Advent Conspiracy Promo Video

This is my new tradition. Spend less, give more.

Merry Christmas!!!

Jamie: after he was told he could only open one present on Christmas eve.

He got over it. The boys showing off their Christmas eve jammies.
I got a new light box! Muh haha!!!
My little paleontologist.

Grady in his hat. (It almost stayed on half a second)

Happy Holidays!!!

Easy Peesy Gifts that are Cheesy

Sorry, I'm in a rhyming mood right now. Just wanted to share a few gifts that I made the girls this year. They commemorate strange things that we dressed up as in October; kitty cats, pirates, and poncho wearing mustache men. There were other identities but these were the easiest to put on mugs with ceramic paint. Then I filled the mugs with candy and voila! Gift complete. Jamie was with me when I got the mugs and he found this little tiny mug (lower right) that was just his size. How could I say no? So I snagged one for Con too and they decorated their own cocoa mugs!

First Aid Kit - Hard Believer

Christmas came a little early becuase I stumbeled upon this song. enjoy!

Connor Cuteness

I needed a cute way that I could send Con's Gramy in Texas all of his school pictures. But I knew that I wanted to somehow be able to keep adding to it as I got more. So this is what I came up with. Little frames that hang. It turned out so well I made three more for Christmas presents. One for his dad, my mom, and me!

So Handsome!!!

Crazy Busy

I know everyone is crazy busy this time of year so I'm taking two seconds out to show you what I've been up to.

I'm wrapping the Santa gifts in brown craft paper and tying green and red yarn and these awesome pom poms on. I made the biggest mess making these! Lets just say they started off much bigger and I went a little scissor happy.

We roasted chestnuts (they taste like potatoes- I was totally thrown by that) made fudge. I got the presents to our Texas family mailed as well as our Christmas cards. I feel very accomplished :) Hope all your preparations are going well! XOXO

Crafty

These are a few things i've been working on for Christmas. I made these little toadstools and the first thing Con says was "Those are from Mario!" He meant the game...

Made this hat for Grady and I must say it's one of my favorites. I think I might make one for me.

My little Christmas ninjas. These are for the boys in their stockings. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I was thinking that I might need to make a little story to go along with them. I mean what is a Christmas ninja really?

Mistletoe

I was thinking about making little felt pins for the holidays. Originally, I thought that little holly pins would be cute but then I thought that little mistletoe pins would be cuter... and serve another purpose :) I found this cute idea from Martha Stewart.
I took this picture sometime in September and looking at all the mistletoe pictures online got me to wondering if this might be mistletoe in my backyard. How handy would that be? But doing some more searches I found that it is not mistletoe and as best as I can tell it's a dogwood shrub. I'm no expert though so I may be wrong.

{source}

This is mistletoe.

Snowball fight

Had a snowball fight 2am this morning in the first accumulation of the season, with 2 inches on the ground and still coming down. I'm not a softball/baseball player so I did not win. {source}

I felt like this guy afterward and all I wanted was a cup of hot cocoa to help me thaw out.

{source}

I LOVE WINTER

Goodies

Today I finished my Christmas shopping. The Christmas making is not done however, not even close. I want to make hats for the kids, leg warmers for Ava, and stuffed animals for them too but I’m currently unmotivated. I hope this changes soon because Christmas is almost upon us.I made these cute little collage prints today with all intentions of mailing them as Christmas cards. Simple, easy, and cute, it's a perfect combination.

This is for my dad. A collection of pictures of all of his grandkids. Who wouldn't like that?

Also for my dad.
This is for Chris. I made it with a $3.50 frame from Meijer. I used cork board laminate over the glass and stuck the pictures on. I'm going to have each of the boys make a picture or write a note to tac on it.

Winter finally begins

It's supposed to snow big today...

I'm excited

{source}

{source}

{source}

'Tis the Season!

'Tis the season to work on Christmas cards. Well, I'm actually pretty far behind but it's a work in progress. I'm liking the design and I think i'll be using the second example. Expect it in the mail or to be hand delivered... eventually.

I gave the boys candy canes as incentive to doing what I asked them. I just wanted a few pictures with both of my boys in them. I don't know if you can imagine just how difficult that is. It requires bribes.

Getting ready for the Holidays

We put up our tree and I let the boys decorate it... Can you tell? The ornaments only go half way up and many branches have exceeded the "one ornament per branch" rule. I think it’s fantastic and I’m not changing a thing!

Cousin Grady came over and needed to take a bath, as happend to many one year olds. Jamie, of course didn't want to be left out.

Christmas tree hats instead of santa hats are soooo cool! So are dinosaurs.

Jamie came to my room with a bucket on his head. No, I have no idea why.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving!! It was a bit busy with all the family... and cooking. But we made time to run around outside.

I made the headdresses out of felt. Con and I thought they were great, the other kids didn't really care. *shrug* Oh well...

I Love Plaid

Look what I have created! I get an immense amount of satisfaction after I’ve completed a project. I want to sound the trumpets and have everyone look at my creation.

The fabric was on clearance at the fabric store and the lining was made from a dust ruffle that I got from Goodwill (told you it was a dangerous place) It’s not perfect yet, I have to adjust the sides, but I just love the ruffles!

I thought the dress turned out so well that it would be really cute as a shirt as well. Turns out I was right! I've already worn this out :)