Manners fighting

Abi and I were hanging out together and she said to me, 

"Mom, sometimes people with manners do fight."

"Really?"

"Yes. Like this: 'Go ahead.' 'No, you go ahead.', 'No, you go ahead.', 'No you go.' That's manners fighting."

Christmas advent devotionals

I wanted to share a little something we will be doing as a family this year in time that you can do it too if you would like.
A while back I found a blog of a woman that does really fun things for her kids on the holidays and general conference.
For Christmas she has created a '24 days of Christmas devotionals program'. It begins tonight with an introduction and goes all the way to Christmas Eve ending with a Nativity program.
She has taken the idea of a Jesse tree for this. We will just be using a paper tree and I printed out her paper ornaments for our version. I can't wait to get started.
To check it out go visit her blog here.

The rest of the weekend

Saturday I did do a little more shopping (Hobby Lobby and Target again) but mostly I spent some time bringing in the rest of our Christmas decorations. I went simpler this year because Maddy has made me! I knew as I was pulling stuff out that it would be destroyed by her so I opted to leave most of the breakables in the boxes for next year and only put out the most favorite of my things. 

I also did a new thing this year.  I gathered 24 of our Christmas books and wrapped them up so we can open one a day. I love the way it looks in the little basket near the tree....

I turned our shelves under the tv into a Christmas playland...

everyone was so happy to see all the Christmas stuff!

I took Maddy on my errands with me so Doug could finish cleaning out the garage. Abi was his little helper and they also took some time to make some art...

Thanksgiving Day

The holiday weekend was busy and a lot of fun. 

Abi spent a lot of time playing her Jumpstart game on the computer because she just doesn't have much time for it since starting school. I thought it was really cute when I looked over and saw them all enjoying it together.

Maddy really enjoys the tree... too much. It is driving me nuts. Abi never touched it when she was that age so I am just not used to the little one taking all the ornaments off a million times a day.

Turkey Time!

We had a simple feast. I also go easy with the turkey and buy the ready made one that goes straight from the freezer to the oven. We also had mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, and sweet potato casserole. 

The girls loved it. 

Maddy actually ate! It was a miracle. :)

After dinner there was some more computer time... on a train.

Then the girls wrote their letters to Santa.

Abi's...

Maddy's I had to help out with a bit. I wrote the words and drew the squiggles. 

Then they placed them in the magic mailbox...

At that point we ended the night by reading some Thanksgiving books and having some yummy apple pie. Then the girls went to bed and I went shopping. 

I got home around 5am.

I made some yummy breakfast and then the girls saw that Elvin and Peppermint were sitting next to the mailbox so they got to open it up to see what they left behind when they took the letters. 

Maddy got a little Christmas barbie...

Abi got a little Christmas Polly Pocket.

Doug worked a little on the garage and basement today but as soon as he was done I went back out to finish my shopping.

While out I got Maddy her ornament for this year since she was the only one who didn't have one yet. She watched this cartoon once with a penguin called Pingu and now whenever she sees a penguin she gets excited and says Pingu! So, I found this cute little penguin for her....

It was an exhausting but great two days!

The best laid plans...

I recently mentioned that I was making a lot of things to give the girls a playroom for their birthdays. Well.... not really going to happen.

While my mom was here they shared Maddy's room so my mom could sleep in Abi's bed. It seemed to go really well at first when one day they slept in until 7!! But then Maddy started waking up at 4-5 and always waking Abi up. It was getting crazy. Abi even told me that she thought it would be better to wait to share rooms until Maddy is older and Abi has been wanting to share a room with her for a long time now.

So, my idea of a playroom went out the window along with all the planning, purchasing, and making I have been doing for about 5-6 months now. 

So, what was I to do? 

I decided each girl would have part bedroom/ part playroom. Maddy has to have most of it in her room because her bed is smaller but Abi was okay with that because they can go in there to play together whenever Maddy is awake. 

I started setting up Maddy's room last Tuesday. I brought the kitchen up. I took the closet doors off for more space and set up her clothes in the laundry room instead. I hung up all the dress ups and created a little vanity in the closet.

As you can see in the pictures it still needs a lot of work but it will take a while to get it all together. I basically created a little store area right behind the kitchen so they can go shopping and then go back and cook the food. The vanity and baby stuff is all over there so it is kind of like a house.  I have since moved the bed and some of the other things but this gives you an idea.

