…is going to be a really good thing.
xoxo, Erin
Ellie
01.26.10
Ellie and Addison
01.24.10
El’s birthday weekend
Our good good friends from Utah, Ryan and Josie, came for a much anticipated visit to help us celebrate Ellie’s birthday. Kenny and Ryan have been best friends since High School and Josie and I hit it off from day one. Plus our kids are the same ages and get along great. Doesn’t get any better than that! Pierson (their 6 year old son) and Ellie are best buddies and all she wanted for her birthday this year was to go to Disneyland with Pierson. She was so excited for them to come that she spent the week before drawing all sorts of pictures for them and talking non-stop about everything we would be doing for her birthday. It was like Christmas round two! Ellie has learned from her mother the skillful art of milking your birthday for all it’s worth and then some. :)
Addison was clearly just as excited as Ellie to have our friends for a visit.
We decided to hit SeaWorld while they were here too. We never get tired of the place. Clearly.
{Kiddos on our way to church} Sunday was a fun day in between the theme park days. We relaxed at home together, celebrated Ellie’s birthday, had a BBQ and let the kids play play play while we talked talked talked. I love days like that.
We got hotel rooms and spent two days at Disneyland. I think the kids had just as much fun playing in the hotel rooms with their new toys as they did at the park!
We had heard that the two days we were going to be in Disneyland were going to be full of rain. More rain than Southern California had seen since 1950! Massive downpours. So we were prepared. We packed rain gear for everyone and hoped for the best. It definitely rained on us, but it ended up being the best thing ever. The park cleared out and we were walking on all of the rides. I’ve never seen the lines so short! The kids had fun splashing around in the rain and when it got really bad, we headed to our hotel for a break and then came back to an empty park when the sun came out. I’ve decided that all Disneyland trips need to be planned during rain storms.
I know. We’ve seen the princesses probably ten times this year, but it’s usually a 1-2 hour line to meet them and there was NOBODY waiting. Just us and them. The girls were in princess heaven.
The Roller Coaster in Toontown is one of Ellie’s favorites. She cracks me up on rides throwing her hands up in the air and laughing the whole time. El’s a fun one to hang out with.
The Monsters ride at California Adventure is another ride the girls love. Because there was no line we went on it again and again and again…
Small World was still decked in Christmas decor which was a fun change. Made me wish it was Christmas again.
Such a fun four days spent with friends! We had the best time. Such a great time that I wish we could do it all over again for my birthday. Which is in 47 days. (not that I’m counting)
The Monsters ride at California Adventure is another ride the girls love. Because there was no line we went on it again and again and again…
Small World was still decked in Christmas decor which was a fun change. Made me wish it was Christmas again.
Such a fun four days spent with friends! We had the best time. Such a great time that I wish we could do it all over again for my birthday. Which is in 47 days. (not that I’m counting) xoxo, Erin
Ellie
01.21.10
Ellie’s Birthday
My sweet Ellie turned six yesterday. We have spent the last four days celebrating with good friends and have partied non stop! She had a great birthday and is so excited to be six years old. Mom, on the other hand is not so excited. We got home from Disneyland last night and once the girls were in bed I started to cry and didn’t stop for a long time. Partly because our fun party was over, partly because I’m ridiculously hormonal right now, but mostly because Ellie is growing up way too fast and I want her to stop. Ellie is all the best parts of me and Kenny and there is nothing that beats being her mom. If I could freeze her in time right now I would. I would spend the rest of my life listening to her play pretend with her barbies and stuffed animals, watching her take care of her little sister Addison, hanging her creative artwork all over the walls, and listening to her laughter that fills our house every day. 
xoxo, Erin
Christmas
01.15.10
Christmas Card Pages
In 2004 (our first year with Ellie) Kenny and I started sending out Christmas cards. That’s also the year I started saving all of the cards I received from family and friends. I LOVED having pictures of so many loved ones and I wanted to keep them. Now (six years later) my card collection was getting out of control. I knew I couldn’t keep everything so I came up with this solution. Each year I’m going to pick a handful of cards and scrap them (one layout per year). I took the pictures off of the cards and cropped them and then arranged them around making a little collage of sorts. I tried to use different families each year so that at one point I’ll have everyone we receive cards from in our Christmas album. Here’s how they turned out…
I kept it simple so it’s easy to do each year. This honestly didn’t take me long at all and I’m so excited to finally have a solution for what to do with my cards! I’m trying to decide if I should type each families name on a little square to put on each picture or just leave them like they are. Anyway, thought I’d share this idea in case any of you are like me and don’t want to part with Christmas cards, but can’t keep saving them all either! I love that now they will be out in our Christmas album each December for our family to remember and enjoy along with pictures of our past Christmases. p.s. I know a lot of you reading my blog have your picture on display here…hope you don’t mind. You all look lovely. :)
xoxo, Erin
Feeling Creative
01.13.10
Junk in the trunk and other randomness
Ok… I try to post some nice family pictures and the comments end up being about my butt? HA! You’re all quite amusing. :) The truth is that my “ghetto booty” (as my friend Malea so nicely put it) has been a bit of a blessing and a curse my whole life. It’s not so bad when I keep my weight under control, but when I’m pregnant – and gaining weight like a prize fighter – I don’t love the booty so much. Right now I think my stomach and butt are having a competition to see which can pop out the furthest the fastest. I’m not sure which is winning…it’s close. Very close. That being said, it did land me my husband (always nice to hear from you on the blog babe) so I guess I should be grateful. And here I thought he first fell in love with my glowing personality.
