Easter 2013!!!

 

OK.. This entire post has nothing but bad pics.  No one seems to want to look at the camera, or smile..blah..blah.. oh well....

Nothing gets one into the Easter mood like playing with play dough...I can't remember..maybe Nat had Good Friday off from school and this was a time filler? hmmmmm.....

 Scott's parent's came by and brought some Easter Goodies....I have no idea why Elia Rose has no pants on.....

 Easter morning!! Look at those bright eyes!!! Elia and all her "treasures" she  needs to sleep with.. Seriously....there is like NO ROOM for her in her bed!!

 Our main focus of Easter, is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and resurrected on the 3rd day.  It is important to Scott and myself that is the actual reason we celebrate Easter, that this is the only reason Easter exists....With that being said, we do the Easter Bunny stuff too, we just don't make too big of a deal about it. 

 I searched two cameras and my phone and the following are the only two good (I use the term loosely) pics of the girls in their Easter dresses. The first one is before heading to church the second one is after lunch.  Elia really loved that magna-doodle, it's in every pic!!

I love these dresses, I scored them for $12.00 each at Dillard's. Apparently, they are actually Christmas dresses, but they are sleeveless and made basically of tulle.  I hope they still fit for Christmas though...they would look really cute with black sweaters and leopard tights....

Natalyn's 6th Birthday!!

 

OK. Natalyn's bday was in Feb. Here are the party high-lights.......

Her theme was "Somewhere over the Rainbow", not Wizard of Oz-ish, but simply because "rainbow" is her favorite color.

 

I made a rainbow double layer cake.  I was a little scared dumping all different colors of batter in the cake pan. It did not look appetizing at all. But once it cooked, it looked like this....so much better...

 I decorated the cake with skittles ( so you can taste the rainbow! ha ha) and twizzlers.  I will note that after I decorated the cake, I put it in the refrigerator, not the best idea.  The twizzlers hardened in the cool temperature and never fully recovered.  I had to pull them off the cake before cutting it....

 Natalyn invited all the girls in her class, plus her BFF Mia.  On the invitations, it was suggested to wear your favorite color to the party.  Mia's favorite color is Disney Princess Belle. Hey! If Natalyn's favorite color is rainbow then Mia's favorite color can be a Disney character!!

 I set up a little table for Elia and her BFF Libby. They were able to be part of the party, but not really be part of the party...ya know what I mean?!

 I made the paper pom poms.... love them! They are super easy and totally cheap if you make them yourself!

 Read Mouse Paint, then......

 we did an experiment turning primary colors into secondary colors, thus making all the colors of the rainbow......hey! parties can be educational too!!

 The birthday girl blowing out her candles!!!

 

I Love you......my Miss Natalyn Joy!!!



Valentine's Day 2013!

Ok. Here's a quick re-cap of Valentine's Day.  This is part of my

 "I didn't blog at all for a year so I am totally post binge-ing" series.

 

As you all are well aware of.  If Elia Rose is awake, she on the move, and usually up to no good.  That explains the blurry pic.....I have about 8 thousand more, but I will spare you.

 Natalyn's class party.  Elia thinks she is part of the group!

 Yummy sweets!!!

 This is the one and only party that Scott was able to make it to.  Darn work!!

 Scott surprised the girls with giant balloons. They beat each other up ( I mean Elia beat up Natalyn) for several days!!



CHRISTMAS 2012

OK. Here are a few pics from family gatherings around Christmas last year...Starting with the Nixon side...

Nat, Elia and Uncle Glenny

 Elia and Aunt K-K

 Uncle Glenny and his gift choices.......an electric keyboard for Nat and a drum set for Elerz...

 Then off to the LaFalier side.......

here's some information, I am the only grandchild...so these gals are the only great-grand-children... they aren't spoiled or anything....naw!

 My poor Nan-naw pushing my girls on her walker..

 Then the Sill side...

Marsh mellow guns for all!!!!  Elia Rose just walked around outside and enjoyed the marsh mellow buffet off the ground....

 Christmas morning at our house.....

new bikes from Santa!!

 A sewing machine for Nat, so she could work on her fashions.  The blasted thing was a total rip-off...it won't hold a stitch!!

 Lovin' Elia Rose in one piece PJ's with footies!!! She is way to grown up to wear such attire now!!

 Oh! How did Santa know that Momma needed a hand sander?!........

A LOOK BACK......

OK. Here are some highlights from Nov thru mid-Dec of 2012 (I know this is truly a sad way to blog).  I am basically back-tracking for myself, one day I may scroll through and I know that I will want to see a reasonable age progression of my kiddos, not a year jump in blog time!!!

 

 

Veteran's Day 2012-Nat's school honored Veteran's. Nat displayed Pappoo's pic from WWII.

 Yes, I started putting up Christmas decor Nov 14th last year. 

 Had to buy a new tree to go with the new house.  My old tree was 6ft and was super chubby (is that the right way to describe a tree?..hmm.. not sure) Anywho....we have a skinnier, I mean more narrow living room in this house and the ceilings are 10-ish ft so I had to get a 9.5ft slim tree. Here is a pic of Elia and Minnie in front of the tree to demonstrate it's ginormous-ness.....

 Natalyn's Thanksgiving class party.  Nat is on her knees to the right of the picture.  The day before the party, she came home and was insistent that all the kids in her class were dressing as Indians or Pilgrims on party day.  Though I never got any information from the school discussing such, I rushed to Wal-Mart and bought beads and a brown shirt that I converted into an Indian-ish looking ensemble.  As you can see...there are no other Indians....and not one Pilgrim in the bunch...but she was so happy to dress up, so it was worth it!

 Peeps, get ready for some DIY stories over the next few weeks! I got a ton of the them! Some worked out...some, ummmmm not so much.  Here is my first decorating attempt of the Christmas tree. I loved my tree decor in the old house, but none of it fit with this house...too bad I didn't really notice how much it didn't work until I was basically finished decorating it.  So...I talked out loud to myself for several days about how the "tree decor may grow on me"...and " I'll just change it next year.." the talking went on until Scott told me to just redo the blasted thing!!  

 So...ya don't have to tell me twice to go shopping.....so off I went...I bought some stuff, made some stuff and painted to re-use some stuff...so here's the new tree with all the ...stuff!

 With all that tree decorating stress behind me, I took time to eat lunch with Nat...her first Book-it Pizza!!! I loved Book-it and actually completed every month for every year in elementary school...not that you care or anything!!!

Our school's first Christmas Parade Flood.  Yes, I was a co-chair with an amazingly organized, logistic guru... and I know how to use a glue gun...so we made a perfect team!! We made gingerbread people and put a flag on each tummy representing every country that Willowbrook has student's from (there are 12 if you were wondering)...

We put a big globe in the middle....

Michelle and I are co-chairing again this year.......we learned a lot from last year......so I hope to step it up a notch!!

 

 Natalyn and her classmate Mallory..

 Nat's class Christmas party...Elia Rose pretty much thinks that school is all about parties, since every time she goes with me, there is some major event going on...no wonder she wants to go to school so bad!!!

 



Finally back!!!

Ok. I am B-A-C-K...finally!  Google wanted to charge me for picture storage or something...not sure what that was all about....then I got out of the habit of blogging and blah, blah, blah.......So for the next few days, I am planning to do a quick re-cap of the past year. My girls are growing up so fast,  Elia Rose has a lot more hair and Natalyn has a lot less teeth (ha!).....Here are some pics of Natalyn and Elia Rose from around the 4th of July.  I took them in the field across the street from our house. 

 

Of course they would find some dirt to play in!!!