Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

favorite link friday

We're looking for lots of fun things to do around this house lately. Here's a few that have entertained us.

*Edible play dough recipes - we did the peanut butter play dough with the powdered sugar. Delicious!

*Gumdrop garland - haven't attempted this yet, but it looks fun.

*This is the best peanut butter fudge recipe - and we've been making it ALOT. We don't add the pecans and we add a small layer of melted chocolate to the top.

*Glittering fairy ornaments - the girls would LOVE to do this. Too bad their mom has a fear of what could happen with glitter in the hands of little ones.

*I think I'm going to try these

Enjoy!

Bowling

What do you do when your husband doesn't have work for 3 weeks? Go bowling!

The girls have bowled on the Wii, but this was time for the real thing.

It was hilarious, especially since we went on a cheap Monday morning which also happened to be Senior morning. Good thing they thought our kids were cute.

My favorite pose of all time. She's looking like she owns the place.

Dave helping Lily throw the ball

Checking out how slow her ball could possibly go.

It was super fun. I highly suggest it to all looking for a fun family activity.

The Christmas Sing

Dave and I love it every year when the kids Christmas singing rolls around. It usually means lots of blank faces, off tune singing and tons of parents taking pictures. And we're always hoping that some kid will do something really hilarious, of course, we hope it's not ours.

Eloise had a meltdown first hour and didn't want to go into church. Lily followed suit b/c she saw her sister crying. Dave offered to sit on the stage with them to help ease the fears. Second hour rolled around and they were both fine.

Pictures to document the glorious event:

Waiting to go to church. This is so characteristic of their personalities. Lily isn't shy about much and Eloise is shy about everything, including her mother taking a picture.

Getting ready to sing second hour

Here's the final show! Enjoy.

favorite link friday

*chalkboard oilcloth, tablecloth. This looks great for kids!

*Cute wreath idea - let me know if someone attempts this.

*Snowflake Banners - I love hanging snowflakes around the house from the ceiling. Maybe I'll try this outside.

*cute Christmas countdown idea.

*Chocolate dipped marshmallows

*I love the Artisian bread in 5 minutes and this looks like a good alternative to the white bread version.

thoughts and ramblings

I'm hanging out here with this cute guy enjoying Pandora on my new computer that Dave got up at 3am to purchase on Black Friday. I L.O.V.E., love it!!

So I thought I would post few happenings around our house.

First, the family rules. It was a fun project and I spent alot of time just working my way through it. We have yet to go over it with the girls, but it's on the wall.


Christmas is in full swing in our house. I love decorating for this time of year. Here's a few pictures of my favorite ornaments and such.

my snowflakes are hung from the ceiling around the house

This little cute snowbaby was hanging in the sun today, so cute. We have several and the girls now call them snowfairies. (anything to remind them of Tinkerbell)

A pink sledding elephant. Who doesn't need one of these.

The advent calendar from last year is slowly becoming complete. I'd like to finish off the edges and a few other touches, but for the most part, it's done and the girls love it. I used a snowman cut out and put small messages, verses, activities, etc...on each one. Now we just have to tackle the arguing over who gets to pull out the snowman.

Dave is out of work for the month of December. It's just another adjustment in a year of being flexible. It teaches us to be patient and that God has been incredibly faithful many times over. We look forward to celebrating all of this with many friend and family gatherings.

Christmas gifts and giving

We don't usually buy gifts for our kids on Christmas or birthday's. They get so much from grandparents that for us to buy on top of that, we believe, is beyond excess. Plus, our house is tiny and everything new item that comes in the door needs a place, and we are running out of places.

Despite the lack of gifts, I do think that there is a fun, mystery with Christmas and waking up in the morning to gifts. So here's my new plan --stockings only, and they must be filled with items that will eventually go away. Example: bubble bath, gum, toothpaste, toothbrushes (the power kind that don't involve me to help). Coloring books are okay and maybe a craft or two. You get the idea. Things that are useful to daily life and will eventually be thrown out.

So to prepare for the upcoming gifts we decided to clean out their room tonight. For the first time, I let them help and decide what they wanted to keep and give away. I tried to explain that they wouldn't be getting these things back and they seemed to be okay with it and continued to pile items into the bags (Dave had to put his foot down at one point and keep a few things he knew they would miss b/c I was on the train of throwing it all away). I kept telling them about what it meant to be blessed with 'things' and that sometimes out of a our blessing we pass that onto others. If we've been giving alot of books and we aren't reading them, maybe it's time to pass them onto kids that will read them. They seemed to get it.

Eloise followed me into the kitchen and said back to me what she thought I was talking about.

"So if I have pennies in my penny jar and daddy needs some pennies, I can give him some".

"So if I have 7 bananas and you have none, I can give you one".

Yes! She get's it. It was such a cool parenting moment. I looked at her for the first time and it hit me like a ton of bricks that I am her mama and responsible for teaching her and raising her up. That she is such a precious and unique girl who will one day grow up to be a caring, kind and compassionate young woman. My sweet, little, sensitive Eloise, how I love to learn through her all over again.

favorite link friday

I missed last week and didn't even think about it. Probably all the Thanksgiving turkey.

Christmas is upon us. That means craft time and baking time. Here's some links for ideas.

*Wintery mobile from the $ tree - I'm doing this one for sure

*I love how cute this Christmas countdown is. So creative.

*Cute cookie labels for all those Christmas cookies.

*Bento boxes are all the rage. If only I had enough spare time to whip this up.

*If you are adventurous to make your own gingerbread house - go for it ladies!

*I'm a sucker for all foods Asian. This looks great. I think I'll have to try it with peanut sauce.

Enjoy the weekend! Maybe some will get snow!

2nd Annual Wreath Making

Last year my life-long girlfriends got together to make wreath's at my parents farm. We all grew up in Puyallup (just south of Seattle) and our parents still live in town. Seems to be that Thanksgiving is the time we can all rally together for a day or two.

This year we had even more fun with more kids. There were treats, tractor rides, feeding the cows, pumpkin tossing, and a big warm fire.

The beautiful mountain in the background makes this day even better