scenes from a winter morning at home

We're just finishing the first week of Sam's winter break, and we have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Part of this has been our glorious laziness: apparently since our schedule is different, I've given up on being productive at all. We sit around and play. We walk to the park. We use restaurant gift cards we've accumulated over the past few years when we don't want to actually make dinner. We snuggle on the couch and watch Netflix when the kids have gone to bed. This slowing down and setting our own pace has been so drastically different from this past semester and I love it.

We're also nursing colds over here though, so that's never fun. And we did have plans to try out new outdoor trails and get together with friends that we've had to put on hold due to excessive coughing and low fevers. Hopefully we'll all be feeling better in the next few days when we travel for Christmas.

Here are a few glimpses of what's been happening around the house this week. Not shown: Zupas takeout for dinner, and finally sending out our Christmas cards, the one thing I've accomplished since Monday.

We've been dragging all the toys to the living room and rotating through them in the mornings.

The twins love to look at each other and chatter back and forth these days. It's so cute. And look at them trying to hold hands during tummy time in the picture below. 

Claire loves to decorate and redecorate this Christmas tree I made for her.

The tree is made from half a yard of the least fluffy fleece in the store, and the ornaments are all cut out from felt. This project took me 25 minutes and $4, so I consider it a major win.

Short sleeves and bare baby legs. Welcome to December in Arizona. :)

I just want to give a quick shout-out to these hand and face wipes (and the all-over wipes that we use all the time too). We use them every time we're out and about, and we love them. I first got them in partnership with JOHNSON’S®, who has been generous enough to sponsor my blog for the entire year.

In fact, there are lots of JOHNSON’S® products we use every single day around here. I'm not contractually obligated to say any of this specifically. I just wanted to give a shout out because we genuinely love these products. This detangler spray is light and clean and doesn't leave your toddler's hair greasy or stringy. This bedtime bubble bath smells unbelievably delicious and has been an all-time favorite, and this moisturizing cream is on daily use here at our house too (in fact, we bought a second bottle so we wouldn't have to keep moving the lotion back and forth between the kids' rooms).

She put her shoes on "all by self!" that day. Haha

You guys, I have got to do more arm exercises. My arms get tired after only a few minutes of carrying both these kiddos.

And now that we've had our down time, we're ready to kick these colds to the curb and party with family and friends for the holidays.

I’m sharing #JOHNSONS in my life as part of a JOHNSON'S® sponsored series for Socialstars.™Learn more by visiting their Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Thank you for supporting the brands that support my family!

around here lately

Sam's finals will be over by the end of the week and freedom is so close we can taste it. To say we are excited for a couple weeks of uninterrupted Sam time is an understatement. I can't wait for a few nights of watching movies or playing card games late into the night with this guy - even if he does count cards and win every single time.

I looked over in church yesterday and found him snuggling two kids simultaneously on our pew. He's definitely the favorite around here. And if you're reading this Monday morning, there's still a few hours to catch my sneaky church snapshots on my Instagram story.

Claire is obsessed with going outside these days, and with this gorgeous Arizona winter weather, I don't blame her. Our new thing is waiting until the twins are napping and playing right outside our front door with the baby monitor in hand. The first requirement of outside time, as anybody knows, is examining and moving rocks around for about 10 minutes (what is it with kids and rocks?). Then we usually move on to bubbles, or she'll ride her bicycle up and down the lane. Some of my best blog ideas have come while sitting on the front steps brainstorming while I feign interest in the rocks.

 Someone asked me a few months ago about a good detangler for Claire's hair. At first I had nothing to say. I had just purchased a kids detangler from a brand which shall remain nameless, and I HATED it. It left her hair looking greasy and stringy. Next I tried a spray-on detangler meant for adults, and it was okay, but left a weird smell. Finally I tried JOHNSON’S® NO MORE TANGLES detangling spray and that one did the trick. I'm serious when I say we use this almost every day and totally love it. It has a nice clean light smell, sprays on really evenly, and doesn't leave her hair greasy. We even brought it in the car on the way to family pictures for any last-minute detangling needs.

In other news, the twins are sleeping through the night. Repeat: The twins are sleeping through the night!!! Some moms are great at functioning without a full night's sleep for years, but I am not one of those people. I still get up once or twice a night to pop Addie's pacifier back in, but it takes 30 seconds and I'm back asleep 30 seconds later, so I am feeling GREAT. Although of course now I'm tired because I've reverted back to my bad habits of staying up too late...

We use these bandana bibs all the time. Addie is our little drooler and goes through two a day sometimes, but now she doesn't have a wet and cold shirt front all day long. Plus the twins are darn cute in them! We also love these JOHNSON’S® HEAD-TO-TOE™ baby cleansing cloths, which have been helping them stay clean without drying out their skin by bathing them every day in the dry winter. And when we do bathe them, we use JOHNSON’S BEDTIME® Moisture Wash, and I love the calming aromas of their entire purple-bottle bedtime line.

^^This picture cracks me up. Addison is crying, and Lincoln is looking so smug and happy. Probably because he woke his sister up from their nap, the little rascal.

And now I'm off to kiss Sam goodbye until Friday at four when it's officially winter break and we can party. 107 hours to go. Not that I'm counting.

Thank you to JOHNSON’S® for sponsoring this post (and for making products we really love and will use for years to come). I’m sharing #JOHNSONS in my life as part of a JOHNSON’S® sponsored series for Socialstars.™ Learn more about JOHNSONS by visiting their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.