(Late) Photo Monday 4

Sorry this is late! 

As of last Saturday I got extra busy and lost all track of time!

On Saturday, After taking the dog and husband to their "resorts" and the husband only checking in, we took the kiddos to see Santa and have them ask him for things they could not have possibly gotten in time! LOL

To date this is the BEST photo of all 4 of my kiddos together! The baby did not cry as much as I had expected! For it being only 4 days before Christmas I am surprised Santa didn't get the "Just Surprise Me!" quote from my boys! I had forewarned them that Santa was already to the step of double checking his list to make sure he had all the gifts finished and ready to go on Christmas morning! Santa is not a procrastinator! Not by any means! LOL!

They had fun playing with the toys and then getting to see Santa! They loved him! It was a great day and when we left Santa land it was SNOWING!

Fun was had!

~TTFN!

Photo Monday 3

It feels this cold outside! 

Oh.... Wait.... It IS this cold outside....

~TTFN!

RIP All 27 LIves Lost in Sandy Hook

A very Hear Touching Photo in memory of those sweet babies that were lost on Friday in Connecticut.

I am not normally one to post about religion, everyone is aloud their own beliefs but.... This was also written and it touched my heart....

twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled wit
h such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

This is only 18 of the 20 children who lost their lives last Friday.
The 7 Adults are also not in this photo.
I can only pray for fast healing for the families and community.
No Parent Should Ever Have To Bury A Child!

~Never Forget these sweet babies....

Photo Monday 2

With my birthday coming up (tomorrow) I will now be posting what I would like....

I would love to be in here...
Sipping that drink and munching those Strawberries.....

Inside here!

And my day would be wonderful!

Hope you have a great day!

~TTFN!

One Year Old and Christmas crafts!

Every Nursing Baby should have this shirt!

I just love his little shirt! That is what WIC gave him at our last appointment. The "dirty" look on his face is because Dad got him to stop wiggling around long enough to get a picture taken by turning on the lamp right in his face! Anyways, the shirt itself is not long sleeved. I had to put a long sleeved onsie on under it for him to wear it because it has been so cold here. No snow... Yet! But I am sure it will arrive when it is ready to. In the meantime it is just plain cold outside! This has kept us all slightly bundled up more often! As I will show you below, the baby (who is still easiest to photo since his brothers tend to photo bomb each other or just flat refuse to smile!) has been getting super bundled and I refuse to cut his hair because it really doesn't "need it" yet. It it just barely in his eyes! But his attire has been becoming more and more boy-ish LOL... As it should!

At the doctor's office in his blue body suit,
 giving big brother some love!

Passed out in my bed before I woke him up at 5 AM to go get Dad!
(Sleeping almost exactly like his Aunt did as a baby! LOL)

Dad finally got a slight sense of style....
Or rather the sense to match colors! LOL

He just seems to have grown over night! I don't know where that itty bitty baby went..... But look at that yummy cookie in the photo above.... Yummmmmy!

On that note,,,, On to my Christmas Crafts!

First off....

I found a site for Do-It-Yourself Cookie Trays / Candy Dish (I think a friend posted the link on Facebook and I followed it, but added the dish part myself! The link is here. It takes a bit to load on my computer... Lots of photos on there)

Since you are here already, I can also tell you how it is done....

You Will Need:

An Oven 

A Cookie Sheet

Parchment paper

Peppermints

Spearmint's (optional, to add color!)

Imagination!

And a bowl (optional, if you wish to attempt what I did......)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.....

Arrange your mints on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper however you want to!

This looked fun and easy to me!

Place arrangement into the oven for 8-10 minutes...

Watch it though, if it is left too long it will start to bubble at the edges....

Finished tray!
Let cool on the cookie sheet 5-10 minutes...
very fragile!!!

You can stop at the above photo....

Or.....

You can lift the still warm "tray" on the parchment paper and set it into a bowl of choice and press down on the inside slightly as you do. This helps that ribbon effect on the edges appear...

Let cool and then remove the parchment paper.... Mine is in a crystal bowl so the colors are still visible from the sides. Filled with Mini Candy Canes and Christmas Sixlets! And that would be part of my Santa collection hanging off the side! Isn't he adorable? Most of my collection is made up of "tree toppers" like the Angels you can put on a tree or figures about the same size or larger. But, sometimes the adorable exception MUST be made! LOL

This is my 2nd tray that I made for the neighbors across the street!
More on that one to come....

Next up..... Cookies!!!!!!

And who doesn't love cookies? I love cookies, but I can not eat this kind! 

First... Melting Snow Man Cookies!

Sadly, I do not have the recipe for this one. My mother found it and printed it off her computer. Basic ingredients are:

Sugar Cookies

White Vanilla Frosting

Large Marshmallows
Rainbow Sprinkles (for the orange nose)

Green, Red or Blue Sprinkles (for the buttons)

Black Decorating Icing

Blue Decorating Icing

This is my original attempt at the Melting Snow Man!
Not Bad!

