Christmas is Love.

I posted a photo on Instagram and Facebook a few days before Christmas proclaiming that it was "wrapping time!", and I was kind of shocked by the response - a bunch of "ugh's!" and "dislikes!" The funny thing is, I really and truly love wrapping gifts. Maybe it's the artsy/crafty person in me, but I find it fun and even therapeutic in a way. I love to put on White Christmas, sip some wine, and go a little crazy raiding my craft box. This year I learned to make those fancy bows (like the one up above) and they're actually pretty easy even though they look super complicated. (I used this tutorial) I love making the wrapping just as special and thoughtful as the gift within and having a pretty pile of presents to stack under my Charlie Brown tree.

I honestly thought maybe Violet would hate them because they're not covered in Disney characters and the string would be difficult to open, but it turned out that she loved them. Her scissors are one of her favorite things and my crazy gift wrap gave her a reason to use them, so she was all about cutting the ribbons and string. So much so that she wouldn't open the wrapping until she had snipped every last bit off, even if it was completely unnecessary. My dad started trying to hurry her along  saying, "You don't need to cut that part, sweetie - just rip it!" (and truthfully we should really have been hurrying a bit more, because we ended up being late to church. Whoops! More on that later), but I was happy to let her enjoy every minute of her gift opening in her own time in her own precious way.

Her favorite gift (if you can't tell by her expression) was her My Little Pony castle. It wasn't a gift I had planned to buy for her, it was actually requested by my niece, but in my tired mom delirium I had accidentally purchased two - one I ordered on Amazon, which I totally forgot about. Then I bought it again at Toys R Us and received the Amazon order the next day. Wah wah. I had planned to return one of them, but as soon as she saw it Violet was obsessed and it ended up being the one and only thing that she asked Santa for when she sat on his lap. So needless to say, Santa couldn't let her down, so the girl got a pony castle. The look on her face made it totally worth it even though she already had plenty of gifts and Lord knows she doesn't need another chintzy plastic castle :) It's not her favorite gift based on play time (that award probably goes to either her pirate ship or blocks), but on Christmas morning - nothing could top it.

Lucy mainly tried to eat the wrapping paper, and rip off all of the bows, and her favorite toys were probably the boxes that the gifts came in. I made sure to label a bunch of the bigger gifts as "To Violet AND Lucy" so that Violet knew that she had to share them with her little sister. She still asks me, "Mommy is this just my toy or is this Baby Luce's too?" She'll usually share with her sister even if the toy is her very own, but I planned this move way ahead of time just to be sure. After presents we ate a big breakfast casserole that Kev made (it was heavenly because a) it was truly heavenly and b) by that point I was ravenous). Then we started to watch a little Rudolph before we realized what time it was and that we were late for church! Luckily we made it in without too much of a disruption and even though I was a little embarrassed, everyone around us was really sweet and we didn't get a single dirty or judgmental look. I'm really glad we went - better late than never, right? We went up to see the nativity scene afterwards and Violet was really upset that she couldn't touch or even get close to the baby Jesus because of the way they had it set up. That's when I remembered a nativity scene near our house that we pass by all of the time and that Violet has requested many times to stop and look at, but there was always some reason not to. This time I decided that even though we still had a million things to do before our next event (like make a turkey! Clean up the house! Take a nap? (in my dreams)), we. were. stopping. It was freezing cold, but I'm so glad we did - it was so cute to see her in there visiting Baby Jesus on his birthday :)



When we finally made it back to the house, we realized we had never done stockings! (Which we had almost screwed up completely this year by stuffing them early) Luckily we came to our senses, unstuffed them, and waited to let Santa do it :) What can I say, we're stocking novices! This was the first year that they were necessary, because Violet was checking them daily. Previous years she didn't really even know they existed. We even put some underwear and chocolate in our own because we didn't want her to think that the Big Man had forgotten us :) I'm glad we did because she insisted that we look in our stockings first before she tore into hers and Lucy's. Then I frantically made the turkey, cleaned the house, and packed our bags to visit Kevin's family before collapsing into the car, completely and utterly exhausted.

