So Judy won't hait me....

I have forbidden myself to even LOOK at my
Christmas photos...until I get this little baby

shoot processed.

It really won't be hard.

I'm finally feeling the energy to do it.

I did this shoot of her beautiful little boy

nearly (gasp.....) 2 months ago!

And I feel so guilty every time I see her,

though she is super sweet and tells me "no worries"

So for her....here is a little sneak peak of what I'm working on ;)

Merry Christmas Everyone
Hope the spirit fills your home with love
and peace and a bit of unexpected joy!




Today we are catching up on all the fun stuff
*making & decorating sugar cookies for Santa
*decorating that traditional gingerbread house

*Preparing a yummy ham and homemade augratin potato dinner
*wrapping up the rest of those presents
*cleaning up a bit...Santa won't bring more things to the children of messy rooms ;)

and unfortunately....ONE more trip to the dag-on store!!!!
I went to wrap a gift last night and realized it was broken....arrrgggghhhhh!

This month has been super crazy busy.
Seems more than usual.
The quantity of parties, recitals, performances,
appointments, blah blah blah blah....
have been RIDICULOUS!
But now....we breath.......

We've been making some fun changes in the house this month too...
will be showing that off soon ;)

Merry Christmas!

Partaaay Overload!!!!

You know it's shameful of me that I have not honored
the ONE person who cares about my blog and it's content.

My excuses are busy-ness and the blogging blahs.

But here, finally is the birthday girls Fall Festival Birthday Bash!
There are SO many things I love about Samantha,
but one of my favorites is that she is NOT predictable and does
not go with the crowd. She definitely has her own ideas!

This year it occurred to her that her November birthday
was in the fall, so obviously, it should have a fall theme :)

Lets start with the party favor...a cornucopia of sorts!
Waffle cone filled with candy. The tag reads
"I am so thankful you could celebrate my birthday with me"

The girls also got a fall flower clip for their hair when they arrived.


Next is a birthday banner I made from House of 3

As per my habits I decided to make this at the last minute
and used up valuable time....but I think it was worth it!
I love it...and more importantly so did the birthday girl.



Here is our traditional birthday chandelier over the dining table

She wanted carrot cake, so I made a simple 2 layer cake with

leaves decorating one side.

For our time consuming craft we made hand print trees.

I had the kids put their hand print on an 8x10 blank canvas.

A lovely friend of mine cut leaves and owls from her cricut

out of fallish papers. The kids went to town filling their trees.

Some got VERY creative with the whole idea :)

I went back and mod podged over them while they were

otherwise occupied.

The final results. They turned out really cute. That's Jack

there hiding behind the naked hand print. I can only do

so much with a bunch of kids running around. I promised

to help him with his later...and ya know...later has NOT come yet!?!

We played some outdoor games.

A pumpkin rolling contest, which was really fun.

Bobbing for apples. I have to admit, they got

a little carried away with this one.

I was running in and out trying to modpodge

the hand prints and a few of the kids decided

to dunk their ENTIRE heads in the water.

I'm so sure the parents loved me for that!

But they had loads of fun.

We also played the donut game where you have to eat it off the string with no hands,

but I didn't get any pictures of that...i was holding the bar of donuts for gosh sake.

It was a really fun party...and as any good party goes,

I WAS SO GLAD WHEN IT WAS OVER!

I love throwing parties for my kids, but they are exhausting.

For some reason I always end up running them solo...go figure.

Ok...now I can officially move onto Christmas posts.

Oh wait...i forgot about Thanksgiving :)

25 Days

Samantha pointed out to me yesterday that I needed to do something about my blog.
It just wasn't right that I had a Halloween post just sitting there in the middle of December.
It's not right!!!!

So to appease her (cause I know there's nobody out there these days :)) including myself ;)
Here's a little Christmas craft.

This is a little countdown that I made using a this kit from House of 3
Can I just tell you...I LOVE this place.
They have such adorable stuff.
I use them quite a lot.
I made my blog header with there stuff, my Christmas cards,
and there are a few other things floating around in my head.

Anyway, this is an advent calender that you flip everyday.
It counts down from 25 to 1.

I actually didn't get to keep this baby :(
I made it as a white elephant gift for our RS Enrichment party.

So I still need to make one for myself....maybe this weekend????

I cut out 2 pieces of chipboard from packaging and covered it with Christmas paper and decorated the cover.

Then I printed out the countdown pages and trimmed them up.
I backed them on cardstock that I trimmed with scissors.
Stacked them all in order and put it together with rings.
And it stands all by itself!

Make one for yourself!!

Heidi Swapp has a coupon on her blog for a Houseof3 purchase!

uhhhh....happy halloween???

Seriously....i SHOULD NOT be on the computer right now!
i repeat...i SHOULD NOT be on the computer right now!

i have way too much to do.
Sometimes, when I am super busy like this,
i seriously end up vegging on the computer,
WASTING TIME!

So I've promised myself just a short time of looking
and this quick post.

The kids at Halloween.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
ENjoy ;)

Because I know ya'll are wondering....

Nathan was a "scientist" ??????

And once again...this is the ONLY picture he would allow!

Ok, that's it. I've got 5 more table runners to sew for enrichment.

HAPPY DECEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!