Better Family Portrait

I thought this might make some of you laugh.. see I tried to select the best one available.. thank goodness for digital photography!! we would have had an entire roll of less than stellar... although this are a little more realistic..

still here...

I know it's been forever.. and I have every intention of posting and updating... and basically catching up on what I've fallen so far behind on! But.. in the meantime..

A Very Merry White Christmas!!!

I love family life, I love the anticipation and buzz that happens when we are all waiting for something fantastic, and Christmas around here creates double the buzz because it's Christmas and Little Daddy's brithday... when you couple these two events and you have four kids.. let's just say exponential may not cover it.


A success all around, cinnabon for breakfast, santa deliveries, skyped in grandparents and cousins, wii games, a light lunch and SNOW!!! inches and inches and inches of SNOW that is STILL falling.  Birthday presents, family movie, steak dinner with mashed potatoes, homemade birthday cake with Handmade candles. A few arguments.. one little lady has some boundary issues, and also really likes unwrapping presents that don't belong to her.


So the highlights of Christmas Birthday 2010...

10.  Cinnabon (we really only get it once a year)

9. Handmade Candles


8.  Shrinky Dinks being a big hit despite the doubts of Mrs. Claus

7. New Decals for the girls room courtesy of Sure Cuts a Lot software

6.  Little Daddy slicing his own birthday cake.

5. The fist pump followed by a hug when Little Daddy opened the gift Miss H had selected and purchased with her fair winnings. "This is the best ever"

4. The Mr. Not even suspecting he was getting to go to one day of the MASTER's this spring!!

3. Lil Bit chasing everyone with her play hypodermic needle saying, "Just relax dude.. just relax"

2. Snow!! 

1. The mock faint of a new four year old when he finally laid eyes on his new RECLINER!!

Also.. there was this miracle.. called Lil Bit took a nap...

It will take me a little bit to "remember" how to put a movie up so you'll have to trust me about the mock faint.


I hope your Christmas has been Merry and Bright!

can't hardly wait!!

So the preparations have been made,

the presents are wrapped, the cookies are out,

 the children are asleep, the birthday cake is frosted,

 and the Mr. and I are awaiting just the right moment to dash up to the attic (well he will dash!) and get out the Christmas. The season has been awesome, our joy was immeasurable today watching Miss H and Cubby play Mary and Joseph in our Church's family service, with Little Daddy bedecked as the awesomist shepherd you ever did see. Lil bit played her part well as an angel, and a good time was had it seems by all.

Perhaps the best time of this Christmas eve was a last minute visit (no not this one!)

One of these years I'm bound to get a hallmark version don't you think? 

 The visits were to two older members of our congregation, on which both my daughters offered to accompany me. YAY! Both visits were joyful, and reminded me again what a great gift it is to be a mother, to be a mother to wonderful people, and to have so much to be thankful for. As much as I am guilty of delight at things to be unwrapped, I am pleased to find myself contented and grateful for these moments I am able to spend with people, hearing about their lives and sharing their joys. Let us not forgot my family train is generally a circus, and I am always pleasantly surprised at those who welcome it in and embrace it.  I am delighted to have sons and daughters that bring joy to others and to me, children in whom I can see the desire to love others well. It is an amazing gift to be surrounded by people better than yourself, and to be able to claim them!

And little daddy will be four FOUR tomorrow.. can you even believe it!!

Here we are in our Christmas Jamma Finery wishing you the very merriest of Days! May the peace and love that came embodied as a  babe lying in a manger fill your heart and home and may the hope that He brings to this world light your path.

Much love!!

Christmas means crafting...

 We have been crafting and crafting around here.. Miss H received a candlemaking kit from our dear friends and after reading the directions I set her up with a rotary cutting board and tool and she went right to town. She made a selection of tapers and pillars, and then got the brillant idea to make some birthday candles for Little Daddy's number four birthday!

Then she embellished some of her candles.. She made a family of three... and then this..

I know.. it totally looks like it came right out of a magazine! I love her!

Although we have a stack of fabric that needs to turn into pajama pants I have been obsessed with a photo project I discovered around Thanksgiving.. you can see it here.. So obviously I don't have enough cash lying around to just fill my house with these treasures so I did a little google research and have been working on a few pieces.. I am not so pleased with the color transfer method, although I only did a paper version (and nearly rubbed my finger prints off!) but I think I could get hooked on the transparency method... I love the look alot more than simple decoupage, even though it is obviously more time consuming.. but I've not perfected it yet.

here's a sample..