Halloween 2012

So, we've had a lot of fun around the Todd household this Halloween.  Dylan & I dressed up as gender swapped old people.  He even rigged up some saggy boobies for his costume.

Sadie was Marceline the Vampire Queen & Claire was Princess Bubblegum, both are characters from Adventure Time.  I sewed Claire's dress & made her crown.  Dylan made Sadie's ax guitar.  I really, really, really dislike sewing costumes.  But I'm always happy with the results & for this one I learned to put in my very first zipper.  So yay me!  :)  But I'm not that awesome, cause I can see in this photo that the elastic gathering in one of her sleeves came undone.  Oh well.  It's a costume.  They were both over the moon with the end results.  That's what matters.

Finn was an ewok.  This costume was made by my sister-in-law for her little boy a few years back.  I had the hardest time getting a photo of Finn.  That boy won't hold still for anything!!

Good times.  These girls ended up with way too much candy though.  Like way too much.  We'll see how that all goes down!  :)

Merry Christmas!

Small, humble, simple, happy, sweet...perfect.

My kids always surprise me with how sweet they are...how they get excited about even the littlest things.  How they are happy with what's in front of them & there really is no comparing to what others have.

Hope your Christmas was just as heartwarming as ours.  Wishing you all the love & happiness in the world on this day & always.  :)

The Happenings

How have you been?  Super busy?  Me too.  So busy that I haven't been able to post on the blog apparently.  It feels strange to me.  Like I have a bunch of friends out there that I haven't talked to in ages & for some reason I feel the need to update you on our recent happenings... 

We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shops.  Then shot some guns & tried on coonskin hats & stuff like that.  That place is crazy.

My sisters & I took our kids over to my Grandma's house to set up her Christmas tree & decorate her house.  Grandma really looks forward to this every year & the kids think it's so much fun.

Sadie has been doing really well in school.  She received 3 awards this trimester:  A/B Honor Roll, Citizenship & Soaring Eagle.  She's come home with really cool treasures like stackable rainbow pencils & bean sprouts.

This week we were really happy to finally be hooked up with a great pediatric urologist.  Sadie has had chronic urinary tract infections for a number of years.  I was so happy to leave this new doctor's office with an actual explanation for her infections & a plan to correct it.  Learning that the issue is bladder dysfunction & not bad hygiene or reflux which doctors were previously looking at was such a relief to me.  It felt good to hear an explanation that actually made sense.  Now we know what the issue is!  Finally!  And we are working to get her better.

 Claire has been spending lots of time with her cousin, Crew.  These two are best buddies.  They are in the same preschool class & play together just about every day.  One of the fist things Claire asks in the morning is if Crew can come over.  They are sweet.

Finn is my little love bug.  He's full of smiles for me lately.  He's gaining weight & sleeping well.  He's started to grab onto toys & stuff.  Sadie can't hold him without him grabbing a fist full of her hair.  I just adore him & I'm so, so happy that we have him around.  I love my boy.

We finally joined in on the elf on the shelf craze.  The girls are so thrilled with it.  I think it's the most exciting thing in their life right now & I must admit that it makes me super happy to see them so happy.  Our elf is named Molly.  This elf has sat on my Grandma's tree for years & she was sweet enough to give it to me last year when I told her how much I loved it.  :)

I have not been full of Christmas cheer this year.  Usually I am.  The tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving & I'm all about the Christmas activities.  This year I've been dragging my feet & it all has to do with money, or the lack of it.  We've had a lot of medical bills over the last few months & then an unexpected car repair early this month left us very low on funds.  It's bummed me out quite a bit.  I wasn't even sure how we'd make it through.  But Dylan & I finished the shopping yesterday & I'm feeling a bit better.  The girls aren't getting a ton of gifts, but I know that they will be happy with what they receive.  It actually feels good to have a reason to be conservative in our spending & giving.  Really, kids don't need a lot of crap to be happy.

This time of year is so crazy.  It really is.  I'm looking forward to spending some time together as a family & really keeping it simple. 

So I hope we're all caught up now.  Glad we could get back in touch after all this time.  :)  All my love until next time...

Christmas For Your Ears

You know how my husband loves to make monthly mixes?  Well, he's been making Christmas mixes for the past few years as well.  He now has a collection of 9 volumes, all of which you can download for free right here. 

There's good stuff on there.  I'm actually listening to volume 2 right at this very moment. 

And what do you think about the Christmas mannequin covers on all these?  Awesome, right?

New Holiday Prints in the Shop

We've got some new holiday prints in the shop!  Santa, Rudolf & Frosty come in the 8.5x11 size & can be purchased for $12 a piece or you can pick up all three for $30.  I love them all, but Rudolf makes me really happy.  Which one is your favorite?

Pies With Grandma

This is such a cute tradition.  Every year before Thanksgiving, my Mom has all her grandkids over to make pies.  She makes homemade chicken noodle soup & homemade rolls for dinner.  So good!  Then the pie making begins.  The kids make mini pies...either apple or pumpkin & they are theirs to keep.  Their own little personal pies.  It's so fun to get together & I'm so glad that my mom does this.  I'm sure this will be a memory of Grandma that these kids hold dear forever. 

I must also note that my mom makes delicious pie crust.  Actually, everything she makes is delicious.  I am not a big fan of pie, but my mom's pie...now that's a different story!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!  Hope you had a wonderful day.  We have so very much to be thankful for.  Right now I am most thankful for an awesome family & that I get to be a wife & mother.  It is the hardest job, taking care of all these people, but it's the best job & I am becoming a better person because of it.

