Growin' Up

My girls are growin' up fast - this is Rayna on her 3rd birthday!  I blew up all the balloons and surrounded them with the baby gate and then let them "go crazy"!

They had a blast and made their hair stick out in many directions LOL!  It's amazing how long they did this!

I don't know where I saw the idea to use stick pins as antennae for butterflies but I love it!  I stuck them through the pop dot that I used to raise the butterfly off the page.

Picture of the Day

I stuck something inside my oven again!  And I didn't burn the house down or create smoke or anything!  I am soooo proud! 

Wow, my oven looks dirty!  I'm blaming Snuffy LOL!

These are the finished crayons!  Next time I think I'll try mixing some of the colors!

Our Christmas!!

It turns out I was a genius for keeping the tree downstairs!  We got up, the girls opened their stockings right away (upstairs)!

Serenity got a lipstick and put it on herself!

Then we had a great big breakfast, made by Snuffy!  Then we went down to open gifts!  Avoided the mid gift meltdown because we haven't had breakfast yet!  Excellent!  See the love!

Skyler never did get into opening gifts!  She'd just crawl away to play with other things - see.....

She found Santa's leftover milk and cookies!  She also tried to dominate her gifts once they'd been opened!  She'd come over to them and then crawl on top of them! LOL

How sweet is Rayna here?

Santa brought both big girls the wagons they wanted.

They loved their walkie talkies but they still don't quite have the hang of them yet!  They do love saying "roger" and "over and out" and "can you hear me" and "i love you"!

The girls got brand new outfits and since I couldn't get a good pic of all three looking at me I took some individual ones!  Look at how grown up Serenity is here (but how young too, with that doggie in her hand)!

Rayna decided it was time to kick some butt!

Skyler is so sweet!

Do you see those sweet socks that look like little shoes? Awwwww!

After everyone was dressed we went to my mom's and had a wonderful dinner!  I loved giving all my handmade gifts (and store bought ones) to everyone.  They are so appreciative and I love them for it!  Gotta love it when your gifts make some people teary eyed! It was a wonderful Christmas and reminded me of just how lucky we are!!!  How was your Christmas (or other Holiday celebration)?

Lookin Smart

I am sooo in love with owls!

Such cutie little hands and I will love seeing them when they are all grown up! 

 

Can I just say how much I LOOOOOVE the Making Memories Mistletoe line this year?  It is awesome!!!

Here's a picture of the day of the girls in some new dress up outfits!  Does anyone know who they are??

Free Cake & Merry Christmas

This is Skyler's free cake from Thrifty's - not bad!

She stared at the piece of cake and didn't seem to know what to do with it!  So she squished it and squashed it, but still didn't eat it!

But when she did......

She got VERY into it!!!! She even tried to see if the bowl was tasty! LOL

CAKE!!!!  IT ROCKS!!!!

Afterwards a bath was required and then we gave her her present!  She wasn't interested AT ALL!!!  So Serenity and Rayna opened it for her - then she paid attention!!

She gave it a try but...........

.....the packaging was what she really loved! LOL

Happy 1st Birthday Skyler!!!!

PS - I leave you with this picture of Serenity and Rayna in their new xmas pj's and a funny story!

Serenity: "What do you want for Christmas Mommy?"

Me: "I want you to be happy baby"

Serenity: {thinking} "NO, i mean what PRESENT?"

Me: "How about candy?"

Serenity: "Will you share with me?"

Me: "Absolutely baby"

Serenity: "Then Santa can get you candy"

Me: "What is Santa gonna get Daddy?"

Serenity: "Nothing"

Me: "Nothing, why nothing?"

Serenity: "Because Daddy says he's been naughty"

Me: "But Santa has to bring him something"

Serenity: "He can have HAIR" LOL

Merry Christmas everybody, hope you have a great one!!!!

Born in a Snowstorm

That's my baby girl, born in a snowstorm one year ago today!  She is definitely the best Christmas gift ever!! THEN:

Look at all the snow, you could hear the tree branches breaking from all the weight! AT SIX MONTHS:

I love this pic of Skyler with the bunny hat on!  She has such gorgeous eyes! NOW:

She is into everything and loves to chase her sisters around the house!  She won't eat baby food and still bites like a vampire when you least expect it.  She actually bit my ankle the other day (now I know where the saying 'ankle biter' comes from) LOL! I love you with all my heart baby!

