Made These

Lydia made

these

beauties

I saw a lady making them

in Michael's

I knew my Lydia would be all over

making one three.



Next year we will sparkle our magazine Christmas Trees up with paint and glitter.

(Since we did not get to making ours until after Christmas.)

Here are Martha's

Me & My Kiddos

Ahh, the family love

My kids love posing for a picture so we can

remember these times.

Oh, not so much.

Can you see me trying to squeeze Cyrus in the picture...

He was mad because he wanted to take the picture

as I let Evan take a picture earlier.

I do not like letting him touch my camera, let alone hold it by himself!

His 3 year old finger prints

all over the lens...ugh



Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas

Many Blessings to All!

Our Family Advent Wreath 2011

I saw Sarah's post ~ so I thought I would share.

This is the "Stonelook Celtic Advent Wreath"

I know they are supposed to be evergreen

but I just like this one too much!

I bought some very sweet Holy Cards from ebay

for our kindergarten Religious Ed Class to decorated candles.

We glued the cards and some gems on Dollar Tree candles.

This one is minus the "gems".

We will light it on Christmas Day.



Saint Lucia Feast Day - December 13

So, we have been celebrating some more feast days around here.  The kids love it!  There is so much to learn from our Saint Friends in Heaven. Their lives were so incredibly miraculous - it amazes me!  I know there are many "legends", but still many not!

Our Lucy Bride
(We had a hard time coming up with her red sash -
we made do with a cape and some thin ribbon!)

Good Morning!

I think the candles (on her crown) are supposed to be white,

but Lydia wanted them red for Jesus' blood. 

(She is getting ahead of herself for Lent!) So,

she made them red.  She can make anything out of paper -

if we do not have it, she can create a paper version!

She is happy as ever to do it too!

(the red sash was nearly going to be paper!)

our little Liza

crazy morning hair!

So, after school we made candle lights

that you can even eat for a treat!

Still using up that Halloween candy corn...

He is sooo goofy

We read our Lucia book a few days earlier,

it is on the long side for almost all my kids,

so I did not attempt it tonight.

Turns our it was a perfect day to speak of light

as it was a very dark cloudy day around here!

Christmas Books

These are some of our favorite books at Christmas.  I saw different family blogs where they would wrap the books and the children got to unwrap a book each day of Advent.  So, we have been doing that around here. (Some books are new and some "old", but it is still fun for the kids to unwrap them!)

Humphrey's First Christmas 

This is hands down my FAVORITE book this year!

It is so cute!  It is funny and Holy at the same time.

Illustrations are wonderful! 

And it is NOT long. 

(My 7 year old boy is the only one who can listen to the "long" books.)

 

S is for Snowman - God's Wintertime Alphabet

Another book with great illustrations for the kiddos.

It is simple and sweet and does not forget about God's wonders.

I snapped a few pages of this book...

The Miracle of Saint Nicholas

This is a fictional story - but I just love it.

I love Russian things and this book is set in Russia.

It is informative in a simple way.  (Catholic traditions/art)

The pictures are fairly simple, but suit the book very well.

If you Take a Mouse to the Movies

Ok, so this one is Cyrus' favorite - the 3 year old.

I must admit all my kids love this series.

It is just a fun read! 



Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas made a quick stop

bringing sweet treats

and gifts of faith



The coin idea is from Shower of Roses - she amazes me with what she does!

Stationery card

Tree Of Memories Christmas Card

Send Christmas cards personalized with your favorite photos.

View the entire collection of cards.

This is straight out of the camera or if you live in Australia or England "straight away" out of the camera.  I love how they say that.

I just have photoshop elements.

I love how it is all glowy now.

Of course it takes me too long as I am painfully slow.



And the Pink Ribbon Fades

With October over I am so glad to see all the pink ribbon stuff fade away.  Oh what people do not realize about that cute little pink ribbon!  But hopefully word is getting out what the Susan G. Komen Foundation is about.  It does not take a genius to do a little research to figure out the Komen foundation is ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTING TO THE POSSIBILITY OF BREAST CANCER DEVELOPING IN WOMEN.  Of course the Komen Foundation denies the CLEAR-CUT facts. 
Abby Johnson posted about Komen's contribution to Planned-Parenthood here.

As for me
this is
the kind
of pink
I like to see!



and especially this

I think she is Friends

with her

We love Pinkalicious around here!

Up and Away

I was trying to get a group shot of my kiddos, which always, always makes me more irritated than anything!  Have I ever mentioned that!  It is a near impossible task.  Then super cranky baby gets distracted by something.  Can you guess?

By the time I got the correct exposion going on with my camera

it got a bit far away,

but initially this giant balloon was practically

sitting on top of our roof!

All Hallows Eve - Angel Pumpkin!

So, I searched and searched googled & googled to find an ANGEL PUMPKIN STENCIL with not much luck.  So, I made my very own!  I can barely draw stick people, but with the help of some angel coloring pages I found, I think I pulled it off!  The dress part was a very last second thought/fix as I was going to cut out the whole dress.  But then I remembered as I had been pondering in my head for a few days how the heck I was going to pull my angel off how I had wanted to keep a portion of the dress.  I had already made some cuts but I was still able to "save" it and keep the middle MOSTLY intact!  (I painted it white to try to cover up a line.)  But still I love it!  I totally think my Guardian Angel helped me out on this one!

My k-er drew and cut out

her cross - just a little help from mom!

Here are our ghosts!

Dad keeps having to make another one each year!

 Evan's ghostly pumpkin!

3 out of 4 children

Darth Vader - Friendly Witch - Optimus Prime

Ladybug

is on the fly...always

My real live ladybug

constantly on the move

this one

and this one

were as good as I could get of the little Ladybug's face!

And she LOVED wearing this costume! 

She was so excited to put it on!

Lydia's Cross Pumpkin ~

We have a Holy Ghost now! 

I have never actually bought those little pumpkin carving "tools" until this year.  And now I am saying why oh why did I not dish out the 5 bucks on a few tools?!  I thought knives were just as good, but how wrong I was!  I never would have been able to pull off my Angel & Cy's Bat without those little tiny tools!

2nd year for this costume -

he knows what he likes and he is sticking to it!

How cute is this particular Optimus Prime!

He looked so cute with the little padding under it!

My little "muscle" optimus prime guy.

Don't all witches have GAP hoodies?!!

More Scary Holy Ghosts!