All the Stockings Were Hung...NOT!

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...NOT!

I think this is the first time ever I've gotten all of my Christmas stuff down in the first week of January.

And well...ahem...I thought it was high time to take down the snowman display that had been up for 395+ days.  Yes, I'm not kidding.  But now it is replaced with Build a Bears.  I'm fine with them there at least they are off the floor.

I was HUGELY productive today!

Not only did I get the Christmas stuff put away, but I went through each of the Christmas boxes, cleaned them out and marked them in order of importance.  So next year my box #1 will get in first.  If I feel like more decorating I'll move on to #2 etc.  I'm also tickled that I was able to take the Christmas tree down and keep the lights on them.  I tried to wrap them around so I could do that this year.  It was super easy peasy to take apart! Maybe I'll never have to worry about putting them on again! Let's all do the No burned out bulbs! No burned out bulbs dance.

I've been a cleaning machine today too!  Boy I wish I felt like this everyday.  I've got my last load of laundry running now.  I've been keeping it going all day. Foyer, Family Room, Living Room and toilets are all cleaned as well.  The Kitchen still has a lot of work.  BUT...I'm looking at and working on a clean table.  I'm running my 3rd load of dishes.  Can you tell I hate to do them?  I still have handwashing to do which is the worst!  I won't be doing that tonight.

Tonight's dinner was delicious.  However, I knew the kids wouldn't like it so I tried to make one thing each would like at least as a side dish.  I made them taste everything on their plate.  Ashley actually liked the spicy mesquite chicken. YAY!  The boys not so much, but for them I made macaroni and cheese to compensate.  You would have thought I was the meanest Mom in the world when I made Aussie taste the applesauce.  He said that teensy eensy little taste ruined his whole appetite.  He said he wished Dad was home.  I told him if Dad was home he would still have to taste it.  He asked is it going to be like this every night?  I said, "YEP!"

Tomorrow I go to the dentist. Booooo!  I broke my tooth about 3 weeks ago.  We have been waiting until the new year to have enough money to fix it.  Our FSA is fully funded again.  I'm not looking forward to going, but I know I need to.

I know I've been blogging a lot lately.  I'm sure that will die down soon.  But I wanted to say that I am making it a goal this year to blog weekly.  So if I have something to say or want to share something I will probably blog more, but I'm going to try to do it at least once a week.

I also have a goal of creating something once a month.  I know just what I'm going to create next month.  It's something for Valentine's Day and it is on my Pinterest board.

What's Pinterest?  Where have you been?  That's the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread.  You can see my boards here... http://pinterest.com/chellegreene/

Whoa! I'm actually Prepared!

Well I'm feeling pretty good right now.  Menus have always been so daunting to me.  But I created one for January, at least for dinners. 

 Lunches still stress me out.  I can't believe my kids don't like sandwiches of any kind. I just found a printable calendar online and put in some easy meals that some of us like and I'm going with it. 

 I told Greg to give the boys a pep talk at cuddle time tonight.  I am making ONE dinner-what is on the list.  If they don't like it, they can eat a little bit of it and then fix themselves something else.  But they have to make it and also have to clean up after themselves.  Wish me luck!

So after I created the menu I went grocery shopping.  Spent a kajillion dollars.  I seriously need to get back to couponing.  Anyway, I got lots of sandwich meat, croissants, sundried tomato wraps and Italian wraps.  I made LOTS and I mean LOTS of sandwiches for Greg and myself.  Some will go in the refrigerator and the rest will go into the freezer.  Wow do I feel prepared to begin this crazy January!

Greg starts his rehearsals for Pacific Overtures tomorrow.  He will be out the whole month.  He will still be in town, but I'll be pretty much handling everything around here on my own.  I know that both of us could use your prayers.

Happy New Year!!!

Clink! Clink! Happy New Year!!

I let the kids stay up to ring in the New Year.  Not everyone likes sparkling grape juice so we have one milk and one water represented.

 Not a very good picture of Aussie, but the only one I got.

 And this is how we started the New Year...  with a batch of Nana's recipe chocolate chip cookies and a few without chocolate chips for Ashley.

 WooooHooo!!!!  Celebrate the New Year!

 An excited boy with his tired dad.

 Mason was tired but very hyper!

 Ashley's dolls took a nap earlier on in the day so they could stay up too.

Here's to new beginnings!  Hope this year is better than last.

American Girl Hospital

Well Ashley's first American Girl doll Samantha's leg was about to fall off.  So we decided to send her to the American Girl Hospital.  We packed her up and tried to mail her on Monday, but realized that the postal services were closed that day for Christmas.  All day Tuesday I meant to mail it and finally remembered to on our way to Chick Fil A.  It was pretty late in the day but I was happy to see the UPS store was open.

