NEW DOESN'T MEAN FORGETTING

I meant to post this, & our Christmas adventures awhile ago but my ENTIRE family has been sick since the eve of. We are finally starting to get ourselves shaken off, & ready for the end of the year festivities.



New house. New baby sister. New fireplace. New stockings. New everything.

This year was the first of many Christmas' to come. It was the first time our new home got to feel the love our family radiates. A house, that sat empty & cold for nearly a year was graced with it's own Christmas present - a family. A family with a past that has taught them that every second counts, every moment is to be cherished, nothing is to be taken for granted. I honestly believe if these walls could talk they'd thank us over & over again for choosing them, but it's a mutual thing. We are as grateful for this house, as it maybe to have a family that loves every creak & crack.

I can speak for my entire family - we LOVE this house. After two months it has already won our hearts over. Even though we are starting new Christmas traditions, there is no way I will ever forget the happiness that we've felt in the past. The memories will stick in my mind forever, but for my sons sake, I needed visual reminders. So, we covered our mantel full of the greatest winter memories that we've created together as a family. Each year, more pictures will be added to the wall - some put into a folder til next year for their chance to shine through the holiday season.



I also wanted to point out Baby sister's stocking. I searched all over for a cute girly stocking like her brother's. I'll be honest with you - after four websites, I was done. After searching TJ Maxx in two cities, I was done. It was WAY too time-consuming so I decided to put my non-existent sewing skills to work to create a stocking for her... Ruffles & Rosettes. You can't go wrong with that combination, right?





I hope this year, everyone made memories worthy of wallpapering the walls with. I know we did.

PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS {all those sweet things}

Traditions mean everything to me. The things I look back on in my childhood are the same things I want to introduce year after year into my children's lives. It doesn't matter how little or big these traditions are. It doesn't matter how silly or practical they are. No matter what, I want to give them everything I was given as a child, & more.

I can't remember a Christmas where my mother didn't bring out the cookie dough & all those fun cookie cutters (I swear, we had everything from Rudolph to the little elves in Santa's workshop) No matter how busy things got around the holidays, she always made sure we got covered head-to-toe in flour & were able to create a sugary treat of our own. My absolute favorite part was the actually cutting out of the cookies - choosing which cutter to use, & how many of that cookie I wanted to make. I wasn't actually a fan of the decorating (I will stress to you, after ALL these years, I'm STILL not a fan of icing & sprinkling those things!)



This year was the first year I tried to introduce my son into this tradition. As I rolled out the dough I thought to myself, "these cookies are going to look like blobs! but man, I can't wait to show everyone his masterpieces!" When everything was ready for the cutting I brought Daycen over to the table & started to show him what to do... to my surprise, he looked at me like I had lost my mind, turned & resumed playing with his cars on the floor. I'll be completely honest with you, I was SHOCKED! The kid who loves to mix the cupcake batter & watch me pour it into the little tins wanted nothing to do with the cookie making process. Hm, My little baker turned out to not be such a big baker after all.



It doesn't bother me though. I continued cutting out the cookies with my mother, all the while explaining my every choice in cookie cutter to my daughter who sat in her bouncer on the kitchen floor. She seemed rather interested. Than again, she's only a few weeks old, so pretty much everything is interesting. So, this is a tradition that I don't yet share with my children, but I know as they grow older they'll become much more interested in the process. Perhabs because it's something they'll do with their mother that they'll cherish their whole lives, or maybe it'll be for the sugary outcome. Either way, I look forward to spending each Christmas making cookies with them.



I may however, might not enjoy the sugar high they receive from eating those cookies.

PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS {the christmas tree}

For the past five years our Christmas tree has been elegantly filled with glass ornaments ranging in a bronze, gold, & champagne color palette. We've added peach colored hollies & owls over the years. This year, however, our son turned two. With this new age, we feared the sound of shattered glass would be an every day occurrence if we didn't invest in some kid-friendly ornaments.

When I was a child, we had a tree filled with different characters (we are talking M&Ms, Turtles, Smurfs, you name it - we had it!) & handmade ornaments that my brother & I had crafted in school. As much as I would have loved to give my children a tree like this, it is unrealistic. My childhood ornaments are safely packed away under the stairs at my parents house, surrounded by boxes of other random goodies - in other words, it would take me at least six months to find them! These types of ornaments range from $5-$20 something a piece, so purchasing enough to fill the tree would max out anyone's credit card. (and probably a divorce for spending $500 on ornaments!)So, this year, there isn't any fancy star wars ornaments, nor any my little pony ones. However, we upped our color palette to brights & made sure they were all shatter-proof. We've decided to buy some fun ornaments at the after Christmas sales so that by Kindergarten our tree is as festive as the rest.




I wasn't quite sure if our $15 pack of shatter-proof balls from Target were going to be a hit, but Daycen sure seemed to not mind that we skimped on the ornaments. It was all Oohs & Ahhs. Even though he didn't quite understand the concept of hanging the ornaments on the tree, he sure didn't mind unpacking them & handing them to me as I put them on the branches. So, this year, our tree also looked very clean & put together. I'd have to say, I'm very impressed with what you can do with very little money.



And what's Christmas Tree decorating without a little fooling around?!

We hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Only 5 days left to go.

INTRODUCTING ARIPSEMAE ANN {my daughter is here}

While you were celebrating Thanksgiving with your family, we were also enjoying ours with the newest addition to our family. The evening before, at 11:11pm to be exact, baby sister entered the world. Her arrival weight was eight pounds, eleven ounces & she was twenty-one inches long. I'll be completely honest with you, the hospital experience this time around was a lot more enjoyable than it was when Daycen was born. I had ZERO issues with the epidural. I had ZERO issues with the delivery. My daughter had ZERO issues in general. We are sincerely blessed that things went so well.



Over the past few weeks we've heard a lot of feedback about our daughters name; most of which has been positive. Even though we kept the name a secret til her birth, she was named the moment we found out we had a princess on the way. Aripsemae, Ah-rips-ah-may, was formed from the name Hripsime which was one of the first Armenian Church Saints. We felt that the H was too harsh, so we chose to softened it up with an A. Her middle name is the same as my mother's middle name, Ann. Her grandmother, a strong woman who helped bring her into this world. I hope someday I can raise her to be an amazing woman as my mother had raised me.


Now, that everything has settled; our new house is purchased & baby sister has arrived this blog will be updated regularly again. So, I hope you all stick around to be apart of our lives. To help convince you to stay, here is a couple more pictures from the hospital...