Pre Christmas fun - 2016

Ok, I'm finally catching up - so you don't have to read this - as yes, it's mid-February and I'm talking Christmas...but oh well!  That's life.  We have had a great season leading up to Christmas this year and even though I haven't kept on top of my blog...I wanted to make sure and get it all in.  I'm going back and mimicking this post from last year when I went over all the fun we had in 2015!

The week BEFORE Christmas, I took off work and took the big kids out of daycare for a fun week.  At the holidays, I'm always feeling bad for myself being a working mom and that I don't get to have this time with my kids to do things - this year though, I had a lot of vacation left over and thought I would take full advantage!!

Monday kicked off with breakfast and then we headed over to my coworker and friend's house to bring her lunch and hang with her older son and new baby, Beck.  He was adorable and the kids loved eating their Chick fil A together, while Amy and I loved catching up!!!

On Tuesday, I did the typical Kansas City Christmas holiday activity of going down to Union Station.  I was smart and asked my dad to go with us.  Even though it was 2 on 1, it is always nicer to be 2 on 2!!!  Well, the kids had a blast looking at all the fun trains and taking silly pictures with me.  UNTIL it was time to leave the train part and head over to Crown Center.

On the way out, I tried to grab the quintessential holiday picture in front of the gorgeous tree in Union Station.  And THIS is what I got. 

BAHAHAHAHAHAH.  I love it actually.

#reallife

Papa tried to calm Charlie down, but that didn't work.  Hey, at least Maddie looks adorable!

Maddie and my dad walked in the stroller over to Crown Center, but Charlie and his bad attitude had to drive with me.  Mainly because I knew by the time we'd be leaving, it would be pushing nap time and we wouldn't want to walk back over to Union Station.  That was dramatic (of course), but once we got to Fritz's (aka the train restaurant that kids love but it's like the WORST food ever - in my opinion!), they were happy because Aunt Lulu was there!  My sister works at Children's Mercy Hospital and her office is right across the street from Crown Center (same buildings that I used to work in at Hallmark!  How fun would that have been if we both would have worked there at the same time?!?).  See, they were happy!!

Especially seeing these life size lego people (Legoland is down at Crown Center too) and the fact that I got them a dirt and worms from Sheridans.

Even though I tried to make nap time work...it ended up like THIS.  Haha.  That's my dad sleeping in Maddie's bed, while Maddie is wide awake.

But I got to spend some time on my computer and watching what I wanted - which is always nice!

That same night - our matching dresses from China that were $11 came in the mail!  YES!!  I was so nervous they wouldn't get there in time for Christmas Eve and they did!!  Maddie's accessories are on point.  But she loves that dress and coloring!

The next morning looked a lot like this.  Haha.  This is Maddie, reading my company's prospectus :)  I snapped this pic and sent to my boss!

I had high hopes for our movie experience we had planned that day.  Can someone just level set all my expectations with these two?  Haha.  My parents joined us for Moana - which was Maddie's first movie.  And while she enjoyed the popcorn and refills....

She didn't quite understand the fact that you weren't supposed to talk - hahaha.  So she took her tag and grabbed some random coasters and hung out with my dad outside the theater until it was done.  We tried, right?!

One of the biggest challenges was remembering to pump before we went places!!!

But when we went to get this guy in the afternoon - all that annoying pumping is worth it!

Right?  I mean adorbs?!

By Thursday, I was POOPED.  Seriously.  I originally was planning on going to another friend's house, but after all our days filled with constant go go go, I was ready for a day at home and I know the kids were too.  So we spent Thursday putting together our fun gifts for our friends and neighbors.  Charlie was an awesome helper and they both loved delivering them to our neighbors!!

(read more about that here!)

Friday was filled with FRIENDS!  Jimmy was at home with us and we kept Mikey home too.  My best friend's from high school came over for a super fun play date with their kiddos.  Katie and James were in town from Oklahoma and Lauren, David and Landon came over from Wichita.  Oh man - it's SOOOOO fun to see all our kiddos together and how much they play.  

