Frosty The Snowman - a good laugh

A Little Christmas Treat

Naughty Listers?!

This is only the part of their bodies I was able to share....imagine it thicker and down to their knees!

Stocking

This gorgeous piece of work is compliments of my friend Sally. She is the best friend ever and was kind enough to make this for Claire this year. It is absolutely amazing and I adore it. She is in the process of making Carmel's and we'll have it for next Christmas. I am so lucky to have such a great friend who would spend a major part of her life doing something for my kids and me.

Princess and The Frog

Last night we had a sleep over with our friend Adalyn. She is barely 3 years old and was brave enough to sleep over with us. Originally she said she would sleep on the air mattress, then she said she would sleep with Carmel, in the end, she slept with me. I was very proud of her cause it is scary sleeping at a house you never slept at before and without any other member of your family present.

We woke up, bathed and then Granny painted the girls nails. I made bows for all 3 girls hair and Granny bought them all Princess Tiana shirts to wear. They were so adorable. I decided to attempt the 11 am showing (the first one) - one hour before nap time. Going after nap wouldn't have been as exciting and who knows when they would have woken up, not to mention getting Adalyn home.

We got there while the previews were on, had Junior Mints and rootbeer to enjoy while being entertained. The girls did really well for the one hours and 45 min long film. They had to pee with 5 min left so we ran to the bathroom and back as quickly as humanly possible to catch the end of the movie. Luckily we did and were able to see the marriage of the two frogs. I give the movie 4 plus stars.

Santa Claus

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Jay get the girls a Christmas outfit each year; our Santa outfit. It arrived yesterday and we headed to have our pictures taken today. Carmel would not make a normal/smiley face for the life of her - they took at least 7 shots and she was awful, especially when they were both on his lap. Claire was an angel and got on up there and smiled. Such a change from last year, Claire bawled from the moment we put her on his lap and we had to go back through the line a 2nd time so we wouldn't have tears in the pictures.

Chick-fil-a and Face Painting

After the Festival of Tree's Ms. Claire put in an adamant request for Chick-fil-a for dinner and since it was getting late and we didn't want a melt down, we headed to Chick-fil-a. :) We were only going to go thru the drive-thru but once there I realized it was children eat free Wednesday so in we went. Not only do they eat free but there is an activity each week for them and this week was face painting. So they got extremely cute snowmen painted on their faces. They were thrilled to be able to play in the kids area - it always amazes me how kids make friends - Claire had this older girl who was next to her the entire time and was sad when we were leaving.

Festival of Trees

My mom and I took the girls to The Festival of Trees today. Santa was there and everything you bought including the Santa pics benefited Primary Children's Hospital. I'm gonna be honest here, most of the trees were pretty ugly but those rare few that weren't ugly, were stunning. One of them was based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was awesome and even had a quilt with the holes in the fruit and everything was bright and done very tastefully. They have a children's craft area where the girls got "Elf wands" and then were able to make snowman out of paper bags. Claire stepped out of the box and gave her snowman a red nose (the other option was to make a reindeer). I think we will make a tradition of going there every year.

Gingerbread House

 

Carmel has been chomping at the bit to decorate the gingerbread house and on Sunday we finally had the opportunity to get it done. They each got to decorate 3 sides of it. I would say eating is still more fun than decorating. We have one more still to decorate this season.

The Beginning of the Christmas Posts...

The other day (before Thanksgiving) we put up the Christmas tree - well, Maren put it up and Carl put the lights on and the girls put the ornaments on. It was done over a couple of days. The girls have been so excited to see everything go up. I put up the lights outside (2/3's of them) and Eric put the last third up - the scary third. Our house has a wicked pitch to it.

I am trying not to works so much so we can do more activities together and have a semi clean home. It seems to be working and I am a much nicer mom when not super stressed and always at work. I bow down to all the mom's out there who are able to attend to their kids, keep their houses clean and work full time. I can't do it. I feel super blessed that at this time I don't have to.

Finally a Thanksgiving Post!!!

