Waterless Vintage Christmas Snow Globe

 So I joined Pinterest and found these super cute waterless vintage Christmas globes.

I am going to a cookie swap tomorrow where I am in charge of the craft:) 

so this is what we are doing! You can shake them and watch the glitter and snow fall down.

Super easy and really cute! My kids loved them too!

 So, here is what you need to create your own:
Little Christmas trees- I got these for $6 on sale at Joannes( you get like 20)
Little figurines- I got 3 for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree
Glitter- I like the silver the best- it shows up more
Canning jars with rings and lids- got 2 HUGE boxes at a yard sale last summer for $1.00 a box!
Fake snow
Hot glue

1. Hot glue the trees and figurines onto the underside of the canning lid.
2. Fill the jar with as much snow and glitter as you would like.
3. Place the lid on the jar and screw on the ring.
4. Flip and there you have it!

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! 

Pumpkin Jack-O-Lanterns

 I just love October- it may be my favorite month ever! 

The leaves start changing.

Sweaters and hoodies (thats for you, Mark) can be worn all day.

There's a nice nip in the air especially in the early morning and late evening.

Pumpkins start gracing front steps and mums appear everywhere.

Its my man's birthday month!

You can find apple cider in the grocery store.

We dress up our little munchkins and go trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpas!

We drive up into the mountains to see all the yellow Aspens.

I just love fall! Its the best season ever!

 I found this cute idea in a Southern Living magazine that my mother-in-law gave me.

Take old canning jars and paint the outside with orange paint- let dry. Paint a black rim and design a face with black paint. Stick a tea light or LED light inside and ta-da.. a cute little non perishable pumpkin lantern to adorn your front steps for October!  And the best thing is that little hands can do most all the work!

Happy October!

Chore Chart Chalkboard

For a while now, I have been trying to come up with a creative way to use a chore chart- paper ones were always needing to be remade and the stickers would fall off, etc. I thought about a dry erase board, but the size I needed was like $20, plus the cost of the markers added another $10. So, I decided to make a chalkboard. I bought some thin panel board at Home Depot (were Elijah made a mess by throwing up on the floor) for $2.97 and had it cut so I got 2 large boards- about 36 inches across and then 4 smaller boards as well. The chalkboard paint was $8.00 and I have over half a can left for other projects:) I painted the board with 3 coats of paint and it works perfectly. Every day I can change the jobs and date and I keep track of how many days they have completed their jobs in the corner at the top. If they get 5 checks, they get an allowance so they can learn to save, give and spend. 

I think it turned out great and is exactly what I had envisioned! 

I Heart Valentine's Day!

 I *HEART* Valentine's Day!

To me, it is a special day to treat the ones I love 

to a little bit of FUN! 

I try to come up with create "treats" to surprise and delight:) 

Treat #1- Deliver balloons and a card (and a big Hershey's KISS for Mark) to those who are in school! Ella told me she cant wait to go to school to get the Valentine balloon! 

Treat #2- Valentine Play date with food, crafts and Valentine exchange! (Thanks Sarah!)

Treat #3-  The kids favorite meal all fancied up a bit- dress up, candles, piano music, nice plates! I gave Elijah a fancy glass and decided to trade it in for a sippy cup about one minute into the meal! 

Treat #4-  Chocolate Fondue- strawberries, bananas and marshmellows dipped in yummy chocolate! What a gooey mess that turned out to be! 

Treat #5- Surprises from daddy! He really is the best!) Roses(for me) and the PERFECT cards for all of us! We are blessed....

Fun with Friends! 

2011 Homemade Valentines

(the one I made is featured below:)

  The Gomez Family resturant- serving spaghetti, chicken Parmesan  and squash!

 Daddys gift to the kiddos- rose petals- they had SO much fun!! 

my favorites of the day!

 
It was the perfect *HEART* day! 

Full of lots of laughs, hugs, kisses-

PURE SWEETNESS!

