DeWeils Come to Visit

Recently we had a very special treat. David, Scott's brother who lives in Columbia, Kelly (his awesome wife), and Caroline (adorable daughter) came for a visit. We have  not made enough of these day trips, but we will definitely be making more. The girls had a BLAST getting to play with their cousin Caroline. Kelly and I had a great time laughing & playing with the girls, as well as great conversation. Scott and David had a ton of fun, doing brother stuff--including a dance off in Just Dance 3. We LOVED having them over and can't wait for many more of these in the future.

Tonight at dinner, we asked the girls to share their top 3 "roses" of Christmas break. One of Sienna's was Caroline coming to her house. So sweet! Hopeful we can make more roses with Caroline, as well as cousin Ella in Florida!

Here is a recap of the day....

The girls enjoyed a delicious tea party, complete with yummy chocolate chip pound cake made by the amazing Chef Kelly & hot chocolate/Sierra Mist/milk as drink options. What more could you ask for?

All three ladies enjoying their desserts and "tea". So sweet.

The weather was kind of iffy, but we made sure to enjoy playing outside as much as possible. When it started to sprinkle, we brought the fun onto the front porch. Here is Caroline having fun with sidewalk chalk & paint. (By the way, look at those cutie patootie boots!!! Love them!)

So sweet!!!

Sienna braved the weather and wanted to show off her riding skillz! :) She is a ball of energy & fun for sure!

When the rain started coming down harder, we took hide-and-seek inside. Here was a favorite hiding place. Sienna was hiding in the linen closet while Mycah & Caroline went on the hunt. Surprise!

Such a fun part of this day was watching brothers Scott and David play Just Dance 3. Song choice--Jump On It. Hilarious? Why, of course! We had so much fun laughing WITH them, not at them as evidenced by Scott's face in this picture. Fun times for all were had for sure!

I snuck this sweet picture while Caroline was watching one of Sienna's many "shows"/performances. Sienna loves to perform and we love to be the audience. Caroline wasn't quite sure what to make of Sienna's crazy costumes and crazy antics, but I think she enjoyed it. (At least I hope she wasn't scared too badly from our silly Sienna)

We tried to get a group shot here but Caroline wasn't ready to be in front of the camera. Here is Mycah and Sienna, in one of her many costumes/make up.

Snuck this shot while Caroline had Sienna's pom-pom and was pretending to cheer. Precious!

2 - 4 - 6 - 8, Who do we think is really great? Caroline, Kelly, & David! We can't wait to visit together again very soon! Love love love our family! :)

cute charts rocking my world!

I may be a bit of a nerd, but you already knew that!
I have stayed up way past bedtime in order to create chore charts for the girls.
We have desired to ramp up our chore sharing and start instilling responsibility--not for money but to share care of the home.

I have been meaning to do this for quite a while.
After discovering such an amazing cleaning chart from Clean Mama today, I have been inspired.

Tonight my mission was to find a cute and functional chore chart and make it work for our girls.
I lucked up!
I found THIS cutie patootie chore chart.

Here is how I made this work for us. It is in pdf format, but I used the snapshot tool and pasted it into a Word document. Then I created text boxes (with no fill and no line) to type my text in each of the spaces. I also created light pink circles, with brown lines, and pasted them over the existing circles to reflect the days they are to do those chores (as the girls are not with us all the time.) I suppose you could just print this page out and write in the desired chores, but I wanted it to look a tad more polished. Oh, and I write really big. :)


We are going to start this chore chart this weekend. I will make sure to let you know how it works and any tweaks that I have to make. I am thinking that I will put these in plastic page protectors and use a dry erase marker for each girl to mark when chores are completed (so pages can be used over and over).

I hope they are as excited about these as I am! (wink, wink!!)
Maybe, just maybe, if I can create a cute chart for my workouts it will be even more motivation for me! :)

just have to share

I know...it's crazy.
3 posts in 1 day!
This will be short and sweet.

