Five on Friday!

Happy Friday! I’m linking up with Darci and friends for my fave blog link-up! I look forward to reading the fun Five on Friday posts each week!

Here’s what’s new around here:) Once again, I apologize for the iPhone pics. Our computer is still not working.

{one} I love making new recipes, so for Thanksgiving, I made a twist on the classic apple pie. On one of my fave food blogs, This Week for Dinner, I found a recipe for an easy caramel apple galette. My mom made a homemade crust and I mixed together the filling and the caramel topping. It was so yummy, and pretty easy! I wasn’t able to get a pic of the baked galette because my iPhone decided to freeze up. The final product looked better than this pic!

{two} Over Thanksgiving, my dad made us a boxwood wreath. He owns a nursery and has a Christmas tree farm, so he makes beautiful wreaths to sell. I love how this wreath turned out! So pretty! Now that I look back on it, it was pretty cool to grow up on a Christmas tree farm! Each year, we would just step out in our front yard and select a Christmas tree. My dad would dig one up and we would re-plant it after the holidays. I look around my parents’ property and can point out some of our old Christmas trees. They are huge now!!

{three} My mother-in-law gave Will and Harper an early Christmas present-The Elf on the Shelf! I had heard about this elf several years ago but we hadn’t purchased one. We haven’t gotten that into it yet but Will loves playing with him and hiding him in different locations around the house.

{four} These foil it stickers are the coolest! We bought them for our nieces for Christmas. Since we exchanged gifts with them over Christmas, Will and I got to try out some of their foil-its. You peel off part of the sticker and press on some foil paper. When you lift up the paper, the pretty foil color stays on the sticker. You’re able to make some very colorful stickers! Such a fun (and cheap) craft for kiddos:)

{five} On Monday evening, we attended a local Christmas parade. This was Harper’s first parade experience and Will’s second (when he was one, we went to a 4th of July parade). Luckily, it wasn’t too cold outside. Both kiddos thoroughly enjoyed the parade. They’re quite the people watchers! We waited downtown for a half an hour before the parade started (note to self, head downtown around four pm next year and set out chairs-it was crowded!), and they were mesmerized by all the people and hustle and bustle! Will and Harper enjoyed eating goldfish and watching the parade! It was so much fun!

Have a great weekend!

Thanksgiving Recap-Instagram Edition

I hope y’all had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving! Here’s a brief recap of our Thanksgiving, Instagram edition. I’m not sure when our computer will be working again, so it’s going to be lots of iPhone pics and short posts typed on my phone or iPad:( We had a wonderful time with family but are glad to be back home!

Last Wednesday, we drove to West Virginia to visit my husband’s parents as well as his brother, sister-in-law, and our two nieces. We planned it so Will and Harper would take their naps in the car. While driving, we went through some bad weather. The snow made it seem more like Christmas than Thanksgiving! My parents got several inches of snow at their house (they live about thirty minutes from my in-laws), and as we headed up the mountain to their house Wednesday evening, the roads were extremely icy. Luckily, we made it there safely (but got stuck in traffic for 45 minutes due to a car accident).

On Thursday, we had a Thanksgiving meal with my in-laws and my brother-in-law and his family. My brother-in-law and his fam recently moved to Kentucky and we haven’t see them since last year. They have two kiddos, V, who is five, and E, who is three. Will and Harper love playing with their cousins! The four kiddos ran around the house and played all day long.

On Friday, we hung out at the in-laws. That night, we headed back up to my parents for dinner. After dinner, we made and decorated sand tarts, a family tradition. My dad has been making these thin, buttery cookies since he was little. He grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and as a kid he worked for a lady who made cookies. Will had a blast sprinkling decorations onto the cookies! I love that baking Christmas cookies is a tradition that we have continued!

Worn out kiddos!

Yummy cookies!

Miss H enjoyed her first sand tart!

On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving #2 with my parents. Usually my brother and sister-in-law come in from North Carolina, but this year my sister-in-law’s parents went to NC to visit.

