I'm Feeling 22

22 months that is. Harper is right smack dab in the middle of one of my favorite ages...so far.  And since I haven't been too diligent at updating her little life on the blog, I thought now would be as good a time as any for a Harper update.  Adorable pictures included, of course.  These pictures will lead you to believe that I never do Harper's hair.  This is only partly true.  The real problem is I never do it well enough for it to last all day.  Judge if you must.  

Some things Harper loves: 

Her binkie-- (hands down she loves that binkie more than anything else, most likely including her family members).

Singing--She can pick up a tune like nothing I've ever seen and sings more frequently than she speaks.  Reo is about ready to give up his retirement plans and bank on her making it big.  

Soda ( "oda") and snacks

Elmo

Wearing her tutu

Brushing her teeth

Books 

Some things Harper doesn't love:
Food that's not "oda" or snacks....We're working on it.
Being left in a room alone
Bedtime
Sleeping in
Shopping

Basically she's adorable and she has this whole family wrapped around her little finger.  Every day when she gets dressed she immediately asks to go show Holden how cute she looks.  He lovingly obliges.  Because of this, she forgives him when he shoves her off the couch for messing with his game of Minecraft.  True sibling love between those two.

So This Is (Was) Christmas

The Christmas Season this year was kind of a weak effort on my part.   My inability to tolerate frigid cold temperatures, a funeral, a wicked flu virus systematically taking down each member of our family and the fact that I could not get over the fact that Thanksgiving was just so late this year are only some of the reasons I was acting a little Scroogish.  But we did manage to slide in some of our favorite activities of years past...and even attempted a new family activity. Some of my neighbor gifts actually even got delivered.  And true to form, after Christmas morning was over I pretty much forgot I have access to a camera, so if it happened after about noon on Christmas it lives on only in my memories...

I spy with my little eye:
Letters to Santa (along with a joyfully received response!)//Decorating for Christmas//A visit from our Christmas Elf//Festival of Trees//Cookie Making Day//Christmas Crafts//Ogden Christmas Village//Neighbor Gifts//Christmas Eve games and crackers//Tracking Santa//Leaving Santa his cookie fix//Presents, presents and more presents.

Till next year, Christmas!

Thanksgiving Thankfuls

So, sometimes a lot of times I complain, but it's no secret that I have a pretty sweet life.  One that I am so very thankful for.  And since there are about a million things I could list right now, I've decided to keep my thankfuls Thanksgiving related for this post.  Because there's plenty of those to keep me busy, plus it's an easy way to document Thanksgiving.  Well, parts of it.  I've discovered that the more food there is involved with a holiday, the less pictures I take since I am so busy stuffing my face, so Thanksgiving is lucky to get any photos at all.  

1.  Thankful for a husband who encourages me to decorate early so I can enjoy my tree on Thanksgiving.  I know.  Thanksgiving blasphemy.  Look away if you're offended.

2.  Thankful that we are all healthy enough to enjoy a Thanksgiving morning walk...Also thankful the weather cooperated.

3. Thankful that my mom is such a good cook, so that my job on Thanksgiving involves very little cooking, and a very lot of eating.

4.Thankful for Wii tournaments with the family.  And thankful that I was usually playing against Holden so I always got second to last place instead of last place.  

5.  Thankful for Black Friday deals that required no early mornings, Thanksgiving night shopping, or long lines.  Guess other people were not as excited about the tupperware sales as I was.

6.  Thankful that my family always comes to my random parties, and in this case, thankful they all took home extra eggnog after our taste testing session.

7. Thankful for this mama's girl, who is always ALWAYS up for a good selfies session.

8. Thankful for this little boy who drew me a ghost when I asked him to draw a Christmas picture.  He beats to his own drum, that one, which is equal parts infuriating and adorable, depending on the circumstances.

9.  And, as always, I am thankful for Diet Coke.

Kid Vs Kid--21 Months

It's been a while since I've done a Kid Vs Kid, and what better time than 21 months old?  Because darn it if I don't love this age so much.  And it's a good thing, too, because if you know Harper, you know she loves me back just as much.  Lots of chores go undone at our house so that Harper can get her desired amount of cuddle time. 