I recently changed my desktop background on my computer and find reasons to shut my programs, at work & home, so I can look at it. I had to share it with you!
I love these 3 so very very much! Makes my heart smile for sure!

Christmas is Here!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with the girls! From our adventures with a Gingerbread House on Christmas Eve to playing outside on a cool, Christmas morning...we had a blast! Our focus was on making memories while making sure to turn our hearts to what this season is all about...Jesus! We had a lot of fun reading and discussing the Christmas story together. Our hope is that the girls will always know:

• Jesus is the reason for the season. 
• We give gifts just as the Wise Men gave to Jesus. 
• We bow our heads to pray just as the Wise Men bowed to show Jesus honor and respect. 
• When we see the lights all around, we can remember that Jesus is the Light of the World. 

We are so thankful for the amazing job our Children's Ministry, KidSpring, at our church did in sharing the truth of this season. In hearing truth from all sides, we are sure that the girls will always remember that Santa and Elves are fun and magical, but Jesus is what it is all about.

Here is a recap for all the fun and memories made during this 2011 Christmas!

Decorating egg cartons to look like snowmen. We turned these into ornaments and they look adorable

The girls received emails from Santa! What?! Eagerly watching the email for Sienna!

Loving that Santa knew her name, had pictures of her, and knew she wanted a Scooby Doo game!

Now it is time to view Mycah's email....

Uh-oh! Looks like Mycah is not too happy that she is on the Naughty List! :(

Scott's reaction to the email

Giving the girls some love!

We love you, Mycah! Even if you are on the naughty list!

What Christmas is complete without eggnogg???

Sienna putting the finishing touches on her snowman ornament

Let the Gingerbread House assembly begin

Scott giving instruction

Mycah doing the hard work

While Mycah squeezes the icing, Sienna takes a few pictures. Nevermind the blurry-ness.

I LOVE this picture...even though blurry! Great job Sienna!

Sienna comes back to check in on the progress

While she waits, she decides to ingest as much candy/sweets as possible

Checking the box for more direction

Teamwork

Daddy and Sienna working on the gingerbread man

Mycah is serious about this construction. And doing a fantabulous job, I might add.

Sienna concentrating on her part of the construction

Smile! Wait, real smiles please...

C'mon, we can do this...

Yay! Sweet smiles with a sweet house and sticky fingers!

What better way to celebrate than with a plate and mouth full of cookies?!

Sienna's "Christmas Outfit" she designed herself (aka all of her pj's on at once)

"It's Christmas Eve!"

"I'm crazy excited"

Both girls in their "Christmas Outfits"

Love these silly faces!

We are just no good at taking "serious" pictures

Ready to read the Christmas Story

Relaxing and resting on Daddy after reading and praying together.

Goodies for Mycah from us and Santa

Goodies for Sienna from us and Santa

Mine and Scott's goodies

Loving it!

Loving her pop top bracelets

Fun times after opening and discovering all the goodies

Scott and I opening our treasures

a gift from me to Scott--headband and bicep bands--I want my man to look good while we work out

Santa's evidence & trace of elf dust from Holly Berry

Holly Berry & Snowy Snowflake eating candy canes and Sienna looking at the note they wrote to her

Our Christmas Ragamuffins get out and enjoy the toys on Christmas morning

Mycah being a little more daring on Sienna's gift & loving her dad's headband

Spinning....

Loving life!

Serious about playing us some Christmas Music on her new guitar

We had some visitors Christmas Day! Love us some Garrett & Ashley!!! (who are incredibly tan from their week long cruise the week before!)

We had a Christmas visitor that did not want to leave...

Blackie!!! He came in to enjoy a sip or two of milk, as a Christmas present, and then had to be lured out of the house with bacon as he was completely content inside. Lesson learned! :)

Hope you enjoyed all the catching up! 

We love you all and wish you a very Happy New Year!!!!