Happy Holidays!

 

Happy Holidays to you and your families!

Ashley

Christmas Fun!

I am officially on Christmas break! I have been looking forward to this from the first day I started back at work in November! I must admit it has been much harder going back to work then I thought. In every aspect. (spending time with my babe, cleaning the house, getting everything I want to do done, blogging etc.) For example, I had a ton of ideas for gifts...for friends and colleagues. They were off pinterest of course. Time got away from me and people ended up with chocolates or soap. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right!? Ok, I will stop complaining now. I thought I would show you what Adalyn has been up to!

The first thing I got and she loves is the felt tree in the playroom. I got this at Target for $10! It did come with a  lot of small pieces but I glued them all on the ornaments so we didn't lose them! I think it is the cutest thing! She is pretty good at sticking the ornaments on!

Speaking of trees, I made a tree for the bathtub! I used foam I got at the dollar store and made ornaments to go with it. She actually plays with it in the bath. It is so cute. Water is all you need to have fun with this!

Another favourite activity she has enjoyed has been the Melissa and Doug snowman stacker! She hasn't got sick of this yet and is really good at it! I was pretty impressed seeing as the hole is rather small. It is not the rainbow stacker with a big hole. This is super cute!

I ordered this Santa Cottage off the Fisher Price website and we just got it last week. It comes with Santa (which she says "hohoho" constantly) and there are kitties and a puppy in there too. She loves the animals the best! If you push the kitties they sing "Jingle Bells" using only the words "meow"...."meowmeowmeow, meowmeowmeow"...etc.

She has enjoyed the Baby Einstein Christmas CD

As well as the Christmas bath squirters and books! I took everything out of the tub that wasn't Christmas themed or coloured! :)

We have had yummy Christmas breakfasts:

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Have played in the snow ice:


And have had little photo shoots!

I am loving every minute I get to play with, and watch Adalyn play! She is so smart! She has a new little laugh that is hilarious! And is chatting away! She has said: ball, hat, eye, baby, boot for the first time this week alone! She has a good number of words and animal sounds! I'm not sure how many they should have by 13 months, but I am not worried at all!

I am hoping to do a couple more crafts with Addy before Christmas! It might be a little easier now that I am off! (until the new year!!!) I am so excited about this!!!

Ashley

Adalyn's Room : Christmas Edition

I thought I would show you a few pictures of Adalyn's Christmas room! As you all know by now I lovelovelove Christmas and  loved the idea of having a Christmas room for Adalyn! Anyway, it was fun decorating it. Addy loves it too!

 I love our reading corner, that we are actually using! We read to Addy every night before bed now, while she has her bottle! It is one of my favourite parts of the day. (When it is my day! We take turns!)

 These are Addy's big girl Christmas books! All of her Christmas board books are downstairs.

 I made a pom pom garland and think it's pretty cute!

 and of course used my build a banner!

 This little Rudolph was from my Mom and Dad last year!

 Here's Harriet, just hanging out!

 I added some festive things to the bookshelves.

 I added another garland and some Christmas photos to the shelf

 Look at her Santa picture from last year...passed right out! This years wasn't much better. She screamed! lol Look at her tiny footprint too! Awww. I can't believe how big she is now!

 Love my build a banner and my prints! The two red prints were free from Little Baby Garvin and the one in the middle was from Printable Wisdom

 I love her winter sheet!! It is actually a twin set I got at Walmart. I just wrapped the fitted sheet around the crib mattress. I can use this for years to come!

Anyway, what do you think? Some may think I am a little crazy decorating her room for Christmas but I love this holiday the most, and love my baby even more! How could I not?!

Ashley

Christmas Decor 2013

I thought I would post a few photos of my Christmas decor this year! I have changed up the tree colours and added red. Last year my tree colours were brown, green, white and gold. Here are a couple photos:

As much as I loved it I was ready for a change and decided on classic red. I bought a bunch of red ornaments at the end of the season for super cheap so I only had to buy a few new ones this year!

Here is the tree:

I love the mantel as well:

And here is some other decor from around the house:

 

I love the poinsettias! They were 3 for $9.99 at Sobeys! They are the perfect size!

 

This is the card holder I got at the end of the year for super cheap!

 This is our favourite Christmas card photo that Jaclyn took for us!

 My favourite ornament!

 Love my new photos I framed that Jaclyn took for us!

I lovelovelove Christmas and all the decorations. I wish I could keep it up all year long! There is something special about the twinkling lights at night. Ugh, I love it. Adalyn loves it just as much!

She says "oooh" points to the tree and loves the Santa ornament I put on! I had to! It is a joke with Mike's family but Addy loves it. She says "hohoho" It is so cute!

Anyway, hope you liked my decor this year! I will post Adalyn's room decor sometime this week!

Ashley

Some Christmas Crafts...

This weekend even though my babe wasn't feeling her best we did some Christmas crafts! We have done similar crafts before so Adalyn knows what to do! I should also mention we played Christmas music while we made them! We were definitely in the holiday spirit!

The first crafts we did were with contact paper. I got some foam stickers at the dollar store and taped the contact paper (sticky side up) onto the highchair tray. I let her stick the foam shapes on the paper. She did a few and then all she wanted to do was take the masking tape off. 

After I stuck another piece of contact paper on top of it I cut it into a rectangle and hung it on our gallery wall in the playroom. This wasn't my favourite type of contact paper. It wasn't as clear. I wish I remembered which dollar store I got it at...so I don't get it again! Here is her finished art:

We made another contact paper craft but this time I taped it to the floor. I used packing tape and Adalyn couldn't get it off! I think I will use it from now on! It was a little harder to see where to stick the pieces of paper but Adalyn figured it out!!  I cut small green squares out of 3 different sheets of green paper and she stuck them on!

After I stuck the other piece on top I cut it into the shape of a tree, added a paper stem and a foam star to the top. I also added it to the gallery wall. Here is the finished product:

 And here is the gallery wall:

Here is my favourite corner in the house... in Adalyn's playroom. I am in love with everything there. It is so festive! Don't you love the felt tree I got at Target?

We also made some cute snowflake art. I saw this at school in the kindergarten class and loved it right away. My friend Sharon is the teacher and gave me the paper they used! You can see through it. I am so glad she did! Thanks Sharon!!

First I taped out the picture of a snowflake with painters tape. I ran out of tape by the fourth one so ended up just making her initial.

Then I got Addy to paint them (using the freezer baggie method I have used before) She moves the paint around in the bag. She actually only did two. I did the other two. 

They turned out really neat!

I took the tape off when they dried and saw some of the paint went under the tape. The paper is a really neat texture and you can actually wipe the paint off  with water and a cloth. I cleaned up the edges of the snowflakes.

 

Then I taped them on the window. I love them! 

I wasn't sure you would be able to see them as well through the blinds but you can. I think they turned out great!

I am surprised Adalyn actually did all of these activities, being sick and all. I have a few more ideas I hope to do before Christmas is over. It is coming up so fast so I hope I can get them all done!!

Ashley