Christmas Activities

Last year, I feel like Elisha and I did a whole lot more crafts and handmade gifts than we did this year. We didn't make handmade ornaments this year. Time has just really gotten away from me. Here we are just a few days away from Christmas --already! I feel like it was just Christmas 2011! This year has just flown by so fast not to mention just the last few weeks! So for the last several days I have been trying to do at least few festive activities and crafts.

Since the 1st of December we have done an advent activity everyday. This consists of a simple chain made of 24 red and green construction paper links and 1 yellow link for Christmas day. We tear one off everyday. We also have 25 small books that share a tidbit of the story of Christ's birth and we read one of those everyday as well. Our family  lets the Santa "thing" be a "thing". We teach Elisha that Christmas is Jesus' Birthday Party. We teach him that Santa is the nickname for a man named Saint Nicholas and that he was a good man that served Christ and gave gifts to others.

Here are some of the crafts or activities that we have worked on:

Baby Jesus craft.

Playing with play doh and Christmas cookie cutters.

Got to visit Santa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made lots of Christmas goodies:)

First Snow!

Today we enjoyed our "first snow" day around here! I had to get up super early to help shovel the driveway so my hubby could get out for work. The power went out for about 15 minutes. It took him about 20 minutes to get to work-- on a normal day that would take about 5 minutes. He said there were quite a few accidents and cars in ditches. I was supposed to go run errands today, but opted to stay home and play in the snow, hang out with family that are staying with us and catch up on some nap time:).

We got a few inches of snow and powerful winds caused some fairly deep snow drifts in some places.

Elisha and I had fun in the snow:)

Elisha and Uncle Nate make snowballs and wait for Aunt Rachel to come out so they can get her with them!

I love how our tree looks when it's covered in snow:)

After playing in the snow we warmed up with some grilled cheese and tomato soup.

We enjoyed some indoor activities as well such as playing Hi-Ho Cherry-O and Toy Story 3 Matching Game. Elisha spent a good portion of the day hanging out with his Uncle Nate--they played with blocks, had a pillow fight and played Mario. 

My Sweet, Silly Boy

Spending time with my son is one of my most favorite things in life. Since the day he entered this world my life has become brighter, more challenging and more interesting. I'm definitely guaranteed  a smile and a chuckle pretty much every day that he is around. I just wanted to share some (more) of  the sweet and silly things that this little guy says and does that makes my life more interesting and joyful.


*Yesterday Elisha was full of silliness and mischief. At one point we are just sitting doing an activity and he looks up at me and says, "Mom, I just wanna hold you like a little baby." I just looked at him and chuckled and thought that was a weird thing to say, but also really sweet at the same time. He probably said it two more times that afternoon. I'm not sure what made him say it, but it was sweet.

*Last night it happened. You know that one thing  that happens to all parents of small children. I was naive enough to think it wouldn't happen to me. We've had the talk about this, we have stressed how naughty it is, we have prepared him enough that he should know NOT to do this thing. But he did it anyway. He cut his own hair. You know what I'm talking about, that "v" cut right in the middle of bangs. Matt had the scissors and clippers out and was giving himself a haircut. He left the stuff out because we were planning on giving Elisha a trim. When Matt wasn't looking, Elisha made his move. Afterwards, we told him how disappointed we were that he would do that even though he knew it was naughty. He said he was sorry. Matt fixed his hair and cut it shorter than what we wanted initially. When Matt was done Elisha said, "look, now I'm handsome like you, except I don't have a beard." Matt chuckled and replied, "yeah, but mama is not gonna like that we had to cut it so short." with that Elisha yells upstairs (where I am) "Mom!!! I'm handsome like daddy now, but I don't have a beard!!" It was just so cute, I couldn't possibly stay upset. His hair turned out fine and he won't need a trim for awhile.

*A couple of days ago Elisha was over at his Auntie Sarie and Uncle Luke's while I was out running errands. His Uncle Luke asked him, jokingly, "Elisha, when are you going to settle down and get married?" Elisha replied, "I don't know." Luke then asked, "well do you have a girlfriend?" Elisha replied, "Well, I have my mommy." What a sweetie!

*Just about everyday Elisha will randomly tell me, "I love you, mom." It's always completely random. I never know when he will say it because I'm not usually actively doing anything for him. He will be coloring, playing a game or eating and he will surprise me with those sweet words.

Helping mama make grilled cheese for dinner. He likes to put the cheese on for me.

Holiday Happenings

So, I've been meaning to post new stuff for awhile, but I have been SUPER busy so this will be a sort of another photo dump along with updates on what we have been up to!

