Handmade with Love

We made our gifts this year for each other.

And although it was A LOT of work.

It was so worth it.

Here are a few of my favorite moments on Christmas morning...

Bekah opening her puzzle blocks from Topher with pictures of The Nutcracker Ballet on them, she absolutely adores them.
Porter opening his puzzle blocks, and Christopher being so excited to see what he thought of them.Porter LOVING his barn that his sister and dad made for him, and putting all of his new presents inside.But these two moments are my favorite...

Christopher being so DANG excited about his beanbag chair, I mean look at that face!

Priceless.
And then the hug that immediately followed him opening his bean bag chair.

So much genuine love and appreciation.

And Bekah feeling what it's like to make someone she loves truly happy.

This is why we give presents on Christmas.

To feel like this.

To feel a little sliver of what its like to be truly selfless and full of love.

Like our Saviour, who this season is all about.

A Blur

Christmas morning.

A lot of anticipation.

A lot of work.

A lot of money.

A lot of spoiled, tired kids.

A blur.
Porter was not liking the idea of taking a picture in front of the tree, he wanted to keep eating junk food at 5:30 am.

That's my (husbands) boy.

Tip, Tap and Slide

Bekah had her Winter Showcase for her dance class a couple weeks ago.

It was just a chance for the kids to show the parents what they do in class, it was fun to see her up there dancing with all of her classmates.

She is taking both tap and ballet this year and is doing great at both.

She loves dancing and takes it very seriously.

I can't say that I am not excited about having a beautiful little ballerina as my daughter!

We can't wait for recital, although she is not excited about pulling her hair into the tight bun again for two nights in a row, (that is the only thing she doesn't like about ballet-hopefully she'll grow out of it!).

Seven Dysons Full

Remember how Bekah made Topher a beanbag chair for Christmas?

Well there was a little less than half of a bag of the filling left.

I was going to make Bekah one for her birthday with the leftovers.

Going to.

Topher had other plans.

He wanted a white Christmas.

Inside the house.

He got one.

Seven Dysons full later.

We are still finding the little balls of fun....

...everywhere.

Flashbacks-Santa Claus is coming to town...

Remember when my little Bekah was 2, and sang this so dang cute?

You need to make it to the end-she says "town" the best!

And it was a thing of perfection...

My dream is to have that tree that looks like something out of a magazine-with matching ornaments, all the branches at perfect intervals down the trunk-all symetrical like....

But then I wouldn't have these memories....

My kids all gathered around our cut down tree, finding ornaments from years past...
The baby placing the star on top of the tree...You know he really didn't put the star on top right? Chad put it on top, and I took a picture of him taking it off-he is destructo-baby after all-but it looks like he did do something to contribute besides pulling the ornaments off and breaking a couple huh?

Then of course, if we had the magazine tree, I wouldn't get to come back in after the kids lost interest and space out all the ornaments that were placed in 3 large clumps around the bottom of the tree.And where's the fun in that?

I have a feeling that until the kids are grown, and maybe even after that, my dream of the magazine tree is out of the question-but that doesn't mean we don't always have the perfect tree.

Interrogations, Drugs, and Supply Closets

For our field trip on Thursday we went to the Sheriff's station.

The Detective who gave us the tour was funny, he kept saying things like; "this is the interrogation room." What 3-4 year old knows what that is?Then we met the police dog-and he went on to tell us how Shelby sniffs out drugs, and how she has found lots of them. I am pretty positive not one of those kids had the slightest clue what drugs were, or why it mattered that the dog could find them. They were just excited about petting her.

They let the kids climb in the police car, and they thought that was great, but the highlight of the trip was the supply closet.

It might have had something to do with all the hundreds of Beanie Babies inside, and the fact that the Detective let them all pick one to take home...or I don't know; maybe they all just like the smell of white out.

Twas the lights before Christmas

This has become a tradition all in itself...

To take pictures of my kids holding the Christmas lights, turn the room lights off, no flash, just the beautiful glow.

