Happy Birthday Sutton and Avery!

Happy 6th Birthday to my little ladies! I can't believe you are 6 years old. Your life here on earth started very early and was a bit tough. You two fought, grew and thrived to get out of the NICU in less than a month. You two were always destined for great things!

And now at 6 years old you are learning to read, write and explain things in such detail. You two are the best of friends and the ultimate definition of sisters (the love/hate relationship). You stand up for each other, but you fight just like sisters do.

Sutton, my first born. You have definitely lived up to your nickname "bear cub". You are one feisty little girl. You stand your ground and are more emotional than your sister. But you have the biggest heart. You are so nurturing, loving and the ultimate snuggler. You love to please everyone. You love fiercely. You are so smart. I love the little lady that you are becoming. I love hearing you sing. You love to sing and do it anywhere. When I blow dry your hair, to the car, to us taking walks. Always enjoy every moment and sing your heart out. Stay sweet my bear cub.

Avery, my second born. But definitely not one to be forgotten. You are a very vocal little lady. You love to tell it like it is. Even if that means bossing others around. I love how you stand your ground and are fiercely protective over your sister. You won't let anyone hurt her. But, you are ever so sweet and just want to be included in everything. You are so smart and sassy all at the same time. I love how different you and Sutton are. I love your caring heart. I love watching you grow, learn new things, and thrive. Always love the way you do!

I can't wait to see where you girls will go and what two will do when you grow up. I am sure you will dominate this world! I love you sweet girls!

Sutton - 2014

Avery - 2014

2015

Sutton - 2016

Avery - 2016

Avery - 2017

Sutton - 2017

Sutton - 2018

Avery - 2018

2019

Happy Birthday Sutton and Avery!

Birthday Interviews with Sutton and Avery

I can't believe my little ladies are going to be 6 years old tomorrow! How does that happen? Time is really flying by. And this year has been a total mess, but I give it to my girls, they have been champs through this and make me realize just how good life is.

Last year, I interviewed the girls and I thought I would do it again. I borrowed my questions from Lindsay since she has a great set of birthday questions on her blog.

First up, Sutton (since she is the oldest by a few seconds):

1. What is your favorite toy? Barbie (princess Barbies - like Elsa, Anna, Ariel). I thought she was going to say a baby doll, but she does love the princess barbies.

2. What is your favorite stuffed animal? Bear from Graeagle. I got this for her when we were in Graeagle.

3. What is your favorite sport? Ballet. She first said I don't play sports, but then said ballet.

4. What is your favorite book? Peppa Pig - a series of stories. I was surprised by this. I thought it would be an Olivia book.

5. What is your favorite TV show? Fancy Nancy. They LOVE this show and watch it over and over again.

6. What is your favorite movie? Frozen 2. Another favorite.

7. What is your favorite song? Moana - How Far I'll Go. Sutton sings this song all the time. She loves to sing.

8. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas (She asked "Can Christmas be a holiday?).

9. What is your favorite color? Pink (but she also named others).

10. What is your favorite animal? Dog. She loves Walter soooo much.

11. What is your favorite snack? Graham Crackers. I thought she was going to say her chocolate chip bars.

12. What is your favorite treat? Mint chip ice cream and hot chocolate. They LOVE mint chip just like their dad.

13. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Steak. Sutton love steak so much.

14. What is your favorite restaurant? In N Out.

15. Who is your best friend? Tamsen and Camille. A set of twins at school.

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? A chef. This surprised me.

Next up, Avery:

1. What is your favorite toy? Elsa doll. She actually has Anna, but they love their dolls from Disneyland.

2. What is your favorite stuffed animal? Giraffe. She got this as a Halloween treat from a neighbor a few years ago and still loves it.

3. What is your favorite sport? She loves Wolf Pack football.

4. What is your favorite book? Room on the Broom.

5. What is your favorite TV show? Elena and Fancy Nancy and Puppy Dog Pals. Yep, these are their favorites for sure.

6. What is your favorite movie? Frozen 2.

7. What is your favorite song? I love you in the morning and in the afternoon... She started singing it. I just can't remember the name of it.

8. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas.

9. What is your favorite color? Pink.

10. What is your favorite animal? Dogs - like Walter Roo.

11. What is your favorite snack? Dads favorite bars (Think Thin Wafer Bars - Vanilla). They are obsessed with these, but they only get to have half of the bar because there is so much protein in them.

12. What is your favorite treat? Mint chip ice cream. Yep.

13. What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Spaghetti. A girl after my heart. I love spaghetti too!

14. What is your favorite restaurant? Pine State Biscuits. This is biscuit restaurant in town that is amazingly good!

15. Who is your best friend? Tamsen and Camille.

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? A chef. Again, this surprised me!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I hope you have the most magical, relaxing, and fun filled day!