Halloween 2011

 

We survived Halloween & I hope you did too!  Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't make costumes this year & I feel totally fine about it.  Sadie chose to be Dorothy & Claire chose to be a bumble bee. 

We went to our church for a trunk-or-treat, where the kids trick-or-treat from car to car.  This year we collected empty milk jugs & made ghosts out of them to decorate our trunk.  This was a great project for the kids.  They loved it & it was super easy.  We put dollar store glow sticks (which came 2 to a package) inside the jugs.  So not only was it a really fun craft for the kids it was also super cheap!

I've been encouraging myself to eat less sugar, so now I just have to try to stay away from the candy bags.  :)

Last Year's Costumes

I was thinking back to our costumes last year.  They were the best!  This was the first year that we had a family theme & it may very well be the last. 

I had fun making these costumes.  This year I told the girls that that I wouldn't be making any costumes & that they could choose anything they wanted from the costume aisle at the store.  They didn't seem to be disappointed.  I do love handmade costumes, but I don't feel the least bit guilty about going store bought this year.  I'll show photos of this year's costumes after Halloween.  :)

Painted Flower Pots

For Mother's Day gifts for the grandmas & great-grandma, I had the girls paint small metal paint cans that we picked up at the home improvement store.  They used acrylic paints & then I sprayed them with a clear sealer.  Then we planted flowers in them.

This project went over really well with the girls.  They loved it & we ended up with some bright & cherry gifts for all the grandmas.  :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Mine was awesome because it included a nap & a new blow dryer.  I love being a mom.  :)

A Tea Party For Claire

This weekend my sweet little Claire turned 4 years old!  We celebrated with a dress up tea party with her cousins & a few friends.

Throwing birthday parties really kinda stresses me out.  So we tried to keep it easy & low key.  I purchased some real china tea cups & saucers from the thrift store.  We decorated the table with a few flowers that we purchased from the grocery store & I hung a few flag garlands from my shop.

The food was all displayed on adorable cake stands that my sister made.  We served tiny turkey or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries, cantaloupe, crackers & cheese, veggies & ranch dip, and chex mix.  Our tea was a delicious fruity punch.

The kids were all such good eaters & were so polite.  I think the fancy table setting & dishes had something to do with that.  :)

We played a few games.  The kids went on a treasure hunt in the yard & each found their own sheet of stickers.  Then we did a prize walk.  Kinda like a cake walk, but instead of winning a cake when we called out their number, they won a prize.

Finally we sang to the birthday girl & she crossed her eyes when she blew out the candles & thought it was hilarious.

I couldn't love her more.

Shamrock Hair Clips

I made some shamrock hair clips for the 14 and 15 year old girls that I work with in the Young Women program at church.  And of course I had to make some for these two cute school girls:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! 

Happy New Year!

I can not believe that it is almost 2011.  Crazy!  I've been thinking lots about resolutions, but I think I'm just too completely tired to come up with anything meaningful.  So I'm just hoping to be positive & productive in the next year.  Actually, that sounds really good!  Be positive & productive.  I'm making a sign of that & putting on my fridge.

Thanks to doctor's orders for one of us because of some recently discovered health issues, Dylan & I have been dieting for the last month.  We've limited our sugars & carbs and have been eating lots of salad & vegetables.  We've both dropped some pounds & are feeling great.  I bought a pair of jeans in a size smaller!  It hasn't been too hard & we're feeling good, but we've been really craving a few things & decided that we'd have a free day to eat all those unhealthy goodies on New Year's Eve.  Dylan chose pizza for his reward & I chose chocolate cake.  So tonight we are indulging & celebrating the last year of accomplishments.  We survived & we had fun & we hope 2011 is just as great.

Wishing you all a new year full of awesomeness!  Happy New Year!  :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas & much love from the Todds! 

I hope you're having what feels like the best Christmas ever.  We sure are.  Only downer was that I have a pretty terrible cold.  This trip out to look at lights on Christmas Eve proved to be really bad for my sore throat.  It's all about resting now for the next few days so that I can feel better.

The girls were really fun this year & despite mama feeling under the weather, I'm glad we got to spend some sweet moments together.  I wish I could bottle up all the love you feel on Christmas morning.  It's just the best!

Merry & Happy

As soon as Sadie got out of school for winter break, she started coming down with something & not soon after Claire followed. Both girls were pretty miserable for days. Two sick kids at once is not fun. Not fun. The nights were rough & one look at my crazy hair in the mirror each morning summed up how crazy our nights were. Then just as soon as they started showing signs of getting better, I started getting sick. So we have been focusing very closely on getting better before Christmas. All of us! Lots of resting, lots of sleeping, lots of watching TV & reading books. Although my ears are clogged & my eyes are foggy & I feel like I'm walking around underwater, the merriment has begun.

My side of the family got together for the kids graham cracker gingerbread house decorating party.  A new tradition we started last year.  I love traditions.  Like really love them.  It was really hard for me to let go of the family traditions of my childhood, but as our family has changed so have our traditions & I am loving it.  Who's excited for the family kick ball game this year?!!

Then we finally made it out to good ol' Bass Pro Shops to see 'the real' Santa. 

Whew!  Now Santa knows what they want for Christmas so we're covered there.  And thanks to Claritin D, mama may just be able to get through this!