Hello again! I was pretty excited to create a post full of fun and festive photos from the holidays, but a series of unfortunate events left our "happy holidays" slightly less than cheery. I almost abandoned this post completely, but even unfortunate moments are memories and maybe we'll get to laugh at these ones in the future. The far future. This is how the events of our holiday season unraveled.

1. We got a pretty unexpected negative reaction when we made the decision to spend Christmas as a family in our own home instead of travelling to see family like we've done in the past. (Mind you, we live in a separate state and it is always us traveling several hundred miles with a toddler and five year old rather than anyone coming to see us).


2. A few days before Christmas I got a call from my midwife saying that my last test showed a little bacteria, but she couldn't tell if I had an infection so I had to take antibiotics for the next week just in case. Ugh, my pill count just went up from four to six per day.


3. On Christmas Eve, Liana fell on the hardwood floor and her top front teeth went through her bottom lip, leaving her gums purple and bruised, an open wound on the inside of her mouth, a fat lip, and a WHOLE LOT of blood and tears.


4. On Christmas Day, Abel had a crying fit because he didn't want to come visit us for the weekend. He was extremely over tired and super grumpy until he finally fell asleep in the car.





5. On New Year's Eve while visiting friends, Liana tried cranberry juice for the first time. She loved it! Then she vomited several times.


6. Also on New Year's Eve at our friend's house, Liana got her head stuck in between the stair railings. This unleashed a lot of screaming, stomping, and many tears. Within minutes of being freed (Ashton and Chris practically had to pull iron bars a part), a giant egg appeared on the right side of her head above her ear because she panicked and was pulling so hard.


7. On New Year's Day, Liana and I were sick all day. I spent half of the day in bed sleeping. Liana wanted to fight it so she spent the day on and off napping while Ashton dealt with the whiny inconsolable toddler tantrums.


8. On the second day of the new year, it was Ashton’s turn. He spent the entire day in bed after spending most of the previous night sleepless and vomiting. Apparently Liana had passed on her misfortune.


9. To top it all off, Liana has been a bit crankier than normal anyway because, oh guess what, she's teething again! Can she fit any more teeth in her mouth? Well her back molars on the bottom are almost all the way through now. She just has the top two left and teething will finally be over!

Many bloggers participate in a fun little challenge called "blogmas", which means we blog every single day in December. I did not participate last year, as my blog was only three months old, and I am not sure if I will have the time to do so this year. I am already beating myself up about how infrequently I am able to post, however, I am going to take on the challenge anyway and see how far I get.

For my first December post, I decided to make it a bit Christmasy, as well as do a little bit of self promotion. I've been scouring pinterest any time I get a free moment and have been pinning fun Christmasy things like crazy. I am feeling very festive a little early this year since it is Liana's first Christmas and I want it to be a memorable one. I thought I'd share a few pinterest inspired ideas with you all. (Also, be sure to follow me on pinterest for more holiday updates!)



1. Stocking stuffers for babies. This was an automatic re-pin for sure. Click through for fifteen great ideas for what to put in a baby's stocking. (Liana will be getting a few of these!)

2. Christmas crafts for baby. How cute are these? I'd love to do this to keep as a memory of Liana's first Christmas, as well as make a few to give to close family.


3. Unique gift wrapping. These are shown as packaging for cookies, but I think they'd make decent packaging for small children's toys as well since kids have small hands to reach to the bottom and they would probably enjoy shaking it before unwrapping to guess what it is!


4. Handmade ornaments. This is such a cute idea for a Christmas tree ornament. I would think of Liana's "birth day" every time I looked at it. I think it would also be cute to make one each year with new memories in each one. Maybe as the child gets older, let them choose what they want in their "memory ornament".


5. Photographs of the Christmas season. Being a Mum and being a blogger means there is not one single moment that I would want to miss. Here are just a few ideas on ways to capture your Christmas. I've pinned a few other posts as well.


6. Holiday themed treats. This pin has 31 super simple ideas to satisfy your craving for Christmasy snacking. In case you're wondering, no these are not vegan treats, although if I were to make any of them I would substitute ingredients to make them vegan.


7. Family traditions. Creating family traditions is something that is really important to me. My favorite part about Christmas as a kid was when we all opened up one present on Christmas Eve and it was always new pajamas! (Another tradition that my sisters and I created was waking up, scrambling to the living room, emptying out our stockings and then stuffing everything back in before waking our Mom). I'd love to start a tradition like the one pictured above: wrapping 25 children's books and opening one each day in December to read to the kids before bed.