They danced and sang and chased each other.  Love their mommas (and dads) and these kids.  It's crazy to think how long Lauren, Katie and I have been friends and so awesome that we still are and now our kids get to play together!  For Katie and I, almost THIRTY YEARS and Lauren and I, almost 25.

After naps on Friday, we headed over to Mikey's day care lady's house (Ms Marie) for their Christmas celebration!  This is our first kid using an in home provider with and we LOVE her.  We have just been so blessed to have found her!!  She has a Christmas celebration for all the kids - AND their siblings.  She even invites recent "alumni" - how adorable.  She has 6 grown kids (around Jimmy and my age) and a ton of grandkids - so look at all the presents under her tree!!  She has a big and awesome family!!!

 One of her son's dresses up as Santa and comes to her house with huge bags of presents.  We had no idea what was going to happen, but he called each of the kids up by name and they sat on his lap and he gave them each a wrapped present.  Crazy, right?  Like even Charlie and Maddie!  They don't go there!!  Maddie was AMAZED that Santa was there in real life.  Charlie hates Santa and just wants presents.  Ha.

Mikey really liked Santa's beard.  Ha.

I was literally in shock because Santa asked the kids what they wanted before he handed them the present.  Charlie yelled "Star wars legos" from afar and got his present.  Went to open it up and that's EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS.  I had no idea how Ms Marie knew that, but the look on his face was priceless.  I'm not kidding - I will forever remember it because it even made me believe and realize how amazing the spirit of Christmas is.  And that it's not about the amount of presents, but really thinking about what that person wants and making them happy.  I am totally going to be more intentional about our gift giving next year - even to our parents and siblings.  Because the look on Charlie's face when Santa gave him that was amazing!

We had so much fun meeting other parents at Ms Marie's party and playing with all the kids and siblings - she is just the best.  Again, so happy that Mikey gets to go there everyday!

The only other thing that came and went was Tony's (our elf) last visit on Christmas Eve - I did pretty good this year (if I say so myself)!!!  I set a reminder on my phone and had a whole list of ideas already thought up.  The kids had fun and said goodbye to him.

After 5 days at home, I will say I was completely exhausted and didn't even have my third kid at home with me.  So SERIOUS props to you SAHM's out there.  You amaze me.  We did have our fair share of tantrums and fights, but I'm thankful that I took the week off with the older hooligans and made some memories around the holiday season - good and bad, but they are all wonderful memories because they will NEVER again be this age!  And each Christmas seems to get more and more fun!

Keep Christmas going - DIY Stove Top Potpourri

Happy day 2 of 2017!!  I have such a simple and awesome DIY gift for you.  And bonus is - you'll want to make a few for yourself as well!

I always like to do something small for friends and neighbors close by.  Nothing crazy or expensive each year.  But usually, that defaults to some sort of food/sweet.  Well, being that everyone is usually inundated around the holidays with sweets in general - I decided to think outside the box and try to find something on Pinterest that was simple, easy, useful and NOT food.

Here it is folks!!  DIY Stove top potpourri!  Not kidding - this was a HUGE hit.  I did get the stuff and try it out myself to make sure it did in fact smell good before assembling and handing out to neighbors and friends.  We used it at Mikey's baptism party and it smelled delicious.

So Charlie and I went to work the week before Christmas and made some packages and then the three of us delivered to our neighbors!

Here was the finished product and here is the website that I got the idea from (which even includes the printable for the gift packaging - BONUS!)

I ended up ordering the cloves and cinnamon sticks on amazon in bulk because we were making 10 and it was WAY cheaper than buying at the store (holy cow, like 5 cinnamon sticks at the store is seriously like $7!).  I found buying in bulk helped cut down the price and I have leftovers to use too - which I love!

