It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Our tree is up and decorated and there are even a few presents wrapped.

This is Peppermint, we call him PJ our Elf who Santa has sent to watch over Ella and Ashley until Christmas!

The girls got their very own tree this year in their upstairs playroom. I remember growing up we always had a kids tree downstairs that we got to decorate however we wanted. This way my mom got her fancy upstairs tree that she could color coordinate so I wanted to start this tradition for my girls. This year we did a candy tree and I love the way it turned out. It took a few different evenings to decorate it because Ella seemed to get easily distracted but it was a lot of fun!

The finished product!

A few of my favorite ornaments on the girls tree...

This was my ornament as a little girl, my very first cabbage patch

 One of the cupcakes that made the perfect candy tree

Gingerbread man from our friends and neighbors the Ledesma's

 Ashley's First Christmas ornament (this was also mine as a baby)

The girls upstairs stockings

Ok it's official we are ready for Christmas!



What's Christmas without carolers?

We spent a very cold evening with good friends at Westlake Center last night for the annual Figgy Pudding Contest. This was my first year but I am sure we will be back, it was awesome! There were 10,000 people packed into the streets of downtown with carolers on every street corner and at the end of the night there was a sing off for the winner. Such a great event!

Manger Offering

Ella's preschool class had a manger offering yesterday. Each child brought a gift for baby Jesus (all the gifts go to those less fortunate). It was a wonderful way for these little ones to learn what Christmas is all about.

Christmas Tree Cutting

Our second annual tree cutting happened the day after Thanksgiving. We went to the same tree farm as last year but this year invited our friend Steve and his little guy Joey to help with the heavy lifting. Joey and Ella ran around looking for the perfect tree and loved watching the horses. I think we got another great tree I and am looking forward to decorating it with Ella's help this year.

Let It Snow!!!

We enjoyed the first snowfall today and went sledding at Vassault Park near our old house. When Ella first saw the snow she said, "I better get my snowboard!" Yes Dad was very proud! It was great to watch her play in the snow since the last time we got snow like this in Tacoma Ella was only six months old. Ashley loved watching her sister sled and Apollo chased after all of us. I am hoping for more snow fun tomorrow since the forecast doesn't show the temperatures warming up anytime soon!

Friends Thanksgiving

We just had our 4th annual Friends Thanksgiving! Here are all the girls minus a couple who were on vacation. This is a tradition that I hope never ends. Love these ladies!

Ella' First Hair Cut

It seems strange to most that Ella just had her FIRST haircut and she is almost two and a half but she didn't have much hair until after she was one and then I just couldn't bare the thought of cutting off those cute little curls of hers. I have had a harder time styling it lately so I finally caved and took her to Wild Child a very cute kids hair salon in the north end of Tacoma. Her are some pictures of her first haircut experience.

Before

I will miss these cute curls 

 After

 We celebrated with cupcakes!

She's Crafty!

My friend Jodi told me about this wreath and I loved it so much I just had to make one for myself! What do you think?

Can you tell that I made it out of coffee filters?