Cookies or Christmas Ornaments!?

Aren't these totally AWESOME!? I think so. The kids classes are putting together Christmas baskets that are going to be auctioned off at their Winter Festival, the pre-school basket theme is "Trim your Tree". We were going to go to the Dollar store and pick out some stuff, but I was dragging my feet! I decided to check out some of the craft blogs that I follow and I found these Salt Dough Ornaments over at Little Miss Crafty Pants, I had all the stuff to make them so I gave it a shot and thought they turned out "oh so very cute!".

Don't they look good enough to eat?If you want to get the recipe for these bad boys click here Little Miss Crafty Pants.

Ellie's new toy!

I often ask myself why do I buy toys for my kids? Really they can entertain themselves anything can be a toy especially for a young baby like Ellie who is fascinated by pretty much anything.

This is Ellie's new fascination. Apparently it makes a really cool "twanging" noise that is oodles of fun!

She will play with it for hours if I let her. She's also discovered that she can open and close the door with it, which is a total delight!And the best part is I always know where she is because of the "twanging" noise!

I am thinking of mounting one to a block of wood, that way she can take it with her! Although I think the noise would get on my nerves after awhile!

Rainy days

Since it was over cast and rainy today I decided to take it as an invitation to be lounge around in my pajama's and be lazy, the kids really enjoyed this since it next to never happens, we all stayed in our jammies grab some blankets, and some hot cocoa and had a Christmas movie marathon it was great! Even though I love the rain we are receiving, I am bummed that it has to rain the week we are to get our outside pictures done!

Saturday we decided to give Ellie her first pickle, I grabbed my camera figuring she was going to give me a "sour" face but instead I got a"Mmmm" and this....

Yup that's right she LOVED the pickle, I didn't even get a little bit of "sour" face out of her, and look at her gnaw on that thing!After the pickle we decided to give her a little bit of Mac and Cheese since she kept starin at the kids and makin funny noises, and of course she LOVED that as well she was shoveling it in her mouth so darn fast! I just can't believe how big she is already, she will be 1 next month, it's just so hard to believe. Dana grew up with the German tradition of St. Nicholas day (6th of December), where the kids leave their shoes out at night and then St. Nicholas fills them with candy and toys. Sunday was St. Nicholas day, here are the kids shoes all lined up! Isn't Ellie's shoe just the cutes thing ever it's so tiny, I was surprised at how much candy was in there! Kaleb decided that he couldn't sleep in his bed, he joined Dana and I at 1 in the morning and I didn't feel like putting him back to bed so I let him sleep with us. He woke up around 5 and discovered the candy in his and his sisters shoes! Let's just say he was VERY energetic all day Sunday!

Dana had this extra clip thingy that his work ID goes on, so I decided to make it into a Binky clasp for Ellie. I really like it cause you can pull the string out as long as ya need it but then when ya let go it zings back in, and that way the Binky doesn't get dragged on the floor or wrapped around Ellie's neck! So anyway this is what it looked like before......

and this is after (sorry not the best pictures).I thought it turned out pretty good and the little metal clasp on the back holds really well so it doesn't come off her clothes easily!The kids classes are putting together some Christmas baskets that are going to be auctioned off at their Winter Festival, the theme for the pre-school basket is "Trim the Tree" so they want things that you would decorate the tree with, originally I was going to just take the kids to the Dollar store and let them pick out some ornaments or garland, but then I saw these really cute ornaments on a blog and I had everything to make them so I decided to give it a try, I will post pictures tomorrow when they are all done.

Sheesh!

Today has been a really busy day, we were all up around 5:30 this morning! The kids heard Dana getting ready for work so they thought "hey how bout we all get up!" and that was that. I definitely NOT a morning person, unless I have something planned or it's a school day I generally sleep in as late as my kids will allow! Anyway so we got up, I got the rest of the laundry done, house cleaned, and the kids bathed all by 7:00 a.m. which was actually kind of nice, then I lounged around in my pajama's till Dana got home around 1:30 p.m.. I did finally get dressed when I decided to go clean out the car!! We finally got the windows on the passenger side of the car up WAHOO!! They aren't fixed mind you but at least they are up and trips out of the house don't require blankets and winter gear, we still need to get the parts to fix the windows, but right now there are some other more pressing things we need to do to the car before our trip to Idaho (13 more days!!) so that comes first. Anyway so since the windows are up I can actually clean it and it will stay that way, it was soooo filthy it took me an hr and a half SHEESH! Once the inside was clean we took it over to the car wash by our house to vacuum it out, I didn't want to risk ruining my vacuum(yes it was that BAD), it does look very nice now and it smells "oh so lemony fresh!" I love now hopefully it will stay pretty clean till our trip to Idaho(13 more days *giggle*). I hate having a dirty car besides driving me INSANE it embarrasses me, just cause I have kids doesn't mean my car has to look like a pig pen!! And really the kids aren't the problem, it's my hubby he just throws anything and everything on the floor, I took out more of his sweaters and jackets then kids toys!!Anyway now I can rest a little easier now that the car is clean (it was buggin me that much!).

In other news Kaleb snuck into my bedroom(which I could have sworn was locked) and pulled out the boxes of Christmas presents (which were in the top of the closet) and unwrapped every single one YUP every one! I bet you can guess how mad I was right!? Kaleb spent most of his afternoon in time-out, and he now has to earn his presents back, I told him if he isn't good then he won't get any presents at all cause I will tell Santa not to bring him any! Needless he was a much better listener and helper the rest of the day, hopefully it will last!

