Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
Dec 25, 2011

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

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We have had a little girl literally bouncing off the walls with excitement for Christmas. She even managed to stay up until 10 PM on Christmas Eve (without a daytime nap!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to have been worth the excitement. We have had tons of oohs and ahhs and general exclamations of joy this morning.

The candy from the stocking was particularly popular. Elizabeth insisted on unwrapping each Hershey’s kiss and putting them in a bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even our littlest family members got in on the fun (well one of them did; the other spent the entire time sleeping on my bed).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

~Krista

 

Filed Under: Family Life · Tagged:
Gingerbread House Decorating
Dec 20, 2011

Gingerbread House Decorating

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For the past few weeks, I think I have been as excited as Elizabeth to decorate gingerbread houses. Ever since we bought the boxes of the houses (thankfully pre-built) at the store she has asked almost daily if we could do it. Yesterday was finally the day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a  bunch of friends over and much sticky decorating ensued. I let Elizabeth tear her box open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She told me she was so happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used cereal squares for our roof shingles (generic cinnamon toast crunch).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth easily went through 1/4 of a bottle of red sprinkles. Most ended up in her mouth, some landed on our gingerbread house. Her fingers, lips, and mouth got really red. She then asked for the green sprinkles, but I had to cut her off (or at least limit her to one color).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a little cuddle time mid-decorating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite side (a little random to pick a favorite, but I did):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are all the finished products (our house is in the middle):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the front of our finished house:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think they turned out wonderfully (especially since the child decorators  ranged in age from 2-6).

Maybe I’m a little crazy, but I can’t wait to do it again.

~Krista

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing · Tagged: ,
O {Felt} Christmas Tree & Wreath
Dec 15, 2011

O {Felt} Christmas Tree & Wreath

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In an effort to keep the ornaments on the actual tree safe from the tiny hands of a two-year-old, I made Elizabeth her own tree. I had seen a felt tree on Pinterest and knew it would be perfect for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started with some remaining felt I had. Sadly, it was a bit skinny (I only had 1/3 of a yard of the felt).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used painters tape to attach it to the wall. Painters tape has definitely not been the best choice, but I haven’t found anything better that won’t permanently attach or damage the wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a bit of extra green felt that I cut into a circle for a wreath also (Side note: the painters tape works much better on the smaller wreath).

I then used some other colored felt to cut out ornaments. Some were simple balls and some I made by tracing cookie cutters on the felt. Without prompting, Elizabeth ordered them in rows by color. She is so my daughter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had playtime:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She has spent hours decorating and re-decorating both the tree and wreath. For the most part it has even kept her out of the real Christmas tree.

~Krista

Filed Under: Crafts & Sewing · Tagged: , , ,
Cute Little Girls
Dec 8, 2011

Cute Little Girls

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We are very lucky in our family to have two little cousins born only a month apart. It has made so many things more fun, including dressing up.

Elizabeth and her cousin Addie got decked out in their Christmas dresses for some adorable pictures (and much laughter and smiles).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are getting so good at posing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is especially nice that they love being together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~Krista

Filed Under: Family Life · Tagged:
O Christmas Tree!
Dec 7, 2011

O Christmas Tree!

By ·

After getting back from the beach on Sunday, we went to get our Christmas tree. Elizabeth was very excited to help pick it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My number one goal was to find one that smelled like Christmas tree.

This seems like it would be an easy goal to achieve, but last year we got a Turkish Noble and didn’t find out until we were home that they don’t smell. It was so strange to have a Christmas tree that didn’t fill the house with that happy pine smell.

After finding a beautiful tree, we found out it was a Turkish Noble, and that most of the trees there were Turkish Nobles. Argh.

Luckily we found a nice patch of Douglas Firs at the end of the lot. Cue happy pine smell now filling our house. Mmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took almost no prompting to get Elizabeth in her Christmas dress and posing in front of the tree (she has been asking to wear that dress all of the time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My happy little girl seems to be as excited about this Christmas as I am.

~Krista

Filed Under: Family Life · Tagged: