Our elf on the shelf

I can honestly say this Christmas was the best one yet for our family. I had so much fun with our elf on the shelf and can't wait to keep this tradition going as long as I can. 

Our girls named our Elf Ruby. She arrived with a few presents, lots of confetti, a water bottle for each of the girls and some festive cupcake toppers. 

Day 2: she was in a bag of chocolate chips

Day 3: taking a marshmallow bath

Day 4: roasting a marshmallow! 

Day 5: typing on Chloe's computer 

Day 6: making crafts & starting an advent

Day 7: flying with Buzz

Day 8: dyeing our milk! 

Day 9: sitting in the tree

Day 10: she treated us to donuts and was eating one

Day 11: building Legos with Minnie

Day 12: playing in the snow with the Frozen gang

Day 13: hanging upside down on a candy cane

Day 14: helping Chloe earn stars for her chore chart

Day 15: playing in "snow"

Day 16: having a princess sleepover 

Day 17: she brought back an Olaf waffle iron and was eating one

Day 18: she had some extra eyes helping her watch the girls 

Day 19: reading to her pals

Day 20: she brought a gingerbread house 

Day 21: Santa had her tell us to go out for doughnuts 

Day 22: Doing a puzzle 

Day 23: bringing candy in a stocking 

Day 24: eating a cookie 

Day 25: picking all of the marshmallows out of cereal

Day 26: self portrait 

Day 27: leaving a note 

Christmas Eve: she brought back a small gift (PJ's and a movie) and bid the girls a sad farewell. 

My sweet girls had such a hard time with her parting. Kaylee has been wandering around the house looking for Ruby on the mantle and kitchen island. I can't wait for her to come back so that we can keep this tradition going for our girls! 

Julie 

Our winter bucket list!

It's that time again to do our bucket list!

We have had so much fun with our summer and fall bucket lists that we didn't have a hard time compiling a list of things we want to do this season.

Our list is pretty easy.

 

1. Learn what the Christmas season truly is about

2. Build a snowman (hopefully we get enough snow)

3. Read Christmas stories

4. Watch Christmas movies

5. Drink hot chocolate by the fire

6. Sleep by the fire

7. Make Christmas cookies for Santa

8. Make Christmas crafts as a family

9. Listen and have a dance party to Christmas music

10. Sing Christmas songs

11. Send out Christmas cards

12. Make our own ornaments

13. Drive around and see Christmas lights

14. Go to "Zoo Lights"

15. Take family Christmas photos

16. Make Christmas shape pancakes

 

I love our bucket lists. They really make us spend even more time as a family doing fun things! Also, if we are ever having a day that we don't know what to do, I can always revert to this list and see what we haven't done!!

 

♥ Julie

 

Have you forgotten to put a new diaper on your child?

The other night I changed my little ones diaper..  ah the life!  We didn't have any extra diapers in the living room so I let her run off and got up to get a new one. And somehow in the short walk to the bedroom I forgot. I forgot. I can't say that I've ever done something like that before. I didn't even notice for at least twenty minutes. And I'm fairly sure that if she wouldn't have come to sit with me I wouldn't have noticed for a while. I laughed. My husband laughed. We laughed for a while.. who forgets to put on a new diaper? Oh wait, that would be me! 

As a mom there are always a million  little things on my mind. What are we going to eat? What are we going to do today? I should do some laundry. That is probably overdue for a cleaning. My living room is a mess, again. I think sometimes as moms, at least I know I do, we try to cram so much into our days that we can forget to just enjoy the day. Grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking, cleaning diapers, giving baths, helping the kids, reading, planning, playing, paying bills. The list goes on forever. And ever. And ever. And some days, I should say most days, there is not enough time in the day to get everything done. Sometimes we just need a happy medium. 

The other day I let my toddler choose  what we did all day long. It was awesome! She really lets the littlest things entertain her. We had to go drop my husbands phone off to him at the mall, but she chose that "errand" and turned it into something fun. She decided she wanted to play at the play place. After a while my little one started to fuss so we had to leave. I asked what else she wanted to do and she chose the zoo. We rode the carousel, looked at all of her favorite animals, got icees and had a great time. The day was still young and she chose to go to the museum and play in the new discovery zone. And then Costco. I even let her pick out dinner. She chose a pizza and some danimals. What a choice! We came home, read some books, watched a movie and hung out with Daddy. It amazes me how much kids just want to hang out. They want love, they want attention and they want to feel like they are heard. We all have constant distractions and too often we let them get in the way. How many times a day do we say, "not right now," "in a little bit," "I'm busy right now" and let all of those little moments slip away? How often do we prioritize the wrong things? Our jobs, our phones, our tv's, friends, whatever else distracts you. Those little fingers won't be little forever. And they won't be craving your attention forever. Every day is such a gift and I think at some point or another everybody abuses them. Somedays we just need to forget something and have a good laugh, which leads me back to my diaper story. In that moment, my forgetting a diaper was the best thing that could have happened that night. A good laugh that we were all present for. A moment when we were all enjoying. A moment where nothing else mattered but each other's company. Our lives should revolve around those moments and not all of the other things that consume our time. Obviously we have to work, take care of the house and ourselves, but there is a point where we need to remind ourselves that we don't need all of the other distractions keeping us from what truly matters. 

