Christmas 2013

Guess what?! We weren't sick on Christmas for the 3rd year in a row! Glad we broke that tradition.

                                                               Christmas video 2012
                                                            Christmas 2011 post | video
                                                                    Christmas 2010
                                                                           xoXox

Gingerbread houses

 

The weekend was good. We decorated gingerbread houses, deep cleaned the house, went through the kiddies clothes and got rid of the ones they have grown out of, we even got all the laundry folded and put away! All thanks to the best Husband in the world.

 

To top things off, Sunday night as I was putting some of the laundry away, he comes in and says time for a hot cocoa break.-- He had made us each a cup plus dinner! Not to mention his famous salad that I absolutely love. He's so good to me.

 

The gingerbread houses were defiantly the highlight of the boys weekend. All day Friday Nixon kept asking me if it was Saturday yet so that we could decorating the houses with Babe.

Saturday finally come and they had a blast. 

 

Ev and I were trying to make a geodesic gingerbread house he saw here. But it's a lot harder then it looks! He just ended up making the rocky mountains and I cheated by using a bowl as the base. We both laughed at our finished products. Hey we tried.

 

Here is one of our houses from a few years back.

xoXox

 M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S ! ! !

First Snowfall

It hardly ever snows in our little desert town. We have been watching a lot of Christmas movies lately, like Frosty the snowman and Nixon had been saying that he wished it would snow at our house like it did at Frosty the Snowman's house. 

Well looks like he got his wish! We got snow! and a whole lot of it.

The first few days the boys/we were in heaven. It was a fun change and the perfect way to bring in the Christmas season! We had snowball fights, attempted to make a snow castle and built a few little snowman friends. All while Gibson napped inside. 

The snow ended up sticking around for quite awhile which made the boys decide that they no longer loved the snow. 

We attempted another day out in the snow, but as soon as we stepped outside, it was a different story. The snow was now so deep that the boys couldn't walk in it and kept tripping and falling, Jovi even managed a face plant right into the snow! I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud when I picked him up, he looked like the abominable snowman. poor Jov, he was a good sport about it though. 

So with both of the boys crying and Nixon saying on repeat, "I hate the snow! this is too thick, the snow is cold!, I hate being cold!" We went back inside and didn't go back out. again. 

It made me laugh. 

It was funny to see them going from one day running around having the time of their life to the next day hating, crying and cursing the snow. 

Good thing we live in the desert!!

xoXox

Birch Ornaments

5 Steps
** I used wood pieces I had already cut for my DIY Birch Coasters
1. Print off pictures in black and white.

2. Trace around the wood on the picture then cut it out smaller then the traced circle.

3. Push a pushpin through the picture. (but not all the way)
4. Tie a loop with twine, put it around the pushpin and push it all the way down.
5. Then hang it on the tree!

Here are some other hand-made ornaments.

2011

2012

xoXox

Christmas Cookies

Last night we decorated Christmas cookies. Nix was all about it and wanted to be apart of the whole process. From dumping the powder into the mixing bowl - to rolling the cookie dough into tiny little balls and stamping it with cookie cutters- to setting the candy out on the table, he was apart of it all. And a really good helper I might add. Jov could have cared less about helping until it came to the candy part, then he was all about it. 

As we started decorating our cookies, Jovi starts shoving as many chocolate kisses into his mouth as he possible could while saving only a few for the actual cookies. Nixon was all about seeing how many pieces of candy he could fit on his cookies, and he did a really good job at it. Not an inch of frosting was left showing. Gibby was a good cheerleader and hung out on the floor most of the time rolling around and drooling everywhere. 

When Babe got home later that evening, the boys were so excited to show off their masterpieces. We turned on White Christmas and Ev worked on homework (finals week) while I tidied up the house and the kiddies snuggled up on our bed to watch one of their favorite shows. 

Here is the cookie recipe I used.

xoXox

Out with the girls

                 

 a few weeks ago my mama, sisters and I were feeling pretty brave and attempted some pre-Christmas browsing at Tia Pan.  And when I say brave, I mean really brave because we took all the kiddies with us. 

They surprised me and did fairly well considering... as long as Nixon and Kwade had a phone in their hand to entertain them, we were in good shape.

Tia Pan has a lot of cute Christmas stuff out right now. It made me excited to go home and decorate for Christmas. Speaking of decorating, it's December 9th and I still haven't hung the stockings with care! Does Gibby even have a Christmas stocking? Shoot I better get on that stat.

My Sister Chantelle bought some really cute Christmas mugs^^^ and got a cute idea of how to revamp an old Christmas wreath she had for her front door. I came out empty handed which is fine. It was just fun to get out and to spend some time with my family doing something different. And surprisingly we all made it out in one piece.

xoXox

Deck The Halls

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating the Christmas tree together. The boys were extra helpful this year putting the ornaments on the tree. Nix started placing all the ornaments in the same spot. He said they were all friends and wanting to be by each other so that they wouldn't be lonely. Jov started throwing them and knocking other ornaments off the tree. (good thing they are plastic) Last year they wanted nothing to do with the tree and hardly even touch the thing but this year they're all about it. Sometimes they will even dare each other to go up and touch it because they know it's off limits. Little stinkers.  So this year, only the top half of our tree will be decorated. It looks a little top heavy but I'm not complaining;) 

A few other traditions I'm looking forward to are, driving around looking at Christmas lights, sipping hot cocoa by the fire, going to the Dickens Festival and opening pj's on Christmas Eve while watching White Christmas.

 Merry Christmas!

xoXox

DIY Ornaments

1. Dipped Pine Cones

How to

1. Pour white acrylic paint onto a paper plate.

2. Roll the pine cones in the paint.

3. Let dry for about an hour.

2. Chic Foam Christmas Tree

How to

1. Cut triangles out of foam paper.
2. Use ornament hooks to connect the triangles together.

Here are some more DIY ornament ideas from last years Christmas tree.