The coolest Christmas present!

Kit has become an amazing photographer.  I love how he sees things through a lens and the images that he is able to capture.  I am always trying to learn from him on how to get a great shot.

For Christmas, Kit took a photo shoot of Ryder on our favorite Fullerton trail and made canvas art out of them for me.  Here are some of the images from the day: 

So here is what Kit created:

He went with black and white since all of our wall photos are in that color scheme:

We picked a wall that we can add to and move things around so that when miss Eden arrives, she can get here up there too.  I LOVE our new picture wall.  Kit, thank you so much for creating these for me.  I love them!
I hope that you have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy New Year!  
(We will be getting our carpet on monday so hopefully we will have some pictures by tuesday or wednesday of the new carpet!)

New carpet!

We are ringing in the new year with new carpet! (Literally, it will be installed on january 2!)  Today the measuring man is coming... We are so excited to have it all new and clean for our kiddos.  Truthfully it is long overdue and we are happy that we are able to do it before Miss Eden gets here...

Here are the rooms before:

(Eden's)

(Ryder's)

Here is a sample of the new carpet:

Ryder liked our choice:

Here it is up close:

The color is perfect with all of our paint choices and we can't wait to get it all in!

We can't wait to share the "After" photos with you.

some christmas photos

We had a wonderful Christmas! It ended up being really low key and relaxed at my parents house, filled with lots of AMAZING food (pasta of course), lots of laughter and some quality family time.  Ryder can not get enough of his cousins...  He loves them so much and is always so distraught when they have to leave. 

The cousins!

Getting them all in one place at one time can feel like a circus, but they did a great job this year:

My sister and brother-in-law:

Ryder opening his stocking and discovering fish crackers... 

he was THRILLED!

 Our present to my parents:  thank you ETSY for being so amazing!

I went in with my parents and Kit's parents to get Kit an iPad:  

(The lighting is horrible, but he was so surprised and so excited, I had to try to catch a picture!)I am doing a separate post on Kit's gift to me, it was that special and significant!

Our annual family picture by the tree:

We can't wait to add miss Eden Marie next year!

Speaking of Miss Eden Marie, we got to see her little face on 4D yesterday, and we think that she looks just like Ryder's ultrasound pictures.  Here is a sneak peak at our baby girl.  For those, like us, that are still in denial that we could be having a girl, we saw it in 4D, and she is DEFINITELY a she.  That would be the fourth ultrasound to confirm and my mom has NEVER been wrong in almost 35 years. We still can't believe it!

I'm convinced she is laughing in this one:

 Sleepy baby:

 She sleeps like her dad and her brother: hand over her face:

We are 30 weeks and she is measuring almost 1 1/2 weeks ahead of schedule and is measuring to weigh over 4 pounds at this point.  YIKES! 

Baby girl~

We love you so much and we are so excited for your arrival.  We can't wait for you to get here so that we can meet you!  You are wanted, you have waited for you and you are so very LOVED!

unexpected blessings:holiday weekend recap

On Christmas Eve, Ryder and I were on our way to meet Kit at church to attend our Christmas eve service.  As we were getting in the car, Kit called and said that he was on his way home with a fever, and the inability to keep anything in his system.

So Kit got home about 1:30 pm and went to sleep until about 8pm, feeling sick and weak... I felt so bad for the poor guy. Ryder was in a bit of a teething funk and had decided that he wasn't really going to nap that day.   So Ryder and I tried to make some fun holiday memories by taking toffee and tangelos to our neighbors, watching Christmas movies, and reading the Christmas story and other Christmas books while he played with his toys... It just didn't feel right with Kit out of commission.  I have to be honest, as the day went on, my attitude went downhill fast.  I was bummed I had to work the following day, Kit was miserable, and I did not feel the holiday spirit.  We had Dino nuggets, pastina, and bananas for dinner and I kept thinking "What if this is Ryder's first Christmas memory? No Kit, no special meal, and a grumpy mom... "  Blah!  (Ryder LOVES Dino nuggets so he was as content as can be...)

But then, after I got Ryder bathed, Kit came out and we read the Jesus Storybook bible and the Luke 2 passage with Ryder and it seemed to bring me out of my funk.  We sat by our lit tree and Ryder was so excited to see Kit and he sat with him and pointed out his favorite pictures in his bible...  It brought the whole meaning of Christmas to the forefront.  It was a nice way to end a not so fun Christmas eve. (Unexpected blessing #1.)

Then, on Christmas morning, I was called off of work.  I WAS THRILLED! (Unexpected blessing #2).  Then when Kit woke up he was really weak, but didn't have a fever and was able to keep water in.  (Unexpected blessing #3.) Then,  Ryder woke up in the most delightful, non-teething, happy spirit.  (Unexpected blessing #4.)  We made waffles (Kit took it pretty easy) but Ryder and I LOVED them!  Especially since at that point in the day, I would have already put in about three hours at work, being home was such a joy.

