Gettin Crafty! :)

2010 is quickly coming to an end and I am beyond excited to see what the Lord has in store for me and my family in 2011!  This past year has been full of great moments and also some pretty tough moments!  I wouldn't take back any of them, not even the tough stuff because the Lord has done some amazing things in my life and has shown me some awesome things that will help me get through any other hard stuff that I might face!  So I had been praying for a week about what the Lord wanted me to focus on next year and my answer... JOY!  More than just being joyful, it also means finding joy in the difficult situations or days.  The joy of the Lord is my strength!  Also, JOY can stand for Jesus, Others, Yourself...remembering my priorities!  I have a few other resolutions but that's for another posting!  :)

Now that all the Christmas decorations have been taken down and I have my dining room space back, I was able to put up a table and get my hands dirty with my crafting supplies!  I bought these letters (spelling my daughter's name) when I was pregnant with her like 3 years ago.  I originally painted them brown and hot pink and put glitter on them but I didn't like the way it turned out so they've been sitting in my garage for at least a year now.  Today I finally busted them out and slapped on some cute scrapbook paper and distressed the edges.  I'm really loving the way it turned out!

I didn't get my fill of craft time so I pulled out a box I had with these blocks that my amazingly handy hubby cut up for me.  I sanded down the edges and covered them with the same scrapbook paper as I did Tatym's name.  I think I'm going to turn these into picture holders (you know...drilling a hole and putting the wire in it and curving it to hold a picture).  So cute, simple and easy to make!

Clay Ornaments

My hubby made this family ornament for us this year!  He made one back in 2002 when our middle son was just a newborn so we needed an updated one with little Ms. Bitty on there!  I think it turned out cute!

I made these using white pearl sculpey clay and the blue is a pearl as well.  The red has glitter in it but is a different brand and the green & yellow are just plain colors.  I then used a sharpie marker to write on it after they had been baked and cooled.

My son, Keegan made this!  Such imagination!  It's a snowman throwing a snowball, standing behind a brick wall that has a splattered snowball on it and his pile of snowballs next to him!  LOVE IT!

He said the gingerbread man was Gingie from Shrek!  :)  And then he wanted to make a star ornament like mine!  So cute!

Christmas Ornament

While visiting with my hubby's grandparents last month, I saw a really cute Christmas ornament very similar to the one I made tonight.  I changed mine up a bit: I used bigger circle punches and used a white pen to make the border around each circle, added green & red ribbon for hanging up and viola...a cute, handmade Christmas ornament keepsake!  I made one for my mom-in-law and this one is for my grandma!  I may just have to make one for myself!  Super inexpensive and super fun!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well, now that we've recovered from our Turkey hangover I can post our fun pictures!  :)  This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house and I took it upon myself to help entertain the kidlets!  I found a blog that had these oreo turkeys (sorry I can't remember which site it was...maybe Our Best Bites).  They used candy corn for the feathers but I couldn't find any at Walmart so I opted to use Mike & Ike's instead.  The kids had fun with these!!

Notice Keegan's turkey's eyes are bit on the bulgy side!  LOL 

My Itty Bitty got a little sleepy right before Thanksgiving dinner so she grabbed her binky and blanket and plopped down on the couch.

I'm pretty sure my sleepy little princess must have worn herself out taking part in the Oreo Turkey massacre that happened on the table!  LOL  This is the scene we discovered shortly after seeing her mouth full of whoppers and Mike & Ike's!  LOL 

I then took the boys outside for a Turkey Hunt!

Found this printable game on another blog (bad Christina for not taking notes on where I found them...I'll do better next time).  I printed out the turkeys and taped them to popsicle sticks then stuck them in the ground around my mom's property and sent the boys off and running!  They really liked it and it was good for them to get outside and moving!

Getting the table all set!  We were blessed to spend Thanksgiving with my grandparents, my mom & my sister Kimberly and her hubby, Chris! 

I hope you had an amazingly blessed Thanksgiving as well! 

Vacation Fun!

Well, my fabulous hubby has been on vacation this week and we've been enjoying every second of it!  We found this awesome stuff at Fred Meyer called Instant Snow!  I had never seen it before but thought it sounded fun!  You just put a teaspoon of the powder in a bowl or something and add 1/4 cup water and it starts to grow 100x it's size!  The bonus is that one bag will make 3 gallons of "snow" and you can let it dry out and reuse it!  I snatched up 3 bags of this stuff and the kids have already played with it for the past two days and LOVE it!

We were blessed to be able to make a road trip down to California to visit my hubby's grandparents!  They are two of the cutest and sweetest people ever!  We just love them to bits!

They have been married for over 70 years and have lived in the same house for the past 50+ years so I went around snapping pictures of their house and other buildings.  I love things with a history, especially history that brings back great memories for my family!

This is my family (minus my bonus son, Taylor) with Josh's grandparents! 

Since Fall is my favorite season, it's my favorite time to get pictures of my kiddos!  We stopped a few places on the way back home to get some pictures of the kids outside in the Fall colors!

Here's my little Bitty.  She's almost 2 1/2 years old now!  *sniffle*

Both my cutie pies!

Stopped at a state park with the Redwoods all around!  It was crazy to be in our van and feel so tiny next to these giant trees!  Absolutely amazing!

My handsome boy, Keegan is now 8 years old! 

He was so stoked for this road trip because he just turned 8 and no longer has to use a booster seat! 

Wahoo!!  He's growing up so darn fast!

Sadly, hubby's vacation is over on Monday then it's back to reality!

Thankfully we'll get another week vacation in January so I'll be counting down the days!  :)

Who woulda thunk it? DELICIOUS!

My friend Theresa made this delicious cucumber water and I just HAD to have the recipe!  Lo & behold, it's a recipe from our Pampered Chef website!  AWESOME!  (FYI, I'm officially a Pampered Chef Consultant!  SOOOO EXCITING!  Who doesn't LOVE Pampered Chef???)  Anyways, this water is beyond delicious and SUPER refreshing so I thought I'd share the recipe!

All you need is:
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-3 lemons (PC listed limes but I used lemons)
1 medium cucumber (I only used about half)
7 cups cold water

Directions:
Place sugar and salt into pitcher. Slice lemons in half and juice into pitcher (make sure seeds don't go in).  Add cucumber slices and water to pitcher; cover with lid. Mix until sugar is disolved.  Refrigerate 30 minutes or until ready to serve. Pour into ice-filled glasses.



Yield: 6 servings 


Nutrients per serving: (1 1/3 cups): Calories 70, Total Fat 0 g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbohydrate 18 g, Protein 0 g, Sodium 55 mg, Fiber 0 g

Perfect rainy day dinner!

It was a wonderfully stormy day here on the Oregon Coast and what better way to end the day than with some slow cooker taco chili!  I'll even be nice enough to share the recipe since it was so yummy!
Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef
2-15oz. cans tomato sauce
2-15oz. cans diced tomatoes with onion & green peppers
2-15oz. cans whole kernel corn
2-15oz. cans chili beans w/ gravy
2 packets taco seasoning

Directions:
Brown the ground beef on the stove.  Combine beef and everything else (undrained) in the crockpot and cook on High for 3-4 hours.
Top the chili with cheese and enjoy!
To top it all off, my hubby made a DELICIOUS batch of homemade cornbread!  It was a great dinner!