Cause Some People Are So *Nice* And *Thoughtful* That They Just Can't Keep It To Themselves

I received a package the other day.

It was big and squarey and from my home state.

(you know, the place with all. the. snow. that never ends)

My bloggy friend Mrs. Dayton sent me a package with the most delightful treasures inside:

Are you kidding me?!?!?

A fleece skirt (fits perfectly) and an owl mai-tei style baby carrier?! I am the luckiest girl in the world! And, I am seriously heading with Ezra to Joann's tomorrow to pick up some yardage of fleece. I intend to make many fleece garments to swathe myself in because it is seriously scrumptious. So. comfy.

Please go and check out her site--because not only is Pamela an excellent seamstress with flawless taste, she. is. hilarious.

Thank you friend!!!

Home Improvement

There is nothing I like better in life than organizing, improvising, improving and creating so this whole home-ownership thing just speaks to me! I am so thankful that God has given us more space than I ever imagined we would have!

Our goal for Christmas break was to fix up our 3rd floor "bonus room." (I dislike that term but that's the best description for the space up there).

For the last few months it was filled with boxes and odds and ends that were waiting to be put away. The floors were covered with paint and old and scuzzy. The woodwork was all mismatched and in need of sprucing up. If I were a better blogger I would have before pictures, but that just didn't happen--I was too excited to get going!

Mr. Wonderful and I spent a few days painting the walls and the trim and then I sanded the entire floor and Mr. Wonderful laid down the polyurethane. We had to wait 72 hours for the floors to dry before I could go decorate and it was killing me! But finally I'm mostly finished and had to share the results!

the door to the attic stairs, and the view from the landing

my grandmother's chair, rose petal cottage land and our new "coloring station"

Our guest bed, entertainment cabinet (ignore the fact that I can't find my lampshade and that I'm not done decorating, ack!!)

The best part was that we only needed to buy a gallon of paint for the walls, a rug, a couple of Ikea pillow covers and some curtain rods--everything else we already had in storage, in boxes or leftover from other projects/areas.

Woot!

The Big Day

Today we celebrated Amelie's birthday at Chuck E Cheese with a Granny, an Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and our little friends (accompanied by whichever of their parents drew the short straw)=) HA! Amelie had a wonderful time and we're so glad that they could make it!

I'm so glad this day has finally come because poor Amelie has been dying for it to be her birthday! And, the fact that Christmas is this week has her on present overload!

There were a lot of birthday shenanigans and Amelie looked a bit demure and quiet for most of them. She tells us she had fun though!

When we got home it all proved to be too much and she had the meltdown of the century. Apparently it's very taxing to turn 5. She has since taken a nap and recovered, but it was a little dicey there for a while =)

Thank goodness for naptime! =)

It Had To Be *You*

Hey! Look who's 5!!!

Oh my dear and darling Amelie--

My firstborn

My girl child

My doppelganger

My mini-me

God just knew it had to be *you*

That you were exactly the kind of girl I needed in my life

You're my helper, my hugger, my story-teller, song-singer, dancing-dancer, sister-entertainer, errand-runner, obsessive-room-cleaner, princess-pretender, girly-girly-girl in pink.

I don't deserve such a sweet little girl--I'm so thankful that God has entrusted you to me for the time being. I pray for you everyday and am so stinkin' thankful for you.

I love you sweet girl--can you just do Mommy a favor and stay 5 forever?

xoxo, Mama

You Look Good Enough To Eat

I Have An Almost-5-Year-Old And It Makes Me Feel...

thrilled

sad

excited

happy

awe-struck

worried

old

blessed

nostalgic

proud

and most importantly

confused.

especially when i'm looking back through photos and see the one in which she made this face!

(it actually scared me a little b/c i was expecting from the thumbnail that it was a smile!=)

When I asked Amelie what happened she said," I don't know! I was trying to smile!"

Ha!

Happy Almost-Birthday Amelie-Girl!

Eating Snowman Ice Cream Cake, Blowing Out Candles, Opening The Much-Anticipated Pillow Pet; All While Wearing Her Beautiful Christmas Belle Dress.

Literally.

Happy "Birthday Celebration Part 1" Amelie!!

It's A *Wonderful* Christmas

Bright and early Christmas morning this little girl came down the stairs and said,

"Let's get going people! We need to 0pen presents!!"