Weekending

It feels like it has been forever since I wrote a weekend post. But I wanted to do one for last weekend to remember our time on the Christmas Lights Train in Virginia City. Since the pandemic, I have been worried about making this holiday season the best. Trying to keep some traditions alive and adding new ones in place of ones that have been cancelled. 

See, every year on Christmas Eve we head to my parents best friends house for a Christmas Eve party. But not this year. We are doing a drive by thing to exchange gifts and get some goodies. And we have a Christmas dinner with Rory's aunt and uncle plus family the day after Christmas. But this year it has been cancelled because one of the family members has cancer and is at a higher risk. And I usually host Christmas dinner, but I thought I would have had surgery 3 weeks before and wouldn't be up for it. Plus our Christmas parties were all cancelled too. So things have been weird. 

Anyways, I wanted to do some fun things for the girls, so when my fellow twin mom told me about the Christmas Lights train, I tried to buy tickets, but they were all sold out. Thankfully, she called and they were adding another late train ride and we got tickets!

Anyways, onto our weekend. Saturday morning we had bagels, coffee and watched Christmas movies in the morning. Then we headed over to a walking park and the girls brought their bikes to ride while we walked Walter. 

After our walk, we headed home for some football and hang out. We had an early dinner of pizza at home and then drove up to Virginia City. When we arrived, we went to will call for our tickets and then waited outside and took some photos. The girls were a bit antsy to get on the train and cold. We did wear our big jackets, have gloves and were prepared, but with the train starting at their bedtime, we knew this was a risk.

Rory and I really enjoyed it. I think Avery enjoyed it more than Sutton because at one point Sutton said she was bored. I think she was just tired. But the crew went above and beyond. We had hot cocoa and hot apple cider at our seats (which were all socially distanced apart) and goodie bags for the girls which included a candy candy light up stick, a candy cane light up bracelet, candy cane Hersey kisses and cookies.

We rode the train for about 30 minutes on the way to Gold Hill seeing light displays and having our train light up to songs that were playing. They read Twas the Night Before Christmas over the loud speaker and then when we got to Gold Hill, we got to see Santa and his elves. He had a microphone and talked to the kids and it was really sweet. That lasted for another 10 minutes and then we headed back to Virginia City. This time going faster. Overall, it was a great experience. We just may try for earlier in the evening next time.

The girls were asleep within a minute or two in the car.

Sunday was a lazy day. We had bagels again for breakfast and watched Christmas movies all morning. Plus we did some laundry and cleaning. After I went grocery shopping, we took Walter on a long walk (over an hour) and the girls again rode their bikes. Then we watched some football, made dinner and watched more Christmas movies. Gotta get in all of our Christmas favorites this week.

The girls are at "camp" today through Wednesday and then Thursday we get ready for the big day. We still have to work all week, so at least this way the girls will have fun and stay busy. Christmas Eve we will be baking cookies, prepping food for Christmas day and enjoying the day to the fullest. What are your plans this week?

Christmas This or That

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

Last week, Bri had a This or That post and I thought it was cute. I had fun reading her answers and wanted to answer them myself. Thanks for the inspiration Bri!!!

1. Home Alone or A Christmas Story?

This is a very hard one. I LOVE both movies and we have watched them at least 5 times this holiday season. BUT I think I have watched A Christmas Story more and I have a tradition to watch it Christmas Eve night and then all day Christmas Day. 

Plus I bought this cute shirt as I love the movie so much.

A Christmas Story Shirt

2. Hot coffee or hot cocoa?

Easy...hot coffee. I LOVE coffee and drink at least one cup a day. Usually more. And hello, my blog is called Sparkles and LATTES.

3. Gift giving or gift receiving?

I love giving gifts. Growing up you love receiving them, but as you get older, it is so much fun to see the look on other people's faces when they open up something that you hand picked for them.

4. Holiday pies or holiday cookies?

Another tough one. I love pies, but I think I love cookies more. I have been baking sugar cookies a lot since November and we will be baking them again on Christmas Eve!

5. Grinch or Elf?

I again like them both, but I would probably choose Elf over Grinch unless I get to watch the super old school cartoon Grinch.

6. Real tree or fake tree?

Real tree all the way. Growing up, we had a fake tree for awhile, but then we started cutting ours down each year. This is the first year that I have had a real tree and a fake tree.

Here is our Christmas tree this year.

