Merry Christmas and Craft Exchange!

I hope that everyone is having as lovely of a holiday as we are!  Starr, Jude and I are in California visiting the grandparents and having a great time.  We flew in last night and I'm happy to say flying with Jude went much better than I anticipated.  We are here for the week and are planning to send as much time at the beach as possible.  We already went once today!

Also, yesterday morning just in time for us to open before we left, we got our awesome craft exchange from the ladies at Insert metaphor http://insertmetaphor.wordpress.com.  They sent us the cutest ornaments and some very tasty chocolate!  Look at how cute they are!

Thank you Olive and Fern!!

Happy holidays!

-liz

Sugar cookies- creating traditions

This past weekend we made sugar cookies from scratch with Jude. He loved every part of it soooo much. It is a tradition I always did with my mom when I was growing up and I wanted to do it with Jude. He helped pour the ingredients in the bowl and turn the mixer on and off. He got totally covered in flour but a quick shirt change and he was good to go for the next part. After chilling, he helped us cut out the cookies. We placed the shapes and he would push them down.  Then it chilled and baked. Next was the best part. We took all the cookies over to the kitchen table and frosted them and let Jude go crazy with the sprinkles. He loved it so much.  We made a ton of cookies and Jude helped decorate them all! There was only 1sprinkle container with a lid with holes so he wouldn't pour them all out and it was hot pink sprinkles, so you can guess what color most of the cookies turned out:) he was mesmerized by it. He asked for more and more and even cried when it was over he loved it so much. It made me so happy to bring this tradition to my family.  What traditions do you do with your family?

-s

Moving on Up!

I know it's been ages since we last posted, but honestly we have been so busy that this is the first Jude nap in what feels like forever that I've been able to sit down, and that is just because we have people inside the house cleaning right now, or I'd be busy!  We are putting the house on the market this Friday and have been spending all of our spare time decluttering, packin and cleaning to get ready.  We are moving to Round Rock, which is just north of Austin.  Starr's job is up there and for the last year she has been commuting about an hour each way to work.  Of course for the six years prior she was also commuting an hour each way for a different job, but now that we have Jude and I'm not driving to work it makes sense for our family to move and cut her commute.  It's a good time to sell here in Austin, but of course having a toddler in the house makes things difficult, both in selling and in buying.  So this week we have had our carpets steam cleaned, a cleaning service to deep clean so that hopefully we can just maintain the clean, and a neighbor mowed the yard and cleaned up outside for us.  On Thursday we have a professional photographer come out to take pictures.  And we have take down the tons of art and pictures on our walls and packed up about 30% of our stuff.  Whew!  And now that's it's as close to perfect as I can get it Jude and I are just going to stay out of the house as much as possible until it sells (which cross your fingers is quick!).

Any tips on keeping a spotless house with a toddler would be appreciated!

-Liz