One more...

Yesterday, we also made these...(off Pinterest, again!!!)

Click here for yumminess.

O.  M.  Gsh.  These are amazing with that perfect blend of salty and sweet.  So easy and the kids could totally help with every part of it.  Don't make them if you are trying to maintain any kind of slim figure!!

(Can you tell I love Pinterest?)

Dec 22nd

Yesterday, we finally went Dollar Store shopping for Daddy, which the girls loved!  We also had an upside-down dinner, which I got from Family Fun magazine.  We ate under the table and drank and ate upside food.                                                                      

What a silly girl!  She LOVED this idea.  All day, she kept asking me if I was joking or not.  And, yes, that is a Wonder Woman headband on her head and yes, she wore it all day long.  

Some of us fit under the table better than others...I could at least duck my head at an awkward angle and sit up, but poor Bryan had to lay down.  He won some serious husband/father points with this one!!!!

Is that David Hasslehoff that I see?!?!  You should have seen Bryan trying to eat!!  It was hilarious.  You can see that our hamburgers were upside down.  The magazine suggested serving chicken pot pie upside down, but there is no way anyone but me would have eaten that, so I went with burgers.  

Can you tell she loved this?!?!

Dec 21st

 On Dec 21st, we had some friends over for crafting.  The kids ended up scrapping half of my planned projects and played a lot instead.  We did get some things done though.  We had planned to make this...(another Pinterest idea!)

But after stamping their feet, Lily asked me if she could decorate them.  Of course, I said yes, so we ended up with this...

Their feet are barely recognizable in there!  But I love her art and I love this!!
We also made a yarn bowl from Pinterest, but they are still drying, so I'll have to post a pic at a later time.

And, btw, this....

is Lily's Christmas ghost that she made.  What do you think?

Dancing!

Click here to learn some sweet new dance moves.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

2011--Harrison!!!  What a cutie!

2010--Caroliney--She did NOT enjoy this!

2008--Anna Banana

2001--Lily--she actually didn't mind it so much.

2010--Lily put it on when Caroliney did!  

Cousins!

Sorry to Anna and Caroliney for their red eye--I couldn't fix it without making giant green marks around their eyes like some kind of crazy raccoon! 

Kai's Birthday Party

I love the fact that Lily has her arms around Caroliney!  Sweet big sister.

Too Cute Girls!

Matching PJs!!!

Oh brother...

The system has clearly broken down!!!  No blogging for days?!?!  Oy.  Okay, here goes....

Dec 15th, I painted both of their hands and stamped them on a huge ornament.  I have 9 big ornaments hung from the ceiling in the bathroom and I wanted to add one more personalized one.  It's very cute, even if it was a little messy to paint little Caroliney's hand.

Dec 16th, I took the girls to an awesome indoor playland and played with them for hours.  We then went out to lunch with friends for pizza.  That night, we each took one of the girls to a store to let them pick out a present for each other.  Lily was originally against this idea because she was convinced that Caroliney would pick out a baby toy for her!  That made me laugh out loud!!  Once, I reassured Lily that Daddy would help Caroliney pick out a good toy, Lily was all about it and spent time picking out the best present for her sister!  She also helped me to pick out a Christmas present for Harrison, as he was our last present to buy for Christmas.  AND she helped me pick out a little present for a friend who is having a baby soon.  Lastly, this was her first day back at swim lessons in 5 weeks!!!!  This is certainly not an advent activity, but it sure felt like a treat for her since she loves swim and hadn't been there in so long.

Dec 17th, we drove to Macon and saw Grandma and Granddaddy, Mary, Adam and Allison and Johanna, Chris, Anna and Harrison.  We exchanged presents with them, the girls played, decorated cookies and had so much fun!!!  We then drove back to these parts and went to an awesome tacky Christmas sweater party--so funny!

Dec 18th, I worked all day, but Bryan took the girls to Kai's birthday party and an indoor play place--a great time was had by them, I hear!  And, yes, the system has broken down so much that I actually used a birthday party as an advent activity.

