squeezing the holidays in

The holidays are nuts, always, right? I know I’m not the only one who thinks that!

We are trying to cram so many things into the short period between Thanksgiving and Christmas that between all of the fun stuff, plus work/school/life/new baby prep I can hardly catch my breath.

So here are, squeezing in as much holiday cheer as we possibly can. So far we have:

celebrated Thanksgiving!

Took a quiet day to clean, decorate, and spend some time in our pjs.

Gianna was in our local “welcome Santa” parade with her dance school – she loved it! And we got into the spirit by visiting the Christmas tree festival put on by our local children’s hospital – it’s one of our favorite things to do!

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf, Krista, brought Gianna tickets to see the Nutcracker. It was a really really great date with my biggest girl who was in awe of the ballerinas and really wants to know how she can be in the Nutcracker some day.

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf is lazy-ish, or forgetful, or something, She brings things to them some days but other days? She snoozes on the job and forgets she’s supposed to move! (they are also allowed to play with her, it helps the whole thing not feel so creepy to me!). BUT! One thing Krista can do is deliver notes to Santa. Gianna wrote a thank you note for the Nutcracker tickets (She said it was the best day ever with her mommy. Her mommy cried.) and hand delivered her very thoughtfully written Christmas list to the big man himself.

I wish Krista could cook dinner or clean the bathroom though, that would rock.

We decorated and did some other random stuff throughout the weekend too – like the girls painted pictures for their sister’s room.

It’s all super fun stuff and those two smiley blue-eyed girls that live here love every minute of it! I feel blessed to be able to make these memories with them, even if I’m extra tired and the bathroom still isn’t as clean as I would like.

This weekend will be more squeezing in of things like: Christmas shopping with the girls for their grandparents/aunts/cousin, taking the girls to a fun Christmas event (Mr. Kringle’s Inventionasium) with our niece, hopefully checking out some Christmas lights, continuing to celebrate Advent, finishing up our Santa shopping, and also having dinner for my mom’s birthday. Followed by a week of continued holiday squeezing in of: Gianna has a Christmas program for school and her class is “going” on the Polar Express (at school, sounds cute!). A Santa breakfast, Christmas party, my mom’s actual birthday and who knows what else awaits us next weekend. And all while we continue to get things ready for baby sister who could decide to arrive at anytime, totally throwing off our holiday squeeze in!

countdown to….. Christmas!

I know that thanksgiving deservers a little respect when it comes to holidays, and believe me, this week I will totally be respecting the turkey, mashed potatoes, pie and all the other goodies that will be served.

I will also be respecting a 4 day weekend (omg, so excited about having 4 days without “work”)

But! BUUUUUUT! Christmas is coming! And if you didn’t know the age of 3.5 is even MORE exciting for celebrations than the age of 2.5.  Gianna is excited for Christmas already, she’s been circling toys in the toy catalogs and talking about all kinds of Christmas stuff already.

Because she is super excited, & super aware o the upcoming festivities, and because this is our last holiday season as a family o’ 3, I really want to make this year that much more special for all of us.

We did elf on the shelf last year (I can’t remember how much I talked about Krista on here, but she was a big hit) on a very mild level.  We would hide her doing silly things and G would look for her in the mornings, that’s about it.  There were no consequences or talk about how Krista was “watching” her.  This year, we may be using that to our advantage. Or not.

One thing that we WILL be doing is having Krista be our messenger for Christmas fun. Sort of like a countdown to Christmas-ish (except, you know, we won’t really be counting anything…. but you get the point).

Some of our holiday activities and special treats include:

• taking Gianna on a mommy date to see the Nutcracker Ballet
• A hot chocolate party with her friends
• a few little Christmas crafts, stickers, coloring books, etc.
• wrapping up all of the holiday books we already for her
• a night to go look at Christmas lights
• a trip to buy small Christmas gifts for her grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousin
• making Christmas ornaments (no idea on this years variety, help?)
• baking cookies (probably sugar, but open to other suggestions here!)
• a girls only holiday slumber party (with my mom, sisters, and our friends)
• possibly going to tuba Christmas
• watching Christmas movies (a’ la Frosty, Rudolph, Miracle on 34th Street)

I am really excited because I think she is totally going to love doing some of these things. And of course, making new memories and starting new traditions is always awesome.

I’m also hoping that incorporating all these little things into Krista’s antics will help me not get so bored with her before Christmas arrives!

We are starting off our Christmas celebration a little bit early though, because today we are going to the local Christmas tree festival.  My apologizes to thanksgiving, but I promise to make it up to you on Thursday. Bring on the turkey.

What are you doing this holiday season? any extra awesome plans or ideas?

A Baby is Brewing: Tea Party Baby Shower

My BFF’s baby shower was a few weeks ago.  Her sister, myself and another friend threw this together – we used pinterest, naturally, and came up with some great décor ideas.

