Merry and bright

We are officially ready for Christmas (almost). My dad took our Christmas picture and we got a decent one, so I ordered the cards. I will post the card after I send them out:)  All of the decorations are up. We skipped a few things this year, like the 2 lighted Christmas trees in the big urns in front of our house. They are a pain to put up and we're kind of sick of them anyways. Our tree is in the same spot it has been the last couple of years, we only have a few spots to put it because it is so tall. I bought some really cool star lights from Ikea at the end of summer. They were sold out of the colored ones, so I got white. They are so cool! I also put a small tree up in the lower level. It's a short 4 1/2 foot prelit one with red, turqouise and silver ornaments.  Ellie hasn't paid much attention to the tree, but Jack looks at the lights alot. I love this time of year.

Baba, Grampa, Jack and Ellie

Scoping out a spot

Test picture. (not sure what is going on here, but it's pretty typical)

stars!

Tree

Turkey day and decorating

Wow! Thanksgiving weekend went so fast! This year was extra special, because it was baby Jack's first Thanksgiving. I'm sure he would love turkey and pie, but he's of course still only bottle feeding, at least he got to smell it. It was a great weekend filled with eating, resting, playing, putting up Christmas decorations and organizing.



Testing out Ellie's high chair, which will soon be his!



Jackaroo

Jack is 3 months today! It's crazy that he's been here only 3 months, because I feel like it's been a lot longer.
Jack is a pretty happy baby. He loves baths like Ellie too. I've been skipping baths every other night, because Jack's skin seems a little irritated and dry lately. Aquaphor usually helps, but there is a lot of dryness in the house even with the humidifiers running. Jack has his surgery in 2 weeks and I'm getting anxious. I'm glad we are getting the birthmark removed, but I'm kind of getting use to it. It will be weird when it's gone, but a relief knowing those cells are not there anymore to grow. I think it's also gotten bigger as we knew it would. Jack is getting so big and is kind of a chunker. I just bumped him up to 6-9 months pj's and he's only 3 months!

whooooops

A little blurry, but you get the idea.... big whoops!

Weekend

This weekend was awesome, but of course it flew by. Now that I'm back to work, the weekends are going to go so fast and not come soon enough. Friday wasn't as bad as I thought. My co-workers threw me a little breakfast get together (we always have food in our department) and my friends Olga and Jane got me beautiful flowers!

Friday night, Nick went to our bowling league and I decided to stay home. I got to stay home with Ellie and Jack. My two favorites! We ordered pizza and played in Jack's room. Here are some pictures:

The rest of the weekend consisted of cleaning out the garage and basement, getting the Christmas decorations ready for the day after thanksgiving, movies (Crazy, Stupid Love and The Change Up  - both were hilarious) and I even got a nap in! I'm looking forward to the short week and the 4 day weekend! 

I love....

my. babies.

Back to work

One more day and I'm back to work. It's pretty bittersweet as I have enjoyed my time home with Ellie and Jack. Since Ellie is in daycare twice a week, it will help with watching Jack too. Although he is such an easy, mellow baby and is always happy. I'm really lucky that my mom is taking care of them and it keeps her mind going and young. She does spoil them a lot, but that is okay :) I think I saved enough days to take off over Christmas and of course will have off for Thanksgiving, that time will be here before I know it! I get a ton of vacation days starting in January, so I'll be able to take off whenever I feel like it or if my mom just needs a break. Here's a video of Ellie and Jack. I will cherish these moments forever and am so glad I take these videos.

We're back!

We had a blast in Vegas! Nick's parents wanted to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and Sue's 60th Birthday in style and we totally did.

I missed Ellie and Jack so much, but it was really nice to get away and not have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night, changing poopy diapers or feeding. I think Ellie was really happy to see us because she did a little dance and gave out some pretty big hugs. Jack is okay with anyone holding him, feeding him or any attention. Vegas was extra awesome this time because I won a little jackpot! I am usually a blackjack player, but played some slots and ended up winning $750! It was so exciting! Nick couldn't believe it. We saw the Jersey Boys at the Palazzo and it was awesome. All the kids got the tickets as a gift for Nick's parents 40th wedding anniversary and when we got there Nick's dad talked one of the ushers to moving us to better seats. The seats were sooo good. We also had some really good food, including hibachi one night. We stayed at the Encore which is part of the Wynn. I've been to a lot of hotels and I can say it was probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at - even better than the Ritz on Maui. (not kidding).

One our way!

Mochi ice cream. Everyone's first time eating it (except mine) and they loved it!

Hibachi dinner

Happy Birthday TWIN

Happy Birthday WENDI!

{Let's go here soon.}

Busy-ness

This last week has kind of sucked. My dad was in the hospital (again) they put in 2 more stents and told him to quit smoking or else. They were almost thinking of doing a bypass, but then decided to try this first. I know smoking is such a hard demon, but I wish he would quit. Maybe this time he will. I hate hospitals.

Nick's been traveling for work alot. He is mostly in Green Bay, so it's been a little chaotic around here. I'm also trying to get all my appointments in before I go back to work. I might be getting braces or invisalign for my teeth. Unfortunately, I'd have to get them on the top and bottom in order for it to correct it. I know my teeth are not bad, but it's been bothering me. It's my 2 front bottom teeth - they are starting to go in a little :(

We leave for Vegas tomorrow to celebrate Nick's parents 40th wedding anniversary! I'm pretty excited but feel weird leaving Jack and Ellie. This will be the first time away from Jack. He's my little buddy and cuddler so I will miss him. Ellie is so silly lately. She is learning new things everyday. She now knows how to "shush" me. It's pretty cute, but I'm not sure if it's a good thing to know.

We've been hanging out in the basement a lot, since Ellie's toys are all down there. She likes it. Here is a pic from this morning.

A little bit of this...

Since I go back to work in a few weeks, I thought I would try to get some organizing and decorating done. I finally found a place for the canvas print of our family below. For some odd reason this picture makes it look small for this wall, but it actually looks better in person. I'm addicted to these canvas prints especially when I can get them for cheap through groupon.com. The groupon is for $45 and you get a 16x20 canvas print, it also includes tax and shipping. It's a great deal! The websites is canvas on demand. I've bought 3 of them and 2 for gifts. Love it. 

I changed the mudroom entry pictures out and put Ellie's 2 year old pics and Jack's newborn ones in. I FINALLY found a rack with hooks that I like for Ellie's jackets and hat. I was going to go all out and do white bead board and shelving with hooks, etc. etc., but this seemed quick and easy. I got the hooks from Pier One. I like it because I can also use the chalk board to write on... BOO!

 This cute little birdy hook I got from Pier One too. It holds Ellie's school bag for her lunch and snacks.

The last thing I found this week is this mirror. This area needed something, so the mirror works perfect. It was on clearance for $15.99 at Target. As always I lalaLOVE Target!

Jack's nursery

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of Jack's room. As you can see, we used Ellie's old furniture and got her new stuff. The arrangement is the same as it was when it was Ellie's room, but the fabric is new and I got new art for the walls. The baskets are a neutral color and I got those at Target. We also kept the sticker decals on the walls since they weren't too girly. The green boxes are from Ikea and so are the frames for all the pictures. I love how the fabric and wall color goes together, I think it compliments well. I have some left over fabric so I might attempt to make a pillow or something. Do you have any ideas of what I could make? It needs to be somewhat easy :)