A Christmas Miracle

So Caitlin wins the prize for the best Christmas present giver...again.

Last year, she won by having Rachel.

This year she won by announcing that she is pregnant again! And she's having the little peanut around June 18th. YAY!!!! I'm soooooo excited!

It was pretty hilarious how she told us. We had our family christmas party early in the afternoon yesterday and in all the excitment and confusion of trying to get skype to work so we could chat with Erin, Jim, and Steven...She and Nick forgot to tell us. Ooops.

Later that evening, we ended back at Cait and Nick's and as soon as Mom and I walked in the house, Cait blurted it out.

"IforgottotallyouearlierwhenwewerealltogetherI'mpregnantandhavingitinJune."

Um. What?

So that was really fun. :) And surprising!

The rest of Christmas was fun too. Cait also got me a 72 hour kit starter kit. So that is awesome. We also exchanged the books we bought together a few weeks ago. We do that every year.

And then Rachel dicovered how to open presents. She was easily the highlight this year. She is soooo cute! :)

Rachel and Nana reading a book. It's still weird to think of my mom as "Nana."

Christmas Eve we spent having dinner with the Fluckigers, our new-ish tradition. I've done it the past three or four years and then after dinner and reading scriptures and other traditions, I stay and help Michelle and Rich wrap presents for the kids. This year we were done by 11:30--apparently a new record. Usually its later...much later. :)

Auntie Lys and Rachel

Alyssa, Rachel, Sean, and Rich.

Rachel opening her very first present--new Christmas Eve Pajamas!

Kevin and his new Abraham Lincoln bobblehead.

Christmas morning I spent cleaning my house and cooking treats for the afternoon and at noon, we got together with Mom's family to do a little luncheon...and Rachel was the Star of the Show. :) So adorable! :)

Rachel, Uncle Craig, & Caitlin

Chillin' in the chair that Great-Aunt Mardene made for the grandkids to sit on at Nana's (Gran-Nan) house. Rachel loved it once she realized it was for sitting.

"I'm so cute and I know that everyone knows it!"

"I want that Goldfish cracker!!!"

Gran-Nan and Rachel rocking the night away.

Rachel's first piano/organ lesson from Gran-Nan! :) Rachel loved it, played the organ and danced along to her own music. So cute! I think I see a budding musician!

Uncle Craig wore this hilarious, crazy outfit to Christmas lunch and Cait decided that she needed to wear it. She called the stick the "Stick of Justice" because she used it to keep Rachel from going downstairs.

Cait, Steven, and Erin--our "family christmas photo" this year. I just love technology.

Nick and Rachel opening presents. Rachel enjoyed ripping the paper. It's not something she's normally allowed to do.

Cait calling family with the good news about the newest addition and Rachel playing with her Christmas presents.

Christmas was fun and lovely. I spent the evening at Cait & Nick's playing with Rachel and watching our new movies that we got for Christmas--a family tradition. We ate too much, laughed a lot, and had fun together. It was perfect. :)

Halloween 2012

The last few years, I've had some fun halloween costumes...all that border on crazy/creepy. :) This year I decided that I wanted something a bit "prettier."

Then I saw this amazing skirt on...where else...pinterest. But it lead to an etsy shop that was selling the skirt for over $300! Beautiful, but way outside my price range.

I wanted it. Needed it, really. I had always wanted a fluffy princess skirt. And no, I'm not too old. Okay, maaaaaybe I am, but who cares? If you raised your hand, we aren't friends. ;)

So I told Caitlin about it and she made it happen. She's pretty awesome like that. I give her an idea and she makes it happen. I wish I could do that. :)

Cait had a large scrap of basic black utility cotton fabric and so made a base "skirt" to sew the tulle onto. We decided that a drawstring would be best, and so she put one in.

After a "rough calculation" (have I mentioned how bad I am at math?) of how much I would need, I bought 600 yards of 6" wide tulle (4 100 yard black spools & 2 purples) and then Cait cut them into 44", long strips (my height was 41" from my waist to the floor and then she added a few more because of the way she was sewing it to the base skirt).

She sewed the 6" wide ends next to each other so they were in a medium gather. There were 3 layers of tulle to make it fluffy.

Cait sewed each layer "upside down" to the skirt underneath so that it would fold over on top of itself to add more volume.

Man this skirt is a beast. :) It's going to be awesome.

For the waistband, I wanted it to wrap around a couple of times with a bow, like the inspiration picture. I bought a yard of black satin fabric and Cait sewed it into a "ribbon" and attached it. She also put interfacing in between the two layers of satin to make it stiffer. It's so awesome. I love it.

Once I get the rest of my costume together, I'll post some pictures. :)

Sharing the Love

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I was trying to figure out what to do for my roommates. I wanted to just do a little something special.

Then I found a two pound basket of strawberries on sale. And I knew what I wanted for me, er, them. :)

Ta Da!

Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I did these last night and so my roommates are getting their treats a little early so the strawberries don't go bad. I also did a few marshmellows because I had extra chocolate. Turned out pretty good.

Yeah, I had to sample one. It was amazing. I may have also had one (or two) for breakfast. It's fruit, so it's good. Right?! :) And yes, I really, really need need to work on my white chocolate skills.

