Little Red Coats

The red coats are coming! The red coats are coming! That is all I can think about when I look at all of our pictures from the past several weeks. My children have really worn other clothes than just their little pea coats, but you certianly wouldn't know it. It looks like that is all they wear night and day!

It just so happens that most of our festive activities have been outside and it has been bitter cold here these past few weeks! Last Friday, some friends of ours invited us to join them to go to Little Bethlehem in Gilbert. It is something that the local church puts on for free (yay for free!) and I highly recommend going if you have young children.

They have an entire little village set up and you get to walk the streets of Bethlehem on the night Jesus is born! We got to sample oven-baked bread (& hot chocolate), see a carpenter, a potter, the inn, a jail, and lots and lots of animals! The animals were Caroline's favorite part and Anna Cate enjoyed seeing Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus in the stable.

Fowler Family

Please note that my child is wearing hot pink socks on her hands. She was adamant about not wanting to wear the gloves, but preferred socks. You have to pick your battles.

Delaney Family

Their little girls are almost the same ages and ours so when we get them together, it is a lot of girly fun! :)

Checking out the super-sized horse at the stable.

The people of Bethelehem dancing around the town's well to a song that we heard played about 5 times while we were there. I still can't get the little ditty out of my head.

Callie checking out one of the horses.

"Whoa mom, he's really big!"

We even got to walk in the stable to see baby Jesus with the shepards and wise men! Caroline was all up on the baby Jesus, wanting to touch his head, but Anna Cate was really timid at first. I realized she thought he was real, and once I explained he was just a baby doll, then she wanted to touch his arm.

Thanks guys! We had a great time! :)

***

On Saturday night, Anna Cate and I got to go on a special date to see the Nutcracker ballet!

Her sweet friend Mason's birthday was on Sunday, so to celebrate, we went with Mason and her mom (and Carlysle and Miss Leslie) to a special dinner and the ballet! Carrie found an awesome deal on tickets with Groupon and we had a special girls' night out. This was Mason and Carlysle's first time to the ballet so to make the night super duper special, we made some ballerina ornaments.

And wrapped them up with some cute stickers I had found at Hobby Lobby.

While Anna Cate and I were getting ready, poor little Caroline was so excited because she thought she was going somewhere too. When I was dressing Anna Cate, Caroline went to her dresser and pulled out these clothes for me to put on her. She also wanted to stand by the tree with Anna Cate to take a picture.

excited about her special night out with mama!

ok, this just might be the most awkward picture ever, but it is the only one I have of all 6 of us. I guess we should have stooped down to the girls' level or held them up with us. They were all so excited to go!!

We went to California Dreaming (ooohhh fancy!) for dinner and they got to open up their special ornaments.

the birthday girl!

Miss Carlysle and her ballerina

Thanks Mason and Miss Carrie for including us in your celebration! We can't wait to start doing something special like this each year with all of our little girlfriends once they all get big enough to go! :)

Celebrating Advent . Week 1

We've been busy opening up our little envelopes each morning to see what the new day brings to celebrate advent!

**Disclaimer: I just re-read this to proof it and wanted to make it clear that I by no means have it as "together" as it appears from this post. Most days I have no idea what is going in the envelope until a few minutes before the girls open it. And there have been just as many frustrating and tiring moments as there are happy ones. If I don't document what we have done, I really may not remember by the end of the month because life is such a blur right now! I know you only see the good on blogs so I'm reminding you now before you read anymore, that this is only the GOOD from the past week! :) I didn't take picture of the temper tantrums and meltdowns...

On the first day of December, we gave the girls their very own nativity to play with this year since Anna Cate was so infatuated with mine last year. I found it for $3 at LICS and liked that it looked "real."

Anna Cate was thrilled to have her very own baby Jesus and asked me to take her picture with him.

Both girls have loved having their own set to play with, but unfortunately they are very fragile and we already have a headless Joseph.

I have also been finding them in some interesting places. One morning I opened the dishwasher to find Mary and a sheep nestled down in the utensil holder.

And I don't think our stable is fairing much better. After only a week and a half, our manager has become dilapidated. The roof is falling off and the walls are coming apart, wonder why??

Thursday afternoon Aunt D's came over and we attempted pictures for the Christmas card.

I managed to get a few cute ones...

But the majority of them looked more like this:

Friday evening went to see the lights at the zoo with Nana and Grandaddy.

Caroline LOVED it! (actually both girls loved it, but I've never seen Caroline so excited before) This smile was plastered over her face the entire time we were there.

Look alive, Mary Catherine! Open those eyese! It is only the 3rd day of December...we still have 22 days left until Christmas!

Saturday morning Will worked on installing our bathroom sinks and adding the trim while the girls played "house" in the empty boxes. They were entertained all morning long so I had a chance to work on some gifts! The pictures don't look very christmasy, but we enjoyed a relaxing morning listening to Christmas music while everbody just did their own thing. I love days without a plan!

Anna Cate is usually right by Will's side "helping" when he is working on the bathroom.

And she is very into dressing herself right now, thus the polkadot tights with the summer dress over a long sleeve shirt! :)

We (I mean he) is almost done with the bathroom!! I can't wait to share pictures soon.

***

Sunday afternoon we headed to Taylor's Tree Farm to pick out our tree!

Then Sunday evening, we met Aunt Baylis and Andie downtown to watch the Christmas parade! It was FREEZING!

