feeling crafty and thrifty

Thank you so much to all of you who made comments on my last post. I really love hearing your stories too!!! I look forward to continuing to learn more about you as you read about our family adventures.
Being inspired by a blog karen my amazing mother in law showed me last summer thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com I have tried to spy thrifty crafts to do at home. A few weeks ago while at the fabric storeI found some cute "stickers" in the dollar bin, some beads for a necklace, and some foam hearts.
 
After finding some left over ribbon at home I put together this cute garland for our mantel.
 
 

Same day I found wooden hearts at Michael's 8 for a dollar plus another cute sticker word for $1. I went home added some paint and ribbon and made these to hang in the hallway doorframe.
 

Total cost on both projects $5.35
Any suggestions on what to use to hang these with I used clear tape and they keep falling down?
Do you have any Valentines projects you are working on?

ornaments

Each Christmas we get the kids ornaments that represent the year. This year was hard to find just the one we wanted. However Grandma and Nana seemed to find just the right ones with no trouble at all
I thought with the crazy weather and how rare it is to get that much snow it seemed the kids should get snow flakes to remember it by

Little miss got this from Grandma it happens to be her favorite princess too...

Little Mister asked if I could get him a brain ornament so he could remember he wants to be a brain doctor. I searched everywhere for a doctor. I even considered making a brain one but last min I found this one...

little mister got this transformer from grandma which seems fitting as he got about 4 transformers for Christmas( all star wars ones of coarse)


My sis in-law Jen made this cute ornament for our make it,bake it , grow it or sew it Christmas.

My sis Beth gave this to me as a thank you. The proceeds go to help with children's cancer research. I am tempted to keep it up all year.

Karen put this on a present to me and I loved it! no mistaking it mine :)

My ornament from Karen was an angel of prayer how fitting with the year we have had. No doubt that was a great one to sum up this year.

Brian got this one from his parents... don't worry his brothers got ones that say middle born mom's favorite and third born mom's favorite.

We packed up the ornaments before I got a picture of the ballerina barbie nana got Little Miss and the deathstar ( Darth Vadars ship for those non star wars fans)for little mister.
I am making Little miss a B orniment to reminder of her favorite things ( bell(tinkerbell), boz, bob from veggie tales, barbie, baby dolls, and her bubby(little mister)). We looked all over to find the right one for her and I didn't like the ones I found so I will post a picture of it when I am done.
Did any of you get a special ornament or make one this year? I would love to hear about it.

Christmas program...

So, I could show the pictures and leave you thinking that Little mister loved being a sheep and sang his little heart out but some of you were there and know the truth. Here are the pictures from practice that morning...



That was practice when it came time for the big show he cried for mom and did not want to be up front. We sat on the floor with him in my lap while he sang all the songs and watched his friends do the play. When I asked him why he didn't want to do it his response surprised me and made me laugh. He said so mater of fact " mom I was tired of doing it I already did once today". So there you have it I guess next year we will record the dress rehearsal and invite family to that instead of the "second time" performance. I am sure many of you have your own program stories I would love to hear them...

so grown up

My little girl can wear her hair in pig tails...
 
 
 

new kitchen...

Brian spent about three hours with "help" from little mister putting together the new kitchen the kids got from Grandma and Grandpa. It is very cute!!! I am thinking of repainting their bed room and redecorating to match the cute red color. thank you grandma and grandpa the kids play with it every day.

christmas day

What a Christmas day ! The weather was crazy Lucky for us we had chains for the car but too bad the snow was over a foot so we could hear the bottom of the car hitting the snow as we drove. it felt like we slid our way right to the Grandma and Grandpas door, and Nana's street was just about the same. Despite the crazy weather we had a wonderful day with family!
We started the morning off just the four of us. It was so much fun to see the kids faces as they opened the stuff from Santa. Little miss was so happy with her barbie 1 of the 5 she got that day. Little mister was so excited with his star wars stuff. I was so happy they liked the things we made for them. Here they are opening presents in their new PJ's they opened the night before.


Breakfast and fun at the Germers 1st where my kids soak in all the attention. Anikian Skywalker even made it to Christmas this year at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

then off to diner and fun at Nana's house where the kids are outnumbering the adults.
family photo at Nana's house

Christmas eve 2

sorry it has been so long... Here are more updates from christmas eve. Hopefully by the sunday we will be all got up on all the many happening at the Germer's house. Biggest news however is Brian started his new job this week! What a true blessing to have him so close to home and with wonderful people with lots of opportunities for him.

Annual family picture at pioneer court house square...

Little Mister playing in the snow ...

Little Miss all bundled up

We joined Grandma and Grandpa along with Uncle Matt, Uncle Tim and Aunt Rae...

We stopped to see santa at Norstrums like the last two years, However santa couldn't make due to the weather :) so we went to see if he made it to macys. Sure enough he was there however santa charges for pictures when he is at macy's crazy! Next year I hope he can make it back to norstrums.

Picture grandpa took right before we went home

Thanks for a wonderful afternoon!