Christmas is under way

Started my Christmas shopping this morning. I wanted to get Livi a toy kitchen for Christmas this year. I found one online for $35 so my mom and I went up to South Hill this morning to pick it up. We also got the kids new outfits for their Santa photos which will be taken here pretty soon.

After nap time this afternoon Livi asked if we could put the tree up. I unburied the tree box in the garage and she helped by passing me branches. I was able to put lights on it, but couldn't find our ornaments. I looked everywhere, thankfully Matt found them before he went to work this evening. I added some ornament, but we'll save the majority for tomorrow night since Matt's off work and that way Livi can help. I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Livi gets the concept of it so she'll have a blast! My partially decorated tree

The kitchen I got her

LadyM design

In October the kids and I modeled a few products for LadyM Designs. Got the photos back recently and realized I forgot the share them. Here's a few :)

Our Thanksgiving

I am overly stuffed for everything I ate this evening. Not even room for dessert, but I did take some to go ;) We walked two houses down to my parents for dinner tonight. My brother Kyle was able to get off work at 5 pm and made it in time to join us. First time in like four years. I tried giving Ian some mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, but he wasn't a fan. I think it was the texture he likes his food more pured then that. My sister's boyfriend, Roger brought his mom and brother over to celebrate with us. It was nice meeting them. Livi loved his mom at one point this evening she was curled up on her lap playing games on her I-phone.

I usually go out on Black Friday and I'm bummed to say I wont be one of the crazy people out there in the wee hours tomorrow morning. Matt works at 1am tonight so if I wanted to go, I would have to drop him off at work, but before that wake the kids up. Then get them back to sleep, wake back up at 4am then pick him up from work at 9am. Whew... way to much so I'll be sleeping in tomorrow. Well if you consider 7:30 am sleeping in. I wish I could sleep until at least 10 am. I miss the days when Livi would sleep until 10 am. Any who I'm tired and going to blame it on all the turkey I ate this evening and head to bed since Matt's napping before work and the kids are out. I hope you all had a wonderful day. So thankful for both my beautiful babies!

YUM!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my family, friends and blog readers out there! I hope you all have a wonderful day and eat plenty. I know I will ;) Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I've every excited for tonight. I think this is my first ever white Thanksgiving. We still have a ton of snow out there. We'll be spending the evening at my parents house with my family and some of our family friends. Shea's boyfriend's family is coming as well so it will be nice to meet them.

Brrr

When I pulled in to the drive way this evening check out what my temperature gage read.


More outdoor snow photos there's tons of it!

9" last night alone damn!

More Snow

I went to work yesterday afternoon, there was snow everywhere, but the roads were alright. Around 4:30pm the snow kept falling and still hadn't stopped when I went to bed just before midnight. I swung by the grocery store to grab some more food etc.. just in case we would be stuck in the house for a while. The drive home was intense. I have never been so nervous driving before in my life. 410 between Buckley and Enumclaw was pure white, couldn't see the lines anywhere. The snow was coming down so hard and the second it would hit the wind shield it would freeze, which made it hard to see. The wind was blowing so the snow stuck to the other windows. Thankfully I made it home in one piece with no damage to my car. My usual 10 minute drive took over thirty minutes. My dad decided to stay the night at his work, due to the weather conditions. It's a good thing he did I-5 have 6 hour back ups caused by buses and accidents. I couldn't imagine being stuck out there.

Matt had the night off so after I made dinner we walked two houses down to my parent's. Kyle was home as well and Shealun and Roger drove up to stay the night. We ate, drank and played in the snow for an hour. Alivia loved playing in the snow. It was so fun to see her so excited about it. We warmed up with hot chocolate and lots of cuddling in Jammie's before bed.

Last night we easily had a foot of snow on the ground when we went out to play.

Ian's first snow

This afternoon while Livi was napping I had Matt snap a quick photo of Gidian and I in the snow. We got round 5" yesterday and through the night and it's still coming down hard. I wasn't expecting snow this 'early' so the kids don't have all proper snow gear. Time to get some hats and mittens for them.

Let is snow....

We woke up to snow this morning. First snow of 2010 and even before Thanksgiving. It's still dumping and we're expected to get more tomorrow. Can I go back to the Phoenix sunshine please? The snow is pretty to look at, but I'm not a fan of the cold.

Little climber

Gidian has been crawling all over the place for a while. Now he's figured out how to climb the stairs and pull up on to things. We have a sunk in living room that has one step up into either the dinning room or the entry way, and now he can escape. Caught him while cooking dinner this evening. I apologize for the shaky quality I was trying to move his bouncy seat out of the way.

