Eve's Performances and our crafts

Eve had a few performances this holiday season. First she sang at her school, which was so cute. She is very shy in front of people and almost didn't go up. I am glad that she did, even though she was nervous the whole time, which you can tell by the following pictures.


I had made her dress for her birthday. I fell in love with the fabric and had found some antique buttons at the quilt show. I love old glass buttons. They are like treasures!



But at the end she was thrilled she had participated!


She also had her ballet recital for Christmas. I convinced one of the very talented moms to help me make these hair pieces for the evening's performance.


Eve being introduced at the beginning.



One more thing I made: I wish I had had one too, a diaper clutch/ change pad. I had a diaper clutch, I also had a change pad but not all in one. This was my favorite pattern I found online (the closet crafter??) Anyways, love it! It was for my dear sister who just had a baby.

Christmas

We had a great time for Christmas. Mark's mom came down for the Holidays and for Christmas Eve we had the missionaries from our church over for dinner and some presents.

Asher LOVING his Spidy Jammies!

We also let the kids open up some pjs and and one present each (Eve opened up the present Asher and Jude got her and they opened up the gifts from her) We found that made the gift a bit more special instead of getting lost in the group.


With Christmas being on a Sunday and our Church services starting at 9am, we opened up stockings before church then waited until after church to open up the rest. This worked wonderfully for our tiny kids. They actually would have been thrilled with only the stocking gifts...maybe we should have stopped there...

Our sweet buddy enjoying his sweets!




Some of the gifts Santa dropped off for the family...
I had to show Asher what to do with the Spiderman mask. He was pretty cute running around trying to scare people with it.

Eve with her special gift

Jude doesn't even know where to begin.


Mark's with his German Pyramid.


My favorite gift, my felted slippers. These are amazing. Made out of merino wool and cashmere they are soft and warm but breathable. I am in love with them! We found ladies on Etsy from Lithuania selling them.

Merry Christmas

Every year our church in the area has a nativity display. They have hundreds of nativities to look at and in one of the rooms families can dress up and have their picture taken. This is our little Nativity.

There was a bit of a discussion at the beginning on who would be who, but when Eve saw the sparkly angle dress...well...
Mark and Jude were shepherds, Eve the Angel, I got to be Mary and Asher was Joseph (just in case you couldn't tell).



It never says how old Joseph was, let's hope a bit older than our version.




"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them.."
The photographer couldn't get enough of Jude's cuteness, we got a few pictures of him. This one is just so sweet!

New Chandelier, Christmas and Cute Kids

Since we moved into our home I have told Mark that I 'hate' the dining room chandelier. 'Gross!" were my words. If you are offended because you like it, well this is my blog and I can say I thought it was ugly.
We sold it! That was the agreement Mark and I came to-If I could sell it, I could get a new one (Mark didn't think the chandelier was ugly)...
This is the before


This is what we have now.

I LOVE it! Not too trendy (I have a thing with getting stuff that everyone else has, you end up hating it since you see it everywhere. This was classic, yet with a modern touch. I love the white shades. The cranberry wreaths are obviously just decoration for the season and are not permanent (that would have been a deal breaker). With the curtains and eventually the casement for our dishes I will love this room instead of find it unfinished and not me! I will probably always love a bit more of a vintage style and by that I mean a bit Victorian. Vintage is the new Antique;)


Here is our Tree. Not the best shot I know, but I am not a photographer. It is the best your going to get.


Now I just couldn't post without these adorable little humans that run around my house all day! Asher likes to read books to himself (I think they have a better storyline when he reads them).


Jude is getting so big, this isn't the best shot of him, kind of outta focus.


This is sweet, he has such a cutie and he is starting to pull himself up to furniture. Maybe by two he will be walking...maybe


To get Eve and Asher our of our hair while we did the 'boring' stuff on the christmas tree, we sent them outside in the pouring rain. When they knocked on the door a while later this is what we found. I have no explanation for Asher's outfit. He had grabbed his summer hat before going outside; needless to say it is ruined.




He really is this nutty!

Happy 5th Birthday Eve!

Eve has been counting down her birthday ever since Asher's birthday in April. She finally decided on a mermaid theme. I procrastinated a bit, but finally settled on a few mermaid type activities to keep the girls happy for 2 hours. (above is a copy of her invite)



First we made mermaid t-shirts. The coloring of the mermaid seemed like a good idea, but I soon learned that no matter how much they color the mermaid on the paper, very little of it transfers to the shirt. The best way to do it is heat up the shirt with the iron and color on the hot shirt. However, this isn't very safe especially with 10 little girls so I had to improvise and I copied what they had colored onto their shirts making it look the most like their own creation.

Eve's shirt

Then it was 'Pin the Fin on the Mermaid'. Once again, I had to paint my own mermaid (I should have just drawn it with markers) because I couldn't find one at the store! Best thing about a 5 year old birthday party: they don't care if you can draw or not. They love it!


My least favorite part about kid's birthday parties, is the fighting while opening presents. Nobody can see, everyone wants their present opened first. Oh well... it must be done and so we made it through with as little screaming and yelling and crying as we possibly could.


Sunday was Eve's actual birthday and we made her the long awaited Mermaid Cake. It was too messy for little kids, when she blew out the candles the graham cracker crumbs flew across the room.

another view of our handy work.

Eve was very happy with all of her family presents. I think she will love her Dad's the best: Tickets to "White Christmas" downtown. She loves the movie and it is one of Mark's favorites too, a perfect Daddy-Daughter date!

Sooo, to go along with the mermaid theme I finally made her the Ariel costume she begged for. It almost didn't get finished. I, who have never really altered a pattern much before, switched the bodice for another one and made up my own design for the fins (the others were humungous). She won't wear it until I switch the flower. It was my fault, I told her I didn't think it went with the style of the dress and she agreed; 'it isn't sparkly enough!' were her words.

This is just a cute one of her modeling it:)


We couldn't have a post without our cute buddies! Asher was just as thrilled as Eve to have parties and he was great even though the presents weren't for him.


I have been bad about getting pictures of Jude. I will be better, this is one of the only ones we got during all the celebrating.

Our Little Angels!

Victoria Secret is showcasing their angel collection right now and so I thought I would introduce our Angles.
Our Pink Destroying Angel is Asher...

He runds around destroying all that is in his path

Look at him! He is ready to run rampant around the house!

Then there is our Snow Angel. She has fallen in love with the name 'Snow' and that is what she now calls most of her dolls.


I am really just showing off her hair, which she isn't a big fan of and I force her to have, because I think it is adorable. We have to compromise on the hair (she gets to pick out her outfit and I get to do her hair, of course I still have to approve all outfits)


Then there is our Spider Angel... or just out little Angel who is dressed up like a spider for Halloween.


I forgot to post Halloween pictures, so here they are. Jude is the cutest Spider ever. Asher an adorable monkey (please do not call him a gorilla to his face!). And Eve is Rapunzel once again (at least I only had to make hair).


I am not sure why, but their favorite thing to do is dump out the toy boxes and climb in them. At least they are happy and quiet.


The other day I heard this faint call: "Mommy! I stuck!!" I go into the entry way to see this. He was stuck.