Christmas 2015

This year was Skye's first Christmas and it was Finn's first Christmas where he really found the excitement of it all. We did a handful of special things throughout the season, and it really was fun having things pre-planned to do together. Something that I definitely want to carry into the new year.

We made cinnamon ornaments, you know the ones that hold their smell for years? Love em.

We saw Christmas lights...

We listened and danced to Christmas music.

On the 23rd we started a new tradition of pulling out our mattresses to watch a Christmas-y movie and sleep under the Christmas lights. I heard of this idea from Ashley on her blog, Under the Sycamore. They call it Christmas Adam (because Adam comes before Eve, hah) and I thought it sounded like such a fun family tradition.

Finn ended up kicking Rob out of the bed while sleeping so he ended up on the couch, hah, but it was fun.

We read about Jesus' birth and celebrated his birthday with a big blue cupcake to which Finn told me "Jesus no have some...only Finn". Lol, seriously can't make this stuff up. We're working on that whole sharing idea...Lord help us.

We baked cookies with red and green m&m's.

We definitely made some sweet memories while also sometimes wrangling in a tantrum-y, bossy toddler. I have a feeling we won't remember all the reasons for timeouts. Oh the parenting adventures. :D

Christmas morning Finn slept until 8:30am and he was super excited to see the "pwesents" under the tree. Besides me having a bit of a tantrum about the amount of dog hair already on our new rug, it was a sweet morning before heading out to my mom's to celebrate with them.

Skye slept for the majority of the morning and then we look over at one point and her eyes were wide open like "hey! what's going on over there!"

We let Finn play with his new stuff as he wanted. At first in my head I was thinking lets open them all! But then it was kinda nice letting him just take his time and then after checking his new item out he'd go pick another present. A favorite gift of his that I'm so glad we picked up last minute...a box of kinetic sand to do his digging in...

I told Rob he was in the above pic and to look happy! Hah, can you tell? Lol...it cracks me up in some candid shots how our faces can look like we're so unhappy but it's just our faces, ya know? Hah, okay moving on...

Yay, a Thomas train! (that ended up being defective and I'm missing the receipt!) Wahhh!

Finn's impression of the intro "welcome to the Island of Sodor!" followed by his biggest grin like the TV show. Cracks us up.

Whoa!! It's a box!

Finn's big present was a wooden train set equipped with tunnels as he requested. It was such a funny experience having him request anything at all.

While daddy assembled the train, I got Skye out of her swing to open her gifts.

She was (and is) so entranced by this little knit rattle!

Her little knit doll was too precious to pass up as well. Yeah, if Land of Nod was located here, I'd be putting in an application fo sho.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Rob's side of the family and of course I forgot to take pictures as well as at my mom's but it was all so nice. Heck, we even at one point sang Christmas carols around the piano! (Thanks to Grandmars for orchestrating that!)

Hoping you all had a merry Christmas. With just a few hours left of 2015, wishing you all a happy new year! 2016! Whoa, that sounds way too futuristic.

Disney

A couple of weeks ago we took our kiddos on their first Disney trip. There were a few things that weren't going well for us in the beginning like the rain, hungry bellies and big puddles. I think at one point before we even got through the gates I mumbled to myself "why are we even here?!" LOL...BUT thankfully the rain subsided after we got inside the park and our bellies were filled with chicken and fries (well except for baby Skye) and the puddles evaporated away. Hip hip!

The main reason we decided to go last minute is realizing that kids are free under 3 (Finn turns 3 in January). So only Rob and I required tickets, heck yes!

To prep Finn for the trip, as he didn't have any idea what Disney was, I started showing him you tube videos of the park, rides and characters. He kept telling us he wanted to give Pooh a big hug. Rob and I were so curious and hopeful that our sometimes shy guy would be able to hug them without getting scared. Lo and behold, that kid was all. about. it.

We met Pooh, Tigger and Mickey Mouse. Each character he ran to. He even rubbed noses with Tigger...melt my heart. He's told us he wants to give Minnie and Tink a big hug next time we go.

I never realized how toddler friendly the park is either. Finn rode the Pooh ride with me, the carousel, race cars and Dumbo with Rob. In between we were in lines for the characters. The lines weren't bad at all, remember I said it was raining? So I'm thinking that helped keep the crowds down. Yay! (apparently the week of Christmas is crazy with crowds, I'm a nerd and just checked the wait time for some of the rides today, yeah 180 minutes for ONE ride!!! No way!!!)

Skye was great throughout the whole trip too. She discovered her lil feet on this trip which cracked us up finding her staring wide-eyed at her tiny feet. I would just nurse her while Rob and Finn were in lines for anything.

Oh and I have to include these two pics...oh Finn, our boy is so funny. His obsession with garbage trucks and garbage cans is unreal. After he rode the race cars with his dad we were sitting on this bench which he excitedly was allowed to throw a few pieces of mulch into the garbage can.

