This was Haleigh’s Christmas program at school.  It was so cute.  All the classes came out dressed with their reindeer antlers and sang.  She was so excited.  It was fun to watch the kids find their parents when they got up on the stage.  Their excitement couldn’t have been missed.  So precious. 

We came home and made reindeer food for Christmas Eve to share with friends.  Then we had to make James a hat like Haleigh he had.  He said he was ready to go to school too. 

I got all the glitter cleaned up (finally) after the ornaments and then turned around and let them make Snowflakes with GLITTER.  Oh well, we remain sparkly. We decided we needed to make it look wintry in the house since we have seen and will not see much snow right now.

And then we decide to make sugar cookies.  Whew!  What fun!!

Can you see the amount of icing and sprinkles in her cookie?

James loved the sprinkles.  I mean, he WOULD NOT stop eating them. 

Haleigh did really well with the piping bag.  I was truly impressed.  And then she put so many sprinkles on top that you could see her handy work.  Worked out good for Chris—those are his favorites!

And finally we had a wonderful, yet short, visit with Tom and Jaci.  The kids loved spending time with them, as did we.  They loved their new umbrellas.  So much for the “don’t open an umbrella” in the house rule. 

If you are willing to watch this video, make sure you have a tissue handy.  I've heard the song before but never watched the video. I looked it up b/c I kept hearing it on the radio and wondered if it was based on true events. 

I'm once again reminded of how truly blessed I am and also how truly fragile life can be.  Stories like this leave me full of questions but I guess its not my place to question but rather make some attempt to understand.  Hard to do.

St. Judes---what an amazing place.  If anyone needs a place to donate some money...you couldn't go wrong with them!!

Forcing my kids to smile…again!

Needed a picture for my Christmas cards so we got all dolled up for a small photo attempt at the house a few days ago.  I didn’t share until now b/c at wanted to have my cards sent out before I did.  So if you haven’t gotten your card, it should be there soon!! Had to bribe Haleigh with some lipstick and James with chocolate.  Happy with the smiles I got; even though it was never at the same time! 

 

A little now and then for you.  The older pictures are from 2 years ago. 

My sweet baby boy…Where’s my baby?  Mama feels a tad teary when I look at how teeny he used to be.  Those days go by so fast but I love, love, love watching them grow. 

Dink

I keep meaning to post pictures of our elf, Dink…here is last nights (one of my favs so far).

He got into the snow, built a snowman, and threw snowballs all over the floor.  The kids thought it was hilarious!

Hand Made with Love

Well, I had found a post on Pinterest on how to make some DIY ornaments.  Haleigh and I decided that they would be fun to make as gifts.  After a quick trip to Michaels and a whole lotta glitter…we ended up with some pretty fun ornaments.  She is very excited to give these gifts to their lucky recipients. Haleigh is very particular.  We ended up making 12 and I let her choose the color glitter for each one.  She knew exactly what color she wanted and for who.  She put deep thought into the recipient.  I would have preferred the balls to remain Christmas colored, but this was her project and she had her own colors in mind.  So this is what we ended up with:

Step 1:  Take the lid off a clear glass ornament.

 

Step 2:  Pour a small amount of Mop and Glo (yep, ,you read it right) into the ball.  Swish it all around to coat the entire ball.  Dump out the excess liquid.

Step 3:  Pick some glitter, dump it in, and shake the bajeebies out of it. 

And there you have it…simple, fun, glittery…what more could a girl ask for?  Haleigh said they were full of “fairy dust.” We added a couple snowflake decals and tied a purdy bow. These are the two she made especially for her teachers.

 

 

James woke up from nap near the end of our project so he had to join in. He was happy just stirring glitter…can you tell by the amount on his hands?  You should have seen his face…and the table…and the floor…and the chairs…and the…

Can I just say that glitter is hard to clean?  I mean really hard.  Oh well..we will just be sparkly for a while.