Christmas, wrapped up!

This year, Christmas was FUN!! Ethan is old enough to understand the holiday this year. We set out cookies and milk for Santa, carrots for the reindeer, and the kids wrote a note to Santa. Russ and I stayed up WAY too late wrapping presents and assembling the huge train set Santa brought the kids. It was so exciting to set the presents under the lambent glow of the tree.

Russ and I slept on the couch so Ethan wouldn't wake up and tear open all of the packages. We shouldn't have worried though! Once Ethan saw his train set, he could not be unglued. We had to persuade him to open his other presents. Aubrey loved tearing the wrapping paper off everything. Both kids were excited to see that Santa and his reindeer ate their treats.

We had dinner at Scott and Kathy's house and that was lovely! The next morning we had second Christmas (involving crepes ((yummmmm))) at my mom and dad's. And that night, we had third Christmas at Grandma Phyllis' house! My kiddos made out like bandits! The favorite toys include the train set, the new kitchen and all accompanying food, Aubrey's baby dolls and baby doll stroller, Ethan's puzzle, and new jammies.

Merry Christmas!

Aubrey is just a little speeding bullet in this pic!

My mom looks like she's about to throw westside out!

Here is the best pic of the Kaufman/Peterson family that we got! Squiggly babies and two cameras make obtaining a good picture a little hinky!

Darling Aubrey

I have no earth-shattering world-changing news today, so I thought I would take a minute to ramble on about my lovely baby girl. She is a crazy daredevil. She jumps off things, climbs on things, and falls off things. She has the cutest giggle ever. She will run faster than you could even imagine when she knows she has something that you want...like a cell phone, battery, or your car keys. Then she throws it. She is easy to scream and cry but is also quick to smile and give you a hug. She waves bye to everyone and blows lots of kisses. I love her.

Things I like!!

I wanted to do a little bloggin' before work, but I am feeling just a little lazy so I decided to compile a list of stuff that makes me happy right now. Here we go.....

1. Homemade iced coffee. Yummy.

2. My new starburst camera filter.

3. My cute husband. He's putting together a puzzle for our little girly and his organizational nature causes him to line things up just so. And then I can take cute pictures of it! The second photo is after Aubrey smashed it!!

4. Dr. Pepper lipgloss.

5. And C.O. Bigelow lipgloss. I like lipgloss...

6. My babies' babies. They are so sweet and .so. loved!

So that sums up my ramblings for today...Much love,

Shell K

The Rise and Fall of our Christmas Tree

I am kind of high maintenance about Christmas trees. One year when I was about 15, my mim tried to put up a fake tree. And I threw a FIT! Long story short, we had two trees that year. A boring fake tree in the front room and a gorgeous, fragrant real tree just for me in the family room decorated with my ornaments exclusively! Anyways, this year has made me realize that I need to get over my need for a beautifully adorned, perfect tree. I have a 17 month old and an almost 3 year old. Sheesh.


I insisted this year that we wait until about a week and a half before Christmas to get our tree so it would be fresh and pretty and lovely. This is right after I decorated it... (the pic was taken with my iPhone so forgive the lovely blurred quality)

Soooo pretty right?? Let us take a tour...

First, this happened.

Then this.

                                                                                   And finally, this.

So my tree then morphed into this:

And lastly this:

Soon, only the top 1/4 will be decorated. .Sigh.

I didn't want to do it.

So...I really wanted to avoid starting a blog. Ugh.

Then I had a personal dialogue. It went like this:
"Self, you are far too busy to have a blog."
    "But SO many other busy mother's of two squeeze time into their jam packed schedule to blog."
"Fine."
    "Great."
"But I'm not happy about it."

And with that matter settled, here I am. We will see how it goes. But by way of introduction, here is a little bit about me. My name is Shelly. I am 25 years old. (Sheesh, that fact alone scares me. Almost 30...) I married my wonderful husband .and best friend. three years ago on the beach in San Diego.

We wasted no time at all poppin' out kiddos! We had Ethan almost five months later and Aubrey came along 17 months after that.

We bought our first house in July 08 out in Maricopa, AZ. It is a little bit removed from the Phoenix area, but we kinda like it...even though it smells like cow sometimes! I work full time as a server at The Melting Pot! Woohoo! Russell (my hub) works for a payroll company. Yeehaw! Come January I will also be attending nursing school full time. I just .cannot. wait! I am SO excited to start that new project. Well, now that I have rambled for awhile, I will give it up til next time!
Love,
The Happy Mim