Farewell 2008

Photo credit: My husband

This year seems to have flown by so fast. I can't believe it is over.

It was a wonderful year at our house. AD turned 3, C turned 7, R turned the big 1-6, hubby turned 33, and I turned 35.

Hubby and I celebrated our 9th year of marriage in what seemed to be the year of weddings. We attended so many I seem to have lost count. We saw new life with babies that were born to our friends and relatives, while seeing life move on with the passing of others.

I made so many new friends through my blog this year and I am so thankful for all of you.

I am sad to see this year go but excited for next year because there is so much to anticipate.

We wish everybody a joyful and prosperous Happy New Year!

Seriously...

Can somebody tell me how this keeps happening to me?



Don't worry...it is all clean now but what is it about this counter that screams, "Dump all your stuff on me?"

I wish I could figure it out.

Whew.....

Well, Christmas has finally come to an end at our house.

I will definitely be posting some pictures later with my thoughts on Christmas in general this year.

For today I have just one mission....CLEAN.THE.HOUSE!

The boys are all home for Christmas break and we have a lot of clutter going on. I am sure it will be a long day. :)

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Rudolph the Red Nose Cupcake

These are pictures of the cupcakes I made for C and AD's class parties. Don't worry. They only took about 4 hours off my life.



I got the idea from Taste of Home but made a few modifications. I used white frosting instead of marshmallows and red hots instead of jelly beans.



I have to say that the three non-decorated ones that I ate were FABULOUS so I hope the kids enjoy them.

Baby it is cold outside....

It has been so COLD here lately. Yesterday our high was ZERO. We were supposed to go to an extended family Christmas party at my husband's uncle's house. It is about an hour from our house and so we opted to stay home instead of subjecting our family to the subzero temps.

I did have to go out with R to his choir concert but that was only three blocks away.

Today is supposed to be slightly warmer but after a super frigid night the van did not want to start this morning.

I went outside and it would not start. I asked the neighbor who lives behind me if he could jump it for me since I was in a massive panic over how to get C to school without his fingers and toes freezing.

Right before the neighbor came over to jump it, I prayed that it would start and it did. I am sure some people would consider this a concidence but I don't. I really think it was God answering my prayer. God is interested in the details of my life I have been told and I believe it.

I got C to school safely, picked up the mail and have big plans to attempt to stay in all day. Of course, I have 48 cupcakes to make so that might help my cause. Apparently I signed up to bring treats for both C and AD's Christmas parties. Next year I will know better.

I hope everybody is staying warm. I am going to go make myself some cocoa. YUM!

Running Behind

The only decorations we really have up right now are the tree and the stockings. Maybe that is because there is clutter everywhere. I am working on getting through it but it seems to be a long process.

I was looking through all the wonderful holiday houses at A Soft Place To Land the other day when I happened upon Tidymom.

She decorated the corner behind her sink. I have that same crazy corner behind my sink. It is kind of awkward and hard to clean but anyway...

I decided maybe I should decorate the corner behind my sink. I did the best I could with what I had on hand and here is the final result.



I don't think it is a cute as Tidymom's but a lot better than a blank space.

It's cold outside

The temperature is way below freezing and we are expecting yet another winter storm here today. Oh what fun.

We were supposed to have AD's Christmas concert tonight but it has been postponed. C had his Christmas concert on Monday night. I had to stay home with AD because he was sick.

I took some cute pictures of the boys in front of the tree before C went to the concert. I think AD looks pretty good considering he was sick.

Here is C. I love his orange snowflake sweater.



Here is AD.



Here is one of AD and C.



R was at wrestling practice but when he came home I made him take his picture too.



R was a little less enthusiastic than his brothers but at least he sort of smiled. That is all I can hope for these days.

Because I am not that creative

The boys and I put together a gingerbread house this weekend. And when I say me and the boys what I really mean is I put together the gingerbread house while they watched from the couch since they both had the flu.

Anyway, since I am spectacularly creative I bought the kit from Target. I know you are thinking what a waste of my talent but it was on sale at Target for $8 and I figured it would probably save me money in the end since I wouldn't be buying a bunch of candy. Of course, after the fact I realized I could have eaten a lot of the candy and now I am sad.

I think we I did okay and here is the final result.



I know you were probably thinking that since I have taken a Wilton Cake Decorating class that it would be the most amazing house you have ever seen but sadly I did not use my cake decorating tools. I used frosting in a plastic bag. I think it gives the house more of a "made by children" look. I was going for that look...honestly, I was.

O Christmas Tree

Over at We Are That Family there is a Christmas Tree Festival going on.

Here is a picture of our tree from this year.



