top 25 kids' room pins of 2013

I decided to end the year with a post of the most pinned kids' rooms from my kids' rooms pinterest board (this board is comprised of photos that I have posted on this blog). Here they are, starting with the most pinned:

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Christmas 2013 chez nous

We had a fabulous Christmas again this year. The kids were spoiled rotten as were us adults. A huge thank you to my parents for giving Isabella the gift with the best emotional response (photo below will explain). We opened gifts amongst the four of us on Christmas Eve (in the afternoon) and then we headed to my younger sister's place for dinner. Christmas morning, we headed to my parents' place to spend the day there. We had our typical Christmas morning breakfast - crepes with berries and then we began the gift opening process. We took a short break from gift opening to have a light lunch and continued more gift opening. We open gifts one at a time hence the lengthy process. The kids were actually quite patient as we do this every year - they are getting more and more accustomed to the tradition. We had a phenomenal dinner of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes and asparagus and a ton of desserts to choose from. My mom outdid herself yet again. It was a memorable day and now the photos to share of our Christmas:

finally a family photo. None of us got out of our comfy gift opening clothes besides Isabella...who changed about 4 times during the day...

the gifts at my parents' place

my gorgeous girl (wearing pjs that she opened and insisted in wearing right away)

Isabella in outfit #4 - her Christmas outfit - dress from F21 and tights and shoes from Joe Fresh

my boy who is always so serious when he sees a camera

Simon trying not to smile

my niece Adelina

Merry Christmas!!!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you for all the support that you've given my family and I over this past year.

Not sure when or how frequently I will post over the holidays but I will try to do an end of year post - maybe a recap of the best kids' rooms of 2013.

The kids went to visit Santa yesterday. Look how big they are getting!:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

beanies

could i have that

flare

the fashion guitar

style scrapbook

connected to fashion

anouk yve

sincerely jules

kenzas

holiday gift tags

heather bullard

picklee

a bird in the hand

la casa degli antuche

paint cut paste

rockers in kids' rooms

hgtv

spearmint baby

buy modern baby

apartment therapy

apartment therapy

apartment therapy

on to baby

apartment therapy

apartment therapy

Add caption

eclectic kids' rooms

houzz

ashley ann photography

decor8

decor8

babiekins mag

ikea family live

babble

julie ansiau

recipes I've tried this week

Another crazy work week and I am thoroughly exhausted. A very good move on my part that I took two weeks off at Christmas because I am really burnt out and need some days soon to do a whole lot of nothing. Just have to get through one more week of work...

Isabella has been having night terrors lately and they have become more frequent - a couple times a week now. She sits up in bed and speaks in a terrified voice, eyes open, all the while still asleep. It is so freaky and usually continues for a good 15 minutes. I googled night terrors but was curious if any of you out there have experienced the same with your child. Advice welcome!

I have been picking some really good recipes lately (patting myself on the back). A couple of the dinners I tried this week are going into the dinner rotation, starting with chicken chimichangas. These were devoured by all, including the kiddos. I used a BBQ chicken and guacamole from the grocery store so overall, they were easy and quick to make. The kids LOVED the crispy tortillas.

cooking classy

The next super easy and deliciously comforting meal was 5-ingredient potato soup. Of course, this had to be accompanied by grilled cheese sandwiches. I have to remember to make this at least every few weeks. Our kids are grilled cheese fanatics and actually ate some of the soup.

gimme some oven

Simon wanted spaghetti and meatballs again so instead I tried this 30 minute weeknight pasta sauce. I told Simon the ground beef were 'little mini meatballs'. He ate it up. Isabella ate leftover chimichangas as she has a pasta aversion (weirdo). This was quite tasty and leftovers were brought to work a couple times also.

the comfort of cooking

Lastly, I wanted a rice dish so I tried easy pepper steak. This went over well with all - the kids loved the meat and I made mashed potatoes for them and corn.

gimme some oven

 I decided to try this banana cranberry bread as I had three bananas to use. Here's to hoping Simon likes cranberries...

skinnytaste

And as a special holiday treat (I needed a good excuse...), I wanted to make fudge and this peanut butter fudge caught my eye as I was perusing pinterest the other day.

sally's baking addiction