Classroom Treat - Christmas 2010

Snowmen on my mind

Aren’t these SUPER cute! 

Melted Snowman (LOVE THIS)

I had every intention of making these for my boy’s classmates, but I can honestly say it’s not happening (major bummer). Maybe I will make them next week, for neighborhood friends and family. If you want the how-to's, head over to The Idea Room and Amy will show you!!! 

But I did spy these darling marshmallow treats over at eighteen25 and I know that I can definitely make them. 

So sugarplums will be dancing in my house over the next few days.

Happy Treat Making To You,

Megan

Tutorial - Ornament Wreath

Fun wreath and so easy to make

So how did I make the wreath on my front door? 

Here is the tutorial from Eddie Ross. The best thing about this wreath is that it’s super easy to do. Go check it out and then come back and tell me all about the wreath you made ( I just know you will want to make one after you see how simple this is). Go ahead, I'm waiting.

FYI - I bought a package of shatterproof ornaments from Wal-Mart and had my son help me string the ornaments on. Needle nose pliers do make this much easier!

I just need to make a bigger bow to hide the hanger! Anybody know of any good bow making tutorials? I really struggle with making cute bows!

Happy Wreath Making to you,

Megan

Paper Snowflakes Tutorial

The cutest snowflakes

Wanna make your own paper snowflakes? 

Here’s the tutorial I posted a few years ago!

Happy Flaking to you,

Megan

Advent

The Countdown Begins…

The house is decorated, 

the children are super excited, 

and the advent calendars 

have begun their countdown to Christmas!!! 

I love this time of year – the excitement, the opportunities to serve, the food, the decorating, etc… Sometimes I get so caught up in the preparing and doing that I have to remind myself to focus on what is really important. That is why I love advent calendars! 

There are many different kinds (and I have several in my house) but my most favorite is the one that I made last year... 

(click here). 

Each day, as a family, we read a scripture, do a simple activity together, and sing a Christmas song together.

If you desire to get more out of your holiday season, check out my Christmas posts from last year. Start with day one (December 1st) and follow the simple instructions each day and you will find your focus shifting to the real meaning of the season!

Happy Holidays To You,

Megan

Yummy Thanksgiving Treats

Check out these treats

I am still trying to pick which treat I want to make for C’s preschool Thanksgiving Feast!!! I know – way to wait until the last minute, but maybe you can help me decide.

I was checking out familyfun.go.com and found some REALLY cute treats for kiddos! Here are the two I have narrowed it down to.

You can find the how to’s for the Acorn Dough Nuts here and for the Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats here!

So which one would you make?

Happy feasting to you, 

Give Thanks

…In Style

Do you have a kids table at your Thanksgiving feast? Depending on where we are feasting there will be a table set aside for the younger ones. I have fond memories as a young girl, sitting with my cousins - coloring; playing games; not having any adults telling me how I ought to sit and eat; and enjoying the yummy food together.

Well, this year we will be having a kids table at our Thanksgiving meal destination and you just have to see this SUPER clever idea I saw over at One Charming Party! (Check out the blog for the how-to's)

I can’t wait to make this for the kiddos this year! Maybe I will make the corn husks for the adults too. So much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, 

Halloween Fun

Halloween Fun…

We had a fun Halloween celebration! The boys enjoyed parties at their school. As if they didn't have enough treats - we continued the festivities the next evening at our stake center where we enjoyed the annual Trunk or Treat bash!

We were rock stars this year and I will be the first to admit, I just didn’t have it in me to come up with some clever costumes. We do have fun dressing up as a family and this year was no exception (even if the costumes were not so original). 

The boys felt like rock stars so that is all that matters!!! 

Peanut #3's shirt says "Cry Loud, Rock Hard"

The older boys thought Hud-Nut looked funny in the mullet wig. 

Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we didn't go Trick or Treating but we had a great time with a few other families and really enjoyed our Spooky Feast!!! Thanks for the invite (you know who you are ;-)

We filled up on a snake calazone, bloody rats (meatloaf), a puken' pumpkin, newt eyes (deviled eggs), witches fingers, bleeding hearts (red jello cut out in heart shapes - not pictured) and some yummy spider web seven layer dip. We also had delicious desserts (I was too busy eating them to get a picture of them). 

After dinner and some time to visit we had fun watching the kiddos have race of eating donuts off a string.

 There was no cheating going on here - wink, wink!

The older kids did a good job!!! Big D did win - although he may have used his arm for assistance a time or two.

Each couple raced too (except for my hubby and me - I was seriously gagging watching the others do it, dang gag reflex). 

And so that my hubby wouldn't feel left out the men raced him too.

We had a blast and are already looking forward to next year's festivities. But for now we will prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving and Christmas!  

Happy Fun Making to you, 

Classroom Treat

Don’t be just any type of sucker…

…be a mummy too!!!

Just a few more weeks until the boy’s class parties and I am almost finished with the little treat for them to pass out to their classmates.

Supplies:

Sugar Daddy suckers
Gauze
Googly Eyes (7mm)
Black ribbon
Black ink
Glue

How To:

1.   Cut your gauze in 2.25” x 10” strips. I was able to find cotton gauze at the 99cent store.

2.  Cut the black ribbon to be 9”.

3.  Print out onto cardstock some cute tags, cut them out and then distress the edges with black ink. Punch a small hole in one corner (big enough for your ribbon to pass through). Slip the ribbon on the tag.

