A Christmas Story

O' Christmas tree, O' Christmas tree. Notice this particular Christmas tree. Notice the decorations. Notice those magical, blue orbs of loveliness. The glittery, twisting ribbon snaking itself around evergreen boughs. Our fluffy, little tree garnished top to bottom with miss-matched trinkets of Christmases past. 

Well, maybe a little more on top and a little less on bottom. You see, a beautiful, little, angelic, 1 year old elf resides in our cozy gingerbread house.

  

What a magical time of the year it is in this little gingerbread house.

We have a rambunctious 3 year old.

A 3 year old who, despite it being December 20th, dresses in her witch costume or Ninja Turtle costume (depending on the hour of which the game is played), grabs her green Christmas stocking, and proceeds to knock on every door in the entire house, screaming trick or treat, all the while holding said stocking open wide for me to put something in it and tell her, her costume is great and have a Happy Halloween. She calls this game "Trick or Treat Vampire." She's definitely my girl. We love Halloween all year round! 

 

We also have an equally if not slightly more so rambunctious 1 year old.

A 1 year old who loves to pull the ornaments off the tree and suck on them for a minute and then throw them around the room. Hence, no ornaments on the bottom of our big tree because she has them strategically stashed around the house. She also really enjoys carrying around the pieces of the Nativity. Unfortunately, her grip seems to always fail her, not when she is walking over the soft, squishy carpet but when she is running on the nice, hard wood floor.  Luckily it's just that Little People Nativity because who would be crazy enough to display a porcelain Nativity in reach of cute, little, sticky fingers?

Joseph, a shepherd, a wise man and Baby Jesus are all holding on strong. Now I'd like to say that the 1 year old isn't the only one dropping these poor little figurines, but it just so happens that the hunky man of the house, just this very night dropped the angel that Everly had been packing around for hours without an "off with their head" dropping episode. It went from safe and sound in her sticky, little fingers to headless angel in Chris's. Nothing a little super glue can't fix.

 

It really is a magical time a year. 

We are trying to teach the girls, in between Santas, lights, and candy, the real reason we celebrate Christmas. He is the gift! (Clearly, with that set up, I should be showing the video the LDS church put out that is in fact called "He is the Gift"  (click the link. It's a good one!) But I'm posting this one. It's just so darn cute!)

 

 

  

 



Recap and Moving On: November

To be honest, November was a snowless blur. To write a poetic splurge describing the sensations that were entangled with the events of November 2014 would discredit my less than lucid mind.  November slipped away so fast, I can remember certain important and wonderful events, mainly Ever's turning one, Thanksgiving, Christmas tree hunting, and the Grantsville Electric Light Parade but the rest of the month is a blur. It seems ages ago. It was good in a fast moving, hazy, party sort of way. Don't you worry November 2014, even as I write this poetic splurge about you I'm remembering you more clearly. Days spent at story time and walking through the park, croup, FHEs spent coloring turkeys and writing what we were thankful for on the feathers, "You Are My Sunshine" Birthdays, Everly actually sleeping in my arms (really true story, she did), piggy tails. Ah yes, there you are November 2014, Slowly walking out of that haze. Yes there you are.

 

 

Books I read this month:

     * Fablehaven book 1 by Brandon Mull (Good, but the hype over shadowing the book a little). 

 

 

This months music:

     *Anything playing on the radio in the car.

 

What Elanora Has Been Up To:

 

 

      * Funny faced selfies.

     * Being absolutely in love with hand warmers.

     * Climbing trees while Christmas tree hunting.

     * Playing with the Little People school house.

     * Monsters INC. Movie.

Things Everly Has Been Up To:

     * Bouncing her head on the couch and laughing hysterically.

     * Playing with her Birthday toys.

     * Sitting on the rug at story time for half of the stories (that's a record).

      * Running up and down the halls at church for 2 hrs straight.

     * Pointing at things and saying new sounds (she is partial to a spitty /T/ sound).



