all she wants to do

this little monster was found at target during valentine shopping. she loves it so much. she would say she needed the monster when we were shopping. she would hold the monster, kiss the monster, tell me how much the monster loved her and then, at the end of our shopping trip put the monster back on the shelf with a wave and shout of goodbye. then, we stumbled upon the monster in the 90% clearance section after the holiday had passed. even though it didn't play music, i thought it was worth the $1 to take a risk. a couple of new batteries and she just can't stop . . . all she wants to do is dance.

our little monster is 2

spencer's birthday is four days after christmas and because she isn't old enough to know yet, we push her birthday into january in an attempt to catch up or rest up from all the holiday craziness. i always want my kids parties to be about them, so when we thought about how to celebrate spencer's birthday, we decided to have a small party with all of spencer's favorite people (our family and a couple of families of friends). her theme: monsters . . . because she loves monsters. 

i found this idea here and made my own in spencer's favorite color, "my pink", as she calls it. (please don't look to closely as the janky mini blinds we have yet to get rid of.) she loves this monster so much, it is still lurking in the window. still.

we had a couple of two year old friendly activities: coloring and a monster photo booth (but the pictures were accidentally deleted-oh, well). we also had monsters, inc. playing in the family room. these adorable coloring pages can be found here.

i made these adorable monster wreaths with a cardboard circle, a feather boa and googly eyes. so simple and so cute! you might see them again at halloween.

who doesn't love googly eyes?!? so, i glued them to everything, even plastic cups.

instead of a cake or cupcakes, we made moon pie monsters. when spencer learned to say "high five", it sounded like "moon pie" so we thought this was the perfect treat. and, they were so fun to make.

josh and the kids came up with all the silly monster faces using mini oreos, mini m&ms, caramel bugles, twizzlers, fruit wedges, cotton candy, and heart shaped suckers.

of course, our little monster wanted the "my pink" one as her birthday treat!

her one requested gift was a soft buzz lightyear that talked. i didn't think it was possible, but her favorite ms.kris (or just "fiss" as she calls her) was able to find the perfect gift.

and, each child got to take home their own lovable monster. 

it's so hard to believe she is already 2! it was such a perfect way to celebrate our sweet little mess!

the first snow

we expected a bad winter. we were told it would be cold and snowy. it has been cold. it has snowed twice and flurried a few more. i guess that's a bad winter here. but no matter how often it snows, only the first real snow of the season brings about anticipation and excitement.

goodbye winter (we hope). . . we will see you next year!

pink i love you & guts!

while i have always have multiple excuses for why i post erratically, it seems to be in abundance lately.

first, my children broke my computer. for real. the geniuses over at apple said they could fix the damage for more than we more than a new ipad. no thank you. but, i also don't think it is in our best interest to buy another ipad unless i know it will work for me. the jury is still out on that one. so . . . the blog posts and email responses continue to be nonexistent.

one of our favorite family movies is ramona and beezus. while there is so much to love about this super cute movie (um, hello, josh duhamel), it seems my children love the "bad words" more than anything. it is not uncommon for someone to be called a "seabass" or to hear a disgusted "guts!" being said from the next room. but it was guts we did see over and over and over when the week long stomach flu hit our house a couple of weeks ago. ten days passed before all was well and very little was accomplished other than holding a bucket or washing the affected laundry.

then, when we thought all was well, we discovered that someone had pink eye and then someone else had pink eye and then someone got pink eye again and then someone else got pink eye again and so on and so on. i started to worry that their eyes might fall out from all the drops we were giving them. the nurse reassured me they would not. but, on a day carter was sent home from school due to the a red, itchy eye, she made this and gave it to her brother . . .

maybe this is her way of apologizing for infecting him with the dreadful stink eye. maybe she should have wrapped up a box of drops to go with it.

sometimes it's okay to play with your food

featuring her ballet leotard and a practice run for horrible hair day at school the next day, carter thought her corn made much better teeth than food. when she started singing, we had to agree. josh and i both remember this song from saturday nights at our grandparents' houses. our kids caught on quickly and love to sing it. can you guess their favorite part??

on christmas day

though i have post dated the last several posts i have written because i am so far behind, i figured since i was actually posting this sooner than last year, i would leave it be . . . so here's to a new year and new beginnings.

and, now, i give you christmas day at our house . . .

well, because on christmas eve, all our pictures looked like this.

 the next morning, these two were so patient waiting in our bed watching various christmas specials while they waited for their sister to wake so they could run down stairs and find this . . .

 carter was so excited about her princess bible (in her book stack under the tree) that she didn't even look at what santa had left.

 looks like santa found out about our insane love for peter and friends.

 look! a lego r2d2 watch with a little man! santa listened!

 monsters! spencer loves monsters and books, so this book was a hit . . .

 until she saw baby jesus sitting next to her and begged mommy to rock him and "sing sunshine". how could i say no???

 bed head and presents . . . what could be better!

 "gasp! baby boy!" spencer's favorite gift-mismatched bitty twins!

so, before, we opening any more presents, we decided to take our annual pj picture-

 really. i know it is hard to believe anyone has mad pitcher skillz when we have results like this . . .

but, it is a good thing we kept taking photos or we might have missed the getup someone demanded to wear the rest of the morning/afternoon:

what a mess!

advent

last year, we began an advent calendar. we celebrate each of the days of december leading up to christmas with an activity. these activities are done as a family and include serving others, making gifts and decorations, and spending time together.

decorating our tree actually occurs on thanksgiving day while we watch the macy's thanksgiving day parade, but here are a few pictures anyway . . .

breakfast with santa . . . we were planning to attend breakfast with santa as a family until i was stricken with the first bout of strep throat. (yes, i said first. i had strep throat twice in december. it definitely altered my original plans for the season. oh well.)

but, josh was so sweet and took them by himself to the most disorganized event since the easter egg hunt. he even put himself in this photo rather than miss out on this classic memory.

and, when he asked on the way home, they all said they had fun and that is all that matters.


writing letters to santa . . .

peter, i mean miller, wrote . . . dear santa, i have been a good boy. for christmas i want: lego R2D2 watch (the one with the little guy).

and, miller made sure to tell santa that was what he wanted at each visit. i hope santa was listening!

zoo lights with friends . . .

painting coffee mugs for family gifts . . .

snowman doughnuts for breakfast . . .

making graham cracker gingerbread houses . . .

we used a glue gun to adhere them together before the fun began.

everyone thought their house was fabulous . . .

but only one thought it looked good enough to eat!


the enchanted forest . . .

and even meme came along for this outing.

and lots and lots of crafts . . .

we made glitter bells and stacking trees and cardboard trees. we used mostly recycled items to make our crafts. next year, i will have to start earlier. and, i would love to tie more of the crafts in with our books. maybe next year i will be more organized . . . maybe ;)