2014 - An exciting year ahead

We have a lot to look forward to for 2014 in our house.  Mainly a new baby girl to come in May, but I'm sure that Katelyn and Brooklyn will grow and change a ton during the year too.

We celebrated the new year at home.  As I mentioned last year, it has always been a family tradition for me to make breakfast on New Year's day and watch the parade.

We did this again this year with another fun new breakfast recipe.  I made Stawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast. And wow, was it good.  The recipe (and prettier pictures) can be found here.  Of course, the idea again came from Pinterest.  Here is a picture of how ours turned out.

Here are the girls watching the parade in the living room while eating breakfast.

What a goof ball.

Crafting - A new Door Sign & Headband Holder

I don't know what has gotten into me lately.  I think it is the 'nesting', that is making me want to get all organized and get things finished.

Front Door Decor:
I made this 'D' for our front door.

I bought the supplies for this item probably a year ago.  I got the idea from Pinterest, with the following picture.

It did not go as easily as I had hoped and if I ever had to do it again, I would use normal burlap, not twine.  I would work on it for an hour or two and then get sick of it and quit for a couple months.  The main issue is that the letter 'D' requires the twine to put through the hole, over and over again, rather than just wrapping it.  Also, because of the way this letter was, I had to use a lot of hot glue to get it to stay in place.  I do like how it turned out though.  It is not currently on the door as I have an Easter sign up, but I plan to use it during times when I don't have holiday/seasonal decor.

Headband Holder:
I made myself finish the project above before starting on a new project, but then I was able to quickly finish my next project which I had also purchased the items for a long time ago and just never gotten around to completing.  I made this headband holder for the girls.

It is about 2 feet long, with the middle ribbon being sewn every 2 1/2 inches per 4 inches of ribbon.  I like how it turned out and it is already completely full.  It is great to have the headbands out of the drawer where they were taking up a lot of space and making it hard to find other things.

This is the image from Pinterest that gave me the idea.

I hope this motivation to work through my project list continues.

Christmas 2013 & Visitors from MN (Part 2)

A few days before Christmas, Kyle's family flew out to join us for a week.  We had a packed house with four extra people in the house, but Katelyn sure loved having Aunt Kristina sleep in her bedroom. 

The first day they arrived was the 23rd of December, so we decided to head up to see the Christmas lights as it would really be our only chance.

Christmas Day Pics!

Opening Stockings!

Christmas tree cinnamon rolls (attempt)

Our family before church.

My Cuties.

1 year ago - I thought this comparison was too fun not to post.  Such changes in one year.  Especially with B.

With Grandpa & Grandma on Christmas morning before church.

  

We were having a big ham dinner late in the afternoon, so this was our yummy lunch of appetizers and goodies.   I LOVE me some good appetizers.

Love this photo.

And this one.

Helping Daddy open his gift.

Both of the girls got their first scooters.

She loves to smell Mommy's candles.

My Family came and joined for Christmas dinner.

 In the days after Christmas, we enjoyed hanging out in the beautiful SoCal weather.  Kyle's family enjoyed sitting on the back patio and just enjoying our weather as they had to return to below 0 temps.  Here are the girls riding their new scooters for the first time.

 We took an afternoon trip to the beach.

Katelyn in the water with Aunt Kristina - she loves the water.

Brookie & Daddy.

The entire family (except me) enjoying the water.

 

The Lord has truly blessed us with great family and great memories.  It is a lot of fun to look back on these times as I so quickly forget all of the things we have done.

 

Christmas 2013 (Part 1)

Although it was 3 months ago, I can't pass up posting our Christmas photos and activities.

As usual, we headed to Home Depot down the road to pick up a Christmas tree from their tree lot.   Since we were having out of town guests this year, we decided to get a larger tree than we have had in the past.  On a side note - Katelyn remembers everything.  She was disappointed that this year they did not have one of those wooden cutouts that she could poke her head through to take a picture of as she did last year.  At first we couldn't figure out what she was talking about, but as usual, she was telling the truth.

Playing in an empty tree bin area.

Daddy's helpers.

My goofballs by the decorated tree.  I bummed that this turned out so blurry.

