Santa!!

We just met Santa, well actually we saw two different Santas in one day!  This one (try #2) was "nice" per Chloe so she was willing to sit on his lap for a photo.  Yay!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!

Trying to get that perfect shot

When photographing kids I think the best motto is: "It isn't the outcome, but the journey that matters".  That or maybe "take as many photos as possible in the blind hope that jut one will turn out!".  I try to embrace both mottos every time :)  This was the outcome.

 Drool is a constant at month 4!

 Goofy Chloe.  It is hard to get a straight face from her these days.

 "Oh Geez Mom!"

Advent Calendar done!!

I have been working on this project for entirely too long (about a month!).  When I first had the idea for a Christmas tree advent calendar I searched the web for ideas and of course came to the conclusion that I could do it better than anyone else and it would also be super easy.  A red flag should have gone up, but I somehow forgot how much time it takes to do anything at all , let alone a sewing project, with kids......

I picked out lots of red fabrics for the ornaments.  This was a joint project with Amber who was in charge of making the green ornaments.

Then I designed and cut out all of the iron on decals for each ornament using my always awesome silhouette.

ironed the decals on to the fabric

added sweet white suede ribbon from the ribbon jar (Thanks Julie!!!),

turned the fabric right side in and sewed in circles with a piece of felt for structure

turned right side out

repeat times 24. (23 actually due to an unfortunate cutting mistake).  Then I hand sewed each ornament closed, and made the tree and background on which the ornaments were to hang.  

I found these awesome number buttons at a local store and decided to use them instead of ironing on the number decals I made earlier.  Aside from the total pain it took to hand sew each button, I love how it looks!

 the star is ornament number 25, and goes on for Christmas!

 Here is what the project looks like all done!  Super cute right?!

The "funny" thing is, after all of this work- Chloe wants nothing to do with the advent calendar.  Apparently it isn't very interesting to a 2 1/2 year old.  Swing and a miss, but hopefully next year it will be better received.   You better believe that I am putting on the ornaments each day though!  I love it!  

baby Madeline

I am trying my hardest to keep taking as many pictures of Madeline as possible so she doesn't have the typical second child- no photo syndrome.  Sometimes Madeline looks so much like Chloe it is amazing.  Can you tell the difference?  Which is Chloe and which is Madeline?

Did you guess?  The top one is Madeline and the bottom one was Chloe at the same age.  It seems like so long ago that Chloe was so tiny!  Long before first words and whole sentences.  Every day really is better than the next.  Chloe is quite the talker but every once in a while she gets her words mixed up and leaves us cracking up.  The other morning Andrew asked her what kind of cereal she wanted and she replied "CRAP-PURPPLE-POP!!!!" (aka snap crackle pop)  Kids are such a gift!

Maddie is always on her tummy now, and pretty much always drooling.  Every time I put her down- flip- on to her tummy she goes.  She doesn't like being on her back anymore.  That was so one week ago :)  Luckily she is sleeping much better again, allowing the dark circles and bags under my eyes a little chance to fade away.  Last week she was up at least every hour all night long, sometimes every 30 minutes.... last night she was only up every 3 hours.  It was amazing.  I don't know what I am doing right but I hope I keep it up :)

Projects

Tis the season for knitting, and I am in the mood to organize.  Put those together and you get a project!!  I searched the internet for knitting needle organizers and they were either too homely or too expensive.  I am a do it your-selfer so I decided why not make a few knitting needle holders?!  Here is the link I loosely based my design after.  Isn't the internet awesome?!

 The design is two tiered for straight needles as well as the shorter double pointed needles.  I don't really use straight needles, and knit pretty much everything in the round so I use the upper tier for the circulars. I still need to add the number labels for each needle size, but you get the idea.  

 The whole things rolls up in a tidy little case :)  This is much better than a whole mess of needles strewn in a bag.  The colors make me happy too.  So happy in fact that I decided to make two.  The second one went to Donna who is also an avid knitter, and also organizationally challenged when it came to her needles.  Now she blows me away with her typed up spreadsheets of needle sizes and lengths.  I suspect this is only interesting to about one of you so I will leave it at that.  

