Pillow Fort Fun with Pop Secret!

One of Lily's favorite activities is building pillow forts!  Sometimes they're elaborate, sometimes they're simple, but rest assured, they are her favorite!   When you sleep in the bottom bunk, pillow forts are pretty much a daily occurrence, but the excitement for Lily never wanes! That's one of my favorite things about her...she's just as excited the 75th time as she was the first. 

This fort was the first time she got Violet up into her bed with her. "I'll 'pre-tect' her, Mama!"

Our next pillow fort is going to have lights, she said! Good thing I have some battery powered snowflake lights, we'll work into it this weekend. 

One of Violet's favorite activities is snacking. You think I'm kidding, but that baby loves to snack!

Combining the two is perfect for my girls on a snowy afternoon!  Mind you, we didn't get dumped on like further East, but we did get 6 inches of snow and that's plenty good for me! What better way to spend a cold wintry afternoon having some Pop Secret popcorn and hanging out in a pillow fort?! #PopSecretForts couldn't have picked a better time to have a fun, memorable promotion! 

The girls woke up from their afternoon nap and we decided we'd make an easy fort upstairs in the livingroom just to snack and lounge in.  Perfection for both of them!  Andrew decided he'd help out too even though this one would just be for the girls, he wanted to help with the construction then hang out on the floor for some snacks with his baby sister.  He's such a good big brother! He even picked out the snowman bowls for our snowy afternoon popcorn snack. 

Violet was excited to have her snack as always and thrilled to be inside the fort! I love the joy that comes from the simplest things and just exudes from her!

Peeking at her big brother is the cutest ever!

Violet decided it was time for her to run around again, so Lily climbed in to spend some time lounging, snacking, and playing on the iPad.

I love these memories made with my kids and even when it's a simple pillow fort, I know I will never forget, even if they are too little to remember.

Pop Secret knows that fun, like popcorn, is better when it’s shared. Send Pop Secret your pillow fort stories and pictures on Facebook. You can upload them right to the Pop Secret timeline and tag them #PopSecretForts. They might just share a little something back!

Be sure to download a $1 coupon for your next bag while you're there uploading your own #PopSecretForts ... you just may be a winner of a Pop Secret surprise pack!


Disclosure: 
Thank you to Pop Secret for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring us to building a pillow fort!

The First Snowfall

I have been working on keeping busy this winter, trying to avoid the winter funk that inevitably sucks me in.  Sunshine makes me happy and definitely something I need. So this past Monday when the temperature was in the high 50s, the kids went to the park to play!   

Just two days later, the temperature was in the single digits with negative windchills. Nothing like winter showing its ugly face all at once.  

My sweet Lily loves the snow! She has been asking for months if it was going to snow for her to go outside and make snow angels and a snowman.  We may have not had enough for a snowman this week, but there was definitely enough for a few angels. :)

While Violet napped, Andrew, Lily, and I headed out for a short time.  It was wayyyy too cold to stay out for long, but the joy on my oldest daughter's face was absolutely worth it.  Andrew is such a great brother and pulled her along in the sled down the driveway a few times.

Next up was a little snow throwing! Andrew took Lily's little snow shovel and tossed some snow at her and she retaliated doing the same, though most often she hit him with the actual shovel. He's a good sport!

 Lily has spent a lot of time talking about deer and hunting with her daddy.  Last year she went "shed hunting" with him to look for antlers that deer have shed and it's one of her favorite things to do! She can't wait to go again.  When she found a branch from a tree that looked like antlers sticking out of the snow, she was super excited! "Oh Mommy! I found some antlers!" and spent some time playing with her "antlers."

Very soon afterwards, Andrew had decided it was way too cold and he was ready to go inside. I agreed with him! Brrrrrrrrrr! Lily was convinced with the promise of hot chocolate!

The weather hasn't yet warmed up, but the sun is still shining! Only 20 weeks until summer!

Santa!

We've had a pretty low-key weekend with a few highlights tossed in there.

My girls, still in their pajammies, are currently playing with Anna, Elsa, and some other Barbie-type dolls driving them in a school bus and a Little People chariot because that's how we all should travel, of course. Violet thinks she can run now since she started walking less than a month ago, so it's funny to watch her try to push the chariot or the bus along as fast as she can! The Steelers game is playing in the background, Andrew is playing Xbox online with his friends and George is sleeping. The sun is shining and even though it's 37 degrees, it is much happier than the rainy weather we have been having the last couple days.

Friday night, I had planned on taking the kids to the Children's Museum Christmas event to see a penguin and a reindeer, but it had rained all day long. It was still raining when we got home from Lily's school and a few errands and it was cold.  The thought of dealing with traffic, parking and downtown stuff resulted in a "let's stay home" decision.  We all ended up in bed pretty early Friday night anyway.

Saturday, we went to a local nursery near our house to visit Santa.

Lily isn't in the screaming phase anymore, but still isn't crazy about going up to him.  Andrew decided to go over to Santa first to help his little sisters see it's ok.

Lily thought Violet should go first before her, so that's what we did.  I stopped to get Violet a cookie first to keep her occupied and maybe she wouldn't really notice I'd set her down next to someone...
It didn't work out quite that way.  She held on to her cookie though!

I asked Lily if she was ready and she said no. I picked Violet up and of course she was completely fine. I sat down next to Santa for a minute and Lily came over next to us comfortably. Baby steps, I suppose.

