Tis the Season

Its only taken me until Christmas Eve to put up a Christmas post. Very unlike me if you know about my love for this season. But its that love that has kept me from blogging about it...things have been crazy ya'll! Between shopping, decorating, events, and more events, preparing to travel back home and now being back home I have not had much time to blog. But I am sweeping in at the last second to put some holiday goodness up on the blog.

I spent two days decorating the house, we don't really have that much stuff but a toddler makes the job a little harder than it used to be.



The outside lights are Chase's job and he recruited my brother this year as well. We go for the classic large multi-color lights. I love the old school look.



We also get a real tree every year. I grew up with a real tree and the thought of ever getting a fake one just doesn't sit well with me. They are so beautiful and the house smells so good. It wouldn't be Christmas without the smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree.



Our tree is decorated with a mix of old and new - classic and modern. My Grams gave us a Hallmark ornament every year growing up so most of those are on the tree as well as some other special ornaments commemorating important events. This one is my favorite, its the one we got the first year it was the three of us.







And our beloved elf Ellie is also back this year from the North Pole. Molly has really gotten into her this year and every morning runs around the house looking for her. "Where Ellie?! Where Ellie?!"



We also got a little snow/ice storm earlier this December, which is very rare for Dallas, so it really helped us get into the holiday spirit! Look at my cute family...so lucky and blessed this season!

Merry Christmas to all!! xo

Turning TWO: The Party

Immediately after last years party, which was above and beyond, and in the couple months leading up to Molly's birthday I swore that I was going to keep it simple. But then I started looking around on Pinterest and my desire to create a fun and well decorated party took over. But still...definitely going to take it down a notch from her first party.

We settled on a Popsicle/Ice cream theme because those are two of Molly's very favorite things. This is usually a summertime theme but we thought we could pull it off in November...after all - we live in Texas (and it ended up being in the high 70s during the party).

Luckily I saved almost all of the decorations from last year and most of the colors fit right in so we reused a lot of things. But we also made some fun new things too! Take a look around...















For the menu we kept it pretty simple. The party started at 2:30 so we just needed snack foods. On the menu we had pigs-in-a-blanket (a party staple), ham and cheese pinwheels, hummus-cheese-cracker plate, chex mix, and apple sauce packets for toddler snacking on the go. For desserts we had popsicle rice krispy treats and cupcakes. I decided to make Molly her own little mini cake this year and made a Popsicle cake.





To keep the kiddos entertained we borrowed a small bounce house and set it up in the backyard along with several other outside toys. Like I said, the weather ended up being perfect for this and the kids had so much fun!









And the adults had lots of fun too! Some of our good friends even came in themed shirts they decorated themselves!!







It was such a fun time! So much less stressful than last year and neat to see all the kids actually run around and play together.

We also decided to request that guests bring unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots instead of gifts for Molly. She has so many toys and we knew our family would be getting her plenty. We ended up with a wagon full of awesome toys to donate.



Another great party! Next year I am definitely going to scale back...

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Big Thanks to my friend Laura for leading the DIY decorations yet again, to my Mom for helping get everything ready the day of, to my friend Alex for taking all the great photos so I could party and to everyone else who came and made it a very special day for Molly!

Day in the Life: Two Years Old

Wow, so I realized the last time I did a day in the life post Molly was 8 months old. Geez! Its safe to say a lot has changed since then. I always love these posts that share a glimpse into the daily routine of other people and kids. Hopefully ours is somewhat entertaining.

Something wakes me up but when I wake there is silence. Nope. I hear it. A moaning, slowly waking child. Quick glance at my phone, its 7:25am - decent wake up time today. I pry myself out of the bed so I can brush my teeth and let the dog out before the moaning turns into crying.

Good morning! The good night of sleep paid off, someone is in a good mood and full of energy! We jump around in bed for a few minutes and then we head into the living room where Molly eats a banana and watches some Bubble Guppies while I make coffee and turn on the house.

8:30am // Breakfast. A typical breakfast is scrambled eggs, strawberries, turkey sausage and toast with butter. She gobbles pretty much everything up.

