wrapping paper and snowscapes

This year we've tried out some of the crafts over at the Creative Christmas Countdown, as I've said in an earlier post. It's been good for me to have intentional craft/baking/Christmas cartoon watching/etc time with the kids. This season can get away from all of us, so being intentional in this area has been great as a reminder to slllooowww dowwwwnnn. We have used some of the ideas as inspiration and some as is. It has been fun and very low stress, including decorating wrapping paper with acrylic paints in the floor of our galley kitchen. We had paint in lots of places, but I got it all cleaned up before Daddy got home! I am slowly learning that a mess is worthwhile if I'm enjoying my children and life. I'd rather have a little bit of a mess than be high strung and snappy because my house doesn't look the way I feel like it should. I feel like I am learning this lesson over and over again...guess that means I haven't mastered it yet! No worries. 

 We bought craft paper and used acrylic paints and cookie cutter to stamp Christmas-y designs

 This is where is got crazy. We hand stamped the paper and it was all over Hb! Zeke did a great job staying relatively clean, but Hb, eh eh. My freak out moment was when I found some in her hair, because as you know, her hair is glorious, but time consuming to clean and style. I don't have time for acrylic paint in Afro-puffs!

Another day we used very watered down Mod Podge to paint white tissue on the window for the little gel penguins and snowmen to play on. Easy cheap and very easy to clean up. I failed to take an after picture. Whoopsy. On a side note...I love that Hb is wearing footie pajamas. She loves those things and they're just so darn adorable!

Creative Christmas #2 and just plain Merriness!

 I have been wanting to make these for a couple of years and just haven't gotten around to it until this year. Cinnamon applesauce ornaments. I made them when I was in first grade and they still smell cinnamony! So we did it! It was super easy, festive, and our house smelled amazing. Here's Hb helping roll out the cinnamon dough...crazy how applesauce and cinnamon are all you need for the recipe. Note Zeke in the background eyeing a bag of Red Hots. We are addicted to them around here!

Here's our finished project! 

What do you think Linc?

 I love how the kids are so into Christmas this year. I love that Zeke was so eager to help decorate the tree and asked all day to hang the star. I love that our tree is full of fun Hallmark ornaments and that the kids think they are so very fun and hang them in clumps at the bottom of the tree. 

 My fabulous sister did something really wonderful for us this year. She made an Advent ornament set for us. Each day we open up an ornament that she made with one of Jesus' names on it, read a verse, and hang it up. She made 26 ornaments in all and they are all so wonderful! I have such an amazing family. 

 The Joy Boy happily looking on

The Moose is four months old this merry week! I cannot believe it! It's just going too fast! I could just eat him up. He is so very yummy!

Creative Christmas Countdown

We are ATTEMPTING to get our craft on this Christmas. EmPHAsis on the ATTEMPTING. I am totally addicted to Pinterest and love trying out the things I find on there whether it's recipes, crafts, clothes, or going to my "HA!" board when I need a good laugh. I found this blog via Pinterest that sends you easy crafts to do with your kids during Christmas time. This sounded like a good idea for me since I am trying to spend more intentional time with Z and Hb since "the Moose" has come home to us.

 So here's our first one: cute little gingerbread men decorated by the kids...

A sparkly princess one and a Ninja Turtle one...ha! I love it. 

 I told them to go stand behind their gingerbread people, so she did! That's funny. And yes, that is a Santa suit Zeke is dressed up in. 

Happy Birthday HB!!

Can't believe this little girl is 4! She is sassy, so loving to her family, has such a cute voice, is brave and fearless, gushes joy, and has such a sensitive heart which at her age comes out in the form of whines and tears  a whole lot. What the Lord has reminded me of lately is she will not likely grow up into a whiny, emotional mess of a girl, but instead one full of compassion and passion who learns what to do with all those emotions. I have had to learn and am still learning how to do that and I can see how the Lord is using Hb to tweak that side of me through my emotion-full daughter. So privileged to get to be her mama. 

October was awesome!

So. Here's why I have to keep this blog up. I went to a site called Blog2Print and made all my past posts, up through 2011, into a book. It is such a great keepsake. This blog really is a journal of our life full of little moments. Those little moments just blur into oneness for me until I look back at that book and remember the good, bad, and the ugly times we've been through. It is a space for comic relief during the crazy moments of motherhood where I take note in my mind to take a picture and write about it instead of pulling my own and someone else's hair out...case in point of this is a picture you'll soon see of Hb JUMPING out of a window. Lawd. Without further adieu, to the pictures already, lady!

Look at that cutie! Here's what's so adorable about this picture, besides the adorably plump face in it...

...we made the same shot with Z five years ago! Love it.

