Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

I'm at a loss for words. There's so much I want to write but then I can't think of anything to say. So much swirling around in my brain as I reflect back on the last year and look forward to the next.

Well for now I wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year!

This year brought us 6 wonderful months of having the hubs works from home, until his work restructured. : (

It brought Brynn's first steps (back in January).

Her many first words and now full sentences!

Bella's speech improved dramatically.

Bella is now completely diaper free, yippee!

Bella enjoyed soccer for the first time.

Bella also left me to go try out preschool two days a week! : )

We welcomed several new dear babies of friends into our lives.

And sadly lost one of ours.

We enjoyed trips to MN, CA, CO, and downtown Chicago.

The hubs and I celebrated 9 wonderful years of marriage.

And I am trying to thoroughly enjoy my last year in my twenties, boo. : (

I am VERY excited about what the new year has in store for our family. And hope and pray that our family will be closer, reach out more to others, be there for friends, be thankful for the things we do have, be good examples to others, and so much more. I hope you are able to make some resolutions yourself and pray you even keep a few. : )

Happy New Year!

And since I hate to post without pics, here are some from a friend's last year's New Year's Party, which by the way I better get ready for!

Kiddos joined us for a bit of play...

But then off to bed, so the parents could party! : )

Happy New Year!

Wordless Wednesday- ?????

Bloom- Read. Discuss. Grow.

Ahh. Back home. Sad to leave family, but happy to be in my bed. Kiddos need a couple days I think though, they're having a tough day!

I'm not a big reader and have no idea when I'll find time to do it, but since I'm not partaking in the next bible study at my church I thought I would join Angie and many others in the Bloom Book Club. They, we, are reading the book, "Same Kind of Different as Me," by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I put it on my Christmas list and started it today during nap time. Pretty good so far. Better get back to reading....

Anyone interested in joining me?

Christmas through the years....

I saw Heather do this and thought it was such a cute idea! She posted all of her Christmas cards from the last several years. Unfortunately, my digital pictures only go back to 2003 (we were married in 2000). Also we didn't start sending out Christmas cards until after Bella was born (and didn't make our own until last year, always used Shutterfly), but we did try to take a family pic in the fall or around Christmas so I thought I'd share those from over the years. : )

2003

2004

2005 (had Bella two months later!)

2006

2007 (had Brynn two months later)

2008

(sorry its on a white background so it didn't show up)

2009 Fall Family Picture

(our Christmas card for this year is in the post below)

A Christmas Card for you bloggy friends!

Well Merry Christmas Eve!!! I wanted to send all my virtual friends out there, their virtual Christmas card! : )

Merry, Merry Christmas...

I will be taking a little bloggy vacation this week (perhaps I might pop in here or there) as we spend Christmas in Colorado with my family.

I just wanted to jump on and wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you all take a moment to remember the reason for the season and thank God for the greatest gift of all. His son. Who came to earth to save little old us. Really all I need. And my two beautiful girls, wonderful husband, and great friends and family. : ) So I hope you all have a wonderful time with all of your own families and take time be thankful for all of your blessings! Merry merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Best Giveaway ever!!

So I MUST win MckMama's current giveaway, so go check it out here. But hey don't enter I need all the chance I can get! : ) It goes from today until the 20th.

A great gift...

Anyone die of anticipation over my cliff hanger yesterday!? No? Huh? Oh well. : )

Etsy has become a favorite shopping site for my friends and me as of late. I absolutely love all the handmade children's things, especially the bows at my mom's shop. : ) Another thing I love are the personalized t-shirts they have for kids, either with cute holiday themed pictures (like our turkey shirts), or the kids' names, or the number of their age, etc. Well one thing I found was t-shirts with their first initial on it. After I received the turkey shirts I ordered I felt like this is something I could totally do myself. Now mind you I have never sewed in my life, despite all my mother's begging growing up. I learned to knit for a short bit, but barely finished one scarf (my mom finished it) and had had enough. But I was determined. I would love for my kiddos and those of close friends to have theses shirts and I felt like I could totally do it! Never mind that I decided to tackle this during my busiest week ever (small group dinner, kids small group play group, preschool party, speech twice, two cookie parties at our house, best friends Christmas party, and our own adult Christmas party).

Thankfully one of my friends had a sewing machine she was able to loan me but she has to read the book each time before she sews. So I had the supplies, just needed to learn to sew. Much to the hub's delight I had my mom try to teach me via Skype. After a few unsuccessful attempts on my own she was able to help me get it threaded correctly, gave me pointers, and sent me off to practice. My lovely husband video taped our conversation because he thought it was all too funny. I'll have to get the video from him.

So I practiced doing one letter on scrap material and did a pretty good job. I felt ready to tackle my project (which was 6 shirts for friends and 2 for my girlies)! I did a pretty good job, few mistakes here and there, but not super noticeable. My biggest goof was when I sewed the front of sweet Mackenzie shirt to the back. Oops. Luckily I just used Brynn's shirt to finish up hers and later ran out for another t-shirt for Brynn.

