R U busy yet... Friday's Flashback

Well, thanks to my SIL for suggesting Friday Flashback....  here is a flashback of my week. Since I'm always on the look out for crafts.  I got this stringing project idea from another blog (sorry forgot where) and tweaked into a Christmas craft.  It was super easy and the kids really enjoyed it.  I cut out a cereal box in the shape of a ginger bread man and had the kids sponge paint them.  I made small cuts on the sides (about 5) for the kids to string the yarn back and fourth between.  The kids added some buttons for the eyes and a few other details. 

I made the coolest little gifts for classmates and friends, Marshmallow Men!  

I was blog hoping and found this 

wonderful idea on Speckled Egg.  It was really easy.  I used some white chocolate and warmed it to the directions and then dipped the marshmallows.  I then added the m&m's.  My kids loved handing them out at school.  We already need to make another batch.  The other thing we made this week was Cinnomon-Sugar Chocolate Covered Pretzels.  I found this through another great blog Your Homebased Mom. 

 I bagged some of these up and gave them out to our neighbors and friends.  It was also a great to bring to our last minute rsvp caroling get together.  The kids loved caroling almost as much as the adults.  I think we had about 40 people gathered for some fa la la laing.  The best part of the night was when a genteman came to the door saying..."How did you know this was exactly what I needed tonight."  Makes you kinda wonder why.  I hope all is well for this sweet man.  The week was wonderfully busy and we ended it with pajama day for my dc/preschool kids.  We danced to some Christmas music and opened gifts.  Gosh, I love those kids!  Buckle up its weekend time!

In the mist of chaos

I have piles and piles of photos, cds, books, scrapbook supplies, preschool curriculum all around me.  I would love to have one of those HGTV shows come in and help me organize it all.  Truly, I think I'm going to need professional help.  In the mists of all this chaos, we had to run to a school music program.  AHHH- my little man was so adorable up on stage.  He was so proud and sang loud.  I truly think my son loves to sing.  When he was little he would ALWAYS hum.  When he likes the food he eats he hums.  When he was the ring bearer for my brothers wedding he sang twinkle twinkle little star all the way down the aisle.  Mr T.  just always has a song in his heart.  Now my little man is almost as tall as I am, and he is still the sweetest boy on earth.  (No lie!)  I really loved having a night of reflection on how happy he makes me.  Thank you God for this beautiful little boy, who I know will work wonders in your name.

PS.  I cannot figure out how to use commas.  I've even been researching the stupid things.  I still haven't figured them out yet.  

Wordless Wednesday (w/title)

Princess P.  sneaks out the doggie door!

The perfect DVD...

So with all the cutbacks our family is making for the holidays I decided to make something for my daycare families.  I did this for mothers day too. (I think the mom's really liked it!)  I've been taking photos of all the projects we've been doing this year.  (Well, the projects that I can pause and take photos.)  I have also recorded a few movies of the kids singing, dancing, and just playing around.  Now I'm not an expert on how to make a dvd but it seems pretty easy with the IDVD movie on my mac.  I'm going to hopefully find a cute label to get on them to finish them off.  But today while cruising blogland I discovered this great site, our best bites which has ideas on how to make the outside of your gift just a precious as the gift itself.  You may want to read a few of her other posts too, cookies, pretzels, they all look so good and easy to make.  Umm well it looks easy.  Unfortunately I'm getting so many creative ideas I don't know which to pick from and did I mention it's December 16th! Yikes.  Another site I keep bumping into is My Little Cottage In The Making.  I'm getting excited just to get creative with my wrapping this year!  WOO Hoo! This is so not like me.  Well you'll have to take a look and tell me what you think.  Be honest now!  ThAnKs

Dream fighter

I had a fight today with my dreams. Before going to bed last night my hubby and I tried to watch a movie. He was channel flipping,. Unfortunately while flipping I saw a very disturbing scene. Oooo YUCK! I decided I was no longer in the mood for tv. It was time for bed. I woke up revisiting the scene but only in my dream. Double yuck! I said a quick prayer to God asking him to relieve me of this memory. Dori (see profile) was needed for this one! I decided I did not want to go back to sleep with that in my head so I got up and headed to the grocery store. My few items pickup at the store became a full on grocery trip. I felt like I was in a funk all day. We went to church this evening which I was really hoping to pull this funk out and be renewed through worship. Which I was.... my mind was pulled into things that God does to astonish us.
1. God himself. 2. Nothing is impossible for Him. 3. God involves Himself with ordinary people like you and me. 4. God actually cares about you and me. 5. That people actually think they can grasp and comprehend Him. (He's just too big to put in a box.) How great thou art! This is a photo of the milky way. If you think this is amazing just think of who made this! God is SUPER DUPER AMAZING!!

Santa and Snow....

