Christmas

It's already the 2nd week of January! I can't believe it! We had a great Christmas season celebrating with family and friends and lots of food! I think we (hear me) have finished off all of our Christmas cookies, candies, and treat- thank goodness, because when you are nursing you should LOOSE weight. ha ha. I have a lot of "Christmas" to take down, but no one is coming to the house until Tuesday, so I still have time... ;)

We celebrated with Andy's family the weekend before Christmas. Then we celebrated with my family on Christmas. We use to travel between the 2 families on the holidays, but it got too stressful, so several years ago we decided to do every other holiday with each family. It has lead to much more enjoyment of the events and people and less wasted driving time! :) We get quanity and quality, instead of just rushing!

This is what 4 kids 3 and under looks like in a picture at 7pm.

Jackson loves reading... here with Grandma Jo and Grandpa Larry

After 6 days of Christmas and playing with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Leslie, I think they may have been ready for us to go home... :)

Jackson really does not cooperate for pictures anymore...

kiddos with Uncle Michael and Aunt Jenny

Jackson with his backhoe from Santa... he opened almost all of his presents with it!

Maxwell about 5 weeks

Jman using glitter to decorate his handmade cinnamon ornaments
Our Family of Four After the Christmas Eve Church Service Grandma Jo helping us get ready for the Farm Bureau Christmas office party

Hansel, Lofgren, & Moore Christmas Party


Lily, Maxwell, and Jackson at the HLM Christmas

Tori and Maxwell enjoying their first HLM Christmas Party

Brielle at her first HLM Christmas party

Last wreath of the season

My entire mantel... notice my "Wise Men still Seek Him" (another blog find)

I wanted a fun way to display cards this year and I needed something to hang over my fireplace (awesome to have one in our new house- even if we don't have any wood), so I scoured the pages of the crafting blogs I belong to... I found two that I really liked this one from Clover Lane and this one from Craftiness is not Optional. I couldn't get the supplies for the first one, so I did the clothes pin wreath instead... actually, I was going to do BOTH, but I didn't have time to drive an hour to a craft store to get the supplies I would need... plus, we moved and we aren't getting as many cards this year... hmmm...

Here is my example of the clothes pin wreath. I don't like my bow.... something I have to work on, but overall I love the outcome. A bonus was that Jman got to practice some small motor skills while we were working on this wreath, because he strung the beads for me. :)

Neighbor Gifts

I wanted to find a fun way to share the holidays with our new neighbors. I decided I wanted to make gift jars, after looking at tons of sites and recipes, I decided to use this one for oatmeal chocolate chip from Poofy Cheeks (click on cookie name for link to recipe). I changed the order of the ingredients... I put the brown sugar and then the white sugar. I tried it the way the recipe said to do it and the white sugar went all the way down and I didn't like the look. So, instead I put the brown sugar on top of the chocolate chips and packed it down slightly around the edges. Also, I didn't pack any of the ingredients down until the end if I needed to. It barely fills up the jar the way it is.

I had a couple of bags of holiday M&Ms, so I added those to the mix, it gave it a little color.

I made two of the snowball jars, because I had some pecans. This one does not fill the jar... I would think of doing it a little differently for that one. But overall I like the looks!

This is the snowball recipe... you can see that it doesn't quite fill up the 1 Quart jar

I made up the jars and put on the recipe tags and a little gift tag (get it here). I decorated a few of the jars with some snowman stickers I got for $1 at Walmart. The jars are also from Walmart (only $7.50 for 12!!). It was a very inexpensive gift, but I think it's thoughtful and fun!!

Fabric Wreath

I LOVE this wreath!

I got the fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and it didn't take too much time... I made a pretty big wreath so it took about 1.25 yards of fabric. I chose to only use 3 different kinds of fabric, because that was what I could find in the fabrics I liked (50% off though). I got the idea from Polka Dots and Pizza. She made a tutorial that you can take a look at. I wish I had a pinky blade for my roatary cutter, because cutting all the squares was hard on my fingers!!

5 little snowmen...

Another crafty day... easy crafts, but fun to know that I am accomplishing some things! This one is for Jackson's stocking and if I have time I will be making them for my neices. :)

I made this "snowman puppet" from a little white stretch glove. I found them at JoAnn Fabrics for $1 for the pair (you can make 2 out of each pair!). I got the idea from Mommy's Treasures, she made pumpkins and monsters. I think my little monster is going to love the "bloves" (gloves).

