Santa Claus Came to Town!

Today I took the girls over to Hemming Village to see Santa Claus.
I wasn't so sure about how it would all go down since I was taking them myself and last year Emmie hated Santa...

I was on the verge of not going at all, but decided if I could find a decent parking spot I'd do it. Well, lucky for the girls there was a spot right infront of the store Santa was in.
I took them inside and right as we get into the short line, Ryann starts pooping...very loud pooping -.-
So, I hustled them back outside to the car so I could change her diaper [I decided to take nothing but my camera and the girls for our short trip to Santa lol].
I get her all changed and we went back in, luckily no one was in line.

Santa Claus turned at greeted Emmie. She flew behind me so fast! She even got down with her hands on the floor thinking he couldn't see her! Oh goodness it was cute. He was a sweet Santa and asked her a few questions, I don't remember what...then he asked if she wanted to take a picture with him. She got up and looked at me as if asking if he was ok to go to lol. I told her it's alright and that it'd be fun to get a picture with Santa and she could tell him what she wants for Christmas.

I was SO surprised she actually went to him and sat on his lap! I only half sad that I didn't get a crying picture this year lol, last years was great.

Christmas 2011

I'll admit though, last years Santa was kinda scary looking! lol poor kid.

Christmas 2012

She even told Santa she wanted a "blue minnie mouse"

Anyways, so after Santa we went outside and they had a free photobooth. Um, managing 2 kids by yourself in a photobooth to get decent pics is kinda hard. This was our best one

They also had horse drawn carriage rides, but Ryann pooped again after we got out of the photobooth and it was super cold so I decided we wouldn't do it this year.

We went home and ate lunch instead :)

Ryann started throwing a bit crying fit [TOTALLY out of character]. I had no idea what she wanted until I walked near the jumperoo and she started to calm down. I decided to give it a shot and she was instantly happy. Little goober!

This kid is so happy. I love her so much!

How we end our days: Laying in bed cuddling and reading books before bed :)

Starting new

I'm really good at starting blogs, writing for a month...then never going back to it again...
then starting the cycle over again a few months later!


I'm determined to stick it through with this one.


Life with 2 kids [and a dog] has been quite an adventure so far! I want to say it's easier, but of course it's also much much harder than just having 1.
I feel it's easier because I know what I'm doing. We've had a routine since Ryann was a week or two old. That has been my life saver. Plus, I'm pretty freaking grateful that I still have my "me time" even with a newbie in the house. I would go insane without having a good few hours straight of quiet to myself. 

It's hard to believe it's already December 1st. Well, I was just thinking the other day I couldn't believe it WASN"T December yet, the gap between Thanksgiving and December is too long...but now that it's here it just feels wrong. It's so WARM outside! Our high was 52 today!!!!!!! That is so not right for Rexburg!
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. It feels amazing, but it just doesn't feel like we should be getting ready for Christmas. I'm hoping for one good snowfall so we can make another snowman and go sledding with Emmie for the first time. Then the snow would be welcome to melt away for forever.

So Christmas is coming and we've decided to keep things really simple this year.We're going to do a want, a need, a wear, and a read. Emmie will be getting new Minnie Mouse bedding. I chose this one. It's reversible, but I don't care much for the other side [the one they advertise that has the minnie mouse character on it]. I LOVE the black with the mouse silhouettes though! Too cute! Our store doesn't have the bed skirt in stock and I'm too cheap to pay the outrageous shipping fees...so I'm going to see if I can make my own bed skirt for her bed, maybe. I like the black/white striped fabric they have going on in this picture. Very simple and I'm sure I could easily find that pattern at the fabric store.

Anyways...Mark and I are also working on a quiet book for her other gift. It'll be a felt quiet book. We're having so much fun making the pages for it. So far I have a potato head page cut out, and a barn with farm animals. Mark is working on a car page with a little town and street. She's going to love it! And hopefully it'll help make Sacrament meeting a little bit easier!
Oh, and I'll be added up templates for the pages we make up. Once I finish some pages completely I'll post pics and links to templates I used, or post my own templates for download. :)

For her "a wear" gift, I got a costume from Kmart at their Halloween Clearance. It's a red dress and will be perfect for dress up! 

The last thing I need to decide is a read. Does anyone have any good book suggestions for Emmie? I will most likely go with an Angelina Ballerina book or something. Angelina is her new obsession!!! Pretty sure she'd flip if we got her own Angelina Mousling book...we've been checking them out at the library and she's always sad when we have to return them.

Ryann's gifts I mostly won. I won her this toy

It's a Tiny Love Musical Stack and Ball game.

Then I won her a cloth diaper for her "wear" gift :)
Her need gift, I'm thinking of getting her a wooden teether since we're getting closer to that age. Then she just needs a read gift! :)

I decided on Christmas Eve, we'll follow my family's tradition of getting new pjs. But I'm also going to wrap up a box that will have a new movie for the family, a bowl with popcorn to pop, and hot cocoa. So we'll snuggle up and watch a movie together before bed in our new pjs :) Emmie will love it. We've been dying to get her the new TinkerBell movie.

Annnnnyways. Not too much is new here. Just enjoying life as a new family of 4!