Dane got the rest of the Christmas lights up today and they look pretty good, not perfect mind you but it looks nice. I got Kaleb's bathrobe cut out, hopefully I can get everything else cut out and done before the trip (13 days!! *giggle,giggle*), I have a couple of skirts I need to make by Tuesday though so the winter clothes are going to have to wait a couple of days. We are going to get some family pictures done on Tuesday, the boys are going to wear black shirts, and the girls are going to wear pink shirts with pink, black and white sheer skirts over black tights and they will have bows that match too. I can picture it in my head I can't wait!! Tomorrow is my day to totally rest and rest I shall! Have a great weekend! Oh yeah and don't forget to check out me GIVEAWAY at Goldylocks and her 2 girls!

Ryne and her imagination!

This girl...

cracks me up!! Marryne has quite an imagination, I always her hear talking to herself or her "little friends" which could be anything by the way like tooth brushes, combs, hair brushes, toothpaste, wash clothes, and some toys to but really she plays with EVERYTHING, I really don't think there is anything in this house that she couldn't find entertaining. Aside from playing she uses her imagination to come up with concept like how we had her baby sister, this is her explanation "Mommy went to the Dr. cause she touched banana's, and then baby Ellie popped out, if mommy touches a lots of banana's we are gonna have lots of babies!" no lie that's what she thinks, now we could correct her and tell her how it REALLY works, but both my hubby and I decided we are not quite ready for that talk yet! Oh yeah and for those of you who don't know I am allergic to banana's! I love my girl and her imagination!

Along with Ryne's imagination comes attitude which my mother would tell you she got from me(which I'm sure she did)! Yesterday we ran to Big Lots to get some stuff to make Christmas gifts, when we were leaving the store Ryne saw a man that looked a lot like Santa driving a Suburban she asked me if it was Santa and I said I didn't think so,to which she replied with "He may not be wearing his red suit and I don't know where his reindeer are, but that was him MOMMY!!! after I giggled I said "oh yea!?" she said yes and then continued to ask many questions like "Why wasn't he wearing his suit?","where are his reindeer?","what was he doing in the store?Didn't the elves make all the toys?", to which I replied "He only wears his red suit on Christmas Eve and Christmas, his reindeer are at the north pole resting, maybe there are some things the elves can't make and that's why he was at the store". She was quiet for a few minutes so I thought the conversation was over until she said "well that's DUMB!" What? we asked, she said "that his reindeer are resting, I mean really they only work 2 days a year how much resting could they need!? I really wanted to see his reindeer, and I think that he doesn't wear the red suit all the time cause it makes him look FAT I mean really really FAT, and those elves need to go to school to learn how to make the really cool stuff so that Santa doesn't have to come out with out all of his gear!!" to this my only response was to laugh, she dropped the subject after that and hasn't really talked about it since, now I am wondering when we go to take her to see Santa if she is going to tell him what she thinks, if so I think she is going to get coal this year!! :)

To side track a bit I am doing a giveaway on my hair blog Goldylocks and her 2 girls check it out maybe you will win!!

Stuff my shirt and call me Santa!!

This morning as we were patiently waiting for the bus to come Kaleb ran past me into the laundry room, saying "I need a towel" he takes the towel into his room (I figured he spilled something) and comes out like this!

Kaleb :"HOHOHO I'm Santa!!!" Marryne "No you isn't!" Kaleb: "Yes I is, See my bellie!""HOHOHO MERRY CHRISTMAS!!"

He cracks me up!! My life would be so boring without my lovable joker Kaleb!!

Thanksgiving Week!!

This week has been so awesome!! Dana only worked on Monday, Tuesday we went to the kids class parties which was a lot of fun! Wednesday we went for a walk in the desert and just enjoyed spending quality time with each other, I did a lot of pre-cooking so that I could enjoy Thanksgiving the next day. I decided to start a new Thanksgiving tradition, cinnamon rolls for breakfast! I did all the prep on Wednesday so that all I had to do was throw them in the oven Thursday morning, I got up at 5 so the kids could have fresh cinnamon rolls when they woke up, it was totally worth it, it was a great way to start the day and the kids LOVED it!!

I got to watch most of the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade with the kids, while Dana went and played football(Turkey Bowl) at the church, he had a blast and so did the kids they really enjoyed all the cool things they saw in the parade.

I decided to make homemade crescent rolls this year, I thought they turned out pretty good what do you think!?

Everyone really enjoyed dinner, Kaleb only had turkey but he loved it, even Ellie got try a little bit of everything!! She loved the turkey and carrots :)Not the best picture, but this was the best pie EVER!!! It was a pumpkin pecan pie, I decided not to make a crust for it since Dane isn't doing a lot of carbs and it was wonderful!!!The kids got to break the wishbone and this was the result.......We figured either they both got their wish or neither one got their wish. Dane had never seen one brake like this, I think the kids might have pulled a little too hard.:)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and so much to be thankful for. Another tradition for us is to put up the tree on Thanksgiving, I didn't think we would manage it this year but to my surprise we did, the kids had a blast and Ellie was intrigued!

We don't go shopping on Friday so we took the kids to the park, when we got home we made homemade noodles for our traditional Turkey Noodle soup, the kids really loved cranking out the noodles.

Tomorrow is our 6th year wedding anniversary and what better way to celebrate then the got to the wards Turkey shoot (I'll post pictures later when I get them). It was a lot of fun and I was the only girl there and I beat 4 guys and YES Dana was among them!! YAHOO it was a blast and I realized how much I truly miss going shooting. We also enjoyed the time away from our kids, so our anniversary will end what was a really perfect week!!