1. The new Panera Bread with a Drive Thru opened! And I only have to drive a few minutes to get it.              2. Playing so nicely. 3. She loves going to “school!” 4. Her friend Anna stopped by and they got the case of the giggles. 5. She is so proud of the outfit she chose.  6. Morning Devotional with the kids. My sweet friend Dacia told me about this book.

1. Having fun at Block Fest  2. Kids in the kitchen. We headed over to a friend’s for a nutrition lesson.              3. Enjoying some time at the library. 4. Yummy snack for Justin: Yogurt + Granola + Blueberries. 5. On our way to KC to visit some of my college buddies. 6. & 7. We stopped at Chick–fil-A and had a snack and played in the play area. Jackson enjoyed dipping his fries. 8. & 9. Had so much fun catching up and playing games.

We rented the clubhouse in my neighborhood and it was a lot less stressful than having it my house.

Cupcake table with lots of the maternity/ family photos I took back in October. Check out the pics here.

I took regular clay pots and spray painted them gray. It took LOTS of coats. I probably should have primed them first. I wrapped the plastic ware in pink napkins and tried to make them look like roses. The invitations are from Shutterfly.

Our wonderfully awesome friend Andrea made the cupcakes and the boxes for them to sit on. She is so talented.  I bought the cupcake liners and wrappers from Sweet Shop Lulu. They have such wonderful things!!

We had our lemonade all ready to go in the mason jars. I also got the straws from Sweet Shop Lulu.

April worked hard on the tissue paper pom poms. Love them!

and she did so awesome on these yarned wrapped bottles. Maybe I can get her to do a tutorial for us!! What do you think April??

I forgot to take pictures that day of the Monogram door hanger I made, but you can check that out here.

I saw this idea on Pinterest. So I made a calendar in Excel and everyone got to guess the due date.

{Annie with her daughter + her Mom}

Audra praying over Annie

Annie got so spoiled with all sorts of cute gifts for Sawyer.

Thanks Annie for letting April and I throw you a shower for your last baby! We had so much fun planning and prepping. So excited to meet Miss Sawyer as I know you are!!

1. They love spending time with Paw Paw. 2. Justin as a kid. 3. Out to eat with the kids by myself. 4. I love Neives’ in Winfield, KS. 5. Jocelyn drawing on her Aquadoodle. 6. Really cute sparkly heels from Target.

1. Jocelyn’s first eye appointment. She has 20/20 vision. 2. Lunch on the lawn. We had such a beautiful January day. 3. He has been trying to take pictures 4. Sweet moment. She was reading to him. 5 Candy Land! She and Justin play this every night as long as she takes her nap. 6. Jackson filling his Piggy bank.

1. & 2. Getting ready to help Justin change the oil in the car. She needed her coveralls on too. 3. My baptism certificate came!! 4. My sweet husband knows me so well. 5. Letter S made for Sawyer’s baby shower. 6. She played with her animals in this bucket all morning.

1. & 6. Practicing scooping skills. 2. All set up for Annie + Sawyer’s baby shower. 3. Justin sent me this while I was at the baby shower. They are so cute! 4. & 5. Jesus loves you snow much! A fun little event for the families with young kids at our church. Jocelyn bounced forever!

1. Bath time! 2. He loves any shoes or slippers 3. Mom + Jackson time while Jocelyn is at school

4. & 5. She is looking at her photos. Such a cute little chub. 6. Trying to perfect my braiding. I will get there.

I will share this week’s photos on Sunday

I am going to try to explain this, but you can look on Martha Stewart for better photos of her tissue paper pom poms. I took a wire hanger and bent it into the shape of the letter S. It was about 16 inches tall from the top of the letter to the bottom once I got it all shaped. Other letters might take more than one hanger to get the same height. You can always clip off the excess with wire cutters. Next line the back of the hanger with long strips of felt using a hot glue gun. I then started making the flowers. I stacked 4 pieces of tissue paper and then cut them in to 3×5 inch pieces.

