Last Day of the Year

I can not believe that 2011 is ending! Where has this year gone? It's been a busy but oddly quiet year. No babies, no moving, nothing huge. Just a nice, normal year. This year saw some career challenges for Chris. He volunteered to become a super user at his work for the new computer system. He had to work really hard to help get the rest of his team trained in the new system and I'm so proud of him. He would really like a promotion and that's something that we are praying for. To be honest things aren't so hot for us financially so a promotion would be awesome. That or winning the lottery! If you could join us in praying for a promotion for Chris we would be really grateful. He is starting out the new year doing a job shadow in a different department. We don't know if it will lead to a new job within his company but we are hoping so! I have continued to stay at home with the girls. They are growing so fast and they certainly keep me on my toes! I am starting to feel like I am always driving, with school, ballet, mom's group, play dates, doctors appointments, etc. I love it and wouldn't change a thing! I still work one shift a week at the hospital. I usually work a weekend shift so Chris is home with the girls. I'm kind of hoping for something different, too. I love where I work and the people I work with, but we never have a weekend as a family, so we're trying to come up with some creative shift ideas for me. I'll keep you posted! Sydney turned five this year. How is that even possible? She continues to love preschool and is thriving. She enjoys her ballet class and had her first recital this last summer. Savannah turned one in August and is now really starting to walk everywhere. She is growing up so fast and tries really hard to keep up with her older sister! She is all girl and loves princesses and anything pink. The girls are so much fun and give Chris and I such joy. We still go to the same church we have always gone to. We love our church family and are hoping to become more involved in serving if I can get off of weekends at work.

I hope and pray that this new year comes with blessings for all of you out there! Thank you for reading and staying involved with our little family. May God bless you in 2012!

Christmas Morning

We had a really fun Christmas morning. The girls were so excited and really got into the spirit of things! I was shocked at being able to get a picture where they are both sort of looking at the camera and not trying to walk/crawl away!


The girls with their new stockings.



Savannah's stocking contained a pair of Jackie O glasses! I love these! I found them on our recent trip to San Fran and couldn't resist.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Happy Wills Family!




A big thank you to my sister for getting Chris and I these moose glasses. If you don't immediately know where these come from then shame on you! For me, no Christmas is complete without Christmas Vacation. Now, we can sip our eggnog in our moose glasses while watching the best Christmas movie ever. Maybe Cousin Eddie will show up, too!

Christmas Program

Last week Sydney had her Christmas program at school. It's a lot of prep work: get the girls dressed, hair done, Chris home early from work so we can scarf down dinner, take pictures, get there early to get seats, and take more pictures all for a 15 minute program. And it was the cutest 15 minutes ever! She was very excited to sing her Christmas songs.

I got the girls matching Christmas dresses this year. I figured I might as well before they get old enough to say no to matching. I love this picture in front of the the little tree in their play room with all of the "kid" ornaments.




Sydney and Madison did such a great job standing still, singing their songs, and not horsing around on stage even though some of their friends were. They are so cute!

Christmas Deco

This year for Christmas decorations I decided to try something different. We always have our big tree, the one I call the "pretty" tree, in our living room. I love coming home and seeing the Christmas lights on the tree through the window. Insert sigh of contentment here. But, our fireplace is in a different room than our living room, where the tree is. The fireplace is in the back of the house, in the playroom. And our playroom is pink, pink, pink! This year I decided to get new stockings. Our old ones didn't have one for Savannah, and I decided I wanted to get something really fun and whimsical, since they hang in our pink, girly playroom. But...I didn't want it all pink because poor Chris already has enough pink in his life without having a pink stocking! So, this is what I came up with...

I got these stockings on Etsy. Click here to see the seller. She was awesome to work with and shipped them really fast! I absolutely love them! And the ornament garland was really fun to make. Next year I'll get different ornament hangers that are taller than the garland, but I think it's still pretty. Here's a close up of the garland.

If you decide to make an ornament garland, here are some tips.
1. Only get shatter proof ornaments.
2. I hightly recomment hot gluing all the tops onto the ornaments. It makes the garland so much more stable.
3. Carefully measure how long you want your garland to be. I think I'll shorten mine next year and put some decorations on the sides of the mantle.
I really love how the whole look turned out! I like that they are so Christmas-ey, but are still fun and whimsical. The turquoise turned out really cute for Chris' stocking.


And of course I love the pink!


In our front hallway I put up some green and yellow Christmas decorations. Gotta show the Ducks some love, you know?! I got these adorable little Oregon Santas at a holiday bazaar for a great deal.

Aren't they so cute? Although, Chris thought I was decorating with "old men" and didn't believe they were Santas. "Why are you putting out decorations of old men?" Seriously? Men. They just don't get it. But, he likes them now after we've gotten quite a few comments on them!

Civil War Game

A few weeks ago we went to the civil war game. We had so much fun, and of course, the Ducks won! It's always great to spank the beavs. The girls had lots of fun and it was our last stop on our way home from California.



After the game we met up with my sister and Sydney hitched a ride on her auntie's tuba case.



GO DUCKS!!

Pictures With Santa

Oh my gosh, two posts in one day! Aren't you a lucky duck. Last night we went and had pictures with Santa. Sydney climbed right up sweet as can be and politely asked for a Barbie.


Even though I knew it would be a disaster, I really wanted a picture with both girls on Santa's lap. It went pretty much exactly how I thought it would.

Ha! I think it's a prerequisite for being a baby that you must have one "screaming on Santa's lap" picture. Just for reflection, here is Sydney's when she had just turned a year old.

They have the same crying face! It was cute though and I'm glad we went and waited in line, totally worth it.

