The year in review.

Well its officially 2012! So it's only proper to have a 2011 year in review post. 

Little Miss A. That girl went through many changes last year. Her vocab blew up!! She says things that you would expect an adult to say, she is polite and usually uses her manners. Get her around her aunts and uncles though and she can be the loudest grossest kid ever! She mastered the art of the wet willie and uses phrases like "You wanna go?!" "Turd head" and "Oh by gosh". She has learned the art of pretend crying to get what she wants, she would make quite the little actress. What I found most intriguing about that girl is her mothering sympathetic side. When your sick or have a headache she is the first person to run and rub your head telling you it will be alright. She can be downright mean and nice all at the same time. She is independent and less needy of her mommy, which has probably been something I have had to learn to deal with. All in all I am so proud of what she is turning into. So with all that said, here are a few pics of A from 2011. 

The lunch lady.

 The rock wall master!

And her dad's mini me.  

As for Little Miss E. Boy oh boy. This sweetie is my handful. She has officially made the transition from baby to toddlerhood. She has developed a love for lots of food, art, and vocal self expression. If she doesn't get fed as soon as she wakes up then consider your day ruined with vocal self expression aka loud screaming jags. She is very hands on and would prefer to sit and "colo"r all day. She has mastered drawing circles on everything from paper, books, walls, cabinets, and counter tops. Thank you Sharpie for her permanent artwork. Her talking was also a new thing in 2011. She says random words like phone, garage, waterly (water please), molly (her dog),  and many many others. I'm truly excited to see what 2012 has in store for her. 

 E still learning how to walk. 

 Diggin in the dirt with a screwdriver while dad puts up our greenhouse.

 4th of July at Aunt Linda's house!

 A little morning Popsicle anyone?

 First beach trip.

 The usual face she makes.. 

E and Aunt "Chell-she" at the family christmas dinner. 

Speaking of Christmas, it was a busy fun one! We woke up at 8 did our little family thing at home. Then went down the road to Bepa's for Christmas breakfast, then headed to Aunt Ashley's/Aunt Linda's house for a couple hours, and finally back to Grams for Christmas dinner. It was the busiest family filled Christmas we've ever had. 

As for the rest of things in and around our house..  Dad started building our entertainment center last May, he's hoping to have that finished soon. If your a working parent, then i'm sure you know how hard it is to find time for these things. We're also hoping to have our front yard re-landscaped and our backyard leveled. Once that happens I will get a picture up of said little house in the desert, till then I will openly admit, I am embarrassed of it. The garden went alright last year. It was my first year attempting things so I had alot of problems that I was able to learn from. Hoping to have many more posts and goals for this years garden on the blog.  Not much else to post about at the moment. Except I hope everyone reading this has a great 2012!! 

'Tis the season to be Jolly!

Not sure if I have said this before but my favorite time of year is September through December. From the crisp autumn air to the yellowing leaves on the trees. There is something about it that just makes me giddy! As soon as September hits I bust out all the apple, pumpkin, and cinnamon scents. As well as what few harvesty decorations I have gathered and usually leave them up till mid December. Except last year. This time last year we were just barely moved into our house, and was so tired of unpacking that we didn't bother getting out a single decoration. It was the most depressing Christmas ever, I vowed we would always decorate regardless of what was going!! So this year decorating was in full swing the day after Thanksgiving! WOO!  

 After getting all the decorations out A begged us to put Christmas lights up in her room. Which reminded me of her nursery in Texas, we had the walls lined with pretty white twinkling lights. This time we decided it would be cooler looking to have it on the ceiling.

 A's face after eating a Hot Tamale candy! Ha!

The girls bedroom has the most amazing ambience to it now. We haven't had to use their ceiling fan lights since we hung them. 

On to the fun Christmas decorating. Thanks to Pinterest and Jenni at Craft-O-Maniac we were able to make our own Christmas ornaments. I highly recommend it! 

Just finished kneading the dough, on to the boring part, flattening it. I ended up doing it twice. Thankfully A is a patient kid.

 While waiting, A made herself useful and played the piano for me <3

 My cookie cutters and I are ready!!

 A few hours later we took our baked ornaments to Grams house for the fun part.. 

 Painting!!!

 Need directions on how to makes these easy ornaments, go to  http://tinyurl.com/8x4z792. Or go to craft0maniac.blogspot.com

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

Time to talk about you and your tiny partially decorated self. Unfortunately Dad is allergic to the real deal, so we are stuck with a fake tree. No biggie.. Pun intended ha. Our 6 ft fake tree has seen 5 years worth of Christmas's (actually 4 since it didn't see the light of day last year). Our once perfect for our tiny apartment of a tree is now well.. A bit small for our house. I'm thinkin next year we'll step it up a little. 

The almost finished product. Note the mass of ornaments at the bottom of the tree. The kids sure know how to decorate ;) Lucky for them i'm not one of those crazed moms who needs the tree to look amazing and the ornaments distributed evenly. I think it gives the tree character, or makes it want to tip to one side. Haha! 

 My first attempt at painting a snowman. Not bad eh?

Hmm.. I wonder who was using the camera even though she knows better :)

Halloween!!

Halloween Morning:

A bit late on the posting but.. Better late then never. So the day started off with a little bit of fishing with the Bepa aka grandpa to you people who don't speak my kid's baby language. It was pretty fun! E cant sit still for the life of her, so she pretty much ran her dad around the dock and camping grounds of the lake we were at. A on the other hand had a blast! She even caught her first fish!! 

 Bepa and E. She couldn't help but get into everything in his tackle box!! At one point I found myself scooping up night crawlers bc she dumped them everywhere.

 A and her daddy.

 Bepa showing A how to hook a worm.

 Me and A being bored.. hamming it up for the camera. 

 Kinda hard to see but A and Bepa reeling in her first fish. Which is the small thing to left of the pic against the blue boat.

 A very proud Miss A holding up her first fish!

As for Halloween night:

So i'm sure your going to look at these pictures and be like wow they suck. And I don't blame you.. they do suck. My kids are the most impossible kids to get pictures of! Especially E. Let me just begin by saying she was in the worst mood, as usual. I had to wake her up from her late nap to get her dressed in her Bumble Bee costume, which she decided she would NOT be wearing her wings. As for A.. She was a pretty pretty princess. She was decked out in her light up dress with her tiara and wand and what seemed to be ballet slippers haha! I let her choose her entire costume. On with the terrible pictures.... 

 E emptying Grams candy bowl.

 2nd house on the block (grams house) and she already attacked her candy.

 Like my get up? Haha! The only day its acceptable to go out in public in my crocs!

 Miss Pissy Pants. 

 The only thing keeping this girl happy... Chips and candy. Figures. 

A enjoying the fruits or should I say candy of her labor!