Countdown to Christmas and Clear Skin

Hailey woke up this morning looking ok.  A few spots left on her arms but very little on her torso.

Seems like a good idea to bring her into the clinic, just to check things out.

I scheduled an appointment and will work at home until we need to leave to bring her in.

She laid upstairs in the loft until I came up and told her we should think about getting ready to leave.

When I walked upstairs I noticed she is starting to break out on her face.

By the time we got down the stairs it had spread even more!

By the time we got to the clinic this poor girl was miserable.  I didn't give her Benadryl until we got there so that Dr Prall could see the hives for himself.

They just kept getting worse and worse.  He sent us home with some steroids and instructions to keep an eye on it and call back if it's not better within a few days or if she gets a fever.

(the rash was cleared up in a few days and never did return)

101 Haileys

Shhh- do not disturb

Hailey came home from school today covered in this......hives.  That poor girl.  It looks so painful!

No idea what has caused this.  It itches really bad.  I gave her some Benadryl and she was able to fall asleep.  Hopefully she wakes up with clear skin tomorrow am.  Weird!

Small elf in a little jar

I always love when Lula stuffs herself into small places :-)

Tic Tac Lula

Awwwwe- how adorable! 

Blind-Folded

I sure wish someone would have trapped her up there with a dust cloth. 

I am sure those blinds could use a good wipe down. 

Going on a Candy Cane Hunt

This morning the girls were sent on a hunt for candy canes.  There were 12 hid around the house.
They found them all within about 10-15 minutes.
Some hung on door handles, some sticking out from the blinds, in closets, all throughout the house.

OCW Christmas

Yep, that's about right.  It's neighborhood party night!

Walk in and within a few steps you will start tripping over all of the shoes.  Shoes of all sizes and shoes of all colors. Tonight was the annual Christmas party at Janice and Tom's.

Taking a break from the adults to snuggle with my buddy Jax!

Noah and Hannah were playing Minecraft on Noah's tablet while some of the kids sat by watching.  Acie Jr didn't make it too long.  He had all of the kids fooled, most of them didn't even notice that he was out :-)

And don't forget about Lula, hanging out on the scooter this am waiting for the girls to wake up.

Chocolate Memories

Anyone wanna play a game of Memory?
If they all contained chocolate kisses I know I sure would play it more!
Each kiss had different colored stickers on the bottom of them.  It didn't take the girls long to play the game, sort the treats and ask if they could have chocolate for breakfast.

She's Crafty

We will certainly have fun with these make-your-own-ornament kit!

 

Death to Fruit Flies

Death to fruit flies!  These little pesky creatures are everywhere.  I would like to mention that we are not the only home with fruit flies.  Every woman on this block has complained about having fruit flies.  No idea where they are coming from and no idea (up until now) how to get rid of them.
Brian found this fruit fly trap at Home Depot and we will see how it does.
In just a few short hours there were already some floating around inside.  Hopefully this does the trick!

Lula was found in Hannah's room playing at Grace's desk this morning.  It always freaks the kids out a little bit when they realize that Lula was in their room while they were sleeping but at the same time they get very excited.  Hannah bought this American Girl doll desk with her own money.  It is an adorable roll top desk with a typewriter, book bag, pencils, papers, books, etc. She spent over $100 on this- it was one of the main reasons she wanted the American Girl doll in the first place.  She doesn't 'play' with it very much but loves to look at it.  I guess it's probably better that way, that way it can't break.

The Elf in the Igloo

Lula is getting so clever!  Woke up to a faint glow coming from the loft.  She had made an igloo and climbed inside. 

We also have gotten the ornaments out on the house.  Feels weird not to have any snow on the ground with this picture but I am also not too anxious for the white stuff to start falling.  Take your time Mother Nature, take your time.

I've Got My Eyes on You

Oh boy!  The girls came downstairs today yelling "Oh my gosh mommy!  LOOK!"
They were even more surprised when they went to get their boots on only to find that they had also been included in the fun. 
Hannah kept hers on until she got to school but it didn't take long before they fell off with the wet snow and cold.

 

Party Animal

I didn't think that those tiny red solo cups could be any cuter but she sure showed me!

Annual Christmas Party

 There she is!  Hanging out watching over everyone.

Tonight was the annual Christmas party at Vicki's.  This year the object was a clothespin.

I made a frame using clothespins to hold the picture to the frame.

I didn't get very many good pictures of the other objects this year.    Here is a sample of some of the clips, ornaments and countdown calendar.

Baby Blue

Such a busy day today.  Good thing Lula was easy to spot :-)
We have also decided that we will be coating the garage floor so now the hard part, deciding which color and design to choose.  There are so many great options and no matter what it will look awesome!  I am personally leaning towards the brown one.  I feel like we should do something that stands out more.  The gray reminds me too much of concrete.

I love looking at the girls schoolwork.  I love seeing a little piece of their day.  I love watching their handwriting and seeing how they interpret the instructions.
Here is a worksheet from Hailey, I love her writing and all of her little drawings.

Tonight we rushed to grandma's house to take part in the gender reveal party for Kristin and Bobby.
They had cupcakes made with a colored center.
They each took a cupcake and stood up in the living room in front of everyone. We face-timed Kari and her family and then at the same time they took a bite. 
BLUE!  It's a boy!
Hannah and Hailey were both a little disappointed, they wanted the girls to outnumber the boys.  They got over real soon when they were reminded that in a few short months there was going to be a baby!!  Congrats guys!