For the last few weeks I have been helping a friend do some interior decorating projects: stripping tables so we can paint them, planning color schemes, working on sewing pretty things, etc. I'm pretty excited to see how things look when it's all done. It's been really fun helping this sweet person get organized and decorate her space.:)

Last week I hosted Thanksgiving. Twice. Two days In a row. --I'm still recuperating from all the busy-ness. It was fun baking new things though! The shopping and prepping began on Monday and the cooking and baking and more prepping started Tuesday and didn't end until Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday my parents and siblings came over and on Thursday my husband's family came over. We enjoyed the traditional turkey, hot rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie. We also enjoyed new twists on old traditions on Wednesday with my mom's sweet potato souflee-yum! On Thursday we enjoyed a new, unexpected dish for Thanksgiving-nachos! My Sis in law's boyfriend brought nachos--super good idea!

I had fun with a few new things as well. I made a braided homemade loaf of bread--deelish and pretty:)

I also made a festive veggie tray that looked like a Turkey-thanks to Pinterest for the idea:)

On Friday I worked on cleaning house and putting away Fall decor and breaking out the Christmas decor.

On Saturday we took Elisha to see Rise of the Gaurdians. He really liked it. It was kind of cute. He thinks Jack Frost is pretty cool. Then Saturday night we baked and ate cookies, drank egg nog and watched Arthur Christmas while decorating the Christmas tree. Elisha LOVES putting ornaments on the tree--he had such a great time.

Now, it's Sunday evening and I've been enjoying an afternoon of rest since coming home from church this morning.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and good times with family and friends. I know I did and I have SOOO much to be thankful for!:)

Fall Fun!

Here is kind of photo dump of all the fun Fall activities Elisha and I have been doing the last couple of weeks. :)

  Counted out pumpkin seeds and glued them on our pumpkins. (math and fine motor)    

                        

We painted pumpkins. (art)

We collected leaves, sticks and acorns for a nature collage. (science)

Working on the nature collage.

We did leaf rubbing with our leaves that we collected. (art and science)

We made thumbprint leaves (my thumbprint, his brush strokes--he doesn't like getting paint on his hands). (art)

Finishing up painting leaves on our tree.

Office Desk--Repurposed Closet Door!

Ever since I moved in to my new house and set up my office I have not been content with how it looked until NOW! I just felt like it was unorganized, cluttered, and my desk space just was not very functional.

Before: Very cluttered and lacking space to actually work.

I started brainstorming the other day about what I could use that I already had to make a new desk/workspace. I started by looking for boards, but didn't really have any. Then I remembered the closet doors we took off of our closet in our room when we moved in so that I could move my dresser into our closet. Since I have two small white shelves in the office and the door is white I thought it might be the perfect fit--and it TOTALLY was!

After: the closet door makes an awesome desktop, it goes great with the white shelves that are holding it up.

 I am just SO happy with how my new desk turned out! I have so much space to do art stuff, smashbook, pay bills, write lesson plans and organize everything! My office has such a nice clean look to it now too! I had a lot of pics of how cute the rest of the office looked, but I am having a hard time retrieving them from my phone:/. I will update this post with those pics once I get that worked out :).

I moved my old desk out in to the open space in our basement in a little corner. I put some of my hubby's fave stuff on it and hung up some of his certificates on the wall. I think he will enjoy this little homework/study space. :)

Hello, Autumn :)

I think everyone says this, but fall is my FAVORITE! I also enjoy all the others seasons except for winter. Winter is only fun during Christmas, then I'm so over it.

Anyway, I wanted to make over this weird shelf thing on my living room wall. I think at one point maybe an air condition -window unit used to reside here, and then this shelf thing replaced it. It is kind of cool. I just started thinking about a post from my K*Duds blog last year about mantle alternatives  and how I used my piano for holiday/seasonal decor. Now, my piano is in my basement so I decided to utilize this space as an alternative for a mantle:

My first attempt at decorating this space was not successful. I felt I could do better. So, with my sudden burst of creative energy and various craft supplies I got to work.

 First, I covered some cardboard with different kinds of scrapbook paper and glued it down with rubber cement:

After I made my background, I worked on making my "FALL" banner:

I also covered the mason jars that have pumpkin faces painted on them with scrapbook paper and twine. I set up the background, hung the banner and re-arranged the knick knacky things and pumpkins. I am super pleased with how it turned out. Elisha even noticed the arrangement and told me it was beautiful. :)