Dance Party

I take a lot of pictures of my family but I try a little to hard to make them all perfect.

So this year I'm going to try and take more natural pictures of my fam.

It doesn't matter if the background shows off my messy house or reveals that I let my kids wear their jammies until 2 in the afternoon.

I want to have memories of the real moments of my life and focus less on trying to make everything perfect.

So here's a little video that reveals a few little secrets.

1) I let my kids dance on the coffee table.

(Dianne you might not want to watch this video because I know you'll have a heart attack)

2) My Christmas decorations are still on my shelf

3)We didn't leave the house today so Mason is in his jammies and Ava rocked the dress-up all day.

4) This isn't really a secret but gesh I love my kids!

New Year's Countdown Bags

Since New Year's falls on a Saturday night this year we will be having our party at home and sending the kids to bed around 9.

I still want to make sure we have a good time though.

I don't know if you've seen the countdown bags floating around the blog world but they looked really fun so I decided to do my version.

The first thing I made were some noisemakers.

They are super easy and really awesome because they aren't too loud.

And who wants a headache on New Year's Eve?

So here's what you need to scrounge up.

Scrapbooking paper (optional)

Empty ribbon spools

tape

rice

glue

First tape off the opening on one side of the ribbon spool.

 Then you want to put a little bit of rice in the other opening.

Make sure you don't put too much in or there won't be room for the rice to shake.

Now tape up that opening.

Then trace the spool twice onto scrapbooking paper.

Cut out the circles and a strip to cover where the ribbon would be.

After you've got it all cut out just glue it on.

 Then I took brown lunch sacks and drew clocks on them with the time the kids get to open them.

Here are some of the other surprises the kids will find in their bags.

Sparklers

Stuff to make a memory jar

A interview page

Ava will have one with sparkly nail polish and

 Braeden will have one with a recipe for a yummy treat

 Then it will be time for bed so we don't have a bunch of little grumps for church in the morning.

So do you have any big plans for the big night?

Self Confidence

Today I am looking for a little bit of advice.

Maybe some advice for me and some for Ava.

I've never been a very confident person, and I don't have a very positive self image

and lately I've noticed Ava worrying about the way she looks WAY to much.

Here are a few examples.

The other day I did her hair.

It was cute but it wasn't perfect and we were running late for school so I didn't have time to redo it.

All the way to school she was crying that her hair didn't look good and that the kids would make fun of her. Let me just add that I know the kids are not making fun of her at school. Every day I am bombarded by kids asking to come to our house and play with Ava and she gets multiple compliments through the week about how cute she looks.

And maybe that's part of it.

Maybe she gets too many compliments on how she looks.

I don't know.

Another example happened last night.

I put her to bed and she was crying because she had a bump on her cheek.

She wanted me to get something to fix it right away.

I told her it was fine and we would look and it in the morning and she got really upset (sad upset, not fit throwing upset) I finally got her calmed down and told her you couldn't even see the bump and then she went to bed fine.

Those are just a few examples but it's been happening a lot lately.

I know that she is watching me and that plays a big part and I try not to say things in front of her but I'm not sure what to do.

How do make a little girl understand how wonderful she is?

She hears it from us on a daily basis but apparently that's not enough.

I know that this is something that will affect her for the rest of her life and that's why I'm asking for any advice you can give.

I know you all are full of wisdom

and thank you in advance.

The Polar Bear Express

Yesterday we had an awesome experience.

My Grandparents got everyone in the family who was able to go tickets to ride the Polar Bear Express.

My great grandpa was a railroad engineer so my grandma has a soft spot for trains and for Christmas but I'm not sure the reason behind that.

Probably because Christmas is just makes your feel all giddy and joyful.

Well at least that's how it makes me feel.

Anyway, we got to listen to a Christmas story and then ride the train for about an hour.

Santa and Mrs. Clause and a polar bear walked around and greeted us and

they served hot chocolate and cookies.

It was so much fun spending time with family and traveling by train.

So here are a ton of pictures to document our night.



Classic with a twist

Last night was the first night of December!

Which means the countdown until Christmas begins.

The first activity on our Advent Calendar was to watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn.

