25 Days of Christmas

Since I'm really feeling the holiday spirit this year I want to really get my girls into it also. Along with our yummy advent I really want to teach them about the traditions and all the great lessons of the season. I've come up with a list of things I'd love to do each day. Three of our days are birthdays so they were easy enough! These probably wont be in order since some of these will have to be done when they can be.

1. Decorate the Christmas Tree
2. Put up lights outside
3. Listen to Christmas Music
4. Watch a Christmas Story
   
5. Make Christmas Cards
6. Take Christmas Pictures
7. Attend Neveah's party
8. Read The Night Before Christmas
9. Make homemade playdoh snowmen
10. Make Gingerbread houses
11. Watch a Christmas Carol
    
12. Go look at Christmas Lights
13. Attend Meghan's party
14. Write Santa letters
15. Go visit Santa @ the Mall
16. Watch Polar Express
    
17. Play Christmas Bingo
18. Go to Grandmas for Christmas Jammies
19. Christmas with Papaw's side of the family
20. Daddy's Birthday
    
21. Watch Prancer
22. Read Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
23. Color Christmas Pages
24. Attend Kaleigh's party
25. Its Christmas!!!!
    

I can't wait to do these things and maybe more! Can you believe we have 3 birthday's in the family in December, plus Lily's little friends birthday?! Busy Busy Busy! January has almost as many birthdays but not quite!

Santa's Reindeer Games Freebie

Download Santa's Reindeer Games Here

Here it is! My first Christmas kit for this year. Inspired by T'was the Night Before Christmas and all the reindeer's names. Kit is 300dpi. There are 9 papers and 33 Elements. There will be a coordinating kit released in the upcoming days. Its like going from the North Pole to Home! If you download please leave a comment, or better yet a layout using my kit! That's all I ask :)

Advent Calendars

Last year, My mom, my sister, and I recreated our own advent calendars for our kids to mimic a design my mom made for us to use as an advent calender for literally as long as I can remember. Our old ones were a snowman, a Santa, and a Christmas tree. Each year my brother, sister and I fought over which ones we got to use.

To prevent this, when we made them last year we decided on ginger-breads that were pretty much identical. These are super easy to make. I made them and I can't sew to save my life!
These work best with candy canes or candy that you can tie a bow around the wrapper. My mom says we used to make it especially hard for her since none of us really liked candy canes or peppermints. Luckily for me, my kids love them! hehe They also make tons of flavored candy canes that they didn't use to.

I'm sure you could find small toys to do it with if you didn't want to use candy. But that will be more expensive.

Here is how we made ours!

Materials:

• Long piece of felt in any color you choose. Ours is 30" long and 3.5" wide
• 25 12" pieces of a thin yarn. It needs to be long so you can tie on the candy and still tie a bow!
  
• Light Brown felt
  
• White thread
• a needle
• Pipe cleaners
• large jingle bell
• Hot Glue
  

We started with our ginger-breads. We cut out the shape of our gingerbread from light brown felt. Each gingerbread you make will need two per advent. We put them together and started doing a blanket stitch around the edge. You could easily do a basic stitch for this, we just thought the blanket stitch looked really nice! When we had him sewn half way we inserted a pipe cleaner stick man into our gingerbread. This made it so our gingerbread can move his arms legs and even bow his head if the kids so choose! Our ginger-breads hold red and white pipe cleaner candy canes. Then we finished sewing up the gingerbread. Adding small knots for the eyes and button (you could add real buttons that would be cute!!) and a small mouth. Since my sister and I have girls we also added bows to the ginger-breads heads with red string to match our felt.

Next we cut a 30" long 3.5" wide piece of red felt. Any color you want would work though! It looks best if the felt is the same width as your gingerbread mans waist, so keep that in mind! Next we hot glued our gingerbread girls to the top of red felt, positioning it just above its armpits, down to its waist so the legs still move freely of the felt. Our felt is tapered at the end. We like how it left the nice point to hang the bell from.

Nearly done! this next part took a while. Not too bad but a tad repeatative for someone who lacks patience like me hehe. Spacing them about 1" apart sew the yarn pieces on one at a time. Tie a knot before the bow so they wont come off when they kids are removing candy (boy I hope that made sense!)

When you have 24 tie on the jingle bell with the remaining piece of yarn.

To hang them we made rings out of pipe cleaners and sewed them on the back of the ginger-bread person. Make sure this is re-enforced well cause they get HEAVY once candy is on them.

Tie on the candy and hang and hang on December 1st and enjoy this yummy way to count down to Christmas!

Final Tip: Help small kids untie the bows if you use wrapped candy. Getting the knot tied around a small piece of plastic is sometimes tedious work!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me or comment and I'll do my very best to answer them!

Busy and Sickly Week!

