Elf on the Shelf 2014

Criddle: Our Christmas Tradition

Post by: Rachel

So last year I was not very good at posting my pictures. I think I stopped after 7 or 8 days of it. I will try to do better this year. So here is starts. Tomorrow is December 1st and with that is our first photo.
Dec. 1:

The note says:

Dear Sean,

     This year many of my elves got sick and couldn't make as many toys as we need for Christmas. Could you give me some of the many toys you have to help me out this year? 

     I would be very thankful if you do this for me, and I will make sure to save a special gift for you. Criddle brought a red sack for you to put the toys you would like to share in.

Thanks for the help,

Santa Claus

Sean is an only child and has a room full of toys that his parents (guilty) and grand parents spoil him with. Hopefully he will fill the bag, but we will see.

Dec. 2:

He's hiding in the curtains on the door. 

Dec. 3: Criddle decided to decorate our tree... with toilet paper.

Dec. 4: the tree got decorated again with kitchen utensils and a threat... 

Dec. 5: It got worse... Criddle decorated the tree with our socks and underwear. 

Dec. 6: Hiding in the tree upstairs

Dec. 7: Pretending to be a tooth brush...

Dec. 8: Almost invisible today. It is 6:30pm and he has still not been found!!!

Dec. 9: Daddy is not creative...

Day 10: Criddle loves Mt. Dew!

Day 11: Ouchies!

Day 12: Tea time.

Day 13: Hiding in the door decorations

 Day 14: Counting the presents.

Day 15: Reading "The Polar Express" while curled up in a sock. 

The Quilt

Post by Rachel

So my dearest best friend is getting married. And as a wedding gift to her I am making her a quilt. All the women in her life have mailed me about a yard of fabric in any blue hue they could find.

Every day there was a new package on the doorstep. It was very interesting to see the pattern choices

So here's the start of it. I have 3 months to cut and sew all this together.

Oh did I mention what pattern Erin wants? The Double Wedding Ring quilt pattern. So I downloaded some instructions from the internet and the patterns I will need to cut from. And as I was doing this I was reading the blog of the woman who is a very experienced quilter and she said "This quilt is not for the beginner or the faint of heart." HAHAHA. I have never quilted in my life.

So I am going to make myself a pot of tea and get started. If you are one of Erin's relatives reading this I will occasionally update this post because I know many of you are excited to see the result.

Hello 2014!

I seem to have fallen off the side of the planet since the new year (or slightly before). However the holidays and my birthday were spent with family having a great time!

So a quick catch up-

Financially- I still need to sit down and figure out a no spend month plan. Hoping to do that in Feburary and that will fall inline with Kym Fox over at Travel Babbles and her 12x30 challenge!

I did start the 52 week savings plan for Zach and I. (I'll link things up when I'm not blogging from my phone). The one change I am making is switching up the weeks so come December I'm not dumping all my money into savings. So depending on what I can spare each week will determine how much will go in. 

Health- I'm trying to work out 4-5 times a week. So far I've been pretty good. Even when it feels like -45 here in good ol Minnesota I made it to the gym! Kym at Travel Babbles started a diet bet for the month of January. You have to lose 4% weight during the month to get your $25 back plus what ever is still in the pot to be split by those who hit their goal. Last time I looked it was over $1000!!!

I figured no better time to start getting healthier since the wedding is now 6 months away!!! AHHH! 

That's all I've got for now!

-Erin 

Happy New Year!

Happy New year! Wishing you the best in 2014. 

I've got some fitness goals, savings and spending goals in mind for 2014 that I'm working on so keep tuned! 

~Erin

This Week....

This week has been a whole lot of nothing and a lot of major things all wrapped into one. And it's only Thursday. 

The kids have been crazy. I'm blaming the full moon and the fact that it's the week before Christmas. And A becomes a big sister on Saturday and man is she in for a world of hurt when she finally realizes it's not all about her (she may only be 15 months but man she's got a streak of sassy- as we like to call it). All of my Chrismas shopping is done and wrapped but yet I feel like something is missing. Not having my own house and my own decorations this year I think is part of the reason for my funk. A good friend was told last night that they were letting her go from her job Feburary 1st. She's a fellow nanny who I spend a good chunk of time with... So to say the least I am super disappointed. I don't know many of the details nor do I need to know them. But it was a schedule problem. But caught her by complete surprise. Can you say Merry F'ing Christmas...... So it makes me very thankful for my job and the fact that I work for family. 

Sorry about the rant but I needed some where to dump all of this- so why not blog land?!? They say it's the cheapest form of therapy....

~Erin 

It's Friday!!!

Is it 5 o'clock some where yet?!?

Here is my week in pictures

-B figured out how to color with markers!

-B all snuggly and not feeling 100%

-My Pinterest FAIL.... I blogged about it earlier this week. If I knew how I would link it but I don't. And I'm on my phone....

-My snowy puppies!!!

-The access panel I tapped shut so the cat can't hide anymore until her parents get back into town.....

-Said cat now hiding in the kitchen cupboard

-The nasty cold weather this week 

-P working hard on another Christmas craft I brought her!

-A all proud of herself after pushing all the buttons possible on my phone. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!! Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

My bestie (the other half of this blog) will be in town this weekend!!!! Yay!!!!

-Erin 

Pinterest Fail

I love Pinterest! It's my best friend. And the best place ever for ideas for the girls that I nanny. From projects, to food ideas, to time out solutions. 

Speaking of time out solutions..... When your 3 1/2 and you think you are the ruler of all.... Especially over your younger sister it tends to lead to a fair amount of time outs or breaks to cool off. So insert Pinterest. Glitter time out bottle. 

We had the perfect water bottle. So I grabbed the girls and off to target we went for the supplies.  

Goo Gone to get all the sticky crap off the bottle from the label. 

Next- a bottle of colored glitter glue, a bottle of loose glitter and warm tap water. Fill your bottle about 3/4 full with warm tap water, add glitter glue and glitter and give a good shake! Once it settles and you see how long it takes to settle you can either add more gel glue if it settles to quick or a bit more warm water if it's taking forever.  And super glue the cap shut.... We all know why. 

So finished product! It was taking about 4 minutes to settle which was perfect! I was so excited!! 

And then...... It sat over the weekend..... 

And it all settled into the bottom and stayed there.... 

PINTEREST FAIL

Oh well you win some and you lose some. 

~Erin