Christmas 2013!!!

WARING: You're about to see our Christmas celebrations in photos! There are lots of 'em 'cause we've had lots of fun!!!

Christmas Eve after a fun gathering at Mona's house with all of the cousins, we made sure to sprinkle the Reindeer Food on the ground before heading inside.

Since we weren't able to open our pajama's at Mona's as we had planned (funny story that will forever be comically remembered), we waited until we got home to open 'em up! Of course by that time, E was already hard core out cold, so just the older two were able to open their Christmas Eve present: homemade matching pajamas! What a fun project they were for me to make!

Here's Rudolph waiting patiently to open the first gift of the Christmas season...

Chase was very patient, too!

And Sir Sleeps-a-lot was, as I mentioned, out cold.

Opening...

Chase LOVED his new pajamas!!!

See??

LO loved hers, too! She especially loved the removable red bow!

Two-thirds of my little loves!

Seriously. He LOVED them.

Really.

Little E's pajamas were ready and waiting for bedtime...

Hope Santa was still hungry when he hit our place last night. We had THREE plates of cookies, some carrots for Rudolph and a large cup of refreshing chocolate milk!

LO was sure to leave a few notes for the Big Guy. She made him a sleigh out of paper (complete with each reindeer and paper sacks full of toys) and left a note to let him know it was his to take with him. Too sweet!

And then there was the one about whether or not he had Rudolph with him...

After a late night for mommy and daddy, everything was set for Christmas morning.

The stockings were too heavy for our stocking hangers to handle, so we put new ornaments on the hangers and left the stockings on the ground. Quick and easy access for the kiddos!

FINALLY! Christmas morning and time to open stockings!!!

Even the little guy got in on the stocking action. Sorry for the bad iPhone pic. ;)

Ah, yes... my THREE little loves! 'Tis a Merry Christmas for sure!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

Now what about all of these gifts? Is it time to open? OH YES IT IS!!!!

This kid was TOO excited about getting a Wii U so he could play Super Mario 3D World!

His big sister was pretty excited about his gift, too!

FINALLY! A bracelet loom kit like she's always wanted! Thanks, Mona!

WHAT?! Santa knows the folks at Build-A-Bear?! How perfect! Now she has the whole My Little Pony collection... until they release the next one, of course.

Meanwhile, Chase was still pretty excited about this new Wii U...

Yay! Super Mario Bros. U!

YES! Super Mario 3D World! His life is now complete!!!

Contrary to the look on his face, he was SUPER excited about a new Super Mario shirt!

More My Little Pony for our little pony girl!

This guy was content in his own little play land of toys and wrapping paper!

More Mario gear, of course!

Pretty stoked about the Mario Kart slot car race track!!

And this is how the kids spent the long, arduous minutes waiting for the Wii U to be set up and ready to play. How they can just watch the little cars go 'round and 'round the track over and over again... can you tell I'm no NASCAR fan? Haha!

One of my faves... LO made Chase a special gift and wrapped it up. He was LESS than thrilled to see it was just an empty toilet paper roll that she colored and turned into a telescope. Haha!

Had to do this! Pretty sure we have a pic of each of the kids with a bow on their head on their first Christmas morning, too! LOL!

Now we're finally playing Wii U while mommy and daddy get the house ready for our big family gathering tonight... can't wait!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

First Christmas!

This little guy is ready to celebrate his first Christmas! Such a sweetie!!!




((Sorry for the blurry pic -- the boy never stops moving!))

A Good Laugh!

This boy!!! He's so darn cute! His little laugh just makes my heart swoon!

- Posted using BlogPress on my beloved iPhone

Cookie Time!

The kids and I made some yummy Christmas cookies this weekend. I'm so pleased with the sugar cookie recipe I used that I think it'll be my go-to from now on. Check out the Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookie recipe over at Bake at 350. It's amazing!

I doubled the recipe, then separated it into thirds. We used one for these cookies and froze the other two so we could make more for the big guy heading our way in 10 days! I'm curious to see how well the dough behaves after freezing & defrosting it...

I went with a basic royal icing recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. It's 3 simple ingredients and super easy to make! If you haven't yet, check out that link to Brown Eyed Baker because she has an amazing tutorial on decorating cookies with royal icing. The best suggestion she had was to gather your supplies before getting started. Had I done so, I would've realized I was out of red food coloring gel. That's why our stockings ended up hot pink. 😁

Another helpful tip I gleaned from the comments on BEB's tutorial was the suggestion of decorating the BOTTOM of the cookies! The bottom is always perfectly flat which makes the piping and flooding so much easier! Win!!

The kids had a lot of fun with the decorating, although they were slightly lacking in the patience department when it came to my demonstration on piping the borders on the cookies. And when I was showing them how to do the flood icing as well. But once it came time to bust out the sprinkles, they were on their game! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again soon in another week or so.

Check out their yummy masterpieces!!!



Seriously, these cookies taste perfect! Not too sweet, still soft and chewy and not dry or crunchy! Seriously the best!!!

What a fun weekend we've had!!!

- Posted using BlogPress on my beloved iPhone

Seven Months!

Oh sweetness.

Can someone tell me where the time has gone? My little love is 7 months old. As in, it's-time-to-start-planning-his-first-birthday 7 months old. Yes, I'm crazy. And it suits me.

But maybe I'll disregard the inevitable destiny of my last born marking a year of life with our family with the hope that I can pause time -- or perhaps stop it altogether -- with my lack of preparedness. Surely that will work. Certainly I can at least slow the sand in the hourglass with my procrastination.

