Easter

Since it's been my goal to get the "Easter" blog post up before the weekend, I'm going to have to hash this out in warp speed. My big girl gets off the bus in 30 minutes, and my little girl wakes up from her nap in 15. And I really want to go get my Diet Dr. Pepper out of the fridge from lunch.

So...let's get down to business.

Aubrey found some clip-on earrings, which you will see in all the following Easter pictures.

She said the jewelry really completed her outfit.

She's 6 going 16, obviously. 

And this one, oh my goodness, she's something else too...

These two are so vastly different.

One's Type A, Miss Perfectionist, BOSSY.
The other one is a free spirit, Miss Fearless, LOVE-BUG.
I'm totally obsessed with them both.

And as different as they might be...they are absolutely perfect for each-other.

After church and the drive to grandparents -- the girls had a fun surprise awaiting.

My aunt brought her bunny (named Clover, how stinkin' cute is that?!) over for the day.

It just doesn't get much better when there's a real-life bunny on Easter...

After lots of bunny love (and pics), it was time for the highly anticipated Egg Hunt!

Thank the good Lord above that this child found the Golden Egg. 

She had talked non-stop for two days about how a boy from her class found the school's Golden Egg, and how utterly devastated she was that she didn't find it. 

She doesn't handle disappointment well. 

Victory, on the other hand...

"Ooooh, $5! Just think of all the clip-on earrings I can buy!"

It was a good, good day.

Keepin' It Real Christmas

I've been trying to conjure up the energy to tackle the "Christmas" post.

As I scrolled through all my iphone photos (kicking myself for never once taking out my "good" camera), I realized why I took down all our Christmas decorations on Dec. 26th.

This year's holiday season felt like being strapped on a non-stop roller-coaster.
And, truth be told, I'm glad it's over.

As a time saver, I thought about just dumping all the Christmas photos into this post and calling it a day.
But then I realized it would give the appearance of a happy little Christmas holiday where everything went perfectly wonderful.
And that was not the case for the majority of our holiday season.

Nothing truly "bad" happened, but it just seemed like a lot of the happy was followed by a downer.

Here are just a few examples:

Happy: Christmas Break!

Downer: Aubrey getting her very first ear infection the first day off.

Happy: Christmas cards!

Downer: Realizing I didn't order nearly enough 5 days before Christmas.

Happy: Visiting our cute, decorated downtown and getting to sit on Santa's lap!

Downer: Waiting for over 45 minutes next to the world's most annoying stranger in the freezing cold for the free carriage ride that lasted all of 7 minutes.

Happy: Impromptu tickets / date with Aubrey to a musical performance of Rudolph.

Downer: Aubrey crying buckets of tears because we didn't get a "Clarice" stuffed animal during intermission.

Happy: Drive-thru Christmas light displays!

Downer: Arriving an hour too early, having to go back home and come back later.

Happy: Deciding to put up Christmas lights outside!

Downer: These two coming home with this and (unrelated to that multi-light tree) our outdoor electrical unit shorting out -- again.

Happy: Fun treats for Aubrey's class Christmas party!

Downer: Making them the day before and noticing the next morning that the bananas had turned brown and the marshmallow tops were super soggy thus having to redo it all.

Happy: Traveling and spending Christmas Eve with family!

Downer: Coming down with a horrible cold that day.

Happy: Waking up on Christmas morning!

Downer: Waking up on Christmas morning. ;)

See what I mean?

Well, let's end on a few good notes, shall we?

I'll start it off with my absolute favorite part of this Christmas season...

Our Tree!

Aubrey came up with the idea to make a "Fruits of the Spirit" Christmas tree. 

So instead of pulling out all our ornaments -- we dried some fruit in the oven, made cinnamon ornaments and stamped out a fruit of the Spirit on each one, hot glued some cinnamon sticks together for stars, and strung popcorn and cranberry garlands.

And even this project didn't go smoothly! Our first batch of cinnamon ornaments had to be thrown out and remade because I somehow managed to botch the world's easiest 2-ingredient recipe!

But who cares...seeing her happiness in this photo made it all worth it. 

Some other positives over the holiday season...

These girls (despite having sibling quarrels at least once a day) loved getting to be home together. This is one of the few photos over the break of them NOT still in their jammies. 

Going to Patti's to see the lights and Santa again...

and Ms. Claus...

Two school Christmas programs with the cutest donkey and the prettiest dancing snowflake...

Christmas night...

 (Aubrey: telescope, accordion, craft kit, make-up kit, And Then story starters, and Clarice ;)) // (Mina: unicorn scooter, helmet, snow glow Elsa, Elsa/Anna Barbies, The Whale and the Snail, and Rudolph) Not Pictured: Cardboard Castle / Pirate Ship

And Christmas morning...

And our traditional scraggily family Christmas morning photo...

 And, of course, we cannot forget...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!

As I started to feel sad about how a lot of things didn't go exactly as I had hoped, I thought about the very first Christmas hundreds of years ago...

I'm guessing Mary didn't envision giving birth to the Messiah mere feet from donkey manure, so obviously I am not the first one to have a few crappy moments during the holidays.

Now can I get a CHEERS! for 2015?!

Less than a year away from the next imperfect Christmas! :)

Oh yeah, Thanksgiving!

How on earth is it already December 9th?

Good grief.

So. Um.

Thanksgiving was a decade ago, apparently.

But it was super fun, with some Pinterest inspiration thrown in by Grammy.

It was hard to get any true photos during the festivities because Aunt Mel and I were wrangling our wild turkeys the majority of the time...

 But the day was certainly filled with lots of love, gratitude, and delicious food.

Which is exactly what makes Thanksgiving so wonderful!

Fall Break

We took a little trip last weekend to visit family and kickstart the girls' Fall Break.

Lots of fun going to the apple orchard, riding ponies, feeding the animals, corn mazes, rubber duck races, Aubrey going "deering" with Pop Pop, and just enjoying this amazing FALL weather all together. It was such a great start to Fall Break...