Christmas Night

Here are a few pictures from Christmas night. Mike's family came over and we opened gifts then had spaghetti and meatballs/sausage. Mmmmm...that sounds good - I guess I should go eat some lunch already. It was the first time that I've been able to get a picture of all of the Hurlbut grandkids. They are Raymond's boys (Raymond is Mike's brother) and then our girls. Grant is 7 - Kendall is his shadow when he is here and he adores her as well. And the baby is Alex who just turned one this past January. We have a full range of ages and they all had such a great time!

It was also a great celebration because it was Alex's first Christmas. He was born in January at only 24 weeks. He had quite the struggle but God brought him through and gave us this perfectly healthy sweet little boy.

Becca, Mike's sister made the largest array of cookies I've ever seen. Enough to feed an army! We thoroughly enjoyed picking through them and eating way too much.

The kiddos
Baby Alex - he was all smiles and so happy the whole night (until he had to leave) Avery tired of me and my new flash

Avery and her giant stuffed bear who Baby Alex tried to steal away from her. Poor Alex - getting all the blame b/c he can't talk.

Avery and Aunt Becca (Mike's sister)

It's March - Who's ready to see some Christmas Pictures?!?!?!

It's a nice day outside...we just got a big wooden play system from our neighbors so I'm blogging in the backyard!!!! This counts as "quality time" with my kids right?! I'll post pictures of our play system soon. I love it! And more importantly so do they. Now let's just pray that we are able to keep the wasps away.

So where was I...ah yes, Christmas. Here are a few pictures. What else is there to say? It's was Christmas! Just the 4 of us in the morning and then Mike's family came over that evening. The first is from Christmas Eve (before my external camera bounce flash!!) That was the big present that I really wanted that Mike let me open early. I just helps take better pictures indoors without the hard built in direct flash.

Aaaaaaaaanyway... Kendall really wanted a dollhouse from Santa. I thought that request came out of nowhere until I realized that the little girl Gigi from the movie THAT HER GRANDMA TORI GAVE HER gets a dollhouse. I already told Grandma Tori thanks a lot for all of the stress this caused as I searched for a dollhouse that wasn't going to cost me $200.

I mean, I really had no idea if Kendall would even play with it. I didn't want to order a $200 dollhouse with $75 shipping if she was only going to play with it for 5 minutes. But as time would tell she actually loves it. Of course I spent hours (hours!) searching for not only the dollhouse but for dolls too. They have about a gazillion different options and sizes. I mean you don't want dwarf size dolls in a dollhouse right? And don't even get me started on the creepiness of 99% of these dolls. Seriously. Creepy.

I would also like to give a shout-out to EzBuyFurniture. I was able to find the dollhouse through a Google Search that led me to their store. I ordered it, was charged and then found out that it was backordered until MARCH. I was NOT HAPPY. It had already taken me 14 hours of Google and price matching to find this one!

I called, canceled the order, they apologized and said it was a manufacturer problem (KidKraft). Long story short, I ran to Target (45 minutes away at 8 pm b/c that was the only store that had one in stock) bought one there. Got home, and had a personal phone message from the guy at EZ Buy saying that he had called KidKraft and they guaranteed him one ASAP and he would ship it to me FedEx Next Day Air and to please call him back. So I hemmed and hawed a little more and then called the next day to tell him to please send it on. HE ALREADY HAD! It had to have cost a LOT to do next day shipping for this thing. Anyway, I really appreciated this guy working so hard. I didn't have a chance to call him back until January, but I did and just said "hey, I wanted to thank you so much for what you did. It meant a lot to me and even more to my daughter." I think that when people go above and beyond like this guy did the least he deserves is a phone call of thanks. He was stunned that I'd called and said I'd made his day! I told him that I'd recommend him to everyone and use him in the future. So here - go to EZ Buy Furniture and order something!!!!

Back to Christmas...sweet little Avery is easy to please and doesn't really have an opinion so we just got her a scooter and called it a day. I mean that was her "big gift" - they both got a few other things...

