Christmas 2012

Our Christmas card picture!

WOW... I have gotten WAY behind on my family blogging!  It is almost Valentine's Day, and here I sit blogging about our Christmas!  OH well... I guess sometimes life just gets away from you!

Christmas was so much fun this year!  Having 2 kids has it's highs and lows, but Christmas is definitely a high!  Our Christmas celebrations started on  the 19th, and carried all the way until Dec 28!!  That is right... one entire week of celebrating!

Scott, came to visit first!  He brought with him a truck full of presents, and the kids were beyond happy to open them in the morning!  He spent the afternoon with us before heading home.  It was a fun visit, and I am so glad he could come up!

Mom & Ken flew in from Utah on the 21st.  They were supposed to fly in very late on the 20th, but bad weather lead their flight to the cancellation list.  Fortunately they were able to make it the next day.  Abbie was the sweetest thing running to hug Grammy in the airport!  It brought some tears to my eyes!
My mom's dad & stepmom came to visit us on Saturday!  It was the first time that they had met Brady!  Papaw wasn't feel the best, and did a lot of resting, but we still did some Christmas celebrating too!  Abbie and Brady opened their presents from Grammy & Grampy Ken, and Papaw & Yvonne had a few presents too!  We finished our visit with Papaw & Yvonne off with a delicious dinner at Flemings!

The next few days blew by... I am not sure what all we did, but I do remember making cookies in there somewhere!  Before I knew it... it was Christmas Eve, and I was hard at work on a Snow White tent sent straight from Satan!  It took well over an hour to get it jimmy rigged and sitting upright!  We all went to bed late, and were thankful that while it will probably be the last Christmas that we didn't have an early riser... we knew it wasn't going to happen this year!

Christmas jammies!!!

Christmas morning was more fun than it has been in years!  Abbie was so excited about everything!  We don't do large Christmases.  We do 3 presents from Santa, so that we can relate it back to Jesus getting 3 gifts from the Wise Men.  We gave the kids 1 gift each!  Small, but they still have a great morning!  Derik made a huge breakfast, and we engorged ourselves!  It was more than sad dropping Mom & Ken off at the airport.  I had to put on a smile though, because Derik's parents arrived less than an hour after I got back home!

Nancy & Clarence visited from Christmas Day until the 27th, Nancy's birthday!  We don't see Derik's parents often, so the visit was short but sweet!  The too came with a truck full of presents, that the kids were more than happy to open!  We spent the evening opening gifts, and after a long day of playing with new toys... the kids crashed out pretty early!

Clarence & Nancy stayed until lunch time on the 27, and 30 mins after they left, my dad arrived!  Dad was only staying the night, but his visit was certainly memorable!  He brought with him a mountain of gifts from him, Mimi Carol, Aunt Gin, and a few other family members!  It took almost 2 hours to open everything!  We spent our evening playing with everything, and enjoyed our visit very much!

It is a little surreal that all of that was 2 months ago! What a whirlwind, but it was wonderful.  Thank you to everyone who visited, and thank you to everyone who sent gifts to us and the kids!!  We love you...

 - Jessica

Abbie opening presents from Poppy Scott!

She was a very happy little girl!

Brady's turn!

He LOVED his Sports Center!

Playing the "tar" with Ken!

All smiles!

She found her Cupcake ornament from Grammy!

Visiting with Papaw & Yvonne, and enjoying some chips and homemade salsa!

lounging in Abbie's new chair!

Cookie Time with Grammy...

.

Happy Girl!

Such a big girl!

Sweetie Pie!

Rolling out the dough!

Cutting cookies.

Icing and Sprinkles

Enjoying her work!

All dressed for the Christmas Eve service at church! 

We really got no good pictures of them together!

Sweet Boy!

Coming downstairs Christmas morning!

Santa brought Abbie a bathrobe!

Going back to her Santa bag for more!

Santa brought a Snow White tent!

Brady's turn to open Santa!  A Scout dog!  HE LOVES!

Abbie helped open Brady's Santa bag!

A Fisher Price plane!!  So cute!!

Abbie's present from Mommy & Daddy... a leappad!! 

Brady's present from Mommy & Daddy... his favorite thing ever!

Hard at work on a yummy breakfast!

LeapPad heaven...

Puppy Dog Heaven!

Brady's first Christmas!

Abbie's 3rd Christmas!

1st time making bread!

Nancy and Brady...

Clarence & Brady!

Abbie loves her new princess dress from Nana & Pa Wayne and her 

Hello Kitty bookbag from Alecia & Keith!!

Dad has arrived!  Brady's present pile!

Abbie's presents!

SO CUTE in her new hat! 

Skates!

Hello Kitty Karaoke machine!

Poppy James helping Abbie skate around!

Brady's turn!

He got some super fun presents!

Abbie helped open some... obviously!

She absolutely loves this thing!!!

