Snowman Daycare/Playdate

My incredibly talented and good friend, Molly, decided to do a little drop in babysitting over the Holidays.  Well, in true Molly fashion it wasn't just a drop off and let your kids watch TV the whole time.  She went all out with a theme for each day, games, treats and lots of fun activities.  I came along to help out and join in all the fun.  I believe she may even do it again throughout the year, cause every momma needs a little break once in awhile, right!?!?
Anyway, here are some of the fun things we did.  In no particular order...

First, a little playing in the snow {shaving cream}.  The kids LOVED this!  What child doesn't want to dive into a big pile of white goo?

Then onto a little Arts and Crafts time.  Snowman style.

Lola's seemed a little down, but cute non-the-less.

Next, making a tasty treat.  Snowmen cupcakes.
After that a little "Frosty The Snowman" cartoon to finish the fun up.

See what I mean, darling!

It was also great fun because the kiddos got to see each other all together again since last school year.
Tommy loves playing with these fun friends and we don't get to hang with them enough!

Thank you, Molly for hosting such a fun play date for these crazy kids.
A great memory to add to the books and possibly a new tradition in the making?

Tommy's Christmas Program

Tommy's new Preschool this year puts on a big Holiday show for all the families to enjoy.  They must have learned a good 15 songs for it, complete with props and actions.  Too cute, right!  He was beaming with joy to preform for the rather large audience, and we all loved it!

Now I just need to figure out what to do with that sparkly shirt he made. 

Happenings

We got a little after Christmas present.

A Couch!  It's been a long time coming, 9 years to be exact.  It's a great addition to the family and now we can all fit on the couch at once!

Lola got herself a new "Big Girl" bike!  Thank you Aunt Yaya!

I cut bangs.

Tommy is starting to sound out letters and make words.  He is learning so much in preschool and comes home every day so excited to learn more!

Our pew at church, on a good day.

Lola's hair honestly has it's own personality.  Never telling what it's gonna do!

I found some of the coolest bowling chairs at a local thrift shop.  They reside perfectly in the new play room we are working on {pics to come}.

Sneak Peek at the playroom.  Yes, that is a swing in the house.

Lola had her very first visit to the dentist!  She did great and everything looks good.  Let's hope it stays that way!

Neighborhood kids building forts in the front yard.  We are outside lots with this beautiful weather, I don't know how we survive in the summer, honestly!

The common cold has seriously hit us.  Boo!

The crazy huge vine in the back yard finally got too big to stay on the wall.  This will be a crazy huge project to clean up.  Someday, right?

Anyway, lots of fun, a little bit of crazy and a whole lotta love around this time of year!  Peace.

Instagram Mashup

I was featured on Freshly-Picked!  It was a few weeks ago, and I forgot to blog about it.  Anyhoo, go on over HERE to see my IG photo.  She featured me HERE too.  So fun!
Thanks, Susan for the feature!


{While you're over there check out her darling baby Mocs, I'm kind off obsessed with them!}

Christmas Eve: a little back tracking

We have to have the classic picture in front of the tree in our new jammies.  How could I forget?

So sad this season is already over.  I'm not ready for the new year, this is the second year in a row that I failed to make any resolutions, lame, I know.  It's not too late.  I need to have my new calendar year start in February.  Then I'll be able to make my goals and possibly stick to them.  Maybe?

Children's Museum of Phoenix

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have Tyler working on projects all around the house so in order to keep him happy and the kids out of his way we went on a little field trip out to Phoenix.  I thought I had a groupon for the Children's Museum {found out once we were there that it was for a completely different museum, lame} but alas, did not.  So we payed our overpriced way to go inside for a little afternoon of fun.  I really do love this place!  I wish I could recreate piece's of it in my own home, I'm just crazy enough to TOTALLY have a noodle forrest in my living room!

Here are a few of the fun pictures I was able to capture from the day.

The Trike Wash:  I love the reflective glass they have here.  I would build an entire house with this kind of glass as my windows!

This fun little fabric forrest was new to me.  I loved being able to find and make all sorts of different sentences with all the words.  So darling!

The Noodle Forrest: an all time favorite!

Max was having a great time at the race track.  He was right in everybody's way, but he didn't seem to mind.

Tommy was taking his cashiering job very seriously! 

Search and Find:  another cool idea I want to recreate in our home somewhere.

The giant tree house fort thing.  The kids could walk all around this thing for hours.  As could I because it's big enough for adults.  A huge plus!

Max was loving the 3 year and under room, he would press a button and the doggie picture would bark at him.  He was in heaven {even though he really hates dogs}.

