Sleep over party and keeping warm

So I'm slacking in the updating department but not much has been happening around these parts except for cold weather and snow before thanksgiving. 

Chris went out hunting over the weekend and the boys and I headed to my parents for a sleepover party. 

Alex played a lot of Mario kart, which he's beginning to get pretty good at and Evan pretended he was playing too. We had a great time! 

We didn't get too much sleep so I've dedicated most of this week to going to bed early. How did we stay up so late when we were kids? It's taken me four days to recover! Lol. 

Today I've stayed up later than I have all week, and it's time for me to get to bed. Maybe by the weekend I'll have the energy to stay up until 11. Until then, good night :) I'll leave you with the view we've been seeing out our back door this week:

Yuck. 

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Snow Happens

I started working on a pinterest project last night and I've got it almost done. I just need some snow and a nose.

I'm pretty excited about it. Chris cut the wood for me and I had so much fun painting!

There's his little nose. I'd like to try this again when I'm done and make the blocks a little smaller.

Funny it says snow happens because it really did happen yesterday. I just closed my eyes though and pretended I didn't see it. Worked like a charm!

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Good morning!

Do you know those people who are just genuinely happy to get up ridiculously early? 

This guy is one of them.

Evan decided to rise and shine at 4:30 this morning. 

This is just him. It's in his DNA. It comes from his mommy's mommy's side I do believe.

Even though I'm mostly an early morning riser, I still can't help smile as I shuffle into his room in the morning, because he'll have the biggest smile waiting for me.

I'm sure an hour south of here, his G-Jo is getting up with a smile too. 

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Pajama Day

Today is pajama day in Alex's classroom. They're celebrating the 50th day of school. He is sporting ninja turtle footie PJs today, even though I expressed my concern over wearing shoes with this type of sleepwear, he wouldn't budge on his decision. I've been thinking about him all day, I hope pajama day is as much fun as he thought it would be. 

After he left on the bus, Evan and I worked on flash cards for Alex. His teacher gave us sight words to work on with him for kindergarten. He already has a bunch down. I can't wait to get this little guy reading! 

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It has begun

So this evening I looked out our front window to see our neighbors put their outside Christmas tree decoration out. It was so beautiful and I know it's kind of early but I promptly ran to the basement and set up our little tree. 

Chris rolled his eyes and Evan clapped and Alex ran around the house a few times. 

Even though I got the eye roll from the Grinch, the house immediately felt more magical. I don't know what it is about twinkly lights but it puts everyone in a happy mood. 

To save Chris from too much Christmas before Thanksgiving torture, I promised I wouldn't decorate the tree until after Thanksgiving. We'll see how long I last. 

Until then I'll make some Christmas Pinterest boards and hum a little Jingle boards until I have everyone in the Christmas spirit.

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But first, let me take a selfie...

It's election night! Besides it being a super cold walk between work and the courthouse, it's also 9:30 p.m. and no precincts have reported their results, yay! I should have brought my jammies. It's going to be a long night... 

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Say hi to Mimi!

Chris and I taught two and three year olds today at church! This is Mr Chris with Mimi and we talked about how God made all of us special. If being a production supervisor ever falls through, Chris has a great future at Sesame Street! He does slightly resemble Jim Henson...

Maybe it's the beard.

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My captain America

Alex when he saw me at his school for his parade today. He didn't know I was going to be there. It was super fun to surprise him!

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Duckies and time capsules

Just recently I was digging through a few totes in the basement for some fall decorations and I found a lost treasure instead. I found a bunch of disposable cameras we had for our wedding and honeymoon we never developed! I was so excited until I checked the "develop by" date was in 2010, oops! So just for fun, I took one in to be developed and it actually worked. We only got about 10 photos back but it was like opening a time capsule! It was so much fun and now that we know they develop, we're going to take the rest in. So who knows what kind of gems are hidden in these old cameras! Here are a few found on this one:

And to close out this post, here's a new gem:

Evan and his ducky umbrella going out to get the trash cans with me this morning.

