Twas the Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wordless Wednesday - Christmas on Her Mind

I caught Alena writing this by the glow of her night light. She says it's a poem and I say aside from it being one giant run on sentence, she did a darn good job.

Someone is excited for Christmas to come.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a happy Christmas. I hope you all got spoiled rotten!

Great Toys for Kids (without batteries!)

Are you a last minute shopper? Stuck on what to get for the kids in your life? After being a parent for almost seven years, having both a girl and boy, and with three kids, I've got a pretty good idea of what kids like AND actually play with. Here's a quick look at our favorite toys. And bonus, NO BATTERIES NEEDED!  Can I get an Amen from the collective masses?

Gifts for the under 2 crowd

1. Activity Blocks - Noah is almost eight months and this holds his attention for quite a while. Even longer for older babies. They have many things on it to keep your baby and toddler busy.

 2. Stacking/Nesting Blocks - These are perfect for little ones. They love to stack them and also fit them inside each other.

3. Shape Sorter - There are many varieties of shape sorters out there and kids love them. Noah just chews on the pieces right now but around 12-15 months of age, they start showing interest in actually finding and sorting the shapes.

Gifts for kids 2-4

1. Lego Duplo - These Legos are perfect for small hands. They are larger than the regular Legos but not too big so that it's hard to store.

2. Wooden puzzles - These Melissa and Doug puzzles are a huge hit in our house. Cute pictures and very durable. In fact, Alena and Christian will still sit and put them together.

3. Train tracks and engines - There are so many different brands of trains and tracks that it can be overwhelming. Thankfully, many brands are interchangeable. Thomas the Tank Engine brand is the most popular although the priciest, and kids will sit and play for a long time. I like to let the kids build their own tracks throughout the house and they will build for hours.

4. Art Easel -  These are great for kids who love to draw and the double sided easels are fantastic. One side is white board, the other is chalk, and you have a roll of paper. Three ways to draw! Plus, with two sides, there is less fighting between the kids to share writing space. Win win.

Gifts for kids 4 and up

1. Plasma car - This may be the best purchase we have made toy wise. Alena and Christian use theirs daily. I would say that kids under four can enjoy these also (Christian was three when he got his.) Even Noah enjoys getting rides. These cars/scooters are extremely durable and are always a huge hit when other kids come to visit. When Noah gets a little older, he will definitely be getting his own.

2. Legos - I remember spending many many hours of my childhood playing with these. Shoot, even Gabe still enjoys sitting with the kids and building. They last forever. The Legos we have that the kids play with are Gabe's from when he was a boy.

3. Lincoln Logs - These are another one of those toys I remember having and playing with a lot. Alena will use them to build structures for her My Little Ponies and actually plays with them more than Christian (he prefers Legos).

4. Jump ropes and hula hoops - I love these because they are cheap but provide tons of entertainment for my kids. They have spent many a time using the jump rope to limbo, as a snake they're not allowed to touch, a lasso, etc etc. You get the picture, they have many uses.

5. Marble Run - While we do not own this toy, our piano teacher does and this is a favorite toy to keep them entertained while Gabe and I are in lessons. What kid doesn't love building and watching marbles roll from top to bottom and side to side?

 A gift for them all

Let's not forget the gift for ALL ages. Books. They are probably my favorite battery-less gift to give. A love of books is such a great thing for kids (and adults) to have.


So there you have it. Our favorite and most loved toys that do not require battery power. Do you have any to add to the list? What am I missing that you and your kids enjoy?

Weekend Rewind

This past weekend was a busy one! Friday afternoon consisted of eye appointments for everyone. Two hours and four eye dilations later, we headed off to dress rehersal for our church's childrens play. We ended up grabbing take out Taco Bell for dinner because there wasn't enough time to make something before Gabe and I had to head out to his company Christmas party. Oh yes, mama got a date night without any kids! We dropped them off at the sitter's and I had a hard time pulling myself away from Noah as this was the very first time leaving him with anyone besides Gabe. We were arriving at the party late and leaving early so we were only gone for two hours which made me feel better about leaving him. And he did fine. The hubs and I had a good time eating, drinking, and enjoying the comedy show done by an old acquaintance from our military days.

After Gabe and I stayed up too late Friday night, Saturday morning was slow going. We took a couple of things off the schedule because of the cold temps and lack of motivation to get dressed and moving. I gave the kids the choice of whether they wanted to watch Santa arrive via helicopter at our local Ace Hardware Store and only Christian wanted to go. So he and I went and had good one on one time.

His "real" smile.

Saturday evening was our town's Christmas parade. Despite the cold weather, the kids still loved it. We came home for hot chocolate and the movie Elf.

Santa's float.

Sunday was the Christmas play at our church. The kids did a short version of The Littlest Christmas Tree. Christian had a speaking part and did a wonderful job. Mama was proud. :) We lunched at Buffalo Wild Wings which was scrumptious, as usual.

Paying more attention to me than the play.

How was your weekend? Seems to be the busy season for everyone.

DIY Christmas Wreath

 Christmas is juuuuust around the corner and folks are putting up their trees, lights, and all the other millions of different decorations. In previous years, I have seen pictures of homemade deco mesh or burlap wreaths and always wished I was that creative.

