Wordless Wednesday: Dash's Visit Highlights































































Dash: Final Morning

This morning we woke to a wonderful surprise.  Dash made us breakfast! 

He put out whipped cream, sprinkles, m&ms, syrup, jam, and Christmas shaped pancakes.  Unfortunately, Dash might need to get his eyes checked because he added too much salt, which made the pancakes pretty inedible but the thought was sweet. 

Tonight is the night Santa comes and Dash heads home to the North Pole.  We have truly loved having him here and cannot wait until next year when he returns.  We hope he has a safe travel home tonight. 

Thank you Dash for bringing much joy and magic into our loves!  We will miss you.

Dash: Gift Giving

Last night Dash went MIA at bedtime, which was weird since I cleaned the house and didn't remember seeing him.  After both kids were asleep I sneaked into their rooms and found Dash playing with one of Alyssa's toys. 

To make up for the bedtime scare Dash wrapped some "gifts".

The kids got an open box of cereal, an open box of crackers, and a set of Christmas of PJ's each. 

I'm A Model... Of What I Don't Know

Last weekend my sister and I did a photo shoot with Amber Lee Photography.  When I changed my profile picture on Facebook the compliments came flooding in.  Even Danny shared it was a wonderful line about how beautiful I am. 

You, too, can see the photos here and here. 

A Big Thank you to Amber Lee Photography and Meghan Colwell, who did our makeup.

Dash: Kitchen Magic

Dash finally showed how well he works in the kitchen.

They were yummy cupcakes, which Lynden and I tasted after we had our breakfast.

Dash: Frosty The Snowmen

One thing about living in the Lower Mainland is we get rain 90% of the year.  In the Okanangan this meant snow, but not here. 

I think Dash is starting to get a little homesick, last night he made a winter wonderland, complete with snowmen.

Lynden enjoyed it and Danny thinks it's one of Dash's best work so far.

Dash: Gone Fishing!

This morning Lynden was lying in bed with me, waiting for me to wake up, as he does every morning.  I asked him if he was ready to get up and he said, "yes, I need to go find Dash".  This is where we found him.

  

Lynden was super excited and wanted to go fishing too. 

Dash is with us for another 4 days and then he heads home to the North Pole.  I can't wait to see what he has planned for the next few nights.

Dash: Busy Weekend

Dash had a busy weekend, as did we. 

Friday Dash was missing Santa I guess; we found him sitting at the chimney waiting.

Friday night Dash and Elmo made a big mess, but I think Dash is making some friends.  Thankfully, Lynden was awesome at helping clean up.

Dash: Behind The Magic

There have been a few links of Facebook lately about the Elf on the Shelf that were quite funny.  You can read them here and here. 

This link was actually posted on my wall by a friend of mine and she commented on how she thought I should do 'behind the scenes' and it got me thinking.  I've heard from a few moms about how they want to do something similar in the coming years so I thought I should give you all a glimpse behind the curtain. 

I discovered Elf on the Shelf through Pinterest in October.  I wasn't sure what it was all about and when I asked on Facebook I got an answer.  It peaked my interest (wonder if that's where the term Pinterest came from, peaked interest??), so I looked into it more, and I knew this was a must do! 

Now, I could have made it easy and stuck to the original story of the elf flies to the North Pole every night and lands in a different spot each morning, but where's the fun in that?!?  If you're planning on starting this tradition I Highly recommend going this route the first year or two until you feel brave enough to try to make your elf get into things. 

For those of you who know me know I'm organized. I like my lists!  So, when I started thinking about what all I wanted the elf to do I made lists, and lists, and some more lists.  I easily came up with over 100 ideas of the things the elf could do.  Some good for this year while others for when the kids get older.  After I came up with my 100+ ideas (some I stole from forums, sites, blogs, etc and some I came up with on my own) I narrowed it down to the top 30 ideas.  I then pre-planned what the elf was going to do when.  I know this seems a little much but let me tell you!!

Dash: Ask And You Shall Receive

Last night after dinner I asked Lynden if he wanted to watch a movie, we hadn't watched one in awhile.  Lynden jumped at the chance and asked if we could watch the movie Dash had brought us.  I was a little stumped since Dash hasn't brought us a movie.... yet.

We settled on Cars 2. 

However, I told Lynden if he asked Dash for a movie maybe he'll bring us one.  And what do you know?  Dash brought us a movie last night.

Lynden actually enjoyed the movie, despite his millions of "why?" questions about anything and everything that was going on.  I know he doesn't look impressed in the picture but it was more him not wanting me to take his picture.