Here the strawberries are, all packaged up. They turned out pretty cute! I found the straws at Target. I had a different plan for my roommates, and that's why I bought them, but then I did this so they are randomly stuck in the packaging. :)

Cute and DELICIOUS! :)

Christmas Eve Traditions

So over the years we've kind of had an irregular tradition of spending Christmas Eve with our friends, the Fluckigers. It started when we were kids and we'd be gone for Christmas and so Mom was alone. So graciously, the Fluckigers would have Mom there for Christmas Eve. Then a few years ago, I was invited to go over there. Dinner was the bribe to get us to help wrap the kid's Christmas presents. And it worked. :)

This year, they invited our whole family over so we had quite the party.

Dinner was delicious and we had a fabulous time hanging out. Listening to the Christmas story and "A Pirate's Night Before Christmas" complete with Sean making pirate noises. :) It was pretty awesome and hilarious.

We had a wonderful time with lots of laughter and awesome food. And lots of excitment because Caitlin was due yesterday. Michelle was just WAITING for Cait's water to break in the middle of dinner. I think when it didn't she was mildly disappointed and relieved (har har!).

Michelle insisted that Caitlin use the Santa Snuggie because it fit over her belly perfectly. :) Caitlin wasn't so Jolly about it.

'Nuff said.

I made cream puffs to share with the family. Everyone was so excited. And they were Ahhhhmazing!

Sean and Alyssa. Colin is hiding behind Alyssa.

Erin, Steven, and Mom chillin'.

Colin did have his head on Alyssa's lap and it was really cute, but then Alyssa saw that I was taking a picture and moved and so Colin tried to duck out of the picture. Punks.

While we were there, someone doorbell ditched a beautiful charm bracelet off for Michelle. No one knows who it's from.

Mom, Lys, Michelle, Caitlin, & Sean watching A Christmas Carol.

Nick came over and was cuddling with Caitlin and had his head on her stomach and it was super cute. Then he realized that I was trying to take a picture so he moved. Punk.

Rachel started kicking and moving around and so everyone took turns feeling her move. It was funny to watch Kevin. He was a bit disturbed. He had never felt a baby move and so it kind of freaked him out. Caitlin forced him to feel it. He might have had nightmares that night. Bwahahaha!

So that was our Christmas Eve. And it was perfect. :)

Family Christmas!!!

Happy day! We got off early today at work! Wahoo! And that is why I'm posting in the middle of the afternoon...because I can! :) Anywhoooo....

Due to certain circumstances outside our control (ie: Cait's baby situation, ya know, coming any second, among others), Christmas was bumped up a bit! We celebrated today! December 22---The new Christmas! (That reminds me of the Modern Family Christmas Episode this year--they celebrated on December 16.. Bwahahaha!)

We had dinner and opened presents. The food was pretty good, if I do say so myself, though aparently my new-ish crockpot is broken. Half of the meat was way undercooked. :( I have yet to master the art of cooking roast. Maybe someday.

I kind of liked having Christmas a little early this year. It gave us time to hang out and have some down time to enjoy our new presents (books! lots of books!) and have the decorations up longer. At least it felt that way.

Here are some fun pictures from our little party.

Presh!

Steven's Pirate Stocking was a perfect fit. ;)

Nick got to open up Rachel's Baby Scrapbook that I re-gifted. It was even done this time. Obviously, he was quite happy about it. :)

See! Cait is so excited to get a picture of the stocking she gets next year. Nick, well he wasn't so excited...

Erin was so excited to get a chocolate orange (a tradition in our family), but when she opened it, it was a Rock. Because she wanted a "rock" aka a diamond from Jim, her fiance. She did get one from him, and one from Santa. Except Santa's was a real rock. It was hilarious! hehehehehe!

 

One of my favorite parts is the mess afterwards! Seriously! I love all the bright, colorful paper strewn about and the smiles on everyone's faces. Except for some reason in the above picture---no one is smiling. Huh. Well, I assure you there were lots of smiles and laughter that night. :) And the great thing was that everyone loved their stockings. And Cait, Nick, and Baby Rachel are excited to get their's next year. :)

It was fun because a little later, some family friends of ours stopped by for a little visit. It was fun to hang out with Keith, his wife Dani, and Scott and laugh about all of Steven's mis-adventures as a child. (Steven and Keith have been BFF's for-ev-er.) :)

Definitely a fun night. Merry Christmas to us!

Santa Steve

Can I just say that I love my brother, Steven!?! He is so cute and sweet. :)

This is a prime example of the above.

This morning he played Santa for Lincoln First Ward's Christmas Party Breakfast (which was delicious, by the way). The last few years he's played Santa for Loomis First Ward (our family ward), which has been really cute. The first year, he knew a bunch of the kids and so he was able to "prove" that Santa was real because none of them knew it was Steven.

As an aside that year, one kid, Ethan, was convinced that Santa wasn't real but then he talked to Santa Steve and by the end as he walked away, he said so happily that only an 8 year old can be, "Santa IS real!" That warms my heart!

So this year the tradition continued, but for Lincoln where no one knew him. We have some friends in this ward (hello Fluckigers & Duffs/Hansons!). Michelle was supposed to be helping with the Christmas story portion of the program and so I went to cheer her on and hang with her kids. Michelle was called into work, but my friend Fallon stepped right in and did a fabulous job. The kids were so adorable as she read the story. :)

Then Santa came to town. The kids were enchanted by him. :) The first picture is if Einstein and Santa had a baby :) :

The ward also gave out little mangers with straw. Starting December 1st, for every good deed you do, you put a piece of straw in the manger and try to fill it up so that when baby Jesus comes on Christmas, the manger is full for him. Cute, right? I thought it was really sweet.

It was a fun party and it was especially fun because I got to hang out with my kids and the Duffs. :)