Not Happenin'

So, Max had his school Christmas concert a couple weeks ago (yes, very early.  The music teacher was getting ready to have a baby 5 days later!) and the kids were dressed so nice.  I decided this should be Christmas picture time!!  Yeah right.  Max won't show his teeth in pictures, Molls was chewing a wad of gum at the time, and Miley just wanted to play with the camera.  Then I tried to snap some with my phone.  I LOVE close-up pictures, so I'm a zoom freak.  Well, zooming and taking pics with a phone don't go well together, so they turned out blurry.  Bummer, those would have worked:(

Here's a look at the Christmas pictures that won't be sent out this year:

Since getting all three together wasn't panning out, I decided to try each child separately. 

Darn, all blurry.  

I guess that's what I get for trying to rush the picture taking experience.

AND I must share,  HAPPY DATING ANNIVERSARY to the hubs and I!!  We became official boyfriend/girlfriend on December 14, 2000.  We've been together for 11 years.  WOW!!

A week of Halloween

Another fun-filled Halloween 'week' has come and gone!

It all started on Monday of that week.  We had decided not to spend extra money by going to a pumpkin patch, and I didn't want to just pick up pumpkins from a bin at a local grocery store.  Our next best bet was to go to a vender in town where there were loads of pumpkins to choose from.  We could still wheel a wagon around and the kids could pick out their pumpkins.  And what a gorgeous night we had for weather:)  Here's what they came up with:

On Wednesday night, the kiddos got into their costumes and we headed to Max and Molli's school for the Halloween Carnival!!  I remember it from when I went to school there.  The big kids LOVED it.  Miley was a little overwhelmed.  Let's just say it won't be a family event next year!  Here are the kiddos ready to play some games and get some candy:

 

Thursday night was pumpkin carving night.  We grabbed our pumpkins from the front porch and dad started cutting.  Mom was the 'cleaner-outer.'  Max picked a Hawkeye for a face and dad did an AWESOME job carving it.  Molls picked out a simple face from the internet.  Mom enjoyed carving out that one.  Pumpkin carving is a time consuming job - those were the only two we did!

Friday night, Molls had a Costume/Birthday Party for one of her friends at school, so once again, she got all dolled up as Rapunzel.

Saturday morning we had a playdate at our friend's, the Loy's, whom I used to do daycare for.  Their oldest, Dublin, and Max are the same age and have played together since they were babies!!!  Since the boys have started Kindergarten, they haven't seen each other since summer.  We decided to have a costume playdate because Dublin and Jonas (another Loy boy!) were Mario and Luigi for Halloween.  How could you not put the cute Mario Bros. together?!

And here's cute little monkey, Hobson (Loy boy #3!)

Saturday night, Mike and I had the Sacred Heart Auction at school, so the kiddos went to Nanie's house.  Uncle Bill put together a Treasure Hunt, so they were asked to wear their costumes!  Seriously, from Wednesday night on, costumes were being worn.  Definitely got our money's worth!!!

Then the big day - Sunday night - Trick-or-Treat time!!!!  We had dinner with Mike's family and then the kiddos and some cousins went out in the neighborhood.  The dads were in charge of walking the kids around.  Mike said Miley went up to the doors and said "Trick-or-Treat" every time:)

WOW!!!  Who knew Halloween could last a whole week.  Seriously, you'd think I was talking about Christmas or something!  It's all about building wonderful memories with our kiddos<3

October Craft Night

I'm so excited to say that I started and finished 2 CRAFTS at craft night last week......AMAZING!!!!

Again, my awesome friend provided the ideas and materials, I just followed the directions and had a great time!  We made a 'Give Thanks' banner and brown paper bag flowers, both ideas from Pinterest.  The banner just had to be cut out and strung onto string or ribbon.  The flowers had to be cut, folded, and glued together.  Here's what the mantel looks like for the month of November:

I just love the simplicity of it.  Maybe I'll get more daring and add a little more to the mantel each year, once I get more comfortable with my decorating skills;)

UPDATE:  Here's a picture of my October mantel, with the Trick-or-Treat sign I made out of paint sample cards.  Again, very simple.  Always room to add a little more next year!

Here's one last look.....

....at the joys of fall!!

It's amazing how much life has changed with a yard full of trees!!!

A possibility of some snow here tomorrow.  Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that.

