Beauty in Bloom

Christmas Two-thousand and late {2011}

It's Friday the 13th, but by the time I finish typing, it will probably be the Saturday 14th.

I am writing this post so late at night. The amount of information that I want to cover has me sidetracked. I sat down to write, but then I found myself looking up how to map my own domain. Then I purchased my own domain. Then I tried to set it up.

So far, I have failed.

I think I will try again another day so I can finish what I meant to start.

I promised myself that I was going to write about our Christmas and the many things we did this year(or should I say last year now) to celebrate. Because last year I slacked.

I let time get away from me and never was able to document it. Even though I am late with this years post, I don't mind. We made a lot of great memories so I feel like they are worth documenting. Late or not.

 I am including all activities leading up to the the big day.

Here goes. Grab a drink or maybe take a bathroom break before starting.

Christmas programs:

Annabel as "The Angel" in her preschool play.

She was also a reindeer. That is her with her hands in her mouth. Super.

The girls were also in our church's Christmas program called "The Shepard's Story."

Faith is a Shepard. Annie is her sheep.

Annie delivering the opening line(photo taken by Callea, I took it from Facebook)

All the kiddos!

Visiting Santa:

Santa came to visit the preschoolers. Annie was into it.

Talking serious business.

I took this photo with my cell phone just after they took their official Santa photo. Yes I do make my kids take a photo every year with the Big Guy. This was our 8th year. Yes I do pay a ridiculous amount for said photos. I packed away the official photo, you know cause Christmas was like 3 weeks ago. Olivia was in that one. She bolted as soon as we got it.

Another Ethan photo:

That particular night he tee-pee'd the tree...rascal. Like our ghetto cord that's hanging under the cabinet?

Me either.

 Baking:

The little one was made from a mold that I found at an antique/craft store. It was from The Pampered Chef. The bigger house was bought on clearance last year. We used the candy from it to decorate both.

Oh, let me just publicly apologize to my girls for the old hard candy. Sorry girls. I would not let them eat it because it was too hard. Someday they will read this. If you are reading this and that scarred you for life, I am sure the list is long and this won't be the worst thing I have done to you. Lesson: Spend the extra money and buy YOUR kids a fresh Gingerbread House kit. Momma is cheap.

The finished products:

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We get together every year to bake sugar cookies with my Mom. I think this was our 4th year!

Making Christmas card for friends:

They loved doing this. I bought some premade cards from Michaels for $1 and they just decorated them. Doesn't get much easier.

Pretty lights:

Rock Springs Park

Our tree.

Christmas Eve:

Told you this was gonna be long!

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family at my beloved Grandpa Joe's house. Everyone was there. Even Joshy!

Olivia and Sam

Soda thief strikes again.

Time for presents.

Yay! I finally got the LaLa loopsy that I wanted. Thanks Grandma.

My Mom always spoils my girls but this year she made some very special gifts. Annie got this beautiful butterfly rag quilt. She made my nephew a turtle. I plan on doing a separate post on all the handmade items that she worked so hard on. They are all so awesome!

 
After Santa visited.

Here is what Faith wrote to Santa. Just precious. I think it might be time though. She is wise to his ways.

 

Christmas Morning:

The girls woke us up before 6 a.m.

I mean, Faith woke us up.

I can't be mad though, I was the one to wake up the house when I was younger.

Being the oldest, it's our birthright.

Olivia got a bitty baby. We named her baby Lucy. She may or may not have kicked her baby after this photo was taken. They have made up since then.

Playing in the box my new Silhouette Cameo came in. I have the best hubby!

After the sun came up.

Here they are all ready for church.

We had a wonderful, beautiful, blessed and stress-free Christmas.

So blessed.

That is all.

Day 7...and some cute dancers.

Ok, it is day 7.

I feel so bad for my sweet girl. She is miserable. Unfortunately it seems as though we are just going to have to wait this out. Not much we can do for her really. Her sickness has gone from vomiting to diarrhea to high fever to runny nose and some severe coughing. The kind where she gags and sometimes throws her food up. It breaks my heart.

Here is how I found here earlier today. Tell me, what is the obsession with boxes? I don't get it.

I will also admit that the exhaustion is getting to me too. I feel icky and tired. Others are beginning to suffer from it. I am not proud.

1.) My husband
2.) The girl at the drive thru window at Bread Co. this morning.

To my sweet husband. I am so sorry. You do so much for me. The least I can do for you is throw your clothes in the dryer at midnight and not wake you up by yelling at you for it. Forgive me?

Please.

To the poor girl at Bread co. Sorry I got snippy with you. I felt so bad when I left the window. If I ever see you there again, I will apologize to your face. I was so tired and the line was very very long.

Like I said. Not one of my finer moments.

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I really wanted to share these photos of my cute little dancers back at the end of December. I know I am so two thousand and late, but I don't care. I want to record these memories. It is so important to tell your story. Even the small details. I will love looking back at this blog one day. Even if no one else cares. I will.

 It is one of my goals for the new year. "Cultivate a good life and record it." ~~Becky Higgins, creator of Project Life. More on that later.

Back to the photos.

 Some action shots taken by Jill, one of my best friends. Our girls are dancing together again this year. It has been so much fun.