Oh we had such a wonderful night!  I love seeing Santa and the Christmas lights!  Traditions are so fun and sitting with Santa is a big one for our family.  I have an album that I keep out for the holidays of all the past years we have seen Santa.  It is so great because I just put one picture in a year and I'm all caught up.  YEAH!! I am a consultant for Once Upon A Family.  This company has really helped me to focus on the important things that we do with our family, like traditions.  (Plus I got to go to Jamaica for free!)  OUAF has simple tools to help make those traditions achievable in our crazy lives.   Tonight we filled our book with the 2008 Santa picture.  We just made the cut off for the end of the line. WHOOSH!  Santa was terrific.  He spent at least 25 minutes with my kids going over their past behavior for the year and what each one wanted for Christmas.  We got wonderful pictures to capture the moment so my Dori brain will always be available to get a visual.  We also caught pretend snow (bubbles) in the Santa area.  Princess P. loved the "snow"!  You can tell by her face that she was in pure kid heaven.  Another tradition that we do during this time is to visit a very special neighborhood that has lights galore and also a backyard walk through of the story of the birth of Christ.  This year one of our friends let us take a family picture on the rocking horse.  So I have warm fuzzies thinking about our night and I'm sure the kids will be dreaming of sugar plums dancing in their dreams.

F is for Friday, F F F. ( Make the f sound!)

Ok I'm trying to come up with a theme day and I think Friday is the day!  I could go with F is for Fabulous Friday's, or Freak Out Moments Friday, Funny Friday, Fa La La Lahhh Fridays, Finally its Friday, Friends Friday, Hmmmm the possibilities are endless.  Maybe I could have a little help here?

I think today we will go with Freak Out Friday Moment of the day!  LOL ahhh well my dear friend Ms. A., whose daughter I watch, was telling me about a party she would like to host.  Get this, a theme party!  FUN FUN!!  I started telling her about a wodnerful store I found in Kansas that had vintage clothing.  I had to buy up hand full of them.  But when I got home I thought now what the heck can I do with these!  April had to check it out so I said I would wear one Friday morning when she dropped off her daughter.   I think she totally forgot because for some reason her husband who (by the way) has never been to my house, all of a sudden shows up on THIS MORNING!!  I was in shock when I answered the door and little Ms. A. was laughing!!  OH my!  I really wish I had a good photo to show you, the detail on the pants is the best!  But alas my battery has died and I'm not putting on this out fit ever again after seeing this one picture!  OOOHHH GROSS!  Well if you can't laugh with them, ummm how does that saying go???  Dori moment! 

What was in those Wheaties this morning?

Ugh, I woke up feeling such a sense of accomplishment with my new garland from The Nester challenge yesterday.  My special part of the front entrance-way that says "Hey look at the effort I put into Christmas". When WHAM BAM! All heck broke out.  My lovely, peaceful spot was being sabotaged by my mind.  I  started noticing all the places in my house that looked horrible!  Ok one thing I want to make sure when writing this blog is that I'm REAL!  Sometimes this is a little hard for me because I would like for everyone to see my little spot in the world as perfect.  (Thank you God for showing me that I'm not.) Anyhoo, My imperfection started to become neon in my view.  YIKES 

what a mess.  I had a spazz attack and I let my children know that they had a lot of work to do when they got home.  (Hmmm, I don't think they were the creators of all these piles around me but they did have their share.)  It really became uncomfortable in the house.  I had to just sit on the floor and have a little talk with my Father.  He pretty much sat me down and said Dori....breathe.......Dori  Be still!  BE STILL!  Ok, ok I hear you Lord!  I asked for some forgiveness and He showed me some.  I jumped up and decided it was time to have some fun!  It was time for snow and sparkle!  I got out the shaving cream and added a little glitter and WAL LA Snow and Sparkle!  We made a bigger mess and had fun doing it.  The kids had such fun playing and reminding me once again that these little (or big) piles of messes will only be with me for so long so don't sweat the small stuff.  

My new garland....

So I'm new to the Nesting Place but have already felt inspired to do something unusual for me!     DeCoRaTe!    Yikes that word just scares me when I think I might have to try and create something.  But I guess I lurked on enough blogs that it got me thinking if everyone else says they can't do much with garland (which I beg to differ) than surely I can do a little something.  These women have totally transformed their garland pieces!  So I'm going to show you my before (well not really I had to dust before I took the picture LOL) and then my after.  I don't have a fireplace but the kids and I are thinking of building a fake one so we can have a place to hang our beautiful stockings that my dear sweet mother has made for all of my children.  So here goes.....

What can your cereal box do?

Last night I was trying to come up with a cute project for my daycare/preschool kiddos.  I'm so pleased with how our little Santa's turned out.  My kids range from 2 to 5 years old and they really enjoyed painting, pasting, cutting, and putting these little guys together.  You can do these for your kids too, just follow the steps.  Step 1: Open a cereal box and cut it into triangle. Step 2: Paint with red paint (we sponged ours) Step 3: Glue on white strip of paper for face. Step 4: Add accessories. (We used foil for hat and socks.) The kids had fun taking pictures with their Santa's.  We like to take pictures or our projects and put them in a scrapbook to keep.