While it didn't end up being the laid back relaxing Christmas morning that I was picturing (I mean, really why I was expecting that at all I don't know). I guess when you're a kid it all seems so effortless and fun and easy, but when you're the one behind the scenes making everything happen it feels completely different. Even three-and-a-half years in I'm still getting the hang of this being a mom stuff.

Even though the holidays can be so tiring as a parent - staying up wrapping gifts, cleaning up the house, prepping breakfast, rushing here and there - it makes everything worth it when you see their little faces light up on Christmas morning. I think if there's any magic in the world, it's in watching your kids experience life. I want to say a special thank you to my mom and dad for all that they did to make the holidays special for my sister and me. Now I know what you did for us, and why. Christmas is love. xo, Lauren

'Tis the Season

I'm a little behind with sharing photos due to hot-chocolate-mageddon 2013, so here's a fun photo dump from our Christmas season...
 

1. An impromptu tea party after my little sneak discovered one of her gifts a little early. (Apparently Santa didn't hide it well enough!) Haagen Dazs actually sent over this lovely knit tea set for Violet and she is in love - it's her favorite color ("wed"), and she wanted a fancy red tablecloth to match, so a blanket, play table, and a few gingerbread cookies later - voila! Tea party for two.

2. Violet was able to actually help decorate the tree this year. Ornaments may have been broken (she kept putting everything on the very tip of each branch, then Lucy would grab at the bottom of the tree and shake the branches and a couple of ornaments fell off - teamwork lol) So we ended up moving a lot of the ornaments she put on, but it was still pretty magical :)

3. We took Violet to see The Nutcracker for the first time. She was on the edge of her seat watching the Nutcracker battle the Mouse King, and Clara was her "fave witt". Plus she won a free month of dance classes! Can't wait to buy her some pretty little leotards :) Now every time we drive past the theater, she asks, "Are we near the Nutcwacker, Mommy?" and she's already talking about seeing it again next year :)

4. A silly kangaroo cruising around on her scooter may have knocked over the tree. (Yes there was another ornament casualty!) Luckily a lot of our ornaments survived, although I ended up never putting them back on the tree (it was hard enough to find time to decorate the tree the first time around!) I kind of like the simple look anyway.

5. We attempted a gingerbread house using a stoneware mold that someone gave us a while ago, but it was really difficult and Violet and I both got pretty frustrated. Luckily the central market in our city had a free gingerbread house decorating craft, so we did that instead - it was wonderful! They had the houses all built, gave us a cup of icing and assortment of candy, and Violet had a ball. I think she may have eaten as much icing as she smeared on the house, but the ladies must have planned for that as we had plenty of icing to go around :)

6. I was excited that there were carolers outside of market when we went. Violet was completely entranced and Lucy enjoyed the music as well. I can't wait 'til they're old enough to go caroling! (Okay, on second thought, maybe I can...take your time girls, take your time.)

7. We had a great time picking out our tree this year - we got Lucy all bundled up in her new winter coat and went in search of the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We must've been successful because the guy who sold it to us said that it was a little "unique" and "iffy" so he threw in a free pine garland ;) Success!

8. Violet and Lucy enjoyed the first snow of the season on the same day we were supposed to get our family Christmas pictures taken, so our photographers weren't able to make it. We were already all dressed, so we went out and made due with our iPhone and I'm happy with how they turned out - the snow made all the difference!

9. Violet enjoying a cup of ill-fated "warm" chocolate (she doesn't think hot sounds like a good idea). She's had a bunch of warm chocolate this season (thanks Haagen-Dazs for the yummy Rudolph hot chocolate mix!) Unfortunately one cup ended up on mama's laptop, so I was out of commission for a couple of weeks. Now, hundreds of dollars and a bunch of brand new parts later, we're back in business! If anyone knows of a genius was to insure electronics, I'd love to hear about it!

