Christmas...........................

On Christmas Morning we made the kids wait until after breakfast to open any gifts.....We wanted to try to keep things calm so they didn't get upset but some of them woke up upset.... Jack was not happy that he had to have his picture taken nor that he had to wait for the gifts....
Our christmas was slightly homemade this year (except for all the other gifts from family and friends). Here is Jack and Sammy sporting the hooded bath towels I made for them......

Abby and Eve got a towel also and Jack got a homemade Spiderman pillow which they are sitting in front of in the pictures up top........................................................

We hope all our family had a good Christmas........................ we miss all of you very much............

We love you!!!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!!!

We had a great Christmas this year!! Even though we didn't get to spend it visiting family and even though we didn't get to see snow and go sledding and even though we had to run the A/C just to stay comfortable, we pretty much still celebrated Christmas the same way we always have. It was fun! The kids had a mound of gifts.........we try to limit our gift buying to 3 gifts each but when you add the packages from family that seemed to keep showing up on our doorstep things added up quickly. Then the gifts started pouring in from other unexpected places. Joshua's school sent him home with gifts for our kids and a few families at our church surprised us the Sunday before Christmas with gifts for us and the kids. We truly were blessed and are so thankful to God for reminding us that He has not forgotten us. So here are some pics of our Christmas..............

Happy Holidays!!!!

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy new year to all our family and friends who see our blog..........Here are just a few pics.........

A nice visit.........

Joshua's mother and younger sister came to visit last week. We had a really nice time. Of course, they wanted to go to the beach and see some other things so we took them. The locals thought it was way too cold to swim but I guess when you just flew down from NY and there was 6 inches of snow, it seems very warm to them.
It was a great time to go. It was about 85 degrees but not humid and even though the water was not as warm as it is in the summer the kids still wanted to swim and didn't seem to be bothered. Joshua even took the kids in for a dip.........
We found out that Jack gets sun poisoning when he wears sunscreen (an ingredient found in sunscreen, PABA, When mixed with the sun and his skin it causes him to break out in a very bad rash all over his body) so he has to wear a t-shirt and usually a hat when we go to the beach. But he still loves the water..........
Grandma was cold the whole time but she still played in the sand with Abby.........................
Sammy still loves the sand more than anything. After a dip in the water and a big wave in his face he decided to stick to more "messy" things.

Even if all we did was go to sit and watch the water it would have been beautiful!!!!

My mom and I have been talking about our Christmas decorations.........All homemade because we are always on a budget........So my mom wanted to see some of my "innovative" ideas and here are a few pictures of the things I've put together. This candle set is just my creation..... I had the candle holders and the artificial stuff from years ago so I just put the holly around the bottom of the candles and laid the rest of the stuff down. The candles are just from the dollar store.....2 for $1.......
The kids have a "Little People" nativity so I used that and then I just put some pine garland around the top of our china cabinet to make it festive. The only things that cost money were the stockings and stocking hangers (actually bought on clearance after Christmas several years ago for very cheap).
Just a dollar can go a long way........I put this together out of some leftover junk from other projects and the candles are from the dollar store.......4 for $1.......
In my living room (great big empty room) I have these beautiful vaulted ceilings with this cut out on both walls at the very top. There are lights up there but otherwise they are just big empty spaces for dust collection. So I found some poinsettia runners and some sprigs of artificial pine (at the dollar store) and put a few together to dress up those spaces on both sides.........
Of course there is the tree........ most of the ornaments are homemade and to dress up the tree a little more we found some beads for garland.........Of course when you have little kids, they love to hang the ornaments and rehang them and pull the beads off and throw ornaments on the floor (if you look closely you can see them scattered). Then the curtains behind the tree (they are a little hard to see) I just used flat bed sheets and tied them.....then for Christmas I put the bows on...... I made them from some old ribbon someone gave me..........


Anyway, there you go Mom...........I really liked your decorations too......

Tooth Fairy............

Jack lost his first tooth on Saturday.....He was thrilled!! When I was a kid I remember my parents playing up the tooth fairy thing a little and thinking it was cool but Jack doesn't care about the "Tooth Fairy" or "Santa" or any other imaginary character unless it is Spiderman. And so, when the tooth came out the first thing Jack wanted was his dollar for his tooth (yes, teeth are getting expensive) because he knows that the "Tooth Fairy" (AKA Mommy and Daddy) gives money for lost teeth. He wanted his dollar because he almost has enough money saved up to get a new spiderman toy. He immediately went to figuring out how much money he has and then asked how much his toy cost. He still doesn't have quite enough but he is determined to save until he does. He made the comment that he can't wait until the rest of his teeth fall out because then he will have a lot of money. I think Mommy and Daddy will have to take out a loan from Jack Evan Financial Institution..........................

"Little Man"

Time is flying by so quickly! We just celebrated Jack's 6th birthday on Friday (his actual birthday is on the 19th but since he was 2 we have celebrated it about 2 weeks early so it was done and over so we could concentrate on Christmas.) I am very proud of my boy and I am looking forward to watching him grow more over the next several years. Here are some photos of his "BIG 6."