Blizzard of 2011

Earlier this week we had two days of nothing but pure unabashed snow. Ft. Wayne schools closed for those two days and then had two-hour delays the rest of the week - which is really unlike them! Grace ended up having three snow days. I think we ended up getting somewhere between 10-12 inches total. We also had another blizzard of sorts Saturday morning/afternoon which gave us about 4-5 more inches. So much for all the shoveling I did : )

My Birthday/Hula Party

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. We had a great weekend: my mom and I took Ella (Grace had a prior birthday at a friend's) to get manicures and pedicures at my friend, Nikki's, salon. Sunday we went out to dinner with my in-laws to The Olive Garden. Chris and the girls got me a VERY cute Mickey/Minnie Mouse figurine and my mother in law got me a gift certificate for a facial. Earlier that morning, I took the girls to a Hula party sponsored by Grace's Girl Scout troop. We all wore leis, flowers in our hair, grass skirts and learned how to dance the Hula.
This is Ella, Grace, and Taryn (our baby sitter's daughter).

I couldn't find anything else to wear, so I wore Chris's Hawaiian shirt : )

Cousin Danyelle's Bridal Shower

On Saturday, my mom and I hosted a bridal shower for my cousin, Danyelle. Everything turned out really great, despite the horrible weather. I just hope she was happy with what we did ; ) I "stole" this idea from another shower I did some scrap booking for: guests had to fill out a piece of advice for the newlyweds and then I took a picture of the bride along with the person that filled out the advice. I'm then going to put the advice and the picture in a book as a keepsake.
I made a card box that Danyelle and Chris can use at the reception. I used a regular box, some craft paper, and the bride and groom that I hadmade for the invitations as accents for the box.

Gift table

We bought a plainly decorated cake and I made more of the bride and groom accents that I used for the invitations and the gift box.

Cake table. I found some really cute napkins with a "D" on them and I also found the cute "D" and "C" pots at Hobby Lobby. I put Gerber daisies in the pots since those are her bouquet flowers.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we celebrated New Year's Eve at my parents' house. My brother Donnie brought his kids as well. It's rare that we get everybody in the house at the same time with our significant others : ) Grace and Kylee, my brother Donnie's oldest girl.

Ella and Peyton, Donnie's youngest girl.

Colt and my youngest brother, Tyler.

Unfortunately, Donnie's oldest boy Keegan was unable to join us and I didn't get a good picture of his youngest, Baby Remy.

Ice Skating

Last Wednesday I took the girls ice skating at Headwaters Park downtown. We were very exited to go, however, when we got there, the amount of people there already was very daunting. I hadn't skated since I was about 12 or so, so I was way out of practice. The girls had never ice skated at all, so I knew I was in for it : ) Turns out I was right: we kept getting kicked at and pushed by teenagers, it was so busy that we could barely get beside the wall so I could steady the girls, and then Grace fell pretty hard and hurt her knee : ( We only got around the rink once when Ella said "this is horrible!" so we left. I think it would have been much more fun if I had had a chance to practice a little first and it wasn't so crowded. Maybe we'll try again before it closes for the season and maybe then it will be a better experience for the girls.

Pedicures

The girls and I decided that we were going to give each other pedicures - RAINBOW pedicures! They by no means look professional, but they loved it and it looks really cute : ) We also did our fingernails with a sparkly polish called Rockstar - Ella especially liked that!

Christmas 2010

The girls put out cookies for Santa. Ella wanted to take a drink of his milk just to "make sure it was nice and cold." We were lucky enough to be able to get the kids everything they asked for from Santa. Eventhough the reason for the season is not to get presents and material things, we love giving the kids presents. Among other things, Ella got her coveted Lalaloopsy dolls and the Littlest Pet Shop toys she asked for; Grace got her Nintendo DS and the Littlest Pet Shop toys; and Colt got a basketball hoop and a bunch of cars and trucks. Colt aslso got a Carhart coat just like Daddy's this year from Grandma Ruthie. They look like twins in their coats and Yankees hats : )
Every year before we go to Mass, we make the girls take their picture in front of the Christmas tree. They had really cute matching jackets and skirts to wear this year. I, unfortunately, didn't get to go this year because Colt was being very grouchy and uncooperative, so he and I stayed home while Chris took the girls.

Overall, it was a great year and a great Holiday season and hopefully we'll have a wonderful New Year!