Dec 19th, we did nothing.  **hanging my head in shame**  I had big plans for this day, but none of them actually came to fruition.

Dec 20th, we donated another toy to Toys for Tots.  Yesterday, I put the presents under the tree that we already have--those from my parents, our friend, Raul, etc.  None from us or from Santa, obviously.  Lily looked at the pile, which I thought was quite large already and made a comment about how there wasn't very many presents under the tree, which of course, set me off on my "You need to be grateful for what you have....some kids don't get any presents...blah blah blah" speech, which I mean every word of, but I hate having to say.  Lily then said she wanted to give another present to a kid who doesn't have any.  So, when we went to Publix today to get supplies for today's activities and for dinner, we got a Pillow Pet to toss in the Toys for Tots box.  Then, we made Chex Mix for Bryan.  Both my mom and his mom make it every year and they are both really yummy, though quite different.  We got some from B's mom, which we were thrilled about, but b/c we won't be going to my parents' house this year, we won't get any of my mom's, which bummed us out.  So, I made my mom's recipe today as a surprise for Bryan.  Lastly, we also decorated "trees"--another Pinterest activity!--we used ice cream cones, turned them over and frosted them with green frosting and then decorated them with M&Ms and sprinkles.  We have been doing lots of activities involving sprinkles--kids LOVE them!  We had 2 little boys over to play with us when we were decorating the trees--in my MOMS Club, we have a babysitting coop and can trade off watching each other's children.  It is awesome, in a word.  I had the honor of watching my friend Jackie's little boys--they are 2 1/2 and 1 yrs old and are super adorable.  Jackie is a super sweet friend whom I like a lot.  She is one of the few other working moms--works part time, like I do--and we frequently discuss our insane lives.  Being a stay at home mom is also crazy, for sure, but I certainly feel a little more stretched thin these days--working, and taking the kids to activities while also running the typical mom errands and trying to keep the house up, cook dinner, etc.  It gets to feel a little out of control, like I'm spinning and spinning, and I'm pretty sure this feeling never ends!!  Anyway, I really enjoy getting to see Jackie and her children!  Lily likes them a lot, too!!  So, Lily and Carter and Caroline decorated trees while Maddox watched on.  I guess I feel like I had to make up for my lack of activities yesterday by doing 3 today.  We are in the final stretch now!

Oh, and by the way, we can't find the camera charger!!!  So, no pictures at this moment.  If I can get them to upload from Bryan's phone, I'll post some.

Dec 14th

Yesterday both girls had their Christmas parties at school.  I rearranged my work schedule so that I could be there and then spent my 1 1/2 hours there walking back and forth between their classrooms.  It's so nice that they are in the same school that I won't complain though.  Another mom and I did the Halloween party for Caroline's class and since there are just other 2, I sort of assumed they would do the Christmas party.  But that's not quite what happened.  Instead, no one did the party and they had no food at all to eat and their only activities were ones the teacher had planned and brought it.  I went and pilfered food from Lily's party to share with Caroliney's class and so it worked out, but seriously?!?!  They other mom who did the Halloween party was also the only other mom to show up for the Christmas thing and we both told the teacher to go ahead and put us down for the end of the year party.  Luckily, the kids are so young, they didn't notice anything was amiss.

Caroline with the little girl whose mom and I did the Halloween party together.  This little girl also has a 4 year old sister at the same school.  She talks A LOT.  Her mom says she comes home every day talking about Caroline.  I didn't admit that Caroliney has never mentioned her daughter.  To be fair, Caroline is a whole 6 months younger than this girl, so their level of what they say is completely different.  

Making crafts with the teacher.

Lily's classroom--they were playing a game where they were trading books.  You can tell what serious business this is.

Her book came with a bandanna so I doo-ragged her!

Hanging with some of her friends.

