Christmas Fun!

 Merry Christmas Everyone!! I hope you had a great christmas. Our family has had a very nice Christmas at home this year, and it even included SNOW! The kids are excited about getting to play in the snow when they get to later! They all seemed to be very grateful for what they received this year.

The girls have enjoyed being on Christmas break, although Kylie has already asked if its time to go back yet. Gabryle has seemed to enjoy having the girls home to play with. He goes up to them and hollers "Sisters come on!" to get them to come and play with him. It's cute!

I've posted a few pictures from today for you! I hope you enjoy them. If I don't write again before the end of the year, have a happy New Year!

 Till Next Time!!!

Mackenzie's Christmas card she made Jerrod and I at school.

Mackenzie's Christmas gift she made Jerrod and I in class.

Kylie's Christmas gift she made for Jerrod and I in class. 

Christmas Ornaments

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a great day at home this year. We fixed a large turkey, all the fixings and spent most of the afternoon outside playing in the yard. We all had fun and then went after it got dark to the drive through Christmas lights that the town puts on every year.

Today the kids and I made our Christmas ornaments for this year. As usual we always do a new ornament every year for Christmas. We either buy one or make them, and this year we did a different type of hand print ornaments.

We got from Hobby Lobby some clear glass ornaments, paint pen and some filling for the ornaments. I painted the kids hands, one at a time, and then they

 held the ornament to get their print onto the ornament. After it completely dried I wrote their name and date on their ornament then we filled it with the little white popcorn type filler and some glitter. They all wanted red glitter so it was much easier to fill the all at once. I then used a clear spray paint and coated it with the clear polish to give it a little extra gloss and to make sure the hand prints stay on. I think they turned out great.

Once we get our tree up I'll make sure and post pictures!!

Till Next Time!!!

Busy busy busy....

Christmas is fast approaching along with Mackenzie's birthday. Things are busy with the girls at school, and I am busy at home starting to get things ready for Mackenzie's birthday party, and also things ready for Christmas, like Keeping Gabryle from pulling the Christmas tree over on top of him.

Kylie's class has started decorating their room for Christmas and they have cute decorations hanging on the wall outside of their class. She was thrilled to show me her Gingerbread kid we decorated hanging with all of the other kids decorations. It was neat seeing we were not the only ones who used something like cappuccino mix or cinnamon to decorate the gingerbread kid. She was thrilled that hers is on the bottom row so its easier for her to see when they are walking past the display.

Mackenzie's class has been busy working on a present for each family. She has been so careful at not letting it slip to what they are making and that has made her so proud. Her class will also be building gingerbread houses. Each student has to bring 1 supply so there are enough for each student. Mackenzie was asked to bring 2" miniature candy canes. I saw that and figured, okay that would be easy to find. How wrong was I about that!

We looked at Wal-Mart cause I assumed they would have it. Why not they had some last year. Boy was I wrong! The kids and I spent 40 minutes searching the entire store for them and they did not have them. Next we went to Dollar Tree, which was a no go either. After that we got Jerrod from work and then went home and had dinner. After we finished watching Mars Needs Moms, Kenzie and I ran to the mall to see if we could find some. We looked at Big Lots and they didn't have them so I decided that we would look next door at Hobby Lobby and bingo! We found then finally! They had 2 boxes left, one that had been opened and one that wasn't so we grabbed that box quickly and then went and looked around at some other things before heading home.  Never thought it would be so hard to find. I assumed when I read the note that Kenzie had that it would be easier to find especially since a lot of places had started setting out Christmas decorations before Halloween. Next year I will know to look at Hobby Lobby first!

Hard to believe Kenzie's birthday is almost a week away. She is so excited about it this year! She has heard from at least 4 of her friends in class that they will be coming to her party, plus lots of family has said they would come too. As we were looking through Big Lots last night she kept showing me things that she would like for her birthday. Little does she know we have already bought her gift and its sitting in the top of the towel closet. We think she will love getting a little Ipod Shuffle to listen to her music. Plus we downloaded her the new Justin Bieber Christmas album and the Kids Bop 20 album. She will love it!

