Guess we weren’t too excited about meeting Santa!The girls and I had plans for this weekend. BIG plans. Since Kenny was going to be gone all weekend (headed with friends to Texas to see the Chargers play the Cowboys) the girls and I started scheming weeks ago about what our weekend would include. This is what we came up with:
-lots of time in our p.j’s (only leaving the house when absolutely necessary….like to get pizza for dinner) It rained most of the weekend which made this idea absolutely ideal.
-watch Mary Poppins (girls first time – my idea) They loved it! And I love that they’re getting old enough to enjoy great movies.
-make snowflakes (Ellie’s idea)
-have a fashion show (Addie’s idea)
-work on a special Christmas gift for daddy
-lots of Christmas music and movies
We started calling our weekend the “Girls Only Snowflake Mary Poppins Fashion Show Christmas weekend with no boys allowed”
I also ended up doing a lot of organizing when the girls were in bed. I don’t know why it is, but I always get crazy about organizing when I’m feeling overwhelmed or stressed. It’s like I have so much other stuff I should be doing that I don’t know where to start. Instead I just clean out a drawer.
Then I feel better and can move on and deal with life. I also spent lots of time WRAPPING and accessing where I am on Christmas gifts this year. Not far enough and the girls only have school one more week! I’m running very short on shopping time and next weeks schedule is already so busy. Just looking at my to-do list makes me want to clean out the fridge. 
On to the fashion show! First item of business was to assemble the audience.
And here come my little divas…modeling the latest in Christmas attire. Minnie mouse nightgowns are hot! You really shouldn’t be seen without them this holiday season.
Strike a pose. OR: Stop. Hammer time.
Yes, even the bunnies came downstairs modeling different attire.
And that’s a wrap! Love my munchkins. Overall it was a good weekend. I had lots of fun with my girls, caught up on some housework, and didn’t put on one stitch of make-up. I think I’m ready to face next week!
RULE #1: Everything is acceptable. Ignore all regular Tether Ball Rules.
RULE #2: It’s perfectly acceptable and even encouraged to take a break from the game altogether and play chase with the ball.
RULE #3: If scared of the ball, or anything else for that matter, you are allowed to take refuge in-between daddy’s legs.
RULE #4: You are especially encouraged to play Tether Ball when you have a ball in your hand and one in your belly.
RULE #5: Try not to get carried away and hit your three year old sister in the head. If you are the three year old who is continually getting hit in the head, make sure that grandpa isn’t far. It’s well known that grandpas give the best hugs.
RULE #6: Stop every now and again and smile for a picture. It makes mom happy and if mom’s happy you can play more Tether Ball.Well! December is certainly proving to be as busy as usual. I still feel like I’m recovering from last weekend. We woke up early Saturday and after breakfast started with the tree. I didn’t get too far before my cereal had worn off and I was dying of starvation.
so Kenny made me and the baby waffles. This little guy loves waffles. And strawberries. With LOTS of syrup. Then I was ready to go again…until an hour later…when the waffles had worn off and I was famished. This whole eating thing, fun as it is, is really starting to get in the way of my productivity. 
When the tree was all up and decorated Ellie said, “Oh Add, our tree is so beautiful! We just have to get our cameras and take a picture!” And that’s just what they did. :)
Lately I’ve been feeling like the girls’ toys are taking over our house! Toys seem to be EVERYWHERE and it has been driving me crazy. So with Christmas coming up and new toys awaiting a happy home I decided it was time to do a little simplifying.
First I rounded up all of the stuffed animals. Have a FREAKIN‘ stuffed animal! WAY too many. Two things we have plenty of: stuffed animals and barbies. The two things the girls want Santa to bring them: stuffed animals and barbies.
So I started bagging and organizing. Two rules I always follow when I get rid of toys. First of all this must happen when the girls aren’t around (obviously) and secondly, I bag toys and don’t head to Goodwill immediately. I hide the bags and wait awhile. I wait to hear “where is my this or where is that?” Anything they miss I get back out, but what I usually find is that aside from one or two things, they don’t miss much. After about a month I head to Goodwill with the toys (or take them to grandma’s house if they’re toys that don’t get played with here, but I’m not ready to part with myself). :)
Cleaning out the toys made me feel so good that I moved on to drawers and closets. Here in San Diego we’ve finally dropped our 5-10 degrees in temperature which signals winter so I folded up all of the summer p.j’s…
to make room for the winter ones. I still have a couple of Christmas p.j. sets stashed away somewhere… I went a little nuts this year.
