last weekend

Sorry for the gap in blogging, just nothing blog worthy happening or didn't take picture of any of it. This past weekend we made a quick trip to the ATL. James had business in Savannah so he dropped us gals off on the way. Hadley had so much fun playing with her cousin that I'm pretty sure she went through withdrawals yesterday.

We went to this place called Everland Play and it had bouncy slides and obstacles. Hadley just ran around yelling (with joy) she had a great time. Buddo seemed to have an equally great time.

 I mean this photo just sums it all up haha. The slide was so much fun!

Max was able to do it by himself after a couple times

This "thing" was real bouncy and it was so hard getting up there!

We had a great time. I wish we had more things like this close by in this small town MS, but I'm thankful to be so close to family and we are trying to take advantage of it. 

Stay warm everyone getting SNOW or an ARTIC BLAST.

my sister is having a ..........

GIRL!!!!

Wohoooo. My twin sister is having a girl for her second child! Hadley is soooo excited to have a girl cousin to hang with.

They had the idea (seen from pinterest and other places) to do a silly string gender reveal. They covered the bottles so you couldn't tell which color was going to spray out and then BOOM.

Poor buddy Max didn't get the memo to close his mouth! and he was/IS traumatized!

disclaimer: do it outside! it will stain carpets (and then come out after some intense scrubbing)

We did not get to attend but we did google hang out in for video chat. It seemed like it was a hit!

We had a great time hanging out with friends Saturday night and Hadley did great with the babysitter!

If you're as lucky as my husband and get to have today off then I hope you enjoy. I hope everyone also takes time to remember and celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

photos of what has been happening

Not a whole lot going on these days. I lead a somewhat dull life :) Just hanging with Hadley girl and passing the time. James works non-stop so we hardly see him. Hadley and I have been to MOPs, had some playdates, lunches, and play time. I am looking forward to this weekend because we're getting a babysitter so we can go out kid-free for dinner/drinks with friends. I am also looking forward to it because James has Monday off.

She's been loving carrying around her picnic basket

I've also been contemplating dropping one of Hadley's naps because they're hit or miss or real short, but then some days they're long?! I don't know, we shall see. If we did that, we could go to more events like story times and music classes (who knows).

hugging her baby doll

We had nice weather last weekend, but this weekend looks chilly. I'm ready for 60s so we can play outside. Hadley LOVES outside and throws a fit every time I take her from her car seat to the house without letting her down. She throws a full on tantrum actually.

My sister and her husband found out if they're having a boy or a girl on Monday! and I KNOW! They're doing a gender reveal party at their house tomorrow and since I can't be there, I did not want to wait! They told my husband and he was instructed to do "something fun" to reveal it to me. He did great! He put a box with tissue paper in (So I had to dig through) then at the bottom of it was a PINK or BLUE paper person indicating boy or girl! and NO I WILL NOT TELL YOU :) You will have to stay tuned! but in case you missed it, I think it's a boy because she has the EXACT same pregnancy symptoms as she did with Max.

Hadley had fun participating too! My brother and Marla didn't want to wait either, so they google hung out too for the mini-reveal (and no they won't tell you either!)

Have a good weekend everyone!

Christmas Crafts

My sister's husband's family always does homemade crafts for each other since they have such a big family. Our side (immediate family) decided this sounded like a very thoughtful and potentially fun idea! So for the last couple years we've done this and it's a love/hate relationship haha but I think we'll stick with it. Our advice, PLAN AND START NOW. Things always get in the way and you end up doing it like the week before and cramming it all in. 

My idea was DRYER BALLS. I got the idea from our local Facebook homemade business board in which I purchased a 4 pack for 20 dollars, here's the link to when I did that. Which seemed like a good deal to me. However, after learning how to make them, if I need replacements, I will be doing that. You can get material for around 5 dollars that will probably make you around 3 dryer balls. It does take TIME people, but you get real good at it after a while :)

Here are the finished products.

There are also steps where you need to put them in panty hose to wash them several times. I won't bore everyone with the steps because it is kinda lengthy but here is the link of the site we used to make them. 

It is very relaxing to do it UNTIL it slips from your hands and all the yarn unravels (which happens at like 10 times for every ball) you just say a couple choice words and keep going.

You can also do them while watching TV which I was definitely a fan of, but you need to do it when baby sleeps.

Last minute I decided that maybe I wanted to add another craft to our gift since they were so small (even though they seriously took HOURS). We decided that the photo ledges I also had a local fellow spouse make would be the perfect gift! They are SUPER easy to make. I wanted James to originally make ours but he was so busy and I wanted it done like yesterday so it didn't happen. He also didn't really understand what I was talking about and how easy they were. James had these done in a snap and they are AWESOME.