Once I get some of the cake decorations made today and tomorrow I'll post pictures of them. Have to figure out how to make a guitar......Not sure how well it will turn out, but I will try my hardest. It's what she would like!

Till Next Time!!!

Hand print ornaments (The finished project)

Kylie's in the process of being made.
Plus a few of the Stockings and Candy Canes we made.

 So, we finished our ornaments last night and I think they turned out great! The girls wanted theirs to be red, so I added the red color to the water before adding it to the flour/salt mixture, and I think it turned out great doing it that way instead of painting the color on like I did on Gabryle's. Gabryle's still turned out great even though I painted the green on with watered down food coloring. 

Mackenzie's in the process of being made. 

Gabryle's ornaments in the process of being made.

 We had quite a bit of extra dough so as the girls hand prints were starting to dry I used some cookie cutters and made some stockings and candy canes. Mackenzie thought that was a great idea. We baked them in the oven for a shorter time than I did Gabryle's and they did not puff up any like a couple of Gabryle's did, which I am thrilled about. I was also afraid that after  they dried a little the color would turn more pink than red but they haven't. They have still kept their red coloring without fading. (whether they fade over a long period of time we shall see!) 

After they cooled to the touch and had set for a few hours I pulled the paint out and started painting the small little ornaments how I wanted, just to make sure the metallic Gold color looked all right with the red color of the dough. Kylie thought I Was crazy for painting them at first! As those dried I separated the girls hand prints and wrote their names and the year on them with a gold permanent marker then painted the hands. 

I haven't had to touch up the paint on the hand prints, which I'm glad about. By the time I was through painting the hands the stockings and candy canes were dry and I was able to check them out better. I think they turned out just as cute as the hand prints. 

This morning the hand prints are still a little damp on the back, but I imagine they will dry fairly quickly and be ready for hanging on the tree. I'll recheck the paint in a little bit just to make sure 

The completed Ornaments 

I didn't miss any spots on the hands and that all  of

the red is covered in the hand area.  

I enjoyed doing this with the kids. It was easy and quick to do, and it uses every day things that most people have in their house to begin with.   Once we get our tree up and the ornaments up on the tree I will post pictures so you can see them hanging with all of our other family ornaments. 

Till Next Time!!!

Salt Dough Ornaments

I came across a recipe today for Salt dough that you can use to make craft projects out of.  I have been searching the past few days for a recipe to make homemade hand print ornaments for the kids to do this year for Christmas. Every year we have a tradition of adding 1 family ornament to our collection of ornaments. So far this year we haven't really come across any pre-made ornament that we like, so I thought maybe of having the kids make their own ornaments, by doing a hand print ornament. It'll be a great keepsake, especially once they get a lot older.
I've already tried it out this morning with Gabryle, and did different sizes of dough and I believe I have found the amount that works just right. The ones that were too large ended up bubbling up where Gabryle did his hand print so those were not usable. I found the less dough you can use, the better it turns out. I baked the dough for less time than the recipe called for and at a lower temperature, just to make sure it didn't brown or anything like that.
I think they will make wonderful ornaments once I get the girls home and we do theirs also. I will have Gabryle do another one just to give me another option. He had a blast being able to sit there and mash his hand down on the circle of dough I had him do. I guess he thought he was like Daddy in the kitchen cooking being able to stand up on the chair with me and watching me do what all I needed to do.

Gabryle's first ornament attempt.
This is the test run outcome. 

When I do our batch later today I will also add a hint of food coloring just to give the dough a little color. I colored the one good one Gabryle had today with some food coloring and I think it just looks better once you add some color to it. I'll post some pictures later once we get our final ornaments done and I have included the recipe for salt dough below.

Till Next Time!!!!

SALT DOUGH

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup salt

3/4 cup water

1.Mix together the flour and salt till well mixed together.

2. Add water and stir until a ball of dough forms.

3. roll out in sections or a flat sheet and cut out shapes or form to desired shape.

4. bake on cookie sheet for about 2 1/2 hours at 375 watching regularly to prevent browning OR let dry for 24 hours.