It's not fun being sick

 My poor twins. 

Weird how they BOTH came down with a fever in a matter of a few hours of each other. 

Last night, Sophia woke around 1:30 and was burning up and couldnt get back to sleep. So her and I moved downstairs where we watched a movie and then another and another till day break.

Yep, she didnt sleep. weird.

She was still feverish around 6:30am so I made the call to keep them both home from school today.

Arianna didnt have a fever but I could tell she was a bit "off". Sure enough, Arianna spiked a fever around 8:00 and it was HIGH! I though we could wait it out till Mark came home because we were out of any type of tylenol, etc for kids. 

But around 12:00, I checked her and her fever was up to 103 and she was shaking and SO miserable.

I was afarid she might start seizing (Sophia did that when she was 2) 

So, Daddy came to the rescue with meds, Wendys frosties and fries and a new kids movie from RedBox! Our hero! 

I also whipped up these soft "ice packs" for the girls. They are just filled with rice but when you put them in the freezer, they get nice and cold and stay cold longer than a wet washcloth! 

We have a pile of 8 of them, so that should get us through the weekend and the great many boo-boos that occur  frequently in this house! 

Pray for the twins to get over this fast and pray that noone else catches the fever bug! 

Its not fun!

We love Miss Megan!

 I have so many blog posts to catch up on from last year:) 

Mainly, our many Christmas celebrations and traditions.

So, check back often as I may even post more than one post a day! 

 So, my dear sweet friend (and boss at Gymboree) 

has become a very special part of our family- 

she attends every important event in our families lives:) 

and often babysits for free for us! 

What a HUGE blessing she is to our family!

The kids adore her (and call her Miss Meggie) 

and I'm pretty fond of her myself! 

 Megan got all the kids pillow pets for Christmas and she got Mark and I an amazing gift- dinner, a movie and free babysitting- which we are going to use this Tuesday since it is our anniversary! 

She spoils us! 

Thank you Megan for being so awesome! 

Megan has a red couch so I made these festive throw pillows to "Christmas" up her couch:)

We love you Megan and "Thank You" for such wonderful gifts 

and more importantly for your wonderful friendship!

Concerts, Parties and Ornaments!

 On the 13th the twins had a WINTER concert at their school. It was sorta sad because they sang NO Christmas songs- they were all generic ones about winter and such.

I missed Mrs. Johnsons HUGE production at Christmas time 

complete with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

and multitudes of angels singing praises to GOD! 

Nevertheless, they did dress up for the occasion, even Ella!

Last week was the busiest week of all in our Christmas preparations!

Tuesday night, we delivered 6 plates of homemade cookies to the neighbors in our row.

Thursday morning, we had a Ladies coffee Christmas party  at our house

complete with cookie swap and jewelry exchange!

Thursday night we invited all the neighbors in our row over for a Christmas Open House. We had 4 different families come and we had so much fun getting to know them better! 

Friday, we helped host another holiday party at the Mondragons for all Marks old highschool friends who still are in the area! Thanks Megan for babysitting!

Saturday night I went to a holiday Bunko party at my sister in laws house- it was SO much fun! Thanks Emy for hosting it! 

This week is much less busy. 

We are having Christmas Eve dinner here with Marks family.

Christmas Day we are having the Lutzs over for an Italian feast:) 

I really do enjoy all the parties and activities of Christmas!

(these flowers were given to me by our neighbor- so sweet)

 Here are the 3 ornaments I mass produced for Christmas this year! 

They turned out cute! The owls are my favorite!

Feelin Crafty

 By now you should know that I LOVE doing crafty things.

I read several craft blogs and have about 10 projects that I am dying to make at any given time.

I SO enjoy sitting down with a cup of coffee and sewing, gluing, cutting, painting..

I really think it is a de-stresser for me. 

I feel relaxed when I am doing something creative.

And amazingly my kids leave me alone for the most part.

