nativity event a couple of weeks before Christmas. I always look forward to this so much, even though there usually is quite a wait to get in- we arrived three minutes after they opened, and still ended up waiting in line for an hour. It was worth it, though!

We listened to Christmas music, ate candy canes, and took silly pictures while we waited our turn to drive through. One of the Roman soliders even brought his horse up to the car window for the girls to pet!
The nativity is a mini replica of Bethlehem, and after driving through as slowly as possible, it still seems like it’s over too quickly. I love seeing all the little shops, the inn, and the manger. I never try to take pictures because it’s just too dark, and I really don’t want to miss any of the few minutes we get inside.

Afterward, there is a little social gathering across the street. The small meetinghouse was decorated like Whoville this year!We enjoyed some hot chocolate……and cookies……and even met the Grinch!
I was so excited about this, probably because one of my favorite Christmas movies as a child was “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Kaya and Kaelyn haven’t seen it yet, so they wanted nothing to do with this scary green guy.We also met Santa, and the people running the activity took photos that were meant to be emailed to everyone later… but I actually never received ours. So, no Santa picture this year, which I think is the first time we haven’t gotten one since we had Kaya. Oh well! We had some great family time, so that’s really all that matters, anyway.

christmas parade (2017)

Are you ready to hear about Christmas for the next week or two? We made so many wonderful memories this year, and I have to say, these special occasions just keep getting more fun as our kids grow bigger. So here we go, the first of the Christmas catch-up posts… our holiday parade!

After a week without Daddy (he was in Las Vegas for the AWS conference), we kicked off the weekend by heading downtown to our local parade. Michael’s plane was due to land just in time for him to catch a bus and take a short walk to meet up with us, so while we waited, we stopped into one of the indoor venues to look at all the community Christmas trees. The girls absolutely loved this one, covered in puppies and bones, with a light-up pug standing next to it!They also had an array of gingerbread houses this year. They smelled heavenly, and you can guess which one was our favorite!Nella was pretty amazed by everything there was to see.Daddy found us! I don’t know if we’ve ever been as happy to see him as we were right then! I had to have a picture with my girls, too! It definitely wasn’t the warmest parade we’ve had, but it by far wasn’t the coldest, either. Still, we ended up using Daddy’s coat as a blanket by the end of the night because these little girls felt chilly.Nella took in all the lights and sounds and loved the entire experience.Some of my favorite floats included: these giant teeth……an entire trailer full of pandas!!!…the classic snowmen……blinged-out cars… …and Santa, of course! The girls were so excited to see him!Horses are always at the end, but they are a definite favorite for all of us too.I love this yearly tradition- I don’t think we’ve missed a town Christmas parade since we started dating! Only 10.5 months until the next one! 😉

sleeping through thanksgiving (2017)

After we had some quality time with Michael’s side of the family, we headed over to my side to spend Thanksgiving day! The girls were a little extra excited, because on this trip, I told them that we’d take out my childhood American Girl dolls. My parents have had them at their house all these years, mostly because I didn’t really have any space for them in our previous apartments.

Kaya instantly fell in love with my Kirsten doll, and spent nearly the entire visit holding her, changing her outfits, and “getting her ready for school/church”. I asked them to be as gentle as possible with these special dolls, and I was surprised at how careful they truly were.

The girls also really enjoyed watching the Macy’s Parade and looking for all their favorite character balloons, including Paw Patrol, Hello Kitty, and Snoopy! They were even pretty excited to see Santa at the very end.

While they were busy with my dolls, my mom was cooking an amazing (as always) turkey!We had quite a full house this year, although I really missed seeing Karl and Kaitlyn. My mom always goes above and beyond with holiday meals. As a mom myself now, I appreciate her cooking more than ever.Everyone wants to sit on Daddy’s lap, at all times.I title this one, “Smug kid on Dad’s lap; sad kid not on Dad’s lap”.Nella actually slept right through the entire dinner, but when she woke up, she ate so much turkey (I think I actually ended up giving her seconds… and then thirds)! This little pumpkin is my best eater by far. I think we were all feeling how Kaya felt after the meal…Of course, there’s always room for dessert later!Nella ended the evening with a pile (or two) of whipped cream. She dug right into it, smashed it into her hair, and painted the entire high chair with it, so I’d say she enjoyed it.

thanksgiving with the irwins 2017 (and family photos!)

