I LOVE Christmas!!!

We had the best week (and a half)! It started Friday morning picking up Joey. We always have such a great time with him. He was a surprise for Daphne and she was...but not as surprised as Johnny was when he saw his dad sitting in our car when we picked him up from school! Joey, Mary and I did quite a bit of scheming to get him here with out Johnny knowing, but it was so worth it. 

The kids had such a great time with Papa and Uncle Joe! Saturday we went to D.C. to be tour guides. We started our very early morning at the White House. I was pretty excited about this. Its one of the things on my bucket list to visit the White House at Christmas and thanks to Joey we got to. John didn't get to see it because we didn't submit his name in time. 

It was so pretty especially with all the decorations, but a lot smaller than I thought it would be. We got to take pictures too, which is normally not allowed. The rest of the day was spent going to the typical places. We were all pooped by the end of the day.

Sunday was the main event! We blessed Quentin. I actually heard what Johnny said this time and it was so great to have family there.

We were all sad when John had to leave Monday. I think he was the most sad though. I know it was the best Christmas gift we could give him, to see his grand kids and to get to help bless his first grandson. On our way back from the airport we stopped at the temple to see the lights. It was beautiful and I loved getting to see the nativity scenes from around the world. 

The rest of the week we spent playing games and hanging out. Christmas day was full of fun. Daphne loved her gifts and I think Joey and I both felt spoiled. Johnny is such a giver. He loves to give gifts! 

It was a sad day when Joey left too. We went and met Lindsay (Joey's girlfriend) down in Richmond. We had lunch with her and then it was time to say goodbye. Daphne cried for a good ten minutes. She kept saying she wanted to see "Joey and Lindsay NOW". It broke my mommy heart. 

Little Projects

So I have been doing a few little projects to keep myself busy and thrifty.  Besides the ones here I finally stitched Quentin's name into his quilt. 

I found this awesome wrapping paper at Target and was so sad when I ran out of it when I was wrapping gifts. I had a few scraps so decided to.....

.....make some ornaments with them. I just started collecting lids from jars and cover those with the paper. I think they are cute and have helped to round out our tree. I get so excited when we finish a jar of something because it means I get to add another ornament to our tree.

 I also made salt dough ornaments. I should have thought this one through a little more. Once I rolled out the dough I realized I didn't have anything to cut them out with. (I have cookie cutters, but they are some where in a box in Colorado...no help here.) So I used a knife. My stars turned out a little wonky, but you can't really tell on the tree. Maybe next year I will toss these out and make new ones. I also made one for Daphne to paint, and one for Quentin's foot and one for Johnny and I to decorate.

My big project was this changing table. I found it outside our apartment in a pile of dressers and book shelves that looked pretty "used", but the table was redeemable. The top was coming off one of the legs so I glued that. Then after a little spray paint and some fabric it turned out like this...

I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the total cost was about $20. So worth it! I can't believe how nice it is not to have to get down on the ground to change the kiddos little bums. I am also using it for toy storage. Daphne's toys are no longer sprawled all over the floor in her room. They are nicely tucked away on her shelves. Win Win!

Thanksgiving....plus a week.

We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you did too. Johnny was done on Tuesday so we got a really long weekend with him, which is always fun. I spent all day on Wednesday prepping for the big turkey day. I like doing this because it makes Thursday so much easier and I get to enjoy spending the time with my family instead of in the kitchen. I didn't do all homemade stuff this year though most of it was. We had a TON of food leftover, but that is fine by me. We made our thankful hands on Wednesday as well. We started this little tradition in Dominica with my good friends Katie and Clair. I loved doing it, so we have kept it going.  Thursday I got up and made breakfast and then got the turkey in. We all sat and watched the parade together. I missed Santa because I was started cooking, but that is okay. We ate early so we could get to talk to family and then go out for "Black Friday"(which for some reason starts on Thursday now!) We didn't get much, but we got a couple good deals. 

Friday I usually put up the tree and decorate, but we didn't have a tree yet so we went out to the mall and walked around. Saturday I was a busy girl. I went out to go get a tree and then I had a practice for singing. I also had to go shopping. When I got home we cleaned up the house. I put up the tree and then we waited for our guest to arrive. 

 One of Johnny's classmates, Bryan, is staying with us for two weeks while he does a short rotation here. It has been fun for me because he has taken Johnny to work with him so I have had the car and been able to go out. I took the kids out one day to just walk around at stores and it was so nice. It was my first time being out just me and the two kids and I'm proud to say a survived. We also went to the Lego store for their Free Build. Fun times!