If they do come around, I just give them a paintbrush and let them go at it...

usually its easy to clean up.

Today, I got together with some old friends that I havent seen in forever and we traded cookies, drank coffee and made this adorable craft that I found here

It was such a great time!

 Here are the finished products on our tree-  I LOVE how they look translucent and colorful and bright!

I am trying to make more for gift tags to give to family and friends! 

 

On another creative note, I found these two vases discounted deeply 

at Joanne's and had to scoop them up. I put natural elements in them- 

found out in my back yard and couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

Gimme a break

Thanksgiving Break is 5 days in for us (yes, the kids have been off all weekend and all week!) 

Here is what we have been up to- 

We set up the Christmas tree- YES, I know its before Thanksgiving and Mark gave me the hardest time since we usually do it the day after Thanksgiving, but I was SO in the Christmas mood this week! 

This year, I got the kids these cute clay stockings and 

wrote their names on them- they were $1 at Big lots!! 

(our tradition is to get each of the kids an ornament every year and 

when they are grown, they can have all their ornaments for their tree)

Our tree is FILLED with ornaments that were mine when I was little- 

mom did one for us every year till we were about 6 or 7 (and she sewed them all!)

And as a highlight to my tree this year, she gave me all 

these old wooden ornaments that are SO vintage- from when I was a kid- I LOVE them! 

I remember playing with them when Justin and I were little- we would act out all these scenes on our Christmas tree with  the ornaments! It was fun!

The kids have also made a Christmas countdown paper chain and 

look forward to breaking one off every morning! 

32 days left! 

Grandma in PA also sent them the chocolate countdown calendars 

that my Grandma always used to get me when I was a kid:) 

They cant wait till Dec 1st to start opening the doors!

 (Elijah was still recovering from being sick, so he went to bed early that night- 

I will get a pic with him and his ornament soon:)

Another thing we have been doing is this cool Thanksgiving pack thing that I downloaded for free.

It was filled with the story of Thanksgiving and all these Bible verses, songs, crafts amd recipes to retell and remember why we have Thanksgiving! I have loved doing it with the kids.

We made homemade playdough below...

Notice the girls outfits- oh my! They wanted to wear their Christmas dresses- whatever:)

 We also made these cute little placecard Mayflower boats 

for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at Grandmas! 

They turned out SO cute!!

We have a whole fleet of about 20 of them!

Its gonna be a fun Thanksgiving!

I am making my moms recipe for mashed potatoes 

and a new recipe that I found for sweet potatoes!

YUMMM!!

 We have stayed home all week except to go to the park...

Its nice not having tons to do and just hanging at home.

The kids seem to like it too!

Although around 4 o clock, they are ready for Daddy to get home!

 And the last thing I have been very busy with is crafting:) 

I am working on making a LOT of Christmas gifts this year to save money and whats better than a gift that was handmade with love:) I have all the girls friends gifts almost made and the girls have helped me make them!! and they turned out AWESOME!! I cant wait to get pictures up of what I've made but it will have to be right around Christmas so I dont spoil the surprise! 

I also have been working on this CUTE garland for our tree- every year I do a gold  theme for our tree but this year I am doing a BRIGHT rainbowish color tree- its SO pretty- 

I found all these colorful balls last year for like $1after Christmas. 

I do not have garland so I found this idea below on a blog and have been sewing away.

IT TAKES FOREVER!

But I am very happy with the result!

It just might take me till next Christmas to get it all done- 

right now, I just have one strand done for the top of the tree- 

I want to make 3 more strands but they will have to be longer than the one before 

which means they will TAKE longer!

I also need to get white on the tree- 

any suggestions for what to add that I could make? or that is inexpensive?

I am thinking white fabric stars..

So that is what we have been up to this week of Thanksgiving Break!

Daddy is home today and we are going out to lunch with Grandpa so the kids are greatly looking forward to that! so am I!!