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Michael’s side of the family a couple of days early! Tori made these beautiful place cards, and along with using special silverware, our dinner felt a little extra fancy.
Per Mom’s request, we went around the table and each said something that we felt grateful for this past year. There was laughter, some tears, and just general heartfelt goodness in the room as we all thoughtfully prepared our statements. That seemingly small exercise turned out to be the most memorable moment of the entire holiday.I’m grateful for each of these people around the table, and that I’m lucky enough to call them my family! I think Dad is most grateful for chocomint freeze!Nella slept through the meal, but these big kids had fun chowing down at the picnic table! I love that we have cousins now, and a need for a “kid table”.After the meal, we prepared for family photos. I’ll tell you, it isn’t always easy getting everyone ready and putting everything in place (especially because my kids hardly seem to nap when we’re away from home), but it is always worth it.

And, truth time: this photo is a composite of four separate shots! It must be against some natural law that all kids will look at the camera at the same time and not appear sad, because I didn’t have one single shot where they all looked reasonably happy. Hey, at least I’m honing my photoshop skills!We get a little crazy……and clearly, there’s more where that came from.Mom gets major points for putting up with Dad’s shenanigans… all the time!Love these two.This shot was a test for lighting, but I just love how natural and “grandmotherly” it feels. We have some lucky kids!More tests for lighting, but someone loves her Daddy! (Also, can we just mention how beautiful Virginia is in the fall?)And someone else loves creepy photobombing…Brothers!!!Love this one!Siblings! (Also, I think I should start a photo series called, “weird things I do with my hand while trying to hide the camera remote”. Ha!)Apparently, they dance while they’re waiting for me to set up the shot. I don’t even remember this happening!And I’m not sure when there was time for someone to steal my camera and do this……or this……or THIS! Hahaha. Honestly, I love finding these surprises on my memory card later.Meanwhile, Jeff was working on his “Flynn Rider” face. Disney, he’s ready for hire.These two are so natural in front of the camera together.
Melt my heart!Seriously, so cute you guys!I know I’m gushing, but again, seriously. I’m surrounded by beautiful families! Our kids were so done with photos by this point, and we had already taken some photos of just our little family a couple of weeks prior, but since we had the camera out, we snapped a few anyway. I kind of love Kaelyn’s funny face!We ended the evening with an early holiday gift exchange, since Kevin and Tori wouldn’t be flying out again for Christmas. Nella was clearly excited!Bryce snuggles!Kaya had to jump in and get some cuddles too! She just loves her baby cousin and her Auntie.

shenanigans with the irwins (bowling, cousins, and a puppy!)

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we headed down to my in-laws’ place for some family time! Nella was so excited to play with baby Bryce! And seriously, the only thing cuter than one baby is two babies… so of course, I had to take a bunch of photos of them together!This really old pretend phone was the most popular toy for this crowd. Sharing can be hard when you have no idea what sharing actually is.Kaya is a really great helper with the babies! My girls really loved having time with their cousins.And I just had to throw this one in here because Bryce looks like he’s dancing, and Nella isn’t so sure about his moves. Haha.Kevin, Tori, and Jack flew in from Utah to spend a week in Virginia! These “big kids” loved having little picnics at the table every chance they got.Bryce and Jack had a milk-bottle chugging contest…I enjoyed some baby Bryce cuddles too! We were totally twinning in our stripes so there had to be photo evidence. He’s just so smiley and happy. I love this little guy!Nella had some Grandpa Skip cuddles! It was so fun to see them playing together on this trip.We also got to visit with their neighbors’ new puppy (which my in-laws have adopted as their “grandpuppy”)! His name is Scooter, and of course, my girls just loved him. They kept saying, “He’s so soft!” Michael, Kevin, Jeff, and Dad did some shooting and frisbee throwing. They dubbed their activities, “The Brolympics”. I’m not sure if anyone officially won, but they had so much fun, and I’m grateful that Michael could have quality time with both his brothers.