I told her we needed to wait until 7....so she sat in front of the clock for half an hour staring at the clock and willing the number to change from 6 to 7.

She was a little bummed that the 4 wheeler under the tree was for Maeve.

She was a little less bummed when Mommy said she was still light enough to share it with sister!=)
And this one? He was up by 6 cause,
*Santa Is His Homeboy*

Poor thing, Santa may be his homeboy but he didn't leave the infant anything under the tree. Mr. Wonderful and I decided that being born was his present this year!

(Especially since we'll be paying it off for the next 6 months!!)

tee hee!
And Maeve? She came down after we woke her at 7 and proclaimed:

"Presentssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We had a lovely Christmas morning at home with our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Oh, and the rolls? Pioneer Woman's recipe is delish.

Ah. Love them! They make me wish it was Christmas everyday!!

After we opened presents and relaxed at home we headed to Grandparents of the Easts' home.

We opened lots o'lovely things (like my new canon *pink* point and shoot!! love it!) and had a delicious ham dinner that I didn't have to cook! Yay!

My parents arrived yesterday to attend the Christmas program at church and to celebrate Amelie's birthday with us.

We're so thankful for our family near and far and the chance to spend a lovely relaxing Christmas together!

Three Sugar Plum Fairies

Merry Christmas Eve From Amelie!

It's ironic to me that one of her favorite Christmas song is Silent Night.

It has not been a silent night here =)

{Oh, and Granny(s), watch this with a tissue :-)}

Snippets

*hails from the land of lake effect snow and endless winter but I don't miss it and I don't welcome it's presence in South Jersey! ick.
*Ezra is finally sleeping a bit better at night--waking up twice between 8pm - 5am. but he is AWAKE at 5. this too shall pass!
*speaking of Ezra--he's growing out of EVERYTHING! He's already into 3-6 month clothes and I NEED to get out to the store for some warm winter sleepers--I guess I didn't plan as well as I thought I did =) (Also didn't expect him to be so big so fast either!)
*so thankful the girls got full snow gear as an early Christmas present--they have really enjoyed the snow that I don't enjoy =)
*annoyed that the snow cancelled our church Christmas program and Amelie's pre-k all week. eh.
*not annoyed that my husband had a snow day on monday!
*can't believe Christmas is this week!
*can't wait to have my husband home on break! (many house projects are in the works!)

happy tuesday!!

I Did It!!

I found Amelie's birthday present!

The *washable* pillow pet unicorn!

Woot!

Sorry, just had to share the excitement of finding the one thing my daughter wanted which was sold out everywhere. Victory is mine! Hahhahahahaha

Snow Day

Maeve loved the snow.

Until her hands got cold and then...

not so much.

My Snow Angels!

(Maeve could only make side-ways angels =)
They took turns throwing snow in the air!

And by the end of the storm the snow was up to Amelie's waist!
She got a bit concerned and said,
"I hope it doesn't snow any more--I won't be able to walk!"

And then the snow gave us the best present of all
*SNOW DAY* for Mr. Wonderful! Woot!

so. much. snow.

that is all.

A Maevey Christmas

Valentine's Day Window(s) Shopping; Cause What Else Is There To Do When You're Snowed In And The Cleaning Is Done?

All Dresed Up With Somewhere To Go

Mr. Wonderful's Christmas concert was, of course, wonderful!

I'm so thankful that I got a chance to go and that the Granny of the East could babysit while Pop of the East, Ryan, Micayla, Ryleigh and I got to enjoy the concert!

My husband is a *rock* star!

What a lovely night!

(Oh, and as an added bonus--Ezra was perfect for the concert! He only squeaked twice and slept the entire time! We won't talk about how much he slept from the hours of 3-7 a.m. but, Woot! nonetheless.)

This is what happens when you let the *Princess of Pink* make and decorate Daddy's Birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Honey!!

A very happy birthday to my precious husband!

Every so often his birthday falls on the exact same day as his high school students' Christmas concert! So today for his birthday I bought him a new conducting baton.

(His has been broken for ages).

I really wish I knew they were called conducting "batons" before I did a google image search on them--

*word to the wise*

It is not a conducting wand. Even if that's what it looks like. It's not a wand for conducting.

Because, as my husband says,

"This is music NOT Harry Potter!!"

Do NOT search for that. You will be sorry. You'll have to scour your eyeballs with soap.

But anyways! I hope you have a happy birthday my dear and you enjoy your BATON!

