Our days have been pretty eventful lately. 

Our toaster oven and crock pot broke. Has anyone else noticed kitchen items start to break around the sixth wedding anniversary?

We are swapping date night child care with our neighbors and also some other friends. This week we got out on a date, so nice!

A friend and I planned a craft day. Quinn normally loves to play with my friend's son, so we thought if we got them together they would distract eachother while we got some crafting done. Boy, were we wrong. They both sat there crying and reaching for us to pick them up. We still managed to get some work done, but they are for gifts so that's all I'm going to say.

My church's moms group meeting was pretty fun this week and even Quinn made some artwork. The one year-olds class decorated an ornament with thumb prints. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall while that was going on!

And Quinn tried to feed baby Jesus to Shinobi. I'm glad I was there to step in and keep him safe. It's the least I could do really.

Now I'm prepping for a cookie exchange party I'm co-hosting tomorrow. We'll be decorating sugar cookies and half of the cookies we gather will be going to HOTEL Ministry. I always thought I didn't like sugar cookies until I tried this recipe. They're light, crispy, and just slightly sweet. 

And our Christmas cards are bravely making their journey to many mailboxes, ready to spread some cheer! 

We had some big changes this past week. Quinn is now only taking one nap a day and only nurses when she wakes up in the morning. Such a big kid! Sometimes I look at her when we are eating together and wonder where this big kid came from. 

She says a lot more words now. And she is aware of the funniest things like when she hears a faucet turn on she starts rubbing her hands together like she is washing them. We were at a Christmas party last night and the hostess had set out a box of books and toys to play with. Instead of playing with the toys, somehow Quinn found a bottle of ranch dressing on the ground and was shaking it and snuggling it and using it as a pillow. What a silly and imaginative little lady we have! Fortunately, it entertained some guests. I wish I'd gotten a photo!

I'm officially finished with my handmade gifts. Three out of Quinn's four gifts this year are handmade. Jonathan and I like the idea of giving her a gift for each of these categories: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read. I read it somewhere and thought it was genius! It really suits any budget or age too. Don't tell, but her want gift is a rocking horse from my dad's cousin. His boys used it and he wanted to keep it in the family so he kindly gifted it to us. It's going in the sunroom and I think she's going to love it. Her need gift is tricky to describe. It's kind of like a quiet book except it's one big square with zippers, buttons, velcro, shapes and ribbons all over it to play with in the car. Her wear gift is a hat I crocheted. Her read gift is a board book that I modpodged over with pictures and words. 

Spoiler Alert for family and friends - this summer I harvested all the lavender in our yard and it's been drying in the guest room. In lieu of homemade edible gifts, I decided to put the lavender it into little sachets for gifting this Christmas. I think I'd like to do this each year. I love lavender and it has so many health benefits. So, if you're on my nice list you know what you're getting now :)