I have been sick for the past week or two. Its driving me up the wall. It just wont go away! I cant shake it off! Any enviroment change sets off the coughing. Which makes Thanksgiving with 14 different smokers in the house a coughtastic event! It was really fun and yummy though. As long as my babies (yes this includes the husband! ;) ) don't get sick, then I'll put up with being sick myself!

While everyone is out shopping today I'm sitting here at home with my kiddos planning the fun for the next couple weeks! 25 days of Christmas and stuff to do on those 25 days! Can you believe 3 of those things will be going to peoples birthday parties! In the week before Christmas our family (and extended family) has not 1, not 2, but 3 birthdays? Leads to quite a hectic time. Especially for my sister who has two children birthdays and Christmas in December to stress about! I'd be a basket case!

Lily got invited to her first birthday party recently. Its in December too. She cant wait! In the next day or two I thought I would let Lily help me make matching friendship bracelets with my beads on hand (I've got tons). What little girl doesn't love jewelry?

Off to finish making the advent list!

OH! How do you like the new Christmas layout? Some pieces are from my upcoming coordinating scrapbook kits! Eight Tiny Reindeer & Night Before Christmas :)

Love Bird Bedroom Inspirations

I have to decorate my bedroom. Its never ever been officially done. I've finally figured out what I want to do with it! (About time!) I want it pretty relaxing. We spend a majority of the time in here since both our computers are in here too. I wanted it kinda cutesy... My hubby may pretend to care... but I could paint the room bright pink and he wouldn't care. I was tempted to do chocolate and pink just cause I could. But I think my new plan is much better.

As of right now these are the colors (which may vary according to monitor and color settings)


The lovely yellow "Bumblebee" will be on the ceiling. This should help lighten the room from the darker colors.

The lighter "Blue Paradise" will be on the walls that have the windows and the door. The yummy "Mesquite Tan" is the trim (and tree!) color. I love the color of chocolate and blues (and pinks and mint for that matter!)

"Blue Coast" will be on the wall opposite the double windows. I think this will make all the colors pop and I hope they will work well together in the space.

If I add hearts to my lil bird accents I plan to do I'll probably do them in white.

Here is an inspiration board of other bird decor I'd like to imitate myself
.

The bed is kinda a "in my wildest dreams" thing! hehe I cant wait to do it all, but it will have to wait til after Christmas I'm sure!

The Host is becoming a Movie!

I'm pretty sure I've never mentioned on here how much I love Twilight Saga. After I finished it I thought my husband was gonna kill me cause I couldnt stop talking about it and surfing the interwebs, blogs, and forums for more Twihards ;)

A couple weeks after my husband started his new job and was working 18 hours a day setting up the store he bought me The Host to read since I love Stephenie Meyer. He also wrote a lil love note inside <3

The book is about Wanderer (aka Wanda) who is an invader of earth. Her kind take over peoples bodies. The body Wanda is given is the body of Melanie. Most of Wandas kind never have resistance from their hosts, but Melanie will not give up willingly. Wanda and Melanie have to learn to get along as two minds in one body. As Melanie shows Wanda thoughts of her beloved Jared, rather then let Wanda know any of the information she seeks, Wanda too begins to have strong feelings for Jared.

I didnt really see how they could make a movie since alot of talk goes on in Wanda's errrrr Melanies... head. But I'm glad to see its going to be done! It should be really interesting!

Stephenie Meyer talked about it more on her official site.

Oh, and New Moon comes out in 4 days 22 hours!!! Squeeeeeee!

Where the Wild Things Are

Last night I let the girls stay up late past their bedtime. All for a good cause! Well free movie tickets and a chance to do something they rarely (read: virtually never) get to do. Go to the movies! My sweet sister stood out in the glod and wind to aquire these free tickets. So together with our Mom, my sister, my 11 (almost 12!) year old niece, and my two girls, I went to see "Where the Wild Things Are". I didnt go there with high expectations of the movie. I cant recall what the book says. But I knew my kids would get into it. Lily especially likes weird movies.

At 2, Lily saw the hubby watching Alien Vs Predator. She watched it and felt bad when the "Monster" (Predator) got hurt. She declared "Oh no! Poor Monster!" and for weeks thats what she begged to watch. Mandy probably wouldnt give that movie a second glance.

When we got into the theater I was glad to see 3 people total there. Lily will sit for a long time and just watch a movie. Mandy will sit and watch about half a movie b4 she feels the need to go play. She hasnt been to the movie since she was 6 months old and we saw Narnia at the local $1 theater. I packed snacks and Yoo-hoo's (chocolate milk like drink). We also got popcorn at the theater.

I must say. Mandy did REALLY EXTREMELY well for a 3 year old up past her bedtime, sitting still (which is very very hard for this mover and shaker!) She sat for a majority of the time, only getting up for better popcorn access. She hardly talked at all (another shocker for this jabber jaws!) Lily talked quite a bit but did good also.

