Life Shut Down Part 3

Cade is using the people from the nativity scene to practice his marksmanship. I need to go "save" baby Jesus. When I bought the nativity for the kids to play with, this is not quite what I had in mind.

(apologies for no pictures; our camera is broken and we are debating if we should just buy the replacement part for $30 or spend $150-200 on a camera.)

Life Shut Down Part Deux

Ok. So I'm not feeling sorry for myself anymore. Yea me!

I was online at the font garden and giggled at all the funny sayings. The owners of the site have typed out phrases and quotes to display each font, and it's pretty funny.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
• Last night, as I lay in bed looking up at the stars, I thought, "Where in the h*ll is the ceiling?"
• An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
• Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. --Otto von Bismarck
• Diplomacy: the art of someone having it your way.
• Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.
• We're going to turn this team around 360 degrees. --Jason Kidd

Hope you enjoyed them.

Life Shut Down

Somewhere in the metroplex area there is a 1 inch square piece of ice on concrete; thus, the whole place has shut down.

oy.

Three kids. At home all day. No playing outside (it won't get above freezing until late this afternoon). Claire is sick. Jack is teetering on the edge of being sick.

This will be a slow, painful death.

Feeling Crafty?

I have been wanting to make an advent calendar for a couple of years now, but surprisingly, I have never found the time. I was recently charged with coming up with a few Christmas craft ideas to present to the ladies at church; Finally, I had a deadline. And people were counting on me. Guess it was time to actually start this project.

If you search "make advent calendar" or "advent calendar craft", hundreds of ideas will be brought to you in .23 seconds (at least that's how long Google took). But there was one style of calendar that really caught me eye: an advent calendar made on a cookie sheet. Yes, a cookie sheet that you bake cookies on. Before you roll your eyes and go to your bookmarks to read about something much more interesting than a homemade craft made on a cooking utensil, take a look at this:



Is that not amazing? Even if you're not into handmade items, you still have to admit that it's pretty dang cute.

Short of the story: I made the calendar, and it's adorable! It took me waaaaay longer than it should have, but that is due to my anal nature. It was a hit with the ladies at church, and I think some of them might actually try it!

The other two ideas that I present to the ladies were a little less involved. The craft for the craft-averse was to turn an ornament into a oil diffuser. Ideally, you'd take a flat-bottomed ornament, pour scented oil at least halfway, and then stick several reeds (not bamboo skewers or wood dowels; it needs to be reed) inside, and oi la. You have a room freshener that won't burn your house down or cause cancer (and whatever other criminal acts defenseless candles are accused of). If you can't find a flat-bottomed ornament, you could place a round ornament on top of a napkin ring to steady it.

The last idea was medium in skill level. And it is a precious book that my Great Aunt Lou (who passed away almost a year ago) made for me when I was just one year old. It is a Christmas ABCs book.



Basically, it's a scrapbook (she covered the outside with felt and decorated it). And each set of pages is devoted to a letter of the alphabet. Included is a short rhyming poem and pictures from old Christmas cards that coordinate with the poem.



This was one of my favorite things to unearth out of the Christmas decoration boxes each year. The time and energy she put into it was precious to me.

If you'd like to make this but don't have any Christmas cards saved, ask around. You can also cut pictures out of magazines (on a few pages, my Great Aunt Lou had to do this as well) or print pictures on your printer from the internet.

Another craft that just came to mind that I did 6 or 7 years ago was make a centerpiece. All I did was buy the clear round glass ornaments and some craft paint in Christmasy colors (paint intended for glass would work better, but the craft paint does OK. Red green and silver look great!). I took the tops off the ornaments and squeezed one color at a time into each ornament and rotated the ornament around so that the paint would kind of swirl inside. After that color had completely dried, I did the same with the other colors (try to use at least 3 colors per ornament). Put the tops back on and put all the ornaments in a cute bowl. If you have any evergreen laying around (maybe from trimming the bottom of the treee), stick a few sprigs into the bowl to give it some texture.

I am done channeling Martha Stewart. We now resume our regularly sheduled program, already in progress.

A Hunting We Will Go

Not hunting for Bambi. For a Christmas tree! We went to the Wintergreen Tree Farm (see my earlier post for info on this great place), and hunted us down a real good 'ne. The pictures didn't turn out as well as the tree did. But hey. You don't come here for award-winning photography, do you? On that same rabbit trail, what do you come here for?

Enjoy our chilly hunting expedition!




Claire's got quite a belly on her...


The boys sword fight will Scott drags our kill out to the driveway for pick-up.

Genuine smiles are still elusive in our family...



Love this pic. So precious!

There's Something Really Wrong...

...with these pictures. Oh let me count the ways... Possible monetary reward for the best captions.




And for the record, Cade wanted me to fix him up with the "diaper." He did not, however, request that it be a thong diaper. That's just how the chips fell. Blackmail material? Certainly.

Awwwwwww

Cade just adores his little sister. And she is pretty smitten with him. They both love to hug each other. And Cade will often bring a toy to Claire if she's crying (which is all the time -- that girl thinks she's got a right to whatever she wants! what genetic pool could she have stolen that trait from?!?). It's just downright sweet. Enjoy the love. Awwwwww....

Happy Halloween!

Ok. So Halloween was over a month ago. But our boys are just now brave enough to try the color hair spray I bought on clearance. Jack was more adventurous than I expected; we did polka-dots on him! Cade opted for just white hair; I was proud of him for letting me do anything to his hair. Out to the backyard, my friends!

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Poor third kid. She's lucky she has a name.

Claire is not fortunate enough to receive regular bathing. We bathe her at least once a week (if it's a good week). But the girl doesn't get too dirty. So at the end of a long day of dealing with two older monkeys, we really don't feel like bathing Claire. Sue us.

Apparently Claire was feeling particularly desperate one night and managed to climb into the sink. At least, in our laziness, she's developing perseverance and an enterprising attitude.



You like the head cocked to one side? Very beauty queen-ish!

That's My Girl

It was in college that I got hooked on doing the crossword. Not just any crossword puzzle, mind you. The New York Time crossword. It was fortuitous that the NYT crossword appeared everday in our free campus newspaper, The Daily Texan. So, rather than paying close attention to my professors, I was physically present in my classes but actually far away in a land of witty clues, big SAT words, and Will Shortz (the editor of the puzzles).

So imagine my excitement when I discovered Claire poring over the Sunday NYT puzzle (the hardest one of the week, I'll add).

Nevermind that the puzzle is upside down. That's only because it's too easy for Claire when it's right-side-up.