Christmas morning magic-- a little video!

Some Christmas morning magic! This was the first year where Cole actually understood that Santa was coming. He ran into our room early Christmas morning saying "MOM! SANTA ALREADY SNEAKED INTO OUR HOUSE!!!" We had left some cookies out for Santa and a couple of apples for his reindeer and he saw that they'd been bitten into.

Christmas sure is a lot of fun with a four year old :)

I know that Christmas isn't all about Santa and presents (although those things are super fun!) We did tell Cole the Christmas story many times and he's got it down pretty well now ;) One of my favorite Christmas videos put out this year was the one below. We would play this on repeat on the tv and every time the scene with baby Jesus came on Cole would excitedly say "It's baby Jesus!!!" I am so grateful for my Savior this holiday season and always and hope that my boys will always know that HE is the true meaning of Christmas and the whole reason why we celebrate it in the first place.

You are my wild, pt. 3--Christmas jammies edition

I haven't done one of these in a while, I really should photograph every day life with my kids more! This is the first You are my wild featuring Logan!! Now that Logan is hardly a baby anymore and practically a toddler, Cole and Logan are able to play together more. I let them jump and wrestle around on my bed yesterday and they couldn't have been happier. It didn't hurt that they were both in their matching Christmas jammies. Yesterday was a "wear your jammies all day" kind of day. It was pretty dang cute to watch them running around in those gray and red stripes all day. And it all ended with nap time! (my favorite!!) I'm so grateful to have these boys and I'm grateful they have each other ♥


You are my wild, pt. 1
You are my wild, pt. 2

Merry Christmas.

+Cole's snowman Chritsmas craft (which I probably did about 80% of ;)

+homemade potpourri!! It doesn't look as great as it smells!! All it is is cut up oranges, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla extract. Add some water and bring it to a boil! Mmmm. It sure makes the house smell like Christmas.

+white chocolate dipped ginger snaps! I might have gone a little overboard photographing these babies but they were just so pretty and more importantly, they are SO GOOD. You can find the recipe for it HERE. I've seriously never tasted better :) Cole was supposed to help me make these but all he felt like doing was measuring the baking soda for me and then he was done. haha. This boy does not necessarily like to bake or craft as much as I try to get him to do it ;) We left these cookies out for Santa to eat, Cole was excited about that.

+And my boys matching in their Christmas jammies! I thought they looked so cute in them! Cole is actually completely obsessed with wearing pajamas lately. It is all he wants to wear! All the time! And it drives me a little crazy. The minute we come home from somewhere, he immediately takes off his clothes and puts on his jammies. And even when we go to Steve's parents, he likes to wear his jammies underneath his clothes so that he can just take his clothes off once we get there. Half the time it's a battle even getting him to put clothes on before we leave the house and it's getting exhausting! I'm just hoping this is something he grows out of haha. But all of this was to say that I think those striped Christmas jammies and those gray slippers were one of his favorite presents this year!

And here's few from my phone for good measure! :)


^^Family picture time!! I'm lucky I get to call those good-looking boys mine :)^^

^^My cherry red lips and his cherry red nose ;)^^

^^Steve MADE them this hockey net for Christmas! He was so excited about it, it was so cute. The boys loved it too :)^^

Happy fourth birthday, Nicholas Stephen!

Oh Cole. Where do I start?! I guess I'll start with these pictures: You are the most adorable, handsome little boy. Sometimes I look at you and can hardly believe that you came from me. I never ever in my life thought that I'd have such a beautiful boy as my own son. Gosh, I love you ♥

Looks aren't everything though, of course I know that :) You are such a good boy too. A genuinely good boy. You are our first child and so daddy and I are still trying to figure out the best parenting style for you. So when you act out or misbehave, we blame ourselves. We know deep down that you are a very sweet boy. You love your little brother. You love to play with friends. You love all sports and being active. You don't like baking or crafting anymore (tear!). You love to tell me that you love me and you look up to daddy so much. I think you can't wait to be just like him some day. One of my favorite things that you do right now is when you snuggle me at bedtime, look me deep in the eyes and say "Mommy, you're the best." I don't know where you learned that phrase from but it melts my heart ♥

Being a good example and a leader to your little brother is what motivates you. Us telling you that your muscles will grow big and strong motivates you to finish all of your dinner ;) You can't wait to be tall and to be a "man" :) You're even looking forward to growing hair on your arms and legs! Ha!

I'm so lucky to be your mama and can hardly believe I've been doing this mom thing for 4 years now. Happy Birthday, Cole! You make me a very happy mama :)

Then and now.

As of yesterday, Logan is officially one! The first video is of the boys a couple days after Logan was born, and the second video was taken about a week and a half ago. I don't film them enough, but they are a year older now and sometimes it's nice to see how much they've grown and these videos make it easier to see. I love my one year old and my almost four year old!!

A very foxy first birthday party!

I decided on a fox themed party because my mom sent Logan his birthday present in the mail a few weeks ago and when we opened the package there was the cutest fox pillow and then a fox beanie with some fox mittens inside. So it just dawned on me that we needed to do a fox party! Logan is born in the fall and foxes seem to be a very fall-like animal :) Not to mention I found this fox cake on pinterest and I knew that I wanted to copy it! I also got the fox cupcake idea off of pinterest but just sorta tweaked them and made them with wafer cookies for ears and real frosting instead of fondant. (because ew, fondant is gross! ;) I think mine turned out cuter anyway!

Making the cake and the cupcakes was probably the funnest thing for me. I remember thinking while making them Now this is what makes being a mom so fun!  I'm lucky to have two of the cutest munchkins to plan parties for!

I planned to have his party a whole week before his actual birthday because we're going out of town to visit Marie and her family for thanksgiving and I knew that once we got back it would be December already. And I knew once December hit, if I hadn't had a party for him it just wasn't going to happen! But skipping a FIRST birthday party would be so sad! So he will actually turn one on Sunday and I will probably post more pictures then too ;)

We had a few friends and Steve's family come for cake and ice cream. It wasn't too huge but our house isn't huge either so with all the kids running around it was a little crazy. Logan (and Cole too) loved it! Logan always wants to be in the middle of the action, even if they are much much bigger than him. When we sang him happy birthday, he was wide eyed, not sure what was going on. But when I gave him his cupcake, there was no hesitation. He devoured the entire thing! So unlike how Cole was when he turned one! (click here to see his first birthday monkey party post!)



Happy birthday Logan! How we love you SOSOSO much. I can't believe my baby is (almost) ONE!

And here's the invitation I put together and then just texted this image to people. I found the fox and mushroom icons free to download on pinterest so download them I did! It was super easy to put together and I thought it turned out cute :)