The movie for them was good. They like it. I had a really hard time getting into it. I didnt like the bad tempered main characters. So when you are supposed to sympathize with them, I really didnt care WHAT happened to them. Not the worst movie I've seen (Funny Games wins that award), but I dont care if I never see it again. As long as my girls had fun though, thats all I care about. That and time with my mom, sister, niece and daughters as just us girls was good in and of itself :)

Turkey Cheeseball

I love cheeseballs! They are so yummy and can be quite cute! I've now found a snowman and a turkey! I'm gonna try to make themed cheeseballs for every holiday! lol Here is the adorable Turkey Cheeseball! It comes from Allinoneautomotive.com and was also featured on Tipjunkie.

Ingredients:

• 2 packages (8 ounces each) reduced-fat cream cheese
• 6 ounces deli smoked turkey, finely chopped
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 
  
• DECORATIONS:
• 
  
• 3 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons milk
• Brown, orange and yellow paste food coloring
• 6 large oval crackers
• 1 large sweet red pepper
• 1 small yellow summer squash
• 1 cup pecan halves
• Assorted crackers

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, beat the first six ingredients until combined. Shape into a ball; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and milk until smooth. Divide among four small bowls. With food coloring, tint one bowl brown, one dark orange and one light orange (using yellow and orange); leave one bowl plain. Transfer each mixture to a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag; cut a small hole in a corner of each bag.
For turkey tail feathers, decorate the top halves of large oval crackers with tinted cream cheese.
Using the red pepper, form the turkey head, neck and snood. For beak, cut a small triangle from summer squash; attach with cream cheese. Add eyes, using brown and plain cream cheese. Insert pecan halves and decorated crackers into cheese ball. Serve with assorted crackers. Yield: 1 cheese ball (3 cups).

Autumn Digiscrap Freebie

Well here it is! I hope you like it! I've spent the past several days trying to make unique (and cute!) elements for a simple fall mini kit! I've really had fun making it, and I hope you enjoy it! There are 4 papers, 4 raffia wraps, 4 straight ribbons, 4 leaves,a scarecrow, a turkey, and an acorn.

Its personal use only. Please dont give out the link, if you want to share it please refer them to here so that they may enjoy Autumn Splendor too! If you use it to make a blog header or background please send me a link so I can see it in action!! Also if you use any elements please please please send me a layout so I can post it here. If I get a few layouts I'll probably make Kit addons or freebies exclusively for people who send me their layouts.

Anyway onto the kit! May I present: Autumn Splendor by Night Owl Notions!

Download Autumn Splendor Here!

Upcoming Freebie!

If you have been wondering what I'm up to, and if you like digital scrapbooking, I think you are really going to like what I have coming up! I'm been fiddling with making my own scrapbook kits for about a year now. And I'm digging up some old favorites, redoing others, and making new things in a freebie kit coming up soon! Think Fall :D

I'm also working on a christmas one too! Almost done with the Fall kit now, I'll post a sneak preview soon! Be on the lookout! Also if you can think of anything perticular you would like to see in my fall kit let me know in the next day or so and I'll try my hand at making it! Same goes for the Christmas Kit :)

Squeeee! I won!!!

WHOO HOOOOOO! I won! I won! I won! I won! I've been so jealous of my friends and my mom winning all these blog giveaways. Well, I won!!! Yipee! I won the My little pony dvd giveaway from Free Sample Freak I feel like I won the lottery :P
One Christmas gift down, lots to go! My girls will love it! What a great day!

Our Halloween Pics!

It rained all night pretty much so we didnt get any pics of trick or treating. My Husband, my sister, and I couldnt remember a time it rained on Halloween EVER. First for everything I guess! Here are the pics taken on Halloween of my lil Bats!



Lily-Bat


Mandy-Bat


Here is how I did their hair for their costumes. Because of the rainy-ness I wanted a style that would keep it in place and not look messy by the end of all our adventures. This is also my favorite style for Mandy because of her short hair.

Note to Self: Halloween Ideas for Next Year

This post is all about ideas for next Halloween. Stuff I didnt get to do this year. Its pretty much just gonna be a list of stuff with small details.

Food Ideas

• Mummy Bagels
• Mummy Dogs
• Pumpkin Bread Bowls
• Graveyard Dirt Cake
• Gourmet Pumpkin Seeds
• Veggie Skeleton and Dip
• Itty Bitty Caramel (Candy) Apples
• Mummy Suckers
• Spider Web Pizzas
• Candy Corn Cupcakes
  

Decor & Party Ideas

• Crepe paper and bat cut outs over windows
• Potion and Poison Bottles
• Wax Fall Leaves Decor (LOVE this one!)
• Halloween Ornaments
  
• Apple Votives
• Pumpkin Drink Cooler
• Signs "Come in and Sit for a Spell" Kitchen Sign with "spooky" foods
• Hang Spider rings from Fishing line
  
• Pumpkin Treat Bags
• Punched Can Lanterns