Christmas 2014!!!

Okay so I'm past excited!!  I know what things I am making for my kiddos and my nieces and nephew for Christmas this year!  I know what some of you may be thinking. "Is she crazy?  We just had Christmas!"  I don't care!  I want to get an early start and I'm making everything now because it is more time consuming but so worth it. What, you may ask, are you making them?  Well I have a secret board on Pinterest that holds the answers to that question. As I create things I will definitely share as long as you promise to keep it a secret. It's going to be an amazing year!!  I can feel it!  Talk to you soon!

The Crockpot Adventure

So I decided for the next 14 days I'm going to be making all dinners in my crockpot. I had a hard time finding meals that I was willing to try. I have a hard time getting past the look of a meal. Can I just say there are a lot of crockpot meals out there that look totally disgusting?!?  Yes I know I might be missing an amazing recipe because of this so I'm going to try to be more brave if these first 14 days work.

Why am I even doing this in the first place?  Well that's a great question!  I'm a full time teacher and mother. I have a family of four to feed every night and by the end of the school day I am exhausted!  I put my all in each day and the last thing I want to do is come home and make dinner. That's when I started to think about what could make my life easier. I started a search on Pinterest for easy recipes and so many bloggers were talking about using their crockpots. That's when I knew I had to try this myself.

Today is day 1 of my adventure. Can I just tell you how nice it was coming home to a meal that was already done!  The smell was amazing!!  I found a recipe for chicken and stuffing and thought I would give it a try. I was a little surprised at how good the recipe really was!  I forgot to take pictures on the first day :(. I will try to do better tomorrow. What's up for tomorrow you might ask. BBQ RIBS!!!  Looking forward to it :D

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Can I just say that I'm a little busy! I feel like I have a list that is a mile long of things that need to be done for my job, home and my other responsibilities. Being in charge of multiple things is hard business ;) Of course I wouldn't be in charge if I didn't like it in some way! So I decided I wanted to share some of the things I have done with my kids and my nieces and nephew. I've made it a new tradition that they come over to my house and we decorate cookies and make new ornaments for my tree and for them to take home or give to someone as a gift. It is so much fun and my younger nieces and nephew love it. My older ones? Well that's a different story that I may share at a different time ;) Any who! I know it is after Christmas but these things were so worth sharing to me. I hope you enjoy and have a great new year!

My sons snowmen.  I love them!

My niece decided she needed a lot of sprinkles for her cookie and then later added a bunch of sprinkles to the vanilla frosting to make "her own creation".  It was so cute! 

My son decided he needed even more sprinkles than my niece ;)

My other niece decorated this one.  The snowmen are all girls wearing dresses and either have cute hair or headbands in their hair.  She called me a couple days later and said it broke at Mamaw's house.  Guess who's going to be coming back over to make another ornament :)

My daughter made this one and I have to say it's my favorite of hers so far.  I told her that I wanted something that reflected Jesus on the ornaments that we were making for the tree.  She painted a manger seen on it.  We did find the idea on Pinterest which I have told you before I absolutely LOVE!  Nice job Abby!

It's Been A LONG Time ;)

Hello everyone! Wow! I posted once and had every intention of at least getting on weekly but we see how that turned out. Anywho! I wanted to share with you some of the things I've been working on. So I decided, since we didn't have a lot of money I would make gifts for everyone this year. I was actually pretty excited about it! Let me say that I L-O-V-E pinterest! I get an idea from there and tweak it to make my own. It's so much fun. This year I made some things off of pinterest but also created some of my own things. I still have a lot of practice that needs to be done but the more I create the better I will get right?!?

Let me share a couple of things I have made recently. This first one was for my nieces who are 1 and 4. I knew that the 4 year old would get way more out of it but the 1 year old could play with mommy and daddy's help. (I hope they get into it too!!!)







I cut out the Mickey Mouse head and then attached pictures on it and around the sides. 

  
My nieces were so excited to see Mickey Mouse on something I made for them!  The coolest part you ask...What is inside!!!!  Inside I made some snowballs out of yarn and put this little card inside to explain how to use it.  After my four year old niece opened all her presents, she got out the snowballs and started attacking me with them.  It was so much fun and I could tell that she really loved her gift!  Score one for Auntie!  :) 



I came up with the Snowball Fight card all by myself :)

Next I made something for my two older nieces.  I don't think that they were as excited about their gifts as my younger niece was.  I was a little disappointed but what do I expect from teenage girls.  Anyway!  Here are their gifts. 



Kaitlyn loves cheetah print so the letters are that.  There are set on sparkly black cardstock that I got on sale at Joann Fabrics!  I think it turned out great! 



Brena isn't her real name but it's the nickname she has had as long as I can remember.  She told me if I made anything using her name to make sure it was Brena.  Her letters are zebra stripes since that is what she likes and the sparkly black cardstock.  I had fun making them for sure! 

One Step At A Time

          Okay so I love doing a lot of fun things whether it is with my kiddos, gifts or just for myself ;)  One thing that I love doing but can never find the time for is scrapbooking. I still have a lot to learn but have so much fun!  All the Christmas gifts I'm giving this year are going to be home made and I have to tell you I'm pretty excited!  Whatever it may be I can't wait to get started. Would you care to join me?  Let's get our creative on!  ;)