"Elf Defense"

Anyone who reads my blog knows that I do not often sit back and say nothing when I find something that insults me.  There are a few areas in my life that when poked... I bite back, and my parenting is one of them. (My marriage, and our finances are the others... so stay away from telling me what I'm doing wrong in those areas!!!)  Parenting isn't a job that comes with a handbook.  It is a job that everyone chooses to do their own way.  We all have our children's best interests at heart, but our methods differ.  There is NOTHING wrong with this!  In our house... we have rules & laws!  There are 2 main LAWS in our house, thus meaning that these rules will never change or go away!

1) NO KIDS IN MOMMY & DADDY'S BED.
Our bedroom is our space, and there are no children allowed when the sun is not up!

2) MOMMY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD.
This is really for my own sanity.  There isn't much in this house that is MINE, but the food on my plate is.

As far as rules go... here is the short list...

My parenting technique differs from most people that I know.  This doesn't mean the way I do things is wrong, nor is the way you choose to parent.  My logic behind our system is explanatory.  While Abbie has good days and bad... most every child does, our method seems to as a generalization, work! 

The point of this post, however, is not to preach about my superb parenting skills.  They are far from superb, and I am not planning on writing a book on the subject!  This post is about "Elf Defense".  I read a post last night that really got me fired up.  You can read this post here.  While I am sure this post was meant for laughs and not to insult, it got me thinking.  I have had sooooooo many friends on Facebook post something about how tired they are of seeing everyone's Elf, or that the Elf is stupid, or that people who choose to have fun with their Elf have no lives.  I felt some clarification was needed.  There is nothing stupid about our Elf.  Holly is here to keep Abbie on her best behavior.  Her fun antics each day are to keep Abbie thinking about her.  When Abbie wakes up each morning, her first statement is "Let's go find Holly".  We come downstairs and look for our Elf!  Abbie lights up each time she sees Holly doing something fun!  

What this article was saying that got me upset, might be true in some houses.  However, in ours... it would never happen.  Our elf does things to make Abbie LAUGH, but never anything to coax Abbie into breaking rules.  Did our Elf draw on a family picture, yes.  Does that mean that Abbie will draw on all of the pictures around our house... NO.  She would get in trouble for doing so, and she is aware of this.  I am not a hypocrite of a bad mom for this.  When she found Holly with a marker in her arms, Daddy said "SILLY HOLLY, we don't draw on pictures". Therefore Abbie is not picking up bad habits because of our Elf.  Our Elf, has Abbie convinced that every night when she goes to sleep, Holly comes to life.  Her antics around our house have proven to Abbie that Holly is real.  THAT WAS MY HOPE!  I don't throw away money, and to me $30 on a stuffed animal that sits on a shelf collecting dust is a waste.  I would never have bought it, if the intentions were to have it sit on a shelf and do nothing.  Abbie wouldn't have cared about Holly AT ALL!  So, to sum it up...

A)  Abbie is 2, and I want her to have fun Christmases lingering in her memories for years to come!  This tradition is fun and we have enjoyed watching her enjoy it!  

B)  Just because my Elf is much more active than some, doesn't make those parents slackers.  Your idea of the Elf on the Shelf experience can differ from mine!

C)  Judging someone on their parenting method, does no one any good.  Does it make your method any more effective, no.  Does it boost someone's confidence in parent department (which we all need), no.  All it does is hurt.  It isn't our place to judge people, as parents or for anything really.  So... worry about your kids, your household, your Christmas experience, your traditions... and let me worry about mine!

For those who have enjoyed watching Holly's every move... thank you for your support & encouragement!  I really am having fun with Holly, and knowing that other people are excited to see what she is up to next, makes me even more excited to plan out her next adventure!!  

Holly has a website... feel free to use our ideas & share them with friends!!

 

 - Jessica

Making Laundry Detergent...

I have had a lot of friends ask me recently about my laundry detergent!  How do you do it?  It is easy?  How does it smell so good?  I figured, why not put all of the questions to rest, and show you just how easy this actually is!  I did some research a long time ago at homemade detergent recipes for an HE washing machine. This one is the easiest and best I have found.  Are you ready to see just how easy it is???

1 bar of Ivory Soap with Aloe

1 Cup of Borax
1 Cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

That's it!  This is so incredibly cheap to make, and I can make it in about 5 mins or less!  Here is what I do...

I use my food processor to shred the soap.  Then I add a cup of each Borax and Washing Soda.  Run the processor again, and put into my container!

Borax - $3.99/box

Washing Soda - $3.29/box
3 Pack Ivory Soap with Aloe - $1.07 

The Aloe Ivory makes the detergent smell good! 

I don't own a fancy food processor... $25ish at Walmart!  It works great though! 

 Using processor to shred soap!

1 Cup of Washing Soda 

 1 Cup of Borax

 Run processor to mix together...

 I use a yogurt container that I covered with pretty scrapbook paper to hold my detergent!

1 Tbspn of detergent per load!  

SO EASY...

Enjoy!

 - Jessica

Stationery card

Our Moments Christmas Card

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