I must say that the Christmas spirt took over right away because they agreed on a movie without any fighting!

But before we could watch the movie we had to make the popcorn.

But not just any popcorn

Peppermint Popcorn

I kind of had mixed thoughts about what it was going to taste like but I thought it was worth a shot and it would at least be festive.

I found the recipe on Pinterest (favorite site EVER!!!)

But it comes from the blog Plain Chicken

Peppermint Popcorn

You need to take one bag of microwave popcorn and pop it. ( She uses plain popcorn but I used butter and it tasted good too) Then crush up 6 candy canes and pour on top of popcorn. Melt half a package of Almond bark and and 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the melted almond bark. Pour it over the popcorn and mix it all together. When it's all mixed up spread it out on parchment paper until the chocolate is hardened. Then break apart and eat.

Overall it was a pretty good success.

Braeden who normally doesn't eat popcorn, ate some and both kids asked for some first thing when they woke up.

And of course Mason chowed down as much as he could.

(Some of my pictures just won't flip no matter what I do)

So after our snack was ready we relaxed to the glow of the Christmas tree and watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Can't really ask for much better than that for the first night of December.
Well except for Reed being home to enjoy it with us.

So how did you spend your night?

Thanksgiving Fun

I have had so much fun the last few days.

It would have been a perfect few days but my little mad has been sick.

I started with Thanksgiving at my grandparents house.

I went to my families while Reed watched Mason, then he went to his Dad's while I snuggled with my little man.

Then I ended the day and started the next morning with some black friday shopping.

I didn't have a lot on my list but my competitive side can't pass up fighting people for things.

The long night of shopping was followed by a long nap on Friday

then we headed out to the Mad Ants game.

The Mad Ants are the D Leauge basketball team in Fort Wayne

and lucky for us Reed's company has second row seats that no one was using.

I LOVE basketball but mostly just college basketball.

GO DUKE!

The game was pretty good but I can't stand all the whining from the players.

The players questions and complained about every. single. play.

That's a litle pet peeve of mine.

But I won't get one that soap box right now.

The best part of the night was the halftime show.

They had Quick Change for America's Got Talent!

It was so awesome!

I thought that maybe sitting so close we would be able to see something to get an idea how they do it but nothing. Everyone was left in awe.

Seriously awesome.

And today we had Thanksgiving at my Dad's house.

Crazy crazy fun happening around here.

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend and now it's time to go back to normal mode.

Wait Christmas is next month!!!

I guess it's time to start making gifts!

I'll have some to show you soon.

Day of Thanks

Last week our computer died.

It's been a long hard battle for all of us involved.

We thought we had lost him for good but then he came back to us for awhile.

Then last week he finally stopped fighting.

It was for the best though.

And on Monday we brought a new baby home!

I can now type with two hands because I don't have to hold the power cord in place every minute that it's on.

And it stays on for more than 10 minutes at a time.

We are all still getting used to the change but I'm sure it won't take us long.

Ok now for the real post :)

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow I wanted to write about a few things that I'm thankful for.

It's kind of hard to pick out just a few because I have been so blessed.

So to start off I am thankful for my amazing family, especially Reed.

I am so lucky to have married the most amazing man.

He is so understanding, loving, and patient.

He loves me with all his heart no matter what and I know this because he is so good at showing me.

He is the perfect father to our children and my best friend.

My children are my world.

They make me laugh every day and I can't even describe how blessed I am to have such happy, healthy children.

I am also grateful for my Mother.

She is one of my best friends.

We talk almost every single day and I love it.

She listens without judgement and knows exactly when to give input.

She is such a blessing to my life.

I'm grateful that I have a sister.

Everyone needs a sister.

I'm so thankful that even though she is 10 years younger we can hang out and have a blast.

And it doesn't matter what mood I'm in if she comes around she brightens my day.

There are so many blessing in my life but I would be so ungrateful if I didn't express my gratitude for my Savior.

I'm so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the guidance it gives me.

I can't imagine going through life without my Savior to help me every step of the way.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving

and takes this opportunity to take a day to think of the blessings in our lives.