After hearing fall decorations were 80% off at Hobby Lobby, I walked in hoping to score on some good fall decor and walked out with Christmas stuff. Huh? I know. BUT! Hobby Lobby had all things Christmas on sale for 50% off and this lady was not going to pass up that sale. Walking through the aisles, I came across bare wreaths and deco mesh. At half off I thought now was as good a time as any to test my creative ability.

So! Let's get this show on the road. To the instructions...

You will need:

one wreath frame (mine was 16")
one large 21" roll of deco mesh
one small 5" roll of deco mesh in different color
scissors
any embellishment you want to add on (optional)

To start, take your wreath frame and put one end of the 21" sized deco mesh on the OUTER larger ring and secure with ties. Take a 10" section, bunch it up, and secure with another tie. Do this all around the wreath, then cut off the mesh from the roll. Try to keep your bunches the same size or close to it so it won't end up lopsided.

It will look pretty bare but that is what the smaller deco mesh is for. Start off the 5" deco the same way. I alternated between large and small bunches shown in the pic below.

Go around the entire wreath and once the last bunch is secured, cut the mesh from the roll. You can leave your wreath as is or add on the embellishments.

I wanted to add some embellishments and after FOUR different trips to Hobby Lobby returning and buying new ones, I finally settled on some that I thought fit and looked good with the wreath. And I am happy happy happy with the end results!!

After buying matching embellishments to put on the wreath and hating the look, something clicked in my brain and I decided that wasn't needed. So I chose five different but similar ones to add on and I love the look. Even Gabe commented "That looks really nice!". I agree. And it looks fantastic on the front door.

Not bad for a first try!

Christmas 2012

I have so many posts to get on here it's quite ridiculous. Alena's first gymnastics competition, my birthday, 26 week belly bump, and SNOW... oh my!

This was a good Christmas. Great presents, great food, and a great big mess! We let the kids open their stockings and presents from each other on Christmas Eve. We had taken them to the .99 store with a couple dollars in hand to pick something out for each other. Alena chose a pack of airplanes and a bag of plastic rats (why?) for Christian. And he chose a kitchen set and candy bar for her.

Christmas morning, we opened gifts first and then made breakfast. I didn't realize until after all the gifts were opened and they were being played with that we bought mostly battery-less gifts. There were several puzzles, books, games, and other toys that required imagination to play with them. Gabe and I of course didn't mind the break on our ears either. ;)

gifts from grandmama

gift from grandma and grandpa

another cute grandparent gift

OK, I have to explain Gabe's gift a little. Last year, he didn't give me ANY clues or hints as to what he wanted. I just kept getting an "I don't know.". Very frustrating for me and I had no idea what to get him either. He ended up with some odd gifts so we learned our lesson this year. He gave me multiple options for gifts and I picked the one I knew he would love. The new water proof, shock proof, and freeze proof camera from Nikon. This will be perfect for his upcoming business trip to Hawaii next month (poor him, right?).

Alena finally got her dollhouse after two years of begging for one. And what a dollhouse it is!

Hot Wheels Trick Tracks were very popular with the kids.

 No pictures of my gifts! :( Gabe got me a beautiful mother's necklace with a heart spelling out Mom and a charm for each child with an A and C and their birthstone on each one. And soon there will be another charm to add! Also, I got the latest John Grisham book to add to my collection. He is my favorite author and I have every book he's published.

I did not, unfortunately, take pictures of the food and it's sad really because it was SO good. We had honey spiraled ham, homemade mashed potatoes, cheesy cauliflower and broccoli, gluten free stuffing (may do a recipe post on this), rolls, and gluten free pumpkin pie. We cooked literally all day then stuffed ourselves to the gills and then some. Christian has requested ham leftovers EVERY single day since Christmas and we have finally eaten it all!

Oh Christmas Tree

I think my favorite Christmas decoration would have to be the tree. There's just something about sitting in a dark room only lit by the glow of the tree's light...

I've been working at getting our tree "just right" for the past few years and every year I feel like I get closer but I'm never quite there. I'm always happy with the way it turns out but I can't quite put my finger on why it's not right yet.

My thinking is that the more unique ornaments we get, the better the tree looks. That might explain why I'm loving it more year after year; we keep adding our own special ornaments that bring up lots of good memories.

 

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Every year we have pictures taken with Santa and I always stick a wallet size in a picture frame ornament. This is probably one of the only traditions I have been able to stick with when it comes to decorating the tree. I love seeing the pictures and how they've grown and the kids love finding them.

 

Walters estd. 2005

I have also started in recent years that whenever we go somewhere that is unique and most likely a "once in a lifetime" type of thing, I try to pick up an ornament. As seen in the picture above (the Amish country one) and in the pictures below.

I can't wait for the day where most of the ornaments on the tree are totally unique from each other. Where house guests and even ourselves can stand at the tree for a long time just looking at each ornament, reminiscing about all the memories we've shared and telling stories about each one.

What is your favorite part of your Christmas tree? Do you have certain color themes and certain ornaments that are always on the tree?