Halloween Yarn Wreath

I've been getting my holiday freak on lately, peeps.  I'm out of control.  The other night at dinner, J said to me, "I just realized it's SEPTEMBER & you have our house decorated for Halloween." And I smiled, beaming & replied, "Yes, I know.  This is me, baby.  You don't have to agree."  To which he smiled & said, "I know."  I think he secretly likes it.

I am a yarn wreath-a-holic.  You can see my previous yarn wreaths here & here.  I've made numerous more for friends & gifts.  I've also had people literally knock on my door to ask where they can buy one.  Rad, right?

I usually make my yarn wreaths on my own.  Collin & the other kids never are involved & I usually want my yarn wreaths perfect looking.  Then I saw these wooden Halloween shapes begging to be hot glued onto my wreath & I decided our Halloween wreath would be kid created.

Supplies: A foam or straw wreath.  You can find these at any craft supply store.  (Veteran tip: buy the straw wreaths.  They are wrapped in plastic anyway & significantly cheaper than the foam ones.  This one cost me $2.00.  The foam one was $8.00.)  A skein of yarn.  I usually get a jumbo one & end up using about 3/4 of it.  A Sharpie.  A hot glue gun.  A wreath hanger or ribbon to hang your wreath with.  And lastly, embellishments.  If I hadn't seen these wooden shapes, I would have purchased these cute little black fabric bats they had.  Possibilities are endless.  You can do anything.  Hot glue is a miracle invention bestowed upon us crafters.  Use it!

I sat down & strung my yarn around my wreath during an episode of Real Housewives.  I'm a pro at this, so it only took me an hour.  If it's your first time, it may take you a few hours.  After I was finished, I set aside the wreath for the next day when we would have all the kids together at Abuelita's house in Oxnard for MJ's birthday.

Then?  Then, we colored.  Got our crafty craft on.  I poured markers on the table & let them have at it.

I used a Sharpie to write each of their names on the shape they colored & then hot glued those bad boys onto the wreath so they could see right away how their wreath would look since they wouldn't be able to see it on the door for another few weeks. 

When J, Collin & I got home, I grabbed some ribbon & hung the wreath on our front door.  I don't care that it's September.  Halloween is being celebrated in this house. 

Madison's Ninth Birthday

J, Collin & I travelled to Oxnard, CA this weekend for MJ's birthday. MJ is J's oldest & she & her sister, Andie live with their Mom there.  It was a small party with just the family & of course crafts because, duh.

A few days before, we had gone to Joann's & all of their Halloween stuff was 50% off, so I picked up a few wooden Halloween masks for the kids to all color.  I also picked up supplies for our Halloween wreath (blog coming soon).  The masks ended up costing us around 0.26 each!!!

The girls love anything crafty & as it turns out, so does J.  Homie was serious about his mask.  Even Abuelo Sosa got in on the mask action.  This is why I love crafts.  Everyone can participate & have fun.

After we finished our masks & yarn wreath contributions, it was cake time.  Collin's & Andie's favorite part.

MJ & Andie have always just welcomed Collin into their lives.  It's so sweet to see them encourage him to participate & even wrestle with him on the floor.  They just love on him & are the best big sisters. 

This was Collin's first time meeting J's Abuelo & Abuelita, too & I was a little nervous.  I wanted them to like Collin & see him as another grandchild.  I totally underestimated my kid's charm.  Abuelo & Abuelita instantly took to Collin.  For serious, it was like he has always been a part of their lives.  He cuddled with Abuelita & even let her rock him.  And he watched the PBR with Abuelo.  It was so magical to me to hear them both exclaiming, "Ooooh!!" at the TV each time a rider was bucked off.  

No posing speech was necessary here.  They literally just hang on each other like this.  I know it won't last forever, but I'm gonna soak it up while I can.

It's a.... (GENDER REVEAL)

I know I've been pretty absent on my ol' blog as of late, but that's just because in amidst of moving & unpacking, we have had the girls here visiting & our lives & house has just been chaos. The girls went back to their Mommy's for school today, so now I feel like we can finally start settling in, creating a routine & I CAN HAZ BLOGGING AGAIN!!! In the meantime, I update frequently on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter.

Unfortunately, Aiden was with his Mama when we did this little shoot, so he didn't get to be a part of it, but he was in our hearts & minds as we got silly with the camera. Also, excuse miss MJ's chonie peepage. Homegirl was too excited for her own good.

