snowfall

Ben made some paper snowflakes with the girls this weekend. They have wanted to make more every day after school. It's kinda funny to me because I spend so much time trying to think of new ideas for things to do with them, that it's easy to forget how much they like doing simple and easy things like this too. I took a few pictures of the snowflake making the other day, but this is the only one of my pictures I ended up posting, just to get one of Kara in there. Kara asked if she could take a picture too, and she snpped a bunch. I ended up liking her pictures better. She has asked for a camera for Christmas, and has been reminding me about it a lot lately. "If I had my own camera to use..." is what I hear at least once a day.

Kiersten wanted to make them herself at first, but soon decided just to direct me how to make them for her. She would choose the color, and say, "now cut a triangle, now cut out a butterfly shape," etc. She is still quite proud of them, and they look so bright and cheery taped up all over the diningroom.

I got this same picture, but from an adult level. I really liked Kara's shot from her pov.



I didn't even notice Kara taking pictures of Evie, but there were several of them on the camera. She was happy for the ones on the fireplace, then I could tell Kara was trying to pose her in other spots, and Evie wasn't happy about it.

I have to admit it was kind of fun for me too. I don't remember the last time I cut a paper snowflake, but it's definitely more enjoyable than I remembered.

12/7/11

Kiersten was very excited for her daddy-daughter day on saturday. She even got all dressed up, and wanted her hair curled. She has been being a really good girl lately. I can't remember the last time she needed a time out. She must know that Santa's elves are watching her.
I tried to get a picture of Evie by the tree. This was the best I coud get, as she insisted on getting up on the fireplace for the picture.

While Ben and Kiersten were on their date, i took the other girls to the mall to get some things for Ben's birthday. We saw santa there, and he didn't have much of a line. Kara kept wanting to walk past and get a good look at him. She finally decided it was the real guy, and she had to go sit by him, in case the real santa doesn't come back to that mall before Christmas. Evie fell asleep in line, and after Kara sat on santa's lap, and whispered with him for a minute, I set Evie on his lap too. She kind of snuggled up into his sleeve, and then very sleepily opened her eyes. Right as they were taking the picture, she looked up at Santa, panicked, and started screaming. She looked around frantically until se saw me, and then started screaming and reaching for me. So we ended up with an interesting picture. I'll scan it in when we get Kiersten's picture with Santa this weekend. They got candy canes and a coupon for free cotton candy at Kid's Korner. so after we got the free candy, we headed home.
Here is Evie sitting at the table in her new booster seat. She eats a lot better now that she sits with the rest of us.

I bought a bunch of ornaments on clearance after Christmas last year. We ended up deciding to use black, silver, and purple on the tree this year, so I used the new ornaments to make a little wreath. I think it turned out pretty cute. The girls loved helping make this, and it was super easy, and just what we needed for the guestroom door.

This picture didn't show up too well, but this onesie was ruined by pen marks all down the front. I was going to give it to goodwill, but then decided to see if I could fix it up somehow. I figured if I messed it up, I wouldn't care, since I was getting rid of it anyway.

The new look. Kiersten is also in the picture, wearing a skirt she wanted me to make on sunday. I was too lazy to get out a pattern, so it could have turned out a little better, but she's happy with it, and was excited to wear it to school on monday.

A close up of Evie's onesie. It's supposed to be lolly pops. I think it'll look even cuter after it gets washed a few times and the fabric starts curling up more. I just looked online for ideas and found this great tutorial.

our tree

We decided to set up our Christmas tree and get out all the decorations on sunday. We've never done it so early in the past, but I'm glad we got everything out. usually by the time I find the advent calendar, several days of december have already passed, and the girls get a bit disappointed to see those doors with nothing in them.

Evie only got to put one decoration on the tree before she went down for her nap. Later, she took and ornament off the tree and broke it. She cut her hand on it, and has left the tree alone ever since.

Kara was so proud to be able to reach high up on the tree. She kept telling Kiersten to decorate the lower brances, and she'd take care of the higher ones.

Of course Kiersten still tried to reach as high as possible.