10. I've been crushing on Anthropologie's wreath for a couple of years now, but I would've had to sell my first-born child (or not buy a second laptop) to buy one, so I decided to make my own. Here's Violet modeling my half-finished creation :)

11. There's nothing like a baby's first Christmas. Lucy has been completely head-over-heels in love with the tree, and I'm sure a few pine needles have been ingested. That's one way to get her to eat her greens I guess!

So there you have it! Our Christmas season rounded up in one post. Working on Christmas day photos as we speak, so stay tuned! xo, Lauren

I'm working with Häagen-Dazs as an ambassador for their Moment for Me campaign. It's all about celebrating those little moments that you take for yourself, or even doing something you love with your loved ones - whether it's having a special tea party with your little ones, decorating the tree for Christmas, or taking your daughter to her first ballet. So I'll be sharing those types of moments here on A Lovely Lark as well as on my Instagram feed with the tag #HDmoment. We'd love for you to join in too - just tag your photos on social media and your moment may be shared by Häagen-Dazs!

Deck the Halls

We got festive this past weekend, and although we didn't pick out a tree yet, we put up the rest of the decorations. It was really fun this year because Violet could actually really help and she just loved each and every little thing to pieces! She wanted to wear her "pwincess dwess" as she usually does when we're at home, and she looked completely adorable decorating in all her finery.

When we were finished we snuggled up under a big cozy blanket and had family movie night with snacks, popcorn and Cheerios :) A big thank you to Häagen-Dazs for the movies, gorgeous throw, snacks, and cute little popcorn bucket! They made our movie night so festive and fun!

Now we just need to find our perfect little Charlie Brown tree and some greenery and we'll be all ready for Santa! xo, Lauren

P.S. Our happy Christmas house last year and a different kind of Christmas to-do list.

I'm working with Häagen-Dazs as an ambassador for their Moment for Me campaign. It's all about celebrating those little moments that you take for yourself, or even doing something you love with your loved ones - whether it's a hot cup of tea while your little ones are napping, getting ready for Christmas, or having a movie night with your family. So I'll be sharing those types of moments here on A Lovely Lark as well as on my Instagram feed with the tag #HDmoment. We'd love for you to join in too - just tag your photos on social media and your moment may be shared by Häagen-Dazs!

Halloween 2013

I'm a little sad now that Halloween is over - even with all of the exciting holidays coming up, it's one of the few that we really celebrate at our own home with our friends and family. This year we had a pumpkin carving party with a few friends a few days before the big night - the Mister got to try out some really fun carving tools that were sent to us by Häagen-Dazs (you could attach the "pumpkin gutter" to your drill - craziness! I'll never use a wooden spoon again) along with some yummy munchies and various other paraphernalia. Violet chose the face - she wanted the "nice" classic jack o'lantern. I love having a kid to choose the face now, because I am sooo indecisive and could never choose what to carve on my pumpkin. Luckily HD also sent us a really cool fake remote-control candle, because Kev decided to to go Tim the Tool Man and clean Sharpie off of our jack o'lantern using kerosene. Yeah...sometimes fake is good. ;)

For most family events, we either go to my sister-in-law's or one of our parents' houses because our house is teeny tiny, but for trick or treating we have the best neighborhood! So we had all of our family over this year for Halloween night and it was a blast. We had a chili bar set up with a white chicken chili that I make (and amazingly that Kevin actually likes! Normally he's the cook in the family.) I wanted to get some pictures of it, but trying to get ready for a bunch of people to come over with two little ones, photos just didn't happen - at least not good ones. Maybe next year :) Most of us went trick-or-treating while my mom and dad hung back and gave out candy. Then we all came back home to check out the kids' loot, steal some of their chocolate, and watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Garfield Halloween. It was a great night full of family and fun and food (and candy candy candy!) and I hope the tradition continues for many years to come. I feel like if and when we ever do move we need to find a neighborhood that is just as wonderful as our current one, if only for trick-or-treating purposes! 