These are all the Snow Men I did.
(Plus one that ended up getting set aside for the kids to just eat,
I messed it up! LOL)
My mother did 4 more and we called it good!

All the other cookies that were made!
Mess up of the Snowman is top left and then the
4 below are the main ones I made I did, for gifting!!
My 7 year old did the rest of the cookie decorating!

Aren't they pretty?!
Sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles! Yippee!

Remember my 2nd tray....
Here it is, topped with cookies for the neighbors!

So that, with another project I worked on today, are some of my crafts for the season! I have more... But they will not be shown until AFTER Christmas! Today was frustrating though. I guess one plus on the quilt I messed up was that it is for my own son and not someone else's child! LOL Take care all!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

~TTFN!

NEW! Photo Monday!

I am going to try something new.....

My hope is to get a new photo up for everyone to see each Monday! Sounds like a thing I can do... We shall see... Here is our First try.... Enjoy!

Tis the season! ..... A baby Hedgehog in a Santa hat! Love this one! Hope you do too!

~TTFN!

Happy December!

Can you believe how fast November went by?! It was way too fast in my opinion! Then again, I was pretty busy... Birthday, Thanksgiving, Birthday again! December isn't going to be any better! But this time... It is MY birthday coming up! LOL! In just 10 days I get to be another year old....er! Or in the words of my kids, just old! And as you can tell from the photo, my aging makes me that much more ornery!

I do not have an issue with getting older. I do find it funny that a woman I have not seen in years asked me how old I was and I told her, then she gasped and shouted "That is almost 30!!!" Thanks! LOL! But this woman has known me since I was a very young child so this probably was a big shock! She was also surprised to here about my having 4 kids. And about my sister's new baby! But it was really good to see the woman who was always like a second Mother to me my entire childhood.

As the Holidays approach I probably wont be as chatty as I have been in the past months... I know that that was still rare, but I am getting better... I think! I still have a busy month. My kiddos have a lot of school to get done. However, they are ahead of the game by 2-3 weeks worth of percents now as well. I am pretty sure that the 1st grader is going to complete one entire course by the end of next week. This particular course only has 15 lessons to begin with so it is no real shock that he is already  over 50% done with it, with an estimated end date of January 30th! He has 2 lessons that need him to go to a grocery store or super market and we need to go get groceries tomorrow so I think he will be going with us just for that and we can have him fill out his paperwork for those while we are there!

So, as I said, My Birthday is coming up... And so is Christmas! This year we are going to have a pretty good Christmas for the kiddos as far as gifts go! They are all getting things they are going to just love! (with the exception of the oldest, who already has his gift! He needed his computer replaced before Christmas could get here so he got his gift early!) As for the other boys, I will not mention just yet what they are getting just in case my oldest decides he wants to read my blog (which he has done once or twice!) and then "blab" to his little brothers! As far as things for me from my kiddos go, I know what 2 of my gifts for my birthday are and that is only because they are from the 2 littlest boys and one was purchased by me after my 4 year old said he wanted to add to my Santa collection! It isn't exactly the right type of Santa thing, but it is super cute and I do love it! I will post photos after my birthday for all to see what I get!

I love this time of year and already have my tree up (tiny one this year since we are not going to enjoy it for all that long), my Santa collection out (running out of room and in desperate need of more space just for them!), and I am just about ready to send out my Christmas cards to both family and friends(my fellow Mamas of November 2011 Babies)! I have gotten photos taken throughout the year and stuffed them into some envelopes with cards and then I made a few little creations of my own recently that I printed out to send off as well. Along with other gifts that I am also not able to mention now, my Christmas crafting and card stuffing and licking is almost coming to a close! That is exciting for me! Now to get to the post office and mail a few packages and my cards and I am set! I also need to buy quilt batting to finish up a few last minute, in the process for a long time, gifts! I also have been being a crocheting fool the last few nights! LOL! There are just so many things I started or got the materials to do while my sister was pregnant that I wanted to get finished and didn't that I now have gifts for the next couple years I think! And that is just fine! I also have birthday gifts I can give in there too!

In my spare time on Thursday and Friday, since my boys did so awesome with school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and were finished up early on Thursday and Friday! I was able to create some neat photos of each of my kiddos! Here they are...

This is my oldest! I love all of these photos of him!
The youngest is from when he was about 1-2 weeks old!
The top left photo was shortly after he figured out how to do the peace sign!

My #2 boy!
Isn't he so super cute???
He has been posing for some time now!
Well, for home photos, never for studio photos! LOL!

The 4 year old!
Such a little ham this one!
My favorite here is him chomping on the watermelon!
All animals on this photo were chosen by little man himself!

 

This is the photo that started it all!
I found a program that allowed me to make this collage and
this is the result! And I love it!
These photos are basically one from each 12 months of his life!
Start at the top left and then go clockwise!
And of course pregnant in the middle photo!

I printed each of these photos out in 5 x 7 size and had them sitting around the base of my tree to dry. They are now awaiting frames! LOL!

I also made some Christmas ones that I will wait until closer to Christmas to post!

~TTFN!