Decoration Frustration

Everybody knows me and my sister love christmas and all the pretty decorations.

We always end up putting our stuff up in Nov. and usually don't take it down till Jan.

But every time I decide to get all my stuff out, I dread it.

I have so much b/c I feel like you either got to do it BIG, or don't bother.

So around here we clean up the house first.

Then drag all the decorations out.

Put them up one section at a time.

I"m a control freak, so this takes a long time.

This year I whined "Let's just put it all back up in the attic."

to which Derek replied "why do you always give yourself so much decoration frustration,

you don't have to finish it all in one day."

So I didn't finsh it all in one day.....I gave myself two.

After everything is in its place, we clean up again.

This year, for the first time, we got a real tree!

It smells amazing. 9.5 ft.

The dogs were rolling around on all the needles that had fallen on the floor.

Natas was smelling it and looking at Derek wondering if he was aloud to pee on it.

We put the jumbo lights on it.  Gorgeous!

I do want to find a pretty tree skirt. And I'm gonna get more decoartions on

 clearance at the end of the season.

 Stockings:)



 6 ft. gold and red tree on stair landing.

Kirstin's 4 ft. white,silver, and teal tree.

Kaveri and Kylie's 4 ft. pink,silver,teal, and red tree.

Living room xmas pictures and village.

Front door wreath. Really simple but with our

harsh winter weather I can't risk much more.

Made this wreath last year with my mom for the door inside

our porch.

So thats pretty much it. I did add a tree on the table on my porch.

And as if that wasn't enough, I have a few crafties in mind.

Here is a pic of a nook in my room. I'm way ahead of the game!

Merry Christmas!

Whose up for coming in Jan. to help put it all away?

                           

Refrigerator Clean Up

My frig was starting to look like a cluttered cold mess.

So I wanted to go through everything on it plus give it a good wipe down.

As I was looking at everything, getting ready for the task, I noticed my magnets were

seriously beat down.

I already wanted to change a jumbo paper clip into a magnet that my

Aunt Sarah sent me for my bday.

So I decided to make over all my magnets.

More like get rid of all of them and make new ones.

Before:

                                                                           
                                                                               After:

Two jumbo paper clips later, a couple of flowers and lil' birds,

some strawberries and

a cute string of twine......

We got ourselves a "new" frig:)

I also added a few magnets to the back of a page protector so we

now have a pocket for the monthly school lunch menu.

Now I just need to put some more recent pics up;)

Introducing.....

The new Kirstin.

She was having problems seeing the board at school

so we went to see the eye doctor.

She is near-sighted with  astigmatism.

She picked out her own glasses, which I approved, and she can see much better!

Everyone at school thinks she is so pretty with them.

Me and daddy think they make her look older :(

Thanksgiving Pictures

We have been playing wii all Thanksgiving weekend.

Golden Turkey.Yum.

Hungry little birds.

Menu: Turkey

apple,walnut,cranberry stuffing

mashed potatoes

greenbean casserole

sweet potato souffle

giblet gravy

Homemade pumpkin pie

and

cookies and cream pie

Hope everybody had a blessed holiday.

Time to get the Christmas decorations out.......



Happy Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for?

Derek: "I'm thankful that God gives us the daily opportunity to be blessed

and for my family"

Kaveri: "I'm thankful that us all love Jesus and he loves us. And I'm thankful that we are nice to

eachother and love eachother."

Kirstin: "I'm thankful for a loving family and our Thanksgiving feast."

Kylie: "Um for MiKayla, daddy, momma, Kirstin, Kaveri and Emma and um

a happy snowman, santa clause, and presents"

And Me: I'm thankful for my family, our health, our happiness, and our closeness.

I'm thankful for the Lord, his wisdom and forgiveness.

 I'm thankful for the roof over our heads, our warm beds,

the food on our table and the means to support our family.

I'm thankful for my craftiness.

And last- I'm thankful that the woman in my life helped

provide me with the knowledge to cook a homemade

Thanksgiving dinner for my family.

  

So everyone thank God.

 Hug your loved ones.

And have a happy turkey day!

Gobble-Gobble

Crate Project Number 2

One night while surfing around on the internet, I saw this 'mud room

I wish I had an official mud room.
The main reason is because we have a large family and shoes end up right in the doorway.
I can't stand that.
Then people trip on them. Plus its the first thing that greets you in the house and the first thing that you see when you walk down the steps in the morning.

Anyways, so one feature in this mud room had that I really loved was
that they had some crates to store shoes in.

one side of her mud room.

I'm on a crate kick.
So I made my own version.

 This time I helped stain them.
A real freakin' pain in my butt.
I chose to stain them b/c I don't want a bunch of colors on my porch.
Maybe in a kids bedroom....
I also chose not to put any long ways b/c honestly it's a waste of space.

I wanted to give them a little personality so Derek
drilled two holes on each side and I tied rope knots to them.

We hung them with space in between each one so we could put flip-flops on the tops.

We sprayed lacquer on them after the staining.

I also plan on getting some cheap rubber mats and cutting them to size.

Extra protection and I can just shake them out.

After all, my kids collect dirt!

I have one more crate left......

any thoughts?

Lamp Re-do

So we have this pair of lamps.

They are about five years old.

They are those kind of lamps you can buy anywhere and then move them

around your house. Dining room, living room,

bed side tables ect.

I have them in the living room.

Sorry no before pics.

The shades were plain cream.And dirty.

The bases were like  this siver/goldish color with a marble type ball at the bottom.

The after: I spray painted the bases with a black that had a primer in it.

Then I got some burlap lamp shades.

If you google them they start out at around $50 and go into the hundreds.

Mine were nine bucks each.

Then I added some fabric rosettes.

I have been making alot of fabric flowers.

(more to come on that)

 five flowers on each one.

Love them! Every time I turn them on I smile

with pride.

Book Crates

Remember this?

Well here is one project:

(sorry ugly cord-I was vacuuming)

A Crate Bookcase.

Derek stained them and we hung them together.

Thank goodness he is willing to help.

The basket's on the floor under them are for diapers and wipes.

I love them and so do the girls:)

My Crazy Child

Kylie.....

My sweet crazy child.

She is rough and tough.

She is stubborn-hard headed.

She is very independent.

She has a wonderful imagination.

She could literally play football with the boys and

take a time out to cheer with the girls.

She loves dress-up and singing and dancing.

She has a strong leader type personality but still likes to do things

exactly like her sisters.

Very early on we knew she was her 'own' type of girl.

Kirstin= motherly and responsible

Kaveri=sweet and girly

Kylie=a very cool crazy chick

MiKayla= not so sure yet?

She gets about 6 black eyes a year.

Warning: running while looking backwards can lead to bodily injury

As Kylie is demonstrating here:

This happened during a game of tag.

She got tagged and fell bumping her face.

Every night Kylie must have her purse and purple hat on her bed.

Her clothes and shoes picked out for the next day.

All of her stuffed animals lined up.

If even one is missing she cannot rest until it is found and in it's proper place.

As soon as she wakes up she dresses herself and comes downstairs

with her purse and hat in tow.

If we go anywhere she must have them.

And she totes them in to the store.

The only way I can get her to leave her purse in the car is if

I leave my purse in the car. 

She challenges me as a parent.

So on the days were it takes Kylie various punishments to obey.

 Those days where I feel like she cannot / must not be able to hear my voice.

 I remember that God gave us Kylie with her very

strong personality for a reason.
He has plans for her.

That her future is bright.

That she is my baby.

And I love her.

Proverbs 22:6          
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Psalm 112     
Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.

Jeremiah 29:11     
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

AMEN!