And speaking of trick-or-treat, Violet had an amazing time - she ran from house to house trying to keep up with her older cousins, and although she had a few tumbles in the dark on our uneven old sidewalks with her not-so-practical-for-running shoes on, she was a trooper. She totally "got it" this year, saying "Twick or Tweet!" and "Sank you!" with so much enthusiasm at every house - it killed me. I was kind of sad when I had to go back a little early to feed Lucy and put her to sleep - holidays with kids are seriously so amazing. It's like being a kid all over again! Lucy was such an awesome big bad wolf - she's been making these hilarious faces lately, and it was just perfect for her costume, although Violet made it clear that she was a nice wolf. She said, "She's not weally going to eat me - it's just pwetend." Followed by, "And Daddy's not actually going to kill baby Luce with his axe (he was the woodsman), because then we wouldn't have a baby sistuh anymore, and I love my baby sistuh!" You wonder what goes through their little minds sometimes lol.

I have my mother-in-law to thank for Violet's adorable cape - she took some $1 red fabric I found at the Salvation Army and made it into something beautiful. Lucy's costume was a hot-glue-gun and felt special thrown together on the day of by yours truly :) Nothing like a little procrastination to get your glue gun going! 

Hope your Halloween was truly lovely! xo, Lauren

I have been chosen by Häagen-Dazs as an ambassador for their Moment for Me campaign. It's all about celebrating those little moments that you take for yourself, or even doing something you love with your loved ones - whether it's a hot cup of tea while your little ones are napping, carving pumpkins, or having a big bowl of homemade chili with your family. So I'll be sharing those types of moments here on A Lovely Lark as well as on my Instagram feed with the tag #HDmoment. We'd love for you to join in too - just tag your photos on social media and your moment may be shared by Häagen-Dazs!

Oh, Fall

Corn mazes, nighttime hayrides, colorful mums, golden hues, round pumpkins, cozy sweaters - such a beautiful season, I don't want it to end! I'm looking forward to Halloween. After Violet has changed her mind about a gazillion times, we made an executive decision that we're going to be Red Riding Hood (Violet), the big bad wolf (Lucy), the woodsman (Kevin), and Grandma (yours truly). Trying to make our costumes on the cheap - we'll see what happens! xo, Lauren

Lucy's super adorable sweater is c/o Totoknits and her headband is from Juniper Wilde.

P.S. Picking out mums and finding the perfect pumpkin last year (what a little munchkin Violet was!)

P.P.S. The winner of the Pampers/P&G Giveaway is Jess J. Thanks to all who entered!

Happy New Year!

We decided to spend New Year's Eve at home this year - just the three (and a half) of us. After running all over visiting with family and friends this holiday season it was nice to just be in our own space with our own little family. We made our own party fun - Kev cooked us a delicious German-style dinner of rouladen, dumplings, and red cabbage, I scavenged the house for some festive decorations, we had 'fancy' (alcohol-free for V and me) drinks, made paper crowns, and we all had a dance party in the dining room. Then after the babe was fast asleep, the Mister snuck out and got us some delicious desserts to munch on as we watched the ball drop. It was festive and fun and just what we needed to finish off our wonderful year. Happy 2013! xo, Lauren

Favorite Memories from 2012

One of my favorite things to do is to go back at the end of the year and look through all of my blog posts. It brings back a lot of good memories and really helps me to reflect on all of our ups and downs. Here are a  few of my favorites from 2012:

January: I came up with a few resolutions for the year. Some I kept (like spend less, grow out my hair, and turn 30 - okay okay so that one was inevitable but I wanted to make sure I had at least one success!) some not so much (namely Keep from looking like a hoarder by putting clean laundry away immediately. If you saw the wash baskets full of clean clothes in my bedroom right now you would be horrified)

February: We started to have potty training success and after a lot of debate I ventured to write a post with some tips from our experience. Little did I know it would become the most viewed post on my blog. That's right - a post about pee and poop is by far the most viewed on this site. Craziness! :)

March: The inevitable happened. I turned 30. Kevin and I wanted to do something special to celebrate without spending too much money or going too far away from the babe, so we decided to take a weekend and go to Philly. I had a blast relaxing in bubble baths at our hotel and eating out at the yummy restaurants and patisseries.

