Merry Christmas!

The gifts are wrapped, stockings are hung, and we are ready to see the excitement on our girls faces on Christmas morning! I'm so glad that I took the time this season to slow down, and really enjoy it. I've been much more consistent to think about the real meaning of all of this, since deciding to actively spend time in Advent with our girls. Miss Hannah and I have really been enjoying The Jesus Story Book Bible again, that post HERE. This year I'm following along with She Reads Truth, and it's been such a blessing.  It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle & bustle of things, and taking time each evening to do a special activity as a family and read together has kept us grounded. This has truly been one of my favorite Christmas seasons to date--I'm so thankful for a restful season full of joy. I'm praying that you and yours are enjoying time together, and that you have a VERY Merry Christmas.

Our gorgeous card was done by Katy Girl Designs--we love her! 

November Happenings...

Well y'all, November was BUSY around here! My blogging became nonexistent, and JUST when I was doing so well with keeping up! Oh well--guess that just means we've been enjoying ourselves lately and have been too busy living life to write about it!

First up... I turned THIRTY. I think I felt a lot of different feelings on my birthday this year--thirty is how I pictured my own parents for so long, and it's how I pictured myself "all grown up" so I guess being here is just surreal.  I will say that I feel blessed beyond what I ever thought I could be at thirty, and that made my day pretty special. It also helped that my sweet girls and Hubby sent me off to a mani/pedi, Starbucks, and some Mama time that afternoon! I got to eat Cheesecake Factory for dinner, and my sweet Mama picked me up a Natasha's Mulberry and Mott cake that was gorgeous! To top it all off, I finally got a Freshly Picked Carryall that I just LOVE!

After my birthday, it was time to head to WALT DISNEY WORLD! We spent 5 days in gorgeous Florida at the happiest place on earth! It was a trip we've had planned for a LONG time and it was even more wonderful that I thought it would be! Brian and I honeymooned at WDW 5 years ago, and this year we both turned 30, and my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary, so it was the perfect celebration! I have SO MUCH to blog about Disney, but that will have to wait until January!

As soon as we got back, it was time for Miss Hannah's Thanksgiving Program at Preschool. It was just about the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Teeny tiny kiddos wearing turkey hats and singing about a Thanksgiving feast, and yelling "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble..."  Too much y'all. Then they all sang about "The Savior of the world coming down--" we LOVE our school! Such an amazing thing to see the foundation being laid for a strong faith in God. I was such a proud Mama! She was well supported by both sets of Grandparents and Great-Gramma too.

This was my first year to host a big Thanksgiving dinner with my Mama's family. The girls we're so excited to play with their little cousins, and I was so thankful to have all our family together to celebrate and enjoy all the yummy food!

A quick family photo, at Brian's parents house (meal number one of the day!) The girls did really well with both meals... they are pretty flexible with nap times lately and so we can push it later, and they usually just fall asleep in the car and we transfer them to bed when we get home. They also tried quite a few new things to eat this year--including pickles, casseroles, and pie!

I am SUCH a sucker for a good pecan pie, and since I was hosting, you better believe we had dessert a plenty! I made a classic Libby's pumpkin pie, pecan pie, homemade whipped cream, and my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bars too. The best part of the day is relaxing in bed after all the dishes are done, kiddos are in bed, with a big slice of pie and some Black Friday shopping online!

I still can't believe that December is here! This is the first year that I've got ALL the girls gifts and stocking stuffers done before Dec 1st! It's also the first year that I'm not scrambling to finish multiple handmade gifts, or trying to deal with nausea or a colicky baby... cheers to that! I'm going to slow down and enjoy this special season with my girls. We're doing Advent again much like last year--read that HERE. I love that Miss Hannah is really understanding the Bible stories now, and we're enjoying the activities too.

I've got lots of new items being released in January for The Shop, and lots of new blog posts then too. For now, I'll be drinking hot cocoa, bundling up my babes for a ride through Christmas in the Park, decking the halls, and preparing our hearts for the Newborn King!

