Book Advent Calendar Countdown plus some more

I am all ready for December 1st! We are doing a  Book Advent Countdown- All the books are wrapped and we are ready to open one every night till Christmas. The first 8 books we borrowed from the library and the rest are all ours. I shop after Christmas and get GREAT deals on Christmas books- score! I need to try to weed out some Night Before Christmas books since we have 4- but I LOVE all the illustrations in these books! I want to try to find more spiritual Christmas books to replace them. I would LOVE your suggestions:) Every night before bed we will open a book and read it together! Im excited for this new tradition!

24.  Not Until Christmas, Walter
23. The Christmas Snowmen
22. Tackys Christmas
21. Fancy Nancys Splendiferous Christmas
20. Here Comes Jack Frost (Kazuno Kohara)
19. The Little Drummer Boy (Carolyn Quattrock)
18. Arthur's Christmas (Marc Brown)
17. Owl Moon (Jane Yolen)
16. The Night Before Christmas ( Clement C. Moore)
15. Baby's Christmas ( Esther Wilkin Little Golden Book)
14. The Wild Christmas Reindeer (Jan Brett)
13. Santa Mouse, Where Are You? (Micheal Brown)
12. The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams)
11. The Night Before Christmas (Moore and Jan Brett)
10. The Twelve Days of Christmas
9. Christmas in a Manger
8. The Night Before Christmas (Moore and Weisgard)
7. GingerBread Baby (Jan Brett)
6. Who Is Coming to our House (Joseph Slate)
5. Santa Mouse (Michael Brown)
4. We Believe in Christmas (Karen Kingsbury)
3. Frosty the Snowmen (Annie Bedford)
2. The Legend of the Candy Cane (Lori Walburg)
1. The Night Before Christmas (Moore and Whatley)

We also are going to do a Names of Jesus Christmas Chain and reading the scripture that relates to the name. I will have the kids keep a little journal too- I plan to do this in the morning while we eat breakfast before school.

Ella also brought home a cute little Santa Countdown- She hung it on her door and this can be hers to keep track off:) each day you put a cotton ball on his beard.

And last but not least, my mom bought them little Chocolate Advent Charts- each day there is a little piece of chocolate in the shape of a Christmas thing:) My grandmother bought these for me every year till I was about 13 and they bring back FOND memories of my childhood!

Looking forward to this Christmas Season! 

Exciting Times for Sola Church

 Sola Church has some exciting things happen in the past week!

First, Mel and Chad welcomed their 4th child- 

{Knox Patrick Mondragon}

 to the world on Friday the 25th! He was born about 3 weeks early and has been in the NICU since Friday- he is working on growing those lungs:) 

We are praying that he continues to grow stronger and gets to be home soon! 

 He sure is a cute little guy! 

We just LOVE the Mondragons and cant wait to love on this little guy very soon! 

 Then, this past Sunday, we had our first baptism! 

Our church watched as Franki professed her faith in Christ and desire to be obedient in baptism! 

It was a sweet event for sure!

 AND... Franki and Jon got engaged on Thanksgiving DAy! 

Oh, the excitement! 

They are the cutest couple!

 We got to met Franki's mom who came up from Pueblo for the baptism! 

God is good and we are praising Him for how He is building His church!

Felted Mushroom Christmas Ornaments and Owl Ornaments

I love the Christmas season because I get real crafty and "craft" for days in a row! 

This year, we got a REAL tree for our living room and I wanted to decorate it with a "woodland" theme.

Hence, felt mushrooms

and felt owls

I would like to try to have all the ornaments be mostly handmade.. still on the docket to make are a different style of felt owls, felt raccoons and a pine cone garland.

The kiddos got the fake tree in the basement and had fun putting up their ornaments on Saturday! 

I LOVE it too because it is filled with ornaments that we have collected over the years that ALL mean something to us (other than the colored balls) ! Each year, I buy the kids an ornament and put their names and the year on it and it goes on the tree- its fun to "see" what they were into year after year! 

I also have all the ornaments my mom made for me when I was young- she did the same tradition! So, its really a "memory" tree for us! And I LOVE it! 

I also am making all the kids close friends handmade gifts this year- 

I am really excited about them! 

They are turning out SO cute! 

I'll probably post pictures AFTER the holidays so as not to spoil the surprise!

Here are the kiddos picking out the tree!
Its only about 5 feet but its perfectly round and smells amazing!

I'll post pictures of the final decorated tree when its all done! 

{Thankful}

{Thanksgiving 2011}

{A great day filled with Wonderful Family 

and Yummy Food}

{so very blessed}

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! 

