12.27.2011

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful holiday with our families. It all started with Christmas Eve at the in-law's where we snacked on yummy food and opened some gifts. Later that night we gathered with more family at a local restaurant. After dinner, the kids headed back to the kitchen to make home-made pretzels. Lea had a blast!

Lea with her cousins, Ross, Lilly and Kristin.

Making pretzels.
 
That night, the three of us didn't sleep well. Kevin and I ended up wide awake around 6:30am. We decided to get Lea up a little past 7am. I told her "Santa came last night!" so she ran to look in the living room. After looking around  bit, she said "Where's Santa?!" lol  We took our time opening gifts and playing with toys. Then my parents came by for breakfast. Kevin's parents stopped by shortly after and then it was nap time!

Christmas afternoon we headed down to my folks house for dinner... and more gifts! My grandmother (Lea's great-gramma) was here so it was fun watching her interact with Lea. One of the gifts we all received...from Santa...was a set of Mini Marshmallow Air Guns. We filled them up and headed outside right away. Once Lea realized what it was, she started yelling "Hit Me!!" as she smacked her belly b/c she wanted us to shoot her so she could eat the marshmallows! lol

Helping Daddy open his gift.



Kevin getting ready to aim with his marshmallow gun.
 
Lea gathering & eating the marshmallows!
 Christmas didn't disappoint this year. We all had a very nice time and we all seem to be very pleased with our gifts.

Merry Christmas! See you next year!

12.21.2011

Cookies!

Lea had fun baking cookies with her Gaga and Gramma today...


12.13.2011

Belly Pics

For those of you wondering how my belly looks these days... or wondering where is the baby (b/c people keep saying I'm not showing at all)... here's a nice little comparison for ya:

10 weeks


20 weeks


12.11.2011

20 Weeks

It's hard to believe that I am half way through my second pregnancy! Today I am 20 weeks pregnant with our second baby girl. YAY!

I feel her move all the time. She is much lower in my abdomen than Lea was so it's a pretty different feeling this time. Actually, this entire pregnancy has been totally different than it was with Lea.

According to BabyCenter.com, this baby weighs well over 10 ounces and is about 10 inches long from head to foot. She is beginning to hear things, mainly me, and may have started sucking her thumb.



Santa!

Today Lea got to visit Santa. I say "got to" because she is obsessed with all things Santa these days. She only wants to listen to "Santa music" (which is any Christmas music) and she only wants to watch Santa on tv (which is any children's holiday movie).

Anyhow, we headed to the mall to visit Santa. Lea practically shoved past everyone in line to get a good look. Then, when it was her turn, she dashed right over to Santa without any hesitation and climbed onto his lap all on her own. She looked like she was on cloud nine!



After meeting Santa we had dinner with my folks and then decided to head over to Build-a-Bear. Lea wanted a penguin like the one from Happy Feet 2 and they had the perfect one. She had fun stuffing, bathing and dressing her new friend, Rocky. Yup... she named him Rocky! ;)



(sorry the white balance is so off on those last few pics.)

12.10.2011

My Little Bunny

Today we went to the local Christmas parade downtown. Lea wore her new bunny hat and gloves. I think it's ADORABLE and she really loves it, too. She actually hops around saying "I a bunny!" whenever we put this hat on her. :)


We had a fun week making salt dough ornaments, playing with her Melissa & Doug Nativity Set and finger painting...



12.08.2011

I'm So Crafty...


(I saw this on Facebook today and just had to share it!)

12.05.2011

Where's Elvis?

After breakfast this morning, Lea realized that Elvis was "missing"! She came running to me yelling "Mommy! Where's Elvis?!" I assured her Elvis was still here, she had just moved. So, Lea calmed down and started looking. We found her on top of the buffet hutch...






DIY Advent Calendar

I finally finished my DIY mini muffin tin advent calendar! I am thrilled with how it turned out, too. I hope it lasts for a few years, at least.

I took a few pics of my progress as I was working, but for some reason they didn't turn up on my phone. :( Here are some pics of the final results, though...



The hardest part of this entire thing was painting the muffin tin! I wanted it RED... but the tin I bought was non-stick. So, I bought red spray paint with primer in it. That didn't work. The paint bubbled up immediately and chipped right off. Then, I decided to use an old muffin tin that I hadn't used in years. It painted beautifully! However, it was aluminum... fiy: aluminum isn't magnetic. Ugh! That's when I brought Kevin in to help. He took over the painting job and after cleaning the bubbly paint off the original tin, several coats of heavy duty primer, several coats of red paint AND a couple coats of lacquer we got what we wanted. :)

The solid color circles are just craft foam (I wanted something sturdier than card stock) and the patterned circles are just craft/scrapbook paper. After cutting them out, I super glued them together. Then, I added the numbers, which are self stick "chip board". I chose black, glitter letters and numbers. Finally, everything is attached to the tin with little magnets. All in all, this project actually cost me around $25 to $30 so it wasn't super cheap. Here's the break down of the costs:

Mini muffin tin from Walmart - $5
Craft foam - $1.50
Scrapbook paper - $5
Chip Board letters/numbers - $8 (I had to get two packs so I would have enough number "1"s!)
Scrapbook Santa and stockings - $2
Spray paint and primer - $8

Could I have just bought a cute advent calendar for $30? Well, yes... but I am crafty, I enjoy crafts and I like the aspect of hand-made. So there!



12.03.2011

Christmas is Coming!

We got our Christmas tree today and I am willing to bet that it is the prettiest tree we have ever had! I just LOVE sitting in the dark, looking at all the pretty lights late at night.

Lea had a blast helping us pick it out... but mostly just loved running around all the tall trees!


After we got the tree home, we found out that half of our lights didn't work (happens every year!) so we made a quick Walmart run.... and when we got home, Lea found a little visitor that must have hitched a ride on our tree!
Want to guess what Lea decided to name our new elf friend? You'll never get it! Our elf shall be called "Elvis"! That's right, Lea named her Elvis. Kevin and I joke that it's actually Elfis. lol

So, every day until Christmas, I get to say "Lea, Elvis is watching you!" LOL

Oh, and here's my failed attempted at getting a cute pic of Lea in front of our tree...