Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!!

Family Photos

Over Thanksgiving we had our pictures taken with my family.

Here are a few of my favorites:

I love the boys' expressions on their sweet faces...priceless!

These are the two that would do anything for me and my boys!

Love you, Mom and Dad!!

My sisters Rachel (youngest), Valerie (middle), and me!

All of us! I wish Huddy was smiling in this picture, but he IS saying (in his deep voice) cheeeeesee!

Preschool Party and some really UGLY Sweaters

Carters Christmas party at preschool was Friday afternoon. They sang some cute songs, and Carter mostly hid behind the boy standing next to him. Lee and I weren't really sure why. He is really outgoing and LOUD at home, but in some social situations he is REALLY shy.

After the short program was over the kids got to make gingerbread houses. Here is Carter's masterpiece. He was so proud...and then Daddy left it at the Science Center. oops!

Last night Lee & I went to a really fun ugly sweater party. This must be a really popular thing, because I went to 4 Salvation Army and Goodwill stores before I found ONE ugly Christmas sweater. When the older lady ringing me up commented, "Oh honey, you got a GOOD one!" I was excited!

Here is my adorable hubby in his 'too tight' Christmas sweater that I embellished for him.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but my sweater had beads, beads and more beads made into snowflakes and bells all over the sweater. The best part was the brand name...wait for it... wait for it.... HO HO HO. Hilarious!

Today I baked and baked and did some more baking. I planned and gorcery shopped for this day for a week, and then my oven acted up all day. UUGGHH!!!! It kept turning it self off at random times. Hoping a day of rest will do it some good, and my feet too :) Carter was an amazing help. I figured out half way into the day that having him help me instead of shooing him away, made it easier. He loves to cook!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

Santa Express Train

Twas the night before Saturday

and all through the train station,

little boys dressed in their jammies

the Santa Express our location!

"ALL ABOARD!" The conductor announced

we filled the seats and settled in,

Our destination the North Pole,

You can imagine the grins!

To each boy was given

a beautiful silver bell,

And as quick as he came

Santa bid us farewell.

Singing carols, drinking hot cocoa

Yummy sugar cookies we ate,

Our train adventure we remember,

by the memories we create!

Christmas Wreath

I am frequent "window shopper" to the Mercy Hospital gift shop. When I work I like to stop in and see what neat decorations they have for each holiday. I especially love when something is left after the holiday at a 90% discounted price!

Here is a Christmas wreath that I really liked at the gift shop:

I decided NOT to spend an insane amount of money for that wreath and instead re-created one of my own for 1/3 of the price!

I am pleased with how mine turned out!

Teacher gifts!

We have three teacher gifts to buy or make this year. I found a really fun, cute idea for decorated clipboards! I have been in a really craft mood lately, so I thought I would give them a try. To see where I got the idea and full instructions go HERE.

I found the clipboards at Walmart for 97 cents, the scrapbook paper was on sale at Hobby Lobby for 25 cents, I already had acrylic paint, brushes and ribbon on hand. I did have to buy the Mod Podge, but it is a huge bottle and can do several other projects with it.

Here how mine turned out!

What do you think...Nice gift or a cheap idea???

Back in Business!!!!!!

After six weeks of not having a laptop (mine decided to crash), I finally have a new one!!

So, I will be back to blogging....starting tomorrow!!

I have been up to A LOT of crafty projects, shopping and decorating for Christmas and keeping busy with the boys. I can't wait to post pics of what we've been up to the last month! Thanks to my incredibly smart, computer savvy husband that was able to retrieve ALL my photos off my old computer!!

See ya soon!!