Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Pj's

Each year on Christmas eve we allow the kids to open on gift. Magically it always ends up being a new pair of pajamas. Now how does that happen I wonder?? lol Smart Mommy! My parents did that each year for us, and this way our kids look adorable in all the Christmas morning pictures! This year, with the boy's going to Jon's for Christmas break ment that they needed to be able to open those on the 19th before Dad came to get them. Believe me, them leaving....KILLED me. I cried....oooooh, only a bit! Ha ha, come on, Momma's pregnant, those hormones are ever present, (I waited to cry until they were gone though..lol).



Michael got a pair of Spider Man pj's, Cody got G.I. Joe (which Matty calls, Gee-ji- joe, which I LOVE!), and Matty got Toy story pj's! They all loved their jammies, and hated having to leave the mountain of gifts unopened under our mini tree to go to Dad's but they will still get to open their gifts January 2nd when they come home. Matty was very excited to go one minute and the next crying about leaving Mommy and Matt for Christmas. Separate households is....hard to say the least. Matty laid by the screen door in his pj's and coat waiting for Dad to get there. I am so glad they do have a Father in their lives who wants to be there for them and that they are happy to spend time with him, but my selfish little heart misses them ever so much. ~Sigh~




We also purchased some awesome yard sale finds, Matty showed them off in pictures for us, Vanna White style but so far the picture uploader isnt' working for me.
He's super excited about his baby Aidan coming soon and loves showing off his baby brother's things. $3.00 and we got 3 baby blankets (brand new oshkosh) and the aquarium play tunnel. I'm usually really picky about yard sale finds, if it doesn't look or smell clean I just can't bring myself to buy them and fortunately this woman had taken care of her things, washed them all and they were SPOTLESS and my little OCD heart was able to submit and let me buy them..YIPPEE!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Choir and School Christmas programs.





In December Michael's school choir had 4 performances. He was so proud of himself and his choir. It's so nice to see him really flourish with this group. He absolutely loves to sing and being in choir is his favorite part of school right now. They had one performance at a local Baptist church with a VERY charismatic pastor. It was televised and we are still waiting for the DVD that they are making for the families. During the performance Cody about peed himself laughing. He's used to church services being more......quiet I suppose, and all the yelling and very boisterous preaching from the pastor had Cody rolling. It was quite a feat to get him to sit still. Michael was so proud of himself. During an intermission the Pastor asked if any of the kids wanted to have a solo and whose hand shot up 1st? Michael's! He sang "I am a child of God", it was TOO cute! He got some of the lyrics wrong but it was so sweet and I was so proud that he had no fear! His choir also preformed at the mall in Alexandria the next Saturday, and they were ever so cute! Two more performances at his school during lunch time for the 3rd and 4th grades to round out the holiday season performances. The video's are from the Mall.

Michael baby we are so proud of you!


Matty's pre-k class put on a holiday program as well. It was ADORABLE! As you can see they were dressed up as little Rudolph the red nosed reindeer's and it was too cute!
Cody's class unfortunately didn't do any extra holiday things. They did however have the token Christmas party and his teacher was sweet and sent home goodie bags and hot chocolate mugs for each kid so he felt special.

Also Santa letters came for the boy's and they were very excited! Aren't they cute!!! Yes I know the video is a tad long..lol

Friday, December 18, 2009

St. Nickolas Day





































Once again that time of year has come and gone and my little boy's got spoiled by St. Nick. The pictures say it all, they had a lovely sugar high, and posed for a few pictures like good little sports and we got to continue another family tradition.

Nana~ Grandaddy~ & Thanksgiving






































































































































































































































































































































I'm a little behind in my posts so I will attempt to play catch up over the next week as will have WAY more time on my hands than I would like. This year is the year Jon will get the boy's for their 1st Christmas away from me. Frankly my heart is breaking knowing they will spend the entire 2 week holiday away from us, but I can't be selfish and assume that their being away from their Dad on holiday's isn't just as painful for him. It's his turn for the memories and my turn to try and find a way to deal with it. So over the holiday break I should have plenty of time to do updates. Just plan on a late Christmas post, as we will be waiting to celebrate and open gifts until the boy's come home January 2nd.





