Chad Meets Hooty

So once again-I must confess my love for the Appah household! For Chad's birthday yesterday, Jason put on the school's mascot's head-Hooty the owl-and went into one of Chad's classes. He sang Happy Birthday with some balloons and even did a little dance. Chad was mortified, it was right in the middle of a quiz. One of Jason's friends got it on his cell phone video, Chad is the one in the orange hoodie on the back row-you mostly see Jason doing his diddy-oh but it is so classic. For some reason I can't embed it onto my blog but here is the link to it. Thanks Jason-you made my day and made Chad, well.....mad, but he will eventually get over it...or get even!

Hanging Cupcake Invitations

I posted a tutorial on my blog on how to make these tasty looking treats. I am getting excited for the party! I have big plans for the treats and cake...I love my kids' birthdays more than my own!

Snowman Hot Cocoa Cans

I made these for a few neighbor gifts this year. I knitted the hats on a baby loom...Got a can of my favorite cocoa-yummy!Wrapped it in plain white paper-drew on eyes and mouth with sharpie, and painted on a nose.Added the hat.Still felt like something was missing, so I braided a scarf and there you have it!

If you don't have a knitting loom, or don't have knitting skills or time there is another way!

My sister in law made some of these similar anyway one year with some ribbid cotton. I think she just made a big loop like an arm sleeve-sewed it up and cut a bunch of hats out of it. She just tied a bit of ribbon around the top to close it. Simple, and adorable.

What I did all November

I made perpetual birthday and anniversary calendars for all of Chad's siblings (he has 7) and his mom. I used a cork board tile, made a calendar for each month with everyones birthday and anniversary on it and found some cute binder clips and some jute to hang them.I also made a pocket out of an envelope and included a couple handmade cards that matched with each, so they could see how to use the pocket-the perfect size for cards, and gift cards for the upcoming month that they need to send.
I'm really proud of my little tag cards-I had a bunch of tags and didn't really have a use for them, so I tied a piece of ribbon or string through the hole and embellished the front very simple-and voila! Made me 8 little cards pretty darn quick!
Every one was different and I really tried to do something that looked like it matched the personality of the recipient.

I'm a little upset, I took pictures of everyone's but can't find 3 of them-I don't know how they got deleted, but they did and they were some of the more colorful fun ones too! :(

Anyway I think everyone liked them, I wasn't there to see everyone's expression-but I keep hearing good reviews!

Homeschool Week 1

We did it! We made it through week one of homeschooling and we actually enjoyed ourselves! I didn't get to go over everything I wanted to-but I let it go, because let's face it, she's doing kindergarten and first grade work and she hasn't turned 5 yet! We are starting slow, and I am trying to include Christopher in the lessons as well. We started with the short Aa sound this week and Bekah passed her spelling test easily after a couple days of practice and with math-I didn't have to do anything to teach her to add. We just added 0, 1 and 2's to just about anything and she knew it.

Her perfectionist nature came out of course when it came time for any art project or writing-and it was not unusual for her to be working well until dinner time on something. That is one of the reasons I think I feel like this is such a good fit for her-at preschool she was always rushed to move on to the next thing, when she was trying to cut perfect little circles and glue them exactly where they went, while the teacher was just trying to keep the other kids from eating the glue. So far so good. I think this will be great. Hard, but great.

Now on to the HELP part. I need your creative genius! I made these blocks-but am having some serious well writers block (my mom will laugh) at what to write on them. They are on my desk-any ideas? I need a (clean) 4 letter word and a 5 letter word, that work well together.

Then I really wanted some tall pillar black candlesticks to put on top of my media cabinet and maybe a topiary or two, I was sick of my baskets up there. Well my mom got me something better-these really great handmade wooden candlesticks that are about 3 feet tall, there's only one problem-they look lots better on my mantle. Now I have this blank space and I'm drawing a blank (again my mom will laugh at my little puns!) for what to put up there.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated-if you have pictures of something that will work, that would be immensly helpful!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to You!

This kids is 6 months old! He has his 2 bottom teeth (got those babies for Christmas-actually 2 days after, but close enough!) and is working like crazy to get those 2 toppers! He loves to play with his toys , roll all over the place and watch his family. He wants everyone to be in the same place where he can see us all. If someone walks into the room and then he sees them walk out-he throws a fit! Because of that, me putting him in his bed and walking away during nap and sleep time is not working too well anymore, unless I can get him distracted enough with his mobile, while I slip out.