Since doing this Maddy has spent more time playing by herself in her room than I ever imagined possible. I love it. In the above picture you can see how messy she makes it every time she plays and how she likes to pile on all of the necklaces!

I also put this little tree on her wall...

Also in her room are all the Fisher price toys and Abi's big dollhouse on a table. I will post more pictures when it is all finished. 

Abi and I worked on her room on Wednesday because she was off of school. We moved her bed, moved around her shelves and new tables to create a Polly/Pet Shop area and put her lego table in a corner. I also let her put the other nicer tree up on her wall. She did a great job. She loved doing it. It is hard to see because of the Lego table but you get the idea. 

I made this Lego table by gluing down a Lego base plate I got at the Lego store to a $7 IKEA Lack side table. It works wonders. 

Her room still has a lot of work to do and one big thing to still put in it (on her birthday) so I will post more pictures in a couple of weeks.

School happenings

Last week we had our first parent teacher conferences at Abi's school. It was a really good experience. Her permanent teacher is now back after her maternity leave but her substitute was there as well so that they could both give input on the whole quarter.

I really like Abi's school. They put a lot of emphasis on character. Every once in a while they have popcorn day and on the last one Abi took a dollar instead of just .50. She then gave the extra .50 to a boy in her class that had forgotten his money. The teachers awarded her with a good character award certificate and sticker. She was beaming when she came home to tell us this. 

I think it is great that they look for things to give these out for so that it encourages character in the kids. 

The conference went much as expected. Abi is above grade level in most things, especially in her reading but they did want me to work with her on her writing and they are working mostly on her confidence.

It's that time of year!

Every time my mom is here in late November we put up our tree early so she can join us in the decorating. 

I usually put the tree up myself and then everyone joins in on the decorating. But this year Abi wanted to help me with the branches. It was really fun to have her help and she did a really good job.

We were experimenting with a few different layouts of the living room before stringing the lights. While we were working on that Maddy found some ornaments and started decorating...

We finally got the room the way we wanted it. I strung the lights. I sorted the ornaments and assigned parts of the tree. Then we put on the Carpenters Christmas album and began to decorate!

Partway through we had to re-arrange a little to make sure all of the breakable ornaments were out of Maddy's reach. She really can't be kept away from this thing!

But soon the tree was all decked out and we got to sit and enjoy it.

Then I remembered we had a few new ornaments upstairs. On our road trip this past summer we got a key chain to use as an ornament from Mt. Rushmore and an ornament from the Ingalls homestead. Abi chose a little bear ornament with her name on it for her souvenir at Bear Country...

We put those on and then it was time for Abi to put the star on the tree...

Christmas trees are pure magic...

We enjoyed some mini candy canes... (Maddy's first)

and at the end of the evening we had a slumber party around the tree for my mom's last night here.

I just love tree decorating day and the feeling a lit up tree gives the room!

An Elf Breakfast

This morning Mom was playing upstairs with the girls while I was cleaning up and the doorbell rang to the tune of Jingle Bells. The girls came down and we all went to the door together.

When Abi opened the door she found this....

We were even more excited when we saw the labels saying it was 'reindeer carried', 'Santa approved', and from the North Pole.

As soon as we opened it Abi found this long letter from Santa himself.

The letter explained about the elves and the rest of the treats inside as well as a few personal things to each girl.

The package...

It contained plates and napkins for a festive breakfast, the two elves, an elf craft, a LaLaLoopsy Christmas doll for Abi, a Rudolph coloring book for Maddy, edible snowballs (powdered donut holes), Elf made snicker doodles (they were red and green), cupcakes (made my Mrs. Claus!), hot chocolate, and yummy eggnog in a cute container.

It was such a magical morning!

Dress up

Yesterday the girls wanted to play dress up...

Maddy wore some princess stuff but was happiest in her Mickey ears..

Then Abi got my mom to put on a Cinderella tutu and gloves. I handed her the top that goes with it.. being funny. But it fit!!! We were all laughing so hard as she put it on. Abi gave her the headband to finish the look and they danced around like fairy princesses...

It was the best. This was such a fun moment.

Super Secret Project #1

I have spent the last week turning our old changing table into a play kitchen for the girls. They have no idea. I had to hide it in the basement and didn't get any pictures before I did... so this is the best one for now. This is looking down at it. 

