Home Improvements

I had been wanting to get rid of our carpet for awhile now, so I finally convinced Matt to go look at hardwood over spring break and we picked some out.  The last week of school, we had it installed and I love it!  It makes everything look better.  It definitely shows dirt (which I'm sure was always there but I couldn't see it) so I have to sweep more.  It's also not quite done.  The caulk needs put on and nail holes puttied.  Also, there are a few pieces of trim to be reattached and where the wood and carpet meet isn't done yet.

nice photobomb, Emmy :)

 Also on the list of Matt didn't want to, but I can be quite convincing...was an above ground pool.  I saw a sale on them over Memorial Day and thought it'd be great for the kids (pool, hardwood floors, and puppy were all on my list 😁).  So the work began.  I had NO idea we'd have to do so much to get the pool ready.  We got 9 tons of sand to even out the ground, then had to build a brick wall to hold the sand in place.

 After putting together the pool and filling it, this is what it looked like:

 Yucky brown!!  I did a lot of searching online and YouTube to see what to do.  We also went to a pool store several times to have the water tested.  After 2 weeks, we couldn't wait any longer and we jumped in.  The water was still a little green, but the kids didn't mind!

We got a sand filter instead of the cruddy one it came with and the pool is looking good!  I was just excited once we could finally see the bottom!🏊  I can't wait to make some awesome memories in the pool.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

The kids LOVE decorating gingerbread houses.  I think they really just love eating the extra candy! :) 

 Santa sent a note with Tricky, our elf, to let the kids know that the one day of the whole year they could touch their elf was Christmas Eve.  They enjoyed every minute of that day and I think Emerson got up earlier on Christmas Eve than she did Christmas Day!  She even got a little teary eyed when we had to say goodbye to Tricky for the year.  He has become a fun part of our Christmas tradition!

Cookies and milk for Santa.
Emerson made something in Kindergarten and was told to give it to someone special, so Tricky got an ornament with her hand print on it!

 When we went to Bass Pro Shops, Emerson asked Santa for an American Girl Doll, which we thought was strange since she hadn't said much about wanting one lately.  Come to find out, she had "accidentally" made a hole in her present and saw the doll's face before Christmas morning.  Sneaky girl! :)  She loves her doll, which is the Target version, and takes her everywhere!

 Landon got a Wubble Bubble ball from Santa.  You can blow it up to be 3 ft.  We got him a 2 wheel scooter, which he got to ride because it's been pretty warm this week.

 Emerson got a matching girl/doll outfit and the "Frozen" soundtrack from Santa.

 We went over to the Hahn's for Christmas dinner.  We opened gifts and had yummy beef stroganoff.  Then we got to go back on Saturday for Christmas brunch.  The kiddos went in their Christmas pjs.

Family time is the best!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tricky the Elf and Gingerbread Houses

Tricky, our Elf on the Shelf, came to visit right after Thanksgiving this year.  He has gotten into some trouble and been hiding in some interesting places so far.  Landon and Emerson both enjoy looking for him and giving him messages to take back to Santa each night.

One night, he shaved part of Daddy's hair!

 This weekend, we worked on a gingerbread house together.  The kids really enjoy eating the candy and decorating the house.  Landon has a cold/cough so he didn't help as much.

Pretty cute!
Love Landon's "smile" in this one!

Mother's Day and Craft Projects

I am blessed to be the mother of 2 amazing little ones.  It is so awesome to see my kiddos grow and learn each day.  I've never had a more challenging or rewarding job.  It is so fun to see all of the things they create and I can see why my mom saved basically everything I ever made for her! :)

We are doubly blessed to have both of our moms close by to celebrate special holidays and birthdays too.  Our moms have both been incredible inspirations and we're so lucky to have them watch our children while we're at work.  I don't know what we'd do without them!

Our project for Mother's Day this year was a glass container with the kiddos handprints on them.  We used the paint (see below) and worked on each side of the container.  Then after everything was dry, I spray painted a coat of clear paint on top.

Since I had the paint anyway, I painted some decorative bottles too.  I saw the idea on pinterest (LOVE!).  You put the paint inside the glass jar, then shake it up to cover all of the sides.  It's supposed to last longer and not chip since it's on the inside.  The one mistake I made was to put the cork in right after the jars were covered.  The next day, the paint had run down to the bottom.  But I took the corks out and let the paint dry and now I hope they're finished!

I hope everyone was able to let their moms know how much they are appreciated!  I know we LOVE ours!!

Linus Blankets

The Frye family has been doing some wonderful service projects the last few months and for January, we were invited to help.  Jess had the idea to make blankets for Project Linus .  It's a really neat program that gives blankets to kids in need.  The kids were really excited to help other boys and girls without blankets and although they were too little to cut through 2 layers of fleece or tie knots, they had fun trying to help!

Landon loved checking out the numbers on the yardstick.

Em had fun making blankets for her Barbies out of the leftover fleece.

Birthday Celebrations

We had the pleasure of celebrating 2 wonderful people this last week (and my mother-in-law today! :)). Matt turned 35 this year and we celebrated by going to Hacienda and ordering dinner and a mudslide. Yum! Then we came back to the house to open presents. Emmy is starting to become more aware of others and asked Daddy if he wanted some "dar woars dies" (Star Wars guys) for his birthday. She ended up picking him out some and I think she plays with them more than her Daddy, but it was a nice thought! :) 

Playing in the box with Daddy's birthday present from the Clark's!

For Jess's birthday, she had the awesome idea of going to a Wine and Canvas event at Papa Vino's.  We each got a canvas, paint, and an art lesson to create a "masterpiece"!  I think they turned out pretty good (although it does kinda bother me that my vase is not symmetrical!!).  We had a lot of fun and even tried out some peach bellini's!  Thanks for the fun girls night out!  I'd definitely do it again sometime!!

Thanks to Jessica bringing her camera, we got some great pictures of our work!

Happy birthday to 2 of my greatest friends!  We all love you both!

Winter Wreath

I'm ba-a-ack....after being down and out with the flu for a good week (well actually a pretty awful week), I finally feel almost back to normal.

Before I got sick, we had a lovely Thanksgiving.  It was our year to be at my side for Thanksgiving, so we spent the day at mom and dad's.  We had a nice day.  The little ones are pretty much able to play by themselves, so it's nice to be able to catch up with the adults and play a rousing game of "Logo" and "Trivial Pursuit."

I also worked on a project that Cathy and I saw when we visited House of Holly this year and thankfully I finished the morning before my first night of sickness!

I kind of combined two ideas and I think it turned out pretty cute.  The wreath I saw at House of Holly (not quite so over the top as this one:  tulle christmas wreath).  I originally wanted to do a red, green, and white one but I couldn't find those colors at Michael's, so I went with a winter theme instead of Christmas. The letter could use some more twine, but an H is a hard letter to wrap! twine letter  I think the secret is to really USE that glue gun to get the twine to stay.

Pre-Christmas Fun!

We had a blast this year with the kids at Christmas!  For the first time, they really started to understand Christmas.  Landon enjoyed counting down the days until Christmas and Emmy changed our Advent calendar each day.  We planned some fun activities for the kids before the big day.

We watched "The Grinch" and had popcorn one evening.

We went to the Davis' house for our annual Friend Christmas

Both kids enjoyed decorating cookies for Santa.

All of the kids (except Kenna :)) did a great job with the frosting and the cookies had an abundance of sprinkles!

The finished product...I'm sure Santa enjoyed the cookies!

The kids had a great time painting their fingerprint snowman. 
Gotta love pinterest! (http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/12/hand-print-snowman-ornaments.html)