 

This pic below is him asking..."um, biff one?" (this one) and then after I said yep he would toss it in the can.

Seriously, can't make this stuff up. This kid!!!

Later we had to bundle the two of them up a little as it dropped to 50 something that night. So it actually felt lovely and Christmas-y out. 

Love these two cuties.

Cherishing each stage of life can sometimes be difficult. Last year I remember watching people do fun and costly stuff around Christmas with their kids/friends/family. We were in a tight spot financially and I found myself just looking for free things to do. I won't lie that it was hard sometimes...that comparison beast comes out on a daily basis sometimes. But I'm reminded we're all on our own journeys and we're all gifted with various people placed in our own individual lives. It reminds me that good memories can be made in all different forms. Outlook and perspective can be everything, right? When I think that way, I wouldn't trade anything. Not a dang thing.

So all of that to say, for this trip, I was thankful.

...despite that mini meltdown of mine. :))))))))))

Three Months!

Last week our sweet girl turned three months.

One of my favorite things is watching her smile. Seriously when she gives us her big, wide mouth smile, I almost melt into a puddle. She also likes to have "conversations" and will just coo all the way through it. I remember doing this with Finn...those "conversations" are some of the best.

She's also a big girl. (well big from our experience with Finn as he was just a lil thing) Are we slightly obsessed with her rolls on her thighs? Mm hmm. Totally. She can wear 3-6 month clothes (even when she was just 2 months old) and even fits into some 6 month clothing.

The kids are both still at home as we were able to work out our work schedules for Rob to be home with them while I'm at work. We are very grateful.

Finn even joined in for some of the pics. Well, like two.

He then was told he couldn't go outside to which he stormed back in the house.

I'd like to think that Rob and I do pretty well holding our laughs in, but sometimes this kid will do some ridiculously funny things while throwing a little fit. We do a lot of laughing inside our heads and then typically reenact the fit after Finn's gone to bed.

Thankful for these two little ones. And this little 3 month old girl just made my heart grow more than I could imagine.

Oh and this little tongue...

Fall Family Photos 2015

It happened.

And without tears.

We ventured all the way out to our backyard and snagged a family pic.

Hooray!

I've been wanting to take these for about a month now but a huge part of the hold up was that our little boy kept getting boo-boos on his face. He hit his mouth on a dresser the day before Thanksgiving and on the same day hit his head on the corner of our bed frame while leaning down to pick up a toy. Poor buddy. He still has a slight boo-boo under his nose from being sick, but hey, this will do. :))

Oh and can we talk about how handsome Rob is? Mm hmm, I agree.

"Here Finn, hold the camera remote while mommy and daddy put baby Skye on your shoulders!" I told Rob we should recreate this photo one day...LOL...

The boy was then graciously dismissed as he was eager to play with the bubbles and acorns and sticks.

Love this girl so much.

And just as a random side note...I am chopping all of this hair off. Well not all, but it's going above my shoulders. It's just so long and getting caught in everything. I've been pushing back my hair appointment as the boys tend to require it more often. So I'm required to go tomorrow because my husband knows that I've been wanting/needing it. So maybe afterward we'll do a "Fall Family Photo Part 2 - Lisa's new hair".

Hah, probably not.

So thankful for this little family of mine.

Hoping you all are well and enjoying the season no matter what season you may be in. I'm reminded once again of the hope this season brings. The hope we need for this broken world. God's grace is amazing.

Love to you all!

Thanksgiving Weekend

My favorite weekend arrived. 

We woke up early on Thursday and got dressed and headed to Nana's house to watch the parade and eat breakfast. I hoped Finn would find the parade interesting because I love watching it, lol, but instead he preferred to throw sticks out front on the steps. At least the weather was beautiful and breezy!

Baby girl enjoyed herself as well. I can't believe she turns three months in a few days. Seriously, time flies quicker with the second born. Soaking up her sweetness.

The next day is typically the day we go get our tree. I had a different idea for us this time to go out to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own.

They had a little "train" that we were excited for Finn to get on.

These next pictures melt my heart capturing Finn's sweet smile. Skye was sleeping, but we managed to get her in a few of these shots. :))

That smile...

Oh and did I mention that we ended up leaving without a tree? Haha, ah the fun of making memories. The trees that you could cut down were just the douglas fir ones and I'm a fraser fir kinda gal. They had some frasers pre-cut, but I'm also a frugal gal. And I knew that the prices were much cheaper at Lowes. So we ended up going there. But hey, a train ride and some animal watching was pretty nifty.

The next day, I'm pretty sure we were all recovering from a long day out. Lots of getting in and out of car seats and we were just happy to be home. All my three loves sleeping.

After daddy headed to work, I started stringing the lights on our tree while Skye watched and Finn sorted through his precious bucket of cars. :))

We took some annual family photos outside with my tripod today. It was eventful, but maybe we managed to get a good one. Hoping you all are well and enjoying this beautiful season!