 Chloe has also been creative lately building what she calls castles.  When it is finished she grins and asks if she can knock it down.  Repeat times 10.

 Her latest engineering feat.  

Snow Day

This is what Alaska looks like now days....stereotypical gorgeous snowy Alaska!

With Halloween over and Thanksgiving around the corner we took down all of the spiders and bats  and replaced them with fall leaves....... next year I will just skip the leaves and go right into the snowflakes!

Chloe loves the snow and will spend hours out there if she could!  Powell is her favorite snow companion.

 Madeline stays inside and enjoys the snowy view through the window :)

 Look who is a skilled head lifter!!

Her newest achievement is grabbing her feet and playing with them.

And also smiling and giggling at herself in the mirror. 

 Chloe continues to hone her cookie decorating skills.  The sprinkles are by far her favorite part! 

 The aftermath of Halloween cookies.

Gotta love the holidays!

WOOHOOOO!!!

I finally did it!!!!  Tuesday will be my last day of work!  

It was probably the hardest choice I have ever had to make and I went back and forth over and over again over the course of my maternity leave.  I even went as far as hiring a nanny for the girls so that I could go back to work (I love my job).  Daycare is impossible to find for babies less than a year in Alaska.  I suppose to my benefit our nanny quit before she started, leaving me short one nanny and back at square one on the stay home or work decision making dilemma.  Well as you can see I finally decided!!  It came down to this advice from a friend "You have your whole life to work but only a few years to spend with your kids when they are little".  It is so true.  I am happier than I have ever been and starting my journey in excelling at being a Mom!  Yay!

Trick or Treat!

As promised, a family photo!  I am Foofa, Andrew is DJ Lance Rock, Madeline is Brobee, and Chloe is Todee, all from Yo Gabba Gabba.  Chloe, Madeline and I wore our costumes all day, but some reason Andrew didn't want to wear his to work.  

 We had two trick or treating sessions.  One down our street (maybe 6 houses) and then down Grandma and Grandpa's street (maybe 10 houses).  We skipped a lot of houses because Chloe was having just too much fun in the snow.  I took about 100 pictures that night and these are the few I was able to capture her in frame!  

 Eating snow, followed by laying in the snow, rolling in snow and running around in the snow.

After trick or treating of course there was lots of candy eating.  She has a month's supply after just a few houses!  When that runs out we have a year's supply left over since we bought two giant Costco bags and only gave out about 8 candies...to 2 trick or treaters :)  Oh well, bite sized candy is great.  Who wants to eat a whole candy bar?!

I can't wait for next year.  Chloe is still talking about Halloween.  I can't even guess what she will want to be.  When I asked her what she wants to be when she grows up she said "a real firefighter", and Madeline will be a "writer".  Kids are just so funny.

Snow before Halloween!!

This is what we woke up to yesterday!!!!  

 There are bets every year whether it will snow before or after Halloween.  I don't remember which one I chose, but I am sure excited to see the white stuff!!  

 It was the day before Halloween and we took Chloe to trick or treat street downtown to trick or treat at all of the downtown businesses.  Since it was chilly we did not get ourselves decked out (we are saving it for tonight baby!!)  but Chloe had most of her costume on!  You can see the little bag I made for her too! 

 Chloe is Todee and Andrew is DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba!  I am sorry to say we had to buy Andrew's costume as I could not find orange fur ANYWHERE!!

 You can see Chloe had a great time, and she has the candy to prove it!!

 This morning I dressed the girls up for a little Halloween photo shoot.  Madeline is dressed as, and photographed with Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba.  I knit her little costume and totally love it, especially the hat with horns!!

I just love Halloween!  It is so fun to make the costumes!  I can't wait to see what the girls want to be next year!  Stay tuned for more photos of the whole family!  Hopefully we will be able to get some good ones tonight!