Also in the comments on my last post a few of you asked about making your blog into a book. I’ve started one, but haven’t finished. Go to www.blurb.com and it will walk you through everything. You download their “Book Smart” software and then it will let you “slurp” your blog. This just pulls your blog up on the sidebar so you can create a book by clicking on the pictures/text from your blog and then dragging them where you want on each page of the book. For each page you pick a layout based on how many pictures/text you want to include. It’s really easy, just time consuming. Which is why I’ve only started this little project and not finished it. If anyone else has experience in making one and wants to add something helpful, feel free to in the comments. I’m sure many of you can explain it better than I can.
So this morning I had so many things I should have been doing. Like cleaning this playroom.
Or doing laundry or cleaning the rest of my house which resembles this playroom. But instead I got Ellie off to school and since Addison was tending to her dolls all morning…
(putting them in beds under the toy Ellie hung from the stairs to entertain them), I found myself with some time. Time that I didn’t want to waste cleaning.
So instead I ate WAY too many cherries. And did some scrapbooking.
I started our Halloween book. Yes, this is Ellie’s first Halloween six years ago – like I said, I’m a bit behind. And then I decided I wasn’t in the mood for Halloween pages and I switched gears and started working on my Christmas book. I finally got around to doing something with all of the Christmas cards I’ve saved from family and friends and I’m so excited about having it done! I’ll post it as soon as I find some time to take pictures or scan my pages.
In other fun news, our guest room won’t be empty for too much longer.
We have some good friends coming to visit this weekend to help us celebrate Ellie’s 6th birthday and I’m so excited! The weekend can’t get here soon enough…although I have a lot to get done before they arrive. Better start with that playroom.
xoxo, Erin
Ellie and Addison
01.11.10
Photo Shoot
Some pics from our Christmas card photo shoot (for a time – in the not too foreseeable future – when I get around to making this blog into a book).
xoxo, Erin
home decor 2
01.08.10
A clean view
My left kitchen window has been driving me crazy for over a year now. The outside and inside panel weren’t stuck together tight enough and dirt has been getting in between them making my window always look dirty no matter how clean I scrub it. I called to get an estimate for a new one and it was $300! Who wants to spend $300 on a window? So Kenny and I put if off because we had so many other more appealing ways to spend our money. :) Every day though, I’d open my kitchen blinds and that dirty window would bug me every time I glanced outside. A few days ago Kenny called home from work and said “I know that kitchen window is driving you nuts, why don’t you go ahead and get it fixed.” Sweet! I called and scheduled a new one to be put in ASAP (before he changed his mind). Just got the new window put in and what a difference! Now I am loving the clean view of my little lemon tree and the flowers growing on my backyard hill (you can’t really see them in the picture, but they’re there…looking lovely). Thanks again babe.
Hope you all have a great weekend and take some time to enjoy the view. :)
xoxo, Erin
organization2
01.07.10
Today
Today I’ve been craving rootbeer.
Today Addison heard the song “Soul Sister” on the radio and decided it was about her and Ellie.
Today I got a Golden Spoon yogurt. Pomegranate blueberry. It was SO good. Might be my new favorite. I felt guilty though, getting one without Addison. She’s my yogurt girl. She would eat yogurt every day for every meal when if I let her.
Today we ate cereal for lunch. Not yogurt.
Today I got my glucose test done. Had to drink that nasty orange drink. Why don’t they give you something tastier? Like rootbeer.
Today it was so sunny and warm outside. Felt like summer time.Today I put the last of our Christmas stuff away. I was bummed to take it down this year. Especially the tree. I love the lights so much. I seriously debated leaving it up all year. I thought about making it a Valentines Day tree, and then decorate it for St. Patty’s Day (a personal favorite), and then for Spring, and the 4th of July… but then Kenny took it down. And I let him. Maybe next year.
Today the girls continued to enjoy their new Christmas toys.
