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12.31.2011

December Daily pages 21-25

Here's the last set of my December Daily album pages...

Jubal made me a sweet holiday card at school so I had to add it to the album :)


Day 22

 Day 23

 Day 24

Day 25 - Merry Christmas

I had fun compiling my first December Daily album and I look forward to making one every December from here on out.  It turned out to be an easy and fun new way to capture the spirit of the season.

That's one chunky album ;)

Here's to 2011, bring on 2012!

12.25.2011

a simple wish

From my family to yours...



I hope all of you merry blog readers out there have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

12.24.2011

christmas eve evening

We spent the day at home doing a few chores here and there, playing outside, relaxing on the couch, and I cooked a ham and a few other family favorites for our Christmas Eve dinner tonight.  It was yummy!  After their baths we let the kids open a small gift.  This year they got Slinkies and wooden farm figures to paint.


 They wanted to paint them right away so that's what we did!  It was fun :)


 Jubal working hard on his tractor.

 Garrison painted a barn

and Avery painted a horse! 

We had a great Christmas Eve at home, all by ourselves with the kids, very cozy and relaxed, just the way it should be ;)

Merry Christmas!

12.21.2011

December Daily pages 16-20

 Day 16 - An ordinary day with a very early bedtime :)

Day 17 - I had a lot of pics from going to the Holiday Lights Fair...

 so I included them by placing them on tags and stringing the tags through the back of the page.

I love using tags for adding lots of tiny pics to an album or page :)

Day 18 - I started receiving Christmas cards so I wanted to include them in the album

 Day 19 - A little baking with the kiddos

Here's the spread where I included the Christmas cards

Day 20 - some last minute errands and preparations...the kids will be out of school tomorrow! Yikes!

12.20.2011

another Christmas craft

The kids and I did another Christmas craft this weekend.  We painted trees on canvas and decorated them using all sorts of found objects, buttons, pom-poms, glitter stickers, etc.

Left to right - Mine (yes, I had fun some fun too), Avery's, Garrison's, and Jubal's

 Jubal had a small meltdown during the painting process, so he was in time out for awhile...

Avery and Garrison had a blast painting their trees!




The finished product!

Five more days!!!

12.19.2011

more smashing

I've been smashing a bit more with the 2011 photos that I haven't had time to scrap...I found this has been the easiest way so I can get all caught up before 2012!  I gave my little photo printer quite a workout last weekend ;)

 Some random vacation pics.

Avery playing with my mom's old dollhouse for the first time.

Pics of my sister and her husband pre-baby.

and pics of them post-baby :)

Just some random pics of my sweet little niece Maria Rose :)  Isn't she darling?

This Smashbook stuff is so addicting that I can't wait to start on my next one!

Happy Monday everyone!

12.17.2011

December Daily pages 11-15

I've had a much easier time staying caught up with my December Daily Album this week...

Day 11 and 12

This is the inside of Day 12...I added the Instax photo to the inside flap of the envelope.

 Day 13 and 14

Day 14...the penguin tag in the previous photo folds over to reveal the cupcake photo.

Day 15 is a two page spread.

Happy Saturday, Christmas is 8 days away!





12.14.2011

our christmas tree

We opted for a real tree this year...our first real tree! 

Isn't she a beauty?  It's a 7ft. Canaan Fir.

 All decorated!


We ordered it online from a Christmas tree farm in West Virginia.  It was delivered by FedEx on the day we picked during the ordering process in long box and took a grand total of 15 minutes to put up!  Super easy and very reasonably priced, plus I don't have to store it all year long in a cramped closet ;)  This is a new tradition we'll definitely be continuing next year!

Happy decorating!

12.13.2011

christmas crafting with the kiddos

I was digging around in some Christmas decor boxes last week (looking for the Christmas tree ornaments) when I found a decorate-your-own felt snowman ornament making kit I had purchased waaaaay back in July when Hobby Lobby put all their holiday decor out.  Score!!!  So I decided the kids and I would have a "crafty day" over the weekend to mix up the usual routine and make these cute little fellas' to hang on our tree...


All in all, they were fairly easy to make...tie on the scarf, stick on the felt pieces, insert red cord through pre-cut hole to hang on tree, etc.  Not too difficult or time consuming, which was perfect for my two, four, and nine year olds :)   (A few of the sticky-backed pieces didn't want to stick so we did have to break out a little craft glue for those :)  Six came in a pack so each kid got to make two snowmen...

Garrison and Jubal with their creations.  

Due to a medium-sized fit threw moments before I broke out the camera, Avery refused participating in the documenting process via my camera so, oh well, maybe next time!

This craft could also be made by scratch (without an actual kit) very easily using felt, scraps of fabric, thread, a snowman body pattern, buttons, poly fill, etc.  It would take a while longer to prep, but if you have the stuff laying around I think it would be fun to put together!

I do believe there is another kit somewhere containing gingerbread people, so if I find it before the end of the week we will be doing another "crafty day" this weekend :)

What crafty Christmas things have you been making?

12.12.2011

december daily Pages 6-10

Happy Monday everyone!  Just think, two weeks from today and Christmas will already be over...I think that's a really weird thought, but I wanted to it share anyway :)

Here is the next round of my December Daily album that I got to work on this past weekend...
 Day 6 and 7

Day 8...I layered a lot of little accents on this page to keep it interesting...


See how I layered the journaling tag in this pic?

Day 9 and 10

Last Thursday we got our tree up and decorated and Saturday my hubby and I got our Christmas shopping done...In. One. Day.  It was a very productive weekend :) Hope yours was too!


12.07.2011

diy simple garland

I made this fun garland to hang in the new and improved playroom :)  It was super simple! 



I went to JoAnn Fabrics last week and found the felt snowflakes and stockings in the dollar bin by the checkout lane.  I found the white fluffy trim in the holiday decoration aisle.  All I had to do was punch holes in the top of the felt snowflakes so I could tie baker's twine through them to hang on the white trim (I think it looks like icicles!).  Then I hot glued pieces of the white trim onto the stockings because they definitely needed a little sumpin' sumpin'.  I also bought some colorful candy canes to put into the stockings, but re-thought that idea as it would probably cause more harm than good with the three candy mongrels that I live with :)


Looks like I'm getting into the holiday spirit!