We had a great time visiting with family, playing outside in the snow and cold, and eating delicious food! We are so blessed:)

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had Thanksgiving yesterday at my in-laws.

I’m linking up with Darci and friends for Five on Friday! Once again, I’m relying on iPhone pics. Our computer is still not working…we’ve taken it to two computer repair places and the techs haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong. It’s driving me crazy not having access to my pics. It’s also difficult writing blog posts on my iPhone.

{1} We are preparing for winter! The other day we bought snow boots and a snowsuit for Will and hats and mittens for both kiddos. Will was obsessed with wearing his snow boots around the house! Here he is modeling his stylish boots, ha! He’s really excited about playing in the snow this year and building snowmen! We have a hill in our front yard where we will do some sledding!

{2} I bought some soft, cozy flannel sheets at Target last week. They are so nice and warm! I changed my duvet to a blue/purple cover that I bought at West Elm several years ago (but had forgotten about). It goes well with the new flannel sheets! Will and Harper love to sit in our bed on the weekends when they wake up and eat Cheerios!

{3} Yummy! We found these delicious white chocolate peppermint M&Ms at Target last week.  They are so, so good! I didn’t realize how much my husband liked peppermint.  He said it’s one of his favorite flavors.  Mine is pumpkin, but I really like peppermint as well.  Now I’m in search of a chewy chocolate peppermint cookie recipe for Christmas!  Any suggestions on other peppermint desserts?

{4} I’m trying to get all of my Christmas shopping done in the next week or two and have been searching for somehttp://www.the-good-life-blog.com/?m=1 creative gift ideas for Will’s preschool teacher and aide.  I came across this cute DIY snow globe gift card holder   from The Creative Mama and thought it was so neat! I also pinned a few other gift ideas on Pinterest.

{5} Will and I created a countdown to Christmas chain last week.  We’re going to use this in conjunction with a list of 25 Christmas countdown activities.  More about this in an upcoming post, but the activities include making gingerbread and/or peppermint play dough, donating toys to Salvation Army, and creating snowflakes.  And no, I’m not one of those people who puts up their Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving! The only thing I have put up is this chain, since there was no safe place in the house where Miss H. wouldn’t tear it apart, ha!

Weekly Pinterest Project: Week 16-Thankful Turkeys

For my Thanksgiving Pinterest project, Will and I created some thankful turkeys. I took some step by step pictures of us making the craft, but my computer is currently broken and I don’t have access to those pics. An iPhone pic will have to do…at least I have a picture for this project! Last week my Pinterest fail didn’t even include a picture:(.

Anyway, Will collected a few pinecones at Nana’s and I bought some eyes and brown pom poms for the turkey faces.

I traced Will’s hand on some cardstock and wrote, “I am thankful for…” on it. We glued the eyes and pom pom onto the pinecone, along with a beak made from cardstock. On the second pinecone, we created the turkey face and cut out three feathers from the fall color cardstock. I asked Will to tell me some things he was thankful for. Here’s what he said: “My neighbors, my sister, and Rody” (Rody is one of his toys). It was so sweet to hear that he was thankful for his neighbors and sister:)

This was a fun, yet simple project! We tried to get Miss Harper to participate, but she was super fussy and wanted to play with play dough instead:)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday:). I’m linking up with Darci for Five on Friday! Our computer isn’t working, so I’m unable to access my pics:(. It’s currently being worked on.. I’m hoping it is fixable. Below are a few pics from my iPhone but my camera on my phone has never worked well (and doesn’t work most of the time), so I added a few fun finds from Pinterest and Etsy:)

{1} I love snuggling with kiddos after baths! Will and Harper were enjoying a fun snack time together before bed the other evening. Each day, the two of them play more and more together. I love seeing their interactions and the love they show for each other…it’s so sweet!

{2} Miss Harper stopped nursing the other day:(. I’m still sad about it, especially since we’re not having any more kiddos. She’s my baby:) It seems like I’ve been nursing forever. I started my nursing journey in May 2010 when Will was born. I have nursed straight through until now, with the exception of November 2011 (it got too uncomfortable being pregnant) through March 2012 when Harper was born. So that’s almost three and a half years, wowzers! Will would have kept on nursing but it was too difficult nursing him while pregnant with Harper, so I weaned him at 18 months.

