The Polar Express

I love that I am just now getting all caught up with our holiday fun on my blog.  Blogger fail.  But it must be documented...I have too much fun looking back!

So on December 1, on the tenth anniversary of Frank's passing, my mom brought all of her kids and all of her grandchildren to go on The Polar Express!!!  It seemed appropriate for us all to be together and talking about what Frank would be saying/thinking about all these ladies!

Before the big event, I let Scarlett watch the movie a few times because she wasn't familiar with the story and the book is just a bit too long.  By the time it was time to go, she was all pumped up to go to the North Pole!
Mission accomplished!

It was a really great experience for all the little ones, but I think Camdyn, 9, was a little too old.  They literally drove the train down the railway, stopped and said, "There's the North Pole," then drove back.  It was a total of one hour and pretty torturous for the adults, but the excitement on the kids' faces made it all worth it, cheesy as it sounds!

There was Christmas music playing after they finished reading The Polar Express and they served hot cocoa!  Santa even came along for a ride on the way back!  Perfect!

Of course, I have millions of pictures!

The granddaughters!

All of us!

Blurry, but all of us!

SANTA! ('s biscuits!)

Love their faces!

One side of the train: Scarlett, me, Max, Poppy!  (Sorry Clunies!)

The other side: Molly, Alyssa, Mum, Camdyn

An outside view of the train!

After this, we went to Whole Foods, so definitely worth the trip!

BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER.

We had a fantastic Christmas!!!  The gifts were toned down from past years and that just made it more fun!  Less stress, but more thoughtfulness!  Yes, please!

This was the first year that Scarlett got it.  It was magical for her and that added so much fun for me!  We made reindeer food, drove around looking at lights, talked about how Santa goes into the houses through the chimneys, left out the cookies and milk for Santa, and all that good stuff!

Here is our Christmas Day 2013 in pictures...

Happy birthday, Jesus CAKE!

Tracking Santa with Lulu...

Wrapping gifts:

Santa came!!!

And he brought "Staige" with him!  Scarlett was psyched!

Then we headed to GRAMMUM'S!

Christmas cards are ordered. . . FINALLY!

Ordered 5 minutes ago from Shutterfly! (Um, they have crazy amazing deals!!!) Rocks my world!

And we have Winston's cute face on the back!  It'll be the first time that anyone has really learned of his addition to our family, so that will be interesting!

I'm later than usual ordering these...not sure how Christmas is almost here already!

These pictures were my three favorites from the 41 acceptable pictures taken on my iphone!  All together, I took over 200, so yeah . . . that should tell you how successful I was.  Thank goodness for pop bribes!!!  They worked!  (Although they were in half the photos rendering them useless!  Shoot.)

Next year, it might be time to consider using a professional photographer!

The Party

Twenty days later.

Anyway!

There are really not many pictures because I was busy socializing and taking care of a cranky birthday girl.  Tyler was in charge of photographing the gift-opening.  Bad thinking.  Tyler snapped a few of the first gifts and then he was distracted by Alyssa (there is an Alyssa video, too)...all without the much-needed flash!  Here is what I found hours later as I was excitedly looking for birthday pictures:

FAIL.

So, yeah, not lots of photos, but we did have a really great time!  (I feel a tad guilty because I have over 400 pictures from Scarlett's first birthday party, but what can you do!?)

Now for the decorations...they were not pinterest-worthy, but I'm just excited because I had the party at our house.  That never happens.  (It's a fixer-upper that we're not particularly excited to fix, so there ya' go.) Buuut it was just too much to plan a party, move everything to my mom's house, and then try to decorate there.  Too. Much.

It was amazing to be able to get everything done, so when Poppy woke up that morning, it was a party everywhere!  And then I could really focus on birthday fun instead of party decorating stress!

So here they are:

Who doesn't love streamers, pictures everywhere, and (VEGAN!) cupcakes?!  For the cupcakes, I used a pinterest idea and crushed rock candy on top of the frosting and it looked really pretty!  Decorating with frosting is absolutely not my thing, so the rock candy was perfect: easy and fancy!

Her birthday outfit is from Mud Pie; it wasn't monogrammed, but it was too fun not to get!

Poppy wasn't as impressed with my culinary skills as I was, but we got her with a birthday cupcake, in the same shot, so let's call it a win!

(See?!  I was great at documenting the party girls before the actual party...!)  The morning of the party was spent distracting the ladies with doughnuts and balloons to keep the house clean!  It worked!

Not quite sure what to think...

I went to get Poppy after she woke up from her nap wearing my glasses.  This is the face she made when she saw them:

So. Confused.  It was cute!

Happy birthday to my Poppy Ballerina!!!

She's ONE!  What a fast year it has been, but so full of happiness!  We are so lucky to have little Miss Poppy in our lives!  She is always happy and looking for fun!  She is the lovey-ist baby in the world -- always ready to give us love and slobbery, baby kisses.  Delicious!

Bananas were not a hit with Poppy early on, but now, along with eggs, sweets (shhh!), and strawberries, they are her top pick for food! (I do hope that she is a vegetable-lover like her sister one day!)

She is not quite walking, but she can stand up by herself for a few seconds and she is the fastest power-crawler I've seen!  Babies, balls, Little People, cars, and her little front door are her favorite favorite toys, but really she loves everything!  She even takes swim lessons!