Fall Photos with Freeland Photography

Y'all, we are just in love with Freeland Photography. They do amazing work, and given the afternoon we had at the park with two todders running around us in circles--April performed nothing short of a miracle pulling off these shots! She captured exactly what our lives look like right now--a little crazy, but full of hilarity and our little ladies' very unique personalities. Thanks April!

Blue tunics, pink leggings, Bri's clothes: Gap // Pink Headband: LHS // Pink Moccs: Freshly Picked // Orchid & Mustard Bows: Sadie Sky Boutique // Jean jackets, dresses: Target // My sweater: Free People

Halloween Party 2014!

We've been waiting a whole year to throw a little Halloween Party for my girls and their cute little friends too! Miss Hannah asked me the WEEK of Halloween last year and I too her that we'd have one the next year. Just like her Mama, she loves a good party!

The decorations were super-simple, tissue tassels and a sign made with black card stock and chalk. I had the large chalkboard from Liv's 1st Birthday party and used it as a photo-backdrop.

We had some ADORABLE costumes at this party! Hannah decided to be Anna (of course) and luckily, Liv is obsessed with Mickey & Minnie right now, and Hannah's costume from that age fit perfectly! My friend Shannon's kiddos were all rocking some awesome characters. I mean--the baby batman... he slays me.

I punched out a bunch of confetti from card stock and just used craft paper as my table runners. I collected most of the straws, paper-goods, twine, and washi-tape from the Target Dollar Bins--love that place.  I knew that the Mama's would need a snack too, so I whipped up some of Pioneer Woman's perfect iced coffee, and made some chocolate chip pumpkin bars too! That recipe is HERE.

I'm seriously loving the purple minion. Hannah calls them the "Naughty Minions," ha. Like I said, we kept things SUPER simple. The games were kept easy for the kiddos, who were mostly ages 1-4, which made them easy to put together for the Mamas too! They threw bean bags to knock down the tower of cups for candy.

My sweet friend Sheena made the Pumpkin play dough, which the kiddos had so much fun playing with! They just used Halloween cookie cutters & rolling pins, and it kept them busy--which was important with so many little ones running around.

We also made Halloween masks. I just found some cute printables online and then let them color and add stickers. The twine tied the masks around their little heads.

The Pumpkin beanbag toss games came as a 2 pack from Target. They are super sturdy and I'll definitely use them again. I'm so glad it wasn't too cold for the kids to be outside because they were running around my yard by the end!

What I REALLY wanted to serve at the party was donuts--of course, and sugar cookies and all things sugary. Thank The Lord my dear friends had an intervention and said we should probably avoid things that are too sugary so that they kiddos weren't wired for the rest of the day. Good call ladies. Instead, we served baby carrots with Ranch, Cuties--with jack-o-lantern faces and tiny water bottles. We also had a few sweets--candy corn, carmel apple slices, and the Rice-Krispy treats. Hannah and I made them the night before the party, and she sampled quite a bit of the treats before we dipped the rest! She loved decorating them with Halloween sprinkles--such a good little kitchen helper.

I knew there would be quite a few Frozen characters at the party--aren't they just so stinkin' cute?! I loved that all day long Miss Hannah kept tells us all day; "I'm not Hannah, I'm ANNA." Our little firefighter and cow were just adorable.

Sheena also came up with a great craft for the kiddos, complete with fine-motor skills! They used cotton-balls and clothespins to dot paint that coordinated with a letter onto their candy corn drawing. I'm so thankful for friends who are blessed with the gift of education!

Who can resist kiddos in costumes? It was such a fun morning and the perfect way to keep littles busy and wear them out for naps before Trick-or-Treating!

It's the Little Things: Enjoying Fall with My Girls

 Sometimes things just come to a screeching halt. I had just come out of the fog of Motherhood, and I was SO enjoying doing-all-the-things, and feeling a bit like myself again, creating, and excited to enjoy my favorite season and all that comes with it. Then... THE SICKNESS. It was almost a week ago that Bri and I got so. very. sick. to our stomachs. I was having some sort of post traumatic flashbacks to my days of Hypermesis with Liv... all day puking and never-ending nausea. It's only today that I'm feeling a bit more like myself... back among the living. I was starting to feel really disappointed that the Fall days were passing by without me. It was so discouraging.

