Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of my readers out there!  Wishing you a day filled with joy, family, and love!

Super Secret Christmas Project 2012

Hello and Happy Friday! :)  First Friday of 2013!  Whoo hoo!

Now that all of the intended recipients have received their handmade Christmas gift from Annaliese, we can finally share with you what they were!  :)

While browsing Pinterest, I came across 2 fun and easy ideas to give as Christmas gifts from Annaliese.

First : A "Hand"-made ornament.

1/2 cup of all purpose white flour
1/2 cup of salt
Approximately 1/4 cup of cold water (I had to add a tiny bit more, but didn't measure)

Mix it and knead it with your hands and presto!  You have dough!

Roll it flat to about 1/4'-1/2' thick, get a hand imprint, then cut out the hand leaving about 1/4' around.

*If you're making them into hanging ornaments, make sure you make a hole for the ribbon before baking them.

Bake at 200 degrees for 4 hours.

Justin and I got creative and each made an ornament for Annaliese too 

Here's the finished product, after some acrylic paint, a sharpie and some ribbon!

We loved how they turned out and the family loved receiving them!  We are thinking of doing one every year and having them hanging in chronological order on our wall at Christmas time, but we'll see if that actually happens :)

Second : just for the grandparents, we bought some pre-stretched  canvas frames from Michaels and took Annaliese's foot prints and made them into pictures.  (Also inspired by Pinterest)

We're very pleased with how these turned out and Justin and I (and Annaliese too) really enjoyed making these for our family.  It was really inexpensive, very simple, very fun and most importantly, very treasured because handmade gifts from young ones are the best.  :)

Christmas Happened!

After all of the hectic  preparing, Christmas has bitter-sweetly come and gone.

Shopping, wrapping, cooking, making, painting, tagging, exchanging, cleaning, and making room for all the new toys...it was so worth the many smiles!

Here's a recap of the last week's Christmas festivities!

Thursday 12/20 - Justin and I went shopping start to finish!  It was nice to have a "date day", but it was very exhausting to day the least.  We're still recovering - physically... and financially!

Friday 12/21 - We wrapped our little hearts out and worked on our super secret Christmas project that I can't yet reveal to you because we still have another "Christmas weekend" to be had.

"Good All Year - Just Ask Santa" shirt

Saturday 12/22 - Justin and I cleaned the house and then hopped in the car to go pick up my mother in law and aunt in law and headed up to Hershey, PA to drive through an hour and a half of their "Sweet Lights" Candylane display.  It was a lot of fun, but it was also a long time to be in the car.  Annaliese did really well though!

Sunday 12/23 - We had some last minute shopping to do and had a friend come over and Justin's other aunt and uncle stopped by to give Annaliese a Christmas gift.  We also did some online shopping and ordered Annaliese a "replacement" Teddy Bear because the one she has now and cannot sleep without...has seen better days.

Monday 12/24 - We finished wrapping, had a visit with Justin's cousin, Paige, did some baking enjoyed watching our first "real" snow of the season!  I was very excited to have a White Christmas!  We had plans to go to Justin's dad's old church for their Christmas Eve Candle Light service so we hopped in the car and carefully arrived to church.  It was nice to see familiar faces in a church we used to regularly attend, but since that was the first time we had been there since Justin's dad passed away, it was very hard to see the chair he used to sit in and the pulpit he used to preach at...empty.  The church had a Christmas tree decorated and still put up Ron and Elaine's Christmas decorations, which we thought was very nice.  Annaliese liked hearing the Christmas carols sung by the congregation and applauded.

Then Santa Came...

Tuesday 12/25 - CHRISTMAS!

I'll save the majority of the Christmas pictures for another post, but here are a few from Christmas morning, just the three of us.  Our camera wasn't fully charged yet so these are just iPhone pictures.

Daddy insisted on buying Annaliese this piano!  It's perfect for her and she loves it!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse table and chairs

Her first puzzle!

Mickey Mouse tent, tunnel and ball pit!

More books!

After Annaliese opened all her gifts, we got ready for the day and had my mom, my grandma, my aunt, my brother, Justin's mom and Justin's aunt come over for brunch and to exchange gifts.  It was a very busy morning for Annaliese, so after she opened all of her gifts she took a nap and the adults finished exchanging gifts. 

