This year, I outdid myself on the girls' ornaments. Really. These little suckers took so, so long to sew up! They were done completely by hand and completely exhausted me. Fortunately they're adorable in every single way! All the pain was worth it. Holly's is a kitty and Greta's is a bunny. I hung them up with ribbon safety pinned to the backs of their heads. I need to change out the ribbon around the bunny's neck (attaching the bodies to the heads was not as neat and tidy as I would've liked it to be! Luckily the ribbon hides that!). I made Greta's sleeping, since I love to take little snapshots of her napping. And Holly's has squinty-ish eyes since that's her favorite way to smile for photos these days!

You can find the pattern from Gingermelon here. I'd like to make a fox and a bear, but that is likely to be a project for the new year. 

I absolutely love having a live Christmas tree each year. Our home smells so good!

We don't have very much space in our apartment, so it was a bit of a challenge to pick a tree. We didn't want one too wide or tall. I think we found the perfect one! And then on a whim, Conor decided that the girls should have a little elf tree for their room. Yes please! It's the cutest little thing. We don't have very many ornaments (we'll collect more as the years go on), so I made some pom-poms to hang on their little tree. Holly is so much more into Christmas this year and she's an absolute joy! I love this time of year.

I've made a couple Scout tees and it has continued to be one of my favorite things to sew up and wear. I've made a total of three now. It takes me just under 2 hours to make one, including cutting it out of fabric. So, I can make myself a new shirt during naptime. It fits loose and I make mine longer so they have a more tunic-y feel. The fabric I used is a small gingham that a friend gave me years ago. Feels good to get that outta the fabric bin and on my body! I love sewing for myself. And I plan on doing just that a little more this month! 

BTW, this is a great beginnger pattern. It comes together really easily and has no darts. I highly recommend it. When belted it has a peplum feel. I wore mine with a camel colored sweater and loved the look.

Us crazy kids did some indoor skydiving at iFly in Union City. Conor bought this last month for our family to do and I thought it would be boring or not that great. I was totally wrong! It was such a rush and so much fun! Everyone was all smiles even the spectators. We spent one minute in the wind tunnel at a time and each of us adults had two gos. The first time around, the instructor flipped me at the end and the second time we all got to spin up to the top of the wind tunnel and back down again a few times. That was insane! I screamed and closed my eyes on the down. 

And the very best part, was Holly flew (like a pink fairy). She looked so cute in all the gear. Getting into that wind tunnel freaked her out but I was able to stand in there with her and hold her arms. Somehow I managed to wiggle out of her grasp for a couple seconds. She didn't last long, and I'm not sure that she loved it. We did our best to sing her praises and tell her how proud we were of how brave she was. The praise sunk in because she spent the next hour or so telling us all how proud she was of our bravery. Holly cracks me up! 

Before we did our flights, four of the instructors hopped in the wind tunnel and did all these crazy tricks including synchronized flying. It's insane what those guys can do!

Such a fun acitivity! Even for those fearful of height (me).

We used to pull the tripod out fairly frequently and take a few family photos here and there, but it's been a while. So last week (on Thanksgiving), we pulled out the tripod and did our best to capture our family. I love my little family. I don't know why I'm so blessed, but I'll take it. My girls are amazing. I love being their momma.

Greta has started to play with toys more and more. At church she was feeding her horses cheese nips and had them all laid out just so and we were not allowed to touch anything! Greta continues to be more and more demanding, strong-willed, exhausting and wonderful all at once. She loves to sing and dance and can do somersaults. We'll be potty training her in the next month or so.

Holly's imagination has completely taken off, every single day she is imagining more and more. She introduces herself as "Snow White" and calls Conor "Beast" more than anything else, even in the middle of the night. She sometimes refers to him as a creature as well. She's taken to calling me Belle and planning my wardrobe (dress, gloves and glass slippers) and my marriage to the Beast. I think watching her dance as a bad fairy is one of the funniest things she's done recently. If she could do a craft with breakfast, lunch and dinner, she would be quite happy. Next month we're starting a monthly craft subscription. Plus, there's so many fun Christmas crafts. I think she's going to love December. 

And Conor. Let's just leave it at I love that man/beast/creature more than anyone or anything.