April: We had a lovely Easter surrounded by family and Violet had her first real taste of egg painting and an egg hunt. Oh, and my parents got her a polka-dot chicken that lays eggs while singing probably the most annoying song known to man...and she loved it. The day was a hit and she looked absolutely adorable in her pigtails.

May: We celebrated Violet's second birthday. I can't believe my baby is a two-year-old! I had a lot of fun with the decorations and we went with a Cinco de Mayo theme, complete with sombreros and pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. Oh yeah, and a Cookie Monster pinata (what can I say, the kid loves Sesame Street!) Not the most creative party theme ever but it was darn fun! And to top it off, she got her first bite of cake! Thanks to Duncan Hines I was able to make a dairy-free cake that wasn't disgusting. She loved every. messy. sugary. dairy-free bite.

June: We celebrated Kevin's second Father's Day. I found a bunch of books that featured Daddy's for Violet to read with Kev (is it just me or do a lot of kids' books seem to be missing the dad?!). We had a big homemade breakfast and topped it off with a picnic at the lake. It was a lovely laid back summer day.

July: This month was a busy one, so I couldn't pick just one thing. We celebrated the Fourth of July with cherry snowballs, a barbeque, a sprinkler, a parade and sparklers. Somehow we managed to squeeze in a trip to the zoo before jetting off to Australia to meet our new nephew. The plane trip went surprisingly well thanks to some seriously crazy pre-planning (see tips here, here, and here). We decided to break up the trip by spending the night and following day in L.A., so Violet got to see the Pacific from the American side and later the Aussie end (sadly before ever seeing the Atlantic which is much closer. Shameful.) We spent the trip soaking up our newest little family member, playing outside in the Aussie sunshine, and topped it off with a visit to a friend's farm. I'll admit that I felt a little off my rocker planning such a long trip with a toddler, but it ended up being a lovely holiday that we'll remember always, and I learned that sometimes taking a risk leads to the best experiences in life.

August: We got the most amazing photos from our trip - the lovely Candice Van Moolenbroek snapped these of my beautiful blue-eyed nephew and these of our little family. I couldn't be more in love with any pictures and only wish she lived here in the U.S. We slowly unwound and unpacked and tried to get back on track after our big adventure before starting back to work for the year.

September: It was a rough month. We ran into sleep issues with Violet, were both back at work full-time, and I landed a gig writing for Apartment Therapy. Life got crazy and I didn't post as much as usual, but things gradually got easier. I learned that this too shall pass.

October: The sleep thing didn't get much better, but we fell into a rhythm of taking turns getting up at night. I learned that having a supportive husband is something I am very very thankful for. The holiday season started up and it's so much fun with a toddler. We went to a local farm for some Fall fun, celebrated Halloween with not one but two costumes - one with red sparkly shoes and and one with brown leather boots. We dug through trick-or-treat bags and looked up unlabeled candy for allergen information. And last but certainly not least we announced that we would be adding a new little surprise to our family - a stow away from our trip to Oz...it was a good month.

November: We chowed down on pumpkin pie and Violet had a love affair with candy corn. I made it through the first trimester and started to feel like a somewhat-normal human being again (just in time for the eating holidays, hooray!). Instead of thinking about how nauseous and miserable I felt I started dreaming of a few new things for our new little bean and you awesomely gave me your advice and suggestions. We also welcomed our newest beautiful niece, Braithe to the family (and Violet fell in love with her) and ended the month with an early Christmas tree from our favorite local tree farm. (And yes it lasted through Christmas, although it's starting to look a little brown-tinged more "golden" than green as of today)

December: I wanted this month to be magical for Violet. And it was. Instead of going too crazy buying new decorations we made a lot of our own. I got crafty with the gift wrap and made a different kind of Christmas to-do list for us. (And we (mostly) stuck to it). We saw twinkling lights, visited Santa (with smiles for the first time this year!), and had a perfectly lovely Christmas morning. And to add the cherry on top, we found out that Violet is going to have a little sister. 

