D'Oh

Colleen has beaten me at changing the background on my blog. She always seems to be that one step ahead of me. One of these times I will make it before her,,,,,one day. :o)

Anyway,

Coming Soon.... Posts about Christmas!

Paper Chains!

Our poor Charlie Brown tree was in need of a face lift to make me feel more festive. So out came the scrapbooking paper, paper trimmer and tape. I cut a whole bunch of strips so the kids could put together a paper chain. At first the older two were kind of reluctant, thinking I was lame. But once they saw Jada and I have fun doing it, they joined in right quick. (Notice they are all still in their jammies, AND they have eaten lunch already. Great Day)

So they made a really long chain and it actually fit around the chirstmas tree the prefect number of times. (Here they are seeing who's is the longest)

And on the tree! Ahhhh, I love it! Maybe we will do popcorn strings also (maybe next year)

Sara's Room

I got ambitious yesterday and painted Sara's room. It was this pink & yellow with a white border in the centre (I have already taken off the white rail board so it looks yuck) But she had been asking me to change her room color for some time now. So it is now Natural Linen, and I think we will be doing the whole basement in this color. Her room no longer looks like a little girl room, but this room of growing. We still have to add these really big, funky circles that I am ordering from Stampin Up. So when those come in and get put up, I will post that too.

Christmas Concert

Eric & Sara had their Christmas Concert last Thursday and they did such a great job! I love it when they dress up for me. Dressing up for Eric is a huge crisis, and I have to forewarn him that he will be wearing "dressy" clothes way in advance or he melts down. I am happy to say that this time, he just got dressed and never said a word. Thanks Eric!

Sara on the other hand, "I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR" was the crisis. Which I was in total agreeance with. She has grown so much in the past month or two, and none of her nice clothes where fitting. So Thursday, while she was at school, I ran into Swift and bought a TON of clothes, so that when she came home from school she had a lot of clothes to try on and options as to what she could wear. She did a great pick. I thought she wouldnt like the skirt I picked out (she never likes the same things as me) but she LOVED it. All the extra clothes have been returned to there appropriate stores, and she had a great outfit to wear.

Jada loves dressing up in skirts & nylons, so she was a doll to dress. OH, I did do Jada's hair after this picture was taken. (Eric still looks totally casual in my opinion, but that is getting dressed up for him, heehee)

Teacher Gifts

For Christmas, I was told by Sara that I needed to make something for her teachers. And since I was making for Sara's teacher, Eric was wondering what he was giving to his teacher. So the quest began to find something for their teachers. Of course, it needed to be a handmade gift. I made sample after sample, until I found what I thought would be the cutest thing to give.

So pic #1 here is showing all six of the projects completed. Each teacher got one of the packaged, and one of the orange container.

And what you may ask was in those cute packaging.

Pic #2 shows the tic tac holder!! (This was not to tell the teachers they had bad breath. heehee)

And Pic #3 here shows this cute accordion style book that holds 6 mini tags for them to add to several different occasions.

Blasted -50

So, you all may know that yesterday was -50 with the windchill here!! Yes, damn cold!!! Well, I love our Kia van and it got me to Swift yesterday and back home, but then when Casey tried to take it somewhere last night, the power steering went out AGAIN. Last year when it hit this deep freeze temp, the power steering went as well. So this morning the tow truck came and took our van away to the dealership in the Hat. Thank goodness for warranty!!!!!! (Now I may get some shopping done in the Hat)

So I am feeling stranded today! I dont want to go anywhere, but the option is gone and I could think of a million things to do today. Ahhh...

Christmas Stockings

We have these really beautiful christmas stockings that Casey's great aunt made. Casey has had his since, well forever. And when I joined this family, she made one for me, and Eric, and Sara and Jada. So we are blessed to have these wonderful stockings hanging for santa every year. However, the reason for this post, Jada's stocking went the wrong way. ANd this is the only one that she has stitched this way. So, I left it for the past two year and just had a stocking hanging the wrong way (I didnt want to cover the Santa she stitched on). But, it bothered me, every year.

