Some photo's since January

So I have not posted in forever, but hey I only have a few pictures of the last month and a half. We have been sick I swear a good portion of the time and lets just face it, I am just trying to get through all the colds that get passed through. We have gone to Utah for a week and while we were there I went to CA for the weekend with Gwyn. We went to my sister's wedding reception. Things were so busy that I didn't even whip out my camera to get any pictures (pathetic I know). The day before we left for Utah I took Gwyn to the doctor because she was so sick and found out that she had RSV. Which is a respiratory virus that kids can be hospitalized for. She was given a breathing treatment in the doctors office and we were prescribed an inhaler and steroid for her. They gave us the ok to proceed with our trip though. She was a trooper, but gave me many sleepless nights on our trip. While we were there we took her in and found out that she also now had an ear infection. So I swear we were giving that poor baby medication left and right. She is well on the mend now and is doing much better all the way around. While we were gone we also had the stomach flu passed around our family. Bristol actually got it right before we left, Kali got it four days later, and then Nate got it the day we were flying home. I luckily was able to skate by this time (I already have had the stomach flu three times this winter I think I have paid my dues). Needless to say I was happy to be home and to sleep in my own bed. Now it is just a matter of trying to get unpacked and clothes washed and put away while my kids destroy it at the same time. One day I will have a clean house again!

So these pictures are from New Years Eve. It was unseasonably warm then which made it fun to do some sparklers outside. We had our friends over and stuffed ourselves with yummy goodies and treats.

The girls love hanging out with their dad. They love to be able to play with him and tell me repeatedly how they wish Daddy were home. (Me too girls, me too)

Gwyn has given us some major difficulties with eating her baby food and it feels like we progress some and then go back to square one. I don't know what I am going to do with this girl. I guess she is just waiting until she has enough teeth she can eat normal food.

Pathetically enough these are the only pictures I have of our trip to Utah. The night before we left we got together with Nate's friends from high school. It was a fun time by all. Kali slept the whole time on the couch with all the craziness around her. She woke up for about 30 minutes to decorate a cookie before we left and then fell asleep in the car on the way home. She was one tired kid.

This picture is actually from today. I made the girl's skirts for Valentine's Day. I will have to take a picture of all of them together.

Hopefully I will be better at taking some pictures of our activities this month. I will try to make it my goal to post more. Sorry for those of you out there that may be following along.

The rest of Gwyn's pictures

Sorry I haven't posted the link to see the rest of Gwyn's photos. I ended up posting it on my (Gianatasio) family's blog and forgot on posting it on here. You may have to scroll down a post or two on my friend's blog to see Gwyn's photos. Maybe you guys can help me pick which ones to print. I love them all I am not sure what to do. Just click here.

Gwyn at 6 Months

So here are a few pictures that my friend took of Gwyn today. She hasn't finished editing any more but sent me these two as a sneak peak. I love them both they are so cute. Thought you might all enjoy. I will post more when I get them.

Christmas revisited

So I forgot to put this video on with our other Christmas stuff. I have some photos coming soon.

If you listen carefully you can here Kali say, "Heck the halls".

Last Week in Review

Like I mentioned in my previous post, Nate was off last week and so we decided to take advantage of it as much as possible. We did several different activities and just enjoyed hanging out with one another. However, it has made for a hard transition this week for the girls. They have missed their Daddy quite a bit. I think since Sunday they have only seen him for about ten minutes total. Just enough for him to tuck them into bed. Needless to say we had to call him tonight at bedtime and let him tuck them in over the phone.

Making graham cracker gingerbread houses.

She decided to fill the attic with candy because she knew she would be

able to have more to eat later.

Playing in the snow with Nate in the backyard.

We went sledding several days before this, but I forgot the camera. Bristol has been wanting to build a snowman ever since the first time it snowed, but the snow is too dry and fluffy that it wont pack. Plus it is hard for me to play in the snow with the girls when I am holding Gwyn and she hasn't been the best of a napper lately to be able to do it during nap time. So they were in heaven that Nate could go out and play with them. I looked out the window at one point and they were all on the ground rolling around, it was so cute.

We bundled up and went to one of our favorite parks here (Cox Arboretum for all of you that have been out here to visit and know which one I am talking about). We never went last winter, but we thought we would check it out this year in the winter. Some of the paths were cleared from the snow, but we got going too late to the park and the sun was going down. Once the sun set it became pretty freezing cold even though we were bundled up. I had brought hot chocolate thinking we could sit on one of the benches, but we instead had to sit in the car where it was a little warmer.

You can kind of see in this picture how the pond is mostly frozen over except for a little spot right in the middle.

Christmas Eve

The girls in their Christmas Pj's.

The reason I have been bad with blogging

Ok so just one of the reasons. I have been busy for probably over a month every night sewing and crafting for Christmas. These are two of my favorite things I made this year. It was a very felt Christmas this year for me and the many crafts I made. I have a new love of felt. These projects took some time, but I love how they turned out.

This is a wreath I made for my mother-in-law. (thanks Michelle for the directions)

It was a craft from JoAnn Fabrics, but I tweaked it a little bit to my liking and what not.

You cut out a ton of strips of felt and fold and roll and sew. Then I hot glued them on to a wreath. I love this wreath so much. I am going to make one for myself too, but I just needed a little break from the cutting, rolling, and sewing. I did buy enough felt though because it was 50% off.

This is an advent calendar I made for my sister. I saw one almost the same in Pottery Barn catalog for a lot of money and thought, "I think I can make that". So as a little picture from a magazine as a guide I just made it up as I went. You are supposed to put a little gift or candy in each pocket. I copied some of the pockets from PB, but made up some of my own too. I was very pleased with the outcome.

It is rather large. I think it is like 60" tall or something. I don't remember now.

The #'s from the one from PB are embroidered on, but I don't have a sewing machine that can do that all nice for me. So instead I printed out the number from the computer and cut them out of felt and hand stitched them on.

I will post more pictures soon of some of our adventures last week. Nate had the week off so we tried to do something fun each day. We did simple things from sledding, to driving around looking at Christmas lights, to making cookies, making gingerbread houses, taking a walk at the park and more. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of all these activities, but I will post what I have. (hopefully tomorrow) I also have some fun videos, but I can't get them to load on my computer.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

So we went the day after Thanksgiving to cut down a Christmas tree. In all the previous years we have used our fake tree that we bought about 5 years ago from Walmart for $19.99. Needless to say it is quite small and scrawny. So this year we decided to go and cut one down. Nate actually had the day after Thanksgiving off and so we decided to take advantage of it. I was hoping to put our Christmas lights up and then go cut down a tree. Well we were getting a later start than I thought we would and said we should just wait until the next day to cut it down. Nate just wanted to go that day and said, "aren't you supposed to go and cut a tree down at night anyways". So I just remembered thinking, "I never remember doing that when I was a kid, it was always during the day". Well once we got there to cut down our tree we soon realized why you go during the day, otherwise you can't see to pick one out. We did bring a flashlight to help guide our way, but it still was a little tricky. It was only maybe 6 o'clock but it was already totally dark. Kali and Gwyn fell asleep on the way, but woke up shortly thereafter. It was a fun time regardless.

I just thought she looked so cute all bundled up.

The next morning

Kali and her crazy bed head.