Scripture Advent

I've been ridiculously productive the last few weeks. It's very exciting. There have been painting projects that have been sitting in my garage FOR YEARS that I finally got done (I'll try to post a picture soon) and I've completed some fun Christmas crafts.

One such craft is an advent I found online (here's the link: scripture advent). I liked it because

1. It was FREEEEEE!
2. It is Christ-focused.

I was looking for some kind of scripture advent to help us focus on Jesus in December and this is perfect. Each day has a topic about Christ, a little blurb about the topic, a list of scriptures, and an activity to do. After you complete the card you flip it over and there's a symbol representing that day.

I printed out the cards and then I had some laminating sheets I stuck them in because I really want this to last.

The green holder came from the dollar store and I just "Christmas-a-fied" it a bit. It makes me happy when I see it. 

I was a little bit sad because Emery is basically indifferent to it, but as I lamented to my mom about it she pointed out that it will be even more fun next year because she'll remember it and be more excited. I might get some kind of small candy to go in it too, just because it's fun. 

Snapshot

I love my days, even if they sometimes get crazy, because I have moments like this:

This is how we walked to pick up Bella from school the other day. This girl makes me smile so big it sometimes squeezes tears out of my eyes. :) I love this "little mommy!"

Christmas is Here!

 Christmas is in full swing here at the Giraud house. We went and bought our tree a week or so ago, put on the ornaments while we rocked out to Christmas music, and we put up the train that Emery got last year for Christmas around the tree.

I've been trying for a YEAR to get Emery to like this train with no luck. But now that it's around the tree (and that Emery's a bit older) she LOVES the train. She's played with it for hours. She really likes to take her princesses for rides:

I can't believe I'm actually getting holiday pictures up on my blog BEFORE a holiday is over. Granted these aren't Christmas DAY pictures, but still. Let's all take a moment to be super proud of me since I'm not making you look at Christmas pictures in March. 

Freezer Meals

So I saw this pin on pinterest the other day for 20 crock pot freezer meals from Costco for less than $150 in 2 hours. I always see these types of pins and my reaction is to cringe and think, "where in the world do people muster the motivation to do this stuff?!" But for some reason this link got me all sorts of excited and I knew that this one would be "the one" for me. I think it captured my attention because the blogger had made it so easy. She had a grocery list--all from Costco, cost break-down, amounts, recipes, everything. So I paid the $2.50 she charges to print off the lists and recipes and committed myself to get it done that day.

Before I hit up Costco, Emery and I met up with some friends at the library. I told them what I was doing and my friend expressed interest in doing it too so I roped her into doing it with me. I'm SOOOOO glad I had her along because let me tell you it was AN ORDEAL! That whole statement, "You can totally do it in two hours!" that the blog asserts should read, "You can totally do it in two hours...if you are some sort of super-human and can simultaneously chop potatoes and onions at the same time." So. Much. Chopping.

We didn't get a start on it until 4 pm, after shopping trips and naps and such. We figured it would probably take us longer than 2 hours because it was our first time doing something like this, but we did not imagine that we would still be at it 4 HOURS LATER! Like I said, it was an ordeal.

Here we are, about 3/4 of the way through. Onion shards everywhere, cans spread out as far as the eye can see, and delicious meals in the making.

I had to get a picture of the recycle bin. It was SOOO full of cans! 

20 freezer meals is a lot of food. A LOT! My freezer is on the smallish side compared to some, so it was a trick to get them all shoved in there. Because I couldn't lay them all flat there are many that are now frozen in crazy shapes and stuck to each other. Ooops. 

The thought of having 20 meals just sitting there, waiting to be eaten is probably unfathomable to a lot of people in the world who don't even know where their next meal is coming from. And here I am with 20 meals, at my disposal. I carry around some guilt?sadness? in my heart because of that. Expressing my gratitude and giving back when I have a chance helps that feeling, but it doesn't get rid of it.

Anyway, we tried our first one on Sunday: BBQ chicken and potatoes. It was delicious, so I consider this endeavor a SUCCESS!

Here's the link if you want to try for yourself:

freezer meals

I'd highly recommend a food processor if you have one. Mine stopped working after the first batch and it would have saved us some time if we could have used it.

Emery's Prayer

We've been working with Emery to make her prayers more meaningful. This is the fruits of our labors from tonight: "Please bless my daddy that he will get home tonight with his head on. He's my special daddy and I want to keep him."