Bad Hair Day

When we were on our trip Savannah woke up one morning in a not so great mood. She wasn't super grumpy or anything, but the smallest things made her just cry this pathetic little sob. After one such incident, Chris scooped her up and snugged her in close, while whispering soothing little comments in her ear. I could hear him saying things like, "It's ok, baby" and "Daddy's right here." All standard soothers, right? Then he said, "Are you just having a bad hair day? It's ok...daddy's here." So cute! She certainly was having a bad hair day, though, when I took a good look at her!


Ha! That hair is so wild. What a cutie! And this is a random picture, but when Sydney was a baby she was obsessed with all the magnets on one of her grandpa's refrigerators. She used to LOVE those magnets! Now, Savannah has discovered them and she loves them, too!

Thanksgiving

We went down to northern California to visit some of Chris' family for Thanksgiving. Besides the lllooonnnggg car drive there and back, we had a great time. We spent part of a day in San Francisco. We walked all around fisherman's wharf, looked at the ships and the bay, and had a fabulous lunch of clam chowder in chowder bowls. I took a ton of pictures, but I'll just share this one of all of us.

(I love Sydney's shirt. Savannah's matched it, but you can't quite see her's. It was an iron transfter from one of my favorite sites, Delightfully Noted. Check out her blog to the right.)


Thanksgiving morning we went and spent some time with Chris' Grandma. We were trying to get a picture of her with the girls, but Savannah was not having it! Funny, we have a similar picture of Sydney at 9 months throwing a huge fit with the same Grandma.



Both girls loved playing with her walker!



Thanksgiving dinner was spent at Chris' aunt's house. Sydney loved playing with her cousin, Will. Savannah wasn't too sure about all the people there, but she warmed up eventually and did really like the Thanksgiving dinner.

Birthday Festivities

Sydney had a great birthday yesterday. Chris and I got up a bit early and made her a fun pancake breakfast. She was so surprised and so pleased!


I love how excited she looks in these pictures! It doesn't take much to make her so happy.




After breakfast, Sydney went to school. It was fun for her to get to go to school on her actual birthday. On their birthdays, the kids get to wear a cake hat and have everyone sing to them. She looks unhappy here, but she was just extremely embarrassed!



Savannah, on the other hand, thought the dancing was awesome! She wanted to join right in.


Sydney wanted to bring in cookies from her favorite bakery. She chose the birthday cake cookies and they put each child's name on their cookie.





We finished off the day with a dinner at Red Robin. Both girls had lots of fun and Sydney was once again embarrassed when the wait staff sang to her!






It was a really fun day and it was so special to celebrate my baby's fifth birthday. She is five. Wow. That's going to take some time to get used to.

Happy Birthday, Sydney!

I can't believe I am even typing these words, but today my BABY is FIVE YEARS OLD! This is not even possible because it was just like last week that she was born, but somehow, here she is, five years old. That is so grown up. It seems like it was just yesterday when we welcomed her into the world.


And now here she is, a sweet, sassy, spunky, spirited little five year old.


It has been a big year for Sydney. She still loves her little ballet class and will gladly shake her little booty if anyone asks for a demonstration. She is in her second year of preschool and is quite the little social butterfly. She has become a patron of the arts (AKA, she went to some plays). She got to see the Mary Poppins play, the Pinkalicious play, and went to her first ever concert, Taylor Swift. I'm pretty sure her life will never be the same again after seeing Taylor! She is such a joy and a pleasure to be around. Happy Birthday, sweet Sydney Grace! Mommy, Daddy, and Savannah love you so much!

On The Way

The week of Thanksgiving we drove down to the Santa Cruz area to visit some of Chris' family. We had a great time except for the driving part. It was 13 hours in the car on the way down. With two kids. Yuck! We took lots of breaks and the girls did pretty good, but it was still a very long day. I can't believe I'm even posting this picture, but this was Savannah when we stopped for lunch.

What's a girl to do? When you gotta go, you gotta go, right?! I remember well when Sydney was this age and using that little potty seat while traveling. Sydney wouldn't look at the camera, but she looked pretty cute "driving" here.



Our first stop on the trip was to Chris' dad's house. Savannah learned how to climb stairs there with a little help and encouragement from Sydney.



Sydney enjoyed playing with the guitar while were there. She thinks she's Taylor Swift. She does kind of look like her!

The Birthday Girls

Sydney and Madison had such a great time at their birthday party! Melissa and I had so much fun planning it together. It's nice that we're both so party crazy, it's another reason why she's my bestie! I love that our girls are best friends, too.




It might not look like it, but this picture is a miracle. Look, all of the kids are actually looking at the camera! I love this picture of all the girls' friends.

Decorations, Part 2

Melissa and I had lots of fun making some original decorations for the girls' party. It was awesome to go with a Christmas theme and who doesn't love Christmas decorations? This friendly little snowman, which happens to perfectly match our colors, greeted the guests at the door.



Melissa found an idea for some glitter trees online and we had a very messy time making them. I don't know if we took pictures of the process or not, but Melissa, myself, and Melissa's kitchen were COVERED in glitter, but aren't they cute? I think they make such a bold statement.




We made an ornament garland to run down the center of the food table and put some more of the glitter trees at either end. I am absolutely in love with ornament garlands this season. This one is actually at Melissa's house now and I made one in different colors for my mantle, too. Pics to come later.



I love the place settings for the kiddos. We found these polka dot plates, then wrapped the silverware and decorated the juice boxes. Topped off with a ribboned candy cane, and it was super cute and festive.


We even had coordinating wrapping paper to wrap the girls' presents in! Another example of tying in the theme and colors to every aspect of the party.