.:December Fun:.

December was full of lots of fun activities with family and friends!

We had our friends over to our house to decorate sugar cones as Christmas trees and exchange gifts.

Reece and Remi’s final creations.

Next it was time for some gift giving. They were really feeling the love!

We love our friends!

We were lucky to celebrate Christmas early with Josh’s family. We headed out to Granstville on a Sunday, where Granny let the girls help bake…

and decorate gingerbread cookies.

Climbing monkey wasn’t happy to be stuck. (But she is still ridiculously cute!)

And of course, there was lots of present opening!

We were definitely spoiled!

And in true Rem fashion, she fell asleep when she got tired (and it never matters where she is; when it’s time to sleep, it’s time to sleep).

Josh works longer hours a few days a week, so I tried to find something fun for us girls to do in the evening. We made snowmen out of marshmallows and candy, and then ate them of course!

And more friend fun! We frosted sugar cookies with our pals Luke and Logan (though I somehow managed to not get a picture with Logan in it!)

After frosting and eating, Reece and Luke had fun playing dress up and being ‘rock and roll’. I think they look pretty hardcore.

We’re so blessed to have great friends and family nearby to share in the holiday festivities!

.:Girl’s Trip:.

Back in October, my mom treated all of us ladies to a girl’s weekend up in Sunriver.

No kids!

Well, one bitty baby, but we barely knew he was there aside from our cuddling time.

It was so fun to be together and just be able to relax and not have to worry about all of the day to day things that we normally have on our plates. We spent time biking, going out to eat, crafting, and seeing Pitch Perfect (twice!)

Dinner in the village with a very friendly restaurant owner. She loved us!

Sisters….sisters…never were there such devoted sisters.

About to get Pitch slapped!

We actually went back a couple days later to see the movie again, and the guy in the concessions stand recognized us and remembered our order. Talk about customer service!

My dad was also tagging along. He opted out of all of our crafting, but he did enjoy some meals and movies with us. It was nice for me to be able to see him since I don’t get to very often!

It was a wonderful weekend, and it was so nice of Josh to be okay with me going – he and his mom and sister stepped in to help with the kiddos so I could have some ‘me’ time. I even came home to a clean house and clean laundry. Score!

I’m pretty sure this needs to be an annual tradition, yes? Where shall we go next year ladies?

.:First Snow:.

We had a pretty big snow storm about a week and a half ago, and this was the first year our kids were really interested in going outside to play in it.

Obviously I couldn’t leave Harper inside alone, so she and I bundled up and hung out in the garage while Reece and Remi played.

Reece and Remi had the greatest time playing in the snow! They were running, crawling, laying in it – they couldn’t get enough!

Winter will be fun this year with them!

.:Harper’s Birthday:.

We started off Harper’s birthday with some tasty purple pancakes! Of course, she could care less if her pancakes were purple, but at least we know we put some effort into it, right?

What’s next Mom?

The day wasn’t really anything all that spectacular. In fact, I celebrated Harper’s birthday by leaving my wallet at Wal-Mart and having to go back in a panic (luckily it had been turned in, whew!) But she sure looked adorable while we were out running errands that day.

Even if she was a little crabby.

We waited until Josh got home for Harper to open a couple of presents. I think they were a hit with all of the girls!

We had Harper’s party this past weekend. I wanted to keep it really low key, so we just did simple decorations, had a few desserts, and opened presents. Nothing fancy, but it was just the perfect amount of time.

Her invitation was a ‘wild thing’ theme, and the best decorations for that was zebra, so that was what I went with. My sister in law designed her birthday invitation.

We let everyone eat, and then opened a few presents.

And then it was cupcake time. Harper LOVED her cupcake! She was licking her fingers, licking her arms, just doing anything to make sure that she didn’t let any go to waste. It was awesome!

Yum!

Two videos for your viewing pleasure. She sure makes it look good!

We appreciate everyone who came to celebrate with us. We have such great family and friends!

.:Halloween 2012:.

I was asked to be a guest blogger for a handmade costume series, so I had the girls’ Halloween costumes ready fairly early this year. We went with Reece as Alice in Wonderland, Remi as the Mad Hatter, and Harper as the Cheshire Cat. I was pretty happy with how their costumes turned out!

On Halloween, we went over to my friend Jill’s house for dinner. It is the second year we’ve done this with our group of friends. Everyone brings part of the meal, and we all bring our bowls of candy to pass out – it’s a total score house for the trick or treaters!

This was the best picture I could snag of the three girls together.

It was a cool evening, but the kids were still able to eat outside on the deck.

After we all ate, it was time to head out to trick or treat. We had quite the herd! This is one of my favorite pictures of the nite – sisterly love!

Trick or treat!

We didn’t actually end up doing a whole lot of trick or treating; Harper was sick, and Remi got upset and we all ended up going home. I think it was a combo of being dark and a little scary, and just getting tired and not feeling well. Once we were home, the girls loved eating their candy and passing out candy to the other trick or treaters. I’m thinking next year we’ll go out while it is light and see if we have better luck!