Then fold like a fan and staple in the middle.

Then round the edges and fan out the sides

Then starting on one side with the top piece of tissue paper, put it towards the middle and then do the same with the opposite side, alternating sides until all the tissue paper is pulled inward. It should look like a flower now.

I then put hot glue on the back of the flowers and started gluing them to the letter putting them as close to each other as I could without making them looked smashed. I also tied a piece of tulle to the top for it to hang from. You can tell here I haven’t glued the ones in the middle of the S yet, but the ones on the bottom were glued. I also placed my felt as I went, but it might be easier to do it all at once.

This was really fun and easy to make, just a little time consuming making all those flowers. I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, but I love it. Can’t wait to make one for Jocelyn! Here it is one more time.

The next morning, we opened stockings. Jocelyn and Jackson got a nativity and Veggie Tales: St. Nick movie, with a few other fun things. Then we opened gifts. Justin and I did stick to the three gifts this year. My kids were spoiled, but not by us. We got them each an ornament, a pair of jammies (that they opened Christmas Eve), and Jackson got a book and Jocelyn got a memory game + candy land. My favorite memory that morning was hearing Jocelyn randomly shout out in the middle of opening presents “Happy Birthday Jesus!” My dear friend and her Sunday School teacher, had been telling the kids to do this when they opened their gifts. So sweet!

After we opened gifts, Justin, Paw Paw and I headed to Old town while everyone else ate breakfast. Mammaw made an extra breakfast casserole and some biscuits for us to take. We drove around and around with not much luck at finding people at first. No one was at the park that day and there weren’t many out walking around.

Finally, the 4th person we came across gave us a tip. He said on Sundays someone brings the homeless sack lunches over by the library and that they’d be waiting there. Sure enough they were and we were able to pass out all of our food. Paw Paw also brought along some New Testament bibles to hand out as well. We even got to meet the people that passed out the lunches and exchanged information so we could help in the future. So glad God showed us the way that day!

We got back to the house later and enjoyed watching the kids play with their new things.

And we tried to get a family photo…

…and some of all the kids together (that didn’t work so well)!

I hope you had all had a very Merry Christmas!!

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http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=33630978&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

A couple days before Christmas, Jocelyn and I made puppy chow and then made some homemade pizza dough.  We had so much fun and only set off the smoke detector four times. That thing is so sensitive.

She had a blast helping me make the dough.  Here is the recipe we followed. It was really good and I even froze half, because it was plenty for Jocelyn, Jackson, and me.

and we decided to make a candy cane since Christmas was close. I didn’t have plain mozzarella cheese or it would’ve been perfect

Christmas pictures coming soon. Can’t wait to share!

Click on the photo to take you to Google Docs where you can download.

Personal Use Only! Please do not copy, sell, or alter in anyway. Thank you!

PS. My files on Flickr are not resized for the web, so you can print them at high quality. Therefore, they might look a little dull because they are so large and the web can’t handle all the information. They should print just like the one above.

And one more fun bokeh picture of my airplane loving hubby. Find out how to do this here.

If you have any good verse suggestions for the New Year, let me know. I have already made one with Jeremiah 29:11. Thanks everyone for following along with my blog and for all your kind comments! I really appreciate them! Happy New Year!

Afterwards, I looked at the paper and it looked really neat. I added the yellow sun and it was perfect. Decided to take a photo. I think this would make a neat card front. Click on the photo to get it from Flickr.

PS. My files on Flickr are not resized for the web, so you can print them at high quality. Therefore, they might look a little dull because they are so large and the web can’t handle all the information. They should print just like the one below.

Thanks!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Graham!

Justin’s work party is amazing every year. Free food, tons and tons of games, bouncy houses, and rides. The kids love it. And I love the cotton candy and snow cones

The picture I took of them with Santa this year wasn’t great, but still funny 2010 on the left

Jackson did not love the carousel at first, but he warmed up.

Jocelyn loved it of course!