Look who arrived at our house this morning, Twinkle, our very own Elf on a Shelf. We discovered him this morning and Laney promptly named him Twinkle. He’s one of Santa’s scout elves who report back telling Santa if little boys and girls were naughty or nice and what they want for Christmas.
Delaney’s completely enthralled (so am I for that matter) and we are both looking forward to finding him each morning in a different spot!
Yay for a new Christmas tradition!
This year we spent Thanksgiving at Trina’s. We ate ourselves silly, played dominos, the kids rode the ponies and played. Good times!
Then Saturday was the Apple Cup, and we had a few friends over to BBQ and watch the game. Our Cougs lost this year but we did have a good time cheering them on!
Ryan got his Christmas present early this year, a new BBQ so he cooked us a feast!
Then Sunday my mom watched the kids so that Ryan and I could go Christmas shopping, and spend some kid free time together. We ate a wonderful lunch at Texas Roadhouse and finished up shopping in time to decorate for Christmas and put up our tree. Decorating the tree is my absolute favorite (ok, so is putting up my little nativity, I get two favorites!). This year Laney helped me the entire time and wanted to know the story behind each ornament we hung, which I was happy to tell!
Colton' didn’t really help, but he didn’t break anything either!
Now, most of the work is done, and I can spend the next month enjoying the season with my family!
I’ve been on a crafting bender the last few days and here are a few of the results- some I’m saving for Christmas gifts (I like to get started early!)
Here is a sugar scrub that Jessica posted on her blog. It is a Pumpkin Spice sugar rub, that takes about 4 ingredients and 10 minutes to make. I use it on my dry winter hands and it feels so nice, and smells better! I mixed up a batch to send down to the girls in Ryan’s office and for Laney’s preschool teachers. I think I’ll mix up another batch closer to Christmas to give out to some friends and neighbors and a cheap and easy gift.
Next I made a few Mommy and me aprons- I found this fabric and knew it had to come home with me! Laney LOVES to cook and LOVES to have matching anything so it was a match made in heaven.
For the Mommy apron I used a combination of patterns from this book. And for the little girls apron I used this tutorial, I am completely in love! This is definitely going to be my new go to girlie gift this year!
Here’s a closer look at the fabric flower on both the aprons, I’ve never made these because they looked like a complete pain, but it was actually really easy.
Hopefully I’ll have time in the next month (ha ha) to make a few more of these, I’m so happy with the finished product!
Let the Christmas crafting begin!
This last weekend we trekked up to Pullman for Dad’s weekend with Sheena and Stu (Ryan’s aunt and uncle). Their daughter,Kira, is a freshmen there and Ryan had purchased an RV weekend at a WSU auction earlier in the year. So they brought their RV and we got to spend the weekend tailgating! The Cougs actually won, but it was FREEZING and snowing the entire day Saturday.
Here are some pictures-
The Woods family on their first Dad’s weekend!
Ryan and Colton, pondering. And the boys being “silly” trying to stay dry.
Trying to catch snowflakes. (Laney stayed with Aunt Franny so she wasn’t there)
My favorite part of the entire weekend was seeing my friend Libby. I just LOVE her, and she is having her first little boy in February! We got to chat, and even braved the snow for a little Ferdinand's ice cream. Just like the old days!
Part of the packaged Ryan bought included sideline passes. It was the first time I’ve actually been on the field, and it was pretty cool! I FINALLY got my picture taken with Butch. Laney now thinks I’m famous because I got to meet Butch and his “dad”
GO COUGS!
Yesterday, my two friends Dante and Kasia came over and we made applesauce. It was a ton of work and we still have more to do, but it was so fun to work and chat that it went by quickly!
Grandpa Rill brought some apples by for us, so we did two whole boxes yesterday, which turned out to be 36 quarts! Good thing we like applesauce!
Laney really got into it, and helped turn the crank for awhile!
These two lovely ladies were keeping me away from the sharp objects!
… and after about 5 hours we had turned a bunch of these…
…into a bunch of these…
Just call me Martha!
On our way home from Preschool we walk right by a lot that is full of dandelions, and each day Delaney runs and picks three for she, Colton and I to make a wish on. She wishes for the same thing every day. EVERY DAY.
“I wish for a kitten for my house”
EVERY DAY
She has wanted a kitten this for a solid year. (I am deathly allergic) We thought the guinea pig would be an acceptable substitute. But I guess not. She’s even told me that I could live in another house, so that she and dad could have a kitten. (When I asked her who would take care of her and brother she replied, “we’ll order pizza, Mom”)
Guess I’m easily replaced! Better find her a cute stuffed kitty for Christmas I guess!
Lately it seems all my jeans don’t fit, or drag on the ground and its been making m crazy so I’ve been on a little bit of a binge trying to “tailor” them. The first thing I tried was this tutorial to hem the jeans using the original hem. It worked like a charm, I hemmed a couple pairs of jeans this way, each to go with a different height of heel (or in my case, flats). On the one pair I had to serge the excess off (my mom did the serging actually) but I no longer have to roll them up or drag on the ground!
The second fix I’ve done is from this tutorial. I had some pants that gaped in the waist band, and one pair that were cheap, but a little too big. Instead of trying to make a dart in the waist band, this tutorial suggested to just run elastic through the whole waist band so it didn’t have an odd pucker. I LOVED the results! No more saggy jeans (They look weird on the hanger, but once they’re on no one will notice the difference.) Big fan of this one! 
And the last of my projects was a little tote bag for Delaney’s preschool teacher who had to resign for health reasons. We really loved Miss Gale so I wanted to make her something personal, but didn’t have much time to do it. Jessica suggested this tutorial from Noodlehead. I wen together quickly and was a really nice size. I added a personal appliqué, then filled it with candy, and handmade apple dishtowel and a gift card to Barnes and Noble.
Done!
(I used this process for the towel and the name appliqué.)
On our second day in California we headed to San Francisco for the WSU game against Cal. We meet some friends, the Erickson’s, then headed off to eat and go to the game.
we stayed in the San Francisco Fairmont, which was beautiful!
Dressed in our Coug gear, of course!
After lunch, we loaded up, fancy style, into a limo.
The view from our seats at the game was incredible!
Colton made a new best friend and spend most of the first half snuggled up to Scott.
At some point it all became too much for my little man and he took a nap! Unfotunately it really started to rain, and as a coug I can take losing but losing in the rain is a little much for me!
So we packed our bedraggled selves back to the hotel for dinner.
Dinner was arranged by our personal concierge for the weekend, Uncle Drew. It was at the Tonga Room in the Fairmont. It was a Hawaiian themed restaurant complete with a live band (that played on a moving boat in the middle of the pool, in the middle of the restaurant). It even rained and there was thunder and lightening.
We ate tons of good food, had drinks and did a lot of busting a move on the dance floor. I was in heaven, so were my kids! I’m sure they now think that every place we eat will need music and dancing!
The so-to-be wed couple dancing!
Laney dancing with Uncle Drew
Logan, Andrew and I enjoying some refreshments
Then it was time for bed and Sunday morning we had a surprisingly peaceful, easy trip home.
We had the most AMAZING time! I’m already begging my husband to go back without the kids- I LOVED it!
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