Mommy Monday - Enjoying December

My intention for the month of December was to "be present" and enjoy all of the festivities with the kiddos.  I'm not going to lie, I've had a few moments where I am completely overwhelmed and trying so hard to "enjoy" things, but still just have so much on my plate!  I have made sure to not go through motions and really soak up this time of year.

Brooke has so much excitement it's contagious; I wasn't even close to being ready with how crazy happy she is over Santa, reindeer, snow, presents, cookies...the list goes on!!  Last week I had my "helper day" at preschool and then we had the "Better to give than receive" day, where we frosted cookies to give to others.

We grabbed a hot chocolate after our Tuesday helper day.

When it's her "helper day" she gets to bring me in, wear a name tag and gets to go first in the activities.  It's so cool to see her interact with everyone.  She was being a "reindeer" here.

The coloring table.

All the holiday books!

Play-dough area. It's homemade and each month is the color of the month.

The button table.

They have about 45 minutes of "free play" and the teachers were also crafting holiday gifts for the parents with the kids.

She has to spell her name

Decorating the class tree.

Making a wreathe.

Sharing the calendar and weather.

Wednesday the kids and I made sugar cookies.

I was so impressed with how good Brooke was at using the rolling pin an cut-outs!

She made them nice and thick like Daddy likes them!

We used the cream cheese recipe and they are so yummy!

Thursday we brought some cookies into school to decorate.

They had several stations set up, here she made a card for Daddy.

We put together a snowman ornament.

She colored and snacked on juice and donut holes.

We had a ball!

The best part was frosting the cookies.

Okay, actually it was eating them.

Brother really enjoyed his tree when we got home!

My goofy girl.

Friday they painted a few $1 store paintings.  They both did so great!

So yes, the laundry piles up, the dishes sit in the sink an extra bit and I may not get to do all the things on my to do list, but I am making sure to enjoy these days. 

I found a pre-made gingerbread house for $8 at our grocery store and this one was super excited to put it together.  I actually let the babysitter help her and it sounds like more candy went in Brooke's mouth than on the house.

And here is a quick little video of us picking out our tree.

How are you enjoying December?

Gimme all the Pink and Red Hearts!!

I love, love. I know it's silly, but the pink and red hearts just make my own heart skip a beat! We dined on some delicious little devils after a doctor's appointment last week.  We never eat donuts, so when we do?  You betcha they're gonna be pink and heart shaped!!

Speaking of food, I want to do this with the kids too! I think I can pull it off??  I have to go search for my cookie cutters.  Brooke would get a kick out of it I think!

I also want to do some little crafts this week:

I love the handprint in the heart. And the monkey?? Perfect for this new lunar new year!

I'm thinking if I feel daring enough, I'll let them dip their feet in the paint for this one!

For us big kids? I'll play up all my KEEP and style it red, pink, hearts & all the sparkles!

I have always adored rose quartz; I actually have four crystals up in our bedroom.  These are rose quartz stones are so beautiful and perfect to wear on a daily basis!  What you think about, you become.  ~Attract love~

Around the home?  I finally found my Valentine's bin! I don't have a ton, and I mostly bought decor when I had Brooke's 1st birthday (Pink cupcake themed!) so I decided the pink tulle and twinkle lights needed to come out again.   I never know what to do with that darn deer head??!

Our mantle.  I would like pink or red candles, so I maaaaay go take a little peek into Target later today for those.  The kids love the heart lights and I pulled out all of our gorgeous wedding photos.

I think I grabbed this at Jo-Ann's last year; I just loved the Victorian look/Paris theme.

Our littlest Valentine watching Daddy leave!

I'm pretty sure I got these in the Target dollar section too…I just love them!

Since Valentine's Day is on a Sunday, we scheduled a date night for Saturday & we'll all be home together Sunday.  I'm trying to think of a fancy recipe to do…Maybe we will do our pesto crusted lamb chops?  Scallops? Not sure.  Either way, I'm going to try to have hubby cook because that is always romantic.

V-Days past:
 2015
2014-- pretty sure we got our taxes done and I was on a cleanse, so I didn't even blog about it! haha
2013
2012


Do you have any fancy recipes you'll be making to celebrate your love?  Do you do something fun with your kids? I'd love to hear!

Stay beautiful xox

Mommy Monday: Enjoying Fall

Happy Monday!! I hope everyone had a fun Fall weekend.  Finding balance on this blog has breathed such a breath of fresh air into me; I am super inspired and have so much that I want to share!  I am so encouraged and uplifted by so many wonderful women in my life and I am so very grateful for that.

I just wanted to share a little of how we've been enjoying this beautiful Autumn.  Brooke is at the PERFECT age to want to go out and do fun things and really soaks up every bit of our play/learning.

Last week I took them to a little nursery right near our house. It was perfect, as there was no one there! No crowds or tons of screaming kids, other than my own :)



She loved the "Straw Crawl" and kept saying, "take my picture mommy!"



She didn't really get the whole "teepee" concept, but she loved running around in it.



I gave her the task of picking out a pumpkin to paint, and she insisted we needed 4.  (One for each of us!)



I also purchased a little bail of straw, hoping that it would provide a super cute little photoshoot background.

#nailedit

Is it just me, or can you see my babies as teenagers in this picture?!  My little loves.

"Smile for Mommy!"

She insists she is a dog most of the time, and I believe she was howling in this photo.   I couldn't believe how good Bradley was just sitting there holding the pumpkins! 

I think the BEST tip I can give, is divide up all of your 'projects' or activities.  Getting the pumpkins was just enough, so I saved the actual painting for the next day.

He is still putting everything into his mouth, so I wasn't ready to deal with him and paint. If I do whip cream painting and he can eat it, I would be okay with that! But for now, I just put a little paint into a bag and let him squish it.  He tried it eat that too, so it was short lived.

He loves holding the little baby pumpkins though!

I also did a super quick google search on easy toddler Halloween crafts…so we now have a jackolantern, a bat and some ghosts!  My mom sent this little spooky Mickey she painted too.  I love hanging the kids' artwork up!

Brother got a hold of the bat…

She loves tracing hands, so we did a few ghosts.

What fun activities have you been doing or have you done with your littles?  There's still more of this spooky season to enjoy!  

This is played daily in our house.  Both kids love it and I love that it's teaching that spooky things can be fun and not too scary.