He absolutely loves this thing. Cracks. Me. Up.

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Fun with our little pumpkins

With halloween just around the corner we wanted to make sure we got our pumpkin carved before the big day. So yesterday we had ourselves a little halloween party at home with a little halloween music and treats. The boys carved the pumpkin and Alex and Evan thought the insides were GROSS, but seeing the end product was really cool. I'll post that picture soon! 

I'm happy to be returning to the blog world thanks to Lisa Lu! You've inspired me Lisa! I'll try to post every day. 

Well, I'm going to have to call this one a night, but to close this blog post, here is a snap shot of my little hulk playing games at day care today and my Captain America last Saturday morning watching cartoons and waiting to go to a harvest party. He was so excited he got himself dressed hours before it even began. Happy Halloween week!

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Groomed and ready

We got our haircut Santa. We're now officially ready for you! The countdown is on.

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Biggest little helper

To keep our minds off of my Jeep's unfortunate transmission trouble, Alex and I decided to make some bread. This is my second attempt at homemade bread.

We won't go into how the first attempt turned out.

With my second attempt though, I had a little helper with me the whole way. His favorite part was kneading the dough... stirring was fun too, but we quickly discovered stirring with a two year-old and trying to keep most ingredients in the bowl is an interesting process.

I was pretty impressed how this attempt turned out. It was actually edible this time! I think it was the help I had in the kitchen this time around.

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Frosty, is that you?

Alex and I transformed our fridge tonight into a snowman. Alex thought it was hilarious! I started to cut out the shapes as he wandered into the kitchen and our conversation went a little like this:

"Mommy, what are you doing in here?"

'I'm building a snowman, Alex."

"REALLY?? YAYYY!"

What's fun about this is I put it all on magnets so we can move all the pieces around. Alex liked to move the snowman's buttons to the top and add to the smile, which turned out to look like he had blue boogies.

For the sake of Frosty's dignity, I fixed the blue boogies for the photo.

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Cameras, lights...

Alex and I were playing with lighting and aperture tonight with our camera. I don't normally let my child play with objects that could potentially harm him, but I wanted to try out a few different effects with lighting.

Unfortunately this is the only photo he allowed me to take of him before he announced he was done. That's ok, it was fun while it lasted.

What I really would like to try is this little lighting technique. But that's for a different day.

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Use the force, Spud

Sorry the quality of this photo isn't the greatest. I would have gotten up and grabbed the camera instead of using my phone but then I would have disturbed the force and I couldn't have caught my little bat eared doggie enjoying the comfort and coziness of our Christmas tree. I don't know what it is about a lit tree in your living room, but it just oozes good happy feelings. I love it.

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Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star will never be quite the same now without a scratch to the tush at the end. I'm just sayin'.

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O' Christmas Tree

Alex and I tried out our creative side with our rendition of a Christmas tree craft we saw on Pinterest.com. Ok, I saw it, but he agreed it would be cool.

I think it turned out pretty neat, we did it on canvas board so that it would save better. I love crafts that include his hand prints or foot prints. It's so much fun to look back and see how much he's grown.

And he loves anything to do with paint. It's a win-win.

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Dear Santa, I would like...

Dear Santa,

I would like a new camera with a shakeproof setting so that my photos won't cause vertigo, and jewelry is always nice too. For the little man, candy canes, because the large basket filled with the sweet treats Mrs. Claus is protecting is the only reason Alex agreed to be in this picture.

Lots of love,

Stacey

P.S. Thank you for the can opener you so generously addressed to me so many years ago. I appreciated it just as much as the Barbie horse I received the same year.

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Material, material everywhere.

Last night I took my first quilting class and something that was suppose to only take less than an hour has turned into a multiple day project. But isn't that just the way it goes?

What started out as one of these:

Has now become this:

One extremely long skinny piece of fabric. But it is on its way! I'll keep you updated. This spaghetti noodle will either become the jellyroll quilt it is meant to be or it may end up a jelly noodle. We'll see.

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Isn't this the truth?

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