Browsing Category

Blog

Blog, christmas, Family, holidays, Videos, Vlog

Decking the Halls


One of our favorite Christmas traditions is when we decorate for Christmas in our matching Christmas jammies! Okay, so the tradition only started last year. But it’s something that we all were looking forward to as November came to a close. The best part is that all the pajamas I bought for the kids last year still fit them this year! I couldn’t find another set for Clementine so she gets to play the part of the cutest little Santa baby.

We don’t have a set day to set up our tree, but this year we decided to do it on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We set up our Pandora station and made sure the best Christmas album of all time (Hanson: Snowed In) was on it and then I pretty much let Don and the kids do all the work. I had plans to make another Christmas video like last year but I had a baby to snuggle. Don did make a vlog though! So I’m attaching it at the end of this post because I love it! I hope you watch it because Don works really hard and does such a great job with these videos.

These $3 bottle brush trees from Target!! Love them! I want to fill my house with bottle brush trees. I also love that darling baby!
clementine-and-jessica-002

liam-ornament

I’m not always the best at remembering to take pictures of the little details. But I love this tip toe picture–because one day soon, they won’t need to stand on window sills on their tippy toes to try to put ornaments on the tree.

tiptoes

Kingston and Evangeline worked faithfully on the same little portion of the tree for the entire time.

evangeline-and-kingston

kingston

desmond

kai-tree

Surprisingly, our trouble making 1 year old has been leaving the tree alone for the most part! Not sure how we managed that.

desmond-ornament

evangeline

Notice all those ornaments where Kingston and Evangeline had been working. I’m claiming an artistic eye for both of them.

kai

clementine-and-jessica-003

kingston-tree

This face melts me. She smiles a lot for us but when the camera comes out, she gives this look. It totally cracks me up.

clementine

And this is pretty much how the tree looked by the time they were done. The chaos of the ornaments was totally stressing me out. So the next day I took down all the ornaments, (except a few gold ones) and decided that’s how we were keeping the tree until we could buy new ornaments. We had this same set since we first got married and I was ready for a change.

liam-tree

BUT!! Then I saw a rainbow tree on instagram and decided to pull our ornaments back out to try my own version. I fell in love! It makes me so happy to see all the colors. I do think it needs more/different ornaments but this will definitely keep me smiling until we can purchase discounted ornaments after Christmas is over! Now I’m torn if I should go with my sophisticated and pretty color scheme (think golds, blush, white, mint, red) or if I should stick with this fun color scheme. Thoughts??

tree

And just for fun–our little real life Elf on the Shelf. #haterswillsayitsphotoshop

This is what happens to your elf on the shelf when you aren't watching Magic is real. #haterswillsayitsphotoshop #WHPmagic #darlingclementine

But for real, don’t go calling CPS. She was completely safe.

 

And here is the video for your viewing pleasure..Enjoy!

Blog, iphone, Kids Say, Month In A Minute, Videos

November Recap


Happy December! If you’ve been a long time reader (I’m talking 3 years ago,) you may remember when I did Month in a Minute videos. I recorded 2 seconds of each day and compiled them into a video at the end of each month. I loved doing them but eventually got tired of trying to come up with ideas. I felt like it got a bit boring. But we love going back and watching those videos (all 11 months of them!) It’s amazing how much the kids have changed since then. So for the past few months, I have attempted to start up the project again. And FINALLY! November was the winner! What has really helped is that Don is doing it too on our family vlog–only his video is much fancier than mine. It’s fun to see two different perspectives of this past month.

So here’s this month’s video–and November’s iphone photos and Kids Say!

Is anyone sick of Clementine pictures? No? Good. Because I have some more to share. P.S. Nothing will ever be better than a baby in a bonnet.

iphonenovember2016

Okay, except maybe a baby in a bonnet who matches her sister…

iphonenovember20161

iphonenovember20162

Kingston turned 5 in November! I have a few photos from his birthday that I’ll eventually get around to sharing. But, you know, life is crazy.//Also, this picture of a matching brother/sister duo is so, so precious!

iphonenovember20163

We don’t have a traditional time to put up our tree. But this year we went with the Monday before Thanksgiving. I let the kids decorate with the ornaments we have but I ended up taking most of them down because we’re going to switch them up. Now I just need to find the time to go searching for some good ones!//Also, the Christmas jammies from last year still fit my tiny children. Target changed the way their elf pjs look this year so I couldn’t get a matching pair for Clementine. BUT I decided that we needed a little Santa baby in the mix.

iphonenovember20164

Mabel and Clem are back in their matching attire! These baby BFFs make my heart so happy.//And then the whole BFF baby crew!

iphonenovember20165

And the sweetest little package you could ever find under the Christmas tree.

img_1853
This month I finally remembered to jot down a few things the kids said…although I know I missed some.

Liam–“How old do you have to be to be the president?”

Me–“35”

Liam–“How old is Grandpa?”

Me–“Over 60.”

Liam–“You guys should just vote for him.”

 

(On my birthday)

Kai–“You still look like you’re 28…even though you’re 29.”

 

Me–“Your fever just means that your body is trying to fight the germs.”

Liam–“Yeah, but don’t try to help your body by drinking hand sanitizer.”

 

Evangeline asked to play with “chicken logs” (aka Lincoln Logs.)

 

Reviewing a science lesson about bird feathers–

Me–“What does it mean to have hooked barbules?”

Liam–“Umm…that the barbules are hooked.”

 

In our house, we like to pretend that Santa is real but my kids know that he isn’t. We were talking about how people tell their kids that Santa is real so that they’ll obey and be good kids.

Kai–“So they’re lying? That means that THEY’RE the ones being bad.”

 

Liam was explaining a game they were playing that required them singing very loudly.

Liam–“You’re supposed to sing loud and long…like what a female bird looks for when she wants a mate.”

(At least someone is listening in science class.)

 

That’s all I got! Hope you’re having a good week!