Little Helper

James decided to pull out some plans to review tonight BEFORE the kids went to bed.

Brave, brave man!

Elsha and her extensive knowledge of letters and numbers *yup she knows them all* decided to help by pointing out each one.  She was such a big help!

Here she is showing off all her pride and happiness for all the "help" she provided and the "time" she saved.

(speaking of help & time she's currently on my lap trying to show me each letter on the keyboard.  Please ignore any extra letters that might be in this post. I'm not sure if I've caught all her little entries)

Grandma's Visit

Great Grandma visited this week and brought me lots of fun stuff to use while crafting. 

Elsha is such a ham for cameras now.  I don't know when it started really but she can't just simply smile - she has to squint and grin as big as possible.  Not complaining, actually I LOVE IT!

If you're wondering why I haven't done many posts this year this little kid right here is the reason:

(yup that's their messy faces & my messy floor - I'm just keepin' it real!)

He sees the camera and instantly want to take it.  James found my old camera and now he uses it so hopefully I'll be able to get more pictures of the kids now.  I already can tell you that all pictures of Xander from here on out will have him holding his camera.  As soon as he hears the lens on my camera he promptly runs to find his.  Ah well - I'll take what I can get at this point.  He gets pretty good pictures most of the time so I'm excited to see what he does when we head to the zoo this spring.

Fool Proof Plan

Want to know the trick to getting your husband to cook more often???

Here's Shanon's three part plan:

Step 1

While chopping & cutting be sure to nick your self on a fairly regular basis.

Step 2

Burn yourself whenever possible - not bad burns of course but just enough that you say OUCH and run to the sink.  I guess it would be fairly easy to fake if you don't already have the tendency.

Step 3

This step alone can provide immediate results.

Singe your hair over the stove.  Don't ask how to do this, I still don't understand how I did it myself! It's only happened once (today) but the results were fantastic.  I was immediately shooed out of the kitchen.

That's how my day's going... how's yours??

Christmas Fun

We had a Merry, Merry Christmas and hope all of you did as well.

Notice the lack of ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.  No, I didn't get tired of decorating when I hit the mid point.  I got tired of the CONSTANT fight with Elsha to leave the ornaments alone.  After several broken bulbs and handmade goodies I decided our tree would be quite bare this year.

Elsha took a while to get into opening the presents.  I think her favortie part was getting the wrapping paper off and excitedly telling us she found a "BOX" as loud as she could. 

We lost Jaxson for a moment under this gift.   No worries though, he was able to conquer the "BOX" much to Elsha's delight.

Here's Elsha in all her Christmas Finery.  She pranced around with every accessory she got for a good part of the morning.

Jaxson helped make James' famous cheesecake.  He did an excellent job - it was delicious!

Where's pictures of Xander???  Well you see, he still thinks of my camera as his so everytime he saw it pointed in his direction he wanted it for himself.  We got lots of pictures of his favorite toys, christmas ornaments, the back of my head, and self portrats.  We even got a whole series of his feet as he tried to get a picture of himself jumping up and down!  He did hand over the camera so I could get a picture of him at one point - but all the settings had been changed so it turned out completely fuzzy and he reclaimed the camera before I could get it fixed to take another shot.  I think we know what Xander's getting for Christmas next year, if I can wait that long to get my camera back!

Remembering WHY We Celebrate...

Years and years ago (probably about 15 years, goodness) my family received a wonderful gift from our Home Teachers. It is amazing that such a small gesture on their part created a tradition in my home that I have continued to this day.


We were given a small White Stocking and the following poem:

'Twas the night before Christmas as I walked through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

 

The presents had been wrapped and placed under the tree

I paused, tired, excited and then giggled with glee.

 

The stockings were hanging and were beautifully filled

No one had been forgotten, the the credit card was billed.

 

As I looked at the scene with the stockings on the ledge,

I noticed one was empty, the one on the edge.

 

Where's the Spirit of Christmas - What have I done?

The children's stockings are all full, except for this one.

 

It was the stocking intended for the child of Bethlehem.

The White Stocking for Jesus that was hung up by them.

 

Of all the people at Christmas, that might be forgotten,

How could I not remember the Father's Only Begotten?

 

Only He had been left out of the festivities.

As we planned and prepared all, for our families.

 

As I pondered, I realized this just was not right!

It was His birth that was being celebrated, after this night.

 

I resolved then and there to remember the Lord,

And quickly made changes that were easy to afford.

 

I hung the White Stocking in a special place in our home.

And corrected the atmosphere to provide a more spiritual tone.

 

On Christmas morning I gathered the family together

And each of us wrote on a special piece of paper,

 

We gave Jesus a gift which we placed in the stocking.

A sincere change of heart, not there for the mocking.

 

The White Stocking hung in our home as a symbol for us

Of the true meaning of Christmas - the Savior, The Lord Jesus.

 

So take your White Stocking and hang it with pride.

Remember the Savior, put his gift inside.

 

Every year my family gathers to share our own personal gift to Christ. It is more than a resolution for yourself, it is a promise to our Savior. What will your gift to Christ be this year?

What a GREAT day!

YEAH!

Xander has been working on being a big boy all week by learning how to go potty on the potty.

Today he had an excellent day and didn't have a single accident!

He conquered his fear of the scary bowel movement!

He went on HIS own without encouragement!

Dare I say it... I think my boy is well on the road to being potty trained!

Silver Slipper Design

Are you, or is someone you know, always saying that they wish they could scrapbook all their fun pictures and stories but they just don't have the time?

Well... I have a solution for you...

I absolutely love scrapbooking and have learned that doing other people's pages excites me more than doing my own, which is hard to imagine.  So I've decided to take the plunge and start a personal & custom scrapbooking company, Silver Slipper Design.  I offer great deals on digital scrapbooking pages and free printed and bound scrapbooks (with a minimum number of pages purchased).

Why Silver Slipper?  Well because I adore Wizard of Oz and in the books her shoes were silver not ruby colored!

Spittin' Image

Lately I've been hearing James saying "She's a spittin' image of her mother" when talking about Elsha. Of course I ask why and ponder all the cuteness that is Elsha thinking....

hmmm....

Does my smile bring a tear to your eye like Elsha's?

When you come home does the excitement in my face rival her squeals of happiness of Daddy being home?

Are those gorgeous, crazy curls on Elsha's head an insight to me when I was a child - yup I had them too!?

So many ways this question could be answered that would melt my heart.

No such luck. Here's the answers I've gotten lately. (Love you hun!)

Answer 1:

"She's not a happy camper when she wakes up" I'm not saying this isn't true. We both hate waking up - such an unpleasant experience. But really? Not nice!

Answer 2:

"When I went in to make sure she had covers on the small squeak of the door knob woke her up. Why are you two both paranoid sleepers? Anyone enters your room and you're wide awake." Well there's a funny story here about me learning not to sleep through the door opening but I'll save that for another day. Let's just say my Dad enjoyed finding unique and torturous ways to wake me up on the weekends, dripping water, smelly dogs and tickling my feet were just a few of the methods he found to be quite fun.

Answer 3:

"You both have to touch EVERYTHING in the store."  Once again, not denying the truth of the statement but I'm not sure he meant it in a positive manner since he's been known to say shopping with me makes him dizzy.  :)

SO... How long do you think it will take for James to notice that some of her cute qualities come from me as well?  (Love you hun!)  

 

Oh and by the way - she has James' flat butt!  I would say "spittin' image of her father" but... (Love you hun!)