I was beyond excited to give them to our friends and I hope they all like and enjoy them!!

Here is the lovely sewing machine my dear friend Kelli let me use, along with a manual. : )

My materials. I looked everywhere for white shirts, but to find enough in the sizes I needed, the only one I came pretty close to (had to substitute some turtle necks) were red. So blue fabric for our one boy in our group and the other for all the girls.

Here is my practice sheet before I moved on to the real thing.

So first I made the letters in photoshop the size I wanted, traced them on the fabric and cut out each letter.

Next you use HeatNBond, cut them out to the size of the shapes, iron them on the letters...

...then peel away the white to reveal the sticky stuff....

...then iron straight on to the shirt! After that the sewing happens. Should've had the hubs capture a picture of that, oh well! : )

Here was my lovely mistake...

I tried to salvage it and ended up making a hole in the shirt. : (

And here are the 8 finished projects!!

Funny how I hated homemade things growing up and always wanted store bought. Now I know the treasure of handmade and so hope that rubs off on the girls. Perhaps I will keep practicing and get as good as my mom. No, probably not, but one can dream! : )

Nothing Better.....

Nothing thrills me more than to give someone presents!! I delight in finding that perfect gift that they never knew they always wanted! : ) So we exchange gifts with the kiddos in the group of our closest friends. Although years past, with money being tight my joy is someone diminished. But this year I thought of the perfect, but economical, Christmas for the 6 little ones in our group. I can't wait to share it with you!! We exchange tonight so hopefully I can find some time tomorrow to hop on and share them with you! : ) Nothing like a good cliff hanger (yes I am going to categorize this as a cliff hanger)! : )

Wordless Wednesday- I know baby, I hate the cold too!

Fun with Friends....

So again, I'm posting about something before Thanksgiving. Right before we left for CA I took the girls to our local Bass ProShop, where they have a little Christmas section set up, with their best friends and their mommies. It was fun and free (which is always fabulous)! By the way the girls are sporting their turkey shirts that we got here, aren't they precious?!

Bella and Anderson had to try out the guns. Of course Bella picks the pink one (shh I didn't tell her it was upside down :) ).

Brynn is quite smitten with Avi and they enjoyed watching the train together.

Attempting a group shot. Santa was not at his post so we borrowed it and may have bribed them with his candy canes. :)

Everyone but sweet baby Stephanie. Brynn, Avielle, Ellison, Mackenzie, Bella, and Anderson.

So I may be a little MIA this week. Sunday we had our small group Christmas dinner, today we made cookies with the kids from our small group, tomorrow I have Bella's preschool Christmas party, Tuesday and Wednesday night we invited Bella and Brynn's friends over for a movie, milk, and cookies, Thursday we have our Christmas with our closest friends, and Friday we have our Christmas party! Phew, I'm tired just writing that. But Sunday we leave for beautiful Colorado and I look forward to sharing another trip with you! : )

Tis the season.....

I love, love, love the Christmas season, always have. My love has only grown since having children. Somehow the holiday season through their eyes makes it all the more merrier! Well the first week in November (I told you I'm behind in posting!) the hubs was away on business (this was when my lovely 3 year old informed her speech teacher that he had moved out), and although the hubs enjoys the holiday season, he DOES NOT enjoy decorating for the holiday season. Every year is usually spent with me hassling him to get our decorations out and him complaining and then me in tears that he doesn't enjoy it with me (call me a bit emotional). Well I thought, how nice would it be if I spare him the mess of having to lug the stuff out, clean, put up, put containers back, etc. (I know wife of the year ; ) ). So the girls and I did it all while he was away. Well I should clarify, all the decorations but the outdoor ones, those we leave to daddy. The hubs actually put them up the weekend before he left because it was 70 degrees and we wanted to take advantage of warm weather. Nothing like making the season last longer! Anywhoo, it was SO much fun decorating with the girlies. They were so excited about it all. Brynn loved seeing all the different things we had and Bella actually even remembered where some of the things went.

That evening when the hubs returned from his trip we decorated the tree together. Growing up, my family and the hubs' family would get us an ornament every year (which they gave us once we were married). Once we were married we got each other one every year. We also got the girls one every year, as well as grandma. So needless to say we have a lot of ornaments!! Every year Mormor Domier also gets us the moving/musical Hallmark collectible ornament. The girls love these ornaments. They have spent every day since turning them on a least twice a day. So we have a very full, bright, noisy tree! Here are some pics of our fun!

Is this how a stocking goes mom?

Our abundance of ornaments. My personal favorites: mine from my very first years and s'more ornaments!

Apparently it wasn't turning on the way she wanted. : )

Here's a couple of the Hallmark ornaments, all the parts move and they play music.

My very first ornament ever. Given to me while we were living in Vienna. I love it! Small, wooden, perfect (well almost, she's missing her drumsticks :) ).