I took the top shelf off of it, put pegs into the groove it used to be in, and hung pots and utensils off of them. then I put some hooks into the back and hung a dowel I painted white on them. I used some old curtains to hang on that. I colored (not very well) a little outside scene to hang behind the curtains to give the impression of a window.

I found a little piece of plastic in a circle shape in the basement so I printed off an image of a clock face and mounted it on black cardstock and then glued the plastic over it and glued it on for the clock.

I used a square pan from the dollar store for the sink. Doug cut a hole for it to go in. Then I found a thick chipboard J that I painted and turned upside down for the faucet. I glued some knobs down to finish the look.

For the burners I used old CD's. I painted them black and then varnished them and glued them down.

I got the oven knobs at Lowe's and Doug drilled holes for them along the front. 

The final touch was putting scrapbook paper over empty frosting containers and gluing them down to put utensils and flowers into.

I also have some hooks on each side to hang aprons and purses. 

I will post more pictures in a few weeks when the playroom is complete and it is set up.

Total costs: $10 for pot set (Ikea)

                       $5 for utensil set (Ikea)

                      $1 for dowel (Joann's)

                              $4 for oven knobs (Lowe's)

                         $1 for J (Hobby Lobby)

                                            $1 for baking pan sink (Dollar Tree)

  I had the rest of the items already so the total cost was $22. Hard to beat that!

Songs with Grandma

A couple of days ago my mom started singing this song to Maddy. She loves it and now asks for it a few times a day... and it is just not the same unless they use the witch lalaloopsy while they sing it.

Maddy is two!

Sunday was Maddy's second birthday. It came up so fast. I still can't believe my little baby is two. A while back I gave her a few themes for her birthday and she picked Hello Kitty. 

My mom wrapped her presents in this cute pink and purple polka dot paper and let me have the extra so I wrapped the rest of her gifts in it as well and then used those colors as a jumping off point to match the pinks and whites of Hello Kitty. 

This was the way I set up the table for her to see in the morning..

We had monkey bread and yoo hoos for breakfast for her special day. Then we got the girls dressed for 9am church. We let her open one present before church- the cupcake set so that she could play with it at church.

After church the girls had rest time and got into comfier clothes. 

When Maddy came down after her nap she was so excited to see that the table was still decorated...

We began opening presents. She opened her gift from Abi first. It was a Hello Kitty washcloth.

She got a cute card and two dollars from Great-Grandma Bitter...

After opening her beautiful red dress from Grammy and Grandfather she tried to put it on...

Then she opened a Minnie shopping cart from my sister Stephanie's family...

She gasped when she saw Minnie Mouse and kept pointing to her over and over again saying, "Minn Mouse!"

Then she opened a card from my mom and dad. She loved the glitter on Minnie's bow.

They gave her a subscription to a magazine, a Minnie notebook and pen,

and this Minnie with click on and off outfits. As you can see she loved it!

We gave her some Hello Kitty pajamas...

and then she unwrapped the train table.

She immediately started playing with it. I wanted to make this because they play with train tables wherever we go but I didn't want to spend the money on one. Plus they are so busy. I just wanted something simple with track, a few trains, and a few other items to move around. Nothing fancy. It works perfectly for their play.

Here is the birthday girl with all her loot...

After presents it was time for cake.

I am not a great cake maker but the girls loved it. I was going to use pink frosting for the bow but then decided to use some pink and red jelly beans I had on hand instead.

At this point I realized that I forgot to get birthday candles... so we used these ginormous candles instead. She actually blew one of them out but then refused to do the other one.

She enjoyed the cake and peppermint ice cream but her favorite thing was the fruit punch Belly Washer drink.

After cake we played our game- Pin the bow on Hello Kitty. Abi got to do it with her eyes open but the rest of us just closed our eyes.

These were the final results.. Maddy and Doug were closest with Abi in third. Grandma and I were way off.

Then I gave the girls little favor bags...

They had notebooks, pens, stickers, little camera toys, and Hello Kitty socks in them.

Did you know you can buy huge coloring rolls at Michaels for only a few dollars? I picked up a few a while back and broke out the Hello Kitty one for the next party activity. It was a hit.

The rest of the day was spent playing and making big messes. It was a great day. 

Maddy with her shopping cart after I got it put together...

We are so grateful for this little blessing. She makes every day brighter. She is just growing up way too fast!