Catching up...

Hi there! I hope you are all having a happy New Year's Eve so far. Whew! The end of December is proving to be rather busy (fun, but busy). I just wanted to catch up on a few things that have been happening lately or things that I missed blogging about earlier.

Earlier in the month, while we were showering my sis and baby Oliver, my dad took Noah (off of our hands) to the Long Beach Aquarium. Here are a couple pictures of their adventures :)

According to my dad, Noah's favorite "attraction" at the aquarium was the choo choo train that circled the Xmas tree. Ha ha! Do you see that HUGE aquarium to the right of the tree?? Apparently the train trumps that thing. Huh? Who knew!!?

Ha ha!

They had a GREAT time together and it was really helpful to have Noah taken care of while we were throwing the baby shower of the year, ha ha!

I also wanted to share a couple pictures from Hanukkah. I am Jewish on my dad's side and every year we have a get together to light the candles, play dreidel, and hang out (my dad forgot his yamaka so he covered his head with a napkin - ha ha). On the last night, everyone gets to light a candle...oldest to youngest.

AND, yesterday we spent the day at Knott's Berry Farm. It was Firefighters and Law Enforcement in free day so we went and had some fun. It was SUPER crowded, but we still got on all the rides that we wanted to :)

We had SO much fun and can't wait until next year when we can go again :)
Tonight we are headed to a friend's house for a family friendly NYE celebration :)
Have a SAFE & Happy New Year's everyone!!! See ya next year (hardy har har)!

A {pintrest inspired} craft - woo hoo!

Today was the day folks.....Christmas came down. ALL of it! And, my hubby is at work so I had to do all of the work (boo). But, it's done and clean and I am a happy girl. I did manage to tackle a craft last night that has been on my to-do list for a while. I was planning on making them for Xmas gifts actually, but never got around to it. Story of my life, ha ha!!! I was VERY "pinspired" when I saw this:

                                                                          (source)

SUPER cute t-shirt scarves, yes??! YES!!!
After reading their tutorial, I ran to my drawers and tried to find all of the cute colored shirts that I never wear anymore. Then, I re-read the tutorial and realized that I had already gone wrong. The best t-shirts to use are size XL or larger and it's best if they don't have any side seams. Huh?? ALL of my shirts had side seams and were size small or medium. What the??!! Off to walmart I went! I found these for $9.99/4 pack....

Size: Men's XL
Colors: kind of boring...gray, black, navy, and gray/blue
Bonus: NO side seams

First step, cut the bottom seam off:

Then, measure (eyeball) about one and a half inches and start cutting strips (tube strips I guess I should say):

Keep cutting strips all the way up to the arm pits:

Now it's time to s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Involve the kids if you want...family crafting is always more fun :)
Jersey fabric doesn't fray, and when you stretch the tube strip out, it rolls up making a spaghetti like loop. See:
S-t-r-e-t-c-h

S-t-r-e-t-c-h
(& try to stretch them all out the same amount....try).

Spaghetti :)

Next, you take your spaghetti tubes and twist them a bit:

Then snip off another thin strip of jersey and wrap it around so that all of the spaghetti tubes are joined together for life:

Tie it as tight as you can and trim the ends. This will now be considered the back of your scarf.

I really liked the thicker look of the ones in the picture, so I made a second one exactly the same way and wrapped them both around my neck. Ready to see the reveal?? Here you go :)

Close-up:

And a few more for good measure (self portraits are H-A-R-D) ha ha!

I think I would call this pinspired craft a success!! My  next goal is to find seamless shirts in bright fun colors. Maybe dye or tie dye some white shirts. Endless possibilities :)
Likey??!! Hope so!!! I think they're pretty cute and even with the double layered look, it's pretty cheap to make ($5 per double layered scarf). Now that's MY kind of craft :)
Check ya later :)

Christmas Re-Cap...

Happy "after" Christmas everyone!!! Is your house still a mess like mine is?? Ha ha, I actually made some good headway yesterday and plan to continue today. My kids are literally bouncing off the walls. They have been forced to kind of lurk around while I attempt to make this mess a home again. We had the whole family over for Xmas eve and Xmas day, so it takes quite a while to recover. And plus, I suck at housekeeping. Anyway, we had a marvelous Xmas filled with family, food, gifts, and a lot of laughter! It was awesome!!! Here's a re-cap for you :)

We spent most of Xmas eve at My in-law's house and had a great time! We ate yummy food and got to open gifts and just hang out. We are finally at a stage where I don't have to follow Hayden around to make sure that she isn't breaking anything or falling down and hurting herself. She's officially a "big kid" now so she can run around with her cousins and have fun while Josh and I just relax :) Awesome!
Here's a couple pics from Xmas eve:

Hayden and her Tompa....she loooooves him :)

Noah playing with his new toy called "fireflyz" which sadly is currently lost in his mess of a room....hopefully it's in there.

Our fam (kids in pjs). My in-laws live about 30 minutes away so the kids are usually asleep by the time we get home.

The house I live in with my family is what our entire family considers the "family" house. My grandparents lived here for like 25 years prior to us moving in, so every holiday was celebrated here. This means that while my little family was at my in-laws house celebrating, the rest of my extended family was at our house celebrating. So, when we got back home on Xmas eve, there was another "party" to attend :) I don't have any pictures of Xmas eve at my house, but we stayed up late hanging out, eating more, and chatting. It was awesome! And, I had all of my wrapping done early this year (yay me)!

Christmas morning Noah woke up up around 7am yelling that Santa had come and left presents for everyone!!! We had to wake Hayden up, ha ha! She's still little :) Josh and I sat and drank our coffee while the kids ripped their stockings to shreds :)

Apparently Santa likes Rice Krispie treats :)

The calm before the storm...

(Santa needs to try to remember that stockings aren't that big. Maybe smaller stocking stuffers would be a better idea...ha ha)

(Noah didn't get less stuff, his stocking is actually a tad bigger than Hayden's).

Hayden can finally open packages all by herself :)

Noah is an old pro :)

They each got a "blanket gift" this year from Santa. I remember when I was a kid, there was usually at least one "blanket gift" in the room for somebody (a blanket gift is one that is too big to wrap and must be concealed with a blanket). The year my little brother got a bike was SO exciting! It was big in the corner of the living room with a big blanket draped over it. He didn't even notice it but Lisa and I were dying with excitement. I have such fun Xmas memories from when I was little.
 Anyway:

Razor Scooter :)

Doll house :)

After we had some special time in the morning with just the 4 of us, the rest of my fam came over to eat, open more gifts and hang out. We had a great time!!!

Look at these CUTE pj's that my sis got for Hayden!!

I got this beautiful print from Studio Mela...

Isn't it beautiful!?!! I love that it says "Live simply" but I put it in the most gaudy gold frame!! Ha ha! Ive heard the whole phrase to be: "Live Simply, so others may simply live." Just beautiful!! Most of my Xmas list this year was made up of items from Etsy :)

And today, our Xmas tree is a definite fire hazard. Josh is at work but he explicitly told me NOT to turn on the lights anymore. He's a fire fighter so I guess I better listen ;)

I will miss you sweet tree. You were our best one by far! Go to the chipper in peace little friend :)
It was a wonderful holiday season and I can't wait to do it all again next year! I got some seriously awesome goodies at the after Christmas sales this year so next year is going to be even more magical (think 6.5' white tree....as my secondary tree of course). YAY!!!
I hope you all had a Merry and Bright holiday!!!