A Very Merry Christmas!

What joy! What a blessed Christmas, indeed! 

The festivities began Christmas Eve day - first, with a steaming cup of hot chocolate in Christmas mugs :)

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Followed by some Christmas Pop making for our Helton/Tilton annual Christmas Eve get-together - these were fun to make, I was pretty pleased :)

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Dressed in their Christmas best, we headed to my parent's house for dinner, fun and games with the Tilton family :)

Me and the kiddos! Unfortunately, Josh had to work all of Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve service at North Coast, which I heard was wonderful) - so no Christmas pics with daddy :( 

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I LOVE this pic of my parents with the kids - it really expresses their personalities - M the goofy one, K the sassy one, haha :) And I can't help but love my dad's christmas sweater t-shirt :)

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We love Gigi!!!

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First gift opening of Christmas 2012! They were beyond excited :)

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All ready for Christmas morning!

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Christmas morning - The kiddos got a little note from Santa ;) Loved opening their stockings and gifts (including the cradle josh made himself!) And didn't get a picture, but started the morning with a cinnamon roll birthday cake for Jesus and a breakfast christmas devotion :)

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Follow this with Christmas at the Helton house, complete with gifts and a delicious meal, it was truly a wonderful, amazing, blessing of a Christmas day. 

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And I couldn't resist posting a pic of our sweet niece Shiloh, can't wait to celebrate our Williams/Duron Christmas on Sunday!

1 Day - 2 Special Birthdays!!!

Wow, what a special day December 23rd 2012 was!!! Not only did we get to celebrate my Grandma Violet's 95th birthday (!!!), we also got the news that morning that our newest niece, Emma Rose, was going to be born!! We headed down to the hospital in the early afternoon, got to chat awhile pre-(major)labor with Brittany and Rudy, the nervous/excited parents-to-be, then waiting expectantly in the lobby until she was born at 5:56pm - 7lb 5oz 20in! After Ooohing and Aaahing over the precious new one, we headed back to my parents house for a birthday dinner celebration with my grandma. How fun to celebrate two special birthdays in one day. I've been blessed with such a wonderful family :)

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Doesn't my grandma Violet look amazing for 95??!? I sure hope it's in my genes, too!!

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 I prepared some chocolate peppermint cupcakes with lavender lace wraps and pretty pink butterflies, and hand painted a new vase in her favorite colors, which my dad graciously filled with flowers from his garden.

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Our newest niece, Emma Rose Hodges, so beautiful!

Deck the halls!

Christmas is almost here, so I thought I'd got a little Christmas-y on the blog :) I love how homes look at Christmastime. So cheerful, so bright, so full of warmth and light. I'm not a huge fan of how my home usually looks, so adding some holiday cheer always brightens things up for me :) It's been a craaaaaazy busy December - what, with Tahoe the first week (didn't even start getting into the holidays until we got back, but so worth it!!!) then a LARGE order of cake pops for a church function, and another right after I just posted about - plus staff christmas parties, a cookie exchange, preschool class parties, baking, yada yada yada. . .it's been busy. . .but a blast! (although I think I'll lay off the baking for a few months, haha.) Here are just a few pics of the holiday cheer that are making my spirits bright these days :)

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My mom, Grandma Nancy, is an avid quilter, and has really been making the most amazing quilts. We scored, as she made each of the kids a Grinch quilt. I SO love them - and so do the kids!! Matthew has one on his bed, the other is on the couch - sorry Kaylie, better luck next year ;)

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The new holiday wreath I made this year! I threw it together fairly quickly, so there are a few things I would change - but overall, I think it's a fun and festive addition to our front door :)

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Cookies, cookies, cookies!!! I spent an entire evening (until 2am!) baking some delicious cookies for a cookie exchange, followed by a staff Christmas party. Iced sugar cookies, the melting snowman cookies, and chocolate peppermint. Yuuummmmm!

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Well I don't know about you, but I'm so excited to celebrate Christmas, Jesus' birthday, in just a few days. Each year the kids understand more and more, a lot more excitement, and a lot more to share with them - not only santa and presents, but giving and the most important gift we've ever been given - the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Can't wait to share in their joy Christmas morning!

Ninjago!

This past weekend I got to test my cake pop making skills once again, as I had the opportunity to make them for one of Matthew's best bud's birthday parties - AJ!! His mom *one of my best buds, Melissa* put together an awesome Ninjago themed birthday party, complete with personalized sash for their foreheads and ninja throwing stars! Mel asked if I'd make Ninjago cake pops and so I went for it! 

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Here's what I did:

Step 1 - I created the masks/eyes out of gum paste - fondant would have worked great, too, I just happened to have gum paste on hand. I drew in the eyes with edible ink (Americolor is my favorite), using a toothpick for the marks under the eyes - and dabbed just a bit of white on the eyes with the end of a toothpick. 

