Cookie Decorating!

The weekend before Christmas we headed out to Yerington for our annual baking weekend. Heather and Shaawn took my dad and grandpa to the 49ers game, so I took all the kids out. Aunt Pam also came out to help, which was a huge help and a lot of fun. I have so many awesome memories of baking with Aunt Pam as a child, so it was fun to see my own children creating similar memories.












































 
It was a fun, wonderful weekend filled with Christmas spirit!

Trimming the Tree

The kids were crazy excited to decorate the tree.  We put the tree up a little later than we usually do because I knew Finn was at the age where he wouldn't be able to leave the ornaments alone. After I watched the kids put the ornaments on the tree, I decided we would just put the kid ornaments on and the unbreakable stuff because I was terrified my precious ornaments would get destroyed. I was sad not to put them on, but after seeing how many ornaments had to be treated for emergency ornament repair, I was happy with my decision. ;)  It was fun to watch the kids reminisce while placing each ornament on the tree.

Christmas Best

Before going to see Santa...

Christmas Quilts

Last year my sister made beautiful Christmas quilts for her kids. I'd been wanting to learn to actually quilt and of course, love Christmas. So I decided to do the same. I started in January last year with Liam's quilt.  He chose a Christmas train fabric and I chose a relatively simple pattern.  I had some hiccups and made some mistakes, but overall was super pleased.  Finn's quilt was made from a Christmas gnome set of fabric that I came across and fell in love with!  I had seen the circle idea on pinterest and decided to stretch my new skills and try it. It was so so much fun to make!  Addy's quilt was from fabric she chose as well but the fabric also happened to be from a fabric scrapbooking paper line. I loved the idea of pinwheels because they seem a little more feminine.  After I had finished the kids' quilts, I decided I needed to make one for my hubby. He was suprisingly opinionated about his fabric choices.  He wanted a grinch quilt and to have it have a darker look.. I decided on the pattern. I also made their Christmas ornaments out of the fabric from their quilts this year.

I let everyone open their special quilts the day after Thanksgiving so they could enjoy them over the Christmas season. They each LOVED their special quilts which totally made my year. I loved doing something that they can have forever and hopefully they will have lots of good, snuggly Christmas memories in the years to come with their special, mama made quilts.

A Super Shower for a Super Mom!

My friend Suzanne was pregnant with her second set of twin boys.  Natalie and I decided she deserved a super mom shower. We had a great turnout and she got lots of much needed diapers.  We had so much fun with this theme and had a blast doing the whole shower.
(the blankets Natalie and I made for the boys. They turned out so cute and I see them being used all the time. Makes me happy)