December Projects

We worked on lots of projects through December - I even worked on some scrappy projects but I can't share them yet because they're still top secret ;-)  My scrappy projects have been scarce lately, I really should change the name of my blog - but one day I'll do more!  Anyway, here are some of our other projects.

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Kaylee and Brianna wanted to make German Stars - I was really impressed with how fast they picked up on making these, they were fun to teach!  I made a lot more of these, as I've done over the last 3 years, but I didn't take any pictures this year.

Gpa T and Gma Shelly sent them a porcelain Nativity Set to paint - they LOVED it!  There were enough pieces for each girl to paint two - we wrote the name and date on the bottom so we'll always remember who painted each one, even though Brailee's are obvious ;-)  They will always treasure this set!

And the finished pieces...

I bought some Gingerbread Sleighs on clearance last year so we pulled them out this year and put them together.  I just realized I forgot to take a picture of their final pieces :-(

Sometimes Bree is such a goof...

...and sometimes she's a little too serious ;-P

David got lots of work done in Kaylee's room.  The flooring arrived this week so hopefully we'll get it completely done this weekend and we can start moving her in!  All three girls have been sharing a room since we moved here in July - it will be nice when they have their own rooms and everything will have a place!

She loves her green walls!

Trysten is quite the helper - I love how his mouth is always open in concentration ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

Sledding

We found a new sledding hill to try out this year - it's the best because it's right in our front yard!  It's so nice that the kids can bundle up and head out any time they want and I always have hot chocolate waiting for them when they come in.  Next year we are going to mow the weeds before it snows and it should be even better!  Here are a few pics from the last month of sledding fun.

We finally got Trysten a coat that actually fits him - it's a little easier for him to move around when he's bundled up now ;-)

This is probably one of my favorite pictures...

Here are some pics that I had taken with my old/broken camera - what a difference!  This was the first time we tried out our sledding hill, I wish the pics had turned out.

You probably can't tell in this picture, but Trysten didn't like it one bit - he screamed and cried!  He sure came around and loves it now - he scares me a bit because he doesn't have any fear now!

It's really a shame my camera wasn't working because this was a beautiful sunset a little later that night.

Thanks for visiting!

Christopher Pop-In-Kins

Our Christmas Break just flew by - it didn't help that either David or I was sick for most of it, but it was really the best time to be sick since we didn't have anywhere to be.  David had the last two weeks of the year off from work and the girls were out of school until the 4th so we had a lot of family time together.  There were a lot of days that we didn't go anywhere at all - it was actually kinda nice to be cooped up inside.  We went back to 'normal' yesterday so now I am going to attempt to play catch-up on all the fun things we did manage to get done over the holiday!

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We added a new Christmas tradition to our family this year - we welcomed Christopher Pop-In-Kins into our home.  The kids LOVED him - even the older girls got really into him.  They had so much fun looking for him every morning and would get so excited when someone found him.  They can't wait until he comes back next year.  Trysten still asks for him once in a while - he calls him 'Pop' ;-)

Trysten got a hold of the camera one day and went looking for Christopher.  It was set on video mode and he pushed the button to take a picture and started a video instead.  You can hear him looking for Christopher (aka Pop) and see him looking in some of the past places he had been hiding in before - the Christmas tree, bathroom shower curtain, the garage, etc.  And if you look really carefully right at the end of the video, he catches a quick glimpse of Christopher - can you spot him?  Just to warn you, the video is a little shakey, it was of course the work of a 23 month old - I hope it doesn't make anyone sick ;-P

Thanks for visiting!

More hats, flowers, and other goodies!

Happy New Year!
I have lots of posts scheduled to catch up, so here I go!

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We've had a couple of girl birthdays lately - here is what we've been giving as gifts - I love that these are good for girls of any age!

...for a 1st b-day...

She can switch out the flowers on the hat or wear them in her hair.

...for one of Brianna's friends' 8th b-day - Brianna picked the colors and made the looped yarn flowers - like above she can switch the flowers on the hat or wear them in her hair...

...for their cousins Alauna and Teagan - we had their family's name for Christmas this year...

...and for Brailee's birthday - cake stained face and all ;-P

Here are some that I made for my girls - I also made matching ones for their girl cousins for the family pics we took at the Family Christmas Party last month.  On David's side of the family there are 23 grandchildren - only 6 are girls (3 of which are ours) so that's why I chose to do something special for the girls.

Two awesome ladies made some beautiful stars to add to our tree this year.  The star on the left was made by my mom, Jeannee and the star on the right was made by my dear blogging friend, Jeanne.  I received them in the mail one day apart - great minds think alike ;-)  Thanks ladies, love them!

Here are some quick treats I made for some friends - found the idea HERE.

That's it for now, but I'll be back.  Thanks for visiting!

Merry Christmas!

Here's a quick pic from our morning - I am super sick so this is it for now, but I'll be back with more...eventually!  I hope you all had a wonderful day!

I'm a REBEL now!

Santa came early this year and I ended up getting a new camera since I've had problems with my previous camera.  I've had so much fun starting to play with it - can't wait to really get to know how to use it!  Here are some pics of the crazy kids as I've been getting used to it...so glad they're willing to smile!

Isn't he just adorable...

I took this one from across the house - love the clarity of my subject!

...can I take a picture?

PLEASE, Mommy!

And just to compare, I took the following picture from the same place, same lighting, etc.  Here it is with my OLD camera:

and the NEW camera:

Much better!  Thanks for visiting - and just to warn you, now that I have a working camera again, I'm back to taking LOTS of pictures ;-)

Flashback Friday

David started putting up our outside Christmas lights last night - it's going to be a little different than it has in years past...first of all, our house is much taller and we need a bigger ladder to get the highest points on the house, and second, we now have a metal roof, so no more walking on the roof and doing our traditional lines across.  Here is a look at how we decorated outside in years past - we were often called the 'gingerbread' house and David had the nickname of Griswold.  Last Christmas we didn't get a chance to put up lights outside, just a few big ornaments on the tree and our reindeer, but he's going to make up for it this year - David wants to see if we can see our lights from the highway ;-)

2005

2006

2007

Brailee is laughing at Daddy and Kaylee on the roof ;-)

2008

I'm excited to see what it's going to look like this year!