Riding Our Bike

Just a normal day. Riding our bike around the driveway. My little girl is getting so big. 

I don't know when she learned to pedal, all of a sudden she was riding all over the driveway. Crazy.

The Dollhouse

I previously mentioned the the dollhouse I was planning on fixing up for Elise for Christmas. Well after months of work, it was finished (well almost) just in time for Christmas. I am pretty happy with how it turned out and Elise loved it. Here is what we came up with. 

This is the front of the house. It sits on a base my husband made that is on wheels so she can turn it around and play with both sides. We made a little front yard of felt and put some animals on it. I also gave the house a fresh coat of white paint (blue for the trim) and misted some cotton lace in a peach color and glued it around the edges of the house.

This is the back side of the house. I  mostly used Studio Calico papers from their Hey Day collection on the walls. It has a kitchen, living room, master bedroom, living room, bathroom, nursery and kids bedroom.  

These are the secret rooms in the attic that closes up. I decoupaged it with vintage book pages and one of the rooms is for the baby bunnies.

 The front door with sister bunny. The topiary trees are from Michael's Craft Store in their wedding section. They were intended as place card holders but perfect for a dollhouse.

 Mama bunny in her bedroom.

The kitchen. I guess when Jacob gets a little bigger we will have to hide those plates, cups and pots. For now they sit on the table.  

The living room. Some of the rooms have these little clock faces on them.

The baby bunny in her nursery. There was a baby boy bunny but he was immediately lost in the shuffle. I keep looking between the couch cushions hoping to find him...

Little brother bunny in his room.

I stamped a doily on a white piece of paper and then cut it out and mod-podged it to the floor. These rugs are throughout the house.

I purchased this set for the furniture. Originally I planned on finding vintage furniture and re-painting it to make it new again, but I had a hard time finding pieces that weren't really expensive and also I had to think about durability for a 2 year old. 

So there it is. Elise really loves it, but I may love it more. I always wanted a dollhouse like this!

Making of the Winterroth Christmas Card

We are on our third outtake of our Christmas card around here. I have been hating all of my photos lately and the noncooperation of this family is incredible. I mean, in one photo I actually caught Jake mid spit up (I'll spare you that one). All were either grainy, overexposed or just blurry. I am still not totally happy with the final one we chose, but I was darn tired of taking photos. That is why I made a commitment to myself in 2013 to educate myself more on taking perfect (or as close as possible) photographs. I don't want to forget these moments and what my cuties looked like. 

The best of our first shoot. Overexposed! I was shooting with a remote at the fussiest time of day for these kids, so really if I had done a better job of getting my settings right, this would be our Christmas photo! 

Second try: Elise looks good but Jake is so blurry! Wah- lets try again!

My third and final shoot was of them laying down. I thought that might be better because then Jake would be more comfortable. Well he was....

and I caught this gem. It cracks me up every time I see it. I thought she was exaggerating but then I saw the clump of hair he managed to pull out. Oops.  Anyway, the one I chose is still pretty grainy, but I am pretty happy with it. I hope it looks ok printed. 

Here is the one I used. Not perfect, but it kinda describes our life right now. Exhausting and fuzzy yet fun. What is your favorite favorite Christmas photo?

Thankful For Family

I am blessed to have a wonderful family. We all get along, we would do anything for each other and just truly enjoy each others company. We spent some time taking family photos this Thanksgiving, and since I missed making a Thanksgiving post (we had guests and I was overwhelmed) here is my thankful post. I hope your turkey day was as wonderful as mine.  

 

 

As I am almost always the one taking the photos- I am usually not in them.  I was so pleased that we got some good shots of me too!

This is my beautiful sister. I could not be luckier to have a sis like her. She lives way too far away...

My wonderful husband Brad. He works so hard to give us the life we live and I love him more every day.

My sister's lovely boyfriend Doug. He is smart and funny and he loves my sister so much. We didn't overwhelm him which is also a plus.

 

My father, who would do anything for his family and has given us the world...

 

 

My Mom and her daughters and my personal favorite. My Dad said something funny and we cracked up. Perfection.

 

Photo Vignette

Here is a shot of the photos on map that hangs in our dining room. These are some of my favorites, and I love to look at them every time I walk by.  