Step 2 - I rolled the balls and then made a fairly short cylinder, which I then added half of a Dot (gumdrop) to with some melted chocolate. 

Step 3 - DIP! Then I dipped that entire thing and stuck the mask on right away, then set aside to dry.

Step 4 - Once it was dry, I took a paintbrush and handbrushed chocolate on top of the dipped chocolate, to cover the edges of the mask, fill in any imperfections, and give it more of a fabric feel. 

They were A LOT of fun to make, I was pretty pleased with the outcome - but they did take forever, haha.

Here's a little bit of the party awesomeness that Mel made herself for the party - loved the decor!

Tahoe 2012

Tahoe. My new favorite place! We were SO blessed to be given the opportunity to visit Tahoe as a family - only the second time we've ever had a family vacation! I was a little nervous about going on vacation with the kids - our first family trip didn't go off as smoothly as I'd hoped - and Tahoe, a 10 hour drive to get there. . .hmmm. . .but we just couldn't pass the opportunity up. My parents (the awesome parents they are) let us borrow their van and off we went. Praise the Lord, it was an amazing ride BOTH ways - so thankful for the invention of in-car DVD players (and iPhones) - when they're a little older we'll enforce a little more family car/game time - but not this time around :-P  

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Breakfast at Starbucks in Bakersfield on the way up, still in PJs :)

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As we made our way up the mountain, we started seeing snow on the ground and I was ecstatic. As we made it to our condo in Stateline, NV, the ground was COVERED in snow. Awesome. In fact, here's the view from our front door - AWE-Mazing!! (and a few snowy shots from the road from our snowy day, Sunday)

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A few snapshots of our place - great location, perfect size for the four of us!! Saturday, when we got in, we went to the grocery store and bought food for the week - which came in handy when we were snowed in for the majority of the day Sunday! Prior to being snowed in, we were able to drive through the casinos and walk around the shops in downtown South Tahoe (even visit with Santa, although neither kid really wanted to have anything to do with him :-/). Sunday was the only day we had to put snow chains on the tires, thankfully!

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Sledding! This was our first time sledding, on a driveway next to our condo. Matthew had a BLAST - Kaylie kept saying her tummy hurt at the end of every run, it scared her a bit!

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Heavenly! Monday was a GORGEOUS day, so we decided to take the Gondola ride of the Heavenly run in South Tahoe. It takes you up to an observation point with just AMAZING views (and freezing wind!!!) - it's there that Kaylie discovered her love for eating snow :) After hanging out there a bit, we took the gondola up the steep side of the mountain to the top, where we walked around in mid-calf deep snow, threw some snowballs, rolled down a few hills, and just had some snow fun :)

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Emerald Bay - We had heard that Emerald Bay had some amazing views, so we decided to drive a bit around the lake to see it - wasn't to far from the south actually.  There were some rock "mountains" to climb, some breathtaking views. . .and an adventure to Vikingsholm to be had!

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We hiked a mile downhill to the lake beachfront, and an awesome little castle called Vikigsholm. Apparently it's open to tours during the summers, but it's all boarded up in the winter. Still pretty cool to walk around.  The little island in the lake has a little tea house, or tea "castle" that went with the home. We all loved exploring it down there. . .however hiking up hill for a mile, not so much. We ended up carrying the kids the majority of the way. . .and they are heavy!  And unfortunately, Kaylie must have brushed up against some poison ivy while playing hide-and-seek with Matthew, because I rolled up my sleeves to carry Kaylie up the hill, and by that evening a rash began breaking out on my arms. . .getting worse over the next few days. SO ITCHY! Oh well, at least no one else got it!

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Tuesday we started off by driving around the west side of the lake up to Squaw Valley. Another slightly snowy day and pretty cold, but it was fun to walk around the shops and eat lunch at Fireside Pizza. They also had a gondola ride up the mountain, but we didn't take it this time.

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After Squaw we headed to Adventure Mountain - a place you can go with groomed sledding hills and plenty of places to play in the snow. We got all bundled up and grabbed our sled and snow discs and headed up the hills! Matthew has found one of his favorite activities - he had a BLAST sliding down the hills again and again - whether on the sled with Josh or myself or on the discs himself, he had a blast. Kaylie and I decided to play in the snow and make a snowman - it was so much fun to build a snow man - the first snowman I remember building myself!! We had a BLAST playing there until snow/sleet started blasting us in the face - that's when we knew it was time to go!

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All-in-all such an amazing trip and such an amazing blessing. We had such a wonderful time as a family, and we all LOVE the snow. It would be great to go back every winter, but we'll probably have to alternate with something more local like Palomar :) We'll see - that won't be our last trip to the snow, that's for sure!!!
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A Fine Fall Day. . .

