The Gifts

Some of you are wondering what in the world I could have made for everyone.....so here goes it!

For the parentals I made birdseed wreaths......isn't watching birds something all old people like to do? Just kidding Mom& Dad!



My niece got a bow holder......empty, mind you. My plan was to make several bows and attach them but there wasn't time for all that.

My nephew got this cool crayon roll......the first pic is of it rolled up and ready to go and the second is in use.

My nephew also got this travel race track......little boys and their cars.



It has a small track......

A large track.......

And a place to store the cars.

He also got this "I SPY" bag. It has a bunch of little trinkets inside for them to find.....the list of everything in the bag is attached to the side.



I also made an "I SPY" bag for my niece and nephew on my side of the family for Mom to put in their stockings and made one to give at our Bible Study class party.

I painted two plates that have a verse and the kids names. These were for Josh's brother and SIL and the other for our Preschool minister and Sam's SS teacher (conveniently they happen to be married). I don't have a picture of these.....I will try to get one and post it.....I lost it in the crash.

In the midst of all this I was trying to work on our Advent garland......I also lost these pictures in the crash......and started making Jesse Tree ornaments but gave up until after the holidays.

I also made Sam a Christmas skirt......which she ended up wearing in our Christmas card pictures even though I thought it was super cheesy!

I still have so many other things I want to make but I am giving it a break while Josh is home. Aren't I sweet?

Christmas

To start Christmas off we went to my parents. We actually had everyone there! That means Mom & Dad, my grandparents, all four kids and their spouses and all 9 grandkids! It gets a little crazy! Sam always enjoys herself with all the kids! This was really the first Christmas that she got excited about the presents!

Here you see her ripping into her new kitchen. She was so excited to play with it after we got it together the next day that she didn't want to take a nap!

Oh my goodness......I laughed my bohiney off over this. Apparently you can "elf yourself" and Mom "elfed" her, Dad, my Granny & Papaw, and my brother Matt. It was hilarious!


As you can see, my grandparents really got a kick out of it! I think my grandma was a tad embarrassed! (I'll see if I can post it????)

My Mom made my niece Parker a nightgown and matching nightgowns for her dolls! I remember having a matching outfit with my Cabbage Patch!!!! She also made the doll on the right....sooo cute! (Isn't my Mom hot!)



Here is the picture of all 9 grandkids with Nini & Papa.....boy was that interesting.....turned out decent, all things considered!



Here you can see Sam whipping us up some eggs in her new kitchen after we got the 8 billion pieces put together!

Christmas Eve we went over to the in-laws. We had a little visit from Santa while there! Before my Grandpa had the strokes, he was Santa at NorthEast Mall and some city functions for years.......Mom & Dad decided to put the suit to good use this year. Dad put on the suit and made the rounds! It was ton of fun!

I'm glad I didn't take the kids to see Santa this year......this was as close as Sam was getting to that jolly old man and that was only because he was handing out gifts!



Of course Little Man sat up there.

Christmas morning was ours. We just let Sam open her stocking and the couple of gifts we got for her. It was fun to let her enjoy each present as she opened it rather than rushing through them just for the sake of getting them open!

This was right after she woke up! (I'm a sucker for yawns......they are just so stinkin' cute to me!)

Just after waking up he is still all smiles!

Josh playing Sam's new harmonica.....trying to teach her!



And Sam trying it out.......she never could blow hard enough for it to make noise......she certainly tried though.

How sweet......Sam feeding her brother her fake food!

Christmas afternoon we picked up Josh's grandmother and went out to Joey's. Levi got a little electric 4 wheeler that you see Sam driving here. There is a video on Josh's blog if you are interested. Personally it is waaaayyyy too long for me but Josh thinks it is soooo cool! It is a guy, Daddy thing I guess! I have to admit it was pretty cute watching them drive around and play together though. (Levi already had the little race car he is driving)

Josh has a new extension to his arm.....you can see it here!



Sam was funny. After several times of me gasping and saying,"Oh boy" after she opened her gift, she caught on. She would do it every time she opened anything.....whether she knew what it was or not! It was quite humorous.

Spencer's spoils consisted of a new car seat, clothes, and a few toys! He seriously has everything already. The outfit Josh is holding up is his favorite!

It is pretty funny as a parent what little things make you happy. Sam got this AquaDoodle for Christmas and someone asked her to draw a circle. That is her circle you see on the bottom right corner of the mat.......isn't that awesome? I don't know if that is even good for her age but I was impressed! She has also been working on a triangle.....it isn't near as good as that circle but I'm sure it won't be long the way she is.