I do realize that it's my own fault that I run around like a chicken with my head cut off around Christmas. I try to do as much during the year to prep as I can, but it's just not possible! But I also try to take a step back and remember what the season is all about - a Savior who was born. We had a great very fun day.

Knock off Eagan Mirror

Since the day we moved into our house I have hated the window over our mantle but it would need a VERY large something to cover it up and I knew that was going to be $$$$. Around Thanksgiving I'd resigned myself to just cover a large board with fabric and nail head trim and then maybe change out wreaths or look for a smaller mirror. Then one night I was wasting time reading my blogs and BOOM - THERE SHE WAS.

Just before Christmas I saw that Kevin and Layla @ The Lettered Cottage made a replica of the Eagan Mirror from Pottery Barn. I was beside myself with excitement. I have loved that mirror for so long and never thought about trying to make it. Here is the retail mirror from PB...

They didn't have the tutorial up at that point, just a picture and that was a good thing because the last thing I had was time to put one together seeing as I had Kendall's birthday, Christmas and all that entails, my birthday, trip to Dallas, and Avery's birthday.

So once the holidays were over they got the tutorial up of how they put it together and I was pumped. I started planning and gathering supplies. The most expensive purchase was the mirrors. I was able to find them at Wal-mart for $3 each but I had to go to three stores to get them all. I'll write a longer post with more pictures later with all of my steps and some pictures (and what to watch out for!!!!) but if you want to see the best tutorial go to the source here - PB Eagan Mirror (Knock-off) Tutorial.

So without further ado...here she is! (This is photographed before Valentines day - we do not always have the heart decor!) And while you are here....please let me know what else I should add to my mantle now. It seems just the littlest bit bare still.

The best part - the large Eagan mirror retails for $699 (+$200 shipping) YIKES - I made mine for $150!!!!!!!! (...and some change). It was a lot of work but completely worth it.

Blogging by phone

Sweet! I just added a blogging app to my phone so now maybe I'll have time to at least draft some new posts when I'm out waiting on something. We'll see how it goes!

Kendall's Birth Day

Kendall is five! Each birthday morning I try to go in and snap a picture.
Kendall really wanted a Barbie birthday cake but it has been years since I made one so we made one *together* the day of her birthday, I frosted and I let her decorate it to her hearts content! No one but family was going to see it so it was no pressure for me. And honestly...it ended up being THE BEST tasting cake I ever made!

Kendall turns 5! The Party

To say that the holidays are a stressful time for me is understatement. In addition to the regular craz of Thanksgiving, present buying, school parties, Christmas, visiting family, Christmas parties, baking *need I go on?* I also have Kendall's birthday as well as Avery's right after New Years and then my birthday sandwiched in there as well - but that's not really important...not anymore! But the hubby still tries to make me feel special which I love about him.

So where was I!? Ah! The birthday party. I get overwhelmed by the people I see on blogs (which I read too much) that have these huge extravagant parties for their 1 and 2 years olds. These parties take more time, effort, planning, baking and decorating than my wedding. I'm a part-time working woman/full-time mom so the realistic woman in me says "forget what everyone else is doing and just get 'er dun and have a happy kid."

So I did! I'd love to have endless hours to transform my entire house or backyard into a fairytale land but I don't so I opt for Plan B and take it elsewhere and I'm happy about it. Kendall wanted a Barbie/Tinkerbell/Princess/all-of-the-above party so I found some cute princess printables that she agreed on and went to work.

We also decided NOT to have it at the house (again - trying to stay away from stress and I'd rather come home to a clean house) so we went to the local inflatable bouncy place so she could jump to her heart's content with all of her best friends. It was a great 2 hour extravaganza that I still spent WAY too much time preparing for. However, part of the preparation was also for Avery's birthday too since cake freezes well. Thank goodness.

Here are a few pictures of the party! (if you click on the picture below it should open up into a big picture so you can see the details) Mike had a great time with all of the kids. Kendall didn't like these sort of jump parties until she was 4 - but Avery - our child with no reservations - LOVES THEM!

Kendall turned very shy when everyone started singing to her! The cotton candy party favor had the kids in hysterics...who knew it'd be so popular?!

Look who's bringin' back the bouffant!