(Pictures to come in another post)

Once Annaliese woke up, we ALL (except my aunt) headed over to my brother and sister in law's house for Christmas dinner at 3pm.  It was nice to have my family, Justin's family and even my sister in law's family all at the same dinner table.  Good food was had, great laughs were shared, then onto more presents!

Ashley, Jenn and the back of my grandma's head

Elaine, Ginger, Ricky, Ashley and the back of Judy's head

Annaliese, me, my mom and my grandma

me

Ashley, Jenn, my mom, and I

Wednesday 12/26 - Snow Day!  Justin worked a half day at work and came home and we played in the snow.  Well we tried to.  Apparently Annaliese is more like her daddy when it comes to snow and isn't really fond of it.  But she looked really cute in her new snow suit!

Thursday 12/27 - Justin worked from home due to the bad roads.  We had Justin's cousins come visit us and bring Annaliese some more gifts.  She got 2 new books and a Minnie Mouse chair that she loves!

Friday 12/28 - While Justin was at work, Annaliese and I stayed inside, played with some new toys, cleaned a little, did some laundry and got the guest room prepared for Papou and Nana's arrival the next day.

Today- Saturday 12/29 - We're waiting for Papou and Nana to arrive and Annaliese is in rare form today.  The teething monster has stolen my happy baby girl and will not give her back!  Hopefully this doesn't last all weekend and we can have a good and semi-peaceful visit.  (Believe me, you don't want to see a picture of this)  haha!

So there's a little recap and our family life up to date.  Christmas presents post to come later!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa ..whatever holiday you celebrate :)

Getting More In The Christmas Spirit

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope you had a great weekend!  I meant to post this yesterday, but was just too tired.  

Our weekend was filled with lots of cookies and lots of Santa!

Annaliese and I went to spend time with Aunt Jenn on Friday and made some cookies!  I made some Heath bar cookies and Jenn made Andes Peppermint cookies.  Mine came out a little harder than I expected, but they still tasted yummy!  Jenn's cookies were delicious!

Jenn's yummy cookies

My yummy cookies

Annaliese had fun looking out the glass door into the backyard.  We don't have that luxury at our house ;)

Then on Sunday, Justin and I took Annaliese to see Santa for the first time.  She did very well waiting in line for about a half hour, then when Justin put her on Santa's lap, she looked up at him and wondered why she was sitting on him.  She only fussed a little bit and we were able to get some really good pictures of them together before she wasn't having it anymore!  Haha!  Here's our favorite!

T minus 2 weeks until Christmas!!

Wordless Wednesday - The Magic Of Christmas

20 more days till Christmas!

Technically Not A First Christmas

Our First Christmas as a Family's Ornaments

Technically it's not Annaliese's first Christmas.

She was a young 2 1/2 month old when Christmas came around last year.  Justin and I had intentions of decorating the house and putting up a tree because we were excited for Christmas as a new family of three.  But sadly, as you know, because of my father in law passing away on December 15th, we no longer had the Christmas spirit left in us to do any bit of decorating or wrapping, or singing or baking.  We just wanted to sit and cry together as a family.  There were no pictures taken other than Annaliese in her Christmas PJs on that Christmas day.

Annaliese in her Christmas PJs on Christmas Day

THIS YEAR is a whole new world for Annaliese.  Justin and I are excited about Christmas this year.  We've already begun playing Christmas music, we have put up our Christmas tree and decorated it with loving ornaments from Justin and I's childhood, we've hung our stockings, we've watched Christmas classics like Charlie Brown Christmas and Muppets Christmas Carol, and soon, I'll be whipping up some yummy cookies to hand out to the family.

Justin and I's First Christmas ornaments

Very intrigued by the lights

"Our First Christmas" ornament from 2010

Sammie enjoying the Christmas tree

Annaliese's first Christmas ornament next to one of daddy's guitar ornaments

I can't wait to take many many pictures and videos of this "First" Christmas with our (will be) 14 1/2 month old.  She will be so spoiled by her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that we may need a bigger toy box after this ;)