How long do you think the drawers will stay like this? At least the top two will stay clean for awhile since the girls can’t reach them yet. :) 
Since I was on a roll I decided to finally do something about the ever growing amount of art/drawing supplies that seem to find their way into every spare drawer or cupboard we have.
I gathered everything up in a big messy pile and dove in. BIG trash sack for this project.
Now you can find coloring books and stencils in one drawer…
and all types of paper in another. And another drawer (not shown) full of all of their art supplies.
Now the girls can play, get dressed, and create in a clean, organized fashion. As for me, I just FEEL better.
The second we get out the holiday decor Ellie finds her “baby’s first Christmas” hat and puts it on. Whenever we’re home in the month of December, she’s wearing it. She was so beyond excited to decorate. This girl reminds me more of myself everyday.
(Baby Ellie in her hat – Christmas 2004)
Next, Ellie insisted on hanging up Kenny’s hideous Charger sock so the baby could have one too. This really throws off the look I’m going for here. I figure my options are: to leave the sock up and make her happy OR to order the baby a matching sock with Aladdin on it (since we still have no name for the little one and that is what the girls are calling him). Guess I’m leaving the Charger sock up. This third kid thing is already mellowing me out.
I’m awfully sorry that I’ve neglected you lately but I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. You see, Kenny and I try to take a trip each year without the kiddos and while we didn’t have the time to head to Virginia like last year (my favorite place to be in the Fall), we did find a way to escape for a quick weekend to Denver, Colorado. Where the Chargers were playing. Of course. The deal was that if I went to the game with Kenny, the rest of the trip would be ‘Erin’ style. This meant lots of Christmas shopping, eating out, exploring the city, and … being the first in line to see “New Moon.” And that’s just what we did.
The game ended up being really fun. Because the Chargers won. And we were surrounded by Broncos fans. And they didn’t like us much. But we didn’t care. Because we won. And we were wearing huge parkas that we borrowed from my parents. Because we don’t own parkas. And we were freezing cold. Even though underneath our parkas we were wearing four layers of clothes. But the game was still really fun. Because the Chargers won. And Kenny was so happy. Which always makes me happy too.
While in Denver we also mingled with strange Broncos fans.
And ate breakfast everyday at The Delectable Egg. I would eat there every morning for the rest of my life if I could. And I don’t even love eggs. But their Belgian waffles were amazing.
Then it was back to Southern Utah to spend Thanksgiving with our families where we had a wonderful holiday with loved ones and enjoyed eating lots of yummy turkey. Speaking of eating, dear blog of mine, that is another reason I haven’t posted lately. I’ve been way too busy eating. Recently eating has become quite a priority for me, and I’m all about priorities. I seemed to have timed this whole second trimester during the holidays thing just right. I am hungry all the time and lucky for me, there seems to be delicious food around all the time. The other night I had downed a whole burrito and was starting on someone else’s leftovers when Kenny called from the couch “come here babe…I want to cuddle with you for a minute.” I know what he really meant was “C’mon babe. Put down the fork and step away from the kitchen. Slowly now…you can do it…” Do you ever eat while you’re on the computer and get little food crumbs under your key pad and then your keys start to stick? But really you sometimes do it on purpose because that little air thing that blows dust out from under your key pad is just so fun to use?
Do you ever feed your kids chicken nuggets for four nights in a row? And you feel incredibly guilty about this and everything else you’re not doing in the “good mom” department? And then you decide to be positive and to focus on what you are doing in the “good mom” department and you justify the chicken nuggets by thinking at least my kids aren’t going hungry?
Do you ever get a little too into your music while exercising? You’re on the treadmill and your ponytail starts bobbing and your hips start swaying and you maybe even get so pumped up that before you know it you’re punching the air to the beat of the music? And you get interesting looks from other fellow exercisers? And you suddenly realize that you’re at the gym and not in the privacy of your own garage where you usually rock out while on the treadmill?
Do you ever get so excited about an upcoming getaway trip with your husband that you start packing way too early? And then realize how stupid this is because for the next week you’re pulling everything back out of your suitcase just to get ready for the day?
Do you ever have bizarre dreams like about how your sister-in-law (who is pregnant for the first time) just bought over a thousand penguins and was so excited about starting a penguin farm? And you kept freaking out and trying to tell her that she just doesn’t understand how much work a new baby is (because who really understands until they’ve lived through it) and how she’ll never be able to deal with a newborn AND take care of all of those penguins? And she thinks it’s no big deal and, as the wise veteran mom, this is making you completely crazy?
