Merry Christmas to yours

I can hardly believe that we are already at the eve of Christmas. Where has the year gone, where has the holiday season gone.

I am blogging away from home today so I am making this short but I wanted to wish all of my readers a very Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is enjoying their families as much as we are. I can't wait to check out all the pictures I've been taking! Again, Merry Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the kids doing holiday crafts. A very special thank you to Miss Pauli and her wonderful mom for providing us with the trees.

These trees were awesome.

Payton

Preston or spiderman

An early visit from Santa

Things may go quiet around here for a few days… I hope not but we shall see. Just incase I wanted to squeeze in this last post before we hop in the car and head up to Tennessee.

We were lucky this year! I talked to Santa and he agreed to visit our house early so we could spend “Christmas” morning together in our home before going to visit family.

Santa came on Wednesday night after we were all fast asleep. This year was especially fun. This year we had two little believers who totally knew what was up. Our youngest is almost two so he didn’t quite get it, but he sure did help unwrap and play.

Payton man I wish everyone could see this kids face. In her stocking she got a Barbie pop star DVD (I’m sure we will be watching this in the car today). I don’t think I have ever seen this kids eyes so big, her face so bright and for the first time in her life she could barley form words all she kept saying was oh my, oh my, its its.

All Preston wanted for Christmas this year was a blue soccer ball and boy oh boy was he excited to see not only a soccer ball but also a basketball and football. Boys and their balls you couldn’t make him a happier boy. He also got a scooter and some action figures and animal planet dinos (we all had a blast reenacting Jurassic park).

And Cooper well he just had a good time. He helped unwrap the first 2 or 3 presents. He then went off and played with them and came back to help with a few more along the way. ( I had the older two unwrap most of his)

We had a beautiful day! The weather wasn’t great but the rain stopped about 3 and we took the kids outside to try out their new stuff. I wish everyday could be just like that one! The kids were so happy and so thankful.

Wrapping up a resolution in motion

At the beginning of November I made a goal to drink more water. You can read about it here and read my smart plan here.

I FAILED!
I broke out my favorite water bottle a 32 ouncer and filled and drank for the first week. Then my aggressive drinking style broke my bottle. So I had to pull out the back up bottle.

I didn’t lose any weight… and I didn’t drink my full 8 glasses everyday. I did however drink more on a daily basis than previously before.
When I made my resolution I thought this was a piece of cake man what I wrong. More than anything I would forget then as the six weeks went on I simply just didn’t want to. I plan to continue on the path to drinking more.

Weekend wrap up

We had a wonderful weekend. After everything that happened Friday I really don't have much to say.
On Friday when my oldest got home from school all I could do was hug her and hold her. She thought there was something wrong but I just needed her to know how much I love her.
We had a low key relaxed weekend.Our weekend was filled with love, fun, and the sun!. We played A LOT this weekend. We had the pleasure of watching the most beautiful baby girl.

We played cards with the kiddos

Were pretty sure we have a little card counter on our hands. As we were playing Payton was memorizing what cards everyone had. (a daunting task considering we were playing war)
We spend a solid 4 hours outside yesterday. God love Alabama weather.

Sometimes you just need to post pictures of really cute kids…

Tomorrow if you visit my blog this is what you will find:

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DIY Card hanger

This post was originally posted at See Vanessa Craft

Materials:

Window frame

Jute

Small or large clothes pins (I used mini in red and white)

Small bow (to hide nail on top)

Step 1: Paint the frame. I used Valspar red spray paint that I had left over from a previous project.

Step 2: Tie 3 lines of jute across the front.

Step 3: Hang frame on wall with nail.

Step 4: Hang your cards.

Breakfast pizza

2 years ago I had my first breakfast pizza. I was with my husband and brother. We were at Old Chicago watching the World Cup it was 8 in the morning. The restaurant opened early for the US game. We drank beer at 8 and ate a delicious pizza.

Fast-forward 2 years…

We’re not a very creative breakfast family. We eat cereal, oatmeal, toast/bagels and every Saturday I make pancakes. I think I need to branch out.

Earlier in the week we found all natural sausage and bacon at the market. (We don’t typically eat much pork but we wanted to give it a try).

Okay so on to the pizza.
You simply cook up your bacon, sausage and scrambled eggs just like you normally would.

While the meat was cooking I made the pizza dough. I always use this recipe. It’s quick, easy, and really good.

Once my dough is ready I cook it for half the time. Then pull it out and layer with eggs, meat, and cheese.

Put the pizza back in the oven and let it cook for the remainder of time or until the crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

It's okay…

It’s Thursday again which means we are one day closer and only one day away from the weekend! I value my time during the week; I get to spend every waking moment with the most awesome boys in the world (and Part time with my school girl). Did I mention EVERY waking moment? So as much as I love every day I love the weekend I get a break and I get to parent with someone.

It’s okay …

To be more excited for Christmas than my kids.
To be tired of these NIGHTLY elf projects.
That at 50 degrees I’m FREEZING.
To just want a lazy weekend.
I broke the no present’s rule for the hubby!
To avoid the scale during the holidays.
To love checking the mail.

What's on my Christmas list

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

There you have it the top 9 things I want this year for Christmas… It's no secret around here I won't be getting any of them this year (I got my new camera a few months back as my gift) I had fun making the list anyway.

DIY door hanger

As I talked about in my Thanksgiving post back in November, my sister-in-law hosted an amazing dinner. Not only was the food great but she also did such a beautiful job on the decorations right down to the door hanger.

Did you know Hobby lobby sales large wooden letters? Well, I didn’t. She bought all the supplies for less than a $20.00.

Supply list:

Large wooden letter

Neutral paint

Holly berries

Burlap ribbon

Step 1.