  

We videoed Ryder opening presents and Kit was able to be with us, even though he wasn't feeling the best, we were all together (Unexpected blessing #5.)  Ryder got a really cool car from Kit's parents and he LOVED it!  He will get so much joy from this... Thank you Eric and Diane!

We got Ryder a play tool set from Costco and his favorite was the drill.  It lights up and spins and is about the same size as one of Kit's Makita drills.  My walls are very happy that Ryder has found a substitute for the real thing...  He walked around wearing the tool belt, just looking for "house projects" that he could tackle.  When he couldn't find any, the default was to drill his belly button.

Both of the guys napped and rested and that is a HUGE blessing in itself!  It makes the day so much better... (Unexpected blessing #6.)

Our neighbors made us an amazing meal, since they thought that Kit would be home alone with Ryder, so I got to join in the festivities. (Unexpected blessing #7.)  We were able to get to my parents house way earlier than if I had worked, which gave us more family time. (Unexpected blessing #8.)

We are planning to be with family the next few days, which will be really nice and Kit is off the WHOLE WEEK!  

The only thing we have on the schedule is time with family and my mom is doing a 4D ultrasound on Tuesday.

We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and I am sure we will have more updates after our time away...

See you later!

Toffee!

Today we made English toffee, a recipe from Kit's Grandpa.

 

Ryder getting in on the double boiler action...

This is our second year making it and we absolutely LOVE this stuff!  We are excited to share this with our family and friends.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend celebrating the birth of Jesus and getting to be with people you love!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!
We will see you next week!

good morning!

Eden and I woke up a little early this morning, but we feel really rested.  I have been a little under the weather this week, and aside from a cough that does not seem to want to go away, I woke up feeling better than I have in a several days.

The guys are still sleeping and our christmas tree is lit, christmas music is playing and I am having some fun perusing blogs and Pinterest while wearing my big cozy sweater and drinking some hot decaf.

 Mint Basil soy candles at Target... 

I love this scent!

Soon Ryder will wake up and I will bring him in bed with Kit and I and we will get some good snuggle time.

The only thing we have on the schedule for today is making our Grandpa Pierce's recipe for english toffee for this weekend.   

I am already LOVING today!

A little Christmas crafting and haircut

Kit gave Ryder his first "at home" haircut: with kitchen scissors.

It was getting so long and since his Aunt Megan recently moved, we had to do our best.

 Kit did an amazing job... 

Is there anything he can't do?

The little man looks like such a big kid!

This big kid has been taking about 3 hour naps and I try to get myself organized so that I can utilize the time as best I can, especially with little projects that are not great for Ryder to be around. (Like projects that require the glue gun, staple gun, paper cutter... you get the idea...)

So yesterday I tackled a project that I had seen on Pinterest and it was so fun!

I started off by getting a carmel apple spice cider from Starbucks. So good! 

Then after making a trip to the fabric store for fabrics, I made these little flower pins.

 

I have an idea to put them on a head band or beanie for Eden, on a necklace or for it just to be worn as a pin...  I can't wait.  They might be making it in some Christmas stockings...

advent devotionals

The Advent Jesse Tree devotional came today and we are really excited to start a family tradition with it.  I will be honest, I think It would be more appropriate for next year when Ryder is almost three, but I am just going to change it a little bit for my little man. 

There are so many amazing advent celebrations out there and we are excited to bring this one in...

(If there is one that you do, I would love to know about it too...)

C9 lights and Contractor's Paper

Last year, we stocked up on the C9 lights for our house.  We had done white lights for years, and thought it would be fun to do something different...

This year, Kit incorporated our tree and our fence into the lighting.  

I love coming home to seeing the house so bright!

It makes us so happy!

Thank you Kit for doing all the hard work!
Also this year, I decided that I wanted to try to think outside the box when it came to wrapping paper.  Enter a trip to the home improvement store.
I found a HUGE roll of this contractor's paper and twine.
(I am sure that I will be using this for MANY presents, with 140 feet, I am sure that I will be wrapping Ryder's graduation presents with this stuff...)

 I made the tags out of the chalkboard contact paper I had from Michael's with the punch I had from my scrapbooking stuff:

 The finished product:

It is very simple and I love with how it came out.  I was trying to think of how I could get a sprig of greenery in there, but will have to wait until closer to Christmas.  I am thinking maybe some rosemary from our yard...  We will see.
 Wrapping gifts is so much fun!  Thinking of each gift for that special person and then getting to give it to them... 
It's the best!
I hope that you are having a wonderful time in preparation for special time with family and friends!
May this time be merry and BRIGHT!