 

 

 



 

 

  

Everly Love

 

 

Happy birthday to my beautiful baby girl. This spunky little whip of a thing is now a 1 year old. Her entrance into this crazy world was not so graceful. She had us so worried but this girl is strong.

She has brought us so much joy! She is so happy, always smiling and dancing and boy is she wild! She has been walking for a couple of months and now she runs everywhere, she doesn't ever sit still unless she is flipping through books. She loves to be a part of the action.

She is quite the character. If Nory is telling a us story Evers will look at us and start jibber jabbering louder then Nory. At dinner time she will look at us and shake her head no and then dump her food on the floor. She absolutely loves water. She will dunk her head into the water and not even worry about it. 

 

She loves to get Nora's underwear out of the laundry basket and try to put them on her head or she loops them on her arm and walks around the house with them

 

 

When she drinks from a bottle or a sippy cup she holds the bottle with one hand and puts her other hand on her cheek. She will switch hands back and forth but she has to have one hand on her cheek

 

 

She is already working on her artistic skills

 

 

She is so great! We feel so blessed to have this beautiful baby girl in our family. We love this cute girl so much. Happy Birthday Babylove!!!

 

 

 

 

Recap and Moving On: October

The crisp, golden air casually transitioned in, as the days of October slowly fell from the trees. Splashes of red and orange now litter the ground, crunching beneath the soles of my shoes. October was full of colors and breezes and candy.

 

 

 Books I read this month:

    *Macbeth by Shakespeare (Who doesn't love a story of strong, powerful women (Although I like my strong, powerful women of a less evil persuasion) and cautionary tales of the guilty.

 

This months tunes:

     * The song Stolen Dance by Milky Chance
     * The song Riptide by Vance Joy

Things Elanora has been up to:

 

     * She is obsessed  with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and she has never even seen the movies or cartoons.

     * Dancing (more or less) in her tumble/dance class.

     * Buckling herself in her car seat.

     * Working in her workbook. Writing her letters, counting objects and learning phonic sounds. She almost knows all of them.

     * Trick or Treating.

     *  Eating Trick or Treating candy.

 

 

Things Everly has been up to:

 

 

 



     * Walking all over the place.
     * Running all over the place.
     *Getting Nory's underwear out of the dirty clothes, looping it around her arm and walking around the house.
     *Kissing her glow worm doll.
     *Eating Trick or Treating candy (no peanuts for this girlie, we learned that the hard way).

 

 

 



The Art of Removing Shingles

All that writing about vacation just plum wore my minimal writing proficiency right out the window. That and the fact they just added Gilmore Girls to Netflix. Easy now, the show is so dumb but somehow, more than once, my day has ended with me, a bubble bath, a coke, and those extremely long winded, quirky and witty bffs. A secret indulgence. If you will.

I've been off track and have been enjoying my time with these little lovies

 

 

and I've been enjoying holding hands with this handsome devil

  

 and of course we have been enjoying as many of the Halloween festivities that we can possible pack in to this month.

Oh yes, and this horrible adventure

 



Man Vs Nature 2014: Part 5 Finish Up This Bad Boy

I guess this little family vacation was so great that it has taken 3 months to sum up my thoughts on the subject matter. How in the world can I fit all that perfect, wonderfulness that was had on this trip in a few blog posts.

We spent the last few days exploring and playing on the many beaches along the Oregon coast.

We went to an aquarium, fed seals, rode a carousal, of course Nory found a swing. Not just any swing, but a swing on the beach

 

Climbed a tall tower, what a view!

 

 

Played in an old shipwreck

 

 

 

and of course playing in the water

 

That pretty much sums up the trip...

 



 

Except for this gem of a ride that broke while Nory was riding it. We were at a little fair in La Grande, Oregon taking a pit stop. They happened to be having a fair. Nora really wanted to ride on the motorcycles

 

 

She was having a great time until we watched in horror as her purple motorcycle snapped off the bar and tipped over. We jumped the fence and grabbed her. I was literally sick to my stomach the rest of the night. She wasn't so traumatized. When we asked her what her favorite part of the trip was she said, " When the motorcycle tipped over. That was funny." No, no it wasn't.

