Christmas 2014 part 2

While we in California, we took advantage of the setting and everyone being together and took some family photos of the cousins.

I think they turned out pretty well! 

I also snapped a few of the girlies...

Evie is either a goofy cheese ball or gives you a blank stare. Works great for photos...ha!

 Love these kiddos! 

p.s. I'm printing off copies for the grandparents! So don't worry! :)

Christmas 2014 part 1

This year the Kelly family opted for something different when celebrating the Christmas holiday. It was our first Christmas missing Nancy. Nancy made every Christmas so special. She was the queen of entertaining and passed on so many traditions to our families. It just wasn't going to be the same, celebrating together at home with out her. And although we missed her something fierce this Christmas- it was fun to do something different and travel as a family.

We all headed to southern California. The weather was amazing! The beach was amazing! The resort was amazing! The ocean was amazing.... actually it was freezing!!! But still tons of fun! And it didn't stop the kids!

Here are some photos of the first part of our trip. We spent 5 days with Luke, Amy, the boys and Jeff.

We drove up to Newport Beach with Jeff. On the way, we stopped in Laguna to stretch, get some gelato and dip our toes in the Pacific. 

We spent the next few days at the beach. The twins weren't interested in actually swimming or body boarding so they just hung out on the beach and read books. But Corynn had a blast with her cousins and Evie entertained herself (we now have a collection of shells thanks to that little gatherer).

The kids really did have fun together! 

It was a great trip and memories were made! We are incredibly blessed to have such an awesome dad/grandpa who can make amazing trips like this happen! We love that guy!

Tis the season

My favorite part of the holiday season is baking yummy treats and making small gifts for my family and friends. 

Here are a few pics of what's been done this year. 

These pinterest inspired cuties are what I made for the cookie exchange last week! Love how they turned out. I changed a few things to simplify. And I discovered a love of Royal Icing...best stuff ever! 

I used up some wood scraps and made a few holiday buntings. I used my cardboard stencils and a dark brown sharpie for the letters. Then used a clear coat over the whole disk to seal it. Drilled holes on either side of the disk and then strung them together with twine. Two of them say Merry Christmas and one says Peace & Joy.

I had a stash of tin cans in my craft closet and decided it was time to either use them or put them in the recycle bin. So I ended up using them as gift tins for my friend and teacher gifts. 

My friend and teacher gifts this year were homemade vanilla extract. Finally 4 months later...it's ready to gift! This is how I made it. I also printed off some labels at Kinkos to add to the bottles. 

And here they are ready to go! 

I also added some vanilla cookies that I made using the vanilla with each tin. That way the recipients could get a little taste of how awesome the vanilla is! It really has a great flavor! 

Notice the Royal Icing? Yup! Love that stuff!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Little spit fire

This kid keeps life interesting!