Year of Dates --- Mike's Christmas Present

Mike and I have been together for almost 8 years but when we first met we really didn't do much dating. Now we have two kids and it's even harder to go on dates.  So, for his Christmas present I knew exactly what I wanted to get him. A year of dates!!

First, I had to figure out 12 places we could go and things we could do. That was probably the hardest part.  Then I gathered my supplies. For each month I wrote a paper inside that explained what we were going to do for that month's date. All of the dates are prepaid, so there's a gift certificate or cash inside to cover the date expenses. 

We opened presents a few days before Christmas because I couldn't wait any longer to surprise him. Inside the box I put a paper explaining what the year of dates entailed. He LOVED it!! 

Since it was practically January, I let him open the January envelope.  It is dinner at the local brewery and tickets to the movies to see Taken 3.  

I'll be sharing pictures from each date and what exactly we did each month on here and on Instagram.  Some dates are just simple and others are more extravagant (June is our honeymoon so that's our June date).  

Christmas Day 2014

On Christmas morning we had to wake up the kids to show them that Santa came!!  

They hurried downstairs and Marley quickly passed out their presents. 

I'll do another post with what we bought them, but Santa did deliver the requested silly string and cars. 

After we finished opening presents at our house we got ready and Mike and the kids headed to his dads, while I headed back to my moms.  After we ate Mike and the kids came to my parents house to open more presents.  

They received lots of great stuff and had a great time playing and eating too much sugar. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas too! 

Christmas Eve 2014

I can't believe Christmas is already here and gone. It goes so fast.  I'll share our Christmas post tomorrow, but today is all about Christmas Eve. 

First thing we did in the morning was go see Santa. We usually go in November, but since we moved 30 minutes away from Bass Pro we weren't out that way until now. The kids asked for silly string (Marley) and cars (Mason)  No tears this year! 

After that we went out to eat with Mike's dad and then home to relax for a little while. 

Around 5pm we headed to my mom and dad's house to let the kids open their presents from them and have dinner. 

The kids got a lot of cute stuff and had a great time playing with their cousins. We headed home around 9pm to get to bed and wait for Santa!! 

Good bye Jingle Bell the Elf

Our elf, Jingle Bell, headed home on Christmas Eve. She had a lot of fun while she was here and it was really cute to see both kids search the house for her since last time we had the elf visit Marley was terrified of her and Mason was too little to get it.  Here's her final adventures.

On Christmas eve she got on her reindeer and rode home to the North Pole. See you next year Jingle Bell. 

Halloween Festivities

Here it is almost Christmas, and I realized I never shared our Halloween activities from this year. 

Mason was Elmo and Marley was a Ninja Turtle.

The Saturday before Halloween we decided to head to Zoo Boo at the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. They had booths set up all over the zoo handing out candy and the zoo was decorated. Usually around Halloween time, it's cold at rainy but on this day it was sunny and close to 65 degrees. We couldn't of asked for a more perfect day. 

Both kids crashed out on the way home and kept on sleeping through the night once we got them inside the house. 

The Thursday before Halloween, I took Mason up to the library for trick or treating and story time.  It was cute but there were a ton of kids. 

I didn't take any actual pictures on Halloween night because it was about 30 degrees and raining/snowing and there were crazy winds, so we were only out for about 20 minutes. Since the weather was awful there weren't many kids out and the houses were practically pouring the candy into the kids bags. 

Overall, we had a good time and Marley is already planning out what she will be next year. (another ninja turtle)

Our Elf is back

Well, it's that time of the year again. All the elves have made their way back to their families and ours has shown up right on time. We first met our elf 2 years ago, Mason was just 8 months old so he didn't understand and Marley hated it. She said it was creepy and scared her.  She did name him Jack though, but never really enjoyed it.  Last year, our elf didn't come because we were in the process of moving into our rental and he must of been lost.  This year, Jack didn't come again. A girl elf showed up instead. Mason's older and Marley still wasn't thrilled to have an elf, but we read the book and decided to name her Jingle Bell.  She's been around for almost two weeks and so far so good. Marley seems okay with her. Maybe because Mason likes the elf, Marley decided it's not too bad. Not sure, but glad there's no tears over an elf on the shelf.  Here's what Jingle Bell has been up to so far.

You can see all of our elf adventures from 2012 here- part one, two, three, four, five, and six 

DIY Halloween Eyeball Wreath

This wreath may be one of my favorite Halloween decorations I have. I pinned something similar on Pinterest last year, but they place they suggested to get eye balls made the wreath cost almost $60! No thank you!  I made this one for $6.  I bought several of these wreaths last year after the holiday for $0.50 each.  The eye balls were a dollar a bag from The Dollar Tree. I was so excited when I saw them there. 

I bought 7 bags of eye balls, but only needed 5 to cover the front of the wreath. I could add more around the edges but I worry they'll fall off when I have to store it after Halloween is over so I just did the front. 

I just started hot gluing them on one by one, making sure all the pupils pointed the same direction and worked my way around the wreath. 

When I was almost all the way around I hot glued a halloween ribbon on it so I would have a way to hang it up.   I held it up and filled in some of the empty looking spots and then hung it up and stared at it all day. I was so proud! 

It hangs on our front door and I did add some window cling bats so the whole door is mighty festive and ready to scare the kids. However, now that we live in the country I doubt anyone besides my family will even see it. 

I wish I would of covered the wreath with some orange or black ribbon or tulle just to hide the straw a little more, but when I started I was too excited to think about that. 

Christmas 2013

Wow, I was just looking though all my unpublished posts and noticed I never shared our Christmas from 2013. So almost 3 months late, here it is.  We had a nice morning opening presents at home from Santa. We then headed to my parents house for breakfast and more presents.  Around lunch time we headed to my Aunt and Uncles house for the family get together.   It was another great year and we got so much stuff and are so glad we could share it with our families!