Christmas Craziness

I like to get my Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Mostly because I have the time and usually the weather is mild. This year however I volunteered to help move my local Scrapbook store to another location. I was glad to help but it through me way behind!

I began putting lights on the house Wed December 3rd. I managed to get that done in one afternoon.

The rest of my outside decorations took a couple more days.

The finished product with Gracie at the front door!

It took me a bit longer to get the tree up and decorated as Kennedy wanted to help me. I wanted to get a picture of her putting Remi's ornament on the tree to send to Remi.

She was a pretty good helper!

This nativity scene I made when Vanessa was a little girl! Kennedy is asking if this is where the wise men go!












As we unwrapped ornaments and hung them on the tree I came across the box that hand my antlers and Santa hats in. We decided to take a break and be silly.

Who are these crazy girls?!

I think Kennedy has had enough decorating!!

There's my sweet girl!

I still have a box of ornaments to hang but Kennedy and I were pleased. She spent the night and we slept in the living room with the Christmas lights on!

Just a little bit of heaven on earth!

Have a good one!

Christmas Pictures of the Grands

My Mom usually tries to get a family picture at Thanksgiving to send in her Christmas cards every
year.. The last several years she has taken her picture with the grand-kids  Her grand-kids are all adults now and it's extremely difficult if not impossible to get them together at the same time so this year she decided to have her picture made with the great grands. The only one missing is Remi. We'll get to see her after Christmas. I'm sure I'll get more pictures then but for now this will have to do!

Kennedy will be 5 December 18th. Kashton is 21 months and Korin is 2 1/2 months.

Vanessa had no idea what Mom was going to wear! How cool she coordinated with what they had!

I really like how this one turned out! I love these kids!

This one just made me smile! Silly kids!



So if you're family reading this blog one of these pictures will be in your card from Mom!

Have a good one!

Zonta Tour of Homes

The Zonta Club of Mineral Wells was founded in 1955. I don't know how many years the club has done these tours but it has been many! This is a fundraising event. This is the first time I have gone although I have wanted to do this for years. One of my scrapping friends homes was on the tour and I decided to go and take Miss Kennedy with me.

Vanessa had something to do and had asked me to pick Kennedy up from cheer practice anyway. My friend Teresa wanted to go too so we met at Walmart parking lot and took the tour together. There were 5 houses on the tour. We saved our friend's house for last so we could visit.








I was a bit bummed that I discovered that I had a smudge on the camera lens of my phone so my pics were not crisp. This is one of those pictures. Thankfully my friend Teresa (Gigi) took some!









EVERY place we went at least one but usually more than one commented on how cute her dress was!













The Kelly's home was historic. It was very beautiful!
Behind Kennedy is the garage which housed a couple of antique cars.

This was the front of the home.
















This fireplace was between the house and the garage. They had a fire going in it too although it was down to embers.















This was at a different location. I loved these large ornaments!

We stopped at Community National Bank where they offered refreshments of punch, coffee and wonderful Christmas cookies! The rest of the pictures in this blog were taken by my friend Teresa.

This decoration was just too cute! The "bubbles" were balloons!

We finally made it to our friend Denise's!

I love this picture!

Kennedy did really well considering this isn't really a "childrens" thing. I thought she would enjoy the Christmas decorations and she did but she was ready to be done after the 2nd house! When we got to Denise's there was a little girl she got to play with and that helped!

She did tell me more than once she liked looking at the houses. I think I might try it again next year!

Have a good one!

Kaiser Craft Advent House

Wow! We're 15 days out from Christmas! When did this happen?! Cathy at Cat's Creations my local scrapbook store gave me this Kaiser Craft Advent House to put together and decorate for display at the store before I left for California. I've been so busy I just finished it Saturday. I used the Kaiser Craft collection Basecoat to decorate the house. The charms are from 7 Gypsies. The numbers came from Carta Bella "So This is Christmas" collection. I cut those all out to fit the small boxes. All items can be purchased at the store.

The word "Christmas" is a lasercut die that the store made. I used Versa Mark on the word and embossed with gold embossing powder. I used red, green and diamond stickles on the wreath and Santa hat then glued to the roof.

I thought it turned out pretty cute! I give thanks to Marilyn for taking pics of it. It was also featured on the store's blog page. You can see it here.

I have a Kaiser Craft Chimney Advent Calendar that I bought last year but haven't put it together yet! I am feeling a bit more motivated! Maybe I'll work on it during the holidays and it will be ready for next Christmas! It came to me today how much fun it would be to mail something everyday leading up to Christmas to Remi!Too bad I am just now having that idea! Guess I could still do it...maybe I will! That would kind of be like doing Advent.

Have a good one!

When Dad's Away The Kids Come to Stay

I see a lot more of my daughter and grandbabies when my SIL is out of town. I'm not complaining,
just saying that when they are here...I don't get much else done but I'm making memories! Kennedy has finagled spending the night at my house 4 nights this week and everyone has been here to eat 3 of those 4 nights! When I get a little stressed, I remind myself of all those grandmothers whose grandchildren are not close and must cherish those moments they have. I am very blessed to have them within less than 10 minutes from my house! All the kids (minus Remi) hanging out in my scrapbook room! Kennedy had been at dance and she still had her ballerina dress on.

