December and Christmas

It always amazes me how fast time flies during the holidays.  I always feel like autumn comes and goes too quickly, but this year it has all just blown past.  It didn't help that from September through mid-December we only had one weekend as a family that didn't have major interruptions from either school or church.  We hardly got any family time during these 3 1/2 months.  That's partly why I haven't blogged as much lately - I've just been enjoying the time that we finally have together.

December started off very busy with our ward Christmas party which I was in charge of.  I meant to take more pictures of the decorations and the tables etc, but in the moment I forgot.  I did manage to get a quick picture of Emma with Santa.  It helped that I had gone back to make sure things started off smoothly when he arrived, and Emma totally cut to the front of the line.  Apparently no one noticed, so I just quickly grabbed the picture before running off to the kitchen again.  I remember thinking in that moment that I didn't really care if anyone noticed and if they were upset by her cutting - I wanted my picture and I couldn't wait around for it.  (How nice am I?)  The party seemed to go great, there was plenty of good food, and all the kids seemed to enjoy seeing Santa.  Yay!

Until Emma was finally out of school for the holiday the rest of the month seems like a blur.  I love how cozy our home is with the Christmas decorations up.  It always makes me sad to take them down.  Maybe this year I'll just leave them up for a while.

Christmas morning came and went quickly.  We opened presents and then went to church.  We then had dinner with our good friends the Longfields.  It was fun spending some time with them.  Then later in the afternoon we were home again and Emma was finally able to really dig in and play with her gifts.  She was seriously spoiled this year!  When we asked her what her favorite gift was she couldn't come up with just one thing.

Christmas Eve - everything is just about ready!

Christmas morning by her stocking in her new pj's

Christmas night she just couldn't decide which new friends to snuggle with.

This week between Christmas and New Year's has been wonderful so far.  Eric was able to take the entire week off.  He actually had the Friday before Christmas off too, and doesn't have to go back until the 3rd, so that will give us 11 days together as a family.  And after the fall we had we needed it.  And what have we done this week?  Practically nothing!  And we've loved every minute of it.  Not since our honeymoon have Eric and I had so much time together without a big itinerary of things to do or people to see.  It's been fabulous.  And Emma's loved it too.  Just getting to play with all her new toys and stay in her jammies every day.  Any time we ask about running an errand or going out and doing something, Emma just says she wants to stay home.  Okay by me!

We're looking forward to the new year and all the possibilities it holds.  We've been living here for a year now, and we've loved it so far.  Here's to another wonderful year with wonderful friends!

Thanksgiving

There just hasn't been any time for blogging lately.  I have never been so busy in my life.  The past few months have kept me running around like crazy.  I wanted to post more on here about November and Thanksgiving, but now I just feel like I better throw a couple pictures up before Christmas comes and goes!

This is a turkey hair clip I made for Emma at the beginning of the month.

Thanksgiving was very different for us this year.  We normally spend it with my family, but this year didn't travel back for the weekend.  So it was just the 3 of us.  It ended up being a wonderful holiday as usual - just different.  Eric went to play some football in the morning while Emma and I stayed home and set the table etc.  Eric and both love to cook, so it was a lot of fun doing all parts of the meal.  We've done several turkeys before, so there weren't any surprises or mishaps.  We did keep it pretty simple since it was just the 3 of us - we didn't need to have enough food for leftovers for a month!  We just kept it to the Turkey, stuffing,  mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, and chocolate marble cheesecake for dessert.  For the dessert we went over to a friends house and shared our cheesecake and they shared some pies.  Delicious!!

Eric's plate was kind enough to pose for a picture for us.

And Emma loved it all - which a mom always loves to hear.  She even told me it was the best thanksgiving food she'd ever had.  Hear that rest of my family?  Apparently I rocked this year!  Either that or it's just because Emma helped with every part of the meal and that was her way of giving herself a backhanded compliment?  Hmm...

Halloween Etc.

I can't believe how fast the month of October has flown by.  I don't know if I've ever been so busy with so many things.  Luckily, many of them have been fun things.  There have been a lot of fun Halloween activities that Emma's been able to participate in.  And if you know us, you know we love us some Halloween!  We have more decorations for this holiday than any other, and never have enough room to put them all up.  Each year we have to decide what to use and what stays in the many bins.  It kind of makes each year different.

Anyway, just to summarize some of the events from this month, with 6 different halloween parties, a birthday party for a friend, and some trick or treating, I'd say Emma has enough candy and goodies to last her a lifetime!  And since we didn't get many trick or treaters coming to our door, I have enough candy to last me at least until Wednesday.  ;-)  I made the mistake of buying candy that I actually really like this year for our give away stash, which means I want to eat it.  Usually I try to get stuff that I won't want if we have left-overs.  You know, to eliminate the temptation.  So now I don't know if I'm happy or sad about having the candy around.  I'll have to let you know.

For her costume this year, rather than try to figure out which of the 20 or so odd things Emma wanted to be (and she goes back and forth and can't make up her mind each year so many times, until it's almost too late to do anything about it, buying or making it!) I decided to sort of decide for her.  How mean am I?  She had at least 2 costumes from last year that fit her just fine still, so I told her she could wear those.  We didn't live here last year so it would all be new to everyone here.  I wouldn't have made her wear them again if we hadn't moved.  I'm not quite that mean!  So at her various parties she went as either a witch or superman.  If you've read my blog since before last halloween you'll have already seen her superman costume from last year (which is why it'll look familiar in these pictures).  She did have fun going back and forth between the two outfits though.