Aug/Sept Craft Nights

A fellow mommy friend has started a monthly craft night, where we get together after the kiddos have gone to bed, to create a masterpiece (or two) for our home!  I'm a little behind in posting, as we've had two craft nights so far, so both of the nights' crafts will be shown off here!

Our first craft night was in the middle of August, before school started.  On the agenda were a canvas painting and a Welcome sign for a door.  I had no idea what I wanted to do for my canvas.  I came to the party a little unprepared, only knowing that I wanted to do something for Molli's room, since it was freshly painted the purple color she picked out!  I stopped at the craft store on the way, finding a vinyl phrase I could stick on the canvas and then paint over.  Well, the phrase was great, but I didn't use the vinyl I bought.  Instead, I used scrap booking letter stickers.  I stuck them on the way I wanted and then painted over them in a light pink color.  The stickers didn't stick on the canvas as well as I thought they would, so there was a little 'bleeding' of the paint under the letters.  But nothing a little touching up of white paint couldn't fix!  The completed canvas is currently sitting in Molli's room on her table.  I have yet to find the perfect place to hang it!

 
The second craft of the night (which I just recently completed, shhhh!) was a decorated empty frame for the front door.  My friend Jill, the awesome host and curator of craft night, provided the frames, already painted a mustard-y yellow, to go with the fall theme.  I made felt flowers to decorate the frame and made a pennant banner with letters to spell out "Welcome."  I already have a pumpkin for the month of October to go on the front door, so I thought I'd use this to decorate the door for the month of November!

September craft night was just a couple of nights ago, and I'm proud to say that I pretty much completed it that night!!  The theme was Halloween, and Jill found a cute paper flower craft on our favorite website, Pinterest!  If you don't know about Pinterest yet, it could be a good thing.  I LOVE IT though, it's just very addicting.  We made some paper flowers using scrapbook paper and a lot of accordion folding. We also painted clay pots, hot glued a lot, and shaved that styrofoam stuff that you can stick fake flowers in to keep them in place.  Sorry, I'm not crafty enough to know the technical name for it.  It's green and comes in a block and is messy when cut up!!!!  Anyway, what a SUPER CUTE and easy project.  I made two to put on our mantel.  I'm still working on the overall look of the mantel, so I'll have a follow-up post on the finished product:)

I LOVE craft night.  I have to thank Jill Loy for being the brains all the fun stuff we do!!  And sorry about my photos.  Someday I'll learn how to take great pics!

A first in our house

All of the kiddos LOVE to color.  But none have done anything like this in our house, until now.  Miss Miley took it upon herself to add some color to the walls in the kitchen!  I guess she's not the only one who's tired of the boring color:)  I happened to be right outside those windows, cleaning them when she did this.  I had no idea what she was up to.  GAH!  I was set to have a clothing party that night with many guests and was freaking out, thinking I'd have to get one of my sample paint cans out and paint the whole wall.  I tried a little water and paper towel first and:

VOILA!!!!  It came off beautifully!  There is still a 'hint' of blue on the wall, but you really have to search for it to see it.  No worries, because someday soon those walls will be painted!

My life: paint swatches and samples

Since moving into our house, I've been so anxious to paint the main floor.  I couldn't decide what color scheme to do and where to start and stop the colors.  Should I go completely different than the other house?  Should I paint the kitchen the same color as the entry?  What colors would go good with oak trim (which I dislike and REALLY want white or cream like we had at the other house)?  I've been so different this time around with picking colors.  The last house, we just bought a gallon of what we liked, just by looking at the paint swatch.  Now, I'm spending $5+ on multiple paint sample cans and painting different strokes of different colors around the rooms, to see what the colors look like in different lighting.  Maybe it's because I feel like we'll be in this house for a very long time and I just want to get it right.  I don't know what my deal is!  Mike keeps telling me, "just go buy a gallon and DO IT!!"  That's what I need to do! 

You can see my color madness here:

 
Sorry, the pics aren't of the best quality.  But you get the idea of the craziness!  It seems as though I'm trending towards colors that were similar to those at the last house; greens/browns/oranges/yellows.  I think I've figured out the kitchen and entry.  Still working on the living room and dining room.  That's ok - we still need furniture for those rooms anyway!!!

Like the hubby says:  "just DO it."