to the Keeper of the Stars: November 2016

It's literally been years since my last post.

Things are SO different these days!

But I need somewhere to document life. I've tried youtube, and it's just not something I can do as much as I want because of the lack of space on my computer. I can't even make one video without receiving pop-ups that tell me that my "disk space" is full.

SO, until I get another computer with more storage, my videos will be set at bare minimum and I will be blogging again!!

Kalista is now 5!

Hayleigh is 3!

and

We have another sweet baby girl on the way!
I'll be 30 weeks on Tuesday. Due February 7th!

While it's not possible to recap life since my last post,

I will just start where life is now and see where that takes me ;)

We are just entering into the Christmas season.

The Holidays become more and more fun each year, as the girls get bigger.

This is the first year that Kali not only remembers the previous year, but she remembers specific details.

She has been talking about Christmas for months and has been SO excited for it!

We started a new tradition last year.

One that I honestly never thought I'd do.

To be honest, I've always been against Elf on the Shelf because I thought it was stupid.

I hated the fact that the elf always did "naughty" things, and I still hate that fact.

The point of the elf is to make sure the kids behave,

so why would you make the elf misbehave?

I've learned that teaching by example is one of the most effect ways of parenting,

at least with my kids.

So sending an elf, that tells them to be good, but is naughty herself, was kind of contradicting and didn't teach a very good lesson for my kids.

But last year, when I saw that Elf on the Shelf on sale,

something inside me said I just HAD to get it.

I couldn't resist.

Who says the elf has to be naughty?

It's also a great way to incorporate the true meaning of Christmas.

Teaching the girls that Santa and his elves also focus on the true meaning of Christmas, is an awesome teaching opportunity.
It also makes Christmas that much more magical!

SO,

we started the elf thing.

Our elf is VERY obedient and she is here to make sure the girls are not only behaving,

but she also takes time to teach them about the true meaning of Christmas.

She doesn't do it every day,

but she makes sure it's the main focus.

I really wanted to document it this year,

because I didn't last year and this Elf is SO important to Kali.

She LOVES this elf!

So, I'd like to introduce our Elf "Sparkles"

Where she made her entrance for the year.

After reading the book and the letter,

Kalista started talking to the elf.

She asked her what she was grateful for,

so obviously I had to take advantage of that!

So,

last night "Sparkles" wrote another letter

I'm no rhyming genuis, but it's good enough for the kids! haha

They had so much fun finding all of the candy canes this morning.
I wish I had recorded it!

Here's where she ended up tonight.

It's so much fun watching the girls excitement every morning when they look for the Elf.

I love how much magic she brings into our home and I'm so happy that I decided to do it!

Sparkles showed up for the first time last night while we were out getting our "santa" pictures.

here are a few of them.

I'm just a little disappointed with how they turned out.

I was more impressed with the ones we've had done in previous years,

but I still think they turned out cute.

I just am annoyed that the photographer really didn't get a picture of both girls with their darling smiles in the same picture. Let me show you what I mean:

Kalista's smile is beautiful, but Hayleigh is making a funny face. This is because the photographer told them to say something, and they repeated it over and over. They stopped after we told them to only say it once, but apparently she didn't add those pictures.