Memories

I need to write down a few things so that I can look back and remember them.

On Christmas Eve Kadence and Shelby ran into bed because they knew they needed to go to sleep or Santa wouldn't come. Shelby surprisingly went to sleep immediately. Kadence....not so easy. At one point she ended up calling for her daddy by saying, "Daddy my cheeks hurt....Daddy my cheeks hurt..." When he got in her room he said she had the biggest smile on her face and told him how much her cheeks hurt. He told her she needed to go to sleep and so she closed her eyes (with a GIANT smile) and tried her best. After about an hour she finally went to sleep.

Today Shelby told us that she wanted to go to the North Pole. We asked her how she would get there since it was so far away and she said, "I'll follow Santas footprints." She is one clever little bugger.

The other day I was telling Kadence she'd be going to the dentist soon. She always takes some prepping before any sort of appointment or else her anxiety gets the best of her. We talk through all of her concerns and answer all her questions and it seems to make it go better for everyone. As we were talking she asked what the dentist's name was. I told her that it was Cam. She then said, "Cam? I don't get it." It was really funny. It was like she thought I was telling a joke or teasing her. I then had to explain that the dentist's name was Cameron and he liked to be called Cam, Dr Cam or Dentist Cam. It was funny that Cam was confusing considering her preschool class has a kid named Rowdy.

Shelby has a cold and with the cold she has a cough. The other morning she woke up and climbed in bed with me. (At like 9 am) As we were laying there, she started coughing. Then she told me, "I have a yucky cough....a really yucky cough." She coughed again and said, "See there it is! I need a popsicle." No matter whats wrong with her all she needs is a popsicle to make it better.

We went to the movies today with a giftcard that our Aunt Barb gave us. While we were there the girls did GREAT! For a 2 hour movie I couldn't have imagined better behavior. Toward the end Shelby was doing the up and down in her chair that she does when she's having a hard time sitting still. She eventually decided to steal her daddy's coke. He went to take it away and she said, "You need to share." Smart girl!!

Kadence is ALWAYS singing. If she isn't singing, she's humming. She loves music and anything to do with music. She knows the words to many songs and surprises me all the time with new songs. Christmas I think has been her favorite time of year for singing. She learned: Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, We Wish You a Merry Chirstmas (2 verses), Jingle Bells, Up On the Housetop, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Hark the Harold Angels Sing (Not too clear for most of the song), A Song About Santas Twinkling Eyes (From preschool), and pretty much any other song she heard she would hum the tune for the rest of the day. It's amazing how she just soaks up music.

The girls were both so cute to watch whenever we would talk about the story of Jesus' birth. They would go straight to their Little People nativity and act out all of the scenes. They knew so much about all of the characters and even put together that Santa brings gifts just like the wisemen did. Their favorite pieces were the angel, Mary, Joseph and Jesus although Shelby was really fond of the cow. We tried really hard to focus on the true meaning of Christmas this year. If you asked Kadence what the angel told the Shepherds she would say, "Do not fear, baby Jesus is here." It was really cute.

When we took the girls to visit Santa we tried to prepare them for the occasion by asking them what they would ask for. We told them that they only get to ask for one present. Shelby immediately said she wanted a gingerbread man. Seriously? It took me forever to even understand what she was saying, but a gingerbread man?! Kadence put much more thought into hers on our drive to the mall. She would ask questions like "Can Santa make Barbies?" I told her he can and she kept on thinking. When we arrived at the mall, Shelby was sleeping so I figured she for sure would have a different request when I woke her up....NOPE, she still wanted a gingerbread man! Kadence decided she wanted a doll. We weren't sure if Shelby would sit on Santas lap, but once it was their turn they both took of running and jumped right onto his lap. It was really fun and I was so happy that both girls sat and talked with Santa this year. It was hard finding a gingerbread man gift, but I found a gingerbread man figurine, notepad, and book which made Shelby VERY happy. Kadence got two dolls, a Cinderella Baby and a Toddler Belle.

I have an inflatable Snowman in the front yard that struggled occasionally when we'd turn it on. It just took longer to inflate and stand up some days which meant for a while it would lay face down in the snow. One time we turned it on as we were leaving the house. Kadence could see it from the driveway and said, "Mommy somebody killed your snowman!"

These are a few things that I don't want to forget and I'm sure there will be many others throughout the next year.

Neighbor Gift Idea

Ok, a few days ago I baked cookies....waited for them to cool so I could frost them....put some sprinkles on...and then realized it was 8:30 which was too late to deliver treats to the neighbors. So the cookies sat on the counter and went to waste until today when I threw them out. I don't have much time since I work almost every night until Christmas so I was so excited when my friend posted some amazing ideas for gifts on her blog. (Thanks Kym!) I figured I would tell people who might not live in my neighborhood an idea they could use.

The first is really simple. I went to the dollar store and bought tons of wrapping paper and scotch tape. (Yes, they sell the actual Scotch tape brand) You tie it together and put a note on it that reads, "Since November you've been shopping, barely sleeping, hardly stopping. Now it's late and you're in a scrape, out of paper, out of tape. Hope this wrap has saved the day, have a Happy Holiday!" I added a cup of hard candy that I made to go along with it.

The hardest part was keeping Shelby away from it all. :)

I had one neighbor who I know is done with all of her wrapping. I didn't want to give her wrapping paper that would just go to waste so I bought some Madagascar Christmas paper plates and coupled it with napkins, forks, spoons and snowman cups. I also put hard candy in one of the cups. I put a note with it that read, "A bit of 'disposable' Christmas cheer! What could be better? No dishes, my dear!" (I think all us moms know what a blessing it is to have a dinner mess free.)

