Everly lost her first tooth!

Last week, just a couple of days before Christmas, I got a text from Justin while I was at the gym. Everly had finally lost her first tooth. She turned 6 back in October and still hadn't lost a tooth yet. Well, at least not naturally. Almost exactly 3 years ago in my last week of maternity leave with Aspen, Everly had a fall and chipped her tooth and then a couple of months later we had to pull that tooth because the root was damaged. You can read about it HERE and HERE. So now she actually has a two tooth gap in the front on the bottom but it is really cute. Neither Justin or I had any cash so I told him to pull one of the little shopkins out of Aspen's stocking and put it under Everly's pillow. When I got home from the gym we told her to go look under her pillow and she was totally surprised and excited. She didn't even care that it wasn't money. She is getting so grown up!

Happy Birthday Teddy!

Last week we celebrated Teddy's 5th birthday with a party at Pump it Up in Peoria. This is the same place we had the girls party in the fall so they were excited to go back. It was kind of a nuts week with getting ready for the holidays and everything but the kids had a blast. It was funny to see Teddy interact with his little school friends. The kids burned a ton of energy and Teddy got lots of legos so it was a successful night!

Merry Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas! I had only 2 different Christmas cards this year but I wanted to make sure I shared them here. The fancy one is from Shutterfly and was my first time doing a card that opened up like a door. I really liked it. The second is from Costco and I actually typed Aspen's name wrong on the first order so I had to redo them. Thankfully, they are only $15. I love our pictures this year so it was really easy to make good Christmas cards! You can see some of our previous Christmas cards HERE.

Christmas at the Princess 2017

This year was our third year attending Christmas at the Princess. This event can get really busy so this year we made it a point to go on a week night. While that is hard to manage with all of the kids school activities and extracurriculars, it was totally worth it. We went on Monday and we could tell immediately as we drove up it was going to be a better experience. Last year I believe we went on a Sunday night and could barely get a parking spot. You can see our previous trips HERE. It has gotten much more expensive than the first year and there are no more "value night" but they have added things so I guess at least you are getting more. We had a lot of fun and I am glad we were able to make time for it again this year!

that's a can of la croix incase you were wondering

 

 

the cutest elves

we bring our own s'mores supplies

Board & Brush

My sister had been out of town on her actual birthday so we had a delayed celebration last weekend with a lunch and girls day out at Board & Brush. We had been wanting to go here for a while and after seeing a really good black Friday deal it seemed like the perfect time to go. We made the small sign but it is still a really good size (12x16 or 6x24). We also all did holiday signs but you could have done anything. The instructors are very helpful and it is really fun. They provide everything you need to make a custom sign for yourself. We had done a day workshop but if you do one after 4 you can even bring your own drinks in. I think our signs turned out really cute and it was a fun afternoon.

Soccer Weekend

Last weekend was another soccer filled weekend for both Everly and myself. Everly had a game Saturday morning and won and then I went straight from her game to my 6 v6 tournament. I wasn't really quite sure how far we were going to go in the tournament but we ended up winning the whole thing. Not bad considering we barely put the team together just earlier in the week. I was soooo exhausted by the end of the last game. They were short games but we had like 6 I think. I had just enough time after we won to get one quick beer with the team before heading over to Everly's second game for the day. She won her second game as well but really didn't seem to get involved as much as I would have liked. Sunday morning we woke up to rain and her game was delayed an hour. I needed that extra sleep. She played much better in her last game. She had one goal and several other shots that were just wide. I just wish it didn't take her 3 games to warm up!

Aspen comes for the donuts!

Such a fun weekend with these guys!

Christmas Performances

Last week both Aspen and Everly had Christmas performances at their schools. Aspen's was first on Wednesday and she did absolutely horrible. She does things on her own terms and is shy so singing in front of people was not going to happen. The thing is, she sings all of the time at home and loves dancing and had been singing the Christmas songs they were working on so it would have been so cute. After her failed performance, Justin and I stayed and had a cookie with her before heading back to work. Maybe next year?

 

Everly's performance was on Thursday night. My mom and Nora came and Everly did great. I do wish they used music for this performance, but the kids were still cute. Everly had been working hard to remember all of the songs and was not shy or nervous. She loved being up on stage with her friends and we are so proud of her. I compiled some of the clips into a cute video. Can't believe Christmas is a week away!

 

Nora is such a good little cousin!

Illumination AZ

Monday night we went to Illumination AZ up off of the 17 and Jomax. It is the first year for this event so it was new to us. We went after Everly got done with soccer practice and caravanned with my mom and sister up to the lights. It was probably an 8-ish minute wait to get through the line so that was not too bad but it was a Monday and I have heard it is much busier on the weekends. The kids liked it, especially when they played a Frozen song. The lights were cool. Nothing mind blowing but they were cool. Once you get done there is an area to park and walk around and take some pictures with some light structures. We got out but we weren't really prepared for it so we didn't stay long. Nora fell asleep, Cameron had no shoes, Everly and Teddy were in flip flops, and then the kids had to pee so we just called it a loss. They did have some snacks, games and bounce houses so it looked decent. This year I am learning that we can't do every single Christmas activity that we want to. There are just so many things going on but we do what we can! Here is a little video and some photos.