My Goofy Goofs

I have had a lot of time lately to just enjoy my family.

Well some of the time we are enjoying and sometimes we are running around like crazies.

But no matter what we are doing I can't go a day without thinking about how grateful to have the family that I have. I've been having tailbone problems for about a month and it's really limited what I can do but Reed has been great about it even though it means more work for him. 

And when I see the kids playing together and getting along it just melts me. 

Yesterday Ava was asking me how to make the letter e. Before I could even say anything Braeden jumped in "Come to the chalkboard and I'll show you." When I went into the toy room later it was covered with letters that they had been writing together.

So to give you an idea of what I see on a regular basis I recorded them playing tonight. If you watch it 500 times in a row you'll get an idea of what my night was REALLY like.

I know they are seriously nuts!
 And because we can't forget the little man here's a little video of his new talent for our family that's not around here. Sorry you have to tilt your head. I'm not sure why I thought you could flip it.

I know I am seriously blessed!

Ava's Turn

Well I'm a week late but here are the pictures of Ava's first day of preschool.

My mom made her backpack and it was a huge hit! She was so excited to go and begged and begged to leave the house early so she could get there. When I dropped her off she went right in and didn't care at all that she was leaving me. I even had trouble stealing a kiss before I left.

The second day of school she wanted me to take more pictures so here they are.

Sorry about the sideways photos. I've rotated them twice but it's just not sticking :(

So a week later she is just as excited to go to school as she was the first day.

Hopefully this week I will get past the sad feelings of being home with just Mason and enjoy all the things I can get done.

The Rest of our Crazy Saturday

Saturday was some serious craziness.

But it was crazy fun so it was worth it.

In the morning we had Braeden's last baseball game.

I love watching him play and seeing how much he truly enjoys learning about the game.

He's so happy when he's playing and he clings to every little detail his coach tells him.

I'm so happy I have at least one little athlete.

 They got the cutest little bobble head trophies this year.

I'm so proud of how much he's improved 

and I can't wait till next year when Ava's on his team.

After the excited ball game we went home, got cleaned up and headed to Reed's company picnic at Paige's Crossing.

It was really nice having an afternoon of fun that I didn't have to pay for!

We had a blast going on ride after ride after ride.

I'm really glad they added the fun rides because I despise putt putt.

I'm not a patient person and I'm not good at putting.

Doesn't really go well together.

We all had a blast together and I can't wait to do it again!

Sunday Outing

On most Sundays we come home from church, eat some lunch,

take turns taking naps, then go for a little walk.

This Sunday we decided to take our walk to the Forks of the Wabash trail

and I'm so glad we mixed it up bit.

If you don't already know I am trying to get started with photography

so I take my camera with me everywhere.

The quality of these photos show you that I have learned absolutely nothing!

But you can definitely see how much fun we had together

and that's beautiful no matter what the quality is.

This is my little model. She loves having her picture taken and knows how to strike a pose like nobody's business.

She was being such a stink about getting in the water. She wanted to but it hurt her feet so she wouldn't walk. But Braeden was moving around and she wanted to be by him. When she finally stopped with the drama she had a blast and didn't want to stop playing.

Braeden of course is solid boy.  Jumped right in the water 

and started splashing around and looking at bugs.

He loves to be out exploring in nature and I love that about him.

Mason mostly hung out in his stroller but the second I put him down things started going straight in his mouth.

Rocks, sand, sticks whatever he could find.

 I had Reed take a couple pictures of me with the 

because I am always behind the camera and not in the pictures which I 

am pretty ok with but I want them to know that they did have a mother and I was around lol.

 Ava was done being photogenic by this point lol

And of course Reed was with us.  I think he was a little frustrated with all of my picture taking because he was holding the chunky monkey.  Nothing light about that kid.

I saved my favorites for last.

I can't even describe how much I love watching Braeden and Ava playing together.

They love each other so much and get along so well most of the time.

As much as I was so not ready to have another baby 18 months after Braeden was born

I am equally glad I did.

It reminds me of my brother and all the fun we had/trouble we caused growing up together. (Love ya Scotty!)

I hope your Sunday was as wonderful as ours!