Lights!

On the way home from church tonight, the thought crossed my mind that we may not get Christmas lights up this year on the outside of the house. We didn't last year because Brian was recovering from back surgery and there was NO way I was letting him climb up on a ladder. He was going to put them up this last weekend, but it rained the whole time. Anyway, it's funny that Christmas lights happened to come to mind because when we pulled in the driveway, Brian had put lights up across the front of the house! He chose the big colored bulbs because that's what the boys always ask for. (I didn't get a picture because it's just too cold outside.) :) As we parked the car amidst Oooohs and Ahhhs from the back seat, I told them to make sure and tell their daddy how much they appreciated the lights.

We came in the house and both boys ran to Brian (Reed with a "Thanks for the lights, Dad!" and Hudson said "I love it, Dad!"). Brian told Reed that he needed to put his backpack in his room. I said he usually left it out and it wasn't that big of deal, but Brian said (with a smirk) "No, he needs to put it in his room." I knew what was coming at this point. Reed opened his door to...

(Please excuse the mess - I would make them clean their rooms before I took a picture, but who are we kidding.. this is real life.) Reed said "Whoa!" and had a huge smile on his face. It was so sweet. Hudson took one look and said "Oooooohhhhh - is that in my room too?" Brian told him he better go check and he opened the door to this...

I married the sweetest man. He has such a heart for his boys and I absolutely love that! I am so thankful that he enjoys them and does fun things for them. Brian - thank you for being who you are. You are teaching our boys values, manners, how to be a great husband and how to be a great father amongst so many other things. I love you so much and am thankful for you every day.

Day Seven

Today Reed didn't even get his backpack off before drawing today's tag and finding that they needed to open a bag...

... for a reindeer headband craft!

This was much easier than the snowmen, although we did have a rough time getting the paper backing off of the foam sticker dots. Reed was working away and I realized he still hadn't taken off his backpack. :)
I worked on getting them tied and he decided to strip down to his undies right before I took the picture. Pretty cute reindeer, huh?

Day Six

Today's activity was... hot chocolate after school! (It's really hard to find 24 Christmas themed activities, so you very well may see the hot chocolate reappear in a slightly different form later on.) We made our hot chocolate and the boys got to choose their toppings - I bought Christmas shaped marshmallows and peppermint marshmallows. After they melted, we went ahead and topped it off with whipped cream for good measure. :) Oh my goodness - I just gotta say - isn't he such a cutie?

I love this little guy too - although it looks like I slipped a little something extra in his mug. :)

Day Five

First things first... I have to brag on my kiddo. He got in the car after school and the first thing he said was "Mom, look what I got today!" It's a bracelet that says "I made my teacher proud! Let me tell you about it." Evidently another child was talking to him in line when they were specifically asked to be quiet and his teacher witnessed him resisting the urge to talk to the other kid (which I'm sure was VERY hard for my chatty child).

Day five for our calendar was making Christmas rice krispy treats. I gave them the choice of using peppermint marshmallows or just coloring the regular marshmallows and they picked color (thank goodness - peppermint rice krispies? Yuck.) Reed helped with the red layer...

Hudson helped with the green layer...

and voila! :)

By the way, here is the snowman craft we were doing yesterday.

I worked on it off and on all day today (waiting for glue to dry, etc.) and I still don't have the arms on. If you see this craft kit at Michael's, DO NOT buy it. A merry Christmas it does not make.

Day Four

Today for our calendar activity, we had another craft - a cute little snowman ornament. When I bought crafts in kits, I assumed that since it was a kit, it would be easier. That is not the case. I don't have any pictures because since it was a multi-step craft, it's still not done! We have to glue a white pom-pom onto a white bell to make the snowman body. Glue had to dry. Then the top hats for the bell snowmen need to be ASSEMBLED.

From three pieces of felt and Elmer's glue.

And they are such tiny pieces, the finished hat is 1 inch tall.

Seriously.

So, they are drying on the table tonight...

Day Three

Day three... they are still lovin' it. :)

Today our activity was... a Christmas craft!

We made an igloo out of foam blocks. When I bought the kits I assumed that the block were all on one sheet, but no. Individual teensy foam blocks.

They worked hard on them for a while, but I ended up finishing both igloos. Hudson was still quite proud of his. :)

Then a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk... I LOVE this time of year! Did I say that already? :)

Day Two

The activity for the second day of our calendar...

The boys were quite excited. We loaded up and headed out to see Arthur Christmas. While waiting at the concession stand, there was a big Star Wars thing that had the cut-out for your face. Of course the boys had to try it...





Arthur Christmas turned out to be really cute. No bad words, just a cute Christmas movie for kids. We had a great time- not a bad way to spend a Friday night. :)

Happy December!

