Christmas Parts 1 & 2

We are loving getting to celebrate Christmas all week long! Curt has the week off so our Christmas celebrations started on Friday morning at our house (Santa came early!) 

Lauren is loving her new kitchen - even if Santa wasn't able to get it all put together... luckily we were able to dodge the 'why are daddy's tools in the kitchen?' and 'why didn't Santa put the doors on?' I think next year we may need to have our game on a little better! Note to mom and dad - do not start assembling toys at 10:30 pm... you just never know how long they are going to take. 

Jackson got his 'red truck' - his one Christmas request - I never thought it would be so much fun to watch your kids open up a present you know they long for.

After celebrating at our house we headed up north to celebrate with the Tetzlaff family. This is the best family picture we were able to get before Christmas Eve mass. 

After church the kids had a little dance party with Uncle Brian

and Grandma

while Tami & George slaved away in the kitchen

 After we ate it was time to open some presents - the kids were in heaven.

Lauren had to model everything she got!

 The best gift of the night might just be... these wayfarers & keychain

they came from this guy... need I say more?! (sorry Steve it was the only picture I had of you - had to be included!) 

The party has left & now it is just our family doing a little R&R before we head down to Iowa to celebrate with the Wulfekuhle's. So blessed to have such wonderful family to celebrate with! 

Merry Christmas from the Tetzlaff Family

Ah Christmas!

It's no secret Christmas is my favorite holiday, favorite 'season' by far. Christmas has a feeling to me - it's warm and cozy filled with those you love, it has a smell - like cookies, cinnamon & chai, it has a look of twinkles & sparkles. I just love everything about Christmas and this year we have really embraced so many of these wonderful things leading up to the celebration of Jesus' birth. 

I think when you have kids you really stop and think about what is important - creating memories & moments together. You think about what traditions you have and want to carry on, what new traditions you want to start. I think more about my childhood and how blessed I was to be filled with so many wonderful memories & moments with my family & there becomes this desire to make sure your children get the same. Enough with the rambling here is what we have been up to the past couple of weeks preparing! 

We wrote letters to Santa - Jackson's went like this: 'I would like a red truck & a Christmas tree' Then he went on to talk about how he'd like the deer to have some food & maybe toys & Lauren would like a red truck too and pink lights for her Christmas tree. But the whole I want a Christmas tree was hard... we weren't going to do a tree this year since we don't have a lot of room & all the decorations are boxed up and I have no idea where. As a few days went by and we still didn't have a tree and he kept asking and making references to really wanting a tree... well yes I gave in and went and bought a tree. Since we didn't have any decorations we spent a day making decorations - our tree may look a little ghetto fabulous.. but lets just say Jackson and Lauren are very proud of it and a LOT of love went into all of the decorations :) Here Jackson is working very hard on stringing popcorn and cranberries.

LK putting up her 'L' ornament

Jackson putting up his ornament.

So proud of our tree!

 We drank hot cider & watched movies. 

and we've been shipping orders - after this Christmas season my little elves are officially master packers & FedEx deliverers - Lauren is the door lady, Jack is in charge of carrying all small packages & mom is left to schlep all the large boxes & children wondering through the parking lot safely into the store - I'm pretty sure the FedEx workers are tired of seeing us!

all of the hard work really wears the kiddos out!

Eddie has been very busy at our house - usually getting into the food. The best so far has been seeing Jack get mad at Eddie for eating his sugar cookies! He likes tea too :) 

we baked and baked some more - I've decided sugar cookies taste much better when someone else makes them  - there is a lot of love (aka - time) in these. But boy did Jack and Lauren have fun making them & eating the dough when I wasn't looking! We may have a couple of sick kiddos tomorrow morning...

 and we got to see Santa Clause. We took a trip downtown after work one night to do Macy's Day in the Life of an Elf & to see Santa. Jackson loved it! Greeting Santa with a 'Hey what's up Santa?' 

and Lauren wanted nothing to do with Santa.

Last weekend I was able to go to Des Moines and shop with my dad for my mom (a tradition I haven't gotten to do for a few years) which is always so much fun! And this year Allie (my sis in law) got to join us - awesome! and on Saturday I got to shop with my mom and Allie - always a good time!

And today Jack received an email from Santa - we had to cut him off after the 6th time of watching this video - pretty sweet!

Santa's Email to Jackson

I think we are almost ready to hit the road and spend the week relaxing with family. First to Wisconsin to celebrate with the Tetzlaff's then to Iowa to celebrate with the Wulfekuhle's. Ahhh how I love Christmas! 

Eddie, Butch & My Little Elves

 This is Eddie...

He arrived with Amanda!

this is the butch... not exactly what I had planned...

but she's still pretty cute! 

and these are my little worker elves...