  Last night, Bryan and I went on a date night!  We couldn't do too much because I had to get up so early for work, but we did get to enjoy a nice dinner with no kids, which is awesome!!  Our new friend, Faith, came to babysit, which Lily was immensely excited about--she has been begging for Faith to babysit!!!  They decorated graham crackers with our cookie decorating supplies and played.  Lily loved it!

Our crazy household.

Dec 12th and 13th

On Dec 12th, we did nothing to take a picture of.  In the morning, we drove thru for breakfast as a special treat before work/school and payed for the car behind us as well.  Hopefully they passed it on, but we have no way of knowing.  Either way, our good deed got repaid later that day, when I got the awesome news that my missing wedding band had been turned in!!!  I know that's not really how it works, but it's nice to think so occasionally.  Our other plan that day was to go shopping at the Dollar Store for Daddy.  However, I decided Caroliney's flu shot took precedence and that appointment ended up taking so long that we couldn't squeeze in a Dollar Store trip before dinner.  We'll have to add that back on to the calendar.  

Today, we had friends over to decorate Christmas cookies.  I was given a cookie set by a friend several years ago and had not ever used it.  Lily saw it when I was getting out the Christmas decorations and I promised her we would use it this year.

The frostings!!!!

During a decorating break--the kids took many breaks from cookies and went outside to play!  We didn't know what to do with ourselves with the amazing weather we had today.

Alena with her cookies.

Lily and Caroline's cookies.

 

A Bonus Post with Some Christmas Cheer!

Dec 11th

First I have 1 edit of my Dec 10th post--I forgot to mention another thing I loved that the dance school did...they kept the first row reserved for "Backstage Moms".  So when it was your child's turn to dance, you could go sit in the front row, get a good video and then get up to give the seat to another mom whose child was up next.  Great idea!!!

I also will add in some pics of last night's activity, but I have to get the pictures from my friend--we went to someone else's house to have dinner and decorate cookies and I forgot my camera.

Now, on to today!!!  I really wanted to make the Santa hat brownies which are currently so popular on Pinterest.  I've been meaning to try out my Pampered Chef cake decorator thingys and this was a great opportunity.  Mine aren't as good as the ones on Pinterest, but I thought they were still pretty cute.  I did these with Lily as my assistant while C was napping.

Lily and Bryan also made and decorated a gingerbread house, which Lils always loves to do!!!

Lastly, we copied this off of Pinterest as well.  Click here!  In short, it is 25 different ornaments with 25 different names for Jesus written on them.  This was another thing that it was sort of hard for Lily to be too hands on with, since we simplified it so much to where we didn't decorate the inside of the ornaments...instead we just used simple ornaments and wrote the names on with paint pen.  But Lily did pick the names that we were using.  We did 11 and plan to do 1 more each day until Christmas.  A great little daily remainder of why we do all of this other craziness!!!

Lily's Dance Recital

Here it is!!!  She is best at the bootie shaking parts--imagine that.  If you can't tell (you can), her teacher is in front of them doing the dance as well and they are watching her.

Click here for awesomeness.

Dec 10th

Today was Lily's Dance Recital--to say it was cute is a total understatement.  First of all, I love Lily's school so much.  I can't say I have much (or any) experience with other schools, but there is a lot that this school does that I so appreciate.  I feel as though they certainly treat the kids like kids and understand that a lot of us (like myself) just signed our girls up for dance because they love it and not because we are trying to create Broadway stars. They don't make the kids wear ponytails and tights and don't care if they want to wear fun tutus to class.  The recital fee is quite low and they break it up into 3 recitals...so each class was told what time their recital was and then we all only had to sit through a third of the classes, if that makes sense...so sum it up, we watched less than an hour of dance total.  Lily's class danced second in the line-up and then we got to go get them to come and sit with us to watch the rest of the dances.  She enjoyed that immensely.  Her Mimi and Papa came as well, which thrilled her to no end!  Today did not disappoint!  We also have an evening activity planned with friends.

In her costume--before the recital. 

I was quite impressed with how calm she was--not nervous at all.

The whole class.

After the recital.  

Trying to do an over the shoulder pose to show off her snowflake hair clip.