I hope your day is as *wonderful* as YOU are!

Muah darling!

LOVE love LoVe lOvE you!

xoxoxo

Shelly

Our First Christmas With Amelie; Alternately Titled: Christmas When We Looked Young And I Could Afford Good Haircuts On A Regular Basis

I was cleaning out the closet the other day and found this picture of our little family!

My how the years have flown and my how Amelie resembles a short haired Maeve! =)

Desperately Trying To Avoid Temptation

...but it's sooo hard when they're 30% off, there is free shipping AND you can earn Gymbucks!

Stinkin' Gymboree!

*S*W*A*K*!

Maeve says, "Smooch!"

She was having an impromptu photo shoot with her little brother and I asked her to plant a kiss on him--she got confused and tried to kiss me and the camera instead =)

She's loves her little brother so much!
She delights in planting kisses on him!

And seriously, where did she get that head-full of blond hair!?

I love those kids!

Shelly...

* mowhawked (um, not a real verb) her infant son's hair and headed out to enjoy Amelie and Maeve's Christmas program at church. It was delightful--especially the part where Maeve took over the microphone and said, "ahh maaa leeee" =)
* is making a list of all the home improvement projects I want to tackle over Christmas break--can't. wait. (A trip to Ikea is NEEDED!)
* is so excited that we have a whole room/floor of our house we never use. Can't wait to turn it into a fun space--our Craft room/toy room/Wii room/NAP room etc.
* desperately needs a haircut. beyond desperately--def. doing it over break! ack!
* called a few places about holding Amelie's birthday party and was rudely rebuffed by the sales associate who said, "we don't do parties for less than 10...well, we do... but we'll charge you the same." ick. annoying.
* still hasn't gotten Maeve's 2 yo pictures taken--so not like me. You'd think I moved and had a baby a few weeks ago or something.
* wants it to be summer tomorrow. or now.
* tired. long nights. etc. so on. so forth. I kind of forgot or blocked out what it's like to have a newborn--just barely getting regular chores done and letting the "real" cleaning/organizing/cooking slide. It hurts my type-A sensibilities.

there is more but all of the sudden I'm too tired to finish.
G'night!

STOP THE FREAKIN' PRESSES

I just realized my baby is 6 weeks old now.

I am going to work on freezing time for the rest of the day.

That is all.

Santa Baby

The husband was away Saturday judging for All South Jersey band and lucky for me, the Grandparents of the East were more than willing to take the girls on a special outing!

Our favorite local-kid-friendly-delicious-coffee-establishment was celebrating Christmas with a visit from Santa and crafts!

The girls were thrilled and think I'm full of nonsense for telling them that Santa doesn't exist since they see him everywhere they go =)

Here's Amelie telling Santa that she wants a scrapbook.

Here's Maeve exhibiting her hat fetish.
We have a smiley picture of them on Santa's lap but I'm too lazy to scan it at the moment =)

The girls had a wonderful time with their Grandparents!

And I had a wonderful time taking an uninterrupted shower.

It's the little things that bring the most joy my peeps!

*J*O*Y* ((No Such)) Luck Club

I tried taking pictures of the munchkins today.

Ezra was very cooperative =)

The three of them together?

A little bit of a hot-mess-situation going on here. =)

Amelie loves to pose!
Maeve isn't into being photographed at the moment.
Doesn't she look beside herself?!
It's tough being 2 =)
Maybe next week!

Family Pictures--Cause Who Doesn't Love The Chance To Be Completely Color-Coordinated!?

I like to get our family picture taken every year and somehow--started the tradition right around Christmas-time when Amelie was 1.

Christmas is such busy season at portrait studios but thankfully Target started opening their studio at 8 AM!!! this year.

Woot! No long lines for us!

They got us in at 8 on the dot and in about 5 minutes we had two pictures to choose from-

-I feel as though that was a major victory =)

(cause I would have been happy with just *most* of us looking at the camera with *mostly* pleasant expressions-)

I'm sure if you've tried to take pictures with more than one child you understand what I mean!

The girls aren't wearing their Christmas dresses (which are on back-order and will hopefully arrive for Christmas!!) but luckily I had a red and green dress for them and a little red shirt for E-boy. Also, as luck would have it--I now have enough children that only my face needs to show in a picture--good planning on my part! =)

Peek; Sleep; Flex

Baby Gap Cute-ness