My Christmas

We tried to make Christmas pretty special for the girls this year. I wanted to do something Christmas-y every day leading up to Christmas Day.

It kind of worked. . .

Monday--- we made cinnamon/applesauce ornaments. Only two ingredients + cookie cutters = wonderful time for both mommy and kiddos. AND they smell delicious! I totally recommend it. . .

Tuesday--- we sang carols together as a family (you know, the 3 my kids recognized at least)

Wednesday--- we invited Amber and Talon over for dinner and candy houses. It was a time for creativity, for yummy candy and for FUN!

Thursday--- we visited the doctor and found out Carina and I had strep throat. Yuck! Awful! I was highly contagious so I quarantined myself to my bed and the girls watched movies all day. We were a bit more festive by dinner time and watched the Muppet Christmas Carol together. --Good news, nobody else got it! Whew!

Friday--- Christmas Eve! We cleaned our house and did a lot of disinfecting cause the fam was coming to town.

Saturday--- HOLY SMOKES, LOOK AT ALL THOSE PRESENTS! After unwrapping them all we played games the rest of the day (#1 present for me) and played with lots of toys.

Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas too!!

Here are a few pics of our candy house experience. ( I forgot to take the camera out till after Åmber and Talon had left. I'm a dork) I also didn't take my camera out at all on Christmas day. I'm seriously a dork)

My masterpiece: gobs of candy

Mike's masterpiece: The Space Needle

Christmas at our house. . .

Creeping

So it just clicked in my brain that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!!!!!

Not that I'm not ready. . . it just crept up on me.

You know, this never happened when I was a kid. . .

And randomly at our house:

a picture of my thumb nail after our weekly GNP (Girls nail party) a few days ago. Picture extra super duper mini snowmen on Danna's thumb nails. . .

Good times!

Christmas decor pictures to come soon.

Nobody told me. . .

Remember how I hate don't prefer the snow?

Yesterday, I changed my mind!

We made this snowman in about 2 seconds flat! The snow was THAT GOOD!

And he's stinkin adorable!!!

So we had time to make a snow fort too. . .

Then, my kids went inside,

and I stayed cause I was having a blast!

Nobody told me the snow could be soooo much FUN! :)

(That was hugely sarcastic by the way)

I'll be grumpy about it as soon as it goes below 30 deg again, just wait. . .

Blessings

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving !!

We had lots of family at our home this year which was a BLAST!

And it was also crazy. . .

but we're used to that :)

Sunday we finally had Brynn's baby blessing (as well as cousin Leah's blessing in her ward). We didn't have the camera out too much of the time but here are a few pictures I DID get.

Isn't my family AWESOME?!

I think so. . .

I can't wait to see the pictures that include all of us (this is about half).

Thanks all for coming and making our day so special!

It snowed. . .

A LOT!!!!

And it just keeps on comin'!

I force myself to take a deep breath.

Fighting to keep the tears to stay at bay I ponder. . .

. . .how the snow, despite it's dangers and frustrations, is really beautiful.

How it makes my girls so extraordinarily excited. . .

. . .to think about bundling up and stomping around in the snow,

to make snowmen,

to go sledding,

and to eat as much of that icy delicious treat as they can. . .

I think on how happy. . .

. . .my husband is planning trips to go snow shoeing through the beautiful frosty forest (something he looks forward to all year long). . .

. . .and how snow seems to bring in the Christmas spirit. . .

and these are reasons that bring a smile to my face.

Winter is really here. . .

and I am already tired. . .

. . . just thinking about it. . .

Here's a big "good on ya!" to those who love winter! (wish it were me)

I'll put on my warm socks and my pj's, stir up some instant apple cider, and turn on a movie (or two or three)

and wait for spring. . .

I AM SMART

♫ I am SMART

S-M-R-T!

Wait, what? You guys don't sing that song? It was a family favorite in my home growing up. . .

but, I digress. . .

I am still ridiculously computer illiterate. So I was sooooo excited when I learned how to make my pictures on this blog bigger!!

Wahoo!!

Go me!

Goodbye Fall!

Bring on Winter!

Boo!!!