Today I attacked my scrapbook room and started cleaning up my Christmas card explosion.
Today my Project Life kits came in the mail. YEA! I’m so excited.
Today I spread them out along with my baby kit (yes, I love Becky Higgins. And her scrapbooking kits) and starting putting everything together. This is the beginning of my “stay on top of kids’ scrapbooks in 2010 plan.”
Step 1: Put everything together ahead of time. (use pre-planned kits taking away a lot of the creative process that I love, but just don’t have time for in this phase of my life).
Step 2: Organize folders on computer for each child’s book. Inside each month’s picture folder, I have a folder for blog post pics, random pics (ones I want to keep but don’t blog), and a folder for each child’s scrapbook pics. As soon as I download pics, they get deleted or edited and put in the correct folder.
Step 3: Print Print Print! The one thing that’s not so great about this digital picture/blogging craze is that I never develop my pictures anymore. I miss seeing actual pictures in books. Pictures to hold and touch and look at and remember. 2010 is going to be my year of developing!
Step 4: Be selective with what I print. I take A LOT of pictures. I’m going to work really hard to just pick a picture or two from an event that really tells the story of what’s going on instead of feeling like I need to scrapbook all twenty for each child. Hoping this helps with feeling overwhelmed by it all.
Step 5: Show progress once in awhile on my blog. Hopefully that will motivate me to stay on top of things! (***but I make no promises during newborn stage – April through June. I know I’ll be lucky to take a shower during that phase, let alone scrapbook)
Today I’m feeling good about my scrapbook plan and everything I got done. I think it’s time for that rootbeer.
xoxo, Erin
Ramblings
01.06.10
2010 Goals
I love to set goals, but I usually do it in September instead of January. (reasoning behind this I wrote about here) But this January, I do have three simple goals I’m hoping to accomplish in 2010.
Goal #1 – Steer clear of Emergency Rooms. The ER seems to be my new hangout these days and I think I’ve had just about enough of the place.
Goal #2 – My second goal is to stay on top of my kids’ scrapbooks during the year. This is an area I have totally slacked in and I am beyond behind. Oh well. I’m not going to worry about catching up at this point. I’m just going to focus on a realistic way I can stay on top of things next year. I’m writing up a plan that will hopefully set me up for success. More on that plan tomorrow night.
Goal #3 – There’s always a lot of blog buzz about picking your “word” for the year. A word that helps define your goals. My word for last year was “action” because I was hoping to stop just making to-do lists of projects I wanted to someday complete and to actually complete them. Looking back I think I did ok – some things were completed and some weren’t. This year I didn’t have to give much thought to my word. In fact it came to me almost immediately. My word for 2010 is “survive.” I’m hoping to survive the third trimester I’m heading into. Hoping to survive another newborn stage. And hoping to survive the beginning of life with three little ones. I’m especially worried about surviving the newborn stage because looking back that stage was particularly hard on me with both of my girls. Newborns, while adorable and sweet, also bring with them sleepless nights, unpredictability, non-stop care, and all together too much crying. I do MUCH better when my babies are 3-4 months old and are starting to develop a bit of a schedule. I like schedules. That said, I really want to enjoy this third and last baby…even during the newborn stage. If I can survive those three months and come out smiling, I will be one happy mom.
That’s it. 3 goals for the year. No more ER. Stay on top of the kids’ books. Survive baby #3.
Seems simple enough, right?
What are your goals for the New Year?
xoxo, Erin
Ellie and Addison
01.03.10
Our minute in the snow
Admittedly my children have been deprived. Growing up in sunny San Diego with grandparents residing in sunny southern Utah, they haven’t had many opportunities to see snow. Ellie played in the snow once when she was two but she can’t remember it and Addison – never. I knew it was time to do something about this when they started talking about snow after seeing it on an episode of Max & Ruby. They spoke of it like it was such a strange, foreign thing. Ellie said, “and guess what mom…my teacher has SEEN snow and even TASTED it.” Like her teacher was the most unique and privileged person on the planet. So while we were in Utah over Christmas my parents bought the girls “I love Utah” hats and took them to see snow.
They were beyond excited. 
Of course, my girls have no snow clothes or boots so my dad had to improvise by tying Target sacks around their shoes and holding them together with duct tape. Classic.
They had a great time tasting the snow…
touching the snow…
and running and playing in the snow.
And then after a whole 15 minutes of playing in the snow they took off their gloves. They realized that snow is cold. And wet. And not as fun as they thought it might be. 
And they both started to cry and wanted to come home and not play in the snow anymore.
They felt much better after they had warmed up and roasted a few marshmellows by the fire. And now we’re back home in San Diego and our forecast for the week is looking like this.