For now I have got to say thank you. Thank you Mom and Dad Morris for coming out here! It's anything but a short trip that they made to drive from Florida to Lousiana. With all my health concerns and those for our littlest little one, Mom was able to come help take care of me while on bed rest for a whole 3 weeks. Dad drove her out here on his very few days off, and I appreciate that more than anyone will really know. I know how hard working he is and for him to just make the time to get out here, and not only drive her, but to help clean our home, and have quality time with the kids even though he was running on about 4 hours of sleep in who knows how many days. Mom was SUCH a trooper! I can't fathom how hard it must have been to be displaced and helping out someone else (esp who is so ocd as I am) with 3 small kids. I never had to worry about things being picked up or cleaned. It made it really easy to stick to my bedrest and for me that is extremly hard! The kids had such a blast with her here and the little bit of time they got to spend with Grandaddy too. They would have loved for more time with him as well but they understand. We all wish we lived closer so we could do more family things, and help you guys out, maybe some day! Once again, THANK YOU Mom and Dad. We love you so much!





While Mom was here we were able to do some really fun little holiday crafts, family pictures and Thanksgiving dinner. We had a lot of fun. I love my awesome family and we have so much fun together!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Christmas Advent Calendars


Matthew and Aidan's

Michael and Cody's


Random picture of Michael set for another blog entry but I can't seem to remove it..lol







finished.






steaming the iron on webbing along the sides.






Fold the top corners in and under.
Fold the sides under so the whole thing is about 4-5 inches wide, whichever you like best just make sure it's straight.













Fold the ends under and iron in place.
















All the different ribbons and threads, glue sticks, iron on webbing and sticker letters to go on the wooden letters.



























































A few years ago my sister Amy had me come over and helped me make these cute advent calendars but sadly mine didn't hold up as well as I would have liked so this time around I took a bit more time and effort and am very pleased with them. On average the material cost $1.48-$2.00 for each calendar, then $0.47-$1.97 for each spool of ribbon ( it took about a spool and a tiny bit more for each calendar). $2.50 for each letter at the top, and $2.47 for the toll paint and polyurethane to give it a satin finish. Then between $0.47-$1.47 in buttons for each one. $2.00 box of 100 mini candy canes, and a $5.00 bag of mini tootsie rolls (which did enough candy for 15 advent calendars) I bought two larger pieces of candy to go at the top of each calendar for Christmas eve and Christmas day. My Mother in Law Lisa didn't do letters at the top of hers. She used a small ribbon looped and sewn on with a button and they looked adorable too!

Turn the material length wise and fold it in half. Iron it perfectly flat. Fold under the bottom edges about 1/4 inch and iron in place, fold sides under towards each other and iron in place. same with the top. Then on each side at the top fold the top two corners under at an angle and iron under. Using Iron on webbing cut stripes that are long enough for the top, bottom, sides and angles along the top. Using the iron on steam hold it in place on top of the material for 10 seconds until it fuses the sides together. Measure 25 spaces for each ribbon to be either hot glued or sewn in place. I sewed mine because frankly I'm on bed rest and have nothing better to do. Mean while each of the kids and I painted out own letters, and polyurethaned them. Using hot glue and ribbons we attached the wooden letters to the larger ribbons and then sewed the ribbons in place with buttons and all that's left is to tie on your candies and hang them. I love the look of them and each kid got to pick their own materials. Sadly all we have here to pick from is wally world. Had I been close to a hobby lobby or a Michael's or Hancock's fabric I'm sure we could have gone all out. But I'm rather pleased with how they tuned out. Email me at cute_sassafrass@yahoo.com if you have any questions. Have fun!