And there you have it my friends......697 pictures condensed for your viewing pleasure! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Stuff

I am a little frustrated right now because I had written a really long post and lost it all. I will try to get it all out again!

My computer has gone to be with Jesus! It is pretty sad. I am bummed because I lost all my pictures since Spence was born! I tried to back them up a few times unsuccessfully and now they are gone......tears.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday celebrating our saviors birth and hanging out with family! Josh is just happy to have me back after some serious crafting. I made all of the gifts we gave this year so I have been super busy getting it all done......so busy in fact that Josh was ready to throw my crafts out the window. I am pleased that I was able to make everything this year (oh, except for the itunes gift card we got for my niece....and that was only because I messed up the case I was making her, we had to get something last minute) and I will try to post the stuff I made at some point.

I will try to catch up a bit from missing for so long but I really don't remember anything past this morning so I am just going by the pictures that I have!

I just adore this picture so I had to add it.......I wish there wasn't the shadow on the right side...oh well.

Here she got hold of a marker and went to town all over her hands, arms and face! Mom says it isn't payback until she colors all over the walls!

This is our Christmas tree. I am debating about when to take it down. I love it so. It isn't really all that pretty but I just like it sitting there glowing away......it makes me happy! (do you like our 90's excersaucer? it works just fine but it makes me laugh when I think about the colors and the pattern of the seat! I am just grateful that it was given to us.)

I painted this about 3 years ago and I absolutely LOVE it. (Can I say that?) I can't wait to get it out each year.....I feel like it really adds something special......it's like a shout out to Jesus!

Is this not the cutest picture? His new thing is to stick his fingers in his mouth and chew on them.


I LOVE this picture!

Here is my little goofus.....she was actually hammin' it up for the camera for once! (too bad she didn't have that leg down when I snapped the shot)

This is just a glimpse into the hilarity of our picture session! I knew it was going to be a joke but it HAD to be done. Here she is jumping like a frog in between Spencer's legs!

Oh yes, this is one of Sam's favorite things to do. I give her a little water in a cup and she goes to town painting our door, which is covered in chalkboard paint.

I will try to get pics of Christmas posted soon!

Princess or NOT?????

Have you ever heard of the book The Princess And The Pea? (If you have not, you need to google it....it is short and sweet). It could have quite possibly been one of my all time favorite children's books. I am coming to the conclusion that it is because I could relate so well and it made me feel GOOD for being so finicky.

I have to say that people oustide of the fairytale land don't seem to think it is such an attractive character trait.

If you are pondering what some of these things might be.....I will inform you.

• I can NOT stand for water to be on my face. (my Dad passed this to me and I have passed it to Sam)
  
• I don't particularly like being wet at all.
• I can not sleep if their is even a single crumb in the bed. (oh, I am getting the chills just thinking about this one)
  
• I can't stand for the bottoms of my feet to be touched. (and it is the highlight of Josh's day to run his nails across the bottom of my feet.....gotta love 'em)
  
• I have to do the same things in the same way every single day. (for example I have a shower routine; wash hair, wash face, condition hair, wash body, shave)

I am sure there are more but, you get the point.

I am holding firm that these things make me a princess. : )

Oh, and while on that note......I have a question for you. During a game at our family Christmas (which is a whole other post in itself) there was the question...... Do you put both socks on and then both shoes or do you put one shoe on, one sock on and then one shoe and one sock? My brother made the statement that NO ONE puts on one sock and one shoe and then the other sock and shoe. He was wrong because I am that person.

Just curious what you do????????

Can We Get Something Straight?

I've noticed that Christmas is already beginning......at least in the retail world and in the blog world. People are beginning conversations about frugal giving, steps to a stress free season and what we can do to make the season more enjoyable.

I just wanted to clear up a misconception floating in and out of the Christian community. It wasn't until I worked at Mardel that I even encountered this. I was reprimanded for using the term Xmas (some of you may even be cringing now). The person who did this was clearly ignorant on this subject.

Somehow people have come to believe that this is the result of a Christless culture trying to "cross Christ out of Christmas."

For over a thousand years the X has abbreviated Christ's name. This is not the English alphabet X but the symbol in the Greek alphabet called Chi. Is it possible that you have heard the term Chi-Rho (maybe in the name of a fraternity or sorority)? This is the Christian symbol meaning Christ and it is called the labarum or Chi-Rho.

Xmas is a perfectly acceptable and reverent abbreviation for Christmas.

I would be interested to know how many of you have never heard this before and always thought it to be a secular abbreviation.