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!!