December is here and that means... it's time to start our advent calendar! After seeing a super cute advent calendar from Pottery Barn on Pinterest (my new obsession), I really wanted it. I couldn't find one to buy and when I started looking at it, I realized it was all made out of felt and $70. Um, what? Felt is SO cheap, so I knew I had to make one. I went to Jo-Ann's and bought less than $30 worth of felt (and ended up having quite a bit leftover). I made a template and cut out the pockets. Then I spent quite a few hours cutting out the designs for the pockets then stitching them on. After many, many hours, it is finished!

I absolutely LOVE it! The special thing about our advent calendar is that instead of toys, each pocket has an activity for the boys (or us as a family) to do. The bags on the floor are different crafts or things we need to do the activity for that particular day. For our first day today, Reed was pretty excited to take the first tag out...

Hudson listened as Reed read him the activity for today...

Writing letters to Santa! I bought cute little letters from the dollar section at Michaels and had the boys unwrap them from under the tree.

They were so sweet... Hudson asked for everything ninja (toys, shirt, pajamas, etc.) and Reed made sure to ask how the elves were doing before listing the things he wanted. :)
They really enjoyed this activity and they are looking forward to tomorrow! Our other fun thing we will do each day is a little tree that we add decorations to. Day one - garland.

This is gonna be a fun month. :)

The season is upon us...

It's almost Christmastime!!!! I am so excited - I love me some Christmas!!! My favorite things about this time of year (just to name a few)-

• twinkling lights on a Christmas tree
• peppermint mocha coffee creamer
• Christmas music on the radio and playing over the loudspeakers in stores
• baking various treats
• my boys, pajamas and Christmas movies.
• hot chocolate
• going Christmas shopping with my hubby. It's pretty much the ONLY time we go shopping together... which is probably why I enjoy it. Brian isn't much of a shopper. :)

But Christmas isn't about the things I listed above. The absolute best thing about Christmas is joy that comes from the birth of Jesus and knowing that it provided hope for a dark and wretched world. Jesus IS the reason for the season. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Happy Halloween

Flash and the Lego Brick :)

Pumpkin Party

Tonight we hosted a pumpkin carving/painting party. I had so much fun decorating. I made candy corn cupcakes...

and dressed up the drink table with jack-o-lantern garland and my giant pumpkin drink cooler. I even made signs on my cricut for the cherry limeade and tea. :)
Brian's grandmother made this tablecloth many years ago and it turned out perfect for this party.
First, we went out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins (our crop wasn't great this year, so we had to buy some to fill the patch out, but the kids didn't care - they just thought it was awesome to run around and pick out their very own pumpkin!) Here is Reed looking for the best one...

We found a winner!

Hudson also found the best one!

They were pretty proud of their pumpkins. :)

While the younger ones painted, the bigger kids got to carving...

and Reed dove right in.

I thought he did a great job!

After everyone finished their handywork, we chowed down on hot dogs.

Here is our table of pumpkins... notice the painted ones on the back side of the table. We have some true artists among us... :)

And I couldn't resist this picture of Brian and sweet Walt. :)

Here are Reed and Hudson's pumpkins...

The kids (and adults) all had so much fun. It was a nice, laid back evening. I think we're going to have to make it an annual event! :)

Camping

Our class had our annual camping trip this weekend. Last year at this time, Brian was laying on the floor with his back hurting 24/7, so Reed and I went and took a tent. It rained. A lot. I was not impressed with the tent camping. So this year we rented a trailer and we had a blast. We also wanted to rent a trailer to see if it would be something that we would want to do more often. I grew up camping in a trailer so I knew I'd like to go, but I wasn't sure if it would be Brian's thing. (Brian has actually done a little on-line shopping since we got home this afternoon- very exciting!!) Anyway, he went and picked up our rental trailer on Friday morning and I went about loading it up. My friend Alisha that organizes the trip takes care of buying all the food, plates, etc., so all we needed were the basics. We got loaded up, picked up Reed from school and were ready to go.

The boys were SO excited! They couldn't wait to get there (the 45 minute trip was almost too much for Reed to handle)! ;)


I really didn't take many pictures, and I need to be more diligent about it next time. This was a dry creek bed that the kids LOVED playing in- they found a tree with huge exposed roots and called it their 'fort' all weekend.


Some of the boys- Reed, Ty, Heston and Hudson



Hudson, Em, Avery and Livy


Hudson playing with sweet Walt. He lives babies (and their toys). :)


Walt ate a little bit of dirt. What's camping without a little bit of dirt in your diet?


Setting up for dinner...



This morning we had a quick church service. The kids got a quick skit together about the good Samaritan.


This is the Samaritan riding through on her 'donkey'. :)


Hudson got a laugh out of it...


The rest of our service...








The four Blevins on our first camping trip


Looking forward to many more trips!!!