She goes by 'LK the Elf' and is learning how to answer calls and take orders. She takes her job very seriously and I think within a couple of years is going to be awesome! 

and this one goes by 'JT the elf' he's my creative lead - working hard on creating well anything that he can cut - he was very proud of this intricate masterpiece. 

and as we were working away today I learned that they both must listen (a little at least) during bible school because when this song came on - they both bust out in tune! (it might need a little practice)

Happy Friday!

ham

As we're driving down 494 and a livestock trailer passes us the conversation between Jack and I went like this:

Jack: mom, why are there no pigs in there? 

Me: I guess they are probably on their way to pick some up. 

Jack: did you know that people eat pigs? 

Me: yes, I did. We get lots of yummy stuff from pigs - like ham. 

Jack: oh yeah, the ham is from the pink pigs because ham is pink, right?

Me: ummm - yeap that's right buddy. 

It's the simple stuff that makes you smile, right? Innocence is beautiful.

Errands...

Running errands with Jack and Lauren is like going to the gym (mentally). If that makes sense. I have to psych myself up, stay positive & try to have fun even if it really isn't all that fun. This morning's adventures included Jackson with a huge bite mark on his stomach because Lauren didn't like where he was sitting in the cart with her... Lauren running around JoAnn's with no boots or shoes on... and a trip to the pet store which included Lauren trying to eat a dog biscuit. Do you think Lauren's the problem?! Oh how I love her to pieces, but wow has she figured out how to work it! Jackson was my angel in disguise this morning (kind of like having a workout buddy at the gym - they keep you going!) If you can't tell getting to the gym has been on my mind... and to do list... but isn't getting done - so needless to say the references. 

So, Happy Friday! and I'm not sure why it looks like Jackson has no nose in the first picture, but still thought it was blog worthy! 

Cyber Monday Sale!

Ok, here it is a Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale at Allison Marie Design! 20% off my Etsy shop until midnight Tuesday November 29. 

Enter the code 'Cyber20' at checkout. My shop is stocked up for the holidays - happy shopping!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/allisonmariedesign

Here is a sneak peek to a few new pieces! 

Custom subway print - this is a family print. Just send me up to 40 words/ names/ etc that are meaningful and I will put together artwork - print is 8x10, matted on natural black wove raffia & framed in an 11x14 frame. $45

 Custom 22"x18"frame. 4 - 4x6 prints matted on ivory satin book cloth & a vintage looking soft gold floral paper. $60

12"x18"glass clip frame. Print matted on black satin book cloth & paisley printed paper. $38

22"x18" Custom Frame. Print can be customized and looks best up to 6 letters. Any text, verse, etc can be added under print. $75

28"x14" Custom Frame. Print can be customized and is matted on a silver foil stamped handmade paper. $90

20"x10" matted Wine sign (any 4 letter word can be done). $48

4"x10" Twinkle framed in glass clip frame. $15 

5"x7" Snow framed in glass clip frame. $12 

Don't forget that I love custom projects - so if you don't see exactly what you are looking for just send me an email or give me a call and hopefully we can create the perfect gift for yourself or someone else! 

~Allison

My grandma & a couple pics

Yesterday Lauren & I were busy making a special supper for Curt coming home - since he's been gone all week for work. She went to the drawer got out an apron and was ready to help. She pulled out grandma's apron, so I put it on her. As we were baking away and she was so into it I couldn't help but be brought back to memories of my childhood & baking with my grandma. I loved, loved, loved going to my grandma's house and we would bake all day. We'd get out recipe books & pick out everything we were going to bake while I got to stay with her. Then we'd get to go into town and grocery shop for whatever we needed. And we would bake & bake & bake. She had silly rules like - no licking your fingers & everything needed to be measured just perfectly, but we'd always get to lick the spoon or spatula when we were done. And she was good, like really good... and we would sit together in front of the stove and watch the cookies rise... Thanks Lauren for bringing back these wonderful memories of my grandma - Oh how I miss her!

Here is Lauren working away - very focused!

note - Maddie in the background always waiting for an opportunity to catch a drop of food...

and a picture of my grandma simply because she was beautiful in so many ways!

And a couple pics of the kids playing yesterday - I got my new iphone - love the new camera on it! So fun & now I have no excuses for having no photos to post :) 

 Happy Friday!

she's funny

Little Miss Lauren (aka Sunshine) is quite the little girl these days. I've been pretty much awful at taking pics so this is all I've got from the past couple of weeks... Just pics of Lauren well doing Lauren stuff. 

Like getting into my makeup

and hanging out in peculiar places... 

and shoving her big brother into peculiar places. 

Our week has been filled with catching back up on life. After being sick last week and getting ready for my Canterbury Show last week and weekend - we are just enjoying everyday things that we've been missing out on. Today it was the library & pizza with the Engel's, tomorrow it's the playground at the mall and coffee with Jodi.

And tomorrow Curt gets home - Yeah!