Quick Pics

I have collaged (yes, I'm aware that's not a word, lol) a few of the photos of the kids and their Christmas gifts and here they are for your viewing. I didn't add as many to Kainan's as I did to Camden's because picasa kept chopping the tops of the pictures off. :(

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

As excited as I was about Christmas, it certainly did sneak right up on me! That happen to anyone else? Or were you prepared for it completely? I was prepared to be completely prepared but the cards didn't fall into place correctly. So I guess that means I wasn't really prepared...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Today we went to visit Santa at the movie theater. Camden didn't really care either way, the look on her face told me she may be losing her sense of belief. :( She is after all, 9 years old. And Kainan was shy or scared, I'm not sure which. So needless to say, I didn't get a photo with just the kids and Santa. But this was the most awesome, realistic Santa I've ever seen!

After we saw Santa, we came home to build and decorate the gingerbread house. Daddy built it and me and the kids decorated it. This year I'm totally overlooking the little imperfections. Because, those imperfections is exactly what makes these little moments perfect. :)

Click this photo to see it larger!

We still have to finish our shopping. Which we won't be able to do until Wednesday!! Yeah, the 22nd...so even though I wanted to have everything done weeks ago....it turns out it just isn't going that way. ((sigh)) What do you have left to do before Christmas? Are you finished with everything or are you a last minute type of person?

Christmas story told through facebook-very cool!

Five Question Friday

A week til Christmas! Can you believe it?!?! Has it flown by quickly for any of you like it seems to have flown by here?? Woweee!

1. Do you regift...and if so, do you have a regifting horror story? I have never regifted...just don't see myself much as a regifter. However, I suppose with just the right WRONG gift it could be a possibility. :p

2. Do you know what you are getting for Christmas this year? I have no idea. My husband has asked me several times and each time I tell him what I want. Thing is, each time, it's a different response. I know, how horrible of me. LOL I just want him to be able to LET THE KIDS DECIDE. If I get a marble, well then, I get a marble! At least they picked it out! :) But I figure if I give him many, many responses then they still have to make a decision. :) Make them (and when I say them I mean HIM) make a decision! (Yes, yes, again, horrible of me!)

3. Who brings the most gifts in your family, you or Santa? Usually me. But this year there are several Santa's that have contributed to my wee little ones for Christmas. I'm so excited! They are pretty much getting everything they want this year! Except for a guitar...not ready to go down that road just yet, need some more discipline before we do that one!

4. What store do you love to buy jeans from? Sadly, Walmart. Simply because they are so dag goned cheap! If I could afford to buy nice, well built jeans, I certainly would! You know what I would LOVE to have? THESE!! Do those not look like the most comfortable things ever?? Hey, I'm all about comfort!

5. Christmas meal: Big, All Out Meal or Snacks and Apps? We usually do about the same as what we make for Thanksgiving. Only, Thanksgiving turkey is served, Christmas is ham. (I love me some ham!! Yum Yum!)

Post it Note Tuesday (PINT) & Random Tuesday Thoughts

Hello & Happy Tuesday!

To make your own stickies,

click HERE!

You can link up here & here. And don't forget to have fun!

 

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Friday's Fave Five

If you have never done this, you can visit Susanne's page where you can link up and join in on the fun with the rest of us. If you have done this, I look forward to reading your five!

My favorites this week consist of the following:

A hot bowl of oatmeal. (Or chili or soup...anything warm on a cold day! This week happened to be oatmeal!) French Toast flavored was my favorite this week. But I love strawberry also! Yum!

Christmas. We've got our tree up and a few decorations set up around the house. Not many, but enough to see the wonderful cheer in my kids' eyes and the smiles on their faces. Christmas just makes the world happy, in general. If only everyone would act like it were Christmas everyday, I think we could possibly, almost conquer world peace!

Tyelnol & Ibuprofen. I've really needed it this week! Lack of sleep headaches, caffeine withdrawal (until tonight when I had a dr. pepper), many uses for lots of pain relievers this week!

Sweats. This one pretty much ties in with the oatmeal & soups. When it is cold outside, there is nothing like a nice warm pair of fleece lined sweats! Matter of fact, I need a few more pair! How will I ever survive this winter on one pair??

Snow. As contradictory as it may sound, clashing with the hot food and sweats, I love the snow. Especially the first few snows when it doesn't stick to the roads and there is no coverage. Again, can't beat the looks and excitement that my kids hold when they look out and see that it is snowing!  I love, love, love the way the snow looks lounging in the trees! Or across a seemingly endless meadow! Beautiful!

Thanks for reading!! Have a great Friday!

It's Christmas, not X-mas...

...or so I always believed. Tonight I came across a web page (I closed it before I could link it here) that explained that the abbreviation of Christmas to X-mas may have actually derived because the western ‘X’ is equivalent to ‘chi’, the first letter of Christ’s name, and a holy symbol, in Greek. I don't know how or if that holds any truth. But I won't feel so irritated if I see it this way. I read many things this evening that I could contemplate and argue, but I'd rather not wind up feeling confused or upsetting any readers.

I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that I completely lost all of my photographs in previous postings or if I'm just feeling a little nostalgic this evening, but here are a few Christmas photo's that I hold dear to my heart. ♥

Camden-2years old

Camden-6 years old, Kainan days old

Kainan-4 weeks old

Kainan-2 years old

And here are some photo's of a little bit of our decorating this year. I have been wanting to try making a "rag" garland and decided this was the time for me to try it out. I like how it turned out, despite my numb and aching fingers. What do you think?
I let Camden put the artificial tree up this year. She put all the pieces together. If you look closely you can see that she misplaced some of the branches. :) But I left it. The kids, one short one in particular, kept adding ornaments to the bottom of the tree in the same spot, but I left it.

 

 

"Rag" Garland I made

Closer detail

Finished product

Halloween weekend

The Halloween festivities have come & gone,  It's been fun! I've gone through and picked my sorted and inspected the kids' candy from each of their buckets. The kids have been to the town trick or treat and the church trunk or treat where there was a judging and a very frigid hayride!  The kids racked up a ton o candy! (Score!) Here's a look at how our trick or treat activities turned out. First of all, the costume making. Kainan was a robot. And Camden was a cheerleader. I love that her costume can be used for spirit week at school in the future. :)

This is how Kainan's started out:

With a can of metallic spray paint, some computer circuit boards, a couple of reflectors & some battery operated Christmas lights, Kainan's ended up looking like this:

And Camden's costume started like this:

and turned out like this:

I used an ink jet iron on transfer to make the appliques for the turtleneck, added some black tights and helped my good friend Amanda from All Brianna's Style make the tutu for the cheerleader skirt. I had so much fun making the costumes!

Here are some more photo's from this weekend.

Now that Halloween is over {weird saying that being that this post will have a post date of Oct 30 and Halloween is dated on the 31st!} I can look forward to Thanksgiving and my favorite holiday of the year, Christmas! I am so looking forward to the smell of the goodies baking in the oven, decorating the house, singing Christmas carols and worshiping! It's the most wonderful time of the year for a reason! I can't wait!!!