Merry Christmas - from us and Santa!

At the school (one of our schools) Santa's Breakfast we got a photo with Santa. It turned out pretty good. But do you see a problem? We didn't either. Then I realized we were missing kid #4, who had skirted off the side of the stage giggling. She sure thought it was pretty funny we had a great family photo with Santa without her. 3 year olds - they are trouble.

But hey - the rest of look pretty good!

Merry Christmas from all of us. And this kid. Doesn't she look like trouble?

Happiest of Holidays!

'Tis the Season of being busy. Well, it's always busy in our house. But this year it's been even more so the last couple of months. The MR. has been putting in A LOT of extra time at work, I keep signing up to do stuff at the kids schools, the kids have tons of activities. But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Fall/Winter I always drag my family out to take photos for our Christmas card and to get that "annual" shot of all of us together. I must say, I knocked it out of the park this year. Love them all!

Here's a share of my darling family.

There you have it - my family. Merry Christmas, friends. Have a wonderful holiday with those you love. Make it count, you never know how life can change in the blink of an eye.

Growing up - Winter Formal

It's hard to believe that we have a teenager in the house. It's even harder to believe that said teenager is in HIGH SCHOOL already. Wow.

With high school comes dances. Fancy Winter Formals. Luckily for us, she didn't have an official date. She just met friends there. Few, dodged that bullet.

I mean really...Don't blink.

Thanksigiving - Disney Style

When the Mr. & I got married we started hosting Thanksgiving at our house for some family. Over the last couple of years plans have changes, families have chosen to do other things over Thanksgiving Break so we no longer host a Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving. This opened things up for us to start some new traditions. So last year we had our First Annual Disneyland Christmas with my parents and siblings. It was a blast! So we decided to do it again this year. It was a ton of fun and the girls had a great time heading down to the Happiest Place on Earth.

The decorations at Disneyland during Christmas are amazing. A-MAZING. If you haven't gone, GO. Put it on your list. Just do it. You won't be disappointed.

New passes - we went big and PREMIERE passes since we are splurging and heading back to D-World for the first time in 6 years over the summer. Woo-Hoo!

 new ears - so cute!

Ariel's grotto is always a great place to have lunch. The food is always great, the desserts are delicious and the kids get to have a mini meet & greet with some Disney Princesses. Perfect.

And of course, Haylie didn't want to take part in the Ariel photo. Again. ;)

But she did join in with the other princesses. :)

And we can't forget Minnie, Pluto and face painting.

And does it get any more beautiful than this?

 
Happy Thanksgiving from D-Land folks!

Halloween Treats {One Healthy, One Sweet}

I always love using a Holiday as an excuse to send a little treat to the school for the girls to share with their friends.

This year was no different. A's teacher preferred a healthy treat, and D's teacher is very easy going so we choose a sweet treat.

Both of these are very simple and since I totally procrastinated, I did them Halloween morning (as in this morning) to take to the classes later in the day.

Healthy "Halloween" themed treats can be a little more difficult. But I remembered that last year I saw a photo of someone who drew little "Jack-o-Lantern" faces on "cutie oranges". So I bought myself some cuties (this morning!) and got to work!

Note: Cold cuties are hard to draw on. Make sure yours are room temperature.

The sweet treat I have done before. (See here.) But I am finding that at Halloween it is getting much harder to find Halloween Peeps. And since I was a major procrastinator, I improvised and used ghost shaped marshmallows. (Which I had to go drive to Target and pick up today.) Perfect. There were no cute bag tags this year, but at least they got a cute little "Have a Spooktacular Halloween" note with them.

There you have it folks. Even if you waited until the last minute, you can still whip up a cute Halloween Treat for the class.

Happy Birthday, Twinsies - Cake Smash!

For the twins I really wanted to do some cake smash photos. I went back in forth of - inside, outside, high chairs, blanket. I finally decided to start with sewing a fabric pennant banner. Once that was done I decided that I really love the line of willow trees in the front of our property, so I set up a little area there and went to work.