 

 

From top: Jacob, Elise and Brad at an icy spring, my parents holding me, Brad and his sister Brandy. The map is an antique showing the St Johns River and the city of Jacksonville, FL from my favorite antique show called Renningers. It takes place today and I am dying to go. It is amazing and happens only 3 times a year. My father and I always go because he is the only one I know that enjoys that sort of thing as much as me. I will photograph the whole map another day.

Puzzled

My sweet girl has been working on these puzzles for a while and she finally figured them out. She used to need a little help and would get frustrated sometimes. We put them away for a month and then when I pulled them out again and BAM she figured it out in less than a minute. I walked out of the room and came back and she was putting the last pieces in. I was pretty floored at how much difference a month can make to a toddler.

 

It is interesting to see how she does a puzzle differently than we do. She would try all sides even when it was obvious it didn't fit. She wouldn't get frustrated, but it was like she had to try everything just to be sure.

 

Side note: can I just say how happy I am that she still has those hand dimples? I think when those go away I will be so sad. My baby will no longer be a baby.

 

Another difference was that when she was trying all the sides she would sometimes turn the entire puzzle instead of the smaller piece. The puzzle would sometimes break apart and she would have to start all over again. Annoying for sure! But not this time- this time she just fit them in perfectly.

 

 

Here is a link to the puzzle she is doing. Perfect for a little one learning hand eye coordination. It says for ages 3+, but we started with her around 20 months. She couldn't do them by herself right away, but it was fun to practice! Now at almost 2 years she has mastered those and moved on to bigger puzzles.

Sleeping Angel

Caught my sweet girl sleeping the other day. She is usually a hurricane, so it was my goal to catch her in a quiet moment. That moment just so happened to be when she was sleeping. That's ok, I'll take them when I can get them!

 

 

 Play hard, sleep hard. Much like her Daddy.

Several Scrapbook Pages 11-5-12

Here are some of my most recent pages. I hardly have any time for scrapbooking these days, so simple is the way to go!

 

I just love this picture of Jake looking at the camera. He is just so serious!

These enamel dots are just amazing! 

 

You can barely see it, but I used a starburst mask and light modeling paste on this page for a background. My new obsession is printing on vellum, and I just loved the look of this quote on it.

 

Thanks for checking these out!!

Wordless Wednesday

A Sunday Morning Walk

The whole family took a walk this Sunday morning.

It was a feast for our senses, the morning dew sparkling on the avocado plant.

 

 

The hum of bees on a flowering tree.

 

 

The hard road conrasting with the airy dasies.

 

Some black seed pods coming up waist high.

 

 

Highly satisfying morning.

My Babies

My babies are getting bigger and are starting to love one another. Jake watches Elise as she runs around the house and Elise, although she sometimes tries to poke his eyes out, likes to show Jake what she is doing. We have gotten used to "Hi Baby Jacob, Hi". It is so adorable! I am so excited to see how they continue to grow and become friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Bug and Perfect

I have been able to create a couple new pages lately. Slowly I feel I am getting some sense of my creativity back. Much faster than with our little Elise. I think it helps to have little projects like this to do that don't take a ton of time or energy. These clear my mind and are not too stressful.

 

 

I look a little goofy in this one, but it is so hard to catch Elise with this face that I just had to use it!

 

A little vellum envelope hides some journaling.

 

I love Jacob's perfect little ears. Well, really I love everything about him!

 

I love those little wood stars.

 

Thanks for humoring me!

 

Jacob Turns 1 Month

Mister Mouse is now one month old. In some ways time has flown and in others it has dragged by. Particularly at 3am when I have woken up for the third time since 9pm. We have realized that the little mouse has two dimples and is much fairer skinned than his sister. He is growing like a weed (10lbs 8oz at two weeks old) and is now in three month clothes. We are still pretty much waking up every 2 to 3 hours at night to our dismay. He has also started making little chirping and cooing noises that we love. Elise loves him, even though sometimes she tries to poke his eyes, and she is always asking where Baby Jacob is. She likes to say "Baby Jacob cries" to which I say "We all cry sometimes".

Thats where this family of four is at the end of the first month.