Our Week in Elf Town

 After our first week of having an Elf I have to say I love it.  It is SO much fun finding new G-rated and not-so G-Rated things to do with her ;-)  Cowgirl Marshmallow here is embracing her new digs in The Cowboy Capital of the World.

 But the night before, she celebrated a LITTLE TOO HARD ...

 and I worried when we found her the next morning drinking a bottle of syrup!

 I was right, her hangover was EPIC LOL

 But she recovered in time to leave the kids a little reminder on NOT TOUCHING HER! Which is funny because it was directed at the middle two kids, and not the youngest! And she had NO PROBLEM reminding her older siblings of the message ALL DAY LONG ;-)

 She spent the next day just hangin around ... badumBUM TISH! lol  She was building up to last night ...

Marshmallow and her creepy button eyed minions (aka Lalaloopsy dolls) decided that Barbie's reign of power WAS OVER ...

LOL oh man I love this creepy thing!

Weekend Catch Up

We had a fun old fashioned family Christmas weekend and I loved it :) Friday night we started with a Christmas movie night! We had home made hot chocolate, cookies, and watched The Santa Claus.  It was fun to cuddle on the couch and watch it with the girls :)

Saturday we started out EARLY with the arrival of Marshmallow ;-) but we didn't really get going until around 11 when I decided to take the girls shopping.  They made their lists of people they wanted to get gifts for, finalized their budgets, decided what to buy/make for each person, and then made a list of what they needed from the stores.  Busy morning!!  We went to the dollar store, and then to lunch :)  Then we hit up Walmart and oh my word ... it was crazy town.  I only went there because I forgot to pick up my photos the day before ;-)  Now when we got there at 1:00 they were backed up so we did our shopping and came back, they were STILL backed up.  We went and paid for our stuff, came back, and they were STILL backed up.  This time we stayed because they lady said my stuff was "almost done" ... an HOUR LATER ... they FINALLY printed.  I got 2 extra 8x10s out of it though so ya know ;-)

The girls did SO WELL the whole time, like REALLY REALLY WELL. I love being with them so much, they are SO funny and so fun to be around! We just had the best time :)

Now yesterday Marshmallow and I celebrated her arrival with a glass of wine but last night she didn't even want to share!!  I told her Sharing is CARING, Marshmallow!!  but she wouldn't hear of it!

The girls woke up to this though ;-) And I'm concerned about how a bottle of syrup is going to do following a bottle of wine for poor Marshmallow ;-)

Today we spent the day crafting and doing Christmasy stuff :) I made this pretty burlap and lace table runner!

And my middle girl made these ADORABLE Harry Potter pillows for my oldest :) They are the CUTEST THINGS!! I'll be posting a tutorial soon!  They are so easy and made of felt, cream colored fabric, and Wonder Under! SHE IS GOING TO FLIP!

It's been such a great weekend but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't ready for school tomorrow ;-) SO MUCH TO GET DONE STILL!

So You've Decided to Get An Elf

This year we've adopted an Elf :) It was hard to find (read: my 2 Targets were out and I had to go to a Barnes and Noble lol) but we are now the proud family of Marshmallow!

She showed up last night and my youngest was SO EXCITED! They have an elf in her class, and her friends have elves, and she told her just last night that she wanted an elf SO VERY BADLY. I had already found Marshmallow by then so I couldn't WAIT for her to find her!

She got right to business ;-)  She wanted to make sure that we all knew how to care for the elf, the do's and don'ts, so that Marshmallow doesn't loose her magic ;-)

She read her book to her daddy and I, and we tried really hard to pay attention, did I mention that it was 5:45 in the morning?? We were SUPER tired, partly because we got up so early, and partly because ...

Marshmallow and I were up too late celebrating her arrival ;-)

Oh that girl is a party animal! Can't wait to see the trouble she gets into!

A Fun Twist on the Christmas Card Photo

This year I am ON TOP of the whole Christmas Card thing :) Again, my motivation came from the Snapfish B1G2F coupon which worked out REALLY well this year! I got my Thanksgiving photos AND my Christmas Photos out of the way, books and calendars ordered up, a WEEK before Thanksgiving :) YAY ME!

This year I wanted to do something fun.  I saw THIS and THIS on pinterest and LOVED them. I wanted to combine the two somehow so the kids and I came up with our own twist ;-)

 

 

HAHAHA!!! I JUST LOVE THEM! It was a collaboration between all of the kids and I. They wanted to use the reindeer horns/santa hat so we figured a way to incorporate them. They called it a mutiny of sorts, they're "MutanDEERS" LOL!

I had so many options for the last picture I couldn't decide! I just LOVED the eyes on my "Santa" in this one though!

Finding the right card template was harder than I expected with these photos because I wanted them to be big enough to really see the details.  This is the one we ended up going with and I'm happy with it :)

Thanksgiving Photos with A Side of Trespassing

I got THE CUTEST Thanksgiving/Fall Photos of my kids this year!  And it only took 5 minutes!