Tree x 2

Tonight we went and got our tree. 

We put the small tiny one in the loft for the kids and she fits perfectly!

This morning when we woke up it was pretty obvious that we would find Lula near the new tree.  Although we weren't expecting to find that she had wrapped the girls backpacks- lol

 

Rudolph the Red Nose ReinBEER

Lula with Rudolph the Red Nose RootBeer.

The girls were real happy about this one.  Looks like there will be some root beer floats in our future.

TP Tower

This morning we woke to a TP Tower in the girls bathroom.  Not sure where she got all of those rolls from....We never seem to have that much extra laying around.

Tiniest Tree Ever

I love this time of year.  The girls are so excited to wake up to find Lula and typically once they find her they are shrieking with excitement or full of giggles.

This morning was a shrieking morning. They were real worried that I wouldn't see her and would accidently turn the Ninja on.  Good thing they reminded me ;-)

Decided to put the tree up tonight.  That didn't go so well.

What a joke.  I really was going to try to use this tree and not buy one this year.  As much as I love real trees they are sort of a pain and the idea of spending that money each year to then just throw it away always seems wasteful.  I really am not ready to purchase a new fake one yet though so it looks like we just might be smelling pine again this year!  Now....where can I put this guy?!

Elf with the Elf

She's BACK!  The girls always look forward to this time of year.  They can not wait until Lula's return.
This morning she brought them a new Elf movie, seems appropriate :-)

Flashback

Kay and I went Black Friday shopping this year.  We left Thursday night around midnight, met Stacey out and spent the evening roaming around.
I really wanted to purchase a new camera so Best Buy was our first stop and after that we didn't have much of a plan.


When we walked through Michael's I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw these charms!
What a FLASHBACK!  Instantly I was brought back to the 80's - walking up to Tom Thumb to purchase more charms from the quarter machine.  The ones with the moving parts were by far the coolest!

Hannah has been using the expression 'way back in the 90's' lately.  Cracks us up!  Although to be fair it was almost 20 years ago, but still......does that qualify for 'way back in the' status?  I think not.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  There is always so much to be thankful for.

This year I am so thankful for our health.

We have had too many friends be affected by health issues this year and it makes you stop to realize just how lucky we are. 

Chopsticks

Tonight the girls and I went to LeeAnn Chin.

I was pretty surprised when both of them grabbed chopsticks and started eating.

I know I have never taught them these skills.

When I looked closer I saw that they had taken a straw, folded it in half and then put the end of each chopstick in each end of the straw.  Then like magic you have a perfect chopstick trainer.

(I later learned that one of the staff at A+ taught them this fancy trick!)

Kindness Begins With Me

Every year the school has a theme for the kids and each kid is asked to create a poster with the theme.
This years theme is Kindness Begins With Me.
They work on the posters in art and are expected to do them at school.


This was Hannah's this year.  I am just in love with the way they draw and color when they are little.

 

Mrs Turkey

Hailey came home with a turkey outline.  The assignment:  give the turkey a disguise to hide it from the farmer so it doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving.  We looked around for ideas, brainstormed at breakfast a few days and settled on dressing her up like a princess. 

Truth or Dare

The kids found a Truth or Dare app and have been very interested in it.  Hannah got it out at the cabin a few times this summer and today decided the kids in the neighborhood should play it.
I opened the window to hear them say "Your dare (giggle, giggle, giggle) is to kiss........a rock!"
(good thing I have played this game and know that it is very innocent. But....maybe I will watch them for a while anyways ;-)

Demo Day 1

Brian has never been happy with our garage floor.  There were issues with the structure and after many, many, many emails and conversations, he finally won!  Dale agreed to replace the floor.

It was our chance to also add a drain and possibly think about an epoxy floor- I mean, we might as well since this may be the only time that everything is out of the garage.  Not to mention, Brian spends a lot of time in the garage.  It would definitely be worth it!

This? or This? or This?

As it gets closer and closer to the wedding there is more and more to do.  I offered to make Kim's invites and programs as I had for Kristin and Jennie.

She didn't really have anything in mind and was pretty happy with every idea I had shown her.

I spent the last month sending her ideas from the internet or inspiration that I would find.

Eventually I found one that I loved so decided to mock it up for her and once she saw it it was an easy decision.  Her and Joe both approved.

We printed them out on multiple colors of paper just to make sure they were perfect.  We ended up deciding on the pure white.   I think it was the best choice!

Now the printing, cutting, addressing, licking and mailing begins!

These Boots Were Made For Walking

A LOT of walking.

Hannah got these boots from Kim and wore them so much that I actually went and bought another pair.  They were wore out but Hailey love them too so she made sure they were passed down to her.

The time has come where they no longer fit anyone and it's time to say goodbye.  I have to admit, it makes me a little sad.  I know they are just shoes and I have a million pictures of our girls wearing them but I needed to take one more, just to showcase just how much these boots were loved.

Janet. Ms Jackson if You're Nasty

Our seats were awful. Way at the top and on the side of the stage.  I guess that's what you get when you want to go last minute and don't want to spend a ton of money.  I am so glad we decided to go.  She put on a great show and it was so fun singing and dancing along to her greatest hits.