This one is my new favorite.
Although, I really like her coy little look here.
And this kid was actually a little upset that his dad wrapped him in lights, but you'd never know it by this picture.
Absolutely love them.

I want my house made out of Gingerbread

Yes folks, I think the witch in Hansel and Gretal was on to something...Gingerbread is cheap to make.

And candy sales are still very high-even in a recession...

So finding the right part for repairs, would be easy and affordable.

The labor in building your home would be enjoyable and could be done by small children, without violating any child labor laws.

And food storage would not be necessary...

You could just eat a cabinet or something in rough times.
Unless it rained.

But if you just had a really big umbrella over your house, I think you'd be set.

Cute Kiddos

I know I'm a little late with my 3 things today...

My husband just finished his last final today, and the past few days have been nuts-o with all the studying and everything else!

But it is finally over for the semester, and I get my husband home for Christmas break! :)

My three things this week are brought to you by the letter C

First I want to draw your attention up to my navigation bars at the top of this blog...

See the link that says, "Cute Blogs"?

Well this is my list of blogs that I find inspiration from, so if you are looking for some cuteness, look no further! Do you want to add your blog to the list? Just contact me, and let me know your blog address, and I'll add your button or link, (as long as it's appropriate that is).

 

Second thing is Cops. For Homeschool group this week we went on a field trip to the Sheriff's station. The kids got to get in the car, and meet the Police Dog,

Shelby and see where they do interrogations etc... The detective who gave us our tour, was super nice and let all the kids pick out a Beanie Baby from their supply closet. It was a great field trip and the kids have not stopped talking about it.

Third we have Christmas prep...which seems to be all we have been doing lately!

We have cut down and decorated the tree, found fun surprises in our advent stockings, made gingerbread houses, played games, read stories, watched most of the classics, and of course been working hard on our hand made gifts!

Bekah is the closest to being done. She is making farm animal blocks and a barn box for Porter.

Then she made this beanbag chair for Christopher!He is going to love it!

I will have a small tutorial up on how to make these, tomorrow on

"The Craft Rookie" for Friendly Friday.

See ya then!

I'm off to the movies with my kids...and my husband (yea!), we're going to go see Planet 51...and then to the Snowflake Parade, if it's not too freezing!

Trouble

This girl is sweet.

This girl is smart.

This girl is sassy.

This girl is bossy.

But mostly this girl is beautiful.

Yes.

We are in trouble.

Eight Years

EiGhT years ago today, I married my best friend...

...and that is the corniest thing I ever did write. And yet, if it wasn't so darn true, I would erase it immediately and gag a little bit for the thought of saying something so cliche' and utterly gushy.

Chad still makes me smile, laugh, tingly and all together too happy.

 

I think that after 8 years of wedded bliss,

• if you still think your spouse is the best looking person to ever walk the planet earth,
• if you still call each other for no other reason than to hear their voice and remind them how much you love them,
• if you never fight, and rarely even get annoyed with them,
• if you still want to spend time with them, over your fabulous and funny friends any day of the week,
• if you still get all weak in the knees after one kiss from them,
• if you count down the minutes until they get home from wherever they are at the moment,
• if you still laugh at their jokes and melt at their singing,
• and if you are still as much in love as the day you got married, but a whole bunch more....

Then I am certain that it is the forever kind of love, the kind of love in the movies, the kind of love in vampire falls in love with mortal books, the kind of love that every little girl (and romantic little boys) dreams about finding.

 

And now that is the corniest (yet truest) thing I have ever written!

I love you Chaddy poo punkin bum!

Forever...and ever.

Finally a pic of all 3!

I have been trying to get a decent pic of all three of these kids for a bit now.

I figured out the trick!

Get the baby good and sick and miserable-just before the point of cranky-but not yet...

And click.This one below you can see that he is sick...but at least he is in the frame-he is usually walking out of it. Oh yeah-he's walking now-I forgot to post that he is a full time walker! It happened the day after I posted this.

Such a stinker-I tell everyone he won't walk-so then he does.

Typical Porter.

Cute boy in his boots

Nuff said.

