Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Hope your day was merry & bright!

Matthew 1:21

King James Version (KJV)

²¹ And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Christmas Card

 I hope Santa brings me a new scanner, I hate taking a picture of a picture.
But this is the only way I can show our Christmas card.  

Per usual, I broke out into a small sweat taking their picture, so I thought a card showing a couple of outtakes would be appropriate.  :)

Tis the season!

Christmas Baking

Yesterday Beth and I had envisioned a day of Christmas baking.

And most of our recipes were kid friendly, we figured they would want to help.  

Two out of 4 isn't bad.  

Kate & Levi pulled the wrappers off the Rolos.  I don't think either knew it was candy ;) 

I remembered I had the cutest Christmas kid aprons from this post, so I brought those with me.  

Here is Kate wearing it back in 2009.  Wow, already been 3yrs!

Levi looked ever-so-cute in the Santa apron and hat.

Here is Jacob in 2009.  Sweet thing!

Kate still loves her some Levi!

And I do too :)

Later that night Jacob was playing with his Leapster Frog game and Levi wanted to watch.  

Melt my heart.

Today's weather was pleasant, so we took advantage and went to a new park that just opened.

We had the whole place to ourselves.

"Grumpy 'ol troll, who lives under the bridge"

Dora the Explorer anyone?  :)

That's what Jacob was singing as he got under the bridge. :)

Christmas Keepsakes

We are officially on Christmas break!  School starts back January 7th, I hope we survive ;)

Levi had his Christmas program on Wednesday, and I say that very loosely :)

He basically just stands, waves, and claps.

Meme and Papaw were there, and once he saw them he started waving.  

He came home with the cutest keepsake!  

I've seen this on Pinterest and thought about doing it, so I was excited to see it.  :)

that's his little thumb print 

Jacob had pajama day at school.  He was so excited to not get dressed :)

He also brought home the cutest keepsake. 

He's asking Santa for:

*Duncan (a train from Thomas the Train)

*Angry Bird Plushes (stuffed animals)

*Angry Bird Toys

*Legos

*Transformers

 It makes me smile to see him trying his hardest to spell  :)

He also made the cutest ornament with his thumbprint.

L.O.V.E!!!!  :)

I just ADORE these kinds of things.  I hope there's many more to come!

Our church had their Christmas program a couple of weeks ago, and Jacob sat with us.
Later everyone was given a candle while we sang Silent Night.  It was really neat.

Every night Jacob asks us to go driving around to look at blow ups (inflatables).
This one is by our house, it's a reindeer, but it was knocked over.
Jacob said, "maybe he's praying."  :)  Sweet boy!

Can't believe Christmas is almost here.  Where has the year gone?  How old do I sound? :)

Henry, the Elf

Henry, our elf on the shelf, is having a lot of fun around the house.

Kris has fun with it too :)

Can't believe he toilet papered our tree :)

How did he get up there?

Jacob really liked this one :)
Levi doesn't understand the whole don't touch the elf or he'll lose his magic, so we have to keep him out of his reach.  We gave in and did this one, and sure enough, Levi was walking around holding Henry.
Luckily Jacob was at school otherwise his little world would have crumbled :)

Every morning after Jacob finds him, he always says he's such a silly elf :)
Thank goodness Christmas is close.  Ideas are running thin around here :)

Meeting Santa 2012

We took the boys to see Santa Sunday afternoon.

I was curious to see what Levi would do.

Remember last year? :)

Well he's been saying "Tanta" every time he sees one.

When I bought this Santa, which is about as tall as Levi, he was terrified of it!

When we sat it out this year, he walked up to him, pointed, and said, "Tanta."

There was a short line, but when Santa was in eye sight, we showed him to Levi and he smiled and said, "Tanta."  

This was a good sign :)  Here is a picture of a picture.

I got a really quick video of them, and if you listen closely at the very beginning, Jacob says, "I'm Jacob."  Then Levi says, "I'm Wee-vi." 

Love them so :)

Favorite Things Party {Christmas Edition}

Last night I hosted a Favorite Things Party at my house. The ladies and I had so much fun!

I saw this idea on Pinterest last year, and knew I wanted to throw my own someday.  

Source: ucreateparties.com via Kimberley on Pinterest

All you do is think of something you love that's under $5.
Bring 5 of those, and draw names to see who goes home with your item.
It's really neat to see what everyone brings!

Like she did, I made a bag for everyone to use to collect their items.

I downloaded the tag from this site.

The spread

Beth made the yummy ham and cheese sandwiches using this recipe.  Thank you sissy for bringing those!

Hot pepper jelly over a cream cheese christmas tree :)

A couple of other big hits was this dip - you must try!

Source: mommyskitchen.net via Kimberley on Pinterest

And this crock-pot hot chocolate recipe.  Soooo good!!  You'll never have the store-bought packet again!

I made these little dippers for stirring.  

The cookie jar held our names

I saw this game on pinterest and thought it would be so fun!

Source: happyhomefairy.com via Kimberley on Pinterest

Thanks for humoring me ladies!  I know most people hate games at parties, but this was fun :)

:)

Here Leslie is trying to explain her drawing, it was so funny!

The winner received an ornament and gift card from hobby lobby.  Emily (pink shirt) won! :)

Here are the Favorite Things I received :)

I technically didn't 'win' the nail polish, but Beth was kind enough to bring an extra :)

My favorite item that I gave was a package of Sharpie pens.  

I had a lot of people who couldn't make it due to conflicting schedules or of sickness, so I think I might do another in the spring.  You can host your own any time of the year, not necessarily just at Christmas.  

Put this in your back pocket and remember the next time you want to invite some friends over :)

Thank you Beth, Melody, Leslie, Emily and Jenny for a super-fun evening!

North Pole Breakfast {Welcome back, Henry!}

If you're on Pinterest (and if you're not I don't know why!) you've probably seen the North Pole Breakfast pin which welcomes back your Elf for the year.  The talented lady behind this has some super-cute ideas, and I was excited to create my own version for the boys.   

 

 

Henry, our elf, brought the boys a gingerbread cookie mix.  Jacob was so excited! 

He loves to help in the kitchen!

is this mailbox not the cutest!?  i bought it last year after christmas on clearance for $.50 at Big Lots!

 

I found this cute little candy-cane pot at the Salvation Army this week for $1.25.  I love a thrift store - never know what you'll find!

Inside are snowman-shaped marshmallows.  The little elf is from Walmart.

 

I thought these santa picks were cute!

 

Yummy donuts!

 

And reindeer donuts :)  Idea found here

 

I found this cute elf scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby, and Henry used it to write a letter to both the boys :)

 

It's kinda hard to read vellum :)

 

Oh, and the cheap chair covers are from Deals.

I got the cute stocking lights from Big Lots last year for $1. 

If you can't tell, I love to shop after the holiday for the next year.

 

The sweet smiles on their face is the very reason why I do this. 

 

 

 

 

I just love creating these sweet memories with my boys!