I have to say it was so much fun. The twins had a blast. And I have a collection of wonderful photos to remember their very first birthday.

Ta-Da! We love cake!!!

Happy First Birthday, Twinsies!

One Year....365 Days....Happy Birthday, Averie & Emilie.

One Year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days.

Who knew that it would go so fast. I always find that the first year with a new baby goes by quickly, but this year it went by even more quickly. I think it was because there were two of you. Two of you to keep us busy. Two of you to love. Two of you to watch reach milestones. If one of you weren't doing something, the other was. There was always someone to watch.

For lots of families with twins (or triplets, quads, etc) there is the ultimate goal of surviving the first year. I am proud to say that not only did we survive our first year with twins, but we ROCKED it. You blended into our family perfectly.  You two sure are a lot of work, but every day for the last year has been so worth seeing your smiling faces in the morning.

Averie you are our sweet little bird. You have grown from a itty bitty 5lbs 6oz bundle to an almost walking, talking and screeching little baby. You love to crawl around the house and get into every cupboard, drawer, box and bin of toys that you can. You are our little tornado and while you might be the smaller in size, you make up for in determination. And when you want something a certain way, you are sure to let us know. You are slow to give us a smile, but when you do you're whole face lights up. Can't get better than that! I can't wait to see what sort of mischief you will get into in the coming years.

Emilie you are the sweetest and most smiley little girl. Your smiles come easily and you are happiest when you alongside your sister. You have a very laid back and easygoing personality. You are the baby that smiles at strangers and giggles all of the time. You love to play pat-a-cake and give high-fives.

Averie : 8 teeth, standing without assistance, favorite food: bananas, egg "cupcakes", words you say: hi, mama, da-da, ni-nite, bye-bye
Emilie: 10 teeth, cruising the furniture, favorite food: bananas, turkey & spinach meatballs, words you say: mama, dada, bye-bye, tickle-tickle, mum mum, ni-nite

My look how you have grown over the past year!

 

It's been a wonderful year of making memories with you and I can't wait to see what the next year brings. Thank you for choosing us to be your family. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. 

Love you to the moon and back.

Mama

Happy 3rd Birthday, Haylie Mae

Haylie Mae,

Three years ago we welcomed you, our biggest baby ever. Our sweet 8lb 8oz Haylie Mae. You were  a round little doll that just captured our hearts with your sweetness.

Three years later you are still just as sweet as the day you were born and capture our hearts every day. Being the 4th in the line up of sisters isn't an easy job, but you handle that role perfectly. You are strong and demanding. You are a helper and caretaker. You love your family with all that you are.

I love everything about you, even on those tough days when you make the world know that being 3 can be rough. I love your giggles and bear hugs. I love your sticky kisses and high fives. I love how your hair curls. I love your smile and your tears. I love the way you talk and how you try and speak Spanish (we're learning). You're almost too smart for your own good, and I love it!

You are the perfect little #4 in our family. The perfect piece to our jigsaw puzzle. Thank you for picking us and making our crazy life just that much more perfect.

Happy Birthday, Haylie Mae. May this year be even more awesome than the last.

Love, Mama

She's a Preschooler!

Today was a day that was both exciting and a bit of a tearjerker. Today we sent our 4th little lady off to her first day of PRESCHOOL.

It's hard to believe that this day has already come. We did all of the leading up to school activities; new backpack, lunch box, outfit. When the older girls started a few weeks ago she was rather dissapointed that she had to wait a couple more weeks. But it was worth the wait!

She was giddy with excitement this morning. She walked into school with a big smile on her face and didn't look back. I am so proud of my brave girl. Happy First Day of Preschool!

Happy Anniversary - 9 years!

The Mr. and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on 8/8. Time flies - it's hard to believe it's already been 9 years married and 13 together.

With 6 kids it's not always easy to get some time just the two of us. But we were lucky enough to get TWO date nights, yes TWO, in one week.

Here's our annual - married another year - photo. Snapped by the oldest gal.

Happy 9 years to us!