I would LOVE to say that it's because I am a BOSS at taking pictures ... but it's mostly because TECHNICALLY we MIGHT have been "TRESPASSING" lol

In my neck of the woods we are blessed to be surrounded by orchards that are BEAUTIFUL in the fall. Well most of them have big notsopretty fences around them ... and then I saw this one on a side street near my house ... it spoke to me ... it said "Throw your kids on my leaves and SNAP THOSE PICS! ... Quickly though you're not really supposed to be here."

So when they got home from school and all moaned about how much homework they had I said "Hey that's great, go get something that matches on so I can take some pictures!"

Then I grabbed the burlap "Thankful" banner I made, threw the kids in the car, drove around the block and said "Ok look ... we're gonna get this done in 5 minutes so jump out of the car, smile and look pretty :) OH and be QUIET cause TECHNICALLY we're "trespassing" ... OK ... GO!"

Hehehe I love this one :)  And we DID, we got it done in less than 5 minutes and not a car drove by so I'm pretty sure we're in the clear :)

 Then we rolled up back at home and I snapped a few of each kid for the photo books I needed to finish.

 Which was the major push ifI'mbeinghonest ;-)

When Snapfish has their annual B1G2FREE on photo books and calendars I KNOW it's time to get the camera ready!

Hindsight being 20/20 I'm SO MAD that I had that stupid fake dollar store pumpkin in the background! I had plenty to chose from but just wasn't thinking. Oh well.

 And a few horizontal for my WALL O SEASONAL PICS

 which in hindsight ... I wish I had made vertical because 98% of my good photos are vertical.

 But all in all I'm very happy with how my Fall/Thanksgiving pictures came out :)

My babies are all getting so big and so beautiful *tear*

I Put the PRO in PROcrastination

Oh boy.  It's the same thing every year, every holiday.  I think 'OH I have PLENTY of time! I'll worry about Thanksgiving after Halloween.' But then after all of the Halloween MADNESS is over, I take like a two week break and do like absolutely nothing lol  Then I get all stressed out trying to plan Thanksgiving!

And really you can substitute any holidays in place of Halloween/Thanksgiving.  Because apparently I learn from my mistakes lol

So today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I am working on these FEW, EASY, NOT TIME CONSUMING AT ALL, projects:

• class treats for 77 kids
• photobooks for the grandparents Christmas gifts so I can use the Snapfish coupon B1G2F
• Christmas card pictures 
• chalkboard design for the Christmas card picture
• Christmas cards
• pictures for Thanksgiving so I can get them into the photobooks since the coupon expires on the 20th!
• photo prop ideas for the photo session so I can GET IT ALL DONE AT ONCE and save whats left of my sanity/hair
• a fabric scrap skirt for my youngest for school on Wednesday/Thanksgiving
• a cute shirt to go with the skirt
• a fabric scrap skirt for my 10 year old that doesn't look just like the one for the 7 year old because well, that would just be LAME lol
• oh and about 50eleven other things I'm forgetting at the moment lol  

Oh my.  Now I'm tired lol

Guess I should get to it!!!

2x4 DIY "Thankful" Turkeys

Another fun project we made to celebrate Thanksgiving were some 2x4 "Thankful" Turkeys!

Each member of the family has a turkey and each year we paint new "feathers" and write down what we're most thankful for this year on the back!  I keep the "feathers" from every year tied up in a ribbon and we look through the past years as we're making our new ones.  It's so sweet (and funny!) to see what everyone wrote!

They were super easy to make, here's a tutorial on how my husband and I made ours in case you want to make a set for your family :) They would make a fun gift too!

Supplies we used:
2x4 wood (we used 1x4s)
Bag of googly eyes
Red and Yellow foam
7 Popsicle sticks
7 small  screws
1 bigger screw
2 different shades of stain
Various fall like paint colors
Screwdriver
Sander
Saw (table and jig were used)
Elmers Glue

1. Cut your 2x4 (or 1x4 like we used) into 1- 4x4 square and 1- 2x6 rectangle.

 2. Take a pencil and sketch a spoon like shape (the turkey neck and head) onto your rectangle.

3. Use a jig saw and cut out your sketched shape.

 This will be your turkey neck and head!

4. Sand your wood pieces.

5. Stain your wood.  I did two different colors so the neck/head would stand out from the body.  Apply coats as needed until you get the color you like.  Let it dry overnight.

6. Drill a starter hole in the back of your turkey where you want your sticks to go.  Drill holes in your sticks.

7. Drill/screw your turkey into your turkey body.

8. Paint your sticks.  We let each of the kids paint their own and have fun with it!

9.  Cut your red and yellow foam sheets into the shapes of turkey beaks and a wattle.

10.  Let the kids choose their googly eyes and then glue on the eyes, beak and wattle.

You'll be surprised how cute they come out!

My (then) 5 year old's turkey ;-) My favorite, I LOVE those big ol eyes!!

I wrote each persons name on the bottom and on the back I wrote "I'm Thankful For..." and on each of the sticks each person writes down what they are most thankful for :)  And each year you can make a new set since all you need are new popsicle sticks!

My husband and I's turkeys :)  I'm making a sign this year to hang above them that says "All because two turkeys fell in love ..." HA!

My turkey family :)

Can't wait to see what the kids are thankful for this year!

Linking up to these awesome parties!!