YIKES!?!

Yup, that about sums things up!  Four days before the big guy in red is due to show up and his mama elf is no where NEAR ready!  This is not like me!  I’m organized, always have things planned out and never go out without a list.  Sure I’m stressed, but this year, I’ve skipped stressed and went straight to panic with a dose of anxiety. 

I have gifts that are not purchased yet, not a single item is wrapped, no Christmas lights adorning our front porch, there are no cookie, candy or yummy desert smells lingering in the kitchen and not a single Christmas CD playing.  

I know, it’s pathetic – my Christmas spirit is hibernating!

 

This past weekend was THE LAST weekend to get shopping done before Christmas and do you know where I spent it??? Sick as a dog, wrapped up in three quilts unable to lift my head from the pillow.  I had to call my husband (GOD love him) at work, crying asking him to come home to take care of our boys because I was pretty useless. 

So, that about sums things up here!  On a happy note, two more days of work and then I’m off for twelve days!!  Time to find my mojo and gets things going for the new year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Winter Snacks

It is J’s turn to bring snack to all his first grade friends.  His teacher requests that high sugar snacks (cupcakes, brownies, etc.) are not brought in and I can’t say I blame her at all!  I came across this idea at Gourmet Mom on the Go and could not resist!

Can you guess what it’s going to be?

It consists of baggies, mini chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, cheese doodles, fruit roll ups, junior mints and pretzels.

Here is another clue:

marshmallows – mini snowballs

chocolate chips – eyes and buttons

cheese doodles – noses

junior mints – hats

pretzels – arms

fruit roll up (cut into a strip) – scarf

Add a little of each into a baggie and add a label

Here is a close up of the label.  If you’d like to make your own – click HERE for a direct link to Gourmet Mom on the Go and a FREE downloadable label.

**sorry for the low quality pictures

I have two cameras and both have dead batteries so I used my phone camera**

O The Weather Outside is Frightful…..

But this deal is SOOOOO delightful!  A chance to blog and receive FREE Christmas cards?!?  I. AM. IN.  With a great big thank you to Shutterfly for their offer to bloggers.  HERE is the direct link – if you blog it is worth the click!

I can’t believe it is already time to start thinking about Christmas cards!  Actually it’s December 2nd and truthfully, I should have been thinking of this a while ago! 

There are so many photo cards to choose from, I’m having trouble deciding which I like best!  Some of the top runners are these:

 

Something about the red draws me right in!  This weekend we are going to try and get some good family pictures taken.  Once I get a handle of what we will wear and the best scenery in the pictures, I’ll have an easier time choosing the card.

AND for those hard to buy people on my list – these CALENDARS are the bomb!  What grandparent would not want one of these on display, especially is they live out of town.  We also have several relatives that live down south and do not get to enjoy the piles of snow wonderful scenery that we have for the next five months – I have so many nature pictures I could definitely swing a calendar!

AND after Christmas when the shopping is done, the baked goods eaten, the trash taken out and the tree has dried up it will be time to think about sending out THANK YOU NOTES for all those gifts that you received.  Shutterfly offers these too! 

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR – GO AND MAKE YOUR LIST AND CHECK IT TWICE!

~Merry Christmas~

Countdown to Christmas

When I was growing up, the first day of December meant getting out the advent calendar.  For as long as I can remember, we had the same calendar and every night for the next 24 days me and my brother took turns snapping an ornament onto the tree.  The last night, December 24th Santa was snapped to the top of the tree.  My brother and I would take turns each year putting up Santa and my mom was sure to write on the box it was stored in whose turn was next. 

My childhood advent calendar was homemade by my Aunt Lydia with other ladies from her church.  

The memories it brought me, I wanted it to bring to my boys so last year I pulled out the old one (its over 30 years old) and made a replica.  I made some minor changes, but not many and you will notice how dated it was by looking at the ornaments. 

I’m so thrilled pulling this out every year! 

Each ornament fits into a pocket and one by one they get put up.  I just wanted to snap them all on so the details could be viewed in the picture.  Excuse the wrinkles – I wasn’t going to iron it before taking a picture!

(the red round piece is suppose to be an apple, for some reason mine looks like a tomato!  Also, my white fish is missing his eye, which will get fixed soon!)

Before - After

One more project I can check off my list.  We have a fireplace in our living room that, in my opinion, was an eyesore.  The original brick reminded of something from the 80’s and it seemed dark and dreary.

So I headed to Lowe’s and bought some masonry paint and got to work.  It was messy and time consuming (three coats of paint and it could still use a few more), but well worth it!

Ignore the black dust under the knob in the middle and the cluttered shelves                  Just focus on the fireplace!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Craft Blog

My mom and I have started our craft blog!  We both love making things, baking and decorating so we decided to pull our efforts together and blog about it.  Check it out at thepineneedlevalley.blogspot.com

Barbies!

I live in a house full of males – that is my only explanation for my new obsession with Barbies and making them clothes.  Maybe some day I’ll have a granddaughter to pass the mountains of my latest craze to…..

In case you are wondering – I have my own collection of eight barbies and yes, I have named them all.  Call me weird, but again, it’s the boys fault!

Speaking of the boys – when I’m not looking, they are undressing my barbies and laughing hysterically.  Now that’s weird!

Halloween Shirts

A quick, easy and virtually mess free craft to do with the kids!  The only supplies needed are a white shirt $5), a bag of plastic spiders ($1.50) and a hot glue gun.

 

the plastic spiders had a small clip on the back so I cut it off with the kitchen scissors

the boys arranged the spiders – the pattern was totally up to them

I glued the spiders on

and VOILA

J and L were the envy of their classrooms.

**a couple hints – make sure no spiders are placed were they will rub against the body such as the neckline and, if a short sleeve shirt is used, along the sides by their bare arms**

Basketball

We went to the playground today to run around, get some fresh air and exercise our legs.  One of the boys brought his basketball with him and lucky for us, the court was close by.  Not once did they go towards the playground, they were gonna play ball.

 

  

 

 

Fall

 

What better to do on a wonderful fall day

 

than to rake a huge pile of leaves

to stand back and admire all your hard work

and let the boys

dive

right

 

IN!!

 

then stand back again, and love this wonderful season of fall!

 

cause pretty soon, our trees will look like this….

BLOG

Another blog is in the making and I can’t wait!!  My mother and I are paying someone to create our new craft blog.  We both love to do all sorts of crafts and wanted to find a way to make a little cash profit share our creations with the world!  Hopefully within the new few weeks, we’ll be up and running. 

Back to School Boys

Summer is over, school is starting.  Soon the leaves will be changing colors and the days of sunshine shorter and the nights colder.  One thing I do love is the change of clothes for the season.  Pulling out the winter clothes that I haven’t seen for the past three months makes me feel like I’m getting a whole new wardrobe!

Here are the boys and their back to school pictures.  I practically had to bribe Gregory with about half my life savings to sit in the darn chair, look at me and smile. 

I can’t believe that I have a child in his first year of high school, a first grader and a preschooler!  The times are slipping by too quickly for this mama.  Love you my boys.