december maddness

this was the best christmas I remember having as an adult we had lots of family time, fun food and really got to enjoy teaching Gracie about baby Jesus. This has really been an incredible month and here is a massive update! For christmas my mother in law gave me a book "hello, cupcake" this was my first try to make cute cupcakes and i was pretty excited to show them off i don't very oftem doing creative baking so this was a blast!

Christmas was a blast we spent the day with my family doing a big "dinner" at 2:00 but the rest of the day the kids played with their toys we watched the barbie movie gracie got 3 times and just enjoyed family time it was amazing!!

Christmas this year was a blast christmas eve we spent playing in the snow then we came in to get ready to go to ryan's parents house for dinner then home to wait for santa!

Fin is crawling all over the house he loves his freedom but i am constantly chasing him trying to keep up with is curiousity is a full time job and yes he is eating the soap, what can i say at least he isn't a picky eater.... She loves the snow ans loves to play in it i am convinced that she just doesn't mind the cold at all (she definately gets that from her dad I am a huge wimp)

I love watching her get ready and with so many haloiday parties she was in girly heaven!!

Every year i want to try and get a picture in front of the tree this was our first year and i love it!

we celebrated ryan's 27th birthday this month is was so much fun and with Gracie going through such a princess phase she insisted on either this crown cake or a castle cake for his birthday and then was my big helper making it. Side note she is wearing her princess ariel dress that her grandma made her for halloween, she really wanted to be a mermaid so ry's mom made her this princess dress with a purple top and aqua bottom and she still wears it at least once everyday!!!

kiddos

It is such a fun and busy time of year things have been insane but I have to take just a minute to update a little bit about my kiddos they have become such good buddies and are growing up so much! Gracie is going through a crazy obsessed princess stage involving all things girly from curlers and lipgloss to high hill and every kind of dress she can find. A few nights ago she woke me up in tears because she was wearing her bell dress and wanted to change into her snow white one so we got up and found the snow white dress and the shoes (the loud plastic ones with sharp hills) the necklace and lipgloss we pulled her sides back and put a big red bow in her hair after a careful inspection in the mirror to make sure that everything was perfect she danced around a few times and then went peacefully back to bedstill completely decked out!!! Finley is as always completely perfect he has however decided to hibernate this winter i have never seen a baby sleep so much he wakes up around 8-8:30 is down for a nap by 10 sleeps until 1 is back down by 2:30 we wake him up for dinner at 5 and then we try to keep him up until 7:30 but sometimes he is too sleepy and can't last that long!!!! I want to hibernate too!!

november??

wow has november already come and gone! this in insane sadly we've lost our camera so I don't have pictures to post an update but wow i loved november even if it went way too fast despite everyone i know being sick through at least part of the month it was a blast and ryan and i got to go see the movie blindside which i loved!! and now it's december and i am ready for some winter fun!! i'll post pictures as soon as i figure out how to with our new camera

an amazing autumn

This has been an amazing autumn I feel like we have really done everything that we wanted to do from pumpkin cookies to marshmellow ghosts everything has been perfect here is just a little update on our fall!

oh fall

I love fall but this year when my mom pulled out the halloween decorations gracie became instantly attached to "Frankin" he's a "funny monners" he eats with us, they watch movies together and she even sleeps with him at night I really hope this is a short phase she's going through

he's had a cold but he's getting better now

end of summer

usually I start getting the end of summer blues this time of year but this year we have packed in so much this summer: hiking, camping, bike rides, bbq's, golf, swimming, fishing, playing baseball, s mores, family vacations, canoeing, 4 wheeling, family parties, playing in the rain, slip & slides, fireworks dinosaur musems, the zoo, the gardens, . I honestly could not have asked for a better summer and am really looking forward to fall it feels like it is just around the cornor and for the first time in my life I am actually ready to say goodbye to summer!!

random fun pictures

Gracie loves to get Finley toys to plan with and he loves it too he loves any kind of attention she will give him the other day when i was on the phone with Ryan I came in and Gracie had him covered in these animals watching a movie with him.

Gracie has decided that it's her job to wake fin up whenever he is alseep she climbs in his

crib and jumps on him so this picture is blurry because the bed is still bouncing a little but he loves being woken up to play

Six lakes was amazing!!!! need I say more!!

Finley really needs some guy friends he's a good sport but he really needs to do some boy things

He looks like such a big boy here I love it!!!

the best summer ever

I honestly have had the bext summer of my life this has been so fun and busy and the kids are doing amazing between hiking, camping, bike rides, a 5k, the zoo, the gardens, swimming, bbq's, and rainstorms time is flying so fast it's insane so I really haven't had anytime to blog so here is a massive attempt at catching up and showing off some rescent pictures of my kiddos!!

he looks so serious but really he is so sweet and has the best laugh and is always so happy but he looks grumpy.

She is such a little water bug, she is not scared at all of anything water related and is trying to swim on her own! next summer we want to do swim lessons i'm excited.

She already knows how to make s'mores all by herself which really just means that we have them way too much1

the horse licked he head so she is annoyed with him but she loves feeding the animals at the petting zoo and she really loves the goats and the cow.

camping was so much fun i loved every minute of it I never thought i would hear myself say that

He really doesn't like his bumbo i think he thinks he is in trouble or something in some kind of time out it's cute and yes i continue to make him use it so that he can eventually learn to sit up on his own!

He loves to sleep i think that is the only thing i've passed on to him and i am so proud

here she is again loving the water

we went bowling as a huge family with a ton of kids and 4 teams it was so much fun i can't wait to do it again!

at the zoo

she is going through this funny tutu phase where she always wants to wear pink tutu's i think it's addorable

hiking!! yes we went hiking and i made it i didn't even whine (too much!)

almost 2

I am so excited we getting closer to her 2nd birthday and she is growing so fast everyday is so exciting I love her personality here are a few of her favorite things: Dancing, playing outside, anything involving water, cocoa, sleeping in mom and dad's bed, elmo, singing, grandpa beckstead, jumping on the tramp, stuffed animals, cuddling with her dad and Fin she loves him so much it's so sweet!