I used this tutorial for the tissue paper pom-poms, it was really easy – but time consuming.  We had lots of different teas and adorable tea pots/cups for everyone to use.

We served finger foods and had a little “tea party” music for background noise.

We had onesie decorating at each table, and they came out so cute!  And had tea bag favors with these cute labels:

We also had baby shower bingo and baby wishes cards for everyone to fill out.

Easy, not corny and somewhat enjoyable for all!

There were so many great gifts – and Dani was glowing the whole time!  I seriously love this part of showers – because the person being “showered” just feels so special and loved, which is the whole point!!

The shower was great. The people were great. And I was so glad that I was able to play such a big role in getting their world ready for a Miss L to join them in a few months!

Wordless Wednesday: Crafty

YES! Time to do some crafts!

Painted toesies for our painted valen-times

Time to add the sparkles!

And then some bonus finger painting

Girlfriend is SERIOUS about her crafting

My Memories Suite: GIVEAWAY!

You know I like to take pictures sometimes, right?

Well I do.

Also, I like to use said pictures around my house as well as for all kinds of other projects and gifts.

Which makes My Memories Suite – Amazon’s & TopTen Reviews #1 rated digital scrapbook software just that, SWEET!

It’s a digital scrapbooking software that is user friendly and really just all around easy to use. Also, a time suck because it is so fun creating things.

But there is more than just digital scrapbooking and album making – you can make really fun collages using all of the different elements, digital paper packs and other fun embellishments.

I made this collage to hang in Gianna’s room:

My Memories Suite allows you to save all of your creations in .jpeg format so you can use them with any album making software or photo printer you prefer.

I also made this little birth announcement for one of my BFF’s with a little help from the just in time kit I downloaded (for FREE!) and of course, the two cuties in the picture!

Another cool thing? All of the digital paper packs and elements you can download from the MyMemories.com store – you can even download them for use with other programs, like photoshop.  There are so many kits, it’s hard to choose!

I want EVERYONE to have an opportunity to see how awesome My Memories Suite Digital Scrapbook software erv $40 is (hello! Christmas presents, Christmas cards etc) and you can win one RIGHT NOW!

Mandatory Entry:

• Visit the Mymemories.com Store and leave a comment telling me your favorite digital scrapbook kit

Extra Entries (leave a separate comment for each!):

• Follow My Memories blog and get great tips on new ways to use the software
• Follow My Memories blog on Facebook or Twitter
• ReTweet this giveaway – be sure to include the phrase “ I want to win @mymemoriessuite digital scrapbook software from @andreamarie528”

Giveaway ends on October 1, 2011 at 11:59pm EST. Please make sure there is a valid email address linked to or within your comment so I can get ahold of you when you win!!

Because I don’t want to leave anyone out of the fun, I have a Share the Memories code that will give EVERYONE a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories suite Scrapbook Software (if you don’t win it!) AND a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store – WOOT!

Pass the code and giveaway entry information along to all of your crafty friends!

Happy Shopping!!!  And Happy Winning!!

My Memories Suite Scrapbook software was provided to me for review and giveaway by My Memories.  All opinions are my own.

Tutu’s and stuff

Holy crap. It’s the last day of March. 11 days until I have a 2 year old.

And that means 10 days until the big “happy tooo you” party!

Let’s talk about said party.

We have GREAT invites made by the wonderful Alison at Ten Tiny Toes Designs:

We have a really cute outfit that includes a pink tutu, new hair bow and this shirt:

And uh, that’s about it?

Food: I have been trying to come up with a menu I like for about 2 weeks with no success. I keep getting as far as chicken fingers w/ dippers (you know, honey & bbq & the like). This week I thought pink lemonade would go with the theme….. Obviously we will need more than just these things.

Suggestions? Anything ballerina –like or just in general tasty is welcome.

For dessert we are having cupcakes and a little cake for G (complete with tutu cake stand!). I am thinking strawberry, black velvet and yellow cake varieties all with pink icing. And for thematic decoration they will be topped with these:

Decorations: grey and pink balloons. Plus I made some tulle pom poms (thanks to these directions) and am pretty excited with how cute they turned out:

I might make one or two more still, we will see! I am recycling last years “happy birthday sign” & covering up the cupcakes with mini tulle pom pom’s! I bought some pink and white tin buckets to put (pink!) silverware in and plan on finding some ballerina –inspired cake plates.

I would love to make some type of centerpiece for the tables (only need 2!) and maybe do some kind of favor for the kids. I found cute little wands for the girls that might work but I’m not sold yet. I thought I could put them in here:

What about for the few boys that will be there?? Suggestions please!

You should SEE the lists I have – one for RSVP’s (helllooo out there, please tell me if you are coming or not!) & one with things I need to do/buy/make/cook etc.

I realize I totally do not need to stress out over this, but I really LOVE party planning and being all crafty when I can. I’ll be excited for the day to get here and for it all to be put together.

And then for time to stand still because OMG I am just not ready for her to turn another year older.