Lily asked Santa where Rudolph was and seemed satisfied with his answer. She replied that she wanted Frozen toys when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas.  She wanted to talk to him, just not be right next to him and Violet, as you can see, was content again.

Lily and Andrew had their cookies and it was time to leave.  As we drove away, Lily exclaimed excitedly, "We live near the North Pole!"  I love that magic!

We headed home for the girls to nap before we were going to another local light up night event that evening. This one was in our old, old neighborhood before Lily was born, but it's where she goes to preschool.  I was helping out with some crafts inside Lily's school for her teacher who was in charge of this entire event. You know, after just having given birth 5 days before!

Violet loved just walking around and trying to run inside Lily's school!  The kids "painted" puffy snowmen made of shaving cream, glue, and glitter, colored in coloring books, and made candy canes. Andrew helped cut the red stripes for the candy canes to be glued on.

We headed outside to listen to some kids sing and watch some others dance before strolling by Santa and waving from afar. :) Violet was clapping along and "singing" too and both girls were dancing along as well.

Soon the evening had come to a close and it was time to go home. While the kids waited for me to get packed up and into the car, Lily could not take it anymore and zonked.

When we got home, I put the girls to bed, and watched the rest of my favorite Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" on tv.  George has been working a lot of overtime lately, so in addition to it being tough with the overnight shift he works, he's been going in early too.  It's simply the season we are in and I'm grateful for such a hardworking husband.  I miss him too!

Steph's Snippets

Funny how the intent of sitting down and being able to blog is always there,but the reality is, it isn't happening much.  If I try to accomplish this at any time during the day while the other people who live in my house are around, there are one million stops and starts and there is no fluid writing at all whatsoever.  And by the end of the post, I simply just want it done!  That's no good.  Waiting until after bedtime is ideal except we've been so busy and I'm exhausted, so writing hasn't happened much then either.  All that to say, I have a ton of posts in the works!  Actually, I'm going to continue writing about our summer and other events, activities, and birthdays that have since passed as well.  I know you simply cannot wait haha!  In the meantime, here's a snippet of life lately.

~We are gearing up for band concert season in the next few weeks! Reagan began rehearsals tonight and her very first concert is in a couple weeks. Andrew's last one for 2014, is next week.

~Wednesday night, I took Andrew and Reagan downtown to see the local kid Chris Jamison who is on NBC's The Voice, perform a local show that they were also doing some hometown filming of for next Monday's show!  Chris is a 2012 graduate from Andrew's high school, so we've been watching this season from the beginning and rooting him on! Andrew laughs at me for cheering and clapping in our family room like I'm at the show. Well, lo and behold, when I saw yesterday I really could be at a show cheering and clapping for him, I decided we were going! I tried to win tickets on the tv station's website with no luck. I won them on the radio that afternoon!  Andrew, aka, The Grumbler, immediately said he wasn't going. This was one of those things where I told him he wasn't being given a choice.  Turns out, as always mama knows best and he had a good time!  This was Reagan's first "concert" ever!  Even though there was a lot of waiting and reshooting going on for the tv show, it was still fun and Reagan thought it was "really cool."  We were standing near Reagan's science teacher and a kindergarten teacher from her school --both of whom had Chris Jamison as a student in elementary school.  Andrew saw a bunch of friends from school and Reagan saw some of hers also. Chris sang the songs he's done on The Voice and then he and his band played 2 originals.  I love his version of Uptown Funk! It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went! George dropped us off and picked us up at the venue and he and the little girls hung out at home.

~I have a couple giveaways coming up next week! Be sure to check back for those.

~I have Violet's and Andrew's birthdays to get up on the blog--photoshoots and parties. I love them and can't wait to share about them!

~There's some stepmom stuff that's been going on I'd like to write about, some inlaw stuff, and some friend stuff.  So in addition to what we've been doing, I do have a little heavier stuff to write about as well.

~Recently, I took some maternity pictures of Lily's preschool teacher. She's also the owner of the school and over the last year plus, we've become close friends. I think the world of she and her husband and I was so happy to be able to do these pictures for them!  As her due date came and went, I had my phone turned on all night to be able to go and take pictures of their baby when she arrived. This past Monday was that day! What an honor to be there as their daughter entered the world! It was miraculous and I couldn't be more happy for them! I'm so glad they let me continue to work on my own skills. :)  They are first time parents and doing amazing! I hope to finish edits by the end of the weekend!

~We had a busy, happy Thanksgiving, Andrew's birthday weekend. Can't believe I have a 15 year old!

~Lily went back to the eye doctor this week for a check up. I'm so glad she loves to go! Update with her eyes coming soon.

~I'm personally gearing up for this winter weather.  I don't love the cold and feeling trapped in my house for eons.  We've already had a little bit of snow which I actually love still, but the cold zaps me.  Here's hoping winter flies by!

~A few months ago I started watching Sons of Anarchy for the first time.  I binge watched late at night to get caught up to watch this final season with George, who has been watching the show since it started.  There's only one episode remaining.  I love this show and just like I did with Dexter, I liked being able to binge watch since I didn't watch from the beginning.  Sons of Anarchy ending, Parenthood ending...my favorites.  Scandal better keep on!

I'm off to feed Violet lunch.

Happy Friday!