snow princess.

There are no {needed} words.

(Disclaimer: Audrey didn't play out in the snow in this outfit. We were on the way to Target and I couldn't resist snapping her picture as a snow princess. And yes, she had to wear the tutu and bring her wand.)

and then.

[Post title inspired by Erin at Swonderful. Because I totally had one of those days weekends.]

I love reading those blogs where a family with five kids goes on a trip and they all do wonderful on the plane and sleep soundly in a hotel room and go to bed on time. I read them and think charming.

And then my family goes on what I thought would be a mini-vacation to watch my beautiful cousin get married, and I end up in survival mode the whole time.
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We left Saturday morning at 6:50 AM. I kind of felt like super mom getting everything packed in the van (with the help of my husband, of course) and both kids up and ready so early, without tears, mind you. It was a nice 3.5 drive. No turbulence along the way, both kids napped. We are happy.

We eat breakfast, do some swimming. And even ALL nap for a bit in the hotel room. Why yes, this is sounding like one of those blogs where everything is smooth and lovely. But wait. Just wait.

And then we get to the wedding. Naomi decides she wants to eat right when the processional begins. And there is only one door out. So after I attempt to nurse her in the sanctuary, I dart out with a hooter hider around my neck before she gets fussy. While the grandparents are being sat. Classy, I know. [Thank goodness I left though, because as soon as I was done nursing, Naomi uh, released herself really loudly.]

One of the very few pictures from the weekend. In fact, I didn't get a chance to take even one picture at the wedding. I passed my camera off to have my sister try to capture the night.

And then we head to the reception. But first drive around an extra ten minutes to make sure Naomi goes to sleep. She's out. We are at the reception. Everything appears to be going smoothly. Until it's time to nurse again. I head to the bathroom thinking if I can get her in a quiet place, surely she will nurse. That's a no-go. I then sit in our van for the next hour and attempt to soothe and nurse. I miss the bride and groom, the food, the cake. Everything.

And then we leave the reception early and head to the hotel (although I was tempted to drive all the way home, because I was that stressed). My two-year-old has an opinion (and I thought this didn't happen until they are like 12) and wants to stay at the party and dance. She is our dancing queen, no doubt. So she stays back with my brothers and sisters. Thankfully, my sister snapped a picture of her breaking it down on the dance floor.

I just noticed, that she isn't wearing her own shoes in this picture. Interesting. But not surprised, she loves putting on other people's shoes.

And then, we finally get Naomi asleep, after not really nursing. Audrey doesn't get asleep until about 11pm. And then I'm up every two hours feeding Naomi, which she previously had been sleeping through the night. And then, Audrey is up at 5am. Doesn't go back to sleep. And my morning begins at 7 after trying and trying to get Audrey to sleep again.

And then we get on the road to head home. What was suppose to be a 3.5 drive, ended up being 8 hours because of this:

 Oh wait, you say, you can't see anything? Yeah, neither could we while driving. That was our visibility when driving home in a blizzard.

Don't worry, there is a happy ending to all this.

The girls did fabulously in the 8 hour trip. We made it home safely. The girls are now asleep in their own beds. And we are watching It's a Wonderful Life.

Because despite, my crazy, no-sleep weekend, it really is a wonderful life. And I'm so thankful to be home.

this is mothering.

Mothering is about finding a balance. Mothers aren't perfect. But for some reason we hold ourselves to an extra-high standard. And when we fail, we try to hide it under a rug. Well, let me show you what's under my rug.

Yesterday was tough, folks. In fact, the past couple of days have challenged me as a mom. Audrey caught a big o-cold that resulted in tons of nose wiping, which resulted in tears because of pretty much wiping it raw. And Naomi had her two month shots that resulted in grumpiness. My little easy-going, barely ever cries, sleep through the night baby got vaccines and now she is all out of her element. And now? I'm definitely questioning vaccines. At least, giving them to such a tiny little body.

So between the lack of sleep, the sickness, and grumpiness, I give my mothering skills a C (and that's being generous to myself). Seriously. Yesterday, I was getting annoyed with just hearing Audrey say the word, Mama, over and over. Which is completely dumb, because I love being called Mama, but after 1,238 times, I was ready to be called Bob or something.

Then we went out to dinner and Audrey kept kissing and hugging me and sharing her milk with me. And my heart melted. And I thought, how could I get so upset with this sweet bundle of love? Then we left the restaurant and she broke down in the car and I was reminded why I was so tired and grumpy and wanted to be Bob.

So, this is mothering. It's not always easy. There's joy, challenges, and love. But at the end of the day, love always prevails.

(Audrey and Naomi at Monkey Joe's. And yes, that first picture is blurry, because she.did.not.stop.moving inside that bouncy house.)

this is where i admit i grew up in the 80's.

Do you remember that one shirt or pair of pants you had to wear like every day when you were a kid? Mine were hot pink spandex bike shorts, not that I would admit something like that. Oh, and I had a pair of Umbro shorts that I absolutely loved and wore all the time. [Fine, I will admit this, I still have them. No lie.]

Then, remember in high school when you couldn't wear the same thing for like another two or three weeks, because, gasp, what if someone noticed you wore that shirt just last week? [I know, completely, silly, but I did that.]

Well, I think I'm getting back to that point of childhood. Where I want to wear the same thing over and over. Because, hey, who cares. If I love it, I should wear it. I want to simplify my closest (and life) and keep only what I love. Even if that means I keep four shirts, two pair of pants, a sweater, and five tank-tops. I mean, I have always dreamed of having some great big walk-in closest. But really, what would I fill it up with? Things that are just okay to me. Stuff that I might wear once or twice. I'm going to go through my small closest that I have now and even downsize more. If I don't love it, it's gone.

