Pay It Forward!!!

This isn't really school related but I am posting it here anyway since I have more readers here than on my personal ( very neglected) blog. Anyway, I was excited to be one of the winners of a Pay It Forward from my friend Sadie at The Ugly Gray House. I am copying this from her post.

I'm always up for a good challenge aren't you? Last week ( wasn't really last week), my friend, Sadie, presented a challenge on her blog that I didn't hesitate to be a part of. All I had to do was be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment on her post and in doing so, I would receive a handmade gift from her. Yippeee for me! I was #2!!! Now, let me just say that I have received a couple of handmade gifts from Sadie before so I can't wait to see the fun, creative, and crafty thing she comes up with! Don't you just love receiving a special gift in the mail?Now it's your turn to be a part of this challenge....Be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment here on my post. Those 3 bloggers will then receive a handmade gift from me. The first 3 bloggers can then pay-it-forward to 3 bloggers on their blog. All you have to do is:~ post this challenge on your blog~ the gift can be anything you choose and any price range~ and you have 365 days to make/ship your item.How about that for spreading some love around blog land!!!"

Let's see who will be the first 3 comments!! Have fun!!

The Start of Our Christmas Fun!!

We are planning to take it easy for the month of December and just do some fun Christmas stuff together. We have lots of Christmas books borrowed from the library and we are having fun making crafts. Tuesday, we started out making hand/foot print Rudolphs!!

Kristen helping Ian making his hand prints.

Aaron helping Ian make his footprint.



Here is Momo helping Aaron make a footprint!



We also made Styrofoam cup bells, and jingle bell necklaces. We had planned to watch The Polar Express movie that night so that is why we did the bells.

Aaron is such a good big brother, even though these were "little kid" type crafts....he joined in the fun and made them too!! I love that he doesn't think he is too "old" to have fun with his younger siblings.

Here are their bells lined up on the table.

Here are all their finished crafts. Notice Aaron got a little more creative with his Rudolph!!

All the Rudolphs hanging around on the door!!

Aaron and Kristen did a word search with words from the Polar Express movie.

Wednesday, we decided to try some origami!! Thanks to our friend Sadie for sharing this project with us. We had so much fun working on it. Heather was also over for the day so she was helping us too.

Kristen learning how to do the folds.

Momo trying it out too!! She caught onto the folding pretty quickly!!

Ian had fun just playing with the paper cutter while we did the folding.

After a bit, Aaron started the gluing for us.

Here are our first couple flowers.

The girls taking a break to cook some mac-n-cheese for lunch.

Back to work....we decided to try some silver wrapping paper for some of the flowers. It makes the flowers really shine! Heather was cutting the wrapping paper.

The first half of the flowers put together.


Morgan holding the finished ornament.

All done!! Isn't it pretty!! We can't wait to make some more.

Momo and Ian taking a break to read a book.

When the ornament was done, we cleaned up our mess and then finished our tree. We had put it up Tuesday night but didn't decorate.

Ian with his Buzz Lightyear ornament!!

After the tree was done, we just hung out until it was time to head to church. I was playing with the settings on my camera and so some of the pictures here aren't the best but I got some pretty neat shots I think.

The baker's rack all decorated.

Our mantle........

A close up of the big nutcrackers. ( You can see them standing beside the fireplace in the picture above.)

This is an ornament I made when I was in Kindergarten in 1979!!! It is part of a plastic 2 liter soda bottle melted down. This is one of two ornaments I have that were made by me as a 5 year old!!

Just a pretty star......

Dreaming......................

That is all so far.....now I am off to maybe read some Christmas stories to the kids before it is time for me to go to work this afternoon. Check back soon to see more Christmas fun!!

Painted Toast, Another haircut and Randomness!

Last week, we were learning about Joseph and his coat of many colors in history. There were several suggestions for "colorful" activities but I decided we would do this activity, our friend, Sadie told me about. We painted bread!! This is a great activity. The kids loved it and it was quick, and easy and very inexpensive!!

Ian had some help writing his name on his!

Momo's ready for the toaster!

Ian's ready to go in the toaster!

The finished piece!!


Kristen's ready for the toaster. (The "Liv" on hers is for her best friend, Olivia.)

Time to eat it!!

Momo's finished toast!

Kristen has been wanting to get her haircut. Heather came over and cut it for her as practice for her future career in cosmetology.

The finished look. She shortened it a bit and cut layers.

Some creative photography by Aaron.....can you guess what this is?

Kristen and her friend Becca.

A pretty rainbow we saw over our house after a few rainy days.