I will definitely be thinking up and pinning more ideas the closer we get to Christmas. Let's hope I put some of these thoughts into action! Check out more ideas on my Christmas board:



What traditions does your family share? What is your favorite holiday treat? What activities do you do with your kids during the holiday season?

The day started off a bit hectic for me, as I promised a coworker that I would make her cookies and I completely forgot the night before even though I had plenty of time. I think I set my alarm for some time before 8am, but ended up ignoring it and going back to sleep. I finally woke up at 8:15 and realized I had to shower, get ready for work, make cookies and be to work by 9:30! I literally ran out of bed and found a pre-made sugar cookie mix in the cupboard, whipped it out, and began stirring as fast as possible. I was mildly disappointed that I couldn't make the cookies form scratch, but at least I had an alternative this late in the game. I also didn't have any cookie cutters so I was standing there, with my hair a mess, cutting little hearts out of the dough with a butter knife! It's a great mental image, I know. I put those in the oven and bolted into the other room to get dressed because now I knew I wasn't going to have time to shower. I sprang back into the kitchen, pulled the cookies out and put them on a plate and stirred up another batch but was too lazy to make hearts again so these were large circles made from the rim of a drinking glass and little squares I cut quickly with the knife. After throwing those in the oven I ran in the other room to finally fix my mess of hair, I pulled my boots and coat on as quickly as possible and flew back to the kitchen in time to take them out of the oven, toss them on a plate, wrap it in tin foil and zip out the door. I was so exhausted from MAKING COOKIES. And I'm sure the whole time the baby was thinking, "Damn, I've never felt Mum move this fast before!"
Needless to say, I was nine minutes late to work. At least I wasn't late enough to get in trouble for attendance. I'd say I made pretty good timing!! I split the batch of cookies in half and brought one plate to work with me and left the other (shown above, and don't mind the slightly burnt corners you see peeking out..) on the counter for Ashton for when he got home from work. Don't worry, I did cover them so they didn't get stale. :P
Ashton and I both had to work on Valentine's Day, but luckily it wasn't terribly late. I got out at 5:30 and was home by 6, and arranged two red roses next to the cookies on the counter. One from me and a tiny one from baby. Although Ashton was out at 4:15, I was still waiting around until almost 7:30 for him to get home!! :( I didn't know what to do with myself so I ended up doing all the dishes, and eventually pulled out a bag of chips and salsa because my appetite got the best of me. He's lucky I didn't start on that plate of cookies before he got home! He finally arrived and brought me a single long-stem rose that I love. ♥
We then made the yummiest burritos for dinner (whole wheat wrap, rice, black beans, jalepenos, pineapple, pepper jack and mozzarella daiya cheese, tofutti sour cream, and mango salsa), and Ashton's sister and her husband stopped by shortly after that. We decided to stay in for the night and later on we ended up falling asleep to one of my Ghibli favorites, Castle in the Sky.

I hope you and your special someone enjoyed your Valentine's Day as well. ♥

I made these giant 3d paper snowflakes at work to decorate above the coffee bar and thought I’d share how to make them. They’re super easy to make and look great hanging up!


Step 1: Cut out 6 squares of the same size and fold them in half to form triangles as shown below. They can be any size depending on how big you want the snowflake to be, but smaller pieces are harder to work with.

Step 2: Fold each triangle from top to bottom, as shown. Then make three parallel cuts from the edge up to the center fold. Make sure not to cut completely through the fold!

Step 3: Open them all the way up and they should look like this!

Step 4: Roll the edges of the inner diamond toward each other and fasten with tape. Skip the second diamond and also fasten the third diamond in the same way.

Step 5: Flip the piece over, face-down, and tape the remaining diamonds the same way as the first two. It should end up looking like this:

Step 6: After making three of these, pinch the ends and staple them together.

Step 7: Repeat step 6 with the remaining three pieces, then pinch the stapled ends together (shown below) and fasten these two together using a third staple. A mini stapler works best here.

Step 8: Roll small pieces of tape inside out (shown below) and place them between the arms of the snowflake. In the circled areas below you will see arms taped and not yet taped.

That’s it! You’ve successfully made a 3d paper snowflake!

Now try experimenting with different colored paper and different sizes. Also try using a glitter or shimmer spray on them to add a little sparkle! Enjoy!