Life's adventures with Matt, Amanda and the girls... Makenzie and Madison!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Elf on a Shelf... Days 11-15

Day 11: Deer the Elf making his OWN grocery list for me.... um... No!
 
 Day 12 he happily snoozed with Makenzie in her room.
Day 13: Snow angels!  He also found some winter friends to join.

 Day 14... Hmm.... Deer didn't do anything that day ;-)  Or night I should say!
Day 15: Makenzie headed to the table for breakfast to see Deer
waving at her and wrote a little note to her with some cereal.


Monday, December 9, 2013

Unique Ornament!


Glad I spotted this before we were in desperate need of it!!  Never would have thought to look in the tree for Madi's missing  paci!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Whoa what a weekend!!  Highs and lows!  Can't be fun all the time!

Makenzie and Grandma looking festive!

Saturday morning we met up with Matt's family for breakfast then our annual Christmas Tree hunt.  We were trying a new place this year (some friends from church) and were pretty excited to head out there.  Their property is JUST GORGEOUS!  And they have a couple horses that wander around, which is a major bonus.
Caleb & Makenzie peaking in at Roanie the pony and Jasmine before they were let out.


I was a little hesitant of taking Madison out with us.... it was COLD.  Typically when we go it is cold... but not this cold.  I'm talking in the low twenties cold.  Anyway, we got her all strapped to me and bundled up.  Between all the blankets and her being up against me I figured she would stay fairly cozy. (And she was actually toasty when we unhooked her!) 


What a blast.  It had started snowing soon after we had gotten there.  Big fluffy snowflakes slowly falling from the sky.  Picture perfect. 



Roanie getting ready to pull our tree up to the truck!
 

After we got home this....

is how we spent most of the afternoon... Makenzie crying/ whining right along with Madison.

Followed by...
 
late afternoon cuddles & Christmas specials.

The rest of Saturday just wasn't pretty.

Sunday was a new day!  After having to run to the store to buy almost all new lights for the tree (yup, more sat drama... last years lights didn't light) we got the tree decorated!  Makenzie had so much fun checking out all the ornaments and finding a spot to hang them.  There are multiple spots that have more than one ornament on one branch, but we are just going to leave it that way ;-)  







 








Our tree is full of ornaments that I collected growing up.  Each year my parents and grandparents gave me an ornament... now the tree is beginning to fill up new baby's first Christmas ornaments or with ornaments Makenzie has received or made!  Nothing is better than having a tree full of "gifts" from others to us!  What memories!!





Elf on a Shelf... Days 8, 9 & 10

Saturday AM:
"Deer" watching the snow!  The snow started Friday just in time to lay a blanket of white down before we went Christmas Tree hunting!  PERFECT!


Sunday AM:
There was just TOO much of a temptation... he just couldn't leave the tree alone.
He climbed right to the top... not once... but twice!


Monday AM:
"Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane!  Don't know when I'll be back again!"


Flying around Miss Makenzie's room in her airplane!
Deer got pretty creative using some old garland to hold him and the plane up!




Friday, December 6, 2013

Elf on a Shelf... Day 7

Can you blame him!?!?  Totally Jealous!
(Not going to lie, just to say I've done it... I totally took a sip!)


Happy Friday to everyone.  Ha, after last nights post I almost happily watched the Sound of Music.  Miss Madison was a little overtired and just couldn't give in.  Soon after she did I hit the sack.  Typically I wake up every time I roll over... last night.  Nope.  Slept solid until Madison woke me up to eat.  By time I got out of bed this am I could hardly move.  Haha!  My body was sore!  That's okay!  (Maybe the hubby will read this and offer to give me a body massage!?!?  <wink, wink>)  The unfortunate thing is... this house is CLEAN, like scrubbed down CLEAN!  But, toys are askew, we are in between rearranging two rooms, so stuff is still everywhere.  It doesn't feel very "clean".  

It's snowing today!!  Thank God!!  I have been praying for S*N*O*W!  We will be heading out to the woods to get our tree this weekend and I SOOO wanted snow.  (Suppose to be a high of 24 tomorrow, so might be a super quick trip.)  Snow just relaxes me and makes me happy :0)


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Elf on a Shelf... Day 6

Decorating with tp!?!?  Oh boy!

Wow... I am EXHAUSTED.  I have been working on a house cleaning list since before Thanksgiving.  Not just a vacuum the room and dust.  I mean all the regualar cleaning jazz and all the nitty gritty.  It was taking FOREVER to do and driving me crazy.  Well today, I made a MAJOR dent in it (thanks to my SIL for taking the girls off my hands for a few hours!!).  One more room to go... the mudroom.  And after that the list is going to the trash!