Korker bows

I've been trying to figure out a way to make more money. Thought about selling Miche bags, doing Party lite etc.. but in all reality I don't have time to be doing that. With my afternoon/evening shifts at the salon and Matt working nights. Just wasn't going to work out right. So I have decided to make hair bows for little girls and I must say I rock at it ;) I really enjoy it and it's something I can do at work between clients, when the kids are napping/sleeping and while Matt's working.

My favorite bow is the korker bow (photos posted below) it's so fun and I love the way it looks. I plan on setting up an etsy.com account and a facebook page and hope to sell them at the salon as well. I just don't know why I didn't start making bows three years ago when Livi was a baby. I would've saved myself a tons of money!

My cute model

MIM

Last week while in Phoenix we went to the Musical Instrument Museum. I added a few photos on my last post, but wanted to share a few more and three video clips of Livi playing on some of the instruments. She had a great time in the experience room.

Phoenix Trip

On Monday November 8th my grandparents flew the four of us to Phoenix for five days. On the way to Sea-Tac airport Livi got car sick and threw up all over herself. Thankfully we had our luggage so I was able to change her quickly. Gidian cried and whined a good portion of the flight, which stressed me out, but eventually he fell asleep. It was so nice to see the sunshine!

Livi was so tired she fell asleep during dinner

Tuesday Nov. 9th (Livi's 3rd Birthday)

We celebrated Livi's 3rd birthday while in Arizona. We went to a really neat Aquarium at the Arizona Mills mall. Then had lunch at Rain Forrest cafe. Unfortunately the birthday girl came down with a cold/fever while we were out so we cut the afternoon short and took her home to nap.

Birthday girl!

Feeling miserable at lunch

Poor sick-o eating birthday cake and ice cream.

Wednesday November 10th
Wednesday we spent the day at my grandparents, since Livi was still sick. My grandma and I snuck away for a while and did some shopping and picked up lunch. That night her fever broke and she started to act more like her normal self.

Fell asleep for the night at 7 pm

Thursday November 11th

Earlier in the week my dad told me to check out a website for Heart Attack Grill. He saw a show on the restaurant on the Travel channel. Matt and I looked at the website and thought it looked like fun. So Thursday we drove out there for lunch. It was a neat place, not your usual burger joint. When you sit down you're given a hospital bracelet and you get a hospital gown to wear. There were four burgers to choose from the single/double/triple or quad bypass burgers. (check out their site here to see everything it'll take me forever to explain http://www.heartattackgrill.com/ ) After lunch we went to the San Tan mall. They had a Disney Store so Livi spent her birthday money there. Got five more Toy Story figures and my Grandparents got the kids some shirts. They had an outdoor play area, but it was to crowded so Livi didn't get to play. I love outdoor malls, but they wouldn't go over so well in the Seattle area I'm sure.

Shopping at the Disney store

Livi getting her gown at Heart Attack Grill

Shopping at San Tan

My cute boy

Friday November 12th

We went to the Musical Instrument Museum http://www.themim.org/ on Friday afternoon. I think it's been open about a year now. The building was huge! When you pay you get a wireless audio system to wear around. As you approach different displays music is played. It was really neat, but Livi wasn't to impressed with walking around looking at the displays. The MIM has a Experience room down stairs so you could play the instruments. Livi and I spent an hour playing with every instrument they had in there. She loved the xylophones.

After the MIM we stopped by Macaroni Grill for lunch. I had the Parmesan crusted chicken salad, it was one of the best salads I'd ever had before. My grandparents use to take us to Macaroni Grill when we were younger. We thought Livi would like it, since you can draw on the tables. She wasn't very interested because it was past nap time.

On Friday evening Gidian came down with Livi's sickness. Poor guy had a 102 fever. I got basically zero sleep that night since he was so uncomfortable and was having trouble breathing through his stuffy nose.

Livi's new dress so cute!

At the MIM

Sick little boy cooling down

Saturday November 13th

Our plane left at 5pm yesterday so we spent the day getting things packed and ready to go. Gidian was still feeling crummy poor guy. We got to the airport early and when we went through security we got pulled aside, due to having four jars of baby food with us. Since they wouldn't test the contents in the baby food without ruining it, Matt had to get the pat down. He was not thrilled at all, but who could blame him I wouldn't want my whole body rubbed down either by some random security guard. Once we got the all clear we headed to our gate. We had a pleasant flight home for the most part. Gidian slept almost the whole flight in Matt's arms (Thank goodness!) Livi sat between us and we tried everything to keep her entertained: lots of snacks, Toy Story 3 on the I-pod, play doh, Wikki Stix, coloring. After three hours and some turbulence we landed in the pouring rain.

When we arrived home my parents surprised us with a new couch in our family room. I had been eye balling this couch for months and they got it for us!

Waiting to board the plane

Sunset as we flew over the Grand Canyon