Advent calendar: 2 days in

Can you believe it is December already? I feel like we were just trick or treating! I love this time of year. I love to try and create Pinterest worthy memories for the family! Key word here, try. I bought this advent calendar two Christmases ago and always have the highest hopes of creating something spectacular with it!

Yesterday I worked two hours of overtime and got home late. Thank goodness I had new Christmas pjs available and used that as day 1. Today I worked overtime again. So today's surprise was to read the velveteen rabbit. I think it's really the sweetest little story. 

Stay tuned to see how long it takes me to get my act together and have these days planned out earlier than the day of!

Two Thanksgivings and a Movie

This year we had two Thanksgiving celebrations. One with my side of the family and one with Matt's. 

Every year we celebrate Thanksgiving with my mom and her sister and most of their kids and the kids' kids! It was quite a bit smaller this year, only 26 people. The turkey was still frozen in the middle, but the sides were great! Even though we all live within an hour from each other, it's rare that we all get together at once. It was so fun to see the girls with their cousins!

On Friday we celebrated at Matt's parents with some extra family and friends. It was much quieter and just as fun! Elle helped my dad make cranberry sauce the night before. It was pretty tart, but was sweet to watch her cook with her Grandpa. 

I have been wanting to take Elle to see her first movie for a while now. I decided that The Good Dinosaur would be ok for us to watch. There is a new movie house close to us, so I bought us tickets and we took Grammy and Grandpa and Aunt Stacey. It was a very sweet movie. Elle enjoyed the experience. I can't wait to take her back for something else. 

All in all, God continues to shower us with blessings. So lucky to have these people in my life. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I love cats

So... Apparently being a full time mama/wife/nurse, makes it super hard to be a full time blogger. Or full time blogger that writes things worth reading. I do enjoy the thought of other people reading what I write and at the very least getting a good chuckle out of it, so I'm going to give it the good college try to post 3 times a week. We'll see how that goes!

It seems like things have been crazy busy lately. Matt has been working late and is busy with class working on his masters. I've had a few late days at work. It's amazing how things that would have been no big deal before we had a family really throws a wrench into things. 

We had absolutely nothing planned this weekend and it was GLORIOUS!! It was rainy and gloomy and just perfect! These are my favorite weekends. 

The girls and I were eating waffles yesterday for breakfast and I told them how I loved them both so very much. Elle responded with quite possibly the best response all year. "Yes. And I love cats!"

Man I love that girl! Trying my best to soak in every last ounce of this stage in our lives- albeit one day at a time!

Cat lover and I before her quiet time. 

Glow in the darkness

Nothing wipes out your free time like recovering from a cold while continuing to adult! Just today I feel like I'm finally back to 90%! 

Anyways, I wanted to share something I heard today. Glow In The Darkness. Part of my prayers for my littles and myself is to be a light in this world. The world is full of so much hurt, I hope to always be part of the love. On the radio today they were talking about being a light in the world and how you should strive to glow in the darkness. I'm not sure why, but for whatever reason that little saying stuck out to me. It's easy sometimes to get sucked into the darkness, gossiping, negativity, wanting... I'm going to try my best to be an example to those around me. I am going to glow in the darkness. I might flicker now and then, but I know who my eternal flame belongs to, and I know it will keep glowing until there is no darkness. 

I hope you can be a light wherever you are!

Out of commission

Wow... It's been awhile. Last Tuesday during the photoshop class I was taking I noticed I was getting a sore throat, didn't think too much about it. Fast forward to a week later and I am still recovering. I haven't felt this bad in a while. Of course the girls got sick too. I had to reschedule pictures that I've already rescheduled 3 times because of the rain. Fingers crossed we get them taken soon. 

Yesterday and today I took the day off work. The girls stayed with Grammy and Pap and I rested. Boring!! I felt so terrible and was glad I could just worry about me, but talk about lonely. Morning and afternoon TV has just gotten horrible. I could barely stand to keep it on. 

Today I started feeling much better as the day went on. I picked up the girls early and we did some painting outside in the backyard. I'm hoping we all make full recoveries soon. The weather is too gorgeous to be stuck in bed!

Weekend Ramblings

This was a great weekend! I started it off with happy hour and Tex-Mex with some of my girls from work. Sangria swirls and chile rellanos on the patio? Yes. Every. Time. I actually only attend happy hour maybe 3 times a year, finding free time for that extra hour is tough and then dealing with the mom guilt afterwards... But I went and it was much needed. 

Saturday started bright and early, Elle woke up at her usual 6:45 and was SO excited to hear we didn't have to work! We had a low key Saturday, walked to the playground, family trip to target, and dinner out. 

Sunday was Elle's first day of Sunday school, and my first day teaching Sunday school. I am not teaching Elle's class, my class is a bit older. What a privilege it is to be teaching something so special to God's little children. I can only imagine what they will teach me this year! We rounded out our weekend with some outside time in the evening. The weather was great! We let Elle stay up to watch the lunar eclipse- she had so many questions! My favorite one "Daddy, are there houses on the moon?" Love her little mind!

Was your weekend just as wonderful?

Camping With Littles: Must Haves

I wanted to share a few of my must haves if you plan on camping with little people. Camping is fairly new for me.  I am still learning the ins and outs of what is really required and what can probably be left at home! This doesn't cover the necessities like diapers, food, etc., but I think these special items will make camping with small children a little bit easier.

High Chair//Shoes//Little Camping Chair//Blanket//

Another Blanket Option//Water bottle (Similar)  

Rocking Chair//Turtle

We received the portable high chair as a Christmas gift from my in-laws. We have taken it several places, to the pool, on our beach vacation, and most recently camping. We get comments on it every time we take it out! Elle is a girl on a mission anytime we go somewhere new. She loves to explore, climbing things, getting dirty. I left her dressier shoes at home and only brought her Keens and rain boots. I love that these shoes are easy for her to put on and you can pretty much hose them off if they get dirty. Shoes that can get dirty are a must! Do not pack shoes you are afraid will get ruined.

The girls and I love to play outside. One of my favorite things to do is to lay a blanket down on the ground and read, have a picnic, play, rest. It's so relaxing for the backyard or for camping! I like to use a quilt, I think it's a little thicker which makes it more comfortable than a thing mat. Wren isn't walking yet, so having a place for her to crawl and play was a must while we were camping. If I had to choose one thing off of this list, this would probably be it.

Did you even know they made camping rocking chairs?? Even if I didn't have anyone that needed rocked to sleep, I think I would like to take one for myself! Wren still gets rocked to sleep every night. This chair is super comfortable, it made it easy to rock and nurse her to sleep. Both of the girls got cloud b animals when they were born, Elle has the giraffe and Wren has the bunny. I have been using the tranquil turtle to try and help Wren sleep in her own bed at night. Nothing stops progress made like sleeping in a bed with Mama over the weekend! Nonetheless, this little turtle is very calming to fall asleep to!

Of course, the most essential things you need to bring aren't things you can pack. A warm heart and caring hands go a long way <3