I'm REALLY enjoying this link-up that Ashley and Jess began--it has truly given me a day of the week to stop, and reflect on all the little moments in my week that I am so GRATEFUL for. Even in the chaos of motherhood, these days are a gift. I'm thankful for this little space that I can record our memoes. I think it's easy to feel bogged down by the day-to-day stuff--toddler melt-downs in Target, breaking up endless arguments over Princess toys, and feeling like there's just so much to get done (and never enough time to do it all.) Even in the chaos of motherhood, these days are a gift. I'm thankful for this little space that I can record our memories, and remind myself of that.

This week, I'm enjoying long walks in the evening with my girls--the cool Fall weather and all the gorgeous colors make this Mama so very happy.  We stopped at a Little Free Library in our neighborhood, and picked out some Halloween books to read. My girls have been so excited for Halloween-well Hannah at least! Liv just tells me "Mou!" when I ask her what she'll be. We have quite a little collection of Halloween books and they bring them to me all day long to read. On our way home, we stopped to jump in a giant pile of gorgeous leaves that were just calling our name! Liv was so sad to leave. They each picked out a pretty leave--orange and yellow to take home--such sweet moments.

We're enjoying BASEBALL! I'm not sure if y'all have heard, but it is BLUE OCTOBER here in Kansas City. The Royals are in the World Series, and there has been a LOT of baseball on our TV! We've been keeping the girls busy coloring, playing with stickers, princess little people, and reading lots of books while the games are on. Miss Hannah yells, "Go Royals!" when all the grown-ups get excited and yell--so cute. We're so excited for the final game tonight! Go Royals! Take the Crown!

We're also enjoying new and old Fall traditions. I got to spend last Thursday with Miss Hannah at her Preschool's Pumpkin Day! I definitely got stuck in the "Pumpkin guts" center, which was a little interesting given how I felt, but it was so sweet to see her interacting with her little friends! We iced pumpkin cookies, did pumpkin volcanos, pumpkin play dough and a bunch of other adorable ideas.

Last night, we broke out the girls' new Mickey Mouse carving set, and carved up our big pumpkin into a Mickey-faced Jack-o-Lantern. Hannah was so excited and a little too interested, ha. She wanted to scrape, stab, and carve the thing herself! We kept the girls busy painting, while Brian and I cleaned it out, and began outlining the design. Liv was so stinkin' cute painting her tiny white pumpkin. She was very meticulous about what color she wanted and where the paint went.

We're getting very excited for all that this week holds for us! We're enjoying big bowls of Fall comfort food--soup, and I'm getting ready to bake pumpkin bread too! I'm busy planning the girls' Halloween party that will keep us busy on Friday morning. I also can NOT wait to see the girls in their costumes! Follow along over on Instagram if you want to see all the cuteness sooner. Have a great Halloween week y'all!

Leotard: H&M // Leggings: Target // Moccs: Freshly Picked // Bows: Sadie Sky Boutique

Custom Bedding for Twins!

A few months ago, I had the absolute privilege of sewing custom baby quilts and crib bumpers for a dear friend--who just happened to be pregnant with TWIN boys! We sat down at Starbucks and looked at patterns, and fabric and color combinations. I just love what she picked out. We went with the same pattern that I used for Liv's quilt HERE, and then we used gorgeous designer fabric from Spoonflower in Foxen Mint, Gold Polka Dots, and Arrows--Gray.

I just LOVED sewing for these sweet boys and I really like what Carrie did with the DIY chalkboard and the large metal letters above the cribs! Tate and Owen are so lucky to be born into such a sweet family! Of course I can't leave you without a picture of the babes--who can resist the cuteness overload of TWINS??

I'll be adding baby quilts in this pattern to the shop soon! If you are interested, please let me know if you'd like pricing information!