This was fun to play with the sand and see the colors changing from underneath, however, I would NOT want this in my home.  Sand is not my friend!

Art Studio: Max was cracking me up in his oversized smock.  He was walking all around the room not sure what was going on.  Finally we were able to direct him towards the paint and then, of course, we couldn't keep him away from it.  Needless to say, we didn't spend too much time in this area, due to Max' screaming to paint more!

A very creative moose in the Art Studio.  I love taking something and presenting it in a unique way.  This was made from sweaters and wood sticks.  Loved it!

One last group photo that I was trying to make look artsy {the random guy I asked to photograph it must not have had my same vision}.

Christmas 2011

Are you ready?   Here we go.......

It's Christmas morning and naturally Santa did not disappoint {neither did Lola's hair}!  The kids were a little out of it seeing as how we had to wake them up a good 2 hours before their normal routine, but they promptly became wide eyed with excitement and wonder upon entering the family room.

With 2 princess dolls for Lola, a remote control quad for Tommy and a tool workbench for Max all their Christmas wishes were fulfilled.

It doesn't take much at this age to please them and for that we are grateful!  It won't be long before their wish lists will include much pricier items, so we are taking advantage of being able to spend less and simply enjoy the moments we share together instead.

We planned on meeting out in Phoenix to attend church with my Mom and all my siblings, so in order to make the 9:00 sacrament meeting we needed to hustle and get ready.  

Here I am wishing I was back in my warm comfortable bed on the way out to Phoenix.
You can see that Max was already taking a little snooze at 8:40 a.m.

After church we headed back to my Mom's house for 2nd Christmas.  She, naturally, spoiled us all rotten.  We ripped through our gifts then played til our fingers went numb.  She prepared her traditional Christmas morning brunch for all to enjoy and then a little lounging around until it was time for our next stop.

Then...

A back to Mesa we shall go.  Notice EVERYONE asleep.  Naps were definitely in order for this crew!

After naps, by all, we stopped by Grandpa Toms house to celebrate with him for a few moments and open the gifts he so generously still gives.  Fun Family T-Shirts for the kids and new G's and cash for the adults.  Like I said, he's super generous and we all adore him {as does most of the greater Mesa population}!

Then... yes, there's still more!  We head over to Tyler's family for 3rd Christmas.  The gifts get distributed and then we open in order so everyone can see the fun stuff we all get.

{yes, that is Lola picking her nose, awesome!}

Note: not all these gifts were mine, but most of them!  and Max was finally starting to get the hang of this gift thing, can you tell he was super excited!

The kids dive in and the gag gifts never disappoint!  My In-Laws gifted each family with a week in Oceanside, CA this summer!  Such a generous gift to give us a fun vacation with all the family at the same time.  We can't wait to go!!!!!!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Thank you Kenney {er, Jill} for the fun new Mocs that I wanted from Nordstroms!

We then have a smorgeshxborg of food for dinner {ribs, tamales, soup, prime rib, etc.} with all the fun and laughter that follows.  I then start to make the trek BACK out to Phoenix for the Christmas celebration with my Mom's side of the family while Tyler and the boys stay to relax a bit.  So a 4th Christmas if you will.

It simply isn't Christmas for me without a Cream Puff {or 5}!  and my cute Grandparents, oh how I love them!  We hold the celebration at my Aunt Josephine's home up on Camelback Mountain, no big deal, you know.  We get to overlook the valley while opening gifts and eating yummy foods and desserts made by my Grandparents.  My Aunt is so generous and always buys gifts for all the children and has a little something for the adults as well.  This year she gifted each couple with movie money and a $100 bill, designated specifically for date night!  Sweet right?  It helped out so much in the week to follow, as we went on three different dates including our New Years Eve fun {Go HERE to see the recap}.  Every single penny of it went to a babysitter so it was nice to not have that come out of the budget!

Anyway, after a little visiting and picture taking we {lola, my niece's Gracie and Emma who decided to  come along and me} started to make the trip back into Mesa.  We stopped along the way at a house that was uber decorated for the Holiday.  We even got out and walked around to look at all the decor.  To say it was overdone would be a SERIOUS understatement!

So that was our day in a very large nutshell!

Lots of family, lots of presents, lots of driving and lots of great memories!  That's what you get when you come from both sides of multiple generations of Arizonans.  A lot of family to see and celebrate with!  We love it and wouldn't have it any other way.  Hope Santa and the Holidays were good to you too, what a wonderful time of year!