Do you ever catch yourself watching worthless, mindless soaps like Young and the Restless? And every time you watch it you think why am I watching this? This is such a stupid storyline and the actors are awful. And you know it’s the most unproductive way to spend your time so you try to justify it by cleaning or folding clothes while it’s on? And you vow to never watch it again, but then a few days later you’ve tivod it you are home when it happens to be on. And you watch it again because there is just something about the love triangle between Nick and Phylis and Sharon that you can’t seem to pull yourself away from?
Do you ever?
No? Really?
Yeah…me neither.
Just a couple of fun things I ordered on-line and wanted to share. If you’re like me and have little girls at your house this tea kettle and toaster from Pottery Barn Kids are sure to be a hit for Christmas. The tea kettle makes the sound of water boiling and tea being poured out when you tip it. The toaster is just like a real toaster with fake toast that pops up when it dings. Addison LOVES these. Every time I’ve taken her to PB Kids she has played with them the entire time we’re in the store. When I went to buy them they were sold out in the store so I had to order them on-line. They are a bit pricey (30 each) so if you were just going to get one, I’d go with the tea kettle. The sounds it makes are SO REAL…it is the coolest toy for little girls who are into tea parties. You can order them here.
If you’re into scrapbooking I’m sure you’ve heard about Becky Higgins’ new “Project Life.” Last year she came out with a new way of scrapbooking with her “Project 365” where you take a picture a day for an entire year. I didn’t buy it because for me, this blog is our family scrapbook, and for my kids’ books I didn’t want to have to commit to a picture a day. Well this year she tweaked it a little. The concept is the same – you’re just putting in pictures with a little journaling – but you don’t have to commit to a picture a day. You can do a layout with pictures from the week and then the next week fill the page with pictures from a b-day party, etc. I bought two of them thinking I’ll have one for Ellie and one for Addison and this next year I’m going to try using these for their individual books. I just can’t keep up with scrapbooking for them and I don’t think things are going to get any easier with one more child in the mix! (and another baby book to get done) The thought of just having to organize pictures (which I take a million of anyway) and do a little journaling in an album that is already all put together is so appealing! Plus it just seems like an easier way to showcase the everyday stuff instead of all of the “events”. The pictures can be totally individual and random. Then I can be creative and scrapbook for our holiday books and whatever else I want when I have time and am in the mood…while hopefully staying on top of my kids’ albums. Plus everything that comes in the kit is just so cute and fun! If you’re into digital scrapbooking, Becky is making a digital project life too. I personally prefer the paper stuff…it’s all about the supplies for me. :) Anyway, if this sounds like something that may work for your family or kids’ albums you can learn more about it here. I’m very excited about this! 
We went to So You Think You Can Dance! Third year we’ve gone and it just keeps getting better! Only bummer was that they wouldn’t let me take my camera in this year. Good thing I had my point and shoot around last year when Mary Murphy showed up. (I seriously scaled a wall to get that picture with her – and still have the bruises to prove it) Right now I’m in the process of creating a purse with a trap door at the bottom to hide my camera in for just such occasions. Next time – I’ll be prepared. My friend Ann had her camera and took the above picture of the two of us, along with the picture below of me and Kenny with some of our favorite friends from Southern Utah. So fun to meet up with everyone!
The TASTEE FREEZ background adds a nice touch, don’t you think? It’s making me hungry right now. Everything is making me hungry right now.
The girls ate breakfast upstairs and we broke into the Christmas movies…just a few.
I couldn’t wait.
I took Ellie to a 50’s themed b-day party.
Cool that she got to wear her Halloween costume again.
Also cool that she and her buddies rode to the party in a limousine. 
And in the last few days, Addie and I have done LOTS and LOTS of laundry. On to the next few days which will include a lot of the same stuff. Except for SYTYCD since that’s a once a year thing. And except for the limo ride since that’s a once in a lifetime thing. And except for breakfast upstairs and Christmas movies since that’s a weekend thing. Around here:
we’re into barbie dolls and barbie movies…
castles and princesses…
and we really love butterflies.
We also love hair bows and jewelry…
and having tea parties in our pink playroom.
And around here there’s always LOTS of chatter and drama.The best way for us to stay in touch! Sign up for my newsletter so you’ll never miss a post! You’ll also gain access to all of my home and organization printables.
