Sorelle

My beautiful niece Sorelle asked me to take her Senior portraits last year.  I'm finally posting them.  She's off at college now and we miss her like crazy.  When Jon and I were first married we used to have her and her sisters over for sleepovers quite regularly.  So much fun. Then overnight it seemed she grew up!  She drives a little red mini cooper and even though she's far away right now when we drive around town and lily spots a small red car she screams. "Rell!!!"  We love her.  A lot.   

Sorelley, we miss you.  xoxo

Little Friends

One of my favorite things about being a mom has been watching my girls develop friendships.  It is one of the sweetest and cutest things to witness.  They go from their entire world consisting just of mom and dad and siblings to discovering independence and fun away from us.  These are a few of Lily's friends. She has a playgroup with them every Thursday. It's the highlight of her week and she talks about these little friends constantly.  I'm hoping no one moves away and that they will be friends for a long, long time.  I took this picture with my phone so it's a tad grainy but as time goes on it will be a fun memory for sure.  

The Morning After

I just ran across this picture of my Gwenners.  It makes me smile.  This was the morning after the school Halloween carnival.  She was a pirate but had her face painted like a bunny at one of the booths. I remember walking downstairs and seeing her on the couch with crazy bed head and watching cartoons with all that face paint still on and her carnival wristband still holding strong.  

I sure love her.  

Girly Girls

For Christmas Santa brought the girls these adorable dolls.  Elle's is a snorkeling doll, Gwen's is a ballerina and Lily's is a princess.  Santa must really know them.  They can't get enough of them. It's the one "toy" I never mind buying because they really never tire of them.  The American Girl dolls that Santa brought last year are also just as much fun to them (that's gwen's AG doll in the top picture).  Even my 8 year old Elle will play "babies" (as they refer to it) for hours.
There is no lack of pink, dollies, kitchen toys or the like around here.  Lily had a little boy over for a playdate and the first thing she said when he walked in the door was, "hey, you wanna play babies?"
I wouldn't change a thing.  

Christmas Party

Jon and I were put in charge of our ward's Christmas party at church.  It completely stressed me out to begin with but as soon as I got my bearings it ended up being a lot of fun.  I was so busy with it that I forgot to take any really decent pictures.  (huge bummer)

We had A Christmas Breakfast which was fun complete with a cereal bar for kids and donut holes and then breakfast egg casseroles, fruit kabobs and cinnamon rolls for the adults.

I decorated the tables with white table cloths and then used kraft paper as the table toppers.  We put little felt Christmas themed buckets on each table filled with crayons so that kids (and adults) could color during breakfast.  Half of the tables I put small faux Christmas trees with burlap wrapped bottoms and then tied red and white striped grosgrain ribbon bows on the top of each.  The other tables I used glass vases of different shapes and sizes with green moss inside, battery lit "flickering" candles and again tied with the red and white striped grosgrain ribbons.  

I knew from the very beginning that since it was going to be in the gym I had to somehow "drop" the ceiling.

I enlisted Jon and he and our friend Paul strung white twinkling lights the whole length of the gym.  

We turned off all the lights and so the main light in the room was from the christmas lights and then the candles in the vases.  It looked so pretty.

My friend Missy was INCREDIBLE and I could NOT have done it without her.  We put together 90 gingerbread houses for the primary children to decorate.  

The primary kids put on a short Nativity which was so sweet and my friend Missy and I found the most hilarious backdrop in a closet at church that I think was used behind Santa Claus one year for photos.  We set up a brown couch in front of it and had a bunch of little props as well.  We had family portraits taken by my dad who came and set up lights and then had a link where families could download the pictures after the party (the picture of our family shown above is just one off of my phone.  the real ones were great). It was an "ugly sweater" breakfast so the pictures turned out pretty funny.  Missy made an amazing Christmas mix which we had playing --- music makes everything more fun.
So much fun but also so much work.  I was honestly most relieved when it was over.
A fun memory for sure.