Slice of Life – December 4th, 2016

Hello hello hello! I hope you’re having a nice weekend! Like many of you, our December calendar has filled up fast with various holiday happenings, so I’m really looking forward to a fun (albeit quite busy) month for the fam.

My mom inspired me to get all of my Christmas shopping done by December 1st, and though I still have a mound of gifts to wrap, my shopping is 100% done (I can’t believe I just typed that.) I’ve never (ever ever) completed my shopping this early, but you better believe I’m going to try to shop early every year from here on out. I feel like I’m going to enjoy this month so much more not running around and stressing over finding and shipping gifts during “crunch time” (which is exactly what I do every single year).

PS: I’m up to over $20 in cash back from GivingAssistant.com after making seven online purchases. Check out my post here to learn how you can make cash back this month while online shopping, or go straight to the website here.

It’s been a hot minute since I did a “Slice of Life” post, so I’m excited today to share a few shots of what we’ve been filling our time with the last three weeks or so.

I brought one of Shay’s bundt cakes to our MOPS meeting recently, and it was a hit! I got a wild hair while baking and added some pink food coloring to the homemade glaze and then threw on a few fun sprinkles from World Market. I love bundt cakes!

A couple of days before Hadley’s 3rd birthday, Jamie took her out for their second annual father/daughter birthday date to Applebee’s. Jamie likes taking her somewhere casual that they sing, but those places seem to be few and far between these days. I asked him what they did the whole time, and he said they played “I spy” for a solid 30 minutes. Ha! He’s a good daddy. 🙂

I surprised Hadley on her birthday with her most favorite breakfast treat – a pink doughnut from Varsity. I grabbed this birthday plate from the clearance section of Marshall’s six years ago envisioning it as fun tradition for our future family, and it’s shaped up to be just that. We each eat our at-home meals off of it on our birthdays. 🙂

When packing for our nine-day trip to Alabama, I laid out all of my outfits on the floor and took a picture. Each morning in Alabama I looked at the picture on my phone and picked out which outfit I wanted to dig out from my suitcase and wear. I’ll be doing this for every trip from here on out. It saved so much space in my suitcase and made picking an outfit each day really simple.

Did you read about our crazy day on November 17th? Hadley’s birthday, babysitter changes, a battalion ball…. It was a wild day. 🙂

We ventured home to Alabama for the week of Thanksgiving and packed our trip with a ton of fun. You can read about our trip here: Part One | Two | Three

This isn’t the most attractive picture, but I wanted to share a neat dinner that my dad threw together for us. He purchased this cooking stone during one of his business trips to Europe (I think Belgium) years and years ago, and he dug it out during our trip home. We each seasoned and cooked our own chicken and steak on it, and it was delicious. I remember doing this as a kid when he first brought it home and really enjoying it. Jamie and I definitely want to purchase one eventually to do this with the girls when they’re a little older (and likely appreciate it a bit more).

I simply love this that my aunt gifted my girls for an early Christmas gift. I eventually want to get one that’s ceramic and a little more mature looking, but this one is absolutely perfect for the age my girls are right now. Hadley plays with it during the day and we set it back up at night. It also plays Away in a Manger. Highly recommend if you have littles!

This girl. She loves dance class almost as much as she loves horses (and she really loves horses!) Last week she begged to wear this tutu (a gift from my super sweet friend at Fort Campbell Maureen Bannon when Hadley was born!), and I just couldn’t stop laughing watching her prance around in it before, during, and after class. She has personality spilling out everywhere and I love it!

Last week my friend Meg and I went for a walk/run with our babes while our big kids were at school, and when we were packing up I recalled a picture like this of our older kids when these little girls were just figments of our imagination.

 

Sadie has been going through a rooooouuuugh patch when it comes to sleep. Whew buddy. For a solid six straight weeks she has refused to nap. Hadley never protested naps, so this has been a whole new playing field for me as a mom. Last week I was so desperate for some quiet time that after noticing her asleep in her car seat after dropping Hadley off at school, I decided that we were both going to sit in the car. I kept the garage door up, cranked up the heat, grabbed my laptop, and knocked out an hour of online work while Sadie snoozed.

Something I really adore about the Army community: when our soldiers are away overnight or simply just working crazy long hours, we battle through it together, have dinner on a Thursday night, and decorate a load of Christmas cookies. Such a great way to pass those dreaded evening hours when we’re doing the parenting thing solo.

Preach, Nelson Mandela. I’d had this piece of decor in my Nordstrom wish list for over six months and have been waiting for the price to drop. Once I saw it slashed in half, I jumped on it.

Jamie’s been required to work super nutty hours lately, so while I was bummed at first that he couldn’t come to the town’s Christmas parade with us, my girls and I still had an absolute blast with wonderful friends. Again… I really adore my Army fam.

We needed to buy a new Christmas tree this year, and though we always usually have an artificial tree, we decided to give a real tree a shot. We picked it out on Saturday and were both pleasantly surprised by how little fuss was involved. I’m loving how our living room smells and hoping that fresh smell lingers a bit longer.

Hadley could not wait to put on the tree topper that she’d helped me pick out earlier that week. Who knew having a three year old around would make Christmas so much fun?

My favorite Christmas decor: pictures of Hadley visiting Santa when she was one and two. Epic.

More grainy shots of our Christmas decor. 🙂 Makes me happy!

What are you most looking forward to this month? Any special family outings or traditions? I’d love to hear! Hope you have a great rest of your Sunday. 🙂

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