Indoor Girl

I am basically an indoor girl.  I think camping sucks (the bugs live outside you know) and I don't like getting rain on my face (and it rains here all the time so I have lots of umbrellas).  Sooooo when I looked outside and saw rain today I thought, "guess we're not going to cut down our own tree this year."  I was mistaken.........and I got a lecture on it! 

Apparently a tradition is a TRADITION and it doesn't matter the weather, rain, snow, sleet or hail (since when are we the post office Snuffy???)!  So we went and had a hoot!

The girls got into their snow suits, boots and mitts and we all tramped around the field looking at all the poor little Charlie Brown trees that won't be ready till next year!  I'll tell ya, it was slim pickin's!  However, this was to our advantage because our scrawny tree that would normally be $40, she gave us for $20.  Perhaps she felt sorry for our soaked little gang!

Then the girls got to their favourite part - the hot chocolate (and candy canes)!  They looked so cute blowing the heat off of it! 

I also had a brilliant idea on the way home!  To set up the tree in our downstairs playroom instead of upstairs where Skyler will be at it constantly and drive me totally mad before Christmas (prompting me to throw the tree out the 2nd story window, ornies and all!)  I am a GENIUS!!! (and clearly don't have a problem with self esteem! LOL) So now it is finally starting to smell and look like Christmas around here!

PS - i think for Christmas I might just get my den built downstairs as Snuffy has been at it most of the day - wooo hooo!

TWOC #12 - Tour of Homes

This is another week of Red Writing's Twelve Weeks of Christmas Blog party. 

I don't have lots of decorations because I have lots of babies that would just ruin them.  I plan to make something every year so that eventually my home will be filled with decorations I made and the kids will be old enough not to destroy them LOL!

During the TWOC I saw a ragamuffin garland (i call it my Rag Swag).  Here's mine:

All you do is tie rags (or scraps) to a ribbon and attach that ribbon to rings for hanging.  I found the key was to have lots of different textures of fabric and many ribbons.  I also made my fabric scraps several different lengths and widths (9-12 inches long and 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide).  My ribbon was lots of different lenths and widths too.  The funny thing is that I actually had to go out and buy the fabric because I don't quilt or use fabric normally LOL!!

Conversation I had with Snuffy while I was making this:

Snuffy: "What are you making again?"

Me: "A garland"

Snuffy: "What is a garland?"

Me: "Haven't you seen one?  They are usually made with the boughs of trees."

Snuffy: {blank look}

Me: "Seriously, do you never pay attention to decorations in people's houses?"

Snuffy: "That's a girl thing"

Conversation after it was done and hanging up:

Snuffy: "Oh, now I get it!"

Me: "Do you like it?"
Snuffy: {ewww face}
Me: "Well I love it"
Snuffy: "ok"
Me: "Better to be controversial than BORING!!!"

Do you have any controversial decorations?

Trees and Houses

We went to see the Festival of Trees (4 Seasons Hotel) and Gingerbread Lane (Hyatt) and had a hoot!  I think it put us all in the Christmassy spirit even if the girls all have colds!

This was my fave pic of the ornaments.  I used my high ISO setting on my point and shoot and it turned out glowy (if you look REAL close in the silver ball you can see ME! LOL)

 How cool is this McDonald's tree?  Serenity said it was Skyler's favourite!

Rayna and Serenity really loved all the origami ladies on this tree.

This was the most original/unique tree.  It was made out of cool fixtures like door stoppers and faucets!  This was a mini tree beside it.

This was Serenity's favourite - you can see she is beside herself with excitement over the dalmation puppy lights!  Go fire fighters!

Betcha didn't know Santa was Canadian!  Love the Maple Syrup ornaments on this one!

This might be an outtake to some but it's my fave pic LOL!  My girls are total hams! Rayna was trying to be a reindeer!

This ornament totally reminded me of my brother LOL!  No, he doesn't look like this, he does Kung Fu!

 

Which segues nicely into our time at Gingerbread Lane! This is the world's largest Gingerbread House and it smells yummy!  Good thing they had ropes up or my girls would have definitely taken a taste.

Look at the Princess Tea Party.  Can you believe this was done by high school students?

The Elf Village was VERY well done, by a bakery!

The Olympic Village was cool!  The girls loved seeing Quatchi, the mascot, because they've met him before!  Unfortunately, the other two mascots were sliding off their cookies LOL!  Little too warm for them!

This one was cool because of the story book and the tree actually rotated too!

The chef from the story and the cookies jumping out of the oven to get him!

My little Gingerbread girls!

What have you done that is Christmasy?