I went there today...

to my happy place, that is. The land of organization and labels! It's such a wonderful place. Every time I go there it makes me giddy with excitement!

Last night my parents came over and gave their Christmas gifts to our girls, which was mostly toys that now need to find a home in our house. So this afternoon I set to work finding a place for everything, and everything in its place.

This bookcase is currently in Clara's room, but it will move to the living room when we take the Christmas tree down. Toys are sorted....

and bins are labeled. :)

This cubby thing is also in Clara's room. Again, toys are sorted....

and, drumroll please..... the shelves are labeled with fancy labels from my BFF, the labelmaker!

Seriously, looking at these pictures makes me so excited! I'm ready for her to wake up tomorrow and pull out all the toys and make a big mess with them so I can sort them all and put them back in their rightful spot. :)

A Christmas Tradition...frugal style

When I was growing up, one of our traditions was my parents gave each of us a new ornament each Christmas. The idea was that when we became adults and we moved out on our own we'd have some ornaments to start our own tree with. We always eagerly looked forward to finding out what our new ornament would be. Because I loved that tradition so much I wanted us to do that for our girls too.

This year Lola got a "baby's first Christmas" ornament from Hallmark, which I justified splurging on because it's a photo frame ornament and I really like being able to see what my baby looked like on her first Christmas.

However, I couldn't justify splurging on an ornament for Clara because the bucks are tight around here. Plus she's young enough yet to not notice the difference in ornaments, or even to realize that Lola got an ornament. I wanted an Elmo ornament for Clara because when I think of her at two years old, I think of the fact that she really likes Elmo and Sesame Street.

So to get to the point here, I made her an Elmo ornament out of felt. And it actually turned out cuter than I thought it would. And she loves it! I gave it to her this morning and let her put it on the tree.

One Elmo ornament made using supplies we already had on hand... $0!

Bath Time

Lola needed a bath one morning and we've been using the kitchen sink. Of course Clara wanted to be in on the action to help, so it seemed like a good photo opportunity!

What Clara is doing right now...

Advent with a toddler

This year Clara is old enough to start to understand what Christmas is about, so after dinner we've been spending some time with one of her two kid-friendly nativity sets and reading the Christmas story from either our Bible or her toddler Bible. So far it's been a big hit!

This set was Jeremy's when we was a kid. His grandma and grandpa made it.

I love that she wanted to put everyone up on the roof.

And then she lined them all up outside the stable.

She calls the shepherd "leopard."

What about you? What fun things do you like to do with your toddler during the Advent season?

Coffee table fun

Clara playing at the coffee table at eight months old...

Lola playing at the coffee table at almost nine months old...

Clara

In November, Clara learned about carving pumpkins...

And she hung out with her sister...

Experienced her first full ponytail...

And once she ate her snack at the toilet. Totally gross, I know....but hey, she's a kid.

The girl talks pretty much all the time. She makes us laugh a lot. At the moment I can't think of the funny things she says, but I'll try to write them down as I hear them and share them later.

She's a total mini mommy. She nurses her baby dolls, changes them, puts them down for naps, walks them in her stroller, puts them in Lola's car seat, burps them, and just generally takes care of them. She also loves to read books (or rather have them read to her). She loves Sesame Street and especially Elmo. She wants to do anything mommy is doing...washing dishes, cooking (which she calls "making"), giving Lola a bath, brushing teeth, brushing hair, etc. She thinks it's fun to pretend to take naps in our bed. She can climb into the cribs, but it hasn't occurred to her yet how to climb out even though we leave the side of her crib down all the way. She doesn't understand the concept of time or weather, so she will ask to go the park at any time...darkness, rain, snow, winter wind. She loves her sister very much, but occasionally will tell me to put her on the floor so I can give her my full attention. If she is ever sad about anything she wants her "buddy" as her comfort item. Now she thinks that anyone else who is sad needs their buddy too. And any time she is telling us something that she doesn't want to do she adds "right now" to the end of it. For example, "Don't want to go doctor right now!" And the girl has an unending appetite. She asks for snacks all day long. And the way she's asking you'd think she was starving to death and hadn't eaten in days. She's a crazy-maker and a sweet, darling all in one.

A visit from Grammie

Jeremy's mom came out to visit for Clara's birthday! We shopped, went out to eat, played, and shopped some more. And this time we actually got a decent couple pictures of the girls with Grammie. Last time she came to visit the picture-taking session was a disaster with both girls crying and Clara trying to get away. We've come a long way!

Clara's 2nd Birthday

Clara turned two at the end of October and we had a little party for her. A little Elmo party!

My mom made her an Elmo cake.

And she got to play with Oompa before the rest of the guests arrived. Oompa is always fun!

We read birthday cards, which you can see she wasn't too excited about.

She got some new things for her baby dolls and had to try them out right away.

Daddy got to assemble baby furniture.

And Clara got to play with her friend, Joshua, who lives next door. She calls him Ja-sha-sha.

Attempting a picture with our birthday girl. This was the best one we got.

And the happy birthday girl with her special "birt-day cake!"

And Lola enjoyed the Elmo balloons.

It was a fun little party, but I guess I failed to take pictures of the rest of the decorations, the birthday lunch and some of the guests. Clearly our family photographer (my older sister) was not at the party since she was expecting a baby any day and couldn't make the trip.

Happy birthday, Clara! We love you!

Lola likes ice cream

Jeremy shared some ice cream with Lola and she LOVED it! I think she would have jumped in the bowl if she could.

The Zoo!

Back in October I scored one of the library's free passes to the Minnesota Zoo. Jeremy had a Friday off work and it was a gorgeous 80 degree day so it was perfect for the zoo. Clara loved it and she still randomly says she wants to go to the zoo. Maybe next year we can afford to buy a membership and make it a regular field trip.

She really liked watching the ducks and flamingos.

And picking up little rocks and sticks and such on the paths.

We went to the farm and saw the baby animals. The goats were very friendly and they quickly came over and stuck their heads through the fence to greet us. Clara was a pretty good sport about it, but was glad when we moved on.

It was an awesome outing! We spent a couple hours there in the morning and then had lunch and loaded up the car just in time for the girls to pass out with exhaustion.

A new business venture

Has it really been over a month since I last posted anything here? That's pretty pathetic. I guess I'll use the same old excuse that life as a mom of little ones is busy. Lola is finally starting to go to bed earlier in the evening, which has been so nice because it allows me to get some things done before I go to bed...like blogging.

I'm sure I have tons of pictures of the girls to post from the last month, but for now I want to let you know about a new business venture that I've started (in case there are any of you left that don't know by now).

As of September of this year I am officially an Independent Sales Consultant for Norwex Enviro Products! They are a home-party based business (similar to Mary Kay or Pampered Chef) whose mission is to improve quality of life by radically reducing the use of chemicals in personal care and cleaning.

Over the past year or so I have become more and more passionate about reducing the amount of chemicals that my family is exposed to and I had switched many of our products over to "greener" alternatives. But this still meant spending lots of money on various cleaning products and personal care items. Now I clean my house primarily with microfiber cloths and water. It's amazing! It's cheaper, faster and healthier for my family and the environment. What could be better than that?

So even though I don't have the typical "salesperson" personality, I decided to give it a go because I'm so in love with their products that I knew I'd just naturally be telling people about them.

If you'd like to hear more about the company or the products, let me know. I'd be happy to tell you how great they are and how they'll revolutionize the way you clean!

And my personal favorite...

melt my mommy heart!