While she is eating I realize that I was supposed to make cupcakes for her Mother's Day Out class for her birthday...I have, down to the minute, just enough time to pull this off!

Between baking last minute cupcakes, making her lunch, packing up her backpack, getting her dressed with shoes ON, the next 40 minutes are a huge blur. No matter how early we get up its always a rush to get out the door to school on time.

9:30am // School Drop Off. Molly goes to MDO two days a week from 9:30am - 2:30pm. She loves it. She has made great friends at school and learns so much! She always jumps out of my arms to go play with her friends. After I drop her off I make a special trip to Starbucks to get a latte (in a RED holiday cup!) and a breakfast sandwich. I take a breath and eat my sandwhich in Starbucks while I read through my emails.

10:00am-2:00pm // WORK! I work from home so these days where Molly is at school are precious. I feverishly make my way down my to-do list bouncing from project to project trying to make the most of my toddler free time. I get quite a bit accomplished today so I am feeling pretty good.

2:30pm // Pick up the kiddo from school. She has had a great day and the entire class enjoyed her last minute birthday cupcakes. A win for Mom!

We swing through Sonic for our Wed afternoon treat - a vanilla coke zero for me and some tator tots for her. Then we are back home where I get back to work and Molly terrorizes the house! You'll notice she has on a different outfit at home...she insists on changing at least twice day!

5:30pm // I sign off of work, play with Molly for a little bit and then its time to start making dinner. On tonights menu - tacos! For some reason Molly wants to get in her high chair so I put her in and she watches me cook.

Around 6:15 Dad is home! Molly is super excited and immediately requests a dance party! She has become obsessed with the "What Does a Fox Say?" song and insists on a minimum of 2 dance parties a day. Chase and Molly dance around the living room while I put the finishing touches on dinner.

Dinner is served once the dance party is over and we sit together, chat about our days and enjoy the tacos. Then Molly has an improtu raid of my closet for my heels and jewelry. She loves wearing my heels around the house.

7:30pm // Night time routine begins. Chase gives Molly a bath while I clean up the kitchen and pick up her play area. I can hear lots of giggles and screams coming from the bathroom - she loves bath time! After the bath she gets the usual treatment of lotion, diaper, pjs, teeth brushing and she is ready for bed.

8:15pm // Chase reads Molly a book and she drinks her night time milk (she gets milk in the morning and at bed time). After the book is finished she gets hugs and kisses from Dad and then I sing to her and rock her for a few minutes with the lights out. Then its off to bed!

8:30pm // Relaxation time! Chase and I generally cuddle up on the couch and talk while we watch some of our TV shows. Ocassionally I will head back to the computer to finish up some work, write a blog post, or take care of other business that I need to get done. 

11:00pm // Lights out!

And then we wake up and do it all over again.

Halloween 2013 Recap

I can't believe its November. Which also means my baby is turning TWO in a few days. Wha?! I don't want to talk about it. Instead lets go back in time and recap Halloween.

We kicked off Halloween with a fun, family friendly, costumes required, chili and pumpkin carving party. Chase and I decided to bring back some 90s game show fun and went as Supermarket Sweep contestants. Best show ever!

"Hey, the next time you're at the checkout counter and you hear the beep, think of all the fun you can have on, Supermarket Sweep!"



And Molly and her BFF Weston dressed up as Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion. We even taught Molly to say "No place like home" and click her feet together (which somehow we didn't get on video!). Weston also had a very mighty ROAR!



When actual Halloween rolled around it was time for trick or treating. Last year Molly was an adorable ladybug. She had just started walking and was so cute trying to stumble up to someone holding out candy. This year was a whole other ball game. She was RUNNING up each driveway holding her basket and ready to say "Trick or Treat!" And then it was "another house, another house." I think we might be raising a Halloween pro.





There were several very impressively decorated houses that proved to be a little scary and a witch that we are still talking about to this day (maybe forever!). You can see the concern on her face as I tried to get her to pose with Chase.







Molly ended up with a very sizeable amount of candy which we are s-l-o-w-l-y letting her have. Girl is candy crazy! I have also had to explain to her at least once a day that she can't go trick or treating -- it only happens once a year.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Onto the next holiday...