Holiday Craziness

This holiday season was so busy for our family. We had 6 Christmas'! Crazy. But, we got through them all without any bruises or scrapes....just incredibly awesome Christmas Presents! Ivy definitely got her practice of unwrapping presents! Christmas morning was just the four of us, and it was so calm and peaceful. The sun shining bright, Johnny Cash playing softly in the background, TJ's insanely potent morning breath! It was great.

Ivy had fun with the box to her Little People Town that my mom and Glenn got her.


And, she is totally in love with her Uncle Jeshua! He is staying with us at our house for a while, and she doesn't leave him alone! She'll bring all her toys to him and when he gets up, a HUGE amount of toys fall off from around him.I forgot a bib for Ivy when it came time to eat dinner at my Mom's Christmas. And, of course I didn't want to get her new outfit all messy, so we just took her shirt off and I caught her diggin in to Jeshua's bread!Besides her love of books and singing, Ivy is totally into coloring and drawing. For Christmas she got this doodle thing, and TJ's parents got her an awesome art easel with a chalkboard and dry erase, so she is totally set.

Christmas was just simply amazing this year. Ivy had a blast. Elouise was so good at all 6 Christmas'. And to top it all off......TJ and I got Wii Fit and an awesome camcorder!! AMAZING! I'm so grateful for all our family and all the gifts. I'm so grateful that my family and good friends could make it to Des Moines to visit. And I'm so grateful that it's finally all over with!!

HOLY CRAP!!

Christmas with my mom and brother is tomorrow and I still haven't finished making my mom's present!!!! I have to make it to that paper store on 5th street and then I can easily finish. Oh crap...and I have to stop by Walgreens, then take my brother to find some shoes. Whatever, it's just 30 degrees out and I'll be hauling 2 babies around. At least my brother is there to carry Ivy for me!

Okay, so here are a couple pics of some of my favorite ornaments on my tree....my poor, sad, crooked Christmas tree!

It's family time...whoa oh ohohoh...

These past couple weeks have been busy! My huge family Christmas was this past weekend. It was awesome. I love my family so much, and it was great to see everyone. I only remembered to take pictures one day of the whole weekend! Here are a few.
My cousin's husband, Josh, holding little Josh. And there's my main squeeze, TJ, with Elouise. Elouise and Joshie are only 3 weeks apart, so they will have eachother to beat up at future family get togethers!

And here's Ivy and Faith opening their PlayDoh! Ivy looks a bit discouraged with the whole wrapping paper thing. But loves her PlayDoh.

Whenever I ask TJ to at least pretend he's enjoying himself in a picture he gives me this SAME face! I have so many of him with Ivy like that, and now I'm stockin up on the ones with Elouise! It's hilarious.

Ivy was soooo crazy with excitment that I could barely capture a good picture of her! This is the best one I got! Her cousin Jourdan had to hold her still! She had a blast with everyone there. So did I. I can't wait until we see them all again!

And, my mom finished Elouise's baby blanket. She made one for Ivy when she was born, too. I just picked out the colors, and my mom did all the work! Next on her list...making me one!

My girls are insanely cute together. At least.....I think they are! I have so much fun just sitting and watching them interact with eachother. Ivy is starting to think Elouise is hilarious. Because Elouise is more active now, ya know, and when she does things Ivy just laughs at her! The other day, for example, Ivy and Elouise were laying next to eachother on our couch. All of a sudden, Elouise lets out a squak, and Ivy looks over at her really fast, laughs, and says to me "Elouise crazy"!

Ivy is also fascinated when Elouise sits next to her. She thinks it's the coolest thing. And, Elouise is so laid back, she's totally entertained by Ivy's rambling spoken thoughts.

Ivy loves to read, and recently, has loved reading to Elouise. Here's a pic I took after bathtime the other day.

Getting the season started of right!

Okay, so tonight TJ is putting up our Christmas tree, and what does he find in the bag with all the tree limbs? A more than half drinken plastic bottle of Jim Beam Whiskey! Hilarious! I have no idea why it is in there, and TJ claims to not remember!

Trees and Zombies

Thanksgiving is over. It's time to put up the tree.

I've never really been into decorating for Christmas until I had Ivy. And now that she's almost 2yrs old (in Jan!) celebrating the holidays is totally fun. So, I've rearranged my livingroom to make room for our Christmas tree. Fake tree. I'm not a "real" Christmas tree kind of girl, I never have been. And, I totally agree with the Jim Gaffigan skit when he refers to chopping down a tree and putting it in your house "sounds like the behavior of a drunk man". Hilarious skit. Click the link below and you'll find out what I'm talking about...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjJCIbC9sxA

I've been "crafting" a lot. It's so theraputic to make things. It's my "me time". Watch out friends and family....you're getting homemade presents! I've posted some more things on my Etsy site, so you should go check it out. Just click HERE!

I've been totally craving watching "28 Days Later" and so we are going to watch in a few minutes. It's been so long since I've seen it, and now that my bro is in town I have someone to watch it with at 1:00am. The ONLY time I really can ever enjoy a good zombie movie. Tj's too tired to stay up that late. So, I'm chugging this coffee and I'm off to watch some zombies.

Best Quote Ever!

" Love is not pretty, it's just a long line of poop jokes and cheap beer." - Sarah Hedlund

Courtesy of Jo's friend Sarah.

Coffee and Decoupage....

Man...it's 8am and I am drinking a can of Mt. Dew. It's very bad and very scarey! Because not only am I drinking soda in the morning, but it's also something my mom would totally do! Oh well. I would be drinking my good 'ol coffee with my french vanilla creamer, but I'm out of coffee filters! I forgot to grab some while at the store last night. It's very sad. Coffee is my drug of choice! Trying to keep going with the girls, man, I gotta have my coffee!Thanksgiving is tomorrow......and I have to make enought mashed potatoes for 10 adults, 2 tweens, and 2 toddlers! Okay, so the toddlers don't really count! T-day is at TJ's family's house this year. My mom will be in Kansas City with some family, so we're doing a dinner later this weekend. My brother is hopefully going to be staying with me tomorrow through Sunday. I don't get to see him often since he lives in Iowa City and is a 20yr old guy! So it'll be nice to have him around.

I've been working on my favorite thing....decoupage! It's the best thing ever. Decoupage make MY world go 'round. Here's a pic of a key/jewelry holder I finished:

My mom surprises me at times. Recently, she scored me an awesome garage sale find. A plasic, three drawer dresser full of tons of different laces and ribbons and strings. Most of the lace is vintage, it's great! And when I see vintage lace paired with scarey skulls, my heart melts with happiness! I decided to share my happiness with others and make some keychains/zipper pulls.

Snow

It snowed today. Ivy was so cute leaning her face on the window and repeatedly yelling, "It's snowing, mommy, it's snowing!". So, of course, we had to venture out into the white coldness. She had fun and her curiousity was out of control!




I added a few more items to my Etsy shop. There is still a ton more to come, just figuring out the time to finish stuff between our snow adventures, cheerio incidents, and story time!