how to make reindeer food

reindeer food recipe:

uncooked oatmeal

lots of glitter

ziploc bag

tons of imagination

Pour oatmeal into a ziploc bag. Sprinkle a tube of your favorite color glitter into the bag with the oatmeal. Seal the bag and shake vigorously.

Sprinkle the food on your lawn and porch for Rudolph and his buddies to eat. (the glitter bounces off the moonlight so they will be sure to find your house)

See the wonder in your little ones' eyes when the food has been "eaten" the next morning. "Look, there is muddy hoof-prints left by the reindeer too!"

christmas dancers

inspiration returned

Since my camera has been dysfunctional (early October) I have felt like a piece of me was missing. I couldn't capture my favorite moments on film just in my mind. I knew I liked photography but didn't realize how much until that part of my life was gone.

But my inspiration returned this Christmas. Joy! Joy! Happy! Happy! A working camera is now in my hands again. I received my mother-in-laws INCREDIBLE hand-me-down camera.

I have lots to blog about and now that I'm back to taking pictures I'm sure I'll be inspired. I just hope my few readers haven't left for good....

Christmas was wonderful! Full of laughter and sweet child innocence (and mischief). But one of my favorite moments is this....

When we were at Matt's mom's house the extended family came over for Christmas. With a room full of people opening presents, Kaya received a rock star Barbie kit from her cousins Josh & Nikki. She immediately stripped her clothes off, put on her costume, and rocked out for us. For a long time. Non-stop. Getting louder and louder for us. She just kept singing and singing, oblivious to the fact that everyone was still opening gifts. She was full of energy, joy, and laughter. After each song she giggled like crazy. I wish you could have been there but if you weren't........here are the photos---

I hope everyone else had a holiday filled with laughter and lots of love! I'm glad to back in the blogging world!!!

some of my favorite christmas photos

I know.......I promised Christmas pictures a couple of weeks ago.  I have tried to quickly pick out my favorites tonight but there are so many.  Here are a very small sample of the moments I loved so much about the Christmas season.

I'll share all of them with the friends and family (mainly grandparents) later on with my snapfish or photobucket accounts.  I haven't blogged for a while because I'm just enjoying every minute of my life.

We've had so much going on lately.  Of course,  we loved our Kentucky visits,  Christmas day, and our New Year's Dip-dip-dip-dip Dip it in it party.  We also had a fantastic time going to Texas to surprise Granny Annie for her 90th birthday,  our visit to see Bob the Builder,  and our first gymnastic lesson.  

In the midst of all of these fun activities I've also tried to put our house back into some kind of order and have a more "structured" preschool curriculum with the kids.  Yes,  life is busy.  I've thought many times.....maybe I should blog about this.  And,  maybe I will.  But until then I'm perfectly content enjoying my fabulously busy, fabulously enriching life.  

just checking out the tree

happy birthday jesus

Here are the mangers we made and also their birthday party for Jesus!

jingle bells

a night of lights

loving Santa

It is that time of year again.  The time to go visit Santa.  Each year I have envisioned my perfect children sitting on his lap and whispering their wish lists in his ear.  And usually one of them cries,  scared to death of this strange man in red.  So I've accepted the fact that they may cry,  but we go on anyway.

But this year was different.  I hope I always remember the sweet, special visit with Santa they had in 2008.  

As soon as we got to the front of the line to see Santa,  both Kaya's and Zanders eyes lit up.  They both sat in his lap with no reservations.  They whispered,  giggled, and told Santa what they wanted.  And Santa was so wonderful......I just love him so much.  Zander told him something that must have been pretty funny (we still don't know what,  besides as Zander says "It's their secret).  Anyway,  after Zander told him this secret,  Santa laughed so loud--I'm pretty sure he could be heard throughout the mall.  When I went to get them out of Santa's lap, he said to them,  "What a great way to start my day!  I'm so happy I got to see you this morning."  While we were waiting for our pictures to print,  Santa kept waving at Zander and winking at him while he waited for other kids.

I'm not sure who was more excited to see Santa....the kids or myself.  Merry Christmas, Santa.  You made me have a wonderful day!

christmas countdown

I had grandiouse visions in my head of two very cute fabric/felt advent calendars shaped like elves that I was going to hand-stitch for my kiddos.
My mom used to do this for us. The countdown calendar she made was cross-stitched. I loved the excitement of a small treat each day of December! I even took it to college. I remember friends coming over to my dorm room to see what I got for the day.

So I really wanted to start this tradition with my kids.

Then I saw the idea of counting down with bags from Wondertime magazine. They just put the number on the outside and hung on ribbon. I decided to go a step farther and decorate each bag with a photo from past Christmases. I then mod-podged (which I'm totally addicted to now.......I'm looking for things around the house to mod podge) the photos to the craft bags to give each sepia colored photo even more of an antique look.





The kids were so excited to open their first bags!

I attached garland to my banisters and paper-clipped the bags to it.

I love the look of the bags and how the decorate the house. I look forward to filling them up each year with treats!

crafty trees

A few days ago, Zander kept asking me if he could have a tree in his room.  Being the softie I am for his big brown eyes,  and being the fanatic I am over Christmas decorations---I said, "Yes!".

The rest of the house has yet to be decorated (Matt refuses to get them down until after Thanksgiving) but for some reason, the kids' rooms don't always follow the guidelines for the rest of the house (they have brightly colored walls too.....while the rest of the house is the standard factory house-paint color,  still).

Each room has a prelit,  4 foot tree.  It was so fun decorating them with the themes the kids chose.  Kaya's pink tree is decorated with a Winnie-The-Pooh theme.  I found Pooh figurines at the Dollar Tree that I attached the to tree with rubberbands.  I also used Pooh flashcards (I punched a hole in the top and tied with ribbon) and foam Pooh Puzzle pieces.  We added candy canes and silver balls throughout the tree.  For the topper,  I attached a Pooh and Piglet soft ice-pack.

Zander's tree is Car themed.  He is fascinated by it.  The first day he kept sitting in his chair just to stare at it.  Just like his mama,  he loves a Christmas tree.

We used rubberbands to attach the matchbox cars.  I also found a foam puzzle with the Cars movie theme that we hung to the branches.  We finished his his balls and candy canes also.

Do you have any special Christmas tree or decorations you would like to share?  I'd love to hear about them!