So there you have it - our year in all wrapped up in a single blog post. All I can say is 2013, you have a lot to live up to. Looking forward to meeting the newest member of our family and continuing to make memories with our little family. Happy New Year all - thanks for helping to make this one amazing!  xo, Lauren 

Christmas Magic

There's nothing quite like the magic of Christmas lights. I remember one of my favorite parts of Christmas as a child was when we'd drive home from my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. Everything was always so quiet and peaceful, and I loved seeing everyone's houses all aglow on the way home. I hope Violet gets some of those same warm fuzzy feelings as we build our own Christmas traditions each year. What was your favorite tradition growing up? I'd love to hear how other people celebrate the season! xo, Lauren

A Very Merry Christmas!

This was truly one of the best Christmases I've had in quite a long time. Everything seemed to go just perfectly - we woke up to a blanket of glistening white snow outside, built a roaring fire in the fireplace, and my mom thoughtfully popped a breakfast casserole into the oven to bake while we opened presents. Violet was just thrilled with her haul this year. She woke up around 5:00 AM and we let her come back to bed with us. While she was laying there she whispered to me, "Mommy, I heawr somethin' outside!" I told her maybe it was Santa bringing presents and that she'd better go back to sleep. It was so completely adorable how excited she was.

I expected certain gifts to be favorites, but she was truly and honestly as excited about her new pajamas as she was about her train set. She couldn't get enough of ripping open paper packages and cutting string with her favorite little pair of scissors. And while I didn't expect anything big for myself (the mister and I decided not to get each other presents this year), my family surprised us with a new set of video monitors for Violet and the new baby. I can't tell you how thrilled I am at the prospect of spying on my slumbering angels! Looking forward to the years to come with two little girls ripping open packages, eyes aglow, and singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus right alongside Jingle Bells. :)

Hope your Christmas was magical.

xo, Lauren 

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree a little early this year as our next few weekends are completely booked. We had the farm pretty much to ourselves and our pick of the trees. We're a bit odd as we generally try to find a tree on the thin scraggly natural side which is actually surprisingly difficult, but it's worth it because we just love the character and charm of an imperfect little tree.

Violet had a fun time tramping around, going on horsey-back rides, hiding in the foliage, and chasing her Daddy round and round the trees. Unfortunately despite a nap all of that tramping and frolicking did her and her mama in for the rest of the day and we were a couple of grumps. Not to mention Kevin having a blast getting the tree to stand up straight and the lights to work...sigh. Nevertheless it was a lovely day and we're all looking forward to decking the halls after we regain our holiday cheer!

xo, Lauren

Trick or Treat!

Violet and her cousin had the best time trick-or-treating! A few people asked her if she was Woody or Jessie and she said, 'No, me cowgirl!' It was sooo cute. Her costume was a cobbled together grouping of her regular clothes, a store-bought hat and handkerchief, and a vest that I made for her out of felt and hot glue. (I got the tutorial here) She didn't like to get near people who were dressed up in really scary costumes but she did like to point at them and warn the rest of us! Hope your trick-or-treat night was as much fun as ours :) xo, Lauren

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! This year Halloween has been really fun - Violet is old enough to watch two of my favorite movies - Garfield Halloween and The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. She definitely liked Garfield more because of the 'scary parts!' In fact we had to watch the scary parts four times! We carved our pumpkin way too early and it kind of disintegrated, but we sure had fun doing it :) And we've been practicing our 'Trick or Treat!' so that we get lots of candy, candy, candy, candy. Wish us luck! xo, Lauren

P.S. Violet's first Halloween (she was a witch!) + Violet's first trick-or-treat