Little Jenna!

It was a rough nights sleep last night, therefore Jenna and I were sleeping on the couch... (after I finally got back to sleep) I awake to Jenna kicking me in the ribs and finally letting herself off the couch. I cracked my eyes open enough to see her walking out of the living room -- i figured if I'd hear her -- anyway, she walks back to our bedroom, takes Don's full glass (real glass) of water, walks back the couch, AND POURS IT ON ME!!!! Good Morning!!! She's lucky she's loved :)

She's a cutie!!

Other than that, we are enjoying the Christmas season and preparing for Baby Jesus! This year has been so great being plugged into my church community.  I am especially excited this Christmas because it has been renewed within me the true reason for Christmas.  Thank you Jesus for coming to this earth and reconciling our sins.  You are amazing and I, we are unworthy of your love. Thank you Jesus! The kids will be in a Christmas Pageant at church. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing Deanna singing and participating.  Fun times ahead! :) 

Christmas Time is here!!

Love me some Christmas!!

My true hearts intent is to remember the most true important reason of the season and that is celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ! Thank you Jesus so much for coming to live, experience, and know the human experience.  Thank you for dying on the cross and promising to return.  I feel baptized in your love knowing you are coming again.

With Deanna and Jenna Christmas is so fun! Don and I are looking forward to setting traditions that our children will cherish for their lives.  One tradition that i really want them to know is the Nativity.  With us living in Italy, we are fortunate to visit the creche scenes that Italian villages will set up.  In our town at the big church, the Nativity scene is massive! Cookie baking, Christmas movies, daily doses of Christmas music, crafts, play dates, Christmas Pageant at church, and Gingerbread house construction are all on the menu this season. Deanna cracks me up~! She keeps saying, "Santa will be here in a minute!" She has a month to wait.

The Tree is up and shining in it's gold glory.  I was so happy to find a tutorial online to help me create the ribbon look for the tree that I was envisioning but no idea as to how to actually execute. I love success!

We have the Elf on Shelf, but i keep forgetting to move the darn thing.  Thankfully Deanna is not totally yet remembering the Elf...i bet next year she will be! Eiy! I see all those crazy ideas for the Elf around the internet.  I truly ask myself if I am one who can manage the Elf and all his antics :)

I do love this year because I can be crafty.  I truly love my Silhouette machine.  I was bummed that 3 months after i got my SD machine they came out with the cameo.  This season they are hosting a "Dear Santa" letter project. The grand prize looks AH-MAZING! Please choose me please!  I have been using the machine to make awesome Merry Christmas banners.  I need to make a better one for myself.... the options are endless with this machine! Thank you for this machine! I wish to be so with it one day that I can make an online etsy shop selling my stuff.  That is the plan, just need to find the time and specialize in certain projects and become just a tad more knowledgeable in computer/ web design.

All for now but I will keep posting... probably not on any regular type of basis, but that's me ;)

Tuckered out on the car and singing your praises

As we drove home from church the sweet little girlies fell asleep in the car. As they sleep in the car to avoid the transition of going in the house, I plug my iPhone into the player of the car and listen to my worship music . Thank you God for all the blessings you have given me in my life. I love you and praise you. Please put the worlds troubles at rest.

Dora Birthday Party

I had so much fun planning Deanna's 3rd Birthday!.
Pinterest was my friend a few months ago putting some ideas togehter. I thought I'd post the pics and ideas from her birthday bash in case any other mama's out there are planning their cuties big day too....

Here is the link to my pinterest board...
http://pinterest.com/bethannmccann/dora-birthday/
Tons of my inspiration and ideas came from items tagged in pinterest

 The goodies in the favor bags

Bandaids, silly bands, toothbrush

tattoos

We used paper bags and cut up Dora scrapbook paper to decorate them up a bit

 For the Dora cake I used my pampered chef batter bowl... turned out pretty cute

Dora tummy ticklers for the drinks as well as another giveaway

Binoculars out of tp rolls... put stickers and crayons on table too but didn't get much use out of those

What's a party without a bounce house? 

52" Dora Balloon ... cute but when filling the arm had a hole... boo on you party city

I'm the map! Love my silhouette machine that helped me make the face -- 

The silhoutte machine totally rocks and helped me make the map... so easy!! 

Parachute Paradise... first stop on the map

Giraffe Pond... 2nd stop... we used water balloons and had them pop it

Rainbow tree --- 3rd and final stop on the map...

Nacho bar... simple, easy and great!

Our birthday girl!
 Dress from http://www.etsy.com/shop/BabyThreadsByLiz

Lessons learned:

• The tattoos in the goodie bags went unnoticed and could have done without...
• Have your husband know where his phone is when he is doing the ice run so lines of communication are left open
• Always give yourself even more setup time than you think you need... no matter how organized you are...
• LOVE the silhouette machine! Get one! I could have done so much more but sometimes it's hard for me to start projects when the house is messy...

Fun times! 

Potty training

We are in the thick of it with Deanna :) She is  totally ready but now for her to remember and get used to going in the potty will be an adventure for sure! Jenna is now a crawler and is so cute! She loves the marble floors this house has b/c she can easily slide around.  She is starting to prop herself up on things too and balance on just her knees.  I have a feeling she will walk faster than Deanna did.  Too cute!  Ilove my girls, i love my husband and i love my life.  Thank you God for loving me so much and giving me all the blessing I have in my life.  You are such a loving father.  There is no one like you.

Growing on up!

Deanna is talking like crazy! Her fascination with "Daddy blue car" is still in full mode! Too funny :) She makes us laugh each and every day. We moved Deanna into her "big girl room!" She loves it and has done really well with the transition.  I made curtains for her room which turned out pretty cute! I am excited for her to move into her own room because that means we were able to move little miss Jenna into her own room! She is doing great in her own room and in the crib.  In fact last night she slept the whole night through with no feeding in the middle of the night! Victory is mine! It's not like I got a good nights sleep though b/c last night Deanna happened to wake up ~ Boo!

Jenna is now sitting up on her own.  She is getting big and so cute! Today we go the dermatologist to see what's going on with the birthmark on her face.  I am ready to put a name to it and know what it is and to see if there is anything we can do about it.

Don is awesome right now at the laundry mat doing all of family laundry! Love him!!