Mom visits, Brian’s birthday, and an (awesome!) advent calendar.

I have been looking for a Christmas advent garland for a few years with no luck.  About a month ago Annie and I found one on Pinterest that we really loved, but it cost over $100 dollars so it wasn’t going to happen, obviously.  So we thought: certainly we make that!  We were skyping my mom and started talking more about how exactly we would go about making it, and the more we talked the more my mom probably realized we wouldn’t be able to do it without a little bit of help.  Somehow we convinced her to come help us.  (yeah, I know the ticket probably cost more than our garlands combined, but don’t tell her that!)  She came on a Monday morning and stayed through Friday evening and we worked the entire time.  My mom was entirely necessary!  Thanks Mom!!

I’m glad I took this cute picture of these cousins.  Elna loves Joanne!

Harriet really loved chewing on apples.  Check out her spitty foam beard—funny girl!

Harriet is going to be a tough girl!

These pictures were taken in the morning as I was trying to give my mom and sister a few more minutes of sleep.

Sleepy sweet girl!

Funny Elna had put her baby in her pajamas like the picture on the left, and then the baby had slipped down her pants.  She went about her day for about an hour with the baby down her pants.  Silly girl!

Elna and Grandma Elna eating popcorn and sewing.  My mama’s so pretty!

Harriet was there too!

Brian’s birthday was this week too!  He was nice to share his birthday week with my family.  I like to celebrate for the week leading up to his birthday as well as his birthday, so I did something each day and that made his week a little better I hope.  A few days before his birthday we all went out to Veggie Grill, which was yummy and fun!  On his actual birthday we went out on a date which was really nice for us—we don’t get out as much as we would like to.  We went to Chevy’s and then brought back donuts for our family’s from Voodoo.  Yum!

Brian and his little helper blowing out his birthday candle (on his donut)

Earlier in the day I got the girls to pose for a little birthday message for Brian.  Elna has done this since she was younger than Harriet. 

These pictures are from the last 2 years:

The one on the right was her first year doing it.

And the next pictures are of this year—both girls:

I know I’m including a lot of these pictures, but I like all of them for different reasons.  I love Hattie’s hands in the picture on the right—classic Hattie hands!

And here Elna is singing happy birthday to Dad when she woke up on his birthday:

Happy birthday to Daddy!

She couldn’t be any cuter!

Elna posing in front of our finished garland.

Grandma Elna with Elna, Hattie, and Joanne.

And a picture of the final project!  I LOVE it!!  I’m really excited to put things inside them for Elna and Harriet.  Most of the days will have activities inside, but a few will have little gifts.

My advent ideas so far are:

1.  Cut down Christmas tree and decorate it.

2.  Put up Christmas tree in bedroom.

3.  Put up nativities and talk about Jesus.

4.  Make and decorate cookies.

5.  Take picture with Santa.

6.  Go sledding.

7.  Candy canes.

8.  Ward Christmas party.

9.  Make peppermint stir-sticks and drink hot chocolate.

10.  Make snowflakes.

11.  Make a birthday cake for Jesus.

12.  Read the story of Jesus’ birth from the scriptures.

13.  Drive around to see lights.

14.  Have a picnic under the Christmas tree.

15.  Make mistletoe art project.

16.  Draw and send Christmas cards to family.

17.  Gingerbread nativity.

18.  Zoo lights.

19.  Make a Santa ornament.

20.  Sing to people at an old folks home.

21.  Watch a Christmas movie and drink eggnog.

22.  Open Christmas dresses and wear them to church.

23.  Go caroling with family and friends.

24.  Open Christmas jammies.

Am I missing anything?  I’m open to suggestions.  This list may change as I go through the month. 

After my mom left for the airport we got busy packing for Mexico.

October photo dump.

We just got back from Mexico, and I thought for sure that I’d posted this the night before we left, but looks like I didn’t.  So, this feels like a really long time ago!  I also feel like I took double the number of pictures I usually take in October.  It’s hard not to take a lot of these cute girls, and then there was Halloween, and I couldn’t resist clicking away!  This is the last post for October, I promise!

Green drink // posing in her Dora jammies.

A bonfire in our backyard—burning wood from the old shed and weeds etc.

Elna holds her baby like this all the time—this particular day her baby spent most of the day in Elna’s jacket.

I’m crazy about these pictures of the girls—Harriet’s hand on Elna’s makes my heart melt.  Swoon!

Harriet has still not grown at of this phase where she puts her hands up on the handle of the car seat.

Popcorn at Home Depot on a Saturday.  This girl goes to HD more than most contractors I bet.

Elna loves these little rides at the outlet mall.  She didn’t know they worked until this day when we were about to get on it and these girls were too—their mom put quarters in and Elna now knows.  Dang!

We went to the airport to get Grandma Fae.  We hadn’t seen her in THREE months!  She had been in Utah and South Carolina.  We really missed her!

I love my sleeping babies—Harriet has started falling asleep with a paci in her mouth and one in her hand.

They were being so silly together—I love how much they love each other!

The girls on the front grass on a Saturday while Brian was working in the yard.  I put the umbrella up to shade them from the sun.  They had a great time together.

This picture makes me laugh--I kept trying to get their attention, but they were really interested in whatever Brian was doing.

Flower girl.

My pinecone garland—I painted them and strung them.  I’m not a fan of Halloween décor, but I like a little bit of Fall décor.

A gross blow-out all the way into her hair! // Cleaning up from it in the bath—Harriet LOVES the bath!  I love it when my babies can sit by themselves in the bathtub!

I found the girls playing with dolls together—when did Hattie get old enough to play with dolls?  Elna is the best sister!

A windy (check out Hattie’s hair!) walk in the stroller!

Every time we go on a walk in our neighborhood we stop at this fence so that Elna can feed the dog one of her snacks.

Harriet also really loves to swing!  I am feeling a little guilty as I look at these pictures because I haven’t taken her swinging enough.  I’ll have to work on that!

Brian and his girls on the slide.

We have a weekly play-date with little guy (and his mama).  They had an absolute blast making a big pile of leaves together!

Scooping out the pumpkin innards with Dad at Grandma’s house.

She takes her job seriously.

Grandma Fae helped her carve her pumpkin.

Brian with his pumpkin.  I didn’t carve this year.  I’m one of the only people on the planet who don’t like carving pumpkins I think.

Elna holding her cute Halloween card from Grandma Fae and Papa.

Making popcorn together.

Harriet thought it was so fun and kept leaning forward trying to get a piece of the action.

I love her smile of course and the necklaces on her feet make me laugh!

This was actually my idea believe it or not.  Hattie didn’t like it as much I thought she would.  Elna loved it though.  Obviously.

Phew!  That was a long one—thanks for sticking around!