Craft Fair

About a week ago I did my first "craft fair" with some of my friends and it was such a blast! My friends had success doing it last year, so they did it again this year and invited me to join them. I had never thought of doing a craft fair or anything like that before, but hopefully this won't be my last time doing it! It was so fun to have a reason to craft every night when the girls were asleep and Josh was studying. And with my little envelope of earnings I am now officially the sole breadwinner of our household! Josh and I have been laughing about this. I didn't sell everything I made, but I did make enough to cover all our Christmas costs, so I was thrilled. And I also ended up with a handful of "orders" for additional painting and sewing projects, so I've been working on those this week before we head out to Utah. 

 Above is my little booth, and below are the things I sold....

 Maybe I should add...."Tuck" is the business school at Dartmouth, and I did a handful of small paintings of the main Tuck building on campus. I should probably know the actual name of the building because I'm pretty sure it has an official name other than "you know, that main Tuck building...".

 I don't have any good pictures of the room all set up and ready to go, but here are a few pictures while we sat up that give you a tiny glimpse of all the fun crafts and gourmet treats being sold.

And maybe the best part of the craft fair was spending the day with these awesome ladies! I'll tell you what, I am surrounded by such talented ladies here! (Which was true with my California friends, too!) 

What a fun day! Totally exhausting and so much work to prepare for it, but now that I've had a week to rest I kind of wish we could get working on another one! 

Girls

I think this is the first time Bryn and Mya have worn matching outfits ...besides Bryn's daily attempts to match Mya. Bryn thought it was the greatest thing on earth to match Mya. It was so cute how excited she was about it. Awww.....sister love! It reminds me of all the matching outfits I have with my sister nowadays. She finds something cute and then I ask her where she bought it and I copy her! I think half our wardrobes are exactly the same. Thanks Rie!

I really did buy these dresses from the holiday section, but I am now realizing that they totally look like Easter dresses. For sure. So much for branching out from the typical red Christmas dresses! I guess we're just killing two birds with one stone and we've already got their Easter dresses covered! 

I take that back. Mya puts on about a pound a day and there's no way she'll still fit in this size 9-month dress at Easter time. She'll probably be wearing at least size 2T :)

Anyway.....I love these two girls! Three cheers for matching Christmas/Easter dresses!

Big Time

I am not as good at documenting all the "firsts" with Mya as I was with Bryn (Well, I probably went overboard with Bryn), but I finally took a few pictures of Mya's latest achievement....

Solid Foods.

She's been doing rice cereal for a few weeks now and she is just barely branching out to pears, peaches, etc.

Of course, she loves it!

Bryn thinks it's hilarious to see Mya's silly attempts at swallowing food, and she always asks to help feed her. It takes a long time for Mya to finish her tiny servings, but it takes even longer when Bryn is the one doing the  feeding! But it's worth it to hear Bryn's giggles and hear her encouragement to Mya "Come on little missy! You can do it, you can do it! Keep swallowing, keep swallowing!..."

Dartmouth Tree Lighting

Tonight was one of those nights I love living in a small college town. It was the Dartmouth tree lighting ceremony and there were lots of Christmas activities throughout town. It was kind of a chilly, wet night, but we bundled up and had fun walking around town and taking advantage of the free activities and treats :)

I love these three! 

Bryn and I on a wagon ride around town. 

(Bryn is really good at a lot of things, but smiling for pictures isn't high on that list. It's kind of a game for her. As soon as the camera comes out she does a silly/strange face.....or if she can manage, she just sprints away).

Fun night!

Play Date

We babysat one of Mya's cute friends this week and Bryn and I got such a kick out of seeing these two little girls "play". Kate is about a month and a half older than Mya and it's fun to see what Mya will be like in the next month or two.....(scooting around, sitting, etc).

Bryn + Mya

When Mya was born my mom encouraged me to have Bryn and Mya's days intersect as much as possible. Not to get Bryn busy doing one thing and keep Mya happy doing something else, but to get them to "play" together even though they are three and a half years apart.  

She was right.

I've tried really hard to do this each day and it's my very, very favorite thing to see my girls side by side, interacting as much as they can at this stage.

 Bryn is getting so good at bringing Mya toys and trying to demonstrate how to make them work. It's so cute. I really can't take it! Bryn does an awesome little baby voice when she talks to Mya and calls her endearing nicknames like "Little Chubsy" and "Little Baldy".

 Mya just lights up when Bryn is beside her. It really melts my heart.

 Bryn loves to match Mya, so that explains the bib and interesting outfit. This was the closest outfit she could get to Mya's ensemble. Bryn and her outfits.....

 Bryn even tests out Mya's toys for her and finds the best ones to chew on. Now that is love.

 There is nothing better than this.

Last of the NJ Trip

Here are some final snapshots from our fun New Jersey trip (and then I promise I'll stop talking about it).

Let's start with Abby. How cute is my niece!? I loved spending time with Abby and so did Bryn and Mya. Abs was so sweet with both of my girls and they absolutely adored her.

 This is some of the cousins at a science museum near Jake and Ty's house.

 Bryn and Abby hard at work coloring. Bryn was so thrilled to have Abby as her coloring partner.

 Josh stayed up every night past midnight playing monopoly with the boys. He was in heaven to have people to play monopoly with :)

 Awww.....Mya with her Grandpa Hawkins

 And Brynlee with her Grandma Hawkins

 Mya was seriously given the royal treatment the whole time. She was held and played with the entire time and she just ate it up.

 Leah literally held her for hours each day. As soon as I fed Mya Leah would ask to hold her, and then she'd keep playing with her the whole time until it was time for Mya's next nap. It was so cute.

 One of the best parts of the trip was meeting my new nephew Israel! He was just a month old and he is such  a cutie. Here's Mya and Israel with Isaac and J.J.

 J.J. and Josh playing guitar

And one more of little Miss Mya with grandma.

We had the best time being with family and having a fun little trip to New Jersey. Thanks so much to Jake and Tyra for hosting us all in their home!

Thanksgiving

The last couple years in California I've cooked the Thanksgiving meal for our little family, my uncle Mark, and brother Jae. We missed them this year, but it was so wonderful being at Jake and Tyra's this year.

Because we were going to the parade in NYC on Thanksgiving morning, we did a lot of the meal prep on Wednesday night. I loved watching my mother in law make the pies since she's such a pro!

Josh and his brother Jake peeling potatoes

Bryn loves to help in the kitchen and Ty was so nice to let Bryn be her assistant.

Here are almost all the cousins on Thanksgiving (missing Abe and Bryn)

The kids at the dinner table

The little kid table.

 Such a great Thanksgiving!