-

The park by Grandma's House

My mom lives in this awesome neighborhood in West Linn, with this fantastic park with a forest between two playgrounds complete with charming bridge and babbling brook.

Seriously, I would be out there every day taking pictures!

My sister was hanging out with us and I had her snap the first two-yes I have a chain in my face, but I think it's a pretty good picture of me! :)

 

Canby Cuties

We went to a Pumpkin Patch while we were visiting Grandma in the cute little town of Canby.

I was determined to get a cute picture of Porter, since I haven't taken anything but snapshots lately...

...and he was determined to not let me anywhere near him with a camera.

Porter-1.

Me-Zip.

Christopher was not much more cooperative with this face...

Bekah on the other hand was on her A game.

I couldn't take a bad picture of her.

Those eyes are killing me...love the Portland lighting!

Stinker, stinker

Getting to Portland, this kid was still in the throes of sickness, so he was extra clingy.

He wanted nothing to do with Grandma or his aunt or uncle.

Just mom.

Fun for me.

When he did get better a few days in, he walked all over the place, testing out just how un-baby-proofed Grandma's house really was and tormenting Tabitha's cat and dogs.

Which resulted in mom chasing him around.

Fun for me.

Did you catch the sarcasm there.

I hope so.

I was laying it on pretty thick.

This kid

Not only did this baby almost kill himself, resulting in major trauma to his mama-he also had two whole days of high fever and chills while we were there. He was miserable...this was before the blind cord incident so I was already on high alert for this kiddo.

I think he likes to keep me up at night.

My heart stopped

Today I had the most terrible experience. It was seriously awful and I have gone back and forth on if I should even post about it, because I am really shook up about it. Then again, I don't want to have to tell the story more than I have to, so here goes. I want to warn you that this is not a pleasant, haha kind of moment like what I usually post, if you don't want to have nightmares, you might not want to read on, I am seriously shaking still and this happened like ten hours ago. I wanted to warn you, because I may never sleep again. Today I was in one room in my mom's house working on some really cute finger puppets for a Halloween party, and my kids were scattered around playing in different parts of the house. Two rooms away, I heard something break quietly, like a piece of wood splitting and a little whimper and I thought Topher had been climbing on my mom's china cabinet and broke something, but it didn't sound loud, and I'm surprised I even heard it. I got up prepared to yell at him when I saw him dangling from a blind cord kicking his legs trying to get back into a window sill. His eyes were rolling up and he was tugging with his hands. My heart stopped. I don't know how I even moved. But I did, and I got there fast. I picked him up so that it wasn't strangling him anymore, and had to put him back in the window sill to get the cord back off his neck. He was breathing, but just lay there limp in my arms with his eyes looking super lethargic for what seemed like forever. I sobbed and tried to get him to give me some kind of reaction, and finally he started to cry too. It was the most terrifying experience I can even imagine, and the image of him hanging there will forever haunt me, it seems so surreal now, because he is running around and playing happily like nothing happened. The only proof is the small scratches and slight red line around his neck and a small splinter of wood that I will forever be grateful for. I am so glad to have heard that small little crack that saved my baby's life today. - I don't know how many times we have told him to quit playing in the blind cords, he's big enough to climb up and unwind them from wherever we put them. - Chad is cutting all of ours off tonight, I never want to see a blind cord low enough for them to reach again. - I want to put all my kids in a rubber room and keep them safe from everything and I know that's not possible, I am just so grateful that it ended up the way it did, because it could have been so much worse. - Hug your babies extra tight tonight, and cut your blind cords extra short okay? Because that was absolutely terrifying.

Preschool Halloween Party

I threw the Halloween Bash for our preschool group, we had close to 20 kids show up to play games, eat junk food and be crazy.

Good times. Pin the nose on the pumpkin... Clothespin bats... Witch hat cookies... Donut races...

We also had a mad scientist lab where we made slime, and a finger puppet sing-a-long and a cupcake walk.

It was slightly chaotic, but the kids had fun, and I think these are pretty much the only pics I got of these kids in their Halloween costumes...