For my sister and David's craft they decided to take an idea they saw at my house while they were here for Thanksgiving. We did these blocks at our last MOPs (mother of preschoolers) meeting at craft time. It was SO fun but not that easy. David was up for the challenge though. They did their blocks a bit differently and also used vinyl instead of hand painting the letters, like we did (with stencil). 

Theirs turned out GREAT, just very time consuming since they had to make NINE!! One side is Christmas themed and the other is thanksgiving.

My sister in law Marla did a great craft that had our last name initials all decorated out in full Christmas bells and doohickeys. Max was interested in it as well. I can't wait to hang mine next year on a door/mantel area.

We all did so great and I think it's real nice to have a variety from the gift cards. I am already planning for next year so that it won't get to crunch time again, we'll see how that goes :)

Christmas Part 2

We decided last minute that we wanted James' family to see Hadley for Christmas so we hopped in the car and headed to South Carolina. It's only 4 hours from my sister's so it makes for a good pit stop. I would also like to make note of what a GOOD TRAVELING girl hadley turned into! We DAY TRAVELED there and back and back home! It was lovely! We hooked her up with an iPad movie (monsters inc and happy feet on repeat haha) gave her a plug (paci that she now will take), provided snacks and BAM successful car rides! She only naps 30 minutes, but we'll take what we can get.

James' brother came down from NJ, and so did James' twin cousins and aunt (from CO)! It was great to see his parents and grandparents (who just moved down from CT) on top of the added guests. It never seems like we can spend enough time with everyone but we try our best. I hope we'll have some more visitors here so they can get one on one time with little miss cutie pie.

Hadley and Grandmom playing "I'm going to get you!"

Hadley with Uncle Ben! (we weren't sure if she would think he was santa and cry haha- ongoing joke) She loved her uncle ben and enjoyed hanging around with him

We went to the "small" and found the christmas decor still up and decided what a great place for a photo shoot…. enjoy!

Colorado cousins on left (twins) They are so mature and such great 14 year olds. They were in our wedding when they were just 7! Time flies.

The girls!

Hadley just LOVED Isabella and Elizabeth. 

Hadley was just about done here, she was a trooper

We went to swan lake after (park and such to view ducks/swans) One of these black swans decided to come up REAL close after this photo and get feisty!

Hadley had fun on the playground and so did we!

We went over to Grandpa Jeff's house and had chrismtas there too. They have a lot of the pictures on their camera as I was busy chasing this munchin around. Here's the ones I had.

He got hadley this cool car that she LOVES. She can navigate it herself now.

great grandparents

Hadley was so spoiled and loved all her gifts!!

there were plenty of animals to go around this section of our trip too, her fave: kitties

Christmas Part 1

Let's start off with Hadley's visit to see Santa! We went to Bass Pro Shop near my sister's house because they were FREE! woohooo, except the wait was over 4 hours long and you had to get a ticket blah blah minor detail. Long story short we got a ticket and came back hours later, which would have been fine if I had known that. Well we all took bets on how my princess would do and most people got it right. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and said she'd at least make it like two seconds before realizing what was happening. Let's just say I couldn't even put her down, she was CLINGING for life to me. At least we have a great photo to look back on, everyone needs one of these. (ps. no baby was harmed in the making of the photo, she calmed down when we got to the car…. 5 minutes later, ooops)

We took lots of photos to capture the christmas spirit, enjoy.

Christmas eve dinner of YUMMY sauce (we're all wearing stripes! haha)

I'm on right with hadley who wouldn't look and twin sis with max on left

Gigi With her grandchildren THIS YEAR

and then LAST YEAR

Our side of the fam present at christmas (we knew we didn't disperse the red sweaters)

us plus david's mom and dad who came over for Christmas dinner

My sis's little fam

My brother and sister in law with hadley boo

our little fam

we decided this years craft would be kid friendly and max really got into it! we decorated ice cream cones as christmas trees.

Max enjoyed eating his too, hadley JUST ate the marshmallows sooooo ya

Cute kiddos in jambes playing with max's new train set!!

Happy girl opening gifts 

My little Bella Basil enjoying her present

and lastly the view from their catwalk showing that SANTA CAME

We had a great time at my sister's and Santa definitely thought we were all good boys and girls! 

Happy New Year!

Let's do this 2014! wooohoooo

We are back from our christmas traveling so we're trying to get back into our routine (which includes blogging). I will be trying to catch up on what we've been up to on our travels, christmas, crafts, etc. I will start out with the most exciting news….. I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT AGAIN!! My twin sister is PREGGO!! Jen is 17 weeks and finds out in a couple more weeks if it's a boy or girl! (I think another boy….. but Hadley's wishing for a girl!)

Here is their cute christmas card photo that announced their exciting news!

If you want to follow her progress check out her blog for updates! Baby number 2 will be arriving in June and we can't wait. Most people that my blog, read her blog so this may not be a surprise but it sure is FUN!