4.  Take one sugar daddy sucker and start wrapping the gauze around it and then twist it around the sucker stick. Secure it in place with the ribbon.

      5.  Glue on the googly eyes! 

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to do and I was able to get several items at the 99cent store and WalMart. This cost me about 15 cents a sucker (I had ribbon and ink already so that cut down my cost). 

Happy Creating to you, 

P.S. If you would like me to send you the tag, just leave me a comment with your email address.

All Dressed Up

Getting Spooky Around Here

As we continue to enjoy our baby (I can't believe he is almost 5 weeks), we are slowly getting our house ready for the fall!!! We have Halloween things up and will be getting pumpkins and corn stalks next week to further spread the autumn cheer throughout our home! I just love this time of year – I love the colors of fall, mixing spooky decorations with simple autumn items, the crispness in the air, pumpkins, and I’ll admit it – dressing up!!! 

Once Halloween is over, the creepier decorations are put away and the simplicity of pumpkins, Indian corn, and wonderful autumn colors all help us usher in the most thankful of times! I love decorating for both!

"The Witches Inn" - where you will find all sorts of poison and items to make the most amazing spells come true!!!

Bones, bouncy ball eyeballs, and skulls surrounded by Spanish moss make for a very witchy display

Crows have found their way to the topiaries! 

Bones are found throughout the house!

Just a note to you – almost all of the decorations that we enjoy for Halloween were found at the dollar store or the 99 cent store. Very affordable indeed.  

 
Happy Decorating to You, 

First Day of School 2010

A Good Day

While I was recovering in the hospital from the c-section, our oldest child was starting his 3^rd grade year.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I love to take lots of pictures of the big day and I love to see my children off and be there to pick them up and get their reactions. Obviously that was all out of my control this year, but I am indeed grateful to my husband who took a few pictures and made sure Big D got a great breakfast and was there to pick him up (even without a wink of sleep for almost 36 hours – I’m telling you I married the most amazing man ever) and when I saw him after school (when he came to meet his little brother for the first time) we got to talk about his first day.

I am so happy that we went to meet his teacher the week before. After talking with her, looking around the classroom, and picking his seat – Big D declared that his teacher is AWESOME and I conquer. She is calm, friendly, motherly, and according to D – she doesn’t raise her voice. I can just tell this is going to be a good year!

D - May you have an increased desire to learn, a chance to make new friends, and as always continue to choose the right! I am so proud to be your mom!

 
Three Cheers for a new school year, 

For Thee We Prayed

We welcome our little one

Well – he didn’t want to wait until our scheduled c-section on August 30^th. I started having contractions during sacrament meeting at church. For the 3 hours of church, I continued to have contractions, about 20 minutes apart.

When we got home, I worked on our special back to school dinner, but had to cut back on the decorating due to the increased frequency of the contractions. We did enjoy our meal and brief celebration after dinner.

After putting the boys to bed at 8pm, Gramps and Grandma came over to stay the night with them (thank you, thank you, thank you). Ryan and I headed over to Labor and Delivery and I got hooked up to a bunch of monitors where they determined that I was indeed in labor.

So we prepared ourselves with a word of prayer and then the commotion began of getting all prepped for surgery.

Yeah we look great for the middle of the night! Ha!

At 12:03am they pulled our littlest boy out of me and with very few cries I got to meet the little man briefly then they took him to clean and weigh him while I hung out on the operating table while they finished.

About 2 hours later I got to hold him for the first time and was so surprised to find out how little he was (7lbs .07ozs and 18 inches long). The smallest of our boys!

I was hit with the emotion of this being the baby that I prayed for. I was done having kids (2 was good for me) but I turned the matter over to prayer and was humbled to realize that we were to have another. I was struck with the fact that this would be our last little one. Pregnancy is just too difficult for me and my family and to endure this again would send me to the nutty farm for sure. It was a tender moment as I stared into the eyes of this newborn, so fresh from our Father in Heaven. I felt the blessing of this little one immediately and was struck with the love of my Father in Heaven by sending me this sweetie pie.

We stayed in the hospital until Thursday and had to return the next day so that I could have an Epidural Blood Patch performed to fix the epidural headache I had developed (basically spinal fluid was leaking internally and was causing my brain to sag creating the most intense pain I have ever felt). We also have been dealing with our little one having jaundice. Daily trips to the pediatrician for blood tests and 24/7 light treatments on a light blanket (fortunately today should be the last day of the phototherapy) have been tiring but we are making it.

Our older children have welcomed their little brother with open arms. They love holding him, making faces at him, talking to him. Our middle child has only asked a few times to put him back once he heard him cry. They have nicknamed him Hud-Nut.

Overall, things have been good. Ryan has been able to see to Big D’s needs with his first and second week of school. C-Man has had the opportunity to play at friends houses (thank you to my dear friends for your help with this). We have been doing our best to keep up with the busyness of school and soccer and so far things have gone relatively smoothly.

Thank you for your well wishes on FaceBook and your prayers. We are thrilled to continue our journey to eternity as a family! 

 I am the mother of three boys. Three mighty fine boys!!!

Happy Blessings to You,