And I don’t think the girls mind it one bit.
xoxo, Erin
Christmas
01.01.10
Glimpses of Christmas
{Christmas At Home}
Letters, cookies and milk for Santa. Cheese for Santa Mouse.
Letter from Santa
{Christmas At Mom’s}
(25 WEEKS)
(Mom and Dad)
{Insert the only NOT so fun part of my Christmas vacation. Shortly after the above pictures were taken I went to lunch with my family and then my mom and I went shopping. We were in the parking lot of a store when I stepped wrong and dislocated my left knee (this has happened to me countless times – both of my knee caps pop out of place every now and again). This was a bad one and I fell flat on the pavement with most of my weight landing on my left elbow. I was in a lot of pain and nearly passed out so my mom took me to the ER. We were both worried about what the fall did to the baby and thankfully the baby is fine. I, however, cracked a bone in my arm and my knee is swollen the size of a grapefruit leaving me pretty much immobile. I can kinda limp around with one crutch with my one good arm on my one good leg. Good times. My family has been great to help Kenny with the girls and hopefully everything will heal soon.}
We were going to go to lunch with friends the day after my little accident but since I couldn’t go, they picked up sandwiches and came to me. :)
Aside from my injuries I had a wonderful Christmas. I have the greatest friends. I have the best family. I love my husband and girls. I can’t wait to meet my little boy. I can’t wait to take pictures with my new lens. I can’t wait for my knee and arm to heal. I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore. I can’t wait for 2010. Bring it on. Happy New Year everyone!xoxo, Erin
Christmas
12.24.09
December Traditions
December is full of so many fun activities. We’ve loved creating some of our own traditions as well as celebrating traditions that were part of my childhood.
Every December we enjoy the fun holiday art the kids bring home and every December we pull out our Advent calendar. My grandma made this calendar for me and my siblings when we were little and I love seeing my girls use it now. Each day they pull out a little nativity figurine to place on the tree (a wise man, soldier, sheep, etc.) and then baby Jesus and the star on Christmas Eve. They were so excited to finish the tree this morning!
This was my fourth year going up to Addison’s pre-school to help with Christmas cookies. It has become a fun little tradition for me regardless of which child is attending at the time.
One of my cute neighbors throws a neighborhood holiday party every December that we all really look forward to. We used to do a playgroup once a week but as the kids have gotten older it has been harder to get together and we miss it! It’s always so fun to catch up with friends while the kids do crafts and play.
This month was also full of lots of school parties and performances (above is Addison with her favorite teacher during her holiday performance) and LOTS of lights. We’ve enjoyed the lights in our own yard and driving around looking at other lights at night. We always take a trip to “Christmas Card Lane” – a neighborhood of houses that are decked in lights with Disney paintings and themes. The girls love getting out of their seat belts and standing in the car with windows down and the heat on full blast. They run back and forth from one window to another… “Add, look! It’s Ariel!” “Over here Ellie! It’s Peter Pan!” People are out walking the streets with hot chocolate and everyone is waving and yelling “Merry Christmas!” Such a fun holiday atmosphere and one of my favorite San Diego traditions. We also always make a trip to the temple to see the nativity and lights. The girls get to be in pajamas with hair not done – as was the tradition when I was a little girl. :)
Kenny and I have started a little date night tradition of going to the Poinsettia Bowl together every December if we’re still in town. We went last night and had a great time together. Utah was playing and won which made it even more fun. GO UTES! 
This year we started a new tradition with “The Elf on the Shelf.” I’m sure most of you reading this have done it with your family or have heard of it, but for those who haven’t, it’s a little elf that comes to visit every December to watch the kiddos and make sure they are being nice and not naughty. Every morning he is sitting in a different spot to watch over things and the kids can’t touch him or his magic will disappear. Each night he heads back to the North Pole to report to Santa about what he has seen. My girls have LOVED this. They can’t wait to wake up and run downstairs to see where he is hiding. I have LOVED this because it has been a major help in the behavior department. All I have to mention is that “the elf is watching” and any fighting quickly ceases. Brilliant.Our elf has been so sneaky! Here are some of the places he has been hiding this month…
If you have little ones at home this is such a fun tradition to start! This morning my girls woke up and ran downstairs. I called them to see what they were up to and Ellie yelled, “We found the elf! And we put the star on the tree! And there are presents under our Christmas tree! We’re having our own little party!” :) They are so giddy and excited.
We just made cookies and are anxiously awaiting this guy to visit! I don’t know how my girls will sleep tonight. I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight. What’s better than being a 3 or 5 year old on Christmas Eve? Being a mom of a 3 and 5 year old on Christmas Eve.Hope you all have a great Christmas and enjoy this special time with your family!
xoxo, Erin