Christmas 2014 in West Virginia

We had such a great Christmas week in West Virginia this year. It was so nice to spend time with my grandparents. Instead of posting a ton of pictures, I decided to make a slideshow. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy! 

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Rowen's First movie.

Last month Rowen went to his very first movie in the theaters. My sister in law was taking her two boys and thought it would be fun for Rowen to come along too! I wasn't sure how Rowen would do. He loved it and sat through the whole thing! I was really impressed that it kept his full attention for the entire time. 

Big Hero 6 was his first movie! It was really good. He still talks about Hiro and Baymax. We of course got popcorn for him to snack on...this kid LOVES popcorn. It was a fun afternoon and was a great first movie experience! 

What our elf, Pringle, has been up to lately!

We are having fun with our little buddy Pringle! This is our first year having an elf. I'm probably having a bit more fun than Rowen :) He sits on our mantle during the day, goes home to the North Pole at night and returns with something every morning...or we find him doing something( usually silly )each morning. Every now and then we will tell Rowen that the elf is watching him to make sure he is being a good little boy but the more I think about that, the more it seems pretty creepy so we have kind of left that idea alone. We also don't tell Rowen that the elf tells Santa every night if he has been good or bad...that might come into play in future years. The excitement Rowen has in the mornings when looking for the elf is fun to watch and when he discovers what Pringle is up to is even more fun to see! So here is what he has been doing lately:

Hot Air Balloon 

Pringle made Rowen some elf size toast...while drinking his Starbucks!

He took Rowen's pups for a walk one morning

Pringle built some snowmen

And this one made me laugh!! I had fun making this...Rock Climbing!!

I have a few more ideas for the last week before Christmas! I'm actually going to miss being crafty for our little elf! He's been a lot of fun!

2 DIY snowmen games for kids!

With it being freezing cold outside right now, I have had to get a little creative with things to do inside. We had a huge cardboard Pottery Barn Kids box in our garage for a week or so and it was perfect for "Snowball Toss"! 

I taped some cardstock together and cut one large circle and one smaller circle out( the head and the body of the snowman ). I traced the inner circles on the cardboard and cut those out then taped the head and body on the cardboard. I chose to add some eyes, a nose, a hat, etc... I grabbed a bow,l through some marshmallows in it and the toss began! 

The other game was a bit easier to make! Snowman Bowling!

What you need:

6-8 styrofoam cups( I bought the large ones )

A black marker and an orange marker

I turned the cups upside down and drew a face and a nose on each cup...and wah-lah snowmen bowling pins. For the ball, I scrunched up some thick tissue paper and wrapped a silver piece on the outside and taped it down. These 2 games sure were a hit with Rowen! 

Meet Pringle {and some Easley Christmas decor!}

We got an elf yesterday and I don't know who was more excited...Rowen or me! Before we set out to Target, I told Rowen a little bit about the elf( where he came from((Santa's house)), what he was going to do at our house, that he was going to live with us till Christmas, etc...). He was pumped and the very first thing he said when we walked into Target was "where's our elf?!"! haha. We got back to the elf section and picked one out and I told him that this was the one that was sent to live with us! I already knew that the elf stories were going to be silly but through a 3 year old's eyes, these stories are cool and very real. I certainly don't want our elf to take over Christmas( & he's not going to )but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with him. 

Meet Rowen's elf:

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On a different note, we have had the same Christmas decorations for about 4 or so years now and I wanted a change this year. A new look. So I decided to decorate our house with lots of plaid, burlap, and red things!! I want a classic look and with the things that I have found so far, I think that's what our house will be. We are not putting up any Christmas things yet b/c Isla's first birthday party is on Saturday morning and I didn't want Christmas decorations outshining her birthday decor! So we will be buying a tree and decking our house with fabulous things Saturday night/Sunday! Here are a few new things that will be going up in our house!

I just love the month of December!! 

DIY String Light Holiday Star!

So I was cruising around Pinterest a few days ago and saw a DIY holiday star that looked insanely simple to make! I decided this afternoon when Brent needed to run to the hardware store that today was the day to make it! 

This is the picture from Pinterest that was my inspiration...

I'm sure you have seen these types of stars in the stores right now. The ones I have seen are $30-$40...maybe even a touch more than that! Well, you can make one for about $5!!! 

Here's what you need:

5 yard sticks( you can get these at any hardware store & they are cheap )

hot glue

spray paint

string lights

1. I started by laying my yard sticks out to form a star

2. When you get your sticks just how you like them, glue each one together with your hot glue. Use a good amount of glue on each end and make sure to put some glue on the middle intersections as well!

3. After the hot glue dries( which literally takes seconds ), spray paint your star. Use whatever color you have laying around.  I used gold. The spray paint will cover up all the writing that's on all of your sticks.

4. Last thing you have to do is start wrapping your string lights until every inch of your star is covered. I ended up using 3 strands. 

And now you have a holiday string light star for about $5( not including the lights )!!

Ours will be going outside next weekend when we decorate for Christmas!!

Halloween 2014

Halloween this year was so much fun!

 The weather was beautiful and it was just a perfect day for trick or treating. We started the day off right...jack o lantern donuts of course! 

He was so excited to have this! 