So watch out, I'm going to be that kid that wears her My Little Pony shirt everyday. With her Umbros. And I'm going to rock it.
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Feel free to make me feel better and admit that you also own a pair of Umbros still.

countdown to christmas {week 2}.

So, I thought this whole doing an activity/craft every day for Countdown for Christmas was going to be easy-peasy. But you know, it's a little tougher than I thought. Things don't go as plan and your child gets sick and you end up wiping a nose 724 times a day and a craft is the last thing on your mind. But, we did manage to get some fun things in this past week. And I am really enjoying doing it and I'm not going to be too hard on myself for not sticking exactly to my original plan. Because we all know life doesn't work that way, right?

So let me share what we did do for our Advent activities this past week...

Day 2- Lacing a Stocking (This is super easy- I just cut out a stocking from heavy card stock and used string that had wire in it so it was easier to lace. I wasn't sure if Audrey would be able to do this activity since she just turned two, but she totally rocked it.)

Day 3- Make Shepherds out of Clothespins (We read some verses from the Bible first about the shepherds traveling to see baby Jesus and then going to share the news with others. It was a super easy craft too. You can see the example shepherd I made in the picture below.)

Day 4- Visit Santa on a Train (Andrew took Audrey to do this fun activity. You can see pictures here from it.)

Day 5- And this where things don't go exactly as planned. So for this day, I'm counting going to church and listening to the story of Jesus' birth as the Advent activity for the day.

Day 6- Another day of "didn't go as planned." We drove an hour and half to go to the Children's Museum only to find out it is CLOSED on Mondays. So, not to waste the drive, we ended up at a place called Monkey Joe's (basically an indoor bouncy house). Hey, they played Christmas music while we were there, does that count? We drove the hour and a half home and by then we were all exhausted and the day was spent.

Day 7- Round 2- Drove back up to Indianapolis to hit up the Children's Museum. They have a special Winter Wonderland area set up with a pretend pond to skate on, ice fishing, a visit to Santa, a gigantic "ice" slide to go down, an ice castle to play in, and pretend reindeer to groom. It was a good day, that's for sure.

Day 8- Stamped Wrapping Paper (I bought some plain wrapping paper from the Dollar Tree and already had a lot of Christmas stamps that I bought on clearance in the previous years. Once I run out of the wrapping paper I'm just going to use paper bags, it's basically the same thing.)

Today we plan on making a Christmas bell. This weekend we are traveling out of the state to a wedding, so getting in some activities might be a little tough, but we'll see.

Want some other Advent ideas or want to link up and share what you have been doing? Go visit Liz at Sugarplum Creations!

gifts under forty.

[I couldn't remember if 40 is spelled forty or fourty. But don't worry, spell check came through for me.]

Still looking for gift ideas for your best girl friends? Well, here's my take on some sweet gifts. In other words, here is my wishlist.

Recycled Fingerless Gloves $16

Pair of Vintage Canvas Blue and Natural Pillows $31 (on sale!)

Natural Linen Pillow Cover with Frayed Layered Fabric $40 (but on sale for 20% off right now!)

And sorry, folks, but I'm sort of obsessed with pillows right now. So here is one more.

Side Ruffle Pillow in Mustard Yellow/Light Grey $32

Aspen Button Cowl in Celery $28

Breeze Damask Ruffle DSLR Strap Cover $33

Milkmaid Butter Dish from Anthropologie (on sale $14.95)

Simply "Mauve"lous Cardigan from Ruche $36.99

Pretty Please with a Bow on Top Earrings from Ruche $18 [You didn't think I would go an entire wishlist without one thing bow on it, paaalease.]

So, I want to know, what's on your wishlist? 

the story of the tree that came to be.

It's something I look forward to every year. Picking the tree. Audrey is going on her third year of going to the same tree farm that I went to as a little girl.

7 weeks old, 13 months, 25 months

We got our red flag and went to the field to find just the right one. The lucky one that would sit in our home for the next month and fill it with a beautiful fresh pine aroma.

Since there weren't a whole lot to choose from (as there has been in the past) because of the draught we experienced this summer, we chose pretty quickly.

Andrew, me wearing Naomi, Audrey, and my dad aka Gramps

This poor tree. We totally faked it out. It thought it was getting home. Until we entered the barn...

There were pre-cut trees shipped in from Michigan. A beautiful Frasier Fir was callin' my name. I peered out to the tree that was already cut and ready for us, the one we chose, and then I looked back at the Frasier Fir again. But, I want that one.

The nice gentleman there didn't want to disappoint a new mama, I suppose. He overheard my plea for the FF and he said he would do an exchange. An exchange of trees, who would have thought? Not me.

But hey, I'll take it. And I'll take that FF I wanted.

Us with THE CHOSEN ONE.

And so now, as our beautiful Frasier Fir sits in our living room, I can't help but think about that poor other tree that almost got picked. Supposedly, it is in the barn, wrapped, ready for someone else to pick it and give it a home.

But I'm not going to lie, I sure am glad we did that exchange.

 Here is the tree with just the Christmas tree lights on, you know, to get the full effect of this beauty.

[You know that book, Where's Waldo? Well, how about Where's That Candy Cane? Can you find the only candy cane on our tree? And also? One of my favorite things about this picture-- is the picture of my mama in the back when she was a young lady. Now there is a real beauty.]