Happy Birthday.....

...to me!!! I've started to dread my birthday and the whole getting older thing, but this year was wonderful! My parents came to visit, hubby took me to the Nutcracker and I got my first overnight away from my kids (ever!!), and I though there's nothing I really need, I received some very thoughtful gifts.

And another family picture! :)

These little ones make me the happiest.

Check out the cake--frosting overload. Have you ever seen so much frosting on a cake before!?

Ella made me the best birthday card. It even had a lift-the-flap part with her picture underneath. I loved it!

I hope this year will be my best year yet. :)

Paaaar-tay!

We had to celebrate the fact that Miss Ella has at last decided pooping in the potty is the way to go. We've tried everything to get her to do it in the potty for a solid year to no avail. A few weeks ago she just changed her mind and decided to do it! Amazing! I was told she'd do it in her own time and that's exactly what she did. We are beyond proud. We celebrated by taking her to Chuck E. Cheese (she loves that place), a small cake and even a few presents. She was so happy and proud of herself. What an accomplishment. :)

She picked out a cute little Turkey cake from the store.

Yummy!

And the turkey cookies Ella and I worked hard making for the dinner at school for good measure. :)

:)

Preschool Thanksgiving Dinner

Tonight we went to Ella's preschool for their Thanksgiving dinner.

Ella's place seating.

My cuties and me.

The family.

Love them!!

:))))))))))

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It’s that time of year again!

I love this time of year. Christmas is in the air! I love pulling up my Christmas decorations, baking cookies with my daughter, and, of course, making my Christmas card. It's even more fun now that I have kids of my own. Shutterfly always has such a variety of unique and beautiful designs, and there are some great new ones this year.

I use Shutterfly a lot for creating some great keepsakes. The quality is is great and the the final product always comes out stunning. Both my kids have beautiful birth photo books as well as first year books, and every year I give my parents a calendar highlighting the past year….and they always love it. Check out this one! So cute!

But it's so hard to choose. I spend way too much time choosing the card. Shutterfly doesn't make it easy to pick one. :) I wish there was a way to get a a small "variety pack" with different designs.

I love the simplicity of this one

Loving this one too!

But I’ll probably have trouble choosing just one picture too as well – so maybe I’ll go with this one…

or I really love this one

Oh wait, perhaps this will be the one this year!

Decisions, decision...!

Thank you Shutterfly! :)

If you're a fellow blogger and want to receive 50 free Christmas cards, help spread the word! Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly if you click here.

Their babies

These two are so incredibly sweet. Perhaps I'm biased, but I think they are the sweetest little people in the whole world.

Ella loves to carry her babies around, and she's figured out how to do it by sticking it down her shirt. :) So today after seeing big sis walk around like that William wanted to do it with his baby.

And then later William was doing it again.

And Ella..

They melt my little heart. I'd like to try to make Ella (and now William) a baby carrier. I know they'd love that. :)

Sweet, sweet, sweet...

Thankful Wreath

Ella made this "thankful wreath" today. She loves getting her hand traced and after we were done, she proceeded to trace her own hand and insist I cut them out so she could make another wreath. That wreath, I just now notice, is stuck to the front door....she put it there herself. Aww... she's so darn sweet...

We have so much to be thankful for.

Indian Corn

Ella and I were able to make a couple different Indian corns today.

She was so cute. She had little squares of red, orange and yellow and sorted the colors first before adding them to her corn.

All done! Good fine motor practice and it turned out cute! :)

Bubble wrap Indian corn

Ella and I made this today using bubble wrap.

Then using her fingerprint to add some nice red pieces in there.

I glued on some husks and voila!

A nice thanksgiving decoration for our house. (Ella keeps thinking it's Christmastime already, but I keep telling her we have to celebrate Thanksgiving before we get to Christmas!) :)

A Beautiful November Day

Today was so gorgeous we had to get outside and enjoy it while it lasts. The sun was out keeping us nice and warm! No coats or sweaters even necessary! Loved it!

Today was the perfect weather. I wish every November day could be like this. I'm just not ready for the cold, grey skies and possible snow!

Just because....

his big smile and infectious laugh make me so, so happy. :)

My little beggar

My little sweet thing cracks me up. He does this funny thing with his hands when he wants something from us.

He holds his hands out like a pauper! I have no idea where he came up with this!

It's too funny. :)

Check her out!

My little pirate wearing her $1.50 costume from Target! Ella loved dressing up and playing in it. What fun! :)

Paper Plate Turkey

Ella was excited to get sponge painting her paper plate. :)

After sponge painting, she added the turkey that I'd already cut out.

Glued on the eyes, etc, and voila!

Coffee Filter Handprint Turkey

Ella was all about making "decorations" today, so we made this cute turkey.

First she colored two coffee filters with markers.

Then I traced (bigger though) both her hands and cut them out. Then she sprayed them with water to have the colors blend.

I also traced Ella's little foot on brown paper to be the turkey.

Then she glued the feathers onto the back, added wiggly eyes, a beak, a giblet and feet and we have a cute little turkey.

So cute!

More Halloween pics

I didn't get any pictures really of the two on halloween, so they happily agreed to put their costumes back on today so I could get some pictures. :)

Get this ridiculous bear hat off me!

Not sure what he was looking at here, I just thought it was cute. :)

Do I have the cutest little kids or what? :)