Christmas Decorating/Cousin Playdates/Horseback Riding Update/Work Event!

Sorry, not sorry. A lot of photos of Emilia and her horse :).
Well not her horse... the horse she got to ride the last couple weeks! We're in the Junior classes which means before your lesson you go in early and groom and tack (saddle) the horse. We did it for the first time a couple weeks ago and we were with a new (to Emilia) horse named Blue. Blue is perfect. He's such a sweet boy! Emilia was in heaven and was so confident! She trotted for the first time without an instructor's help that week. And got even better the next time!

These pics are from her Nov 14 class.

So so happy to bond <3
Blue was already tacked for us, so we just did some grooming and feeding and hanging out with him before her lesson

Blue has one brown eye and one blue eye.

She hasn't been this at ease with a horse before.

 
She was quite sure she could conquer the world after this riding lesson. <3

The next day I got to have Phoebe over for the day! These girls played so nicely together all day. Sweetest thing ever. 

They're both 2.5 years old and learning to assert their independence which creates lots of opportunity for conflict resolution. Eva stepped away at some point pouting and said, "I need a break." Phoebe respected that and went to play on the deck. After 30 seconds or so Eva stomps over to Phoebe, still pouting, and says, "I need a hug." Phoebe goes, "FROM ME?" Eva, "yes." Phoebe, "OH YEAAAYYYYY!!!" and they had a hug that lasted long enough for me to process, go grab my phone and get a picture. <3

We went to Mom & Dad's for dinner that evening. This girl will spend all day. ALL DAY coloring and making crafts and cards and creating thoughtful things for people. Every single chance she gets. I love it. 

While we were at Mom & Dad's, Dave got our Christmas stuff from the crawlspace. The next day was busy for me with the work event coming up, so naturally I decided to randomly start decorating the house. I had also baked some sourdough and we had a veggie plate and sourdough with balsamic and olive oil for dinner. Aunty Lasagna popped in for a bit which was a nice surprise!

I am having feelings this year about the kids getting older and the magic of Christmas evolving. Eva is still in the 'WOWWW!!! AMAZING!!!" stage of Christmas lights. Dom is slowly growing out of it. I realized in a few years things could look very different!

These feelings led me to having many dreams about being pregnant and having a baby. No thank you. I have feelings about the kids growing up, but I am done :)

Tollers are weird sleepers.

On Friday Phoebe was at my mom's place so Eva and I went over there for a playdate. 

Lots of tackle hugging

They were running in the field and Phoebe suddenly circles back to point out the TINIEST mushroom she somehow saw in the grass. Girl loves her fungi!

Dave was playing basketball in the evening, so the kids and I put on some Christmas music and *they* (for real. they...) decorated the tree with all the kid-friendly ornaments. It was so cute and fun

They were so into it. They all grabbed Santa hats and put them on and lined up for a picture. They danced and sang to the Christmas music and it was the best :)

I got them a string of lights for each of their rooms too. SO that's fun

Found the girls reading together at bedtime

Thanks for the Proof of Mom, Dave :)

Saturday I was planning to make some yummy sweet potato, turkey, black bean sort of quesadillas so we invited Mom & Dad over. 

Saturday night Dave and I were up late to watch the Vegas F1 race. Sunday morning we all went to church and then hung around the rest of the day. In the evening we decided to take the next step with the tree decorating. (I kind of like spreading it out like this. I still have at least 1-2 rounds of ornaments to put on! The glittery ones kids can touch, and the glass ones nobody can touch haha). 

Anyway, this next stage was putting up the star! In Dave's family growing up they all took turns doing the star. We wanted to do this too. This year, it was Emilia's turn. She is still talking about how special she felt in this moment. I live for those words because I feel like she's so often "middle-childed"! Love making her feel special :)

We have colorful lights for the first time ever this year. I used to be very anti-colorful lights. Now I have kids and I'm like "LET'S GET THE UGLY BLOW UP THINGS AND ALL THE COLORS!" haha

The girls and I took Sherlock on a Christmas light walk around the neighbourhood. Eva looooooved it.

Back to school and the craziness of the CCR (my work event) week. 

Tuesday we had horseback riding again, but Emilia and I went extra early to stop at Potters first which is just down the street! Shuper fun :)

Girl wanted the whole store.

We had an AWESOME time at horseback riding. We got to actually groom and tack blue entirely, and then Emilia got him trotting all on her own! Major feat. Very exciting for her (and me). It was also probably my last time sitting in the barn with her because she's comfortable enough now. I can go up to the viewing area. I'll miss it though. 

Using the face brush. He loved it. His eyes were closing haha

Showing me how to do up the girth

Girl, you are living my childhood dream! At least I get to go with you and have fun petting and tacking the horse!

Dave has been amaaaazing this week helping out as I've been working 8-12 hour days. He's done so much around the house and now I think I want a lot of that mental load to be gone from me forever haha! 

Steve's gift to me after a long day at work

Dave taking on the mundane tasks means I get to tackle the random ones like cleaning the washing machine filter haha.

He also got rid of our horrible blinds on the main floor and put up these curtains! So cozy :)

I hope everyone has an Emilia in their lives to leave little love notes everywhere for them. <3

The Complete Champions Reception on Friday was a great success! Funds are still coming in, and everything went very smoothly. Almost too smoothly. The organizers were all looking at each other like, "Did we miss something?" waiting for the shoe to drop! 

It was a 12 hr day for me so I was pretty exhausted though. Long couple weeks of work for me!

Yesterday was a recovery day. Dave had a shoot, I did a few hours of work, and then we had mom & dad over for tortellini soup for dinner! After dinner Dave and I went out to Camp Beer Co. with Scott & Ash and hung out and played some games. Scott got a new game from his work that had us all laughing hysterically.

Dom reading to his sister <3

This flight was so good and perfect that I ordered it twice! 

I missed the cheers moment

Tin can nachos! So good

Joking Hazard. Sort of like Cards Against, but with comics instead. Whoever's turn it is flips a random card, and then places one from their hand in front or behind it. The other players then play a card to be placed at the end of the comic strip. The turn-goer chooses the best one. It's a great laugh and something different!

Overnight Dom got sick and threw up (Noooo!!!!) so today was very much a down day. Dave took the girls to breakfast at my parents with some of their cousins. Dom and I stayed home and rested and watched movies. He didn't have any more episodes, but he was lethargic and very slightly fevered in the day. He'll be home from school tomorrow and we're just going to hope and pray it was something he ate and not a bug that's about to wipe us all out! Got the girls beds prepped just in case. What an awful feeling :(. 

Scott got a new phone and the camera is amaazing!

How we spent our day :)

We had a bit of a mishmash dinner, but everyone ate which is good! After dinner we got out for a bit of fresh air on a little walk around the neighborhood. The Christmas light tunnel is up!! Thanks to the random neighbour who took this picture!