Now the livingroom feels nice and festive. If only I can get up the desire to finish decorating the rest of the house. I can't wait til Kara's older and can do more of the decorating for me, since she loves doing it, and I'm not too keen. you may notice there is no tree topper. Ben decided he hates the one we have, and tasked me with buying a new one. I found one at fred meyer, and hopefully he'll install it tonight to finish things off. It's a little insane to me that it's not even December yet, and we already have everything purchased and wrapped for Christmas. I'm sure I'll still end up busy the rest of the month, though.

The girls are eating so many apples lately. I feel like I'm buying 8 -10 apples every few days. Once in a while I find a half eaten one in their rooms, but they usually eat the whole thing.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving day 2011. The girls love any reason to get dressed up. As soon as I put Evie's hairbow on, she went straight to the fireplace to get her picture taken. So I decided we could do a few pictures. She didn't want the other girls in the picture, and kept shoving them out of the way. Ben went to play football early n the morning, and the girls were excited for him to get home and see they were dressed up and ready for the day. When Ben's brother Jason, and his wife Lisa arrived, the girls were going crazy. Kara came upstairs and shouted, "I'm... so... EXCITED!". It was pretty funny. Evie took a few minutes to warm up to them.The big girls didn't get to stand on the fireplace to get their pictures taken, because Evie was going crazy if they were there without her, and I was seriously afraid someone would get hurt.

I tried to talk Kiersten into a dress, but she really wanted to wear her fuzzy vest with a skirt.

Evie Pie. She is so funny about getting her picture taken in that spot. Last night Kara came upstairs and saw me on the couch holding the 2 other girls, and said, "what a cute picture." Evie immediately got up and went over to her picture spot to start cheesing it up. Kara wore this same dress for thanksgiving in 2006. It was too big on her though. This year it was the perfect size for Evie.

I made the girls these fruit turkeys while we were waiting for dinner to cook. They thought it was so funny. I liked it because, other than a slice of pie after dinner, they didn't have any sweet snacks the rest of the day, since they had these sitting around to snack on instead. nobody ate the limes, though.

Sitting down to our thanksgiving ham dinner.

just a cute picture of our rootbeer floats last night after dinner. I love the look on Evie's face. I hadn't made her one, and she was upset, so I made her a very small one, and we let her sit at the table, so she loved that. We decided to get rid of the highchair. Ben got her a booster seat, so she will be happier during meal time. She is always upset not to be at the table with the rest of us.

30 years

I turned 30 years old on the 17th. It was a good day. Evie and I went to breakfast after dropping the girls at school. We just played around all day, and I did as little housework as I was comfortable with. When the girls got home, they wanted to play games all afternoon for a birthday party. It was pretty fun and funny.When Ben got home, we went down to a private sale at morgan jewelers in Tacoma. I got a pretty new ring, but don't have a picture, as it was sent out for sizing. I also got some fun free stuff too. then we all went to dinner, and the girls were really well behaved. We didn't have room for dessert, which upset Kara because I had told her instead of a birthday cake i was going to have dessert at the restaurant. (she had wanted me to help her bake a cake earlier). So she was unhappy that I didn't have dessert, so Ben stopped at dairy queen and got an Ice cream cake, and we went home. I had a few gifts to open, and Kiersten was glad we woke her back up to see me open them all.
Posing with the jewelry bag. you can see my new feetie pajamas on the couch that Kiersten gave me. I wanted them so much to stay warm in our drafty house. the part I didn't think about was what a pain it is to go to the bathroom when wearing them. you can kind of also see the chore board I got from my mother in law, and my new purse. I should have gotten a better picture, but I was so ready for bed!Once Evie saw Ben taking my picture, she got right up on the fireplace to get her picture taken too. Her personality is getting so fun lately!More than half of the cake is still sitting in the freezer. I'm sure we'll finish it soon enough, though, if the girls would just finish their dinner so they can have dessert.I absolutely LOVE my card from Kara.

I guess I thought turning 30 would be upsetting, or hard, but it was actually great, and I don't feel the least bit sad about it. I think maybe if life wasn't turning out well, or if I were unhappy it might be upsetting. But my life is everything I could want it to be. I have an amazing husband that I adore and admire, 3 gorgeous, healthy girls who love me, and great family and friends. So I'm pretty happy to be where I am at 30 years.