 I am not so big on Halloween, BUT we have to do SOMETHING, since Z dresses up 365 days a year. So we go to Fall Festivals and if we go to multiples, Z's costumes are different...it's just so HARD to DECIDE who to be! Hb was all kinds of happy about being a CareBear. Ha! 

 My mom and dad have some super fall fallen foliage...say that three times fast...which always allows the good times to roll. Leaves in the face. Boo-ya. 

 Love those leaves...but NOT in the hair. Ohhh no. That's why Hb has on her hat...protect the hairstyle. Curly hair does not like crumpled crunchy leaves. 

 Yes, here we are again, preparing for another Fall festival, but we have a different Avenger. Captain America AND the Hulk...check out those tiny tattered pants. 

 So pretty. 

 That's not any ordinary wall of  pillows, that's a beaver dam my friends. Nothing says imaginative play like building a beaver dam in the den. 

 How can you make pizza without the proper uniform?! Good thinking, Hb.

 Oh, looka there. Another pair of Avengers. Note the little lady Thor's left eye is ever so slightly puffy. That's because the previous day at the Clemson game a yellow jacket stung her on her temple. For real. Blasted bee.

 The Joy Boy is full of smiles and chuckles. He is YUMMY.

 This is how the little fella and I travel around a lot. I love it and so does he. I love snuggling this little moose.

 Ooooh, nice rock!

 Z purposefully dressed like an apple with the whole green and red thing. Of course he did. He is so themed it cracks me up.

 What's that in mid-air. Oh, that's just my daughter jumping out of a six foot window. No biggie. 

 Waiting in line for those delicious apple cider donuts. They are worth every bit of that 45 min wait.

These two can sure drive me bonkers, but I wouldn't trade my life for any other. I love getting to have them around. They teach me, they keep me centered on the important things like saying I'm sorry,  laughing hard, playing and having fun, and extending kindness whether it's deserved or not. And because of the grace of God, He saw it fit that I get to teach them, too. It's pretty amazing and I am thankful! 

some pics of our new normal

 He's soooo yummy!

 Science experiment!

 Clearly, very into wearing all types of goggle

We are doing pretty good adjusting to the stork's delivery! The hardest part is adjusting to the high needs of a newborn while meeting the needs of two preschoolers, two adults, and the house. The house. Ha! I laugh at that! That's the least of my concerns these days!

Let's backtrack for a moment

So much has happened since Zeke's birthday on August 2nd, but I don't want to just skip past it! Zeke's 5 yr old Super Hero Birthday Party was a smash hit! It was fun and funny, complete with plenty of super heroes, super hero obstacle course training, super food, villain smackdown tag, and swimming. At a comic book store here in Greenville, I found old comic books for $1 a piece and made them into placemats for party favors. They also made great penants which hung around as decoration, but we didn't capture those. I had SO much fun putting together this party, but even MORE fun pretending to be the General Overseer of the Heroes in Training. I mean, I'm starting to think Z likes to be in character so much because of a nurture thing, not a nature thing...

 My sis made these awesome cupcakes...my favorite ones were the SpiderMan ones...so impressive...last year she made incredible Kung Fu Panda ones...just saying, if you ever need someone to bake some super yummy homemade cupcakes and decorate them adorably, she's your gal.

 We also ate Wonder Dogs (corn dogs), Power Bombs (grapes), POP!corn, SpiderMan berries (strawberries), Bat cutouts of cheese...it was fun coming up with themed food

 I made some green colored ice cubes to make it super hulky

 Super Heroes coming face to face

Hulk SMASH! Those Hulk fists from Aunt Ya Ya Yee were a hit!

 Supers preparing for training

On the Obstacle Course the Supers trained by...

 shooting Repulsor Blasts at the target (silly string)

 Swung and climbed like SpiderMan

 Flew up the mountain (climbed up the ladder) to Asgard (the treehouse) and slid back down to Earth though the clouds (balloons)

 Used the Hulk fists to SMASH a balloon

 Balanced our way across a beam like Black Widow

 Leaped over tall buildings like SuperMan

 Me too, me too!!

 

Hit the Bullseye like Hawkeye would

 Threw shields into the sand pit like Captain America

 And THEN we played pin the shield on Captain America, per Wonder Boy's (Zeke) request...every boy had a name...here you see Danger Davis being spun around

Hmmm. Not exactly the right place Danger Davis. 

 THEN, a villain known as the Riddler, escaped from prison and the Supers had to use their skills they'd been sharpening to track down and capture the villain using Water Balloons of Justice.

For this post, I tried to pick the best pictures of CMize flailing his body around

 DEFEAT.

 Love this picture with all our 4 and 5 year old supers!

 Captain America popsicles

Just soaking it all in...

It was a 5th birthday to remember!