After Will was born, I thought I would just nurse him until he turned one. However, he wanted to keep nursing and so did I (something I thought I would never say in those very early newborn weeks with him; it was pretty rough for the first 6 weeks). When Harper was born, it was so much easier to pick back up and continue nursing. I decided I would nurse her as long as she wanted (within reason…I was planning on stopping by age 2 if she hadn’t stopped before then). Miss H had different plans. She got sick last week and when she tried to nurse, she gagged and pulled away. For several days, I asked her if she wanted to nurse, but she would adamantly say, “No!” each time. I had been so accustomed to nursing and it had become second nature to me. I really do miss it but am glad I had such a great experience with it!

{3} How cute are these lace boot cuffs from Etsy?! I first need to buy a pair of boots (please don’t judge me, but no, I don’t own any boots). Any recommendations?
{source}

{4} It’s not too early to plan my daughter’s second birthday party, is it? She doesn’t turn two (gasp!) until March but I’ve been pinning some ideas already. Currently, I’m loving this “You Are My Sunshine” theme with gray, yellow, and navy blue. So cute!
{source}

{5} It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in less than a week! Where did the year go?! Each Thanksgiving, I like to try a new recipe, one that puts a spin on the traditional dishes. I’m considering these pumpkin pie parfaits, yummy!
{source}

Five on Friday!

Happy Friday! I’m linking up with Darci and friends for Five on Friday, my favorite link-up!  It’s hard to believe that it’s already November 8th! The time is flying by!

{1}  For an upcoming Pinterest project (these are weekly projects I where I attempt a craft, new recipe, or something else I have pinned on Pinterest; see here and here for a few Pinterest projects that I’ve completed), I decided to start crocheting again.  I crocheted when I was younger but haven’t really done much with it in the past few years.  My mom and I are going to make some crocheted dishcloths over Thanksgiving, and I thought I’d start practicing crocheting again by making an infinity scarf.  Here’s my work in progress (which, by the way, hasn’t made much progress this week-I’m just too tired in the evenings to pick it up; all I want to do late in the evenings after the kiddos are in bed is visit with my hubby and read blogs).  Hopefully, I will have the scarf completed in a few weeks and will share it on one of my Pinterest project posts:)

{2} This whole time change thing is not fun when you have kiddos.  We are still adjusting to our new sleep schedules.  The kiddos have been waking up super early and are ready to go to bed early…plus, their nap schedules are all messed up.  I’m not liking how dark it is when we come home from work.  We’re trying to get outside as much as possible.  Here’s Miss H enjoying the outdoors, or the “fresh air,” as Will calls it.  He always says, “Mommy, we need to go out and get some fresh air.”

{3}   Out with the pumpkin, in with the peppermint!  It seems like we just started pumpkin flavor season, but in the stores, it’s time already for peppermint.  I made these pumpkin pancakes from Trader Joe’s last weekend.  We loved them, especially the kiddos!  I found a chocolate peppermint loaf mix at Trader Joe’s but haven’t tried it yet. Peppermint is another of my favorite flavors, but I’m not quite ready to give up pumpkin yet:(  Actually, what am I saying?  I make pumpkin breads and other pumpkin recipes through the winter, ha!

{4} I’m a huge fan of Burt’s Bees lip balm but I came across this EOS lip balm the other week at Target.  I have the pomegranate raspberry and sweet mint flavor and love them both! They are in such a cute container and are 100% natural.  I happened to see a huge package of the EOS lip balm at Costco the other week and had to resist the urge to buy it!

{5} In our family, we love Crocs! I have several different styles that I wear to work and my hubby even has a pair (his don’t leave the house, though!).  I recently bought Will and Harper each a new pair of Crocs.  Harper is finally outgrowing her pink size 2/3 Crocs (so tiny!).  The new purple Crocs are size 4 but are slightly big on her.

Have a great weekend:)