I love this one. That is Jill's daughter, Bella in the back jumping super high. Go Bella! Faith on her toes in the front looking like a real balerina. Love.

Annie did so great. She kept up with her class so well. You would never know that she is the only preschooler in a class of 1st graders. So proud of her too!

That is all for now. I feel like if I post a few Christmas activities at a time it will be less overwhelming. Mostly for me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! I am hoping things turn around here. I am so ready for life to be back to normal. I miss my friends and our playdates. Sometimes I think those are more for the Mom's anyway.

Merry Christmas

 {Our Christmas Card}

Merry Christmas everyone!

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I hope to have a decent computer soon. So much stuff to share.

Today we are headed to my Grandpa's to celebrate with my Mom's side of the family.

It always crazy, but fun.

I get to see my baby brother Joshua.

So excited about that.

He is not a baby, he is actually almost 30.

Tomorrow we get to go to church on Christmas morning.

How special.

Then it will be off to my Dad's for more celebrating.

And food.

Ugh.

Food.

Why must you be so hard to resist?

Anyway, the kids are bursting with excitment.

It almost doesn't get better than kids and Christmas spirit.

We have been tracking Santa all day.

About every 10 minutes Faith asks me where he is.

Of course, he is never anywhere that she has heard of.

I am so blessed and so very thankful to God for my sweet family and our life we share together.

I can't say it enough.

 

 

***this is my 200th post

Bell ringing babies

This was the scene outside of the Alton Schnucks on Monday night.

30 degrees.

One bundled up family.

Lots of bells and Christmas cheer.

Baby it was cold outside.

Once again, the photo were taken with my cell phone.

I have two nice cameras.

I forget them often.

 

ps...We are a part of a local missional church plant. This was an activity that our family participated in to help our community. The girls were such troopers out in the cold. No complaining. Just lots of bell ringing and Merry Christmases to the generous folks dropping money into the pot.

Here is a short video of my baby Liv....

  

The tree and it's skirt.

This year I wanted a colorful tree, so naturally when I saw this tree skirt from Land of Nod I thought....I can soooo make this. Now let me stress something here, JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN MAKE SOMETHING IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD. I love the way it turned out, but I hate working with fabric glue.

Here is Land of Nod's version:

Here is my attempt at making my own version:

To make this I bought some linen-blend fabric and sewed the base of the tree skirt. That was the easy part. I just used my old tree skirt as a template. Next, I cut out around 100 circles in different sizes. I ended up only using about half or so because glueing them on became so tedious. Not to mention, they had to be place in a circle to line up with the ric-rac.

The ric-rac.

If I never see another piece of that stuff again, I will be ok. It took a while to glue on. I probably should have sewed it on but I think it would have been more difficult to get it into a perfect circle. Anywho, it's done.

 I love it.

 BUT, again I need to remember, just because I can make something does not mean I should. I did save about $50 bucks though.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

 

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Elf update:

Here is how we found Ethan yesterday morning.

I love it.

Some other things I love today....

Listening to Elvis Presley's White Christmas CD

Caramel latte's from Panera Bread

A trip to Michael's for snow globe supplies

Making snow globes out of mason jars with the kiddos

Christmas shopping online

My husband.

 

What is making you happy right now?

 

linking up:

 

 

Advent calendar

So, I made this advent calendar last year.

I really love it.

I found it here.

Last year, I didn't blog about it.

Last year, I didn't blog about Christmas anything. Period.

I must have been in a funk. Who knows.

I am rambling.

Here is how I displayed it last year....

.....on a Christmas card stand that I found at a yard sale for $1.00. It is cute that way, but the stand is wobbly and I really don't have anywhere to put it.

Here is how I am displaying it this year....

Some activities we have enjoyed so far:

Writing letters to Santa

A new pair of Christmas socks for each girl

Driving around to see the lights

Read a NEW Christmas book

Donuts for breakfast

I love doing this for the girls. It's fun for me. Maybe because we didn't really have traditions growing up.

 Maybe I just love Christmas.

I play it up around here. I mean last year Santa left his glove here for goodness sake. This year we adopted an Elf. 

My friends tell me that my kids are going to be dissapointed when they get older and find out the truth. It kind of upsets me. My husband tells me not to listen to what people say. It's hard for me to do that.

We stress the truth of the real meaning of Christmas with our children too. In fact, we make that a bigger deal. My kids love Jesus and know that it his truly his birthday. But, kids are kids. They love Santa. My husband grew up knowing the truth about Santa. He didn't like it very much, but that was all he knew. He never complains, but he really loves making it magical for the girls. I suppose it could have gone either way.

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Tonight we are bell ringing for the Salvation Army at Big Lots. I am not sure how its going to go. It is 32 degrees here. We have a 2 year old.

It should be interesting.

little rascal.

Happy December.

It came so fast. Right? I feel like we just celebrated Halloween.

We are in the thick of Christmas activities, christmas movies, advent calendars, decorating the house and of course we adopted an Elf on the Shelf this year. We named him Ethan remember? Anyway, that little guy is sneaky. Last night, while we were sleeping he was up to no good.

That little rascal drew moustaches on all the photos!

Looks like he grew one himself.

The girls thought this was hilarious. They have been wondering all day if he is going to shave off his moustache.

I wonder what he will do next?

We will have to see.