Marmalade!

 I know what you're all thinking. Vieve, how did you spend your New Years Eve? And the answer is simple. 

By not doing much. 

Unfortunately, I got a horrible toothache a few days ago. I called my dentist's emergency line, hoping to get some relief. They prescribed an antibiotic, but it hasn't been getting any better. So I spent the evening just sort of in and out of paying attention to the games our family was playing. And then they all left at 9:00 (they knew my toothache was making me miserable). So after they left, I started some marmalade. We have a bunch of oranges (there is a family in my neighborhood that gives everyone in our ward a bag of oranges each year for Christmas, and I never know what to do with it. But this year, I decided to do something, and chose marmalade. I chose this recipe: 

https://www.masalaherb.com/orange-marmalade-recipe/

In the recipe, you need to boil your oranges, and then leave them to soak in sugar overnight. So I did that after everyone left. I sliced the oranges, boiled them, and then left them. It smelled glorious! 

I didn't get any of the pics from the next day or the finished product (whoops) but it was so good! It tastes absolutely heavenly on a piece of toast. 

Epifanio and His Feelings Part 7000

 This baby is just so odd. He is such a little grumper all the time, and we never even know why. Here are today's latest:

Matching Christmas Jammies

 Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a great day. 

It took me ten years, but I finally got husband to wear matching Christmas jammies! 

Don't mind my hand on my watch, setting the time for the picture haha. 

Happy holiday! 

Harry Potter Advent Calendar

 It's Christmas Eve, which means my advent calendar is complete! Each day it has been either a tiny person or a tiny piece of the movies. And today, here it all is: 

Now, you're supposed to be able to play a game with this, but I have no idea how it works, there are no instructions. And this one was defective - on a day (it has what's behind on the door as a picture on each door) where it was supposed to be ... something (I'm not sure) it was another goblin from the bank, so I ended up with two of those. But that's okay, and now, Christmas is tomorrow! 

Home Alone Lego House

 Y'all, I bought this lego house a while ago and have only just finished it. It took so long because my sister and I did it together - so I had to wait until she was here to finish it. I am so hype to finally be done! 

Faces, with us

 Epifanio is just so game to make faces with you, he doesn't even question it. 

The bottom pic is him trying to look angry - he did his best haha. 

Fella Shenanigans

 These boys are so cute and sometimes so weird. 

Epifanio spends so much of his time just ... getting into boxes for no reason. 

And then took a time out when he was going down the stairs, to recalibrate. 

And then this goof took some pics at school this week and was so dang cute. 

How to Stay Warm

 We went to the Zoo Lights up at the Hogle Zoo tonight and brought the whole fam. When we got there, Darth got out of the car, and his outfit immediately brought me joy. 

I just absolutely love him. 

Soap!

 For Christmas gifts this year, I decided to give soap making a try. It didn't seem too hard, so I ventured into it. Turns out, it was the easiest thing in the world! (I did it an easy way, of using a blank soap base and then just adding scent) I did lavender and mandarin ginger scent, and they were absolutely divine. I loved making these, can't wait to see what I can do next year. 

I forgot to get a pic of the designs on the front when I took them out, but they were lovely on that side as well. 

The Lovely Couple

My sister-in-law recently got married. (To a man, this is important for the story later). This is their first Christmas together.  They were given this as a gift, an ornament for their new tree. The gift giver must not have been looking closely, as you'll see also: 

I just absolutely love this. Keep an eye on gifts you buy, gotta make sure you're buying the right thing. 

Candy Apple time

Tonight, husband was making some candy apples for a thing. He needed help with the candy, and we worked hard to help him out Here is the finished product: 

Guys, it was so good! I was nervous about biting into it, (I get nervous with hard things for my teeth!) but it wasn't too bad! The candy was a delicious flavor and this was such a fun thing to try for the first time. 

I met Santa!

 Tonight was my ward party. And Santa was scheduled to make an appearance at the end! So we made it through dinner and some crafts and then he came out. I got a picture with him, because, of course I did. 

Doesn't he look great! 

A Craft Saturday

 I did one craft and one "craft" today. First of all, I needed some hearts for a project. I had a bunch of cardboard ones, and needed to paint them. Finally, this week, I realized, I could spray paint them! The whole time I thought I had to hand paint them. They ended up looking great. 

And then, I put together a lego wreath! It took forever, and I was happy when it was all finished. 

That Seems Safe

 I babysat the fellas again today, and Darth helped me put up some Christmas stuff. 

Epifanio just wanted to watch Cars. 

Darth helped with the decor, and then asked to jump off the ladder (of course I said yes I'm not a monster)

And we ordered some pizza for dinner, to celebrate. 