Missing picture

Here's another picture I had wanted to post of Gavin a few months back when I did the post of what he does when he's not lawyering. It's of the Spartan race he ran in Austin back in May. 

Fancy Tea Party

Emery's little friend had a cute tea party for her birthday on Saturday and it was so fun! It felt like an extra Halloween because we got to dress up fancy and eat sweet treats again. Emery looked so cute so I snapped a picture before we went since the hairbows never seem to last very long these days. It's also so hard to get this girl to look at the camera for longer than .2 seconds.

And then here she is at the party:

The cuteness of this tea party was overwhelming. My friend who threw the party for her daughter is so talented. I felt like I had walked into a whimsical world of fanciness and rainbows. It was incredible--perfect for little girlfriends (and the one brave boy who came. He was a good sport!).

My Baking buddy

I was making calzones for the missionaries the other day and Emery wanted to help me every step of the way. It doesn't matter what I'm doing at that counter, if I'm standing there, Emery will go grab a chair, push it over, and declare, "I want to help!" It's sweet, and sometimes a little exasperating, but in those tiring times I just try to remember how fleeting these precious moments are and summon some extra patience. It's worth it when I look over and watch her little hands pushing on her piece of dough as hard as she can, with flour smudges over her entire face and arms and flour spilled over her toes and the floor.

When we were done she decided she needed to sit on the counter too. You know...just in case there was more flour to get covered in.

My baking buddy. I couldn't ask for a better one!

These sweet moments really are priceless. They fill my soul in a way that so few things do. I'm really grateful to stay home with her and have this extra time to teach her new things and watch her learn.  

Tricks and Treats

Halloween was a much bigger deal for us this year now that Emery is 3 years old. A friend of mine gave us a Sleeping Beauty dress and a Cinderella dress. Emery was "Aurora" and her little friend was the Cinderella. Emery was really excited to be a princess with her friend.

Our Halloween festivities started on Thursday with a trick or treat at Gavin's work. Emery was pretty shy and took awhile to warm up, but the fact that she got candy if she said trick or treat was pretty good motivation to be somewhat friendly.

At Dad's work. Aurora and Prince Philip!

Right after Gavin's work we headed to our church for the annual Trunk or Treat. Gavin had the young men he is in charge of design our trunk the day before. I think they did a pretty good job! They were really proud of it and came and set it up and hung around the car admiring their work. I'd be sooooo happy if it became a tradition to have them do our trunk every year...I don't love decorating it. 

On Halloween we went out to dinner with some friends then Gavin took Emery trick or treating around our neighborhood. After 3 trick-or-treats in a row, Emery is loaded with candy. I let her pick some pieces and we put the rest up. She is a sugar fiend so I can't let her have it all at her disposal or it would be gone in an hour.

At IHOP, with a free pumpkin face pancake since she came in costume. 

 The Beautiful Aurora! She loved that dress so much and was in heaven that she got to wear it two days in a row. 

It was a fun and festive Halloween over here. Hope yours "treated" you well too!

Deliciousness

I can't get enough of this chili:

Sweet potato chicken chili

It's a perfect fall soup. Not that it really feels like the fall here...but soup is always a good idea! Plus you can make it in the crock pot and it only takes the crockpot, a cutting board, knife, and vegetable peeler. Very little mess!

Birthday Shenanigans

This girl just turned 3! 

We were so lucky to have a cousins here to party on her birthday after church. Even her cousins from Kansas were here. It was a great day. 

She had so much fun playing with her cousins and opening presents. She couldn't quite get the candles blown out by herself, which is  not for lack of lung strength (you should hear this girl throw a tantrum!), so I guess we'll need some practice.

She cracked me up during the present opening. I don't think she said a single word for the entire opening process, but every time she would unwrap a gift she would gasp loudly and get this face:

Every. Time. Her enthusiasm was sweet. Happy Birthday, Emery girl! We love you!

Weekend at Moody Gardens

Gavin had a CLE (continuing legal education) conference down in Galveston this past weekend so Emery and I tagged along. We had a fun-filled, action-packed, all-around amazing time and were so sad to see it end. I look a ton of pictures including LOTS of selfies of me and Emery (my apologies in advance). But we were just having so much fun and I wanted to remember all the wonderful things we saw so I snapped and snapped and snapped away. So prepare yourself for "The Great Emery and Tiffany Selfie Overload 2014." It might not thrill you, but these pictures will bring smiles to my face for the rest of my life. We had such a lovely time!

