my little scrappers

With Claire loving her camera and photography, she has taken even more of a love for scrapbooking! Especially since she got a scrapbook kit for her birthday from Mimi. She loves to do her book while I'm working on a scrap project. Eden is really loving it too and I hope that it continues so we can all share in it together as we create and preserve our memories together!

Valentine's Prep!

I resisted pintrest for so long but gave into it about a month ago. As a person who has always LOVED Valentine's crafts I've had a great time searching for fun and easy ideas for the girls. The past week and especially over the weekend we got really busy on working on the girl's valentine's along with a few other fun things!

First things first, major bed head and decorating heart cookies to send to Great Grandma Ann!
Sending cards to the most amazing great aunts along with our pintrest heart crayons! Each of Claire and Eden's classmates will get a crayon along with their vday card and candy treat =) I didn't get a picture of the finished product but this was the tag I made from Claire's original design!

A crafting break for a lemonade stand to raise money for Leukemia Research. Claire's class has been collecting change so Claire wanted to do a lemonade stand. Of course it was about 40 degrees and windy but she was SO cute with her planning, sign making and determination to touch out the cold. She lasted about 30 minutes and tallied all the cars, cats and dogs she saw. Fortunately one car stopped and gave her a dollar - she was more than excited! We will try again later this week!
Back to making gifts for the teachers - a "crayon" made of a roll of rolos and a hershey kiss! I used the same label "You color my world!" The girl's teachers are so amazing and we are so grateful for them.
And flower shaped banana bread for our neighbors! The girl's just love knocking on all our neighbor's doors to give them something special.
Neil and I had our big Valentine's night out after a lot of plans falling through, rearranging plans and being spontaneous thanks to my amazing parents! Neil's roses to me have brighten up our kitchen and made our crafting area that much more beautiful!
Can't WAIT for tomorrow! I have a few surprises up my sleeve for my loved ones along with helping with Claire's class party =)

Squinkies

The squinkies have invaded our house...

and the girls could spend an hour just building, pretending and playing...

and they couldn't be more excited!

Nutcracker

The last weekend of November my mom and I took the girls to the Nutcraker at the Majestic - my most favorite theater. When we sat down and Claire looked up at the "sky" she said "I wanna work here when I get older!" It was so cute =) This is Claire's second time to see the ballet but Eden's first. I was a little nervous about how she would do but she was excellent - she did ask me questions throughout the first half and wanted to be down but we were in the "kids" section so it really wasn't bothersome.
Eden doesn't look too excited but she really did love being there!
Her favorite part was the mice and Rat King scene which is near the beginning so she asked me throughout the rest of the performance "Where the rat king?" Such a funny girl!
A few days later my mom found this amazing rat king music box to commemorate Eden's first time to the show. It sat right next to the nutcracker Claire got after her first time. Eden wants to play the music rat king all the time!
And she hasn't stopped talking about it since! She asks to watch it every.single.day. and has to put on her "pretty dress" so she can leap and run through the living room. It's so adorable but Claire doesn't find it amusing to have to always start it at 29 minutes in when the rat king and mice part starts!



I've found one of my old piano books I played from when I was a kid and it has about 10 excerpts from the Nutcracker. It gives me such joy to have my girls dance and sing when I play!!

Breakfast with Santa

Our church puts together Breakfast with Santa every year and the kids just love it! Eden was so cute - up until the day before she was saying she would NOT sit on Santa's lap but as soon as we got there, she wanted to go right away. Nevermind the pancakes with candy and the craft (which boggled my mind!) - she had a one track mind so off we went. She sat with no problem but wouldn't look or talk to him! When asked what she wanted to pointed to me because she wanted me to tell him. It was really cute! We had a great time with friends, making the cutest hand print reindeer towel, sharing the memory with Grandma and
Eden's first time to sit on Santa's lap!
Eating with the Miller's

Claire and Leyna
Grandma with her girls
Maynard is such a sweetheart to all the kids at church =) The girls and we just love him!! We caught him on a break from an elders meeting!

The girls showing us their craft - what a great idea!

As much as I struggle with Santa it really is a lot of fun to see the kids get so excited to see him!

Halloween

Halloween this year wasn't as crazy as it has been but we still had plenty to do to wear our costumes! With it being the same weekend as the Chosen it made it harder... we had to miss our church trunk or treat but the girls didn't once complain.

Our first fun event was Claire's class party that one of the parent's hosted at their home. It was a pretty amazing party! Games and food galore! A pinata, a ghost hunt, crafts, a balloon artist and the best part? Seeing Mrs. Lopez and her husband (my 5th grade teacher!) dressed up in their costumes! Claire had a blast with her friends as I was exhausted and recovering from the half marathon that morning. I also have really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the other moms through these fun social things for Claire's class!
Claire the queen and Mrs. Lopez the Gypsy
They are such a SWEET couple! Mr. Lopez is still just as nice as can be! I really loved having him as a teacher WAY back when...
Claire with our neighbor and friend Amanda
The next evening we had a birthday party for Katie Clem! Eden especially gets excited about seeing Katie and it's hilarious that she can't just call her Katie but it's ALWAYS "Katie Clem". Lily is just Lily =)
We carved our pumpkin after school on actual Halloween day. I say WE but I really mean ME =) My girls didn't want to touch the insides so they ended up playing while I scrapped it all out. Claire contributed with her face design. Gotta love the mismatched eyes... it's my favorite part!

The girls with our painted pumpkins and Jack O Lantern
We went trick or treating around our neighborhood that night after Neil got home. Here they are with their decorated pumpkins from Katie Clem's party


Abbey joined us for the 3rd or 4th year! So much fun to go with them!

After our bags were full, we went to trick or treat at Mimi and Poppa's neighbors. We always go to the same three houses and then pass out a little candy too =) Eden was NOT feeling this last photo op! She's giving me a look that I hope not to see often - LOL! Love that Gene is sporting his new Africa shirt that he bought at the marathon. You can find it through the ministry Into the Streets of Ethiopia. Click on the link to find out more!

I missed doing Halloween this year with our church friends and family - we weren't able to do trunk or treat, playgroup and didn't do a planned life group Halloween night... Hope to at least do one next year!

Pumpkin Patch take one!!

My sweet Eden is still sleeping and it's almost 8:45 am!! Poor thing came home sick yesterday from school so she is getting much needed rest. She's never slept this late =) So... I will share the pics from our first pumpkin patch visit with BOTH girls. Claire was so upset that I had already taken Eden and couldn't wait to go check them all out. We chose a big one to carve and to go with our five little ones that we already painted and did sticker faces. There's just something about pumpkin patch pictures. Always some of my FAVORITE to scrapbook and a great time to get some good family pictures. We will be going out with all four of us sometime soon to capture this years family picture!!





Have a great weekend!!!

Bunk Beds

Look what these girls and their bed head are so excited about...
they got their bunk beds!!! We finally sold Claire's bed to a sweet family from church so we were able to get the bunk beds ordered and moved in before school started - yippee!! They really love having them and it's been great to get more space in the bedroom. The stairs on the bed have drawers so we can have more storage. Something at a premium when moving kiddos in together.
They especially love the top but Eden is doing fine with having to sleep on bottom. She is doing great at staying in bed and sharing a room - even better with the beds instead of mattresses on the floor. I think it's because they can't see each other and it isn't as easy to get out =)

This is a big step for Eden - her first big girl bed! Do you think she likes it?
Our big girl keeps growing up right before our eyes! I'm SO thankful that this transition was actually pretty easy (especially compared to Claire) and it's one more check off the list to getting things settled while we wait for our little guy!
Bottoms up!!