Sister Bear turns 1!

My sweet baby girl turned one!!! I can't believe it. Time has literally flown by! We did a Breakfast at Tiffany's inspired theme for our sweet girl. Here is what we came up with.

Here is the invitation.

 

Here is the menu. I did finger sandwiches since it was a kid's party. I did strawberry and grape jelly. For the pretzels and marshmallows, I just melted white chocolate chips and, then dipped the pretzels and marshmallows in the chocolate. I then put some blue sprinkles on them.

 

I made the "Happy Birthday" garland. I bought big gold letter stickers from Joann. I had blue, white, and black pearl gumballs. The juice was lemonade and blue Hawaiian punch. It was very good.

 

It was a fun party. I'm still in awe that my baby is no longer a baby. :(

 

 

My mommy body

I've noticed a lot of people starting to over-haul their bodies. It's become a huge fad to exercise and eat healthy. I have been apart of that fad for years it feels. But 4 pregnancies later I have decided that I am going to LOVE my body...or die trying.


I have stretch marks, cellulite, bumps, lumps, and CURVES. I am a MOMMY. I do have a lot to not Love about my body, but here are things I have done with my amazing body.

I have carried and given birth to 3 babies! I have gained and lost 52lbs with each pregnancy. I have breast fed and pumped for 2 babies collectively for a little over 2 years and am still going at it. I have worn my babies strapped to my chest while I did household chores. I have lifted, carried, and held. To me that's pretty amazing! I have never and will never look like a super model or celebrity. And I am okay with that.

My sweet 3 year old doesn't like to snuggle with daddy because, "He isn't squishy like mommy". I don't take that as an insult. I am proud that my little guy finds comfort snuggled in my arms. I would hate to take that away from him.

I like exercising, eating healthy, and buying cute clothes. I will always love those things. But I am really learning to love my new mommy body and all the things that it has brought to the table.

Elf on The Shelf part 2

   Jingle came to our house the day after Thanksgiving. So we started our Elf fun a little early. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Jingle rolled all the way down the stairs in a toilet paper roll. When Brother Bear woke up in the morning to find this he was not happy. HAHAHA. He came and woke me up and said, "Jingle made a big mess!!!"  Brother then proceeded to clean up all the toilet paper. What a good boy. :)

Here Jingle is reading our advent book to his new friends. Most nights Brother Bear wanted to have Jingle sleep with him so we didn't do an activity every night.

Jingle got into Brother Bear's fruit snacks and juice. Brother was very pleased to find this in the morning.

Brother Bear was very sad to have Jingle go back to the north pole. But we promised that he would be back next Christmas and he would bring his sister, Peppermint.

From old to new

Six years ago I bought these really cheap, shatterproof ornaments from Garden Ridge. They have truly served me well over the years. This year I decided they needed a little freshening up. So I painted them with black chalk board pant. (That's all I had and we are on a budget) And then I had a white Bistro Chalk Marker that I used to write words onto my ornaments.

And this is how they turned out. I thought they were a little to dark to put on the tree but I love them in my trifle bowl with the gold ornaments. My penmanship isn't the greatest but you get the idea.

S'mores Cookies

I love making Chocolate Chip Cookies. And, I have finally found a recipe that I love. So this time I decided to add some marshmallows to the batch and call them, "S'more Cookies". They were so good. They only lasted MAYBE 48 hours. :)

3/4 cup/170 g butter, unsalted and softened

3/4 cup/160 g light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup/50 g granulated sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups/260 g all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons corn starch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)

6 oz./150 g semi-sweet chocolate chips

plus I added a handful of marshmallows

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until creamy.
3. Add egg and vanilla and stir.
4. Add dry ingredients and chocolate chips.

 

I cook mine for about 9 mins. And BOOM! cookies!

 

 

Elf on the Shelf + Jesus

We have our very own elf friend in our house this season! It's all so very exciting.
 
We don't really do the whole 'Santa' thing in our house. For one it scares Brother Bear so much. And two I don't want the emphasis of Christmas to be on Santa and gifts. I want the season to center around Jesus's birth and His love for us. But, I still wanted to have a little "Magic" for the kids.
 
So I found the idea of combining Elf on the Shelf with Jesus here.

When I told Brother Bear that an elf friend was going to come to our house for the month of December he was so excited. I still needed to order one so I had him look at the pictures of them and tell me which one he wanted. He decided he wanted "the brown one". So our tan elf, Jingle, arrived from the North Pole.

I typed up a letter from Jingle to Brother Bear and Sister Bear, and I put it in the box with the elf.

Dear Brother Bear and Sister Bear.

My name is Jingle. I am an elf and I came all the way from the North Pole to help you celebrate Christmas and Jesus’s birthday.

I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. As we transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas I want to help you guys to continue to remember to be thankful for ALL your blessings.

During this time of year it’s so easy to get focused on the “I want, I want, I want” and forget about what Christmas is REALLY about. It’s ok to want things, but I’ve seen people get very selfish with all the things they want.

I don’t want you to forget about Jesus as you and your family prepare for Christmas. I want you to enjoy all the fun this season brings, like, hot cocoa, singing Christmas songs, candy, and presents; but I don’t want you to forget about the most important present of all! JESUS…God’s only son.  I want to help you to remember that it’s still important to love others…to be nice to other people…to help other people (even mommy)…to show other people how wonderful Jesus is.

 

I’m going to hang out at your house for the whole month of December to help you remember to:

·         Love each other

·         Speak nicely to one another

·         Help each other. Even your neighbors and friends

·         Give to others that don’t have all the stuff you have

·         God loves you so much. Even more than Mommy and Daddy love you

 

I look forward to helping you learn all about the Christmas story and God’s love for you.

I will add all the photos of all the things our sweet Jingle does each night. So far Brother Bear jut loves to cuddle with him.

Child Like Faith

 

Brother Bear has been asking when it's going to snow. I kept telling that I didn't know. Today we were in the kitchen and he said, "Mommy, I just can't wait for it to snow!" So, I told him that he could say a prayer and ask God to help it to snow. At first he was a little resistant. He wanted me to pray. I told him that if it was something that he wanted he needed to do it. So, I hear him whisper a prayer. I think he expected it to happen right away. So I had to explain to him that prayer didn't always work that way; that we needed to be patient and wait for God's response. Two hours later we looked outside and, sure enough, it was snowing! Then I had to explain to Brother that when God answered our prayers we needed to thank Him. Joyfully my sweet 3 year old said, "Thank you Jesus for the SNOW!"

Most of the time I feel like a complete failure as a mom. But it's little moments like this that I feel God's hand on my shoulder and sense that, with His help, I'm doing something right.