I swept, vacuumed, steam cleaned, wash windows, screens, tidied up, dishes, hand washed floor, kitchen cupboards, baseboards, kitchen walls and dining walls.  LOL, dumb.  My fingers hurt, my hands are SO dried out (they weren't this am) that my knuckles are cracking and bleeding.  Ok... whining is over.  :0)

Huge thank you to Lisa for watching the kiddos!  And kudos to an awesome hubby who came home (after a long day mind you!) took Madison- fed her and then made us dinner!  I am off to the couch.  Looking forward to seeing the Sound of Music Live!! 

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Elf on a Shelf... Day 5

Not going to lie, yesterday got "kinda" crazy!  Makenzie was up by 5 am, Matt was at work by 6:30 (and not home until after dinner), Madison was crying unless she was being held, I had some laundry to do and we were trying to decorate!  Day 2 of decorating since day 1 didn't go as planned with both kids cranky and crying.  I am bringing up one box at a time and the one box I brought up on Monday had been scattered throughout the house by little Makenzie.




Madison's tooth first tooth is coming in... she has been working on it for awhile and that bugger is just taking it's TIME.  Lots of crying, little napping, you know how it goes.




We sure made the best of it yesterday.  Got two loads of laundry washed with Makenzie's help (yup, they are waiting to be folded).  Then when we got Madison down for her morning nap we whipped up our first batch of Christmas cookies!!!  We made pumpkin cookies with a red (okay so it turned out pink) glaze over the top.  Not the traditional Christmas cookie, but I bought a bunch of pumpkin to bake with this fall and never got to it... so we are spicing things up and will be putting pumpkin cookies on our cookie trays!  Boo-yah!

In the evening we got another box of Christmas decorations out.  I am having such a hard time decorating.  First off the decorations are being randomly put throughout the house (most on our fireplace) before I can even see them.  And second, I don't know where they go!!  I know I decorated last year, but my last Christmas was kind of a blur (major pregnancy sick and sinus infection for half the month).  So nothing has a "home" yet and I think WAY to long about it before I find that perfect spot. 

I am also trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff.  I have TOO much and don't always use it all and I've had it for a number of years, so I am ready to get some newer stuff.  But many of these items were gifts to Matt and I and I feel kind of like a bum getting rid of them. 



So that was yesterday's scoop.  This morning while we were eating breakfast we noticed "Deer" our elf had started decorating the dining room by taking ornaments out of my basket and hung them from our lights!  I would have appreciated if he would have left the basket alone, got the rest of the decorations put up :-)  Wishful thinking.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Madison's Baptism

Sunday morning we had Madison baptized!  What a great morning that was!  We were joined by most of our family and some friends at our church to be part of her day.  I was a little anxious as to how it was going to be... was she going to fuss? was she going to be grunting and pooping?  (Church tends to get her bowels moving <eye roll>, let me tell you how extremely annoying and embarrassing that is!)  were we going to have to stand in the back of the church the whole time?  But she did GREAT! 


Is this not stinkin' cute?!?  Do you see how her hands are folded!  Precious!  She was so brave standing in front of everyone and not having to have Daddy carry her!!

Once we got up in front of everyone, the lights on the Christmas trees behind us caught her eye.  So as we are looking forward she is cranking her neck to look backward!  Ha.  I turned so she couldn't see them and waited for her to start fussing... nada!  Yes! 

When Pastor Jonathan baptized her she just stared at him.  She was totally focused on him even after she was splashed with water and walked around with.  His face didn't leave her eyesight.  So cute!  


Makenzie did great too!  Before the service we explained to her what would be happening and what we expected her to do.  Typically that can go in one ear and out the other, but she LISTENED!  And she had lots of distractions around her and she stayed as focused and quiet as any child could!  Because she was so good Daddy took her out on a lunch date.  Haha where she got a hamburger and fry kids meal with some icecream!!!  What a treat. 
This is when Makenzie asked if she was "Bath tized" now!  :0)

Elf on a Shelf... Day 4

Last night we headed downtown for a Christmas Lights Parade!  (A tradition we started last year... you can see last years pics here.) We had an early dinner, got some hot cocoa & blankets ready, bundled all up and off we went.  Wasn't too cold last night, which was nice... no snow :-(  Boo.  I would like to have snow all of December... it just adds to the Christmas feel!

Madison was so stinking cute all bundled up!  Both girls were very quite while watching the parade all zoned in on the blinking bright lights-- very serious stuff :0)





Of course what's a parade without candy!?!?  We got lots of candy!  Makenzie was told that she could have one sucker when we got home after she was in her pj's.  Silly us, we decided to take the long way home and check out some Christmas lights and that made for a VERY antsy girl in the backseat!  LOL.  Eventually she got her sucker and watched the last few minutes of Jack Frost before she headed off to bed.



I don't think she was the only one that got antsy about having candy in the house.  Our little elf found the candy stashed in my hat and hopped right in and helped himself to a sucker too!