Charlie helped me assemble all the bags and measure everything out.  It was a great 4.5 year old activity and we had a good time (with minimal spillage!)

I just stuck all the ingredients in a plastic bag, hole punched the printable and used twine to tie off!  It was a cute little package and everyone loved it!

We went off to deliver them to our neighbors - and totally broke the law by letting them sit in the front with me - however, you should know we only went about 1 block from our house - so I promise I wasn't being negligent!  They had so much fun taking them to everyone's houses and bringing a little Christmas cheer!  And bonus was, all my neighbors used it almost immediately and raved about how awesome it was!!

So save this idea for next holiday season OR continue Christmas a little bit longer (it's a "winter" smell too) and whip it up for this new year's holiday!

Merry Christmas {cards!}

Merry Christmas Eve to all!!!

Wanted to share our Christmas cards this year!! Instead of doing professional photos (the timing is off for the ones we already have for Mikey's first year pictures- since we will do his 6 month ones just after the first of the year and he's changed so much since July I didn't want to use his newborn ones!), I had my sister come with us to our cliche neighborhood waterfall and snap some pictures of our family - and really of our kids.

She got some good ones-- cheesy smiles and all!! Hahaha. I love these kids!

And we did get a good family one too- the waterfall was a bit cold with the water splashing up on us, but they turned out great.  Thanks Lyndsay for taking these for us!!

I ordered 100 cards from my go to Costco this year thinking that would be plenty and I still have like 10 people that sent us one but I ran out to send back to them. Dang!!! Next year order more??!!

I LOVE this time of year and getting cards- of everyone's beautiful family's!  So thank you to all that sent one to us!!

Also, I actually have enjoyed the elf this year and made it less stressful on myself--- and the kids loved it!!!  But tony said goodbye today with one last trick!

Can't wait for Santa to come tonight and for church and dinner and all the goodness of family time that comes with this season!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Five things that are so random

This week was filled with lots of stuff.  The weekend was busy and I had something two nights this week, which I'm not a huge fan of - because I like putting my kiddos (really Mikey) to bed.  And I don't like leaving Jimmy alone to do the solo bed times.  He can totally do it, but I know first hand it's exhausting!!  Did I mention he's the best?  In addition to this week (and some Christmas fun) - there were some AMAZING stuff that I found that I must share.

{ONE}

I'm postive you have seen Amanda Bell's video from snapchat about Kohl's cash.  If not, you must watch.  If you've seen it, just watch again.  I literally laugh out loud the whole time.  I love this and it's soooo true.

{TWO}

And this one.  Oh my.  If men breastfed instead of women.  SERIOUSLY.  Can I have a lounge like this at work??  #forrealz

"what are you pumping?" - oh my!

{THREE}

In other random news - I literally HAVE to stop buying stuff on the internet.  AHHH!!  My porch literally looks like this every other day.  No more Christmas presents please!  (In good news, I think I'm *almost* done shopping!).

But in the meantime, I have also purchased random/awesome stuff for our house - like this new ottoman that I'm so excited about.  Vanessa has it in her house and I've loved it for a long time and it was on super sale on Black Friday - so DONE.

Maddie likes it too.  And I was hoping to get a picture when it's not pitch black outside - but #reallife is that I'm never home during the week when it's light outside except for like 10 minutes right at 5:00 when we all walk back in the door.  So you get this crappy photo!  Plus don't you love all the random kids in it? HA.  #mylife

But I think it's a hit!

Oh and these matching mom/daughter dresses to wear on Christmas Eve (hopefully they actually get here in time!)

{FOUR}

Need some meal prep tips/recipe ideas?  Seriously, I found an amazing recipe that I made on Sunday for lunch everyday and it was DELICIOUS.  I shared with my challenge group and everyone has loved how good and easy it was.  Check it out on my health and fitness blog!

