December insta Update

To say I'm behind is the understatement of the century.  It's now February, and not only do I have not January's insta up date done, I don't have Decembers or my Christmas posts done.  I know I start out every blog lately griping about how behind I am... broken record.  wah wah. Best I can do at this point is just to plug along and eventually I'll get it all done right??  

  I should probably work on posting the Christmas blog first.  But this one will be easier to bust out so I'm going with it.  

This little guy still wakes up way too early for my taste.  Some mornings earlier than others, like 5:15 and that's pure torture.  But look how happy he is, he thought me taking pictures with the flash was pretty funny stuff. 

My heart still aching I decided to get a Christmas ornament to honor puppa.  Charlie pointed out this picture of him that I had on the stairway and it was just a perfect one. 

Found this adorable Mickey themed gingerbread house at Walmart ages ago but made the girls promise me they wouldn't ask to do it until after Thanksgiving.  Knowing them if I didn't make them swear they would ask me everyday about it and drive me insane.  ha ha ha.  They held to it though and as soon as it was ok they were super excited to get to work. 

H'e's still rear facing.  And when it comes to waiting for Natalia at dance the lobby area/waiting area is usually packed and I just hate being in there.  So we hang out in the car with a movie.  He gets to sit in Natalia's seat to watch and he loves it. 

Painting afternoon.  Painting some wooden ornaments and then we made a special project for Grandma Gladys. 

I volunteered in Natalia's classroom and helped each kiddo cut out a gingerbread man out of this cinnamon dough so they could dry out and be painted later.  Mrs. Moos (her teacher) said I could take the leftover dough home to do with my other kiddos.  So Lydia and I had a fun afternoon of cutting out different shapes, and man did they smell good!

prepping for a play date with her friend Molly we made sugar cookie dough, and she was enjoying licking the bowl and spatula after.  I loved sugar cookie dough as a kid and have fond memories of making it all the time with my Aunt Kathy when she would watch us.  

Play date time!!  These two are the best and I'm so excited she has Molly at school. (I really enjoy Molly's family too and we've gotten to hang out with them a couple of  times) We took Molly home from school with us and the girls got to play and make cookies and then we had dinner together.   

Decorating those cinnamon ornaments.  The loose glitter was a disaster and will never happen again.  Yikes. 

Sibling date night the fifth year.  Charlie and John where there too, just didn't want to be in the picture.  We had dinner and then wondered the new Co op in Meridian and then wondered Target.  Party animals!  This is our gift to each other instead of actual gifts at Christmas, to spend time together without kids.  It's pretty fun and something I look forward to, we really don't do anything just us adults throughout the year.  

Puppa's ornament, and I love it.  

He only took a 45 min nap but then fell back asleep on me and I loved the extra snuggles!!

A rough teething day, sesame street and snuggles for us 

The Hodges cousins draw names for Christmas and this year we didn't have Cypress on our list, but Lydia insisted on making her a Jasmine bracelet and then wrapping it.  she said "it has to be wrapped perfect because I don't want to ruin it" 

I wanted wreaths for the lights outside the garage but couldn't bring myself to spend the money on them.  On a trip to Hobby Lobby I found supplies to make my own and all three for less than the cost of just one premade new.  WOO

Cookie making day with the Hodges ladies... another tradition and this one I've lost count on, it's probably like the 6th or something like that. 

Quinton found Lydia's "giant mickey" and was instantly in love.  He carried him around for quite a long time and it was hilarious since Mickey was bigger than Quinton. 

Lydia spent the day with her Aunt Steph and Uncle John.  Even after Cypress left for preschool she didn't want to leave them so they were kind enough to take her on their errands with them.  I think it had a lot to do with their new puppy Jada and Lydia's love for the puppy.  They were instantly friends, and she's been asking for a new puppy since.  =(

Using my new coloring books I got for Christmas Lydia and I spent the afternoon coloring away. 