Poppy may be the sweetest, little thing, but she can throw some sass when Scarlett tries to steal her toys!  Her facial expressions are the best!  See?!

No thank you, fancy birthday outfit!

I cannot wait to see what the next year brings...!  Maybe she'll start gymnastics?!

Happy Halloween!!!

This is the first year that I have TWO little ladies to dress up and I really love the idea of doing costumes that go together, but are still different, so when Scarlett became obsessed with Madeline, I started talking about Halloween and hinting about what she'd like to be.  Then, Madeline rescued a dog and the discussion for costumes was closed.  Hello, puppy dog, Poppy!  Good thing Scarlett was still really excited about the Madeline idea because it has been a few months since this whole fascination began...she's still trying to get me to be Miss Clavel.  "Mummy, when is your costume coming?!" was how she broached the subject this morning...smart lady, but it's not gonna happen!  (I have too much birthday planning to do [still] to worry about dressing up!  Maybe next year!)

So there we were, Madeline with her rescued pup, Genevieve!  Too bad Poppy was less than thrilled with the idea of wearing a costume.

SO crossing my fingers that trick-or-treating goes a little more smoothly!!!  Luckily, Scarlett was the perfect Madeline and even tried to make Poppy less of a grumpster!

We tried to include Poppy in our photo shoot, but Scarlett totally stole the show!  What a fantastic Madeline!!!

And just because I want to see, here is Scarlett in each of her past costumes:

CUTE!  I wish I had been smart and picked a costume for Poppy without something on her head!  Scarlett last 3 minutes with that cupcake hat...next year!!!

Have a Happy Halloween :-)

Sisters.

Here in the first picture, Poppy is posing so proudly with her babies in the stroller.  Happy, happy!  Then rotten Big Sister realizes what is going on, swoops in, steals baby Tiana, and leaves Poppy with that face!

Poor Popsters -- this is what life is like 50% of the time.  The other 50% is spent being man-handled walked around the house by Scarlie Jojo!  Obviously being baby 2 is hard! 

Don't worry, though, I took control of the situation...until Big Sister strikes again!

Here she is...

11 months.  Already.  If Poppy wasn't getting so fun, I might be a little more upset about the past (almost) year flying by.  But 11 months is working for me!  Poppy is a little spitfire, but still sweet at the same time.

She's not quite walking, but is a speed-crawler and loves to push her dinosaur walker.  If Scarlett starts to do her gymnastics tricks (yikes!) off of her walker, Poppy starts squawking until she gets it back!  At least I know that she'll be able to hold her own against her willful big sister!

An entire month of blogging in one post.

Well, September has been an eventful and fun-filled month, so far!  First of all, Louisa Violet Francis turned THREE on the 10th!!!  (Ahhmmm...since her mother hasn't blogged about it yet, I feel like I'm safe...!)  Here is Lulu's special day in pictures:

Laughing??  And no fights?!  Scarjo must know it's her birthday!!!

Lulu S-L-O-W-L-Y dragged that kitty away...she is a smooth one!

Poppy loving the birthday shopping!

Captive audience...just waiting to get their hands on her goods!

Lulu loves her some chocolate!!!

Oh, Alyssa!

Lulu, the Ladybug Girl!

And then, the 13th marked ONE YEAR since Scarlett stopped nursing.  Just one.  How crazy is that?!  At the time, it wasn't a bizarre thing for me to nurse her to sleep, but now she's such a big girl, that I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time!

Poppy had her first visit to the Apple Farm!!!  Parties!  It was a quick visit and perfect because it was a Wednesday at noon -- no one was there!  Tyler, Mary, Brian, and Lulu met Scarjo, Poppy, and me there after our MOPS play date...very spur-of-the-moment!

Another eventful change that's going on in our family...we're following my crazy mother's lead and going vegan.  She watched Forks Over Knives and that was it for her!  Then she read Skinny Bitch and that was the end for the rest of us; she converted us all to at least vegetarianism.  One by one.  Molly was the first to convert and the easiest because Mum buys all her groceries and makes most meals.  Mary and I have been open to the idea, but harder to turn because we (okay, mostly me!) just struggle at cooking in general.  Now we have to find substitutes??  Too much.  But it's happening and I'm excited to make my babies into healthy eaters!  Goodbye, Splenda (no, thank you, luekemia!), half & half (sads forever.), and buffalo chicken (hardest. thing. ever.) and hello, tofu, "princess" (forbidden black) rice, and soy milk in my coffee!  So far, so good!

Also, I went to the Ulta Benefit Brow Bar and had my eyebrows done!!!  After Poppy was born, my eyebrows fell out.  For reals.  Sooo, off to Ulta I went, after very badly trying to fill them in myself for the last 11 months.  The wax girl there was a miracle worker!!!  Totally worth the $12/per eyebrow (what!!!) wax job.  Totally.  Here is the evidence:

Clearly, I'm psyched!  

And now that September is quickly coming to a close...I need to order Scarlett's Halloween costume SOON!!!  I have had it planned for a few months, but keep forgetting to actually buy the costume.  Struggle.  Here she is last year...two days before Poppy was born!  I am not sure if I can come close to this cuteness, but I'm certainly going to try!