{FIVE}

Christmas parties and Christmas mania!  Tis the season, right?  We had two parties last weekend and one this weekend.  We have already been to visit Santa (yeah!), our elf, Tony, came back and we are gearing up for our neighborhood holiday hay ride this next week.  I still need to finish addressing our Christmas cards that I have had for like a month and get stuff ready for Mikey's baptism lunch next weekend.  SO.MUCH.FUN.  Exhausting, but fun.

Pics from my work Christmas party at the Intercontinental hotel on the plaza!  Love my finance team and my Pi Phi work ladies!

Neighbor progressive dinner fun - love Kaiser and MacKenzie's sequin skirt!  

TONY is back!!!!  And Christmas PJs - duh.

Tonight we are going bowling with some friends for our small group - Charlie has only tried it once at a friend's birthday party, so I'm excited/terrified to see how it goes!  Wish us luck and happy weekending - only TWO weekends before Christmas!!!  Hope you have a great weekend ahead and thanks for stopping by!

Linking up with:

Sept Farm | Oh hey Friday!

A. Liz Adventures | Five on Friday

Momfessionals | Friday Favorite

Stocking Stuffer link up reveal

One super fun thing about blogging that I have found to love over these last few years is the community!  While most of the people that probably read my blog know me in real life (because, let's be honest - my blog is not that interesting!), I have gotten to know a few ladies through this crazy thing called the Internet and it's pretty fun!  I also love these little exchanges and link ups because you really get to know some new people!!

So when Jess, Whitney and Amy announced this exchange - I jumped at the chance to join in.  Because who doesn't have time to pick up a little something and send it across the country to make someone else's Christmas season a little more cheery!?  

Even better was when I found out that I was paired with Liz from Chasin Mason Blog!!!  She so great and I love following her and her adorable family through her blog.  My favorite thing is her Instagram posts taking her son to the post office - he LOVES that place and you can see in his pictures every time they go.  Anyways - Liz and I traded some ideas...but it seems that we both had the SAME idea.  Coffee and chocolate :)  Some of the best things in life right there!  I love the little "B" stocking too!  It was so fun to open a present for me from the mail - since after online shopping, I was so used to opening presents I bought for other people!!

I opened this up and then the next day couldn't find the adorable stocking!  I knew there was some extra chocolate in it and was on the hunt.  After I got home from work, the older kids were playing outside and they told me they found something - of COURSE.  Toby (our German Shepard/Chow mix) had snagged up the mini stocking and attempted to get the chocolate out.  Well, he failed miserably and apparently if you're 13 years old as a dog and you don't succeed, you just give up!  Because the stocking was rescued in one piece with the chocolate still in tact!

Thank you, Liz!  I always love a nice {solo} Starbucks run - so you know I'll put it to good use!!

One more thing....fun fact about Liz: I also learned that she is allergic to blue cheese.  While I was not going to send her blue cheese, it did make me sad because she was talking to blue cheese's number one fan right here!  But see, I just love the things you learn about people through these!  Even more insight into these awesome ladies of the blog world!

Can't wait to fill my family's stockings now with some fun gifts!

2014 Christmas Card(s)

Wait - it's February and really just a few days shy of a month after Christmas.  I know that doesn't quite seem possible (at least for me because January freaking FLEW by), but I think it's still fair game to post our Christmas cards, don't you?

Mainly for documentation but also because it's quite the blog worthy story and they turned out pretty funny.  In the end.  Regardless of the fact that I stressed out about them like every day in December.  Sheesh.  So that in itself deserves it's own blog post, don't ya say??!

Ok - so this is the first year in 5+ years that neither Jimmy or I work at Hallmark Cards.  You know, the ginormous card company known around the world?  Yeah - that one.  Well, it's been pretty easy each year because I'm not going to lie, Hallmark.com is not the most user friendly website...but once you have your addresses loaded in, it's SO easy to make your card and then they mail them for you.  Oh my.  The best part.

