Christmas!

What a great Christmas! This is what is happening today. We are sort of glad it wasn't a white Christmas. The boys (notice-all the boys) have had fun playing outside with new bikes, cars and scooters all day. We started early on Christmas Eve with a visit from Oma and Opa. They came down this year to visit us all over the holiday and is was so fun to have them we hope they do it every year!

Then we were off to celebrate at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We actually added a musical feature to our Christmas eve program. This is big for us, Tiff and I sang but we never played an instrument so I think it is pretty cool that our kids could do this.

Libby and Abby played too, it was great!Then Grandpa read the story from the Bible while the kids acted it out with puppets. It was a great night.

The next morning we started bright and early. This is Brittany in her fort made of presents.

Happy kids, just what was hoped for!

My favorite part of Christmas, when they sit around and play with each other and the new toys.

Then we went down to my sister's for dinner. This is Grandma caring for all the new dolls.

The fun continued this morning. I like the day after almost as much as Christmas Day, we lay around and play with the new loot and don't worry about having to get anywhere.

Dad put together the new green machine (A LOT of assembly was required). Brittany capturing the maiden voyage with her new camera in her cute new poncho.

Talking to the big Guy-Check!

The boys managed to get some time with the big guy at our ward party Saturday. (Brittany informed me she didn't need to this year-sob!) What do you think of Matthew's body language? I think it says,"I am way to cool to sit on this guy's lap but I better cover all my bases."

Josh on the other hand was perfectly at home. Made sure Santa understood perfectly how he needs a new scooter. The lovely man in red will be her soon!

New Dolls

I you are looking for a doll this Christmas I just put some girls in the Shop.

Kids Christmas Craft

This last week was sort of a tough one. It seems everyone planned their events early in the month which is great but created one heck of a week. So about half way through the week I told the kids we weren't leaving the house and we were going to craft. This is my way of dealing with stress and I figured since they were my kids it might be theirs too. We made snow less snowglobes. I know, sounds weird but when I saw it on pinterest I thought it could be adapted for kids. I was right. They had a great time making homes for their thrifted figurines. They were supposed to go in old pickle jars I had saved but two of them didn't fit. Of course, in my substantial stash we found some other jars. The fake snow came from Wal-mart and I have enough left over to make snowglobes for everyone we know! We survived the crazy week and now we have a fun weekend to enjoy. And we have snowglobes!

I love PInterest

So I haven't blogged as much lately. I blame Pinterest. I find myself spending most of my screen time there. The plethora of ideas to be found there is overwhelming. And I love it. So here a couple of the ideas I have found there. Freezer paper. Who knew all the things it could be used on? I stenciled this snowflake on a pillow I already had. Cost me zero dollars. We all know I just don't have enough pillows around this place.

Both of these ornament ideas came from Pinterest. The first ones I tried were ornaments with old music papers modpodged. Then I tried some glitter ornaments I saw. The originals had swirled Mop and Glo inside and then added glitter. I am cheap and didn't want to buy Mop and Glo so I used a clear dish washing detergent instead and it worked just great.

Next up, transfering photos to canvas!