They were throwing candy to the crowd so I let Caroline have a sucker for the first time and this is how she sat through the entire parade. I don't think she took the sucker out of her mouth once.

On Monday, during our weekly trip to the grocery store, we picked up the ingredients to make peppermint marshmallows.

After naptime, we donned our aprons and got all set up for baking until I read the directions and realized it called for a candy thermometer. Ooops! We don't have a candy thermometer.

Caroline was thrilled...can you tell?

But Anna Cate quickly dried up those tears by letting Caroline wear her Cinderella dress. So we played dress-up instead for the rest of the afternoon.

Tuesday night we found the time to string the lights on the tree.

And then Wednesdaywe got to actually hang the ornaments to decorate the tree after Will got home from work. But I think the girls' favorite part were the empty ornament boxes that they crawled in to look at books after we were done.

So that brings us up to December 7. Think I'm going to stop there before this turns into the longest post ever written. We've had another fun and busy weekend and had something super special planned for Saturday. I'll give you two hints as to what we did:

Hint 1 & Hint 2

Until I find the time for another post...

We have a winner!

Thank you for all of the suggestions!

Amber left a comment with a link to this quilt. I love it! It is the perfect blend of pops of color with a white background and thought I had found the perfect design until...

...I browsed through her other quilts and found this one:

This is not at all the traditional quilt I had in mind when I started this project, but the circles make me smile! How could you not enjoy giggling with your sister snuggled under one of these? It also sounds much easier to make which is good considering #1) I'm making two of them, #2) don't have much time, and #3) I have no clue what I'm doing!

When I have more time to focus on a "real" quilt, I want to make the first one pictured above.

So thanks to all of you who offered your opinion, both on the blog and in person! :)

I'll be sure to share the end result and the tutorials I've found online to help me with putting them together.

On another note, our computer is in the shop so I only have access to Will's work laptop at night once he is done using it for work. I hope to have time to post some pictures tomorrow of what all we've been up to!

With a little help from my friends...

I need some opinions and asap!

This arrived in the mail today and I just finished cutting it up into 120 little bricks to sew 2 quilts for the girls for Christmas. One of their favorite things to do is to empty the linen closet of every blanket and pillow to make a nest on the playroom floor where they curl up together to look at their books. I can't wait to give them their own special blankets use!! :)

But, I don't know which to do.

A traditional brickpath quilt where all of the rectangles are touching...

Or something more like this where they are divided by some white fabric. I like how the fabric pops better against the white background, but it looks like a lot of extra work and I only have T minus 18 days and counting...

So which do you like better?

P.S. - and oh yes, these would be my first official quilts if that makes a difference!

P.P.S. - and no, I'm not finished with all of my other Christmas gifts yet...

Sisters

Fabulously busy weekend

exhausted, but in a good way

so many fun pics to share, but until I can sort through them, here is one taken last week on Thanksgiving day!

:)

Vintage Nursery Inspiration

A sweet friend is expecting baby boy #3 and is currently working on an vintage styled nursery. A few months ago, she asked if I had any ideas to share for pulling the nursery together on a budget. She has already picked out the cutest elephant fabic to make the crib bedding with, but I couldn't get ebay to share the picture with me to add to the collage.

I sent her all my ideas back in October, but I just found this set that I had created on Polyvore for her and forgot to send her several months ago, so I thought I'd share it now with everybody. :) IF we ever have a boy, I will most definitely be pulling ideas from this. But sometimes I have the feeling that we'll be one of those families with 3 or 4 girls!!! And that is ok with me too, but I'd really really love a little boy to add to the mix.

In case anybody else is interested, you can go here to see more ideas I pulled together for her. Happy Decorating!! :)

I'm sorry, what?

Was today really just the first day of December and where did November go?

We attempted Christmas card pictures this afternoon and I absolutely love this one. Caroline's expression represents exactly how I feel:

"Wait just a minute! It's already time for Christmas??

I'm not ready! I think I'll sit down and have a good cry about it."

I'm no where near as ready for Christmas as I was this time last year. My goal was to have all my shopping done and have something special planned for us to do each day of December. I'm having to let go of my expectations and realize that the Advent season is not about some perfectly organized schedule of holiday celebrations, but about preparing our hearts for the arrival of the savior.

It hit me today, right after I had a tearful meltdown during naptime, that I'm trying to get it all together so that I can enjoy the holiday season.

Jesus calls us to him just as we are.

Why do we strive for holiday grandur and feel like we have to plan some big production to make Christmas meaningful and special? We rush around trying to find the perfect gift to give, forgetting that it has already been given and that is the reason we celebrate.

Did Christ not say that he came for the lost sheep of Isreal? For those who are struggling, who are hurt, and who are drowning in imperfection? We don't have to get it all together before we come to him and the same should be true about preparing for His birth.

So I'm boycotting the holiday season this year. At least in the traditional sense of high expections of the perfect holiday celebrations.

Our decorations are still up in the attic and may have to stay there another week. We did manage to bring in a branch from outside for our Jesse tree, but it still stands bare. We missed the first couple of nights of readings and

that. is. ok.

We will play our Christmas music, ride around to look at twinkly lights, and bake and craft to our hearts' content,

but

this season I'll choose to cling to the silence and holiness of the night. To be still and quiet so that I'm not too busy to notice his arrival and to marvel at the miracle of Christmas that already is when we don't try too hard to create the magic ourselves.