Serve the Lord with gladness! 

Come into God's presence with singing! 

Know that the Lord is God!

 It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, 

and his courts with praise! 

Give thanks to him, bless his name! 

For the Lord is good; 

his steadfast love endures for ever, 

and his faithfulness to all generations.

Ella Bella Creations

This past weekend I had the exciting opportunity to participate in a Holiday Boutique with my Etsy shop-

Ella Bella Creations!

I set up a table and sold a LOT of hair pretties and pins! 

I wasn't expecting it to do that well in sales and there really wasn't a huge crown of people at all either. 

But I was pleasantly surprised how most of the people there bought something from my shop:)

Yeah- a success!

 I still have lots up on my shop so if you need some Christmas gifts feel free to go "shop" there! 

Use the code GET15OFF at checkout to get 15% off your order! I will ship it out right away! 

You can also ask me to make just about anything and I will do it for ya! So, if you need a certain color or style, message me though Etsy and I will be glad to accommodate you! 

Oh, and to find my shop just go to the top of this blog and click on the ETSY heading and it will take you right there! 

 Special thanks to my sweet husband who helped me with the labels and all the "computer" stuff! 

He's the best!

This boutique was sponsored by the twins Girl Scout troop. 

They were collecting toys for Toys for Tots for Christmas.

They handed out cookies, took raffle money and sold some water and soda!

It was a fun event and I think the twins got some good business experience- they will be earning their cookie badge, business badge and one other one that I cant remember!

Growing Up

 Sophia has been bugging em for a while now to get her bike out of the garage so she can ride it-I always say no because she doesn't know how to ride it without training wheels. We tried this summer and we helped her and everything but she just couldn't get it! Well, today it was a nice afternoon (shes in short sleeves) so I said okay and wouldn't you know- she jumped right on the bike and just started riding! I couldn't believe it! She can ride a big bike! She was cruising up and down the side walk and street and was doing great! Arianna tried a few times and did better than this past summer so it wont be too long till she gets it, I think.

Then later on this evening Sophie asked me is she could listent to the Ipod-I said okay and she stuffs it in the back pocket of her skinny jeans and puts the earphones in and off she be-bopped away. I am honestly tearing up as I write this post- she is getting so old and so mature and growing up! 

Pretty soon it will be car she is learning to drive!

Where does the time go? 

My sweet little girl is growing up and Im not quite ready for it! 

{SNOOZE}

Nope, not talking about sleep- the opposite- really! {BREAKFAST}

 Erika and I met for breakfast last Saturday and it was wonderful! 

It was great to really sit down and catch up with Erika without any distractions!

Plus the smell of coffee and breakfast cooking was an added bonus!

 I've heard a lot about Snooze and was very excited to try it out. It did not disappoint!

The ambiance was wonderful- very bright and cheery- fast paced and very retro, which I LOVE!

They had really cool booths like in the Jetsons and I LOVED all the orange and yellow!

The wait was long at 10am (this was the Southglenn location) but at least it wasn't crowded while you wait. Lots of room to move around.

We perused the menu while waiting to be seated and were delighted to find creative and mouth watering dishes with lots of unique flavor combinations.

 I got a Benedict because that is one of my favorite things to eat out for breakfast! It was very savory with squash, beans, carrots, shaved Parmesan .. delish! And the eggs were poached perfectly.

And notice that LARGE coffee cup- oh yeah! 

 I definitely will visit Snooze again!

I  just LOVE that Erika and I get to go out and do things just the 2 of us- its SO refreshing to get away with a girlfriend and catch up! Love you, Erika! And yes, I cropped this picture because the bottom half of me was not looking very pleasant after such a LARGE breakfast:) 

THANK YOU Veterans!

Today we celebrate the men and women who have fought and are fighting for our freedom as Americans!

I am thankful for their sacrifice.

I am honored to have people in my family who have served their country.

I am so very blessed to enjoy freedom today.

I am so grateful that the twins school spends a good part of their morning honoring these men and woman and remembering the wonderful gift of freedom we have in America today! The twins were part of the ceremony since they are girl scouts this year! They were so excited to present the flags and hand out flowers to the vets.

The second grade class sang the Navy song- all the other classes also sang different songs from different branches of the military!  

After the ceremony, I was in charge of the food table. It went really well and looked cute too:)

I'm all about presentation- its my favorite part of the job:)

It was a good morning- remembering that freedom really isnt FREE-

 it cost many people dearly and I will always be grateful and

 pass that spirit of respect for our veterans down to my children!