It's Over! We did it!

 Guys, we did it! It's over! The month of November has finished, so we no longer need to shove a blog post into every single day! Glad we made it, and happy to be done with it. 

Just take a nap anywhere you can

We went shopping today for a few items, and found ourselves in the throw blanket area. Epifanio decided to lay down in the section and then pretend to be asleep, it was so dang cute. 

He's such a goober! 

Time to Start Prepping for Christmas

 I did just a hair of shopping on Saturday, to take advantage of one specific sale. It was great. I bought the fellas these shirts at the same time. 

Of course they wore them the next dang day hahah I love these two. 

Baby First Birthdays

 The two recent baby additions to our family have their first birthdays around now! One of them was in the last week or so, and the other is in December. So they did a little cake smashing day today, to celebrate both. 

Such cuties! 

Spider-Boy

 Today I got a call from my sister, who's car had broken down on a busy road. Husband and I sprinted out to help her. Husband looked at the car whilst I was helping distract the fellas. Darth decided to go ahead and, oh, I don't know, CLIMB A CEMENT WALL NEXT TO A BUSY ROAD, but that's completely in character for him. 

Like any respectable aunt, I did indeed take a picture instead of trying to make him come down. What an absolute unit of a child. 

Black Friday 2021

 And now, following Thanksgiving, we get Black Friday celebrations! 

I have to work today, so no shopping for me.

But, I did take this picture of myself at work with a filter, and then I spent all day laughing at it. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy thanksgiving, y'all! 

Two in a Row, eh?

 Y'all, I am two days into not having a thing to blog about. Yikes. Well, here's something. 

Recently, I started to follow this on Instagram: 

It's a page called Earth Focus, and it's just the best. It has amazing pictures/videos from all over the world, and I love it so. 

They're all so calming and make me want to visit all of these places. 

Welp

 Y'all, I have absolutely nothing to post on, so here is a picture 

I found this on Twitter, a pic of the Brigham City temple. Beautiful. 

No, Baby Yoda!

 My sister and I of course enjoy doing any lego we can. Lately she has taken to getting my legos, smashing them into pieces, and then putting them together again. She borrowed my Baby Yoda for just such a case, and then took a video them smashing it. 

I just love how all the fellas crowd around to see it after it's fallen haha. 

I already know I'm too old for this

 Guys, recently I have joined TikTok. 

Now, yes, as it says in the title, I know I'm too old for this. But, it is a good time. I fully intend on never posting here. I'm here as a lurker (creepy!) but I don't put myself much onto social media anyway. But there are too many clever and funny people on this app to not enjoy it. 

I got on it 100% because I kept getting sent videos, and I figured a better way to streamline watching them was to get the app. And let me tell you, it is so easy to lose an hour of your day so quickly to watching this app. I was debating on posting my favorite video but y'all I can't choose! One of my favorites is Noodle the Pug - who determines whether or not it's a "Bones day" by standing or just flopping over. He's the sweetest old dog, and gives me such life. 

Anyway. Now, we know that not every entry in the November "blog every day" is going to be a winner, and this is just one of those posts. Enjoy. 

Mama's Birthday

 Yesterday was mama's birthday, so we celebrated by going out to dinner, and then taking advantage of the Riverwoods lighting ceremony. We saw fireworks, lighting of lights, and got to take some pics in the photo booths. 

The guy we asked to take this picture absolutely took the most zoomed out picture he could have taken and like ... dang man. Not cool. 

It was such a fun night, and I'm so glad we got to celebrate her properly. 

Morning with Epifanio

 Babysat the baby today of course, and we had a great time. 

He was given to me without a jacket, in this chilly weather. He wanted to go on a walk, so I just put him in a hoodie of mine, and off we went. 

He was just so happy to be watching Cars 2 and living life. 

Feelings, with Epifanio

 Today, we have too many feelings because we brought too many toy cars with us, and we couldn't hold them all as we were getting out of the car. Devastating. 

An Abomination

As we all know, I love Mountain Dew. I try every kind. I rate them all! And today, I received an abomination of a Dew that was ... not great. 

This should not be a thing. It was insane. It burns. It gives you a heartburn. Would not recommend. (not that you can get it anyway, it has to be special ordered and everything, and they actually even stopped making it). But yeah, no need to drink. 

Time for Fun

 I babysat the fellas today, and Epifanio was all full of energy. We had a great time trying to get it all out. 

Lego Typewriter

 Guys. I have been working on this for a good long while now. It took forever, it was so many small moving pieces, but now that it's done, it is glorious. 

The thing even moves, and make noises and is just amazing.