The conference is at Moody Gardens which is a huge hotel with tons of amenities, which Emery and I thoroughly enjoyed...as our selfies will attest. 

Thursday we arrived and Gavin went straight to his conference. We couldn't check in to the hotel yet so Emery and I went to the beach. I found this perfect little beach with hardly anyone on it (it helped that it was a Thursday afternoon), with super soft sand, no seaweed, and a long, gradual slope down to the water. It was perfect for Emery. We had a blast playing in the water and building "monsters" in the sand. 

Building "monsters"

I love the beach!

First of many selfies

Emery and I found a couple of these, the pink and purple was so vibrant in real life.
We put them on our sand monsters.

 Thursday night we were so happy to see Gavin and fill him in on our beach adventure. We took Emery to The Rainforest Cafe and she LOVED it. It's so fun to see things through your child's eyes. When the animatronic gorillas moved her eyes got so big and she just couldn't believe it.

I like this picture so I'm making it extra big. Outside the Rainforest Cafe.

 The next morning we tried to go on a bike ride together, but Gavin had to be at his conference at 8:30 am and Emery got to bed late so just Emery and I went. It was so beautiful. We rode for a few miles along the seawall and watched the waves come in and the sun rise in the sky. Emery LOVED it. I did too.

We actually don't own bikes anymore but Tobin and Whitney let us borrow theirs. I was so grateful, biking was one of my favorite things we did! 

Emery wanted to ride the bikes EVERYWHERE!  

Our morning view. It was breathtaking. 

We rode for awhile and I was feeling all proud of myself for how easy of a ride it was. I was going to keep going but Emery was ready to go so I turned around and headed back after 4 miles. As soon as I turned around I realized that the GUSTY wind had been at my BACK and that nice and easy ride was now much more difficult. Phew. It was a good little workout.

We started our Moody Gardens adventure with the Aquarium. I LOOOOOVE aquariums and this one was probably the best I've ever seen.

Inside the shark tunnel. They had lots of other fish too.

Some of the sharks in the shark tunnel. 

Emery making friends with the penguins. They also had some seals that were really fun. They would come up to the glass and swim around right next to it. 

Aaarrrgh matey!

So many fun tropical plants to see.

 After a few hours at the aquarium we headed to the Colonel Paddleboat for a ride along the bayou.

It started getting kind of hot so I got Emery a popsicle. She was pretty happy about it.

Next came the Rainforest Pyramid.

Just hangin' out

Emery loved these things and wanted pictures in every one.

It's hard to see but that's a scarlet Ibis behind us. It was the first bird we saw in the "rainforest"

You can see its cool beak better in this picture.

The Butterfly Room

There's a monkey on that fence...see the black blob? He was not cooperating for my pictures and was trying very hard to ignore us. 

I didn't get any pictures of Friday night, but as soon as Gavin was done with his classes we rode the bikes to a fun island restaurant and then played on the beach for a while. It was a FUN day.

Saturday morning we took it easy for a bit while Gavin finished up his classes, checked out of the hotel, and went and played in a park until Gavin was done.

Such a helper. 

 I really wanted to tour this place:

This is Moody Mansion. 

 Moody Gardens, Moody Mansion, the Moody's are kind of a big deal in Galveston. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out by the time we got there. But we walked around and saw a few tree sculptures that were carved after hurricane Ike destroyed a bunch of trees in 2008.

We also did a historical tour of Galveston that took us along all the old parts of town and talked about its history. It was super fascinating. There are these beautiful, huge, old, Victorian houses that have been around since the late 1800s. I should have snapped a few pictures. They were gorgeous. 

That night they had a huge art festival downtown with live music, free appetizers, and open art galleries to peruse. We had fun strolling along and looking in the shops. Then to top off the trip we stopped at soda fountain/ice cream shop for some ice cream cones. Emery DEVOURED hers. Look at that scoop. It's almost as big as her head! 

Yeah...she was a liiiiittle bit excited for her ice cream.

So was he. :)

 As you can tell from the length of this post, it was a full weekend. But one of the best we've had together. I wish Gavin could have been with us the whole time, but it was more than we usually get of him so we were happy. So, so happy.