We have her an American Girl ballet outfit afterwards though explained this was only because it was her FIRST recital and she would definitely not be getting a gift in future recitals.  Not sure why she's strangling her doll here...

Dec 9th

Ugh.  All that talk about blogging every day and then I miss the very next day.  In my defense, I was EXHAUSTED yesterday.  After staying up late to do some things, then getting up again at 5:30 for work, working, hosting a play group, cleaning up after play group, taking Lils to her dance rehearsal, etc, I was just beat.  Anyway, yesterday, we hosted a playgroup at our house--it was a Christmas Recipe Swap and the theme was appetizers.  We had lots of yummy food from lots of fun moms and lots of little 4 year olds and 1 or 2 year olds for Lily and Caroline to play with.

Lily with her friend, Alena.  Lily didn't want me to take their picture.

My brain was dead yesterday, so I had planned to pretty much just use the play group as our Christmas "activity".  However, I got inspired by this blog...

http://tsjphotography.com/blog/random-acts-of-christmas-kindness-summary/

I decided we could do a random act of Christmas kindness as well.  There is a house down the street that I love.  I think it's the most beautiful house on the street throughout the whole year, but particularly at Christmas.  They do beautiful wreaths on every window and I just think it's pretty.  I don't know the people who live there...I've never even met them.  So, I just wrote a quick note to them explaining exactly what I said above and stuck it in their mailbox.  I left it Anonymous.  Lily included a note she wrote (with no help) as well that simply said "Lily Mommy Daddy".  Hopefully the notes will make them smile.

Dec 8th

Oy vey.  I promised to try to blog every day this month and since I already missed a few, I'm really trying to keep up with the remainder of the month.  But I am tired tonight and I still have tons to do before bed.  Today, I got up at 5:30 for work, worked until about 9:30, came home, took care of Caroliney and cleaned the kitchen and cleaned out the playroom.  We did a pre-Christmas purge of toys.  We usually do it after Christmas, but I got sick of the toys around that are broken or don't get played with or we've just outgrown or I'm just over them being in my house.  So I sorted out all of those and made piles--some for Goodwill, 2 for baby Harrison to grow into, some for a friend, a big bag of trash.  We got Lily from school, ran to the grocery store and 1 more errand, put C down for a nap.  I cleaned while she was napping, but she took a short nap today.  When she got up, we ran the purged toys to their new locations and dropped off something that had been left at our house by a friend.  We went to Walmart for some needed items, came home, had dinner, hung up pictures on the wall in new locations, bundled up the kids and headed to Back to Bethlehem, which was WONDERFUL.  Caroliney cried the whole way home because she wanted to be in her bed so badly.  Both kids are now sleeping and toasty warm in the comfy beds, which is where I would like to be, too.  But, alas, it's not meant to be...I am hosting a playgroup in the morning and so I need to do some cleaning and start on my dish.  It seems like most days are like this for us...busy busy busy...one thing right after another.  I would do a lot for a day of nothing, but it's just not happening anytime soon.  And when I look at my sister's schedule, I know it only gets crazier from here.  So, I will post some pics and call it a night

Our toys and clothes that were heading to new homes.  

I don't know why I love this so much but I do...matching Tinkerbell shoes for the sisters!

Our "new" wall in the playroom. 

Our playroom right after the renovation.

Our playroom now.  We took out the table, hung up hooks for dress up clothes, rearranged some toys, hung up new "art", etc.  A little more playroom-ish.  

Inspired by Pinterest (my new love), I also am rearranging pictures in other areas.  Here is our new stairway picture wall.  I will add more to it, obviously, but I think I'm off to a good start.

In line at Back to Bethlehem.  We were cold, but the kids loved it.  We pushed it a little too far with bedtime and left with 1 sobbing child and 1 whimpering child.  

Despite their becoming too cold and too tired towards the end, they enjoyed it so much.  Lily wanted to watch both Jesus in the barn and Jesus on the cross twice each.  

Petting a camel.

Petting zoo.

.