Minted

My favorite time of year is quickly approaching.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, hands down.  All that eating and drinking and socializing with friends and family.  It's so much fun.  I think part of the reason I enjoy this time of year so much is because it leads into Christmas and the fun festivities the holidays bring.  One thing I look forward to every year is creating our family holiday card.  This year, I'm looking at Minted.

With so many options it's becoming difficult to choose one.  I love the look of Destination Luggage Tag

The number of photos you can include on Complete Tree Holiday is amazing!  For someone who can't make a decision on what photos to include or if you have a family you can't get to look good in the same photo.

The simplicity of Calligraphic Flourish Holiday is very classy looking and so easy on the eye.

Though right now I seem to be drawn most to Sparkling Be Merry because it can be used as your Christmas card but can then be turned into an ornament your tree can see for years!

There's so many great options making it incredibly hard to choose!  

On top of all of the holiday cards Minted carries, they also have a section on holiday gifts and I'm dying over this cute print.  What a great gift for a grandparent wall!

What options do you like best? Any I didn't mention that you think I should consider?  I'd love to hear what you would send.

-stephanie

Fourth of July 2014

Each fourth of July, or rather, third of July we rotate going to my in laws lake house to watch fireworks or to Red, White & Boom with my family.  This year was the year of the boom!  Knowing the kids would be up rather late I put Addie down for a nap a couple hours prior to leaving.  Of course she feel asleep about 30 minutes before we were to leave so we got this.

Crabby pants.  So shortly after arriving, I grabbed this.

My dad is a firefighter and every year for the fourth, they have a big party for all the firefighters an their families at their union hall.  Free food, free beer, and a front row seat to the fireworks.

They even put up that fantastic fencing since you need a wristband to attend.  

Very American with the hot dog & burger dinner.  Pasta salad and cowboy beans...it doesn't get much more American.

We were at the party for about 6 hours so Addie was getting a bit bored after hours of bouncing in the bounce house.  Rick took her out into the crowds to walk around and she came back with Elsa face paint.

It looked fantastic with her blue eyes. So pretty.

Rick and I decided to leave the kids with my parents and take a walk ourselves out into the traffic.  Thousands of people in attendance.

Addie loved the fireworks.

As did Graham for about 5 minutes and then he fell asleep.

We had unseasonably cool weather.  We were wearing sweatshirts in the middle of summer.  So the next morning we were able to take a walk without sweating buckets.

Then we went to Mary's house for a seafood boil.  

Addie ate every last one of the mussels in the picture below.

Graham spent the afternoon playing and smiling!

We even got to go to a parade.  Addie caught a lot of candy and had we not told her to come back she probably would've ran a mile down the road to pick up any lone candies.

Such a fantastic weekend!

-stephanie

Easter 2014

I know what you're thinking.  It's May 5th and you're just now telling us what happened Easter weekend?  Yes, that is what I'm telling you.  Easter weekend was fun but busy for us.  Saturday we did an Easter egg hunt at the local high school.  They had 3 different age categories, luckily we were in the first.  The egg hunt was more of an egg scramble (haha) but it was on the hs football field.  7000 eggs were spread across the football field and then a helicopter flew over and dropped another 200 or so eggs to start us off.

The hunt was over in about 20 seconds.  Just before the countdown began I told Addie she would need to run as fast as she could when they said go. She did!  She got a lot of eggs.  Three is definitely the age for egg hunting!  

That afternoon, we went to Rick's parents house for Easter lunch.  His mom set up an Easter egg hunt for Addie.  Since she's the only grandchild old enough to hunt she didn't have to rush through the hunt and found a lot of good stuff.  

Sunday morning we woke up and ran out to see what the Easter bunny brought the kids.

Luckily, Addie does a great job sharing with Graham and gave him his bucket to go through.

Basically everything in the basket was found at Target, most of it in the dollar spot section except for Frozen and the Carter's hair clips.

Graham's basket was full of baby snacks, a couple squeaky chewable books and the dream lite I found on clearance for $7.50.  The kid loves staring at the lights coming out of these, not so much what they display on the ceilings.

Sunday morning we went to church then went up to my parents house for lunch and another Easter egg hunt.  This one had some of my cousins children and, surprisingly, did very well wit them there as well.  Sometimes she shocks me with her sharing skills.

If only I could get her to behave at dinner and not put her feet on the table in the restaurant.  Ugh!

-stephanie

Addie & Graham Meet the Easter Bunny

Last night Addie and Graham met the Easter bunny.  Well, Graham met him first as Addie refused to get close to him.  Then we left and she cried because she wanted to go back.  So we stood in line again, again she had a minor meltdown.  I told her we were leaving then and she stopped and let me put her on his lap.  I quickly tossed Graham on his lap and this is what we got.

I'm happy with this.  No tears.