And while age five is mostly a hit around here (except for the constant backtalking, which can just go away as of, like, yesterday) it's always fun to reminisce on this magical time of Holden's life as well...Although, to be honest, I feel like I could have taken this picture during his bath tonight.  Is it just me or does Holden look just.the.same?

Halloween Things

Halloween was AGES ago, and I don't know about you, but I am already firmly entrenched in the Christmas Spirit, but my kids are cute, and I hate for that adorableness to go to waste unblogged, so here is Halloween in six, self explanatory (pretty much) pictures.

Pumpkin Patch:

Pumpkin Carving:

Festive Food:

Costumes:

Hard Core Trick Or Treating with a Plan:

Girls bailing on the plan early to get a head start on the candy binge:

Portrait of Five

Holden's biggest birthday wish was to be "The Boss" on his birthday.  Possibly because we have frequent and lengthy conversations about who is in charge at our house, and he always seems genuinely surprised that it isn't him. But I'm nothing if not a sucker for the birthday boy so we did our best to accommodate.  

After setting a few ground rules (no illegal activity, we can't go to Lagoon when it's not open, etc.) here is how my 5 year old chose to spend his big day.

He wanted to make sure we spent the whole day celebrating, so we decorated his door for a little first thing in the morning surprise.

Of course, presents were next on the agenda.

Then he chose "one of those sandwiches made out of pancakes" (gag) at McDonald's for breakfast, along with a lengthy stay at the PlayPlace.

Our attempt at a homemade pinata was a big fat fail, so we improvised with a last minute birthday treasure hunt for the intended pinata candy.

After that, he spent some time playing with his new birthday loot.

Then it was off to preschool, complete with the world's most ghetto birthday treat to share with his class.

He seemed to celebrate hard at preschool also, judging by his hat, sticker and treat bag.

That's the best photo I could get.  His mind was clearly on other things.  Because after preschool we headed to Boondocks Fun Center.

He threw around all sorts of activity ideas, but when it came down to it, all he really wanted was to spend all his time and money at the arcade, which surprised no one.  That kid loves arcades.

And the prizes that come with it.

All that arcad-ing made the birthday boy hungry, so we headed off to Noodles and Company for some spaghetti and meatballs...What's that you say?  That's not meatballs?  That's because when his food came he didn't know they were going to use "that kind of spaghetti" (you know, the spaghetti noodle kind) and asked for Mac and Cheese instead.  I had been trying to tell him he wanted Mac and Cheese the whole time, so I was about to tell him tough luck, but lucky for him, Dad had pity on the birthday boy and traded him meals.

Finally, it was back home for cake.

And a Holden's choice Redbox. (Monster House if you were wondering).

His last decision of the day was to stay up late, so he got an 8:30 bedtime.  We live dangerously around here.
We'd go broke quickly if Holden was the boss every day, but it was nice to have this day to document what goes on in his little 5 year old brain.

Revenge Of The Fifth

Can I count my kid's birthdays as my favorite holiday?  Because if so, I am totally doing it.  Holden asked for a Star Wars party this year, which was easy peasy other than the fact that I haven't ever actually SEEN a Star Wars movie, nor did I intend to, even for birthday party research purposes. But with the help of my BFF Pinterest, and my assistant party planner Holden, I feel like we got the job done.

We decorated:

We only remembered to take photos of about half our guests, as usual.  Also, don't mind Harper's grumpy face.  She wasn't feeling great that day.  Or she had a bitter case of birthday envy:

We ate our Star Wars themed dinner:

And played my new favorite go to party game.  Seriously, I want to have more parties just so I can play this game. Who'd come?

I baked my little heart out for our Wookie Cookie party favors:

All that baking wore me out and  inspired me to take a year off from my annual cake fail.  We ordered a plain cake from Costco instead and Holden and I "decorated" it together.  That ended up being one of my favorite parts of his birthday festivities, so maybe I'll stick with that plan from here on out:

Holden's favorite part was probably opening the presents.  He is five, after all.

All in all it was probably one of my favorite parties to date. Crazy October schedules caused us to have the party a week early, so we got to spread the birthday fun out even longer than normal.  A breakdown of the actual big day is on it's way.