Its(finally) Beginning to look...

A lot like December, like it should at this point!
I am not going to complain. I am an adult, and choose to live here, where the weather is certainly 4 different seasons. I like it. I would like it even more if I had no reason to leave my house from December to March.

I started decorating before Thanksgiving, and took a lot of heat for it. The deal is that the little bit I do work, its retail. And um, well, we all know about retail in the weeks after Thanksgiving. I am working a lot. Again, not complaining, lovin the bit of extra cash for Christmas. But that's why I needed to get an early start on decorating. Speaking of an early start, here is a project I worked on this past summer with my Aunt Linda and my Gramma (and Lisa too!) They are a sample of Tim Holtz Christmas tags. Trust me, the photos dont do them justice. They are so detailed and took an enormous amount of time to complete.

Also got to use a ton of products that I had no experience with, like alcohol inks, crackle paint, grunge board and all the fun little accessories that are here, not to mention the beautiful stamps.

I always enjoy crafting with them. Such a super creative bunch! And they spent months collecting and purchasing all the supplies for them. Thank you, Gramma and Linda! I've been dying to hang these. For now they are hanging from the ribbon that I hang Xmas cards on. Beautiful!

And today was our first snow!! Here are the kiddos after picking up Teagen from Preschool.

It was sucker sale day:) Did you know they make banana Tootsie Pops now?

Let the craziness BEGIN!!

Ketchup

So busy, a little emotional(stressed!) but generally no good excuse for bad blogging. So here is a post of random photos among random happenings here...
(geese at my Dad's lake)

We were at my Dad's last week on one of the beautiful days we had. Lovely! It always feels like a bonus when you get to enjoy the outdoors when it could just as easily be snowing and nasty.

I also spend the day Saturday shopping in Michigan City with friends. We had such a great time. So good for us to get to be together and talk, and eat and shop and just be ourselves. Good for our kids to see we have lives outside of them.

(my Dad and Summer)

( yes he got wet. Duh.)

Summer has lost 2 teeth in a week. Its always such drama! She also thinks that the tooth fairy is Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. She even wrote him a letter to go with each tooth. I think she may have a little crush. Better than her current crush on Rich from the Imagination Movers.

Summer had a field trip this week to a LumberJacks game. Jason went, and then took her hunting. They just sat in a tent where Summer insisted on rattling antlers and making entirely too much noise, but you can bet she'll never forget it. Speaking of deer, Jason got one this week! Thats very good news in this house. Also I have conferences with Sum's teacher that night, and got lots of good news on her. She's such an amazing girl. And I love that she had a teacher this year who can see it, too. Great teachers are priceless! You just dont see it until you get stuck with a less than stellar one.

On a bad note with Summer. She is really having some issues with a specific girl in her class. Now this child is what they used to call a bully, but these days everyone is so afraid to point fingers, that I feel that Summer is getting drug down simply because a bully has singled her out as her main target. The school has gone so far as to develop a special "club" where these 2 along with a few more girls meet once a week to talk and learn problem and conflict solving. Things have been slowing changing until today when this girl punched Summer in the stomach on the bus. There is just no excuse for that! Summer is not physical in anyway. Not even to her siblings. Ever. She wants out of club, and is done trying with this girl. Apparently the girl was written up on the bus. When Summer came home in tears and pain, I called the principal to fill him in. at this moment I am still waiting on a follow up call from him. But when your daughter is the one who was hurt, it just makes me want to explode! I have no patients for this behavior, and Jason is really on top of it, too.

(coloring at Grandma's counter)

We had conferences for this teeny one too. Can I just say there is nothing better than a teacher meeting that exceeds your expectations!! The thing with Teagen, is she flies under the radar. She know SO much, and never tells you. She does not require the constant"mom! look what I did!""Look what I can do!" no. I just find full on notes and pictures and pages colored to perfection, all done by her. She rocks out puzzles like a 1st or 2nd grader. I was told today that Teagen is writing ahead of most all day kindergartners, and is by far the most advanced of all the schools preschoolers(as far as writing). The deal is, we dont work on this stuff with her. She just knows it. I am both baffled and proud.

And this is how Grady insisted on attending the conference...

wearing a headband, circa 1979.

Something tells me conferences next year will be interesting.

Ummm..yes please!

wanna win this??

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

*a membership or gift card to Studio Calico

*sewing machine
* SLR camera
*a new bottle of VS Dream Angels Heavenly perfume
*Biggby or Starbuck gift cards-its a nice treat:)
(whew, that was hard! I am not good at that and got stuck after 3!!)

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
This is a hard one since there are so many talented people in my family! I am so lucky to have so many handmade gifts, scarves, ornaments, santas, a wizard my Dad carved, a quilt, hand painted boxes, jewelery, blankets, and much more. I could never choose!!!


3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
Oh, I always say I want to sew, but I'll require a machine;)


4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
Christmas was very important to my Mom, so she made a very big deal about it. I didnt realize it then, but as a mom now, I see that it was a lot of work and she must have shopped all year. I guess specifically I remember getting Barbie's gigantic 3 piece Dream house as a joint gift one year. It was awesome!


5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
Summer- A "real" camera and more American Girl clothes and accessories to go with her Julie doll.
Teagen- thinks she's ready for her own American Girl. Talking day and night about Rebecca. But also wants Barbie's moterhome. This one's got expensive taste.
Grady-Batman's Bat Cave. And Transformers. And I guess some new Power Ranger's stuff, but I have no clue where he even know what Power Rangers are.


6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Christmas Cookies!!! And meatballs. weird.


7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
Something with paper;)


8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
A Christmas Story, hands down.