That's right, a girl. Collin & Aiden are gonna be in for a rude awakening with all the pink & ruffles & glitter that are about to make an appearance in this house. This place is gonna scream, "Hey, we're having a girl & we're gonna vomit pink all over this house in celebration!!!"

iPhone Photos: April 1 - 7, 2012

Playing at the park // City of Las Vegas // Collin being a boss // Drool on my pant leg from a sleeping baby // Said sleeping baby // My fridge: full of cake pops // Collin hiding from Andi // Sleeping kid // Holler at your Mama // Red lipstick face // Fremont Street, las vegas // The kids watching the light show // Passed out on Mama's bed // "Chicken" lunch // Before seeing the hunger Games

iPhone Photos: March 25 - 31, 2012

Mama's dinner // My boss barking orders from his chair //Huge accomplishment, he hates water on his head // Lunchable water bottle in the bath // My sleeping little dude // Pooped out Manski // Aiden riding the dump truck // All le kids at CiCi's // Watching TV with the girls // CAKE VODKA // Tossed some strawberries & Sprite in with the cake vodka // J cutting Collin's nails // Being all free at the park

Beachers

We started our new year off pretty much the bestest way ever. With all our babies together. J took us to this beach where they have a tide pool place for the kids to play around & explore. It was super cool. I'm also pretty sure we broke some kind of California beach law when we fed this random seagull teething biscuits, but we like to live on the edge like that. Obvs, we are raising cold, hard criminals.

Also, can I just say how slightly humorous it is to see my tattooed manly manski with all of these kids & a diaper bag backpack? He's tough. So tough.

I forgot my camera, so I relied on my iPhone. Some of these are crappy quality, but I still love that I can depend on my phone when I forget.

Side note: I also started the January photo a day challenge...a day late, but who's counting? Anyone else doing this on Instagram? You can find me @hollydaysblog.

Collin & I drove back home to Vegasland after ice cream at Ben & Jerrys. He needed it after the carousel ride from hell. He pretty much screamed the whole time causing the operator to ask me if he should shut it down. Sweet. I'm that Mom.

Parent Win

When we first made plans for Collin & I to come spend Thanksgiving weekend in Big Bear with Jacob & his daughters, I obsessively scoured the Internet for activities we could do with the kids. Preferably something so full of holiday cheer, we'd all fall asleep that day with visions of sugar plums.

Big Bear is a small town, so I wasn't sure how my luck would pan out...until I saw that they had AN ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY WITH SANTA AND MRS CLAUS! BOTH of them!!! Even better, it was held in The Village, which is a super cute part of town lined with small shops and artisan displays. The Village is hands down, my favorite part of Big Bear.

Jacob & I created a master plan in no time. We'd load the kids up after dinner, make a pit stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate & cake pops & then drive down to The Village to watch the ceremony & see Santa.

Only....it didn't pan out that way.

Instead, we fell behind on dinner because the kitchen in this cabin...well, it's a whopper, lemme tell ya. Observe:

After we finagled dinner out of the kitchen, the ceremony was over. But we knew Santa & Mrs. Claus would still be there & the tree would still be lit up; looking gorgeous. So, we dressed the kids in warm coats & hats, loaded them into the car & headed to our first stop: Starbucks...for our grand plan of cake pops & hot chocolate, you know.

Only....Starbucks was out of cake pops....& whoopie pies....& hot sleeves....& venti sized cups....& peppermint flavor. No. This isn't a joke. They were out of everything. We were sad, yes, but shrugged it off. What else could we do? First world problems, yo! We got the kids their hot chocolate...Collin chocolate milk (did you know they put whipped cream & chocolate syrup on top?!?!?) & headed to The Village for the festivities.

Jacob parked in front of a candy shoppe & we decided since the cake pops were an epic fail, we would let the kids pick out something from the shop. $25 later, we walked out of the store with a giant lollipop, two sugar filled tubes, a Mario PEZ & a feather lollipop. It was so worth it to see the gleam in their eyes when we told them they could pick out what they wanted.

After we forced them all to stand in front of the tree so we could have our pictures, we saw Santa. Well, MJ & Andi did. Collin cried & screamed & had to wait with Cub Cub out side. I am so not getting a Santa picture out of him this year. We could barely hear the girls tell Santa what they wanted over Collin's curdled screams.

This afternoon, when I gave Andi permission to open her lollipop, we had one happy camper. I mean....HAPPY. Who knew a $4 sucker could get this much happy out of one little girl?

The Halloween Post

What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't make a huge Halloween photo post?!?!?! Probably a lame one. Good thing I'm not lame. And even better thing that Collin's costume was full of win this year. Freaking full of win.

Favorite part of Halloween? Watching Collin run in his little monster costume with his tail wagging behind him.

Pretty much you love Collin in that costume. It's so freaking rad, how could you not?

Jacob & I couldn't celebrate together this year, but I did get some pictures of the girlie goos & Aidster (who's costume was so stinking last minute, we were grateful to just find anything...so the weird wanna be dragon/frog/alligator thingy worked for us just fine, thank you) thanks to Jacob's spanking new iPhone.