Later that evening, we went bowling! This was a first for my girls, and I have to say, I was really impressed with how well they did! Kaya completely surprised me by picking up and throwing the ball all on her own.
Kaelyn needed some more guidance, but she was so good at rolling it! Grandpa Skip taught Jack how it’s done…Go Mom!Tori held Nella for most of the evening! They were little buddies by the end of it. I’m glad Nella is such a laid-back baby.My score started out really great… and then quickly plummeted. I may have bowled the worst I ever have in my life, and I don’t have an explanation for it. I still had so much fun though!Michael is always good at sports!We were very much ready for sleep by the end of the day’s activities. We share a big room with all the girls when we stay at my in-laws’, so of course, I can’t resist taking pictures of them sleeping like little angels.

halloween 2017

I just had too many Halloween photos to put them all in one post! I guess that means we have too much fun, right?

Michael’s work hosted their annual office trick-or-treating activity (this was actually the same day as the church Trunk-or-Treat), so of course, the girls were excited for another opportunity to celebrate (and get candy, obviously)! We walked through the rooms, stopping at each cubical to visit with whomever was there. Everyone loved the girls’ costumes and couldn’t stop talking about how adorable they looked.I think office trick-or-treating is by far the quickest way to fill up your candy bucket!Everyone loved our little lion!The older girls had some treats while Nella explored Daddy’s work.On Halloween day, I told the girls we’d have a special “school Halloween party”, and they were so excited! I prepared Halloween Bingo and pumpkin painting, and that was all we really got around to doing, but they absolutely loved it. Kaya made this “Hello Kitty” pumpkin all on her own, and Kaelyn made a “Skye (from Paw Patrol)” pumpkin. I love their creativity!I made this minion pumpkin, and I really loved how it turned out. Kaelyn kept telling me, “You’re doing a great job, Mommy!” as I was painting it, which I thought was so funny and adorable.We took a picture with the pumpkins while we waited for trick-or-treating to start!It was dark by the time we got out there, so I didn’t get any amazing shots on my big camera, but in case you need to remember how sweet they all looked in their costumes, it was just like this:I took the older girls out, and we went to as many houses as we could until they were too tired to go any further. I really got into the excitement of the evening, especially remembering all the years my dad would take us trick-or-treating when I was little, rain or shine. I felt a little bit like he might have so many years ago, ushering my kids from house to house, holding their hands, and asking them what they got after each stop. Michael stayed home with Nella to hand out candy! It was actually a pretty chilly night, so I was grateful that everyone had chosen warm costumes.Everyone was more than ready to fall into their warm, cozy beds at the end of the night. That candy was well-earned! Scout tried to steal a Hershey Kiss right out of Kaya’s bucket, but thankfully, we caught her. No chocolate for puppies, no matter how big and sad her eyes might look!And that wraps it up for this year… Happy Halloween (2 months ago)!

lions, tigers, bears… and a cowgirl! (trunk or treat 2017)

Happy New Year’s Eve! I’m still catching up and talking about Halloween, but it just seems like it’s been impossible to get on the computer and blog these days. I at least have to have Halloweeen finished before rolling in the new year, right?

Anyway, this year, we had our church Halloween party on the Friday before the actual holiday. We brought a cowgirl, a lion, and a tiger! We usually try to have some kind of unified family theme, but these were the costumes that they loved the very most, so we just went with it.

While we were costume shopping, Nella would not stop smiling when I tried the lion mane on her, and Kaelyn never wanted to take off the tiger. Kaya almost instantly named the horse “Chancey” (yes, still after her favorite real horse), so that was a done deal, too.HUGS! They were still too shy to actually say, “Trick or treat”, but who could resist giving these cuties candy anyway?Sweetest little lion! Fun fact: my brother Karl was actually a lion for his first Halloween! If only I had a picture to put side-by-side with this one. Little lions have a lot of exploring to do.And, as Kaelyn kept telling me, “Tigers climb trees!”She tried to get as far up the trunk as she could.And then she was hiding (but this one cracks me up, since you really can’t see her at all)!My little cowgirl! I love all of this so much- her smile, the pink boots, denim jacket, and how she rigged up the horse to hold her candy bucket. No one ever looked cuter in a western hat!So instead of one family theme, we had two separate ones. A lion, a tiger, and a [panda] bear… (oh my!)And a cowgirl with the cow she lassoed! Michael is a really good sport and walked around like this all evening.Love these crazies of mine! The girls walked around the church parking lot, filling their buckets up with candy. At the end of the night, we went inside for some games. The donut game is always our favorite! I like this activity just because I get some pretty hilarious photos out of it.Nella didn’t get any donuts, but she was obsessed with all the balloons that were there. I love how she’s so easy to please.And that was our Trunk or Treat! On to real Halloween!