Since I've stared working part time instead of full time I can say our entire work/ life balance as a family has drastically changed. We don't come home exhausted and have to catch up on things at home. My kids are my first and essentially only priority for the day. And I love that. Taking them out, doing crafts, having tickle fights, snuggling, making cookies, watching movies, just doing things together is my job. And it's the best job I've ever had. Sure there are down days, and sure I would love some more friends and adult time, but my job is the best job. Being at home is not a "luxury," it involves a lot of work. We don't get paid, it makes our budget tighter, and sometimes that's hard to deal with. I've been on both ends of the spectrum and although this route is tougher financially, I'm so happy that I am able to do what I do best! Spending time with my precious little girls and making it easier for my husband to do the same on his home time. Focusing my time on what is important for me. 

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for my family and the endless love I feel on a daily basis! I am so grateful for my husband providing for our family and letting me stay home. I am so thankful for the moments that I get to hear little giggles and get big kisses. For my life and the beauty I see on a daily basis. 

Fall Bucket List

Fall is officially here and after the heat this summer I am beyond ready for some cooler weather. I love summer, but after living in Alaska for so long my body did not adjust to the heat very well.

Fall is such a beautiful season. I love being outside and seeing all of the colors and feeling the cool, crisp air in the mornings and evenings. Chloe is already enjoying the crunch from the leaves under her feet. And boots. She loves boots. I cannot even begin to describe her excitement when we bought her two new pairs last week. She has been asking to wear them every single day. And it's still a bit warm to be wearing winter boots. 

Fall is such a fun and exciting season! We have been brainstorming what to do and are so excited to set our bucket list! We have come up with some pretty fun things!

Carve pumpkins 

Play in the leaves 

Visit a pumpkin patch

Go trick or treating

Visit a Halloween store and pick out our costumes

Watch a Halloween movie

Make Halloween crafts 

Go to the bookstore and read festive books

Drink hot chocolate 

Go on a fall nature walk

Send homemade Halloween cards to family

Make Halloween treats for our friends 

Bake a pie

Take a trip to the zoo

I didn't want to set too many things to do because we get easily distracted (or I should say I do) but I want to make sure we have a wonderful season! This list is short, sweet and should be tons of fun!!! And it is easy enough to accomplish everything on it! :)  

Our summer bucket list

I honestly have not even thought much about this bucket list since I wrote it... Oops. Luckily now that I am looking at it, we did so much this summer and I am so happy to see that we accomplished quite a bit! 

#1 was read lots of books. I subconsciously remembered this one because I took pictures of most of the books we read. We love to buy the big Disney books that have multiple stories in them so I didn't include those. Also, my kids seem to like the same three books over and over and over. Our weekly visits to the bookstore were great though. I really enjoyed some of the books we read! 

#2 was put on a show with paper bag puppets which we also did. I think my little ones are still a little young for this one, but we did it anyway. They had plenty of giggles over the mouths 😉

#3 ICE CREAM!! 

#4 go to the zoo and match patterns to the animals. We did this! It was apparently really easy too. My three year old ran around yelling what the animal was before we were anywhere near it! 

#5 The Colorado Balloon Classic was absolutely amazing! We got up at about 4:30 in the morning for the drive but both of the girls, hubby and I really enjoyed it! 

#6 Go to a cupcake/ cake shop was unfortunately not done. We went out for ice cream several times because that is always what Chloe wants for dessert :) 

#7 Look for shapes in the clouds... I think we may be a bit young for this because we had NO luck 😩

#8 Go to 10 different parks! We managed that! We went to Lac Amora, Zang Spur, Midway, Outlook, Northmoor, Waneka, Peter Pan, Erie, Lousville Community, Wildgrass and Big Dry Creek!! 

#9 Make paper plate masks. We didn't do, we actually bought a little kit and made eye masks which was fun!! 

#10 Go to the pet store! We did! The Park Meadows mall has a pet store with the cutest little puppies! We all loved it!! 