I got out the ornaments and hubby and the boys put them on the tree. So spacing may not be EXACTLY the way momma wanted it but it's Christmas so we'll let it slide. I threw out our garland last year and forgot to buy some more this year so I guess I will be looking for that on Christmas clearance.

Go on over and look at other trees and share yours while you are there.

I love winter

It is my absolute favorite time of year. Actually, I am kidding. I am not a fan of winter and everything it brings with it.

So far this week we have had one snow day, one child with a sore throat, and one that started throwing up yesterday. Does it get any more exciting than this?

I suppose the part that is most upsetting is knowing that this is just the beginning of what will probably be a VERY long winter.

I will try to stay positive. I won't let it get me down unless of course I get sick because then I plan to go to bed and stay there for at least a week. :)

Unexpected Organization

Today I was reading blogs and I came across a great organization idea for hats and gloves over at The Happy Housewife.

I used to have ours stored in a clear plastic drawer that I bought at Walmart but to be quite honest it really hasn't been working out so well. This is the new home for our hats and gloves. TADA!



Yep, an over-the-door shoe holder. When I saw the post over at The Happy Housewife I started thinking, "Hmmm...I have one of those and think it only holds two pairs of high heels and some belts that have been too small for me for ten years."

So I pulled it out, vacuumed out the pockets, hung it over the door and I am so happy. Now I am going to go on a hunt for stray hats and gloves that might be lurking around the house.

Advent calendar

I had wanted to post this earlier this week but, you know, I couldn't find the picture. This is the Advent calendar that I bought from Target filled with the activity slips that we are using.



This is the list of activities that we are doing. Some are my own and I got some of them from We Are That Family.

Color Christmas books
Make a list for Santa
Let your light shine! Read God Gave Us Christmas and John 1:5
Build a fort from blankets and read a book in the fort
Read The Polar Express
Put together a puzzle
Go to a Christmas play
Make paper snowflakes Read Ecc 3:13
Play a board game
Pray for others
Make hot chocolate with marshmallows
Make a gingerbread house (we are going to use graham crackers, frosting, and candy)
Go to the Science Center
Watch a Christmas movie
Give $5 to someone in need Read Roman 5:8
Make Cookies
Pray for the Persecuted Church
Make a birthday card for Jesus and put it under the tree
Have a family slumber party in the living room
Go to a Christmas party
Go look at Christmas Lights
Make a spinner
Make ornaments
Take bubble baths with Christmas Confetti and open new pajamas from mom and dad
Read the Christmas Story from the Bible and open Christmas gifts

I know many of you already have your Advents up if you are doing one but Joys of Home has some great easy ideas if you still want to do one and haven't started yet.

Kids are a wonderful thing

I was having some computer issues the last couple of days, I am pretty sure it is related to the fact that our kids use our computer. I kept getting a certificate error when I went to different websites. I finally figured out one of the kids changed the date on the computer and the computer thought that it was January 2008. That may also explain why I couldn't find the pictures I recently downloaded. They were in the January 2008 folder. Now I can finally put up all the pictures I have been wanting to share. YEAH!

Letters To Santa

One of our fun activities for December was to write letters to Santa. This is the letter from C.



This is the letter from AD.



Now, can somebody please tell me what a screaming banchee is?

Pumpkin Cake

I made a yummy Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake for Thanksgiving. I got the recipe from Kraft.com.



Ingredients:
• 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1/4 cup PLANTERS Chopped Pecans
• HEAT oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) round baking pans. Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into prepared pans.
• BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely. Beat cream cheese in small bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP.
• CUT each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

All I can say was that it was delicious.

Weekend Recap

Thursday we had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my in-law's house. We didn't get home until 11:30 at night. I made a four-layer pumpkin cake that I will share later this week.

Friday we went back to the in-law's so that C could play with one of his cousin's that he doesn't get to see that often. We then headed home and hubby and I went out for a few hours to help my cousin celebrate her golden birthday.

Saturday we put up the tree and we also put up a tree in the boys room. While we were putting up the tree it began to snow. C proclaimed "This is the best Christmas EVER!" It was so magical and so sweet. After we put up the tree we had hot cocoa and cookies while we watched The Polar Express.

I bought a wall-advent-decoration calendar (I am not quite sure what else to call it) at Target for $2.50. I cut out strips of paper with fun activities and put them in the calendar. I got the idea from here. I changed mine up a bit but the boys are really excited about it and the fun starts TONIGHT!

It is so funny that this year, probaby the year that we will spend the least amount of money and have the fewest gifts, is the year that they seem to enjoy the most. Or is it? I am sure it is because we are concentrating more on spending time together as a family than with gifts and commercialism.