Love my tree.

I love our Christmas tree. This year it is even better because the kids did so much of the work. I didn't even have to pull it out of the box. (Tree was a super deal from a neighbors garage sale for $5.00, pre-lit and super easy to put up! Yeah garage sales!) I love to look at the tree all lit up and remember all the ornaments and where they came to find a home on our tree. I think it will be hard to give up those sweet homemade ornaments my children have made through the years! Just getting up in the morning when its still dark and turning on the lights of the tree and thinking about why we even celebrate Christmas is such a blessing.  My hope is for everyone to take a little time out of this busy holiday and enjoy a moment each day where you can reflect on the reason for the season.

What my 2 yr old finds funny!

1. Climbing onto chairs to get into cupboards that mom has put stuff in to keep away from me.

2. Playing in the toilet with a whole roll of toilet paper.

3. Pushing the water button on the front of the fridge to create my own pool of water on the kitchen floor to play in.

4.Taking off all my clothes after my mom has just wrestled me down to get me dresses.

5. Jumping in mud puddles in the back yard with my new shoes and then coming into the house to make mud prints with my shoes on the clean floor.

6.  Painting with paint on everything but the paper mom gave me, especially my lovely face.

7.  Getting on my tippy, tippy toes to reach in the drawer to get out the pencils and pens to draw pretty pictures all over the walls.

8. Dumping nails (along with a screwdriver, hammer and anything else I could fit) down the toilet hole that Daddy was fixing just to see where they would go.

9.  Throwing food on the floor.

10. Giving Mommy boggie kisses.

Learning to blog!

Step 1. Read blogs to get an idea on what to blog.

Step 2. Make a blog

Step 3. Ignore all work needing to be done like laundry, clean-up, dishes, ect.

Step 4. Hmm figure out how to work your blog and make it pretty. (Haven't got that down yet.)

Step 5. Have actual people read you blog worthy site. LOL this may take awhile.

Step 6. Have a reason for blogging. What is your goal?

While the idea of blogging sounds fun, it is a complicated thing. Well at least for this blonde! I have a few blogs I read daily and really get miffed when they don't blog. It's like a tv show. You don't want to miss an episode. Now I have started reading the blogs they follow as well. (Does this mean I'm getting addicted to blogging?) I am finding such great crafts, ideas to perk up the house, and even just taking a step back to notice things like the trees changing colors through beautiful pictures my friends post. Oh, and saving money by learning how to use coupons properly. What a new great game this has brought to my life! Now, I would love to say that I have ran right away from my computer to try some of these new crafts but I can't seem to find the time. I'm not really sure how these wonderful women can fit it all in. Maybe they don't have 2 year olds just waiting for Mommy to get on the computer so they can climb on the counters and get into the cupboards. Maybe its because they use laptops and can actually see their kids getting into trouble. Not sure but it is something to consider when jumping into the game of blogging. With all that said. I have found this new past time exciting and tempting at the same time. I would really like my blog to be something my kids and family can look back on and say, wow Mom really did have some meaning in her life.

Here is a blogspot that said paste this on your site or "embed it" ???? Like I said still learning. So I'm gonna try it and see what happens. LOL

Winter in AZ

winter  in ArizonaThe leaves started to change yesterday and some even fell to the ground.  We have had such warm weather the trees aren't quite sure it's actually winter.  We still have changed our wardrobe because I refuse to wear shorts in December!  I love the idea of jumping in a big pile of leaves with the kids, but our trees are still a little young to produce a big pile.  Of course that doesn't stop the kids from trying. My youngest has also discovered Christmas lights and loves to ooohhh and awwww as we walk past each house.  This will be a nightly treat for me!

Love this quote from a 2yr old in my house today....

"I never get a break around here!"  (This was after he got in trouble hitting someone with the rake he took from another two year old.)LOL  Got to love those kids.

Can a non-writer blog?

So I've been wanting to blog for awhile now but I stop thinking about it as soon as the thought pops up.  Why you ask?  Well my little secret of not being able to write. SHHH don't tell my kids I don't want them thinking they can't because their Mom couldn't.  Way back in the 4th grade a teacher, Mrs. P,, told my mother I was not college material and I would not get beyond high school so she should start planning my life accordingly.  (This was one of the worst or maybe the best things she could have told my mother.)  My mother started tutoring me all the time.  This is probably one of the reasons I graduated from college with a communication degree! - Thanks Mom for all the extra time you spent with me.  But the story does not stop there.....no no no, in high school one of my most favorite teachers, Mrs. L,, didn't think I was all that great of a writer either.  Well, at least my grades didn't reflect any writing awards in my future.  Hence the reason for not blogging.  I'm not sure I want my dirty little secret out there in blog land.  But there are so many times I wish I did have a blog to let my voice ring out to others, my feelings and emotions that only my family and daycare kids get to understand.  SO I decided this might be a way to make me become a better writer.  New Years resolution.... to blog.