Life Lately According to iPhone photos

Is anyone else as behind as me on Christmas stuff? I feel like I might go crazy sometimes, but I always try to remember to take a breath and not worry too much about it, because even though it may feel like it most of the time, this season isn't all about the material things.

one of my favorite dishes, sitting on santa's lap, first time making pants, Everett's first time making (some delicious) soup, getting a hold of his potty rewards, heard so much about these.. totally worth it, visiting with Rachel's chickens, inside my closet(Wes Anderson fan).

DIY Christmas Gift Guide

The first of a little gift guide series I'm starting for Christmas. I decided what better way to start than to start with my favorite: Do It Yourself Gifts! Here are a few of my favorite ideas (links are at the bottom).

1. Homemade Extracts. 2. DIY wrapping and homemede stamp. 3. Print Towels. 4. Chevron Candles. 5. Infused Olive Oils. 6. Narwhal/Unicorn necklace. 7. painted mug. 8. Pacifier Clip Tutorial. 9. Sweater Mittens. 10. Marble Maze.

Bringing Back the Toddler Videos

I forget about how many videos I take of Everett and then forget to share them. I really need to start remembering to post them a little more often. I'll start with this goofy one i took back a few months ago. And don't worry, that's not blood on his face or anything, I'm pretty sure it's cherry juice.

Fox Family

I really enjoyed shooting this cute little families pictures. Aren't they the cutest? It was so nice being around some beautiful, clean snow up in the mountains too, since it's all melting and dirty now down in town. It even started flaking a bit during these pictures, It was really exciting for me! 

 

Christmas Bunting DIY

I saw a Thanksgiving bunting for sale that was sooo pretty but so much money. I decided I liked it enough to take on the task of trying to create one myself. I'm so glad I did, and I'm sure we'll be using this again next year for a simple holiday decoration!
The first thing I did was buy some sparkly gold paper. The kind I bought had a sticky side so it made it 10x easier.
Next I Made a layout of the letters I needed on a 8.5 X 11 printout. I used this font.

Cut out your letters, paste them onto your paper and cut around the letters.

Tape the letters onto a long string, evenly spaced(up and down too).

 Tack it up and walah! a simple, pretty Do It Yourself Holiday decoration!

Homemade Yogurt!

I saw the idea of making your own yogurt in a magazine. (I'm thinking it was Martha Stewart, but I can't tell you I'm 100% sure, because this page was torn out.) They say it always tastes better to make your own from scratch, and it was right on this time! I've never tasted such a naturally sweet plain yogurt before! I also realized how easy and cheep it is to actually do this! So if you'd like to experiment with this project like I did, here's what you do:

Gather all ingredients: All you need is a quart of milk and three tablespoons of plain yogurt as your starter. Also, make sure you have a quart jar to store your yogurt in.

Start off by heating the milk over med/high heat, heat it up to 180 degrese for 6-7 minutes. You can use a food thermometer, but I made a pretty good guess and it turned out great. Remove from burner and cool to 115 degrees.

Take one cup of the milk and wisk with the three tablespoons of yogurt. Pour everything into your jar.

Wrap the jar with two kitchen towels around the sides and over the top, without the lid. Let set in a warm place for 4-5 hours. The towels help it stay a constant temperature. The longer you let it set, the more sweet/tart it will be. put it in the fridge until cool and then screw on lid.

Mine turned out sweeter than I was expecting, so just by adding a sweet fruit, it's a perfect breakfast and my little dude gobbled his whole bowl up!

You can continue to make it with the same yogurt, just make sure you save the three table spoons.

Tradition and Bloopers

I don't really have a clue how this yearly tradition started, but every year, around the time we set up our Christmas tree, we've taken Everett's picture in front of it with turtle PJ's on. It's so funny to see all the changes he's gone through in just a year. I hope we continue this tradition every year, but I have a feeling, maybe next year, he'll be a little heavy to hold up like that anymore.

After we took some pictures this year, Everett decided he wanted to sleep in front of the tree...

 And then he wanted Papa to lay down too...

 And then we stupidly tried another shoot with the flash to no avail...