The day after M's 5th Birthday, just a few days before K's Big Haircut, we were lucky enough to have some fall family photos taken by the incredibly talented Leif Brandt. It was a typical So Cal fall day -  in the mid-90s (phew!) - thankfully our shoot was scheduled for the afternoon and it had started to cool down. Leif & Erica found this awesome large trunk and he brought it along for the shoot. Leif found a location in Bonsall with some nice trees and open fields, great for pictures. We had a lot of fun, even if we did have to bribe the kids with candy :-p And thanks to the always-stylish Erica Brandt for letting me shop in her closet for the top, sweater and necklace - I now have inspiration for what to look for when I'm shopping for myself. I love our family :)

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The model shot :)

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Gettin some lovin :)

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They do love each other (especially when bribed with candy) :)

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She sure does look up to him. . .

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Showing us his sweet side - and making sure we see it, haha

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The money shot :)

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I love this one, tickling the kiddos :)

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Our handsome boy!

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Another one I LOVE - so much fun :)

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Our sweet girl :)

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Had to get a pic with her puppy!

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Love it :)

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Fun times :)

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Thanks again Leif for the fun shoot and the incredible images - can't wait to get them printed!

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Another post to check out - our Spring Family Photos, taken by another amazing photographer, my brother Greg Helton!

A Roooooaaaarin' Good Time!

We're just spreading M's birthday experience as far as we can! haha ;) Sunday we celebrated with a family get together - and what a great time it was. Lots of raorin' good times for our Matthew-saurus - yummy food (for the carnivores & herbavores alike), a few crazy kiddos and fun times with family.

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The Invitation (had to include this, just too perfect :)

 For a Roarin' good time, join us in celebrating as Matthew-saurus turns 5. We'll chomp on some yummy finger foods and gobble up some cake, while enjoying some dinosaur sized family fun. Hope to see you there!

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We tried to keep the party fairly small, just family at first, but we ended up letting M invite just a few of his buddies last minute.  (If any of our friends reading this didn't get invited, I'm so sorry - I wish we could have invited ALL of his friends this year, but we just couldn't - next year for sure!!!)

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Matt, AJ & Sammy, being crazy and playing w/ dinosaurs!

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I thought it would be fun to make some extra dinosaur sugar cookies and let the adults decorate them. Then Matthew got to be the judge and pick his FAVORITE cookie, and that person got a prize :) He picked Sammy's mommy's cookie - way to go Jessica!

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Pinata time - Kaylie was on FIRE hitting that thing ;)

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Next year I need to be more intentional about getting group shots, or pics of different people at the party. Here are just a few pics. . .Had to get a belly shot of Auntie Brittany and Baby Emma - just one more month!! K and Grandma Nancy, Gigi and then David, Simone & baby Shiloh (7mo) :)

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Others who made the party that much more awesome: Grandpa Scott (OUR AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHER!!!), Grandpa Eddie & Grandma Sandy, Cher, Emilio & Devynn, Rudy, Alex & Melissa and Jessica. What a blessing each and every one of you are in our lives, thanks for joining us in celebrating Matthew's special day!!!

The Big Cut!

Kaylie is blessed with such gorgeous hair.

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She was born with it :) Unlike many babies, her hair never fell out or even rubbed off in any spots - it just kept growing, at an amazing pace, really. . .

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At one year old she had her first official "haircut", really just trimming here and there, evening out the "mullet" her natural hair growth from birth had left her. I think it was about that time that I decided we would grow her hair out until we could cut the minimum requirement for hair donation. She has such gorgeous hair, we should share it! Over the past few months (probably 6 months, actually) I've been ready to make the cut - her hair was at the point of getting caught under her armpits all the time, and almost reaching the toilet water when she looks up at me sitting on the toilet - yuck! I REALLY wanted to cut it when the first heat wave hit during the summer. . .but when I measured her hair, 8 inches (the minimum requirement for most charities) was just too much to cut off. I got an email from our favorite kid's hair place, Sharkey's Cuts for Kids, saying they were having a Hair Donation Day in November - so I jumped on it and made an appointment!

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At Sharkey's, pre-cut pose. . .

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And here we go. . . .

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Ta-Da!!!!!

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I had to close my eyes a little while they cut that beautiful ponytail off, but she still looks so stinkin' cute :) She seems so much sassier now with her cute little haircut :)

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While all kiddos get a lollipop and balloon at Sharkey's, one of the perks for little girls is hair glitter, a mini manicure, and her very own ring! She picked two shades of blue :)

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Look at me!

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We sure love our sweet & sassy little girl :)
What fun - here's to a long life of beautiful hair and hair donations!