#11 Donate some clothes & toys, check!! 

#12 Scavenger hunt, sad! We never got around to this

#13 Movie night. We had several of these. But off of the top of my head we watched Free Birds together 😊😊😊 

#14 Feed the giraffes, this is still totally on our bucket list and we WILL be doing it sometime! 

#15 Have a picnic. We did this a few times when we went out for play days :) 

#16 Have a play date with three different friends! We had a few play dates over the summer! Play dates are great!! 

#17 have an overnight campout in the living room. I think we skipped this one. 

#18 Go to the movies. This one was hard. When we decided to try to go there were no kids movies anyone wanted to see in theaters so hopefully we can so this soon!! 

#19 take a walk. We love walks! We walked to the store, to Starbucks, to the park! 

#20 Go play at the new Discovery Zone in the Museum! Chloe adored this! For anyone in the Denver area, I highly suggest this! There is so much for the kids to do and it's awesome!! 

V

This summer was such a good summer for us! We got to go to Water World, have my sister visit (and although I loved her being here I think the girls enjoyed her visit more,) see the mermaids at the aquarium, to to the zoo, play with friends! I love living where we have all the opportunities we do!  

Kaylee's First Birthday

So with my little ones first birthday right after we move I didn't have a lot of time (or energy) to plan a huge party. I opted for something easy and fun for the kids! Who knew that renting a park (for only $28 for two hours) would be so much fun and stress free? I decided to throw a little something together with a "Daniel

Tiger's Neighborhood" theme. Both of my girls love everything about Daniel Tiger. And it seemed to be a big hit with all of the kids that came to the BBQ. 

We had hamburgers and hotdogs with chips and juice boxes, easy right? 

I did a few decorations too! Balloons, a silverware container with picture of Daniel Tiger & Friends and I striped my napkins! Total time maybe 10 minutes. 

The cake took me the longest. I love making cakes and I am always willing to put the time into them!  I had so much fun making it! 

We put this together pretty quickly and really decided to just make a little get together for kids to play and I feel like it was really fun!! 

Losing kids to time.

I read something last night that just broke my heart. Often times I am that mom that is overly paranoid, and always worrying about something happening to my kids. And I find myself crying thinking over those things. I know that they are healthy and safe but that what if is never impossible. What would I do if something did happen? I have no idea how I would handle all of that pain, and it breaks my heart when I read stories (like I did last night) about parents losing their children and trying to move forward. How much time are we losing out on by not embracing the present?

There's not much a parent wouldn't do for their child, yet we let so much distract us from them in the precious time we do have them. Social media, entertainment, work. And we don't even realize we are losing our time with them. Every second that goes by is that much less time that we have to get those little snuggles, "mommy look at me's" and little giggles full of love. I look at both of my girls and honestly don't know where the time has gone. Just yesterday they were born, or so it feels. 

With my oldest, I worked full time from when she was six weeks old. I feel awful about losing that time with her and the only comfort I have is knowing that she was in great hands. I had two wonderful sister in laws that watched her and helped her develop. In return, I missed that. And now that I have gotten the opportunity to work part time and stay home with my kids during day hours, I see how much I really did miss. I don't regret working because it helped support my family, but I do wish my husband and I would have found a way for me to stay at home before I got to. Unfortunately in every family, someone has to miss the extra moments to work which is why it is so important to cherish the ones you do have.

Life is too important, our kids are too important, to be worrying about what other people are doing. To be fretting over things you can't change or things that you wished you had done differently.  We have to embrace the moment we are in. 

I know my girls can't stay little forever, but sometimes I wish they could. I love the big hugs and kisses they give me. I love the giggles and smiles that light up my home with love. I love laying next to them while they sleep and just snuggling. The way they smell after a bath. Those moments are the ones I don't want to lose, the moments that I make sure I cherish every time they are around. 

The time will be here too soon that those little bodies won't snuggle up at night with you or ask to sit in your lap. The time that your home will no longer be full of giggles and games. And it will be here too fast. And putting aside the things that don't matter and focusing on what's important is the only way that we can truly make sure we enjoy them and don't look back with regret! Sure your house could be cleaner, your hair could have been a little bit better groomed, you may have missed the premiere of your favorite tv show or dinner could be hours late, but if you take the time to enjoy your kids none of that matters. All they will remember is you spending time with them. They will remember being loved and cherished. Having mom and dad present and not ignoring them due to computers, phones or whatever else is keeping them distracted. They will remember you. Whatever we choose to focus our time on, we need to make sure it's what matters. Those little ones we love will remember what we chose to focus on. They will remember and we don't want them to remember the things we wish we could take back.