Here are a couple of poems I will be attaching to the gloves.

FIVE LITTLE SNOWMEN
from this site:
Five little men all made of snow
Five little snowmen in a row
Out came the sun and shone all day
And one little snowman melted away.
Continue for 4, 3, 2, 1

Five Little Snowmen
from this site:
5 little snowmen sitting on the ground, (pat hands on floor)
the first one said; "oh my aren't we round." (make circle with arms)
The second one said; "there are snowflakes in the air." (wiggle fingers above head)
The third one said; "but we don't care." (shrug shoulders)
The fourth one said; "lets run and run and run. (pat hands quickly on the floor)
The fifth one said; "I'm ready for some fun." (smile)
Whew went the wind (blow)
and out came the sun (make circle with arms over head)
and the five little snowman knew their fun was done.(pretend your melting)

Five Little Snowpeople

from this site:
Five little snowpeople, jolly and fat. The first one waved a big, black hat. The second one clapped his hands in the cold. The third one's eyes blinked and rolled. The fourth one stamped his feet up and down. And the fifth one turned around and around.

Yarn Wreath

So I finally tried one of the 1,000 cool ideas I found online for Christmas ... this does not mean I have any of my Christmas presents finished... ha ha!

I found some really cool wreaths on all the crafty blogs I follow... but I thought I would like one of these yarn wreaths. I found tutorials here and here. I bought all the stuff to do this wreath from Polka Dots and Pizza... but I definately need to get my Christmas presents finished BEFORE I can start on this one!!

I decided to use a 10 inch straw wreath for 2 reasons 1) it was only $2.79 at Hobby Lobby, so if I didn't like it or never got to it this winter, I wouldn't feel so bad. 2) I wanted to go small so I could have time to finish it! I used Sugar 'n Cream cotton crochet yarn called Misteltoe (mostly because it was cheap and had all three colors I was looking for on 1 roll... red, green, white). Anyhoo... I really like how it turned out. :) I finally was able to finish it last night when my 2 year old had finally headed to bed and was actually STAYING in his bed!!

Things I learned from this wreath:

1. Thicker yarn might be more expensive, but it won't take as long to wrap! :)
2. The wreath needs to be covered before you put on the yarn- I saw someone use some batting. I think it would make it smoother, the straw sticks up and makes it uneven.
3. It's imporant that you look at the back to make sure you aren't overlapping the yarn, because it will leave gaps.
4. USE the GLUE GUN A LOT!!

Deer Hunting

We were lucky to have my family come visit last weekend! It was Deer hunting, so the big boys were all off hunting. The little boys and us girls stayed home and played! We did go to Decorah for a big Walmart trip... always the excitement! Here are some pictures of the family's visit. Boys with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Leslie- Jman is watching a Christmas movie, can't be torn away... :)
I took about 15 pictures and this one is my favorite... it captures what these boys do!
Boys with Grandma and Aunt Jenny.

Gum drop tree

Yesterday, Jackson and I created a gum drop tree. I found it on this blog Jada Roo Can Do. I also saw it some other place and thought it would be cute. I thought I would be different and use green and red Christmas Bells. Yeah, big mistake! Jackson has since destroyed the tree by taking all the candy off and eating it (taking out the toothpicks- Thanfully). I should have used the spice drops... no one likes those. Oh, well, next year! The cute decoration lasted 1 night at least!!
Maxwell at age 4weeks!

Jackson fixing "Baby Jesus's house"- by the morning he had broken the whole thing!!

ambitious

I have to stop looking at Do-It-Yourself Blogs. In my head I have become a master of sewing (even though I haven't gotten my sewing machine plugged in yet) and all other crafty things. Is it nesting? Maybe, I just want to make everything i see!! Here are a few Christmas presents I hope to accomplish for my kids and a few other kiddos in my life...

1. A puppet theatre for Jackson!
2. A Book Sling for baby, Jackson, and a few other special little people.
3. A Hobby Horse for each of my little boys.
4. An Advent Calendar (for next Christmas I think) for my little guys.

Of course all of these have to wait until AFTER I have finished my class (due Nov. 30th)and baby #2 is born (November 9). But maybe I can get a few of these done...