However, as you know in life, each thing like that comes at a price.  In this case, your time is what it's worth right?  Well this year, we didn't get our huge Hallmark discount, so I decided to search other places.  I LOVE CostCo greeting cards and hunted there, but since we do send out a lot of cards...I was trying to be thrifty and found a groupon for Invitation Box.  They offered limited designs, but after looking at them and consulting Jimmy (the CEO of our house - his self title), we decided we liked one of the designs and went for it.  I ordered them the week before Thanksgiving knowing that there would be about a 2 week turn around time (as stated on the deal).  Then that would give me a week or so to get them all addressed and sent out WELL in advance of Christmas.  Because the cards did say "Merry Christmas" and all.

WELL.

That's not quite how it worked.  At 2.5 weeks after ordering and the cards still hadn't arrived, I just figured I would send an inquiry about my order to their customer service, asking if my order had shipped, etc.  Four or five days went by with no response.  So I tried calling them.  No answer every time.  The days flew by - just like they always do in December - and then I tried to chat them.  Still NO response.  I was freaking out.  Mainly because I love getting and send Christmas cards and we are usually one of the first ones to get them out...so I was already irritated that they were "late" in my mind.  But I still had time, right?  Days passed and nothing.  No response from anyone there.  So I went to Groupon because I was mad.  Oh and I posted on their Facebook wall about the terrible customer service.  Yes - I did that.  I know i's horrible, but I literally didn't' get a response from ANYONE!!!!!!!!!  I did get a comment from another customer saying that she had the same issue and saw a few more people posted on their wall saying they had not got their cards either.

Luckily, Groupon has the best customer service on the planet.  I explained the situation, sent them the order # and let them try to get in touch and then they just gave me credit.  Amazing.  I was pissed, but they made it a little better.  So I went to plan B thinking that our cards would never ever arrive and did the CostCo quick photo cards with a "Merry Christmas" AND "Happy New Year" on them.  To make it a little better if people opened them in between.

BONUS - Ali got our pictures turned around so fast that were able to use this awesome shot she got.   So all in all, I was fine.  I picked up 125 of these babies from CostCo on December 23 and was golden.

But wait - that same day - yes December 23...one month after I ordered them...I got a call from a neighbor that they had just got delivered a box for me to their house that day and wanted to see if I wanted to pick it up versus sending it back to the post office.  I knew it was them.  And I was so angry!!!  I was finally content and happy with this card and just figured I would never see the other one.  And I had already got a refund.

But then I went and got the box and saw these cards:

And I liked them a lot too!!  I loved the pictures that I picked and the colors and that it was thick with a patterned back.

What's a girl to do??

Well - I had a total of 250 cards of pictures of my family.  That was about 248 more than I wanted to keep in my possession...so I decided to do the crazy thing.  Send both out.  Yep, I know...but seriously, after this whole process I was just like - who cares.  And then I thought - I must attempt to explain this to our card recipients....and of course in a funny way.  Funny in that I make fun of myself for getting bit in the butt for use Groupon for Christmas cards.  (PS I will never do that again).

So I wrote this poem, printed it off and sent it with each of our cards.

Turns out, some people saw the note and some people didn't.  Oops.

But those that did - loved it, so I guess that is all that counts, right? Those others can just assume we are vain or just have lots of extra money sitting around to waste on multiple Christmas cards (for the record, neither of which we have).

So there you have it.  Our 2014 Christmas Card(s).  They are official because now they have their own post on my blog and they will never be forgotten.  

Check out our past Christmas cards too -

2009. 2010.  2011.  2012 (no clue where that one is!)

and our 2013 one that never made it to the blog last year in the midst of graduation, getting a new job, finding out I was pregnant - yeah....this one got lost in the shuffle - so here it is!  It's crazy to think that was just one year ago and I was barely pregnant and now Maddie is 7 months old! Time flies!!!

I loved loved seeing everyone else's Christmas cards that we received in the mail and in blog land!  So thank you for sharing - it honestly one of my favorite things about the holidays!!!