Hope these ideas helped out a few others who are scrambling to find the time to do neighbor gifts.

My New Shelf

When David and I took the girls to see Santa, we walked through Quilted Bear. I always love looking at all the cute things people are able to make. I envy the crafty people out there because that isn't something I have been blessed with. I came along these blocks that spell out "Peace" and instead of an "A" it has baby Jesus. I fell in love with them. The problem was that they were supposed to hang and I had nowhere to hang them. I decided to buy them anyways because I loved them so much! I then realized I could buy a shelf that had coat rack pegs on it.

Here are the blocks

I put my "JOY" nativity on the shelf. (I love having Joy as a last name!)
I then added a picture of Mary and Joseph looking over Jesus

And finally I added a picture of baby Jesus in the hay

Here is my whole project....completed....without tears!!

I love my new shelf, and can't wait to change the blocks and shelf decorations with each holiday.

Ornaments

Every year growing up my mom would give me a new ornament. I have quite the collection that I have collected over the years. Imagine my delight when I found out that David's family had the same tradition! It was neat that we both received an ornament each year and that we are now able to pass that on to our girls. (Please ignore the Halloween PJ's)

Here the girls are opening their ornaments

Kadence got a Cinderella and Prince Charming ornament (Her favorite!)

Shelby got an Ariel ornament that had Flounder and Sabastian (Her favorite!)

Shelby hanging her ornament

Kadence hanging her ornament

David wanted a Navoo Temple Star

I bought a green M&M ornament when we were in Vegas at M&M World. It is made out of M&M wrappers which I thought was pretty cool.

Hanukkah

David and I talked last year about teaching the girls about Hanukkah, Kwanza, and 3 Kings Day. Well, we decided this would be the year we did it. I didn't have much time to prepare since Hanukkah was almost over and I work now. We did order a Hanukkah book from Kadence's school book order which talked about the traditions of Hanukkah. The girls liked the book and loved learning about Hanukkah. We have a movie called Elmo's World Happy Holidays that teaches about a lot of different Holidays and Hanukkah is one of them so they were already familiar with some of the traditions. We spent most of the day trying to find a menorah with no success. I did however find some dreidels.

Here we're getting ready to read our Hanukkah book

Here is my best attempt at a menorah with such little notice. I couldn't find one anywhere, but Kadence knew we were supposed to put candles in the window. (Thanks Elmo!) While I was at Joannes they had some suction cup candle holders. I figured I would just suction them into place on the window....wrong! The window was too cold so the suction cups wouldn't stick. Not to mention The candles that were next to the holders were too little and just fell right through. I had to hot glue each holder closed so that the candle wouldn't fall onto the ground. I then had to just rest the candles on the edge of the windowsill. Then out for fear of being offensive to anyone who is Jewish I had to find a way to put one candle up higher than the rest. (The shamash) This candle is the one used to light the rest and is supposed to be either higher or lower than the rest of the candles. Needless to say, I will soon be purchasing a menorah for next year. We used chocolate coins to put "in the pot" for our game of dreidel. The girls loved it and didn't mind giving their candy to the pile. I thought they would eat it.

Kadence's turn!

Shelby watching it spin

The girls singing "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel"

Shelby's turn!

Time for Hanukkah presents!!

Here is Kadence carefully unwrapping her present.

Here's Shelby ripping right through her present

Shelby watched daddy open his present. I found him one of his favorite movies: Eight Crazy Nights. It was the only one Hastings had left and they had to hold it for me. I forgot how funny the movie is, but definately not a movie for the kids.

The girls reading their new books

To end our night of Hanukkah, David made potato Latkes. I was skeptical, but they are SO good. They are just potatoe pancake and so tasty. He did a great job!

We had tons of fun, and although I will be changing a few things for next year it seemed to be a success. Eventually we will celebrate more than just one night. Plus this experience taught me to start looking for my Kenorah now for Kwanza!

SNOW

The girls were so excited that it finally snowed enough for them to go out and play in it! We can't let them play outside very often and when we do it can't be for very long because of Kadence's asthma. She doesn't do well in the cold....especially when she is running around full of excitement. Getting them ready always seems like too much work for 10 minutes of fun, but it's totally worth it when I finally get around to doing it!

The girls mostly ready to go

Shelby jumping in front of the camera

Kadence

The first thing Kadence did was lay down to make a snow angel. She has been doing them for months on our carpet and was so happy to finally see the results in the snow.

This picture completely captures Shelbys excitement

The girls trying to build a snow fort. The snow wasn't the kind that packed, but they had fun trying.

Very own Christmas trees

Last year we bought the girls their very own Christmas trees the day after Christmas for really cheap. We finally decided to put them up in their rooms and they were ecstatic! First we had family night and we learned all about the importance of the star in the nativity story and read a book called, "The Christmas Star" that their Aunt Barb gave them for Christmas a few years ago. We painted a star to make into an ornament. The girls were plenty excited when they thought they would be hanging the star ornaments on our family tree. Then we told them they were getting their very own tree for their room.

Shelby painting

Kadence painting

Daddy setting up Kadence's tree

Shelby watching daddy set up Kadence's tree
Kadence's finished tree

It's finally Shelby's turn!

So happy to put her tree up

Shelby's finished tree

It was such a nice night, and the girls were so happy. I love that my kids are so happy and so excited about the smallest things. They are so easy to please and I love watching the enjoyment on their faces as we do new things and make new memories.

Time to play catch up!

I'm going to do my best to catch up since I haven't really blogged in months. Wish me luck, and enjoy looking at the pictures!