So, this year I decided to do something about it. First couple of days that it was hanging, I just hung it the right way and it was blank. Fine for me...But Jada really wanted the same "baby" reindeer that the other two kids had.

So, off to Wal-Mart to buy some yarn. And I stitched her a reindeer on the back of her stocking. Also, the original side didnt have her name on it, soI put on her name. It turned out good! From a distance you wouldnt know. (I know) It's not perfect like the other ones, but it is hers, and it is hanging the right way. (Now when she leaves home and takes that with her, she has the option of hanging it the professional way, or her Mom's handmade way)

The best part was the big hug Jada gave me once it was hanging on the wall and it was the same as the other kids. She was so happy. She is counting the stockings right now as I type. I think she is at 13.....heehee.

Christmas is in the air

Usually December 1st we get all our Christmas stuff up. This year, with there being no snow, I really had a hard time getting into it. So we just DID IT!!! Our tree is totally kids orientated and no professionalism at all. All of our decorations are handmade by the kids, or have been gifts. The kids are in charge of doing ALL the decorating. I dont even hover to "direct" their decisions anymore. It is their tree. So here they are with their finished project (there is lights on it, forgot to turn them on) Rhyme is 'getting into the spirit' too. She just had to go inside EVERY box that was emptied. This was her favorite. Good thing she is heavy or I wouldve packed her away! :o)

Here Sara is putting up stuff.

And Eric trying to decide where to put some!

And Jada, She put ALL of her decorations on the same branch (this was the only time I had to 'encourage' a placement of decoration)

We arent off to a very good start though. Our poor tree has been up for 2 days now and has fallen twice. AHHHHH!!! Between Jada and the cats, we might not have any decorations left after this year. Jada keeps wanting to 'move her decoration' to a new spot.

Merry Christmas to you ALL!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Okay, sorry this has taken me so long to get this posted, but here it is...

My birthday was great. First surprise was that my brother Brian, and his girlfriend Jill came to my mom's for supper. They made just a day trip from Swift, so that was really nice. A highlight for having Uncle Brian there was that he brought his 22 rifle. (He is currently hunting so always on the look out) He blew up some pumpkins with the boys and they loved it. THen he took the boys (meaning Uncle Nathan & Eric) to go deer spotting, but what they came across deemed much more exciting then live deer. They must have just missed someone shooting a deer and gutting it. Eric said the blood was still fresh and he could see the stomach and veins....and on and on about the gooey gorry details of their find. Great excitment for boys!!!

My Mom made me this fabulous cake! It was so yummy! It had a brownie bottom, cheesecake middle with swirled white chocolate, chocolate cake on top with icing sugar icing. OH and dont forget the icing sugar snowflake (which was made with the left over paper from my card workshop that morning. It worked great for a template) IT WAS YUMMMY!!!!! (I think Jada picked out the mermaid for decorations)
Some things I got for my bday (I got a few more things, but never got them photoed). Casey and the kids got me a beautiful necklace. IT looks so much prettier in person. My Mom made me this gorgeous card. She hand stitched all the dark pink on the butterfly. Can you believe it? Then, to top it all off. my BESTEST FRIEND EVER, Colleen came to see me at Eric's hockey game in Swift. During first intermission (or whatever you call it) Colleen and William are hidding something and being all sneaky. And when she turned back to me, here she had this yummy brownie with a candle on it and she QUICKLY (I think it is against fire code to have an open flame in the building) sang happy birthday to me. She sure knows how to make someone feel special. Thanks Colleen. You are GREAT! The picture shows that it was dived into right away at the rink.

Oh and a rare occurance that hasnt happened yet for the employees at Taco Time...what is it you may ask....my loving hubby gets them to sing happy bday to me when they brought our food out.Thanks goodness there were only one other family in there (and we knew them). Rosey cheeks for me.

Thanks everyone for making me feel special on my day!!