   We spent the day at home playing games, decorating the outside of our house, and watching a Halloween movie or 2( Curious George and Toy Story both had Halloween movies ). I had to fix Rowen a little Halloween lunch! So I decided to give his cup of oranges a jack o lantern face and we had mini bagel dogs in the freezer so I made those "mummy dogs". 

We kind of flubbed on carving pumpkins...nothing like waiting to the last minute! I started carving our pumpkins around 3:30pm. Hey, they got done! Next year I am going to carry on a tradition that my dad and I had when I was growing up. On the night before Halloween, my dad and I would always spread newspaper out on our kitchen floor and carve a few pumpkins together. It was a lot of fun and a great memory that I will always have. Love traditions!  

My parents came over that evening and rode around with us while we took Rowen Trick or Treating around the neighborhood. We drove around to a few different streets and he had fun saying "trick or treat" and of course getting candy.

We had a dragon and a little ladybug this year! 

We ended the night by watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". It was a fun day and I'm looking forward to many more Halloweens with these cuties!!

Cheekwood Harvest

We love Cheekwood( for non Nashville folks: it's our botanical gardens )and I'm so glad that we got a membership a few years ago! We visited a few times during their Harvest back in October. There were 100's of pumpkins, scarecrows in one of the gardens, games, etc...Rowen loved the scarecrows so we had to go see them a couple times while they were there. 

He loved Olaf the best!

We bought a couple pumpkins on our first trip and Rowen picked out a gourd. I'm not sure what the fascination was with the gourds but he was all about them! 

I thought these pumpkins were so neat looking so that one on the left had to come home with us! 

The gardens were beautiful with 100'a of mums and pumpkins everywhere! Fall in Nashville is just so gorgeous and Cheekwood really has beautiful colors and so many aspects of what Fall is all about. 

Next up at Cheekwood...Santa's reindeer and lots of decorated Christmas trees. It's another wonderful time of the year to visit this beautiful place! 

Rowen's Birthday...the BIG "3"!

I've gotta catch up a little! Rowen turned 3 on October 24th! I can't believe he is already 3 years old. That morning I flipped through photos of his birth/first few days and I remembered everything like it was yesterday. I got teary and was just filled with so much joy as I sat there reminiscing. We kicked his birthday off right...with a birthday donut of course!

 He loved the candles!

Rowen received lots of wonderful gifts at his birthday party but we still had to get him a little something! Brent and I gave him a log carrier truck, a truck alphabet book, and street signs/various trucks you would see on the road. 

 Can you guess what he really likes right now?? Yep, trucks! haha. If you missed his BIRTHDAY PARTY post, GO HERE!! It was a really nice day so we headed to the park to play for a while. He loves going to the park so we of course had to go on his birthday...b/c isn't everyone suppose to do things that they love on their birthday?! I think so! 

A little comparison pic: 2nd birthday on the left, 3rd birthday on the right

We ended his birthday with a trip to Chuck E Cheese( a treat from my mom )! It was his first time there and he had a big time! He got enough tokens( with our help of course )to get 2 handfuls of junk! Candy, stickers, little squishy dinosaurs, a crazy straw, and some other stuff. He thought the prizes were so cool. The huge smile on his face the whole time we were there was priceless!

 It truly was an amazing day. He is the smartest, sweetest, most strong willed, tender hearted little boy in the whole world! We couldn't have ever imagined how great these 3 years would be with him. Can't imagine life without him!! 

Delicious Dill Potatoes

I never knew that dill and potatoes went together until this past Sunday. Brent and I went to the Titans game and hit up a tail gate before going into the stadium. There was a huge bowl of dill potatoes served cold like a potato salad. I tried them and they were divine. I think they had been catered from a local restaurant. I liked them so much that I decided to try my hand at making them last night for dinner. 

I was inspired by this recipe HERE from Rachael Ray. I made a few changes from what she did. And these are served warm instead of cold which I decided I like better! So here is my version of dill potatoes:

You need: 

2-3 lbs of red potatoes; medium sized

5 Tbsp of butter

1/4 C of fresh dill; chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

I tossed my potatoes into a pot of boiling water. Boil until fork tender (about 20-25 minutes). Drain and lay out on a paper towel. Pat dry. You can slice/dice them anyway you want to. I chose to slice them and left the skin on. I put the sliced potatoes into a large serving bowl( you could put them back into your pan if you wanted to ), gently tossed them in the butter, and then sprinkled in the dill. Make sure you coat the potatoes with the dill then sprinkle in a little salt and pepper( to your liking ). 

This was such a simple dish to make and has a great flavor! I will definitely be making it again soon! 

Halloween pajama party link up!

I'm linking up with some lovely ladies today to share a few pictures of my not-so-spooky minis in their Halloween pajamas!! So last year Rowen was my only mini and taking pictures of him was a breeze. Do you know just how much more challenging picture taking is by just adding one more to the mix?!?! It was so hard to get both of them looking at the camera at the same time. But I found one picture where they were looking and smiling! Here are my precious minis...

Rowen's spider jammies: TJMaxx

Isla's "My First Halloween" jammies: Target

Happy early Halloween!! Join in the party and go link up your minis!!