Today we finally got around to doing a Thanksgiving day project. We made apple turkeys. It was great fun. Carmel was all about licking each gum drop before she put it on the tooth pick. Claire wanted to eat the chocolate. Notice them wearing Christmas clothes whilst doing Thanksgiving projects. Next year I will probably start TG projects in October because November seems to be a prep month for December and I haven't been able to find the time to get crafts done in November.

We have been under the weather and I'm not sure if it is just colds, the flu or what. We have our humidifiers running all night and now the girls tell you to turn their "machine" on if you forget. We are all about Christmas here - the nativity has been up for about a week now. :) I have been working 3 days a week and can tell you that is not acceptable amount of time for me as a mom to be away from my children and home. I feel like I am neglecting it all.

A shout out to cousin Courtney - we love you so much and wish you a wonderful happy birthday full of joy. Your birthday month is full of thanks and is not skipped over in any shape or form.

Halloween 13 - The Finale

We had a perfect night of trick or treating and we hit the entire hood. I was impressed with their stamina. The girls were intimidated by large groups of very rude 10-12 year olds with absolutely no manners and of scary homes. Carmel had one little melt down close to home because she didn't want to hold hands but other than that, they were troopers. Lauren and Ashley hit the hood with us. You can see in the pictures, they got a great haul. We are a little saddened to say goodbye to a holiday which provided us with so much fun and photo ops but we are excited for Christmas.

Halloween 12

The girl were chomping at the bit to go trick or treating but nobody in our hood was out so we practiced at our house and then hit both neighbors. The one of them sitting down was them protesting - they were frustrated not being able to go to more houses. Since our hood seemed to be a late to trick or treat hood, we headed on over to my mom's where people were out and about. Much more fun.

Photo op for kids and their parents.

Halloween 11

Saturday I came home from work early to participate in the pre-trick or treating activities. The girls had been with my mom in the morning and then Carl picked them up in time for nap. Being the special day it was, I stopped off at KFC for some "chicken and gravy" bowls. After eating, the dreaded bath and hair were done. My friend Sally laughs that I did their hair for trick or treating. But Claire's hair especially had to be done so it fit in the costume correctly. Anyway, we got cleaned, groomed and dressed for the day and went outside to a absolutely beautiful Autumn afternoon. The girls were so happy and I got some nice pictures of them playing outside.

Halloween 10

Halloween 9

We had various small pumpkins for the little ones to finger paint. There were 4 colors to start with but by the time they were done, the pumpkins were all one color. I'll have to try the school paint next time so it is more vivid but for being 2 and 1, finger paint works just fine and it was washable.

Finished products...Nathan was too busy to stop and have his picture taken.

I decided we also need to have "real" jack o' lanterns. I did the witch, Eric the ghost and Kristen the cat. I have to say, it wasn't near as messy nor time consuming as I remember it. The girls were all impressed with how they glow. We are now ready for the actual day of Halloween to be here. I think we have squeezed as much out of celebrating one day as humanly possible. :)

Halloween 8 :)

We headed out to Gardner Village for our annual Halloween visit. I wanted to make sure I got there while the weather was nice and snapped some pictures with the witches. I am having to take more pictures of Carmel because she doesn't smile as easily as Claire. Normally I feel I take equal amounts but then I get home and there are tons of cute Claire ones and very few of Carmel. They are both so freaking adorable!

Halloween 7

One day during the past week we had a day of crafts where we made candy necklaces in the AM and frosted cookies in the PM. Claire likes to eat the frosting as she frosts it and Carmel is all concerned about making sure you don't eat the one she just finished. They are really starting to like crafts. The necklaces were orange and purple with a pumpkin "jewel".

Halloween 6

Today we went to a pumpkin patch to see if we could find a pumpkin to carve but instead just found a cute place to take pictures. Mandy wants to know how many more parts are there to Halloween...the answer is I don't know but I would suspect we will hit 10. This time of year seems to be a picture perfect time.

Halloween Part 5

Saturday my mother and sister took the girls to our city's Halloween festival. They bobbed for doughnuts, got their faces painted and for Carmel, rode a train. They had a great time and it was a good prep for the real deal in a few weeks. We are looking forward to the real deal and can't wait for buckets of candy.