9. Favorite holiday song?
1st one to come to mind is Jack Johnson doing Rudolph. I'll have to post my holiday playlist soon:)


10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Shopping, baking, decorating, doing the paper snowflakes with the kids, really all of it. I just dont like the having to be so many places. And driving in bad weather. yuck.

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Halloween 09

We were not off to a good start this year. Wednesday we went to a movie with our friends and that night, the SICKNESS hit our house. I was up all night with Teagen who was running a fever, and Summer, who was worried that we all had Swine Flu. Before you think we are totally pathetic for getting all crazy over a fever, let me remind you that we rarely even have runny noses here. These kids just dont know how to be sick, and they get scared. If someone happens to vomit, all hell breaks loose and it is the talk of the town for a month. Anyway, Teagen missed her class party, her 1st class party ever(at least she had no idea what she was missing) but the teacher asked if I wanted to stop in and get the art projects they were doing. So I did, and also got a tray of goodies and treat bags for each of the kids. There were enough art projects for all three kids to work on. LOVE that pre-school!!
Summer's party was Friday, so I painted her face before school. Amazingly, it lasted all day beautifully!! Oh, she was a "funky green fairy".

She left her wings at school, so we had to steal a pair from another costume and ended up borrowing a really cool pair from Aunt Rae. I would also like to mention that she ripped her tights and had some crud on her shirt. And she didnt even eat at the school party! I was really frustrated, let me tell ya.

Here are our Jack-O-Lanterns-

Summer's 1st...

Jason's...

Teagen's....

And Grady's/mine...

Everyone was fever free by Saturday AM, so we ventured out for trick-or-treating. 1st was a stop to Grandma Joan's and Grandpa Bob's. They fed us and gave the kids loot bags.

Summer's facepaint changed for Saturday.

Hmmmm...another random pic of out pumpkins. Wasnt supposed to go here, but oh well.

I think Batman started to lose it. He was really tired and no acting himself. Smeared the heck out of his mask.

Then we went a few houses down and hit Grandpa Bill's home. Quarters and Candy from Grandpa. He's a good man and had Snicker's for me.

I have a thing for mini snickers. I eat em frozen, and nearly break my teeth. Love it.

Then finally we meet up with the Burns' at my Dad's. Cindy had cups of Oreos for the kiddos(the very 1st thing they all ate once we were home).

Reid was a duck hunter and Kennedy was a nurse.

And Grady was in a daze...

We trick-or-treated a little subdivision our Friend Holly live in in North Muskegon. It was so cold that the little ones were done early. Summer carried on with Aunt Rae and even did another street on the way home. We stopped at out neighbors and it still wasn't even 8pm.

That night, Jason started feeling cruddy and sure enough, he got it now too. So that's really everyone except me. Summer never had a full blown fever, but she lost most of her voice for a few days. How I have managed to steer clear so far is beyond me. Hopefully I can completely dodge this one!

Field Trip- Farmers Market

Teagen's class does at least 1 parent day a month, and on months with holidays, its usually 2. I love it because I get to see what her daily life is like away from home. Since she's never been in daycare, its kind of a tough spot for me to have her with her own little life every day. So parent day is important to me. Not to mention, she is a middle child, and never gets anything that is just for her. She is thriving in the school environment.
Unfortunately, I have to bring Grady with me. This started out OK. Mrs. Cooper treats him like another student. He had breakfast with the class and sat in the circle.

It was both of their 1st time on a bus. They loved it. Teagen was very proud to be riding a real school bus.

At the farmer's market, things went bad fast. Grady tried to hide and run away from me. I was trying to help Teagen complete her list of things to find. and it was really cold and rainy. Here is Grady hiding....

Also I should mention that Grady stole a giant beautiful apple. By the time I noticed it, we were no where near anyone selling apples, and I had no clue who he took it from. A proud moment for me, certainly.

A class pic. You should know that I had Grady in a headlock with my knees in order to get this shot.

Dedication, I tell ya.


Back to the classroom. Grady always finds the naughtiest boys to sit with. The teacher even noticed this and said something.

Next year is going to be awesome.

But since the day was supposed to be about Teagen, I would like to share that she is just amazing me with her social skills, and it seems that for now, all the preschool skills come very easy to her. She is great with scissors, and can write every letter. Mrs. Cooper also made a point to tell me that Teagen has fantastic writing skills. Already sounding out words and writing them in stories! That girl makes me so proud!

Finally Fall

It has been so unbearably cold the last couple weeks, that I was worried that we may have skipped fall altogether and started right into winter. But it seems to be a bit warmer this week so we took our chance and headed to the pumpkin patch at Lewis Farms on Monday. If you are local, then you certainly have most of these same pics, but starring your own children. Its an amazing place and we are very fortunate to have Lewis Farms right here in West MI, and really just a short drive away.

I love the look in Teagen's eye here, she really is full of it.

Jason had spent a good part of the day in the woods, so we picked him up and brought him along.

And you're are nuts if you don't fall in love with the baby zebra.

Summer Jaye Applehead.

Oh its the baby again! I want one!

This guy sure got big since last year. He's got a lot of personality too. And did I mention he is HUGE?

I mean really, he could live here, right? He's not much bigger than my dogs(yet)... And is it weird that I don't care much for horses, but this guys steals my heart? Awe...love him!

Lewis Farms has the best little Bunny Town. So cute and fun to watch those furballs.

We've been reading "Llama Llama Red Pajama" a lot, so of course these guys were a big draw for the little folk.

Time to make your pumpkin pick!

The job was taken very seriously.

And some winners were taken home. Along with hot cider and cookies. Mmmm.

We plan to carve this weekend, and need to start working on ideas. Not to mention the last minute touches I need to add to everyones costumes.

I have a field trip with Teagen's class this week, so watch for that post later. I promise, I will get better about posting again!