Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Meaningful Christmas

so last year through a little blog stalking, i read about a Christmas advent devotional that a group of girls did with their kids. the devotional was a 24 day countdown to christmas and they got together with 24 friends and made ornaments to go with each day. i LOVED the idea, and decided i wanted to do it this year! and they made it so easy-sold the devotionals and told everyone just how to do it! easy peasy!

after lots of emails back in october, we had our group of 24 and were ready to go! we spent lots of time making ornaments-everyone made 24 of one ornament that went with a specific day of the devotional.  definitely took some effort but we now have a set of 24 unique ornaments that go along with the neat devotional...all to teach our kiddos about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. i am so, so, so excited about this new tradition for our family!

so last night was our ornament exchange party. everyone brought their ornament creations and we set them all out. wow! for a group of so many girls that claimed to "not be very crafty," we have some super cute ornaments to use year after year! we had lots of yummy food, fun, and fellowship!
bags ready for everyone to fill with their set of ornaments
i can't wait to start reading the devotional and hanging a special ornament on the tree tomorrow...one a day for the next 24 days-can hardly wait! tanner LOVES his "TREEEEEEE" in his room and i know he'll be excited to get to add to it every day of December!

because they were all so cute, i had to take a picture of them to show them off.

i'll keep you posted, but i know this will be a favorite christmas tradition for years to come! now i'm off to wrap each ornament so tman can have fun with wrapping paper each night when he opens his ornaments! his tree is going to be FULL by christmas!
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

thanksgiving weekend we decorated for christmas and tanner was very much into helping this year! we didn't quite go all out since our house was on the market (more on this craziness soon) and we were decorating in super-speed mode in case they called for a showing (5 tubs of christmas decorations makes quite a big mess!). lance got all the decorations out, set the 2 trees up, and then the boys went riding while me and mom...and tanner...decorated.
tanner was so excited about his nativity
 TREE! he is quite excited about the tree in his room!

we pulled out lots of our unbreakable ornaments for him to use to decorate his tree
and then he decided he would just pick some ornaments that he liked off the big tree and take them to his tree
 hanging up a merry christmas pillow (that he has also been laying his head on)...
 
so proud of his tree!
it has been fun seeing his excitement this year. the lights, the trees, the decorations-he loves it all! and the christmas fun is just beginning!!!
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Friday, November 11, 2011

playing with pumpkins

so this year, tman has called all pumpkins balls. he loves them and has had lots of fun with them. i bought a bunch of mini pumpkins for my MOPS table, and tanner has been playing with the extras. he started shooting hoops with them, but apparently he has graduated from shooting hoops from the ground right in front of the goal. no, he's now moved on to practicing his free throws from the ottoman with the pumpkin. thankfully no pumpkins were harmed during the basketball games...and my floors are thankful that those were some tough pumpkins!
"what, mom? i'm just shooting some hoops!"
 "oh, you wanted me to smile?!?!"
ready...
 aim!
 FIRE! he shoots...
and he scores! he's quite good at clapping for himself, and he's really a good shot. he makes over half of them!
he also had some pumpkin fun without my knowledge. the day before i took these pics of him shooting hoops, he came running down the hall asking about his choo choo and doing his arms like, "where did my choo choo go?" i thought he'd been playing in his room with his plastic choo choo whistle so after he climbed up on the couch with me asking where the choo choo was (and i noticed his hands were wet??) we headed back to his room to find it.

it was no where to be found.

hmmmm. so i asked him, where is your choo choo, tanner?

immediately he RAN STRAIGHT to the bathroom and PROUDLY pointed at the toilet. he even started blowing because it was his whistle choo choo. and i started putting it all together. yup, i had heard the toilet flush about 5 minutes before (the doors are almost always closed...it had been closed all day...literally had just left it open as i finished getting ready and i thought he was in his room). oh and those wet hands when he came asking where his choo choo was...yup, clearly that had to have been toilet water.

yes, the choo choo had been flushed to it's death-poor thomas. and i just prayed the potty still flushed. lance was able to fish the choo choo out with a coat hanger. the thought hadn't even crossed my mind that he had flushed something else. i didn't think he had anything in his hands except his whistle.

well, a day later and a nice, expensive visit from a plumber later, we discovered that he had indeed flushed something else with his choo choo. the plumber (with the toilet in the front yard-yes he had to completely remove it) discovered he had FLUSHED A MINI PUMPKIN! oh.my.word! at least we got a slight discount that night (nice plumber)...and a lot of laughs.

most expensive pumpkin we've ever bought! and you better believe the rest of the mini pumpkins throughout the house were thrown away that night! no more decorating with mini pumpkins for this house!
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Christmas Card FUN

I love getting christmas cards...and love sending them out (although it takes me way to long to pick a card and a picture!). i've been shopping around and tiny prints has lots of cute christmas card options...however will i choose!?!?

a few from my list of favorites...
be merry: fern


stenciled joy: walnut

and i love that tiny prints lets you customize the text...so instead of happy holidays i could make it say merry christmas!

creative christmas: tomato


i'm looking forward to displaying our cards in a new way this year...i haven't quite decided how but there's plenty of good ideas on pinterest! maybe a wreath or maybe on a ribbon on the cabinets...we'll see...

and i am looking forward or starting a new tradition of putting them together in a little book as a way to pray for our friends-yet another pinterest idea that i love!
 
thanks tiny prints for having so many awesome christmas cards to choose from!
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