It's been a while since I've posted, I know. Sorry! We've been really busy, as I'm sure most of you have been this time of year.
The kids:
Keeping busy with school. Brittany & Ryan (Koby dropped out) have been practicing with "Star Performers", an after-school choir for the past 2 months. They will be having a couple of performances soon singing Christmas songs, so that should be cute.
Koby & Ryan have been having a contest to see who can make the longest paper chain! They have had a blast cutting strips of paper and gluing (or stapling) the chain links together. They've spent hours and hours on them, and each one is so long, it goes throughout the whole up and down stairs from one end to the other, and they're still not finished! They may not look that long in the pics, but when stretched out it's huge!
Jordyn has been learning all about Sex Ed in Health this month, and so it's been an eye-opening and in depth conversation with her recently, lol! I'm not one to hold back. I think it's better if you just put it out there. Tell it like it is. That way, there's no confusion. She's a little grossed-out at some things, but for the most part, she's very mature about it all.
I have also implemented a Chores for Christmas Cash chart. The kids come home and do their "regular" chores, and then they can do extra chores to earn cash for christmas gifts. Some chores earn you a $1.00, the others earn you 50 cents. Each chore is lettered, and when you complete that chore, you write the corresponding letter in your "box" (for each day of the week). This will go on until the 18th, then we'll add up the totals and distribute the money. This way, they'll be able to buy Christmas gifts for each other and their friends with THEIR own money, instead of begging us for money that they didn't earn. It's been going great! The kids are excited to do these chores (especially Koby!), and it's SO NICE to have a clean house that I didn't have to lift a finger on, lol!
I made these cinnamon salt-dough ornaments and will be painting them for Koby's school store. We're also going to make candy canes out of pipe cleaners and beads. Hopefully he'll be able to sell most of them.
Me: not as busy as I thought I'd be, but I usually do a lot of odds and ends like cleaning the house, wrapping gifts when the kids aren't here, working on our christmas letter, baking, laundry, making crafts for the kids to sell at their school stores, etc. I love being busy. The house isn't as organized as I would like, but I do love the festive holiday feel to it, and constantly have christmas music in the background.
When it came time to put up the christmas tree, Benji begged me to let him do the "window display" this year. We had purchased a 9-foot "fake" tree over Thanksgiving, and we had also gotten a fake christmas tree from a yard sale over the summer. So we have 3 fake large trees and 3 fake small trees, and Benji decided to make a "forest" in our living room. It wasn't my idea! It took a long time to get used to it, and it's still not my favorite, but we've had many people comment on how they love the "forest" in our house, so... alright, Benji! But next year, we're doing it MY way. :) (from the windows at night, you can also see the 3 smaller trees that are mingled with the larger trees. It really does look like a forest.
above: all 3 large trees. I love my 9-footer, but wish I could've found one that tall that was a lot wider in girth. below: Koby & Ryan's tree (it was in their bedroom until dad made them bring it down to use in his "forest"!)
The "card" tree. We don't get many christmas cards, so I thought we'd just stick them in the tree this year.
Jordyn & Brittany's tree. This was also in their bedroom (which all of us loved!) until dad made them bring it down to use in his forest.
Since I haven't updated for a while, and you probably won't get to see our vacation pics until next year, I thought I'd do a list of my favorite Christmas decorations. I have a very SMALL amount of Christmas decor, something I hope to change in coming years (I love TONZ of decorations!). But here are a "few of my favorite things":
This beaded wedding bell was made by my (I think Great-Grandmother?) for our wedding. There were originally 2, but over the years the other one got ruined.
I love this! I just bought this countdown at our County Craft Fair. The kids LOVE changing the numbers. It's usually Ryan who beats us to the punch.
Benji's Grandma Veater made these fabric christmas pictures for each grandchild in the family one year for Christmas. I absolutely LOVE homemade gifts, and this is another one of my favorite decorations.
I bought this little tiny plate the year we got married. I was working at Hallmark and was able to save one for me before they got sold out. I love things that are vintage, so this fits in perfectly.
This is a pillow pattern we made during Girls Day one year (I think it's been something like 5 years now) and I never got around to finishing it. I have a little left to sew, but I LOVE anything scrap-booky, crafty, etc, that I just have to have this displayed each year.
I'm also a pretty sentimental girl/mom. I love all the cute ornaments made by my kids!
As you can see, the things I love most are usually hand-made by a friend, family, sibling, or my children. I also love when it correlates with a crafty or vintage theme/feel. I wish I had 100 more to share!
Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!
3 comments:
you're awesome. i can't believe how much has been going on that i didn't know about!
Busy, busy! I love all your Christmassy stuff. I have not been crafty at all recently, but your stuff is awesome! :)
Ok, So we put the cards in the tree as well! It's a great place! I do love the forest! My kids make sure we pass by your house if we are ever out at night just so we can gawk! You are great! I am also jealous of all the goodies! YUM!!!
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