Paint the wood your neutral color.

Step 2.

Hot glue berries onto letter.

Step 3.

Tie the awesome bow (nor my sister-in-law or I can tie bows… we go to my dad).

Step 4.

Glue tails to back of letter.

So simple. So elegant. I can’t wait to make one for our door.

Come see me at…

Today I am guest posting over at See Vanessa Craft. I am super excited to be doing the 20 craft days of Christmas with Vanessa. Come see what I've got going on.

It's okay Thursday...

It's okay…
that I am mad at the shipping company for turning 2 day expedite into 6 days.
that I can't wait for my husband to go back to work next week (it's too had to get anything done)
that I am upper excited to be working in Payton's class today.
that I haven't changed the days until countdown in 2 days.
that I've already picked out my birthday present (Jan 24)
that the present is already sitting in my Amazon shopping cart.
that I am really tired of this couch to 5k junk.
to be missing the working world.
to hate Zulily!

The business of money

This may very well be one of my favorite posts I write all year. It’s December so along with holiday planning we do a family planning meeting each year. We are just about 2.5 years into the Dave Ramsey total money makeover. This has changed our lives. Just the other day my husband and I sat down with our 2013 financial information. We set our budget! We set our goals! This is the year we will finally get to say WE ARE COMPLETELY DEBT FREE! (Yes, the capitals are totally necessary. We will be screaming this from the rooftops.)

It has been a long process from where we were to where we are now and every second has been more than worth it. The end is so close I can taste it! In the past two years we have paid off almost 100k in consumer debt that included: credit cards, student loans and cars. We now live on a lean budget well below our income.

Every December we sit down and write our financial goals out and put them up where we can read and reexamine them all the time.

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We read the book Total Money Makeover, please I suggest if you have ever made or spent a dollar in your life you should read it.

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We got the Financial Peace University plan (we were unable to attend at the local church hubby was deployed).

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We started slashing and saving. We rethought every area in our lives. We knew this was something we truly had to do.

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I got this wonderful wallet here that helps me organize all the cash.

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Oh Christmas tree

I love the way a lit Christmas tree looks. The lights beaming and reflecting brings life to the green teepee shaped object in my living room.

Round ornaments hold a special place in my heart, a childhood memory. My grams tends to like things matchy matchy. I cant remember the year but judging from the awful color of mauve I’d guess mid ‘90’s. Grams had this crazy idea to get her ball ornaments and spray paint them mauve to match her couch! We took off the top piece put pencils inside held the stick and sprayed away. I hated the process then and now thinking back they were ugly. For years after, anytime you went for a pencil it was painted a lovely shade of 90’s mauve. They weren’t all bad because its 20 years later I still remember them and the process.

I like memory trees. Don’t get me wrong you can do amazing things and make trees look beautiful with colored round balls (probably not mauve painted ones). I like to use the balls as filler. I love ornaments or different shapes, size and meaning.

Each morning when I get up I turn on the tree’s lights as take a minute too look at it in all its beauty. Baby’s firsts, handmade, ones from my old job, and a few really special ones my mom has given me from when I was a kid (if you look closely at the pictures there’s one dated 1985). I love memory trees, trees that you can look at and see a family.

So how do you do your tree? Balls, memories or something else?

Weekend review complete with heartbreak

We had a great weekend around the Miller house.

Saturday was a busy day like most. We shopped, we ate and someone got a heartbreaking haircut.

We recently got a Buffalo Wild wings in a nearby town which is awesome to me, it happens to be one of my favorite hangout spots. No, I don’t think the foods is all that but it does have one great thing going for it. It’s loud inside their restaurants. Loudness isn’t typically something that draws people in but with three kids this can be great. The loudness factor can determine whether my hubby and I get to have a relaxing and fun meal.
The kids had a really good time and they were really good too! Plus it was 75 degrees in December so we got to sit outside!

For weeks my husband has been trying to talk me into cutting the little ones hair. I kept putting it off and making up excuses. I never had this issue with our first two I’d cut and cut no big deal. For some reason it breaks my heart to cut Coopers. It’s just so stinking cute long.

But after my husband put up the argument about it constantly being in his eyes I went ahead and cut it. ☹

I don’t hate it. It didn’t turn out bad but don’t you just miss those curls. It also seems as if I cut his blond off.

There was also this yummy breakfast pizza (recipe soon to follow)

DIY art hanger

DIY window frame art hanger. Let me tell you we use our art hanger religiously in our home. It keeps all the artwork up on display where it should be.

I have three beautiful children! They are now all of age to use crayons and paint and let me tell you they use the HECK out of it. Naturally, as a mom I love to display their wonderful artwork. Covered fridges, doors and walls just aren’t my thing, I was filing* so much of their works or art. Filing= kindly placing in the recycling bin when children are not looking. This was making me feel bad. I mean they really do work quite hard on some of this stuff.

So…
A few months ago I came across a classifieds ad for window frames for super cheap… $4.00 each. They weren’t the thick fancy ones, but I couldn’t pass up that price. After I bought these guys I hung them up in the garage and there they sat. And then they sat some more and then some more again. My husband bugged and asked and pestered me about what I was doing with them. Thinking about my children’s endless artwork I thought up a solution to both problems.

The frames were a cream/white color so I did a light sand to a few areas and a rough sanding to a few areas. Then I applied some blue stain I had laying around. I couldn’t be happier with how the color turned out.

I love jute! I love using jute on my projects. This one was no different. I tied some jute across the frame in 3 places.

Topped it all off with my kids artwork. It’s a great way to showcase kids art and it also works great as a dryer for painted/glued projects. Start to finish not including drying time for the stain (this took about 2 hours) was like 40 minutes.