7. Ugly Christmas sweater or Christmas PJs?

I have both, but I love a good ugly Christmas sweater. I have a Griswold Christmas sweater that is my absolute favorite and I wear it yearly.

Christmas Vacation Ugly Sweater

Friday Favorites and Happenings

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes. 

Happy one week until Christmas! And happy Friday! I can't believe we are this close to Christmas. I am sad that we are close, but I just absolutely love Christmas morning.

How many of you are taking next week off? Will you be reading blogs? Will you be around? I want to gauge if I should write some content for next week or not.

Onto Friday Favorites and Happenings.

ONE. I am always on the hunt for new recipes. I recently found a blogger/IGer that I LOVE. Her name is Half Baked Harvest. You can follow her here. I made her Better Than Takeout Szechuan Noodles with Chili Oil and OMG it was amazing. The homemade chili oil is amazing. I could drink that stuff. Do yourself a favor and make this. It is soooo much healthier than Chinese takeout.

Recipe

I made mine with ground pork instead of the ground chicken.

TWO. We have been partaking in one of my favorite holiday traditions. We have been driving around and checking out Christmas light displays. And we found some new ones this year. I didn't take photos of many, but I did get a few good ones!

THREE. I got the girls the cutest dresses from J Crew for Christmas. I am thinking they will want to wear them on their birthday (which is 4 days later!) since they are "fancy". I also got them velvet sparkly leggings to go with these and those black ballet flats will match perfectly! The dresses are on sale for $22.12 right now. The sparkly velvet leggings are sold out, but they have the same velvet leggings in non-sparkle, on sale for $10.88.

J Crew Tulle Dress

J Crew Velvet Leggings

FOUR. So I always love sharing new shows that I am into as I love when you all share news shows that you are into. I have been watching so many Christmas movies. On Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and even Amazon Prime. But then I mix it up with some of my favorite shows and then I also watch true crime shows. Those are a favorite of mine. 

We have been watching Manhunt: Deadly Games. Now I am sure my Georgia friends know all about this event and I am sure many others do. But, I never knew about this serial bomber until someone recommended this show to me. 

I don't want to give everything away if you haven't seen it or know of the story. We enjoyed it. It is a bit long (10 episodes) and could have been cut down a bit. But overall I would recommend it!

FIVE. Weekly funnies.

And I am still processing this last year!

This is clever!

I don't know why this is true, but it is. I eat a lot of salads and most of the time they suck at home.

This is LA.

Yep.

This is every Hallmark/Lifetime/Hulu/Amazon Prime Christmas movie.

Have a great weekend. I am linking up with A Little Bit of Everything.

Our Christmas Outfits

*This post contains affiliate links. When you click a link, it is no cost to you and I make a small commission (pennies) from it. Thank you for supporting Sparkles and Lattes.

I love shopping for special day outfits. So when it got closer to Christmas, I started looking for outfits for the girls and then a bit later for myself. I found the cutest Christmasy dresses for the girls and then added tights from the same place (H&M) and the shoes were part of their Christmas gifts. My girls love shoes, so I try to buy them multiple pairs for their birthday/Christmas gifts.

As for my outfit, I got it on major sale. I got it for $23.50, normally $118. I paired it with some Vince Camuto pumps that I already had. 

Rory usually wears something from his closet, so I didn't include him in our Christmas outfits. But I do give it to him as he will try to pick out something that matches or goes with our outfits.

Plaid Dress  |  Pumps

Red Sparkly Dress  |  Gold Tights  |  Black Patent Ballet Flats

A few notes on the girls outfits. The red dresses have a sparkle to them, but they do not shed glitter or anything. The fabric just has a sparkle to it. And that goes with the gold tights too. They are not glittery. And I got the patent ballet flats on sale for $6.99 plus 5% off for using my Target card.

Our 2020 Christmas Card

This has been quite the year hasn't it? Nothing has been normal. We usually get professional family photos done in October or early November, and I am ordering my cards during the Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. But this year...nope. 

Ok, some of it yep. We did not take professional family photos. We got dressed up two different times and had a cousin take some photos of us. The first one was a disaster. The girls would not look at the camera, they were purposefully closing their eyes and they were just not having it. To be fair, they wanted to just play with their cousins and not take photos.

The second time I bribed the girls were dessert and play time with their cousins if they could just take a few good ones. The second time we got it. And we pretty much wore the same outfits each time.

So here is our 2020 Christmas card!

Pretty good, eh? The girls are looking at the camera and their eyes are mostly open. We have smiles, look happy and got it done.

And here is a look at year's past Christmas cards.

2019

2018

2017

 2016

 2015

2014