I was SUPER surprised when I checked my bank account the next day and the charge had already been taken out.  Thankfully, I didn't bounce any checks.  It certainly came close.  The website said to allow 2 to 3 weeks for your doll to be returned.  But guess what she was on our doorstep today.  That was mighty fast!

When the doll comes back fixed she is sent in a hospital gown with an id bracelet. 

They also clean up her skin and fix her hair.  Ashley wants you to see the back of Samantha's hair.

 I've got one very tickled girl to have her doll back!

Crafty Mode

I have been in a crafty mood!  I've posted these to Facebook but thought i would also blog about them really quick.  The crafty mood came right before Christmas.  And I showed you the things I made for Christmas (the Pokemon animals and cat toys).  But the crafting didn't stop there.  I got a gorgeous hat for Christmas, so I decided to make a scarf to match.

The I made this cute little bag the next day.

Then I thought I would attempt to make mittens.  I was going over to a friend's house and that seemed like a craft project I could take with me.  I found online instructions and began.  My friend Doris was telling me all along that it was going to be too big, but I said I had to follow the directions and then I would adapt when I make them for real.  Well this little mitten took SO long and it was the size of an Amazon woman that I decided I wasn't going to make another one.  But what was I going to do with this one?  I ended up taking the thumb off and Ashley wants them as socks.  I have yet to make another one but I probably will make this week.

Next project was requested by Ashley.  She drew a picture of a dress she wanted for her doll.  She brought me the fabric from all the fabric remnants that I have and I got right to work.  I do like how this turned out.

Then I got really ambitious!  I decided to make the outfit that Ashley's doll Julie came in for Ashley.  I really like how they turned out.  I have a friend who is going to crochet the hat and I need to find the shirt that goes underneath.  I found a short sleeve one that was actually the same fabric at TJMaxx, but it really needs to be a long sleeve shirt.

Yesterday I put on Facebook that I was going to miss all this crafting once school started back again.  But I'll tell you what- Today I was pooped.  I was ready to lay down all my crafting and somewhat relax.

Christmas Morning

Ahhhh...we made it to Christmas morning!  I went to bed at 2:30AM.  And the kids started waking us up around 5:00AM.  We didn't get up until 6:30AM though.

Ashley is BEYOND excited about getting the American Girl doll Julie for Christmas! 

I would say that the kids are SUPER happy with what they got!  And it has been a very successful Christmas morning.

I got the hat I wanted!  YAY!  I LOVE IT!  I even got it in green which is the color I really wanted!

Last night I teased a friend of mine on Facebook.  She asked WHEN would her daughter go to sleep?  I said, NEVER and then she would fall asleep in church in the morning.  Well the jokes on me!  My boys fell asleep in church this morning.

We had Christmas lunch at church.  I'm so thankful some families stepped up to host it this year.  I would really miss it if we hadn't had it.  And of course we made our annual birthday present to Jesus.  This year is is cupcakes.

I wanted to get some pictures of the kids.  The lights were off in the auditorium.  I did plug in the tree.  I couldn't see what I was getting, but I was snapping pictures anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!   We feel very blessed this Christmas and we hope that you are blessed as well!

Christmas Eve

 It's Christmas Eve and that means my kids get to open their presents from their grandparents.  We Skyped with both sets as they opened their presents.

Ashley got this tiger scarf/hat/mitten thing.  I knew she would love it.  Ashley LOVES tigers!  But when it came it wasn't a tiger.  It was a leopard.  A very cute leopard, but um that's not what Gramma ordered.  So the company told us to keep the leopard and they sent out the tiger right away.  YAY! That's awesome customer service!

Aussie got a DSi game that he really wanted, Pict Cross 3D and this book "How to be a Genius".

 In which he promptly handed over to his Dad and said, "Here catch up!"

 Mason was SUPER excited to get this Nintendo Monopoly game!  We played a game before bedtime.

They also got several giftcards and they are super excited about having some money for extra things.

Thank you so much Gramma, Grampa, Nana and Papa!!

And when the kids FINALLY went to bed...Santa came to visit.

 

 Shhh...don't tell I borrowed the Santa picture.  It's only for my use I'm not selling it or anything.

Friday, Dec. 23

And Friday I insisted on taking some family pictures.  It is like pulling teeth around here to get a good picture.  I tried.

 Friday- I also decided to create some of the kids favorite Pokemon into pillow animals.  I worked nearly all day on them.  And in the meantime my house that I have been desperately trying to get/keep clean went to pot.  I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in that.  It's the one thing I ask for Christmas every year and never get.

This is Liepard- the Pokemon Aussie likes.

This is Reuniclus- for Mason.

 I don't know why Ashley's picture didn't load but here it is on the right.  It's called Simipour.

 And because I didn't have anything better to do-HA!  I made cat toys.  The cats kept coming around as I made them, but now that they are readily available they could care less about them.  Ashley likes them though.