We made it to Jerry's to pick a pumpkin this last week and looked around a little.  It was a fun place.  We could have spent longer there, but finally needed to go.

It was very hard to get Emma to stop laughing or smiling to capture this one of them.  I guess that's a good problem to have.  ;-)

And just to prove that I was in fact with my family (since I don't appear in many pictures on here since I take most of them), here are all 3 of us.  Sorry about the glare.

We decorated a couple different pumpkins this year.  Emma spear-headed both designs, and she helped with both.  This is the first year she didn't do a traditional jack-o-lantern face.

Perry the Platypus, in case you couldn't tell

Here are the two costumes she wore this year.  And just to show how NOT on the ball I was this year with taking pictures of her in her superman costume, I've included a couple from last year so you can see the costume better.

See this picture above?  This is the best picture I got of her this year in her superman costume.  You can't even see the front of it!  I think I failed in the picture department big time this year.

LAST YEAR

LAST YEAR

LAST YEAR.  This is the best one for just seeing the costume, although on this day I completely forgot the gold belt.  But you can see that in the other pictures.  Last year her hair was better suited for this costume too.  It was much more super hero-y.  It kinda reminded me of wonder woman.

 At our Ward's Halloween party as part of the decorations someone had made a bunch of tombstones about people in the ward.  Here is one about Eric.  We get our fair share of grief due to our Utah loyalties, but never fear.  We dish it out just as much!  ;-)

Again, sorry about the glare.

And at our Ward party they had a huge costume contest.  Lots of people were in it, and they divided it into several different age groups.  The awesome news?  Emma won for her age group (as Superman) and Eric won for the adults.  Here is his costume.

Just in case you couldn't tell, he's Indiana Jones.  The best part of this costume, is not a single item was especially purchased to help complete it.  He already had everything he needed, including his bull whip.  Someone mentioned that all he needed was a good scar on the chin.  I volunteered to help provide him with one.  

 And lest you think I didn't go dressed up, I too had a costume.  Mine wasn't as obvious as many others, and you had to be fairly close to see it.  Here is all you need to see of it (sorry, it's worn off a little here).

Do you see it?  Can you tell who I am?  I'm the student from the 3rd Indiana Jones movie in Prof. Jones class who wrote "love you" on her eye lids.  Yup, I was an Indiana Jones groupie.  I thought it went along great with Eric's costume.

Of course, if we could have found an old Yankees ball cap we would have had Emma go as Short Round.  Eric even had her saying things like "Lady, you call him Dr. Jones!"  Maybe next year right?

Field Trip

This last week Emma went on a field trip with her school class.  They went to the Discovery Museum in Milwaukee.  I wasn't planning on going (this month has been way too busy), but at the last minute her teacher calling me and asked if I could go because they were a chaperone short.  I didn't really have the time, but I said yes and went with them.  The kids had so much fun, and since I was there I was able to get a few pictures of Emma.

hamster wheel

static electricity thingy (why yes, that is the technical term for it)

The result of the above mentioned thingy

laying on a bed of nails

petting the fish

Halloween Nails

I saw an idea on Pinterest for some Halloween nails, and just had to try it.  I think they turned out cute, even though a few of my nails are too short for the detail to really pop.  Imperfections and all (especially on my right hand, since I had to do that with my left hand - not easy for me since I'm right-handed), they make me smile every time I look at my hands.  So much fun.

Fall Photo Shoot

I love taking pictures of my family.  Especially in the Fall.  It's so fun being outside and enjoying the weather and the colors, but then I get to focus (ha, no pun intended!) on my two favorite people.  It just doesn't get much better than that.  So last weekend we decided to go to a nearby park and wander around snapping some shots.  This post is mostly going to be pictures, and a lot of them!  And this doesn't even come close to representing all the pictures that I took that day!  Eric always makes fun of me because I'm always saying how much I love digital (you know, as if it's still something so new instead of something that's been around for 15 years or so) because you don't have to worry about how many pictures you take - you can always delete some later, but then I never delete any!  I just can't though.  I love each and every one.  And I have a hard time choosing favorites.  It's like they're some weird breed of children - you just can't get rid of any or play favorites with them!  Oh well.  Enjoy some of my favorites from last weekend.

So typically Emma!

Not quite sure what pose this is...

And just so we didn't forget who we were dealing with, Emma needed to be very crazy for a moment before we found our next spot.

These next few are some of my FAVORITES (even though I don't play favorites, remember?).  As you can tell, the lighting wasn't very good, and we hadn't quite started taking our real pictures here.  But these two were just talking and Eric said something (I wish I remembered what!!) that totally grossed Emma out.  Her facial expressions of disgust and his smirk of self satisfaction with having disgusted her made me laugh.  I just couldn't stop snapping shots, even though the light was crappy.

She did recover from whatever it was he said though!

We did make sure to take some time and just play at the playground too.  You can't go to a park without just relaxing and having some fun!