Halloween this year had both the good and the bad:

Good- The girls looked absolutely adorable in their little fairy costumes.

Bad- I didn't get the adorable and whimsical pictures I was planning of them in their costumes. It was a wrestle just to get them to put their wings on for some quick pictures after Trunk-or-Treating.

Good- We got Loads of candy!

Bad- Nursing this particular baby means no chocolate for mommy. . . :(

(She really didn't hate this costume until I was trying to take a picture)

Bad- I spent many hours wrestling with making Mike's costume for work. His department had Toy Story as their theme and Mike was chosen to be Rex the dinosaur as a costume. It was much harder than you might think. . . No laughing!

Good- Mike won a prize for funniest costume. . . go figure! He walked around like a dinosaur all day and used Rex's voice ALL DAY!

(sorry no full body shots, even though it was a full body costume. . .)

Bad- Carina threw up the morning after trunk-or-treating.

Good- it was just a sugar overload and not the flu, so we're all still healthy.

Good- No snow!!! (nothing bad to talk about with the weather really :))

Good- Our new niece was born Halloween morning!

Good- Halloween is over, with more good than bad things happening.

Now onto the rest of the holidays!

OH BABY!

The only thing better than having a new baby is being able to enjoy the blessing of another new life brought to this world.

My newest niece,

Leah Mae Nelson,

was born this morning (Halloween) around 9:00 to two WONDERFUL people,

my little sister Amber and her husband Talon.

She's their first little baby and came to the world a couple days early and healthy and gorgeous!

She was born 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long.

And seriously, she's CUTE!

I'll prove it!

Adorable no?

Mommy just can't get enough of her. . .

Proud daddy!

And the whole family together.

I can't even describe how happy and excited I am for you guys and your adorable new addition! Congratulations!

say cheese!

Do you have a hard time getting your kids to allow you to take their pictures, much less sit still or to smile for pictures?

I do too, usually.

Now, whenever I try to take a picture of my baby by herself I end up with pictures like these. . .

They start something like this. . .

Then go to this. . .

And finally this. . .

All of a sudden the older two want to be in the spotlight. See how thrilled little Brynn is with that idea?

And some other attempts. . .

And finally, I got the little one on her own with a smile!

We're all obsessed with our new little baby 'round here as you can tell.

Bawling bash

Mike and I were in the bedroom deep in conversation when a smiling little 4-year old comes and climbs into my lap. . .

double take. . .

"Danna! Tell me you didn't just CUT YOUR HAIR!"

nooooooooooo!!!!

It's true. She did it. . .

I covered my face with my hand and had a mini nervous breakdown right then and there while Mike very calmingly soothed my, now bawling, little hairdresser. . .

I couldn't look at her. . . she had a homemade mullet. . .

every few minutes I was able to say one phrase; "oh Danna, all your beautiful--"

the word hair being replaced by tears welling up in my eyes and a sort of inner panic taking over. . .

I tried to see the broader scheme of things: my daughter was healthy, she didn't hurt herself, hair grows back, all little kids cut their hair at one point or another right?

Then again the welling tears, and the panic. . .

I caught Danna in her room roughly 10 minutes later frantically picking up her toys (so mommy would be happy), and saying things like, "mom how about we throw away this toy. . ." giving herself some self-served punishment.

Break. My. Heart.

I finally was able to give her a hug and tell her that everything was going to be okay (and inwardly chanting that to myself over and over in the process)

So, to help, I grabbed the camera. My security blanket for the insane, and traumatic (to me) things my children do. . . I can find humor in anything (almost), as long as I'm behind the camera.

Mike convinced a smile out of her in this one even though she felt so awful. . .

Mike was finally able to ease my inner turmoil by pointing out a solution. Have my friend Dawn come and fix it. . .

Okay, whew!

Right before the first cut. It's not quite so traumatic to mom the morning after.

she's got bangs now.

And the finished product. This was the only frontal photo I was able to take cause she was a little hyper afterword. I couldn't get her to leave her bangs in front either, we'll work on that.

Side view. This was the worst of it right here. Not bad huh?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And now, a very relieved and happy mommy. THANK YOU DAWN!

Obviously I need to work on my reactions to trauma. Yikes. . .