-stephanie

I'm Back

Every time I hear someone say "We're Back" or something along those lines I immediately start singing in my head, "Backstreets back, alright!" or "Oh my God, we're back again".  How can I not?  I did grow up in the age of boy bands.  I heart you JC!  So it's been a nice 2 week break but I didn't intend for it to be that long.  I figured I'd probably pop on and blog a bit throughout the holidays but to be honest, the moment Christmas Eve hit, I was feeling all sorts of just relax and enjoy the family.  So I did.  But, I'm back now.  So to ease into things, today's post is a boat load of pictures for you.  Enjoy!




Christmas Eve is when it all began.  Such a long evening.



She left cookies & milk for Santa.

Addie came out Christmas morning and ran straight to see if Santa ate his cookies she left for him.  He did and she said, "he left crumbs".

She got a balance bike from Santa.

Graham was super content through the morning.

He got a lovey and he loves it.

Check out all those bells at the bottom of the tree.  Addie did that.

At my parents she wore her new tutu.

Her big gift with some assistance from the dogs.

Her pretty jewelry.  She was getting weird by this point in the morning.

Christmas this year was so much fun.  She finally got it.  She talked about Santa, and Frosty the elf when she noticed he returned to the North Pole.  She got it all this year and it was so much fun as a parent to enjoy the magic of Christmas with her.

How cute is this little booty?  Graham got jeans for Christmas.  I die.

His NYE garb.

Saying goodnight to 2013.

As a last hurrah before it all got back to normal, I took Addie to see Frozen.  She did awesome!

It was such a nice break and I'm happy to be back into a rhythm but I can't wait until Christmas next year with two littles to enjoy it with.  How was your holiday?

-stephanie

Happy New Year!

I hope your 2013 was an amazing year and 2014 is even better!

-stephanie

Santa 2013

It was a success!  After a 90 minute wait, one tired baby and one cranky toddler, our visit with Santa was a success.  I'm so proud of Addie for not only waiting that long but for also talking, though softly, to Santa and not crying!  

There will be no posts on the blog tomorrow or Wednesday due to Christmas so until I write again, Merry Christmas to you all!

-stephanie

Elf on the Shelf Arrives

We finally did it.  We busted out that Elf on the Shelf.  I had originally planned to get it out on the first of the month but the more I thought about it the more I thought Addie wouldn't really get it.  Plus, I didn't want to do all that work if she still isn't at the age to comprehend.  So I waited until closer to Christmas so I didn't have to move him as much.  Saturday morning was the day!

I spent Friday evening getting everything laid out and prepared so I would just have to quickly throw the breakfast down and make the hot cocoa.

Addie and Rick went out to his parents lake house Friday night so when she got home she saw Santa had a package delivered.

She loved her donuts.

The hot cocoa with marshmallows was also a huge hit.

We had about a 5 minute conversation after reading the book as to what the elf's name should be.  She continued to say, "I don't know" or "nuffin" when we asked what his name should be.  I was tempted to name him nuffin but it seems he may have received a name over the past several days.  She's started referring to him as Frosty.  We'll see if that sticks.

-stephanie

Happy Holidays

We officially have less than 2 weeks to Christmas!  Cue panic since half of my shopping list is completed.  The one thing we do have marked off the list is our Christmas cards went out a couple days ago.  How sweet are my babies?

Moments later, Addie tried to dump Graham off her lap.  

Happy Holidays!

-stephanie

PS.  Don't forget to enter the great giveaway going on now.  You can enter to win a $50 gift credit to Uncommon Goods, enter here.  

ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas

If you're like me, you love watching those Christmas movies.  My particular favorites are the cheesy ones on Lifetime.  A love story and a Christmas story combined into one?!  Yes, please!  So here's a list of ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas.

Pay close attention to Saturday, December 14th...The Little Mermaid!!!  Clearly not a Christmas movie but I'm so excited for that one!

Happy viewing!

-stephanie

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I countdown to Thanksgiving like a lot of people countdown to Christmas.  All the food you get to eat and all the leftovers, scrambling to search through the black Friday ads and make a Christmas list, and then black Friday shopping has always been a tradition.  The past several years I haven't been doing any black Friday shopping because I didn't really need anything from those deals for anyone.  I'm sure as Addie & Graham get older we'll be doing those early morning trips.

Even being my favorite holiday, I do the same thing I forget each holiday.  I forget to take pictures.  It's sad.  I'm making it my goal each holiday moving forward to capture one family photo and one photo of the kids.

We're also planning to bring out the Elf on a Shelf but I haven't decided how much I want to put into it.  I think Addie is still too young to get it completely so I don't want to waste any good ideas just yet.  I think we'll wait until next weekend to start it and we'll keep it simple by moving him around the house.  No crazy shenanigans just yet.  We did bust out the Christmas tree and Graham is mesmerized!

I love this picture.  He stared at the tree for nearly 30 minutes.  That's a record!  Such a nice weekend, I did a lot of shopping but still have about half to go.  How was your Thanksgiving?  Score any good deals?

-stephanie