He is sitting up in the tub now (and everywhere else-so bye bye-swing and bouncy chair). He is loving eating solid foods, and loves playing with his food as well, which is apparent by the following picture of sweet potatoes on his head! He loves it when his brother and sister play with him-he doesn't care what they do, as long as they are having a good time so is he. I've caught Bekah just tickling him rather hard thinking a fit is coming on and he will just be squealing with delight. Topher likes to put stuff on him and laugh at him-like the washcloths in the tub. He'll be crawling and soon walking before we know it, if he is anything like big bro and sis-we'll have a little walker here before summer starts! Yikes! It goes by faster and faster with each one, doesn't it?

I'm still 28. 27 was a little fuzzy.

Ha ha ha! It's my birthday today. I am 28. What is funny about that is for the majority of the year I have been telling people I was 28. I totally thought I was turning 29 this year. What this means is;

1. I don't really care about my age
2. I am no good at math
3. I am losing my marbles at a fairly young age
4. Enter your own deduction here...

Well here is to 28 years...again, and wishing for at least that many more of blissful ignorance!

3,2,1...

Wow could that angle be any worse of me? I promise I didn't go and put on 150 lbs this holiday, I was just twisted funky.

This is all of my family that was able to be with us for New Years. We spent it ith friends eating yummy food and playing games.

Not much different than any other night this holiday-even our kids were so used to staying up late that the only different thing about this night was the party hats and blowers they used for two minutes while watching some fireworks.

Happy New Year everbody!

Santa came, left and came again!

Typical. I take a whole lot more pictures of random every day things then the Holidays and special occasions. My kids had a great loot from Santa this year at our house-Topher got his train table (with a train set) and some new trains for his Geo Trax set-the kid is in choo choo bliss right now.Porter got a jumperoo-which he is loving-and mom too-a few more minutes to get stuff done while he jumps and plays!

Bekah got the camera she asked for,and has become the official Hewlett family photographer, I might need to download her pictures and see if there are any shots I can steal, since she is a lot better at having it with her at all times. I'd say they are pretty excited that Santa came, wouldn't you? Then we went to Grandma's where we did it all over! The kids got spoiled and so did Chad & I with Wii games and other fun stuff-but then the big surprise...A KitchenAid! We were both so excited, we have both wanted one for so long, but could never justify it- my mom rocks! We all got so much, I won't bore you with our spoils-but that is what we got-spoiled!

December 20-24

I got all caught up in doing Christmasy things that last few days before Christmas, that I failed miserably at staying caught up on blogging it all-so here's what we did the last few days leading up to the main event....

Sunday-We brought these for the kids teachers, music leaders and primary presidency at church. Bekah made these for her friends in her class at church (the Magic Reindeer Food toppers were from someone on Today's Creative Blog-I will need to research it to give her the credit-if you want it, I'm sure I could find it!)

I made these for the neighbors of my mom, my mom and a couple friends here out of some Stephens hot cocoa cans.Monday-I decided to make Chad's ornament this year-because I couldn't find one to purchase that I liked enough-so we made salt dough ornaments-lots of fun!Bekah made a heart and Topher made a dinosaur-and I couldn't get them both to look at me at the same time-so we get the goofball twin pictures!Tuesday we made a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train... Wenesday-Christmas Eve- We had so much fun! We went to the Appah's for sledding and fondue and playing together-and I took no pictures-not a single one! It was such a good time though, you'll just have to take my word for it!

Afterwards we came home and opened our Christmas Eve jammies, and all the presents that were under the tree. We usually just do the jammies, but we were leaving early Christmas morning to my moms, so we let them open them all-so it wouldn't be too overwhelming the next day. I really liked doing it that way-then they could really focus on what they got each day-and stuff didn't get lost in the piles. It may be the way we do things from now on! Then we all opened our ornaments-the kids all get themed ornaments; Bekah-snowmen, Topher-Santa's and Porter will get reindeer.

Porter is at the age-where if something is in his hand-it goes straight for then mouth-so we end up with a lot of these kinds of pictures-don't worry, he's not hurt, a little upset it's not food, but that's it. Chad and I do something that represents the year, so he gave me this one, because we are finally in a home-even if we are just renting, I am so grateful to be in a house at last, so this means a lot to me this year! I made this one for Chad, it has our yellow house, our apple tree we (he) have spent so much time on this year, an owl in the tree for him becoming an owl at OIT, a baby bottle and blocks that spell boy, because we had Porter this year, his truck, our Yukon and a hand with a bent thumb. I pretty much got the whole year on there, including a big red heart because I love him more this year than any year previous.It may not be as pretty as a storebought ornament-but we've had quite the year-and I didn't want to forget any of it!

We then left magic food out for the reindeer, so Santa could find us.... ...and left out some cookies for when he did. We had a great countdown to Christmas, even when the kids were a little overwhelmed with all the fun stuff and started acting spoiled-we still enjoyed spending all that time together and will probably try to do this every year!