((sigh))

Who am I kidding? I've already bounced a few party themes around in my head. But I'm determined to let it go for now and instead to focus my thoughts and energy in the present.

The present of my now 7-month-old son.

The present of my amazing 4-year-old son.

The present of my beautiful 6-year-old daughter.

The present of my loving husband of 8 years.

Christmas is a mere 13 days away. I can't help but be thankful for the gifts and blessings in my life. And I'm not alluding to those which can be found under the tree. But rather, the loved ones who surround me daily. Those who I've been charged to care for and love. I'm so grateful.

Seven months with our sweet baby E and I find myself swimming deeper in love with each passing day. He's an amazing baby. The perfect third child. His big brother loves to make him laugh. His big sister loves to be his mommy.

My life is complete.

I'm so undeserving of the countless blessings in my life, but I resolve to greet every morning with a fresh and renewed commitment to love them each with a deeper, limitless love and steadfast appreciation for the way they consume my heart, each in their own perfect way.

Happy 7 months, my sweet baby E.

Love,
Mommy

Six Months!

I'm certainly nothing if not consistent, so without further ado, how about I share E's 6-month pics today? You know, like just over a week before he'll be 7 months old. 'Cause that's just how I do things around here. And never mind the fact that I couldn't get the kid to smile. [See: Five month post where I vent about the trials and tribulations of photographing one's infant solo.]

Here are a few of my other faves of my little chunkster!

I thought it'd be fun to compile E's first 6 months in a little photo collage of sorts as well. Nothing like commemorating half a year of life, am I right??

GULP!

It wasn't expected.

I hadn't anticipated it.

I never thought it'd happen today.

But it did.

I got the call. THE call. The one I've been waiting on for over 4 years. I knew it would happen and I knew I wouldn't be prepared. And I wasn't.

The Charleston area code on my phone. At first I considered that it might be the Beads of Courage contact at MUSC calling me with more information on getting Chase enrolled in this amazing program for children coping with serious illness and their families.

It wasn't.

It was the Pediatric Cardiothoracic surgery scheduling department. They were calling to schedule the third of Chase's planned heart surgeries, the Fontan.

Dear Jesus!

We knew this surgery would take place in May 2014 and that we'd eventually get a call from MUSC to schedule the actual date. Somehow just knowing "May" was enough for me. It didn't impact my daily routine.

But now? Having an actual date?? This mama is going to stress like a fool! It's never easy to turn your child over for surgery... but another heart surgery? His third? Now at 4 years old? This kid is such a Rock Star and a warrior and a fighter but that world of heart surgery is every bit of 3 1/2 years in our past! Now to have it suddenly be in our future again? With an actual date and everything?? There are no words.

I can only ask that those of you who may still be reading along on this journey of ours will begin to flood the gates of heaven with your prayers even now for a successful surgery, smooth recovery, no complications and a stronger, healthier Chase once it's done.

I just love this boy!!!!!

Happy Halloween?

No, I haven't lost all sense of time.

I'm just reeeeaaaally behind schedule, mmmkay?

This year was the first year I handmade THREE Halloween costumes for the kiddos, so I felt it was worth documenting it here. I'm super proud of these looks and the fact that the kids loved them? Sooooo worth it!

Chase had a very specific vision in mind for his costume. He wanted to be Super Mario! But not just the standard, regular, non-super-powered Mario. He wanted to be: FIRE MARIO. This actually made things super simple and I was really excited to get started!

Of course I scoured the interwebs for a handy tutorial and boy did I ever find a gem over at smashed peas and carrots with Maggie's tutorial! Of course I had to modify it ever so slightly to make FIRE Mario, but this tutorial was totally easy peasy and a lot of fun!

So here's the look I was going for:

 

And here's my own little Fire Mario (wearing his Mario costume at his 4th birthday party a few days before Halloween):

As I mentioned, the costume was super easy and went together in a matter of minutes! He also had gloves and a mustache and cute brown boots. He looked just like Mario! I ordered his hat online and made the "M" logo and sewed (?) it onto the hat. Too cute! The best part was that I had this costume finished a few weeks before Halloween and Chase wore it EVERYWHERE! He insisted on wearing it every time he played Super Mario Wii, had to put on the hat anytime we went anywhere, and just loved to be in this costume! It was such a hit!

With a little brother also in need of a Halloween costume, it didn't take long for me to proclaim little E as "Baby Fire Luigi!" His costume was also a snap and was completely adorbs!!! I used a hat that Chase wore for his 1st Easter (with the added "L" of course)... awwww!

I'm so proud of these costumes!

Next up was LO's costume... she wanted to be none other than RAINBOW DASH! For you non-MLP fans, Rainbow Dash is a My Little Pony pegasus. Should be fun to make, right?

Last year she was a unicorn and I totally cheated by purchasing a hoodie sweatshirt and sweatpants and just modifying them to make the costume. This year I made the entire thing myself -- hoodie, pants and all! This wouldn't have been possible without the amazing Toni at Sugar Tart Crafts and her step-by-step My Little Pony tutorial. She broke everything down into easy to follow steps and I was sewing like a pro in no time! I made the hoodie with mane and ears, sweatpants, cutie mark, removable tail and removable wings!

Not surprisingly, I had one super happy Rainbow Dash on Halloween night! She just loves to pose for the camera! And the best part is that she'll wear just the tail or just the wings with other outfits (pajamas) so these individual pieces made a super fun addition to her dress-up stash!

My little Halloween cuties!

My next sewing project? Christmas pajamas!!! :)