Kennedy is a great big sister and she loves her baby sister and brother but when it comes to spending time with me....she is very stingy! She has started shutting the door to my room to keep Kashton out!

These pictures were taken Dec 4th.

Kashton loves his little sister too! He calls me "Ta Ta" now and I think he is going to be my "horse lover". He gets excited every time he sees a horse and says "whorsie". That's exactly how I was when I was little! He's ridden the little rocking horse that was Kennedy's more than she has! He also likes to wear his boots! The other night when he had them on he didn't want to take them off to go to bed!





He is 21 months old.
















Kennedy loves to color with markers and paint with watercolors. The girl stamp is one her Gigi (my friend Teresa) gave her.

Have a good one!

Crafter in Training

I made a couple of "Thank You" cards for the family members we stayed with on our recent trip. Kennedy has been with me on several occasions when I have been making cards and has wanted to make a cards as well. I decided to start taking pictures of her work too. She's getting pretty good at it.

This is a card I made for my Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindy who live in Wichita, Kansas. They are dog lovers so I thought it would be fun to make their "thank you" card with a dog. The papers are scraps from an old Bo Bunny pet line. The stamp is from Unity. I colored the image with my Copic Markers. The picture doesn't show it but I used glossy accents for the eyes and dog tag for dimension and interest and popped the image with dimensional tape.

Here's Kennedy's card.

She colored the image using markers and water colors. She also picked out the papers. I just helped her put the card together.

The next card I made for my Uncle Philip and Aunt Mary Ann who live in Tulsa. I forgot what line these papers were. These were scraps left from another project. I absolutely love this large "Thank You" stamp. It is acrylic by Hero Arts.

Can you tell that Kennedy really like this image! She colored the image and picked out the papers. I matted the image and added the strip of hearts then stamped thank you on the card. This card is 6x6 because she wanted the bird and umbrella to show.

She was really proud of this one and so was I!


Have a good one.

Thanksgiving in Plano

Thanksgiving was spent at my SIL in Plano (Doyle's sister). It was a beautiful day and Doris did a fabulous job! But then she always does!

Doris put Kennedy to work helping with the preparations.

Appetizers while waiting for lunch.

Buttering the rolls just like her Mom used to.

This little jewel held the mac and cheese Doris made for the kids.

Doyle's birthday is the 1st of December. Since the family was already together Doris provided party hats and a cake to celebrate. Kennedy was pleased to bring Granddad his cake which was a creamed filled pumpkin bread roll. It was yummy!

The birthday boy! He is such a good sport!













Daddy and Korin. She is 2 months old.

Kashton and Granddad. Kashton is 20 months.

Vanessa says Kashton wears his sister's headbands like this all the time!


















Uncle Dorin making friends with Kashton. He now has a buddy for life!

Mommy and Korin

Doris or as the kids know her "Aunt D" had lots of things for the kids to play with including this fun "Santa" face!

Kashton loved wearing the birthday hat. How can you resist this face?!

Beautiful Korin's first Thanksgiving!

Kashton and Mommy.

Aunt D had another project for Kennedy. Decorate her gingerbread house.











Kennedy had great fun doing this!

Aunt D helping out.













Kennedy with her decorated gingerbread house.

After Uncle Dorin played with Kashton he became his shadow.

Sometime while briefly unattended, Kashton helped himself to the candies Kennedy used to decorate the gingerbread house. We should have known better than to leave it on his level. He came toddling into the kitchen and this is what I saw!

I took my fingers and poked both sides of his cheeks and this came tumbling out like a vending machine!
















We all had a good laugh and moved the Gingerbread house to a higher level!

After lunch I gathered everyone up to get some family photos. I am not a very good photographer when it comes to people. The sun was too bright. everyone was squinting even though I was not having them look into the sun. I couldn't do anything about Dorin's glasses as they are the kind that darker when he's outside. But at least we have a picture of the Light siblings.

Doris, Bekah, Matthew and Molly.

















Bekah and boyfriend John with their dog Lola a French Bulldog.

The Bailey's. Vanessa, Korin (2 months) Kashton (20 months), Kennedy 4 yrs (11mos) and Keannon.

The whole gang.













After pictures some of us went to a nearby school to let the little kids and big kids play!

You can just see Kennedy's legs but she is walking Aunt D's dog Molly. She is in front of her Daddy and John is walking with them.

The boys played a little catch while Aunt D, me and the kids went to the playground.

jumping on the moving bridge.

We get back from the playground in time for the game. Aunt D had another project for Miss Kennedy. Putting icing on pretzel sticks and covering with sprinkles and melted chocolate. Not only is it yummy but it was fun!

Aren't these pretty?!

Last step....the melted chocolate.




Well, that wraps up Thanksgiving...now on to Christmas!

Have a good one!