Katelyn is in her 2nd year of Sunday School and they do a program each year a week or two before Christmas at the beginning of the Sunday church service.  She did great!  She knew her songs and sang them.  What a change from a year ago when she knew every word but refused to sing a word the entire program.  This was also the first time that Brooklyn sat in 'big church.'  She didn't last the whole service, but she did well for a little while.

My sweetheart.

Practicing in the morning before church (Katelyn is in the middle of this picture).

I had a cousin in town from Nicaragua, so we had our Christmas party with my mom's side of the family early in December.  This is how we celebrate Christmas in California ;-) - short sleeves and outside playing cornhole.

Brookie & her cousin Micah.

I made this for my girlies (thanks again Pinterest for the idea).  They got quite a bit of use out of it.  It did detract them from the real tree a little bit.  It is felt and then can move anything where ever they want.

We also made another trip to the public library for their 'Winter Wonderland.'  It wasn't near as good as the Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom presentation, but the girls still had fun.

Decorating ornaments with stickers.

Katelyn showing off her ornament.

Listening to the story.

Our first introduction to a parachute.  Katelyn loved it.  Brooklyn was afraid to go under it.

Decorating snow cone Christmas trees.  They also loved eating them.

Santa came for a surprise visit, which is confusing because we don't really do the whole Santa thing in our house, but that was about half of the time they had planned at the Library.  Brooklyn was unwilling to go near him.

The next post will include actual Christmas and the visitors who came to see us!

Preschool Is Back in Full Swing

As I mentioned here, I had some issues not being able to do much in the beginning of my pregnancy, then December was filled with guests visiting from out of town (I still hope to get a post or two up on the holiday season).  Then, in January, I got sick with a bad cold for about 3 weeks.  It was the first time that Kyle ever had to take a day off of work to stay home with the kids while I was sick.  At the end of not feeling well, Kyle and I took our trip to Dana Point.  It is amazing how two days away can completely re-energize you.

When we got back, I was feeling better and we kicked preschool up a notch.   I have been trying to have at least 'reading lessons' with Katelyn 3-4 days a week.  In addition, I have been trying to include Brooklyn in some unit type studies.  Now, I am not a teacher in any way.  I have always said that teaching is not my gift (and I still agree with that), so I have to say that I am pretty happy with how it has been going.  I have to say, I'm not sure if I could do it without Pinterest.  It is where I find the links to many of the worksheets that I use, as well as the craft ideas.

The week before the Olympics started, we did a unit on the Olympics.  I have been able to find some units on the internet designed for the girls' ages, so I printed off a bunch of worksheets and also headed to the library to get some related books.  I have been trying to do some educational book before we do the worksheets (like learning facts about the topic) and then after the worksheets we read a fun story book that somehow ties in.  The best book in this unit was "Tacky and the Winter Games."  It was a huge hit with the girls.  They learned a lot about the different events and medals and enjoyed watching a little of the Olympics.  This was our first unit and it was fun to see them so excited about it.
      Here are some of Brooklyn's worksheets - she is getting good at size differences and recognizing certain letters and matching, etc.

         These are some of Katelyn's worksheets:

       We had a theme verse for the week and we studied the picture pages at the beginning of each day so they would learn the names of the events.  At the end of the week they got to do the dice with the olympic activities and they thought that was a ton of fun.

The following week was Valentine's Day, so we did a unit about Valentine's.  We started out each day with a Bible verse about love as I wanted them to know the real source of love.  We also did a few crafts.  While the numbers and letters and reading come easily in workbooks and daily life, I really have to consciously think about having Katelyn learn things like gluing and cutting, so crafts have been a good break from the normal for us.  Plus the girls, of course, love crafts.


       We did a few crafts this week, including necklaces and wreaths and this was the card the girls made for Daddy (Brooklyn put on these pieces, Katelyn did the one for my grandma which I hope to show in a Valentine's Day post later).

   Here are a few of the sheets that they did this week.  It was a busy week, so not as many as the week before.  Also, the items around the edges are Bible verses about love that we talked about at the beginning of each day.

Today we finished two weeks on learning about insects.  I hope to share more about that another day.