Our teacher Christmas presents.  I did the same thing for Natalia's kindergarten teacher last year.  Since it was so cute and easy we did it again for Mrs. Moos and Mrs. Janis (Natalia's 1st grade teacher and Lydia's preschool teacher) 

One of my favorite things at Christmas time (let's face it everything is my favorite at Christmas ha ha) The girls put on a little holiday dance and we as parents get to come into the class and watch the whole dance class and then they perform their holiday dance.  They also get to wear whatever they want (usually Christmas dresses) instead of their standard pink leo/tights etc.  

We were in charge of the snacks for Lydia's Christmas party at preschool.  Can't take the credit for this idea, all Pinterest!  

Lydia at her dance Christmas open house.  She's my little ballerina

Quinton watching Lydia at dance, he was very very serious and sat so still the whole time.  It was seriously awesome since he's so little I wasn't expecting him to be so good! 

The girls in some Christmas outfits.  Lydia's is actually way too small on her  but she insisted it still fit.  Highwaters are a fashion trend right?!?!? 

WOOOO the new Star Wars movie is finally here!  In case you didn't know, Charlie is a huge Star Wars nerd and turns out so am I.  I was TOTALLY geeking out over it and scored this shirt at Macy's for $10!  Not usually a fan of taking selfies I feel so stupid and think I look like an idiot in all of them really... but had to commemorate my awesome shirt!  

I kinda love Natalia's 1st grade teacher.  How she does what she does everyday with the kiddos is beyond me.  And then Natalia comes home with this and I'm just in awe of her teacher all over again.  The kiddos each made one and then Mrs. Moos framed them.  SO SO cute.  Our family of reindeer and Quinton is Rudolph.  

Sitting VIP at Star Wars and ready for it to start!!  We both REALLY enjoyed it.  

My Bodhi ring.  =(  I'm pretty sure I already talked about this in Bodhi's post.  But here it is.... my little bit of Bodhi to carry around with me everyday. (those area little teeny bit of Bodhi's ashes in the heart) my bitter sweet beautiful reminder of how precious life is and to never take my loved ones for granted.  She's stacked with my babies birthstone rings.  

I had the really really crazy idea a couple of weeks before Christmas break to host a Christmas party for the girls in Natalia's class.  I approached Keely (Molly's mom) about it and she thought it was a great idea and offered to help.  Out of 14 girls we had 11 there!  Two left for out of town that day and the third had to cancel last minute.  But it was a way better turn out than I had expected when I first thought of the idea.  We did a craft, ate pizza, had hot cocoa and watched the Grinch.  And the girls had a blast!  

With two girls I was always told how much more fun they are to dress than girls... but man am I having fun with this little guy.  This little old man sweater kills me... and then he goes and puts his hands in his pockets and I melted.  He is just SO STINKING CUTE.  

After Christmas we did our camp out on the living room, this time pulling out mattresses to sleep on (more on that in the Christmas blog)  the next day Quinton had a blast jumping and climbing on the mattresses and then ZONKED out.  He slept that way for an hour, when one of the girls squealed over a Lego and he woke up.  I sat down with him and he fell back asleep on me for an hour and a half!!

Time hop goodness.  Missing my puppa

Took Quinton with me to my soon to be cousin's bridal shower dinner (the girls stayed with Stephanie).  We played a game with the lips and the mustache that we had to hold up one when to answer questions about them.  Anyway, Quinton got a hold of mine and was totally holding them up to his face too.  So of course I had to take a picture of him being adorable. \

you always see these ideas on Pinterest and the girls NEVER would do it. Sure they'd color the box, but climb in and go to town, nope.  This guy though totally did just that.  He climbed in with his handful of markers (which e was ecstatic about getting since he's usually not allowed to touch them) and he seriously stayed in there for a good 30 min coloring.  then when he was done he stayed in the box and watched a show.  ha ha ha

Another early morning with this fella, perfecting his selfie game.  He actually likes to push the button to take the picture too.  

Goodbye 2105.  You were a rough one.
So much heart ache and worry this year.  My dad had a heart attack, then we lost our precious niece, and to top it off we lost our puppa.  Looking forward to starting fresh with a new year with new memories.