 

She still wanted to play after. We wanted to go home.

 

 

Have I mentioned how amazingly, beautiful Oregon is?

 

 

 



Man vs Nature Tour 2014: Part 4 The Coast

 

We stepped out of the city and onto the canvas of this exquisite painting. How can anyone even begin to describe that moment when toes melt into soft sand. The moment when the crisp air kisses cheeks. The feelings that drown everything else out as you stare into the nothingness of the deep waters, waters that breathe and pulse upon the shore and then recede back into the vast nothingness that is the ocean.

 

 Breathtaking



 

 We splurged and stayed in a hotel right on Rock Away beach

 

 

We pulled up to the hotel. Dumped our bags on the floor and then ran for the beach.

 

 

We spent that afternoon flying kites,

 

 

 Eating sand, filling our pockets with sand

 

 

Chris found a really cool seashell. It was a deep purple and blue color. He handed it to Nory and she got so excited, "Wow" she said. Then she proceeded to scoop up sand in the shell and shovel it into her pockets. When her pocket was full she threw the shell away and happily patted her pocket full of sand. Evers just ate the sand. Handfuls and handfuls, as fast as she could.

 

A heavy fog settled over the water, the wind got so strong we had to cover the girls eyes. We decided to pack up and head back to the hotel to swim and then eat dinner.

 

We got takeout so we could eat on the deck of our hotel. The place we went to was packed. They were running around like mad. Too many costumers, not enough employees. This should have been our first clue.

We ate, the girls went to bed and Chris enjoyed this view,

 

 

while I enjoyed throwing up, because of the food poisoning I got. Chris sat out on the deck watching the sunset, fires on the beach, and even fireworks. I laid on the bathroom floor puking. Chris and I prayed that I would find relief fast so that we could enjoy the rest of the trip. We were blessed and by the next morning, with none of that food left in my belly, we were off for more adventures.

 

 

 

Man vs Nature Tour 2014: Part 3 Portland

We jam packed so much family fun into day 2 and 3 in Portland. We maintained a good mix of man-made wonders and Heavenly-made nature.

We started out at the Portland Zoo. The walkway around the zoo weaved in and out of large forest trees. Big canopies of leaves kept the hot sun at bay.

 

 

 

The zoo was going great, until, Everly got hungry and we realized we had left her formula in the car. No problem, easy fix, take a short cut through the zoo and get it. Only one problem, we were about half way through the park and the map showed no shortcuts. Our only option was to turn back or keep going. So we booked it. What started out like this

 

 

 Ended a little like this

 

 

A long day at the zoo. We definitely need a nap to recharge

 

 

After the nap, we headed back downtown for a tourist must... Voodoo Donuts

 

 This rite of passage did require us to wait in a long line

 

 

Nory thought it was fun. Clearly one nap was plenty to recharge her batteries.

 

 

She didn't enjoy the "stand in line" part as much as the "donut" part

 

 

Can you blame her?

 

After the donuts we went on a tram ride over the city

 

Our little photographer had fun taking pictures at the top

 

 



We ended the night eating at Lardos. It was YUMMY!!!

 

The girls had fun staying up way past their bedtime. Clearly, they were exhausted.  

 

The third day we spent in nature. Oregon is so beautiful!

 

 We hiked all over the Leach Botanical Garden. It was like we were in a magical, secret garden. 

 

 Hiking through the dense trees we found a dinosaur  

 

 





and we happened upon a witches hut.

 

 

Luckily for us, she must have been out looking for frog legs to add to her magic potion or to cook on her alter

 

 

This fairy-tale like cottage was build in 1932. The floor inside was amazing

 

 

We had fun hopping and skipping down different trails and knocking on witch's doors

 

 

Have I mentioned how beautiful Oregon is?

 

 After hiking we headed off to our next adventure. The Coast.