Festival of Trees & St. Nicholas

This year Berlin's dance class performed at the Festival of Trees. After her performance Ryan went back to work and we walked around and looked at some of the trees, wreaths, and gingerbread houses. It was a nice afternoon overall.

Our friends Katlin, Berlin, Finley, Logan

St. Nicholas Day: 

German tradition has it that if you are good then St. Nicholas fills your shoes with little treats & goodies. However, if you've been naughty, you get a visit from Knecht Ruprecht instead, and he places a switch of sticks in the shoes so the parents can give the kids a good spanking when they are bad. 

Sunday night was the eve of St. Nicholas Day so the kids put their shoes outside their bedroom door hoping that they had been good enough to get a visit from St. Nicholas. I'll be honest, I was a little worried that St. Nicholas wouldn't show due to some recent melt-downs and temper-tantrums, but the kids cheered up, helped-out, and luckily awoke Monday morning to goodies in their shoes. PHEW!

 Finley with his goodies.

Berlin with her surprises.

Boutique SALE & Scentsy Party

For those of you who may not have been able to get to the Posh on a Penny boutique in November, Rachel is having one at her house and guess what ...

EVERYTHING is on SALE! 

Thursday, Dec. 9th

6pm - 9:30pm 

Rachel's House

2550 E 2940 S.  

SLC, UT 84109

There will be tons of Scentsy product (warmers for $15 - HALF the regular price) to purchase or order. Purses & handbags are 20% off, discounted Christmas decor, jewelry at a great price, and lots more fun items. This will be the perfect place to pick up last minute gifts for the holidays.

Christmas Crafts week 2 - Reindeer Antlers

Reindeer Antlers:
This was a great craft for keeping them entertained for a long time. We watched some friends kids and they were over when we did this one. The first round they decorated them with eyes and buttons and a couple pom-poms, but they kept going back to them and adding more and more stuff. Berlin's are so heavy now, they barely stand up :) But I think they turned out pretty cute, and the kids, well, just see for yourself.

To make them, just free-hand draw some basic antler form (like Finn's) on brown paper. Then glue them to a headband (I had some on hand so that's what we did) or you can use elastic/string. Berlin wanted her antlers fuller so we did the basic ones like Finn, but then traced her hands, cut them out, and glued them on. You could do this as many times as you want depending how full you want your antlers.

They think they are pretty hot too. Seriously, could they be any cheesier? I LOVE it!

Christmas Kid-Crafts week one

To keep the kids busy this season we've got a couple fun things going on. We have our playmobil advent calendar and they get to unwrap a Christmas book from under the tree each night, but I wanted something to keep us from going stir crazy during the day with all the cold weather & snow we've had. 


So, we've been doing a craft, activity, or outing each day. I'm going to try and post a few of them each week, that is if I can remember to take pictures of them.

1. Paper Christmas Trees

I cut some tree shapes from my overflowing stash of scrapbook paper and then rounded up buttons, pom-poms, sequins, jewels, etc for them to use to decorate the tree. This was perfect for keeping them busy while I prepared dinner.

2. Stained Glass

I got these from the Dollar Tree store and they are an awesome craft to do. The only downfall is that once dry, the paint gets all crackly and falls off, so I wouldn't recommend hanging them anywhere you don't want a flaky mess.

3. Stamped Wrapping Paper

Bought a set of plastic cookie cutters from Dollar Tree and some white wrapping paper. I poured some old craft paint onto plates, then let the kids stamp away.

 

We then used this wrapping paper for the gifts that they had personally picked out for each other for Christmas. They were VERY proud of this project. 

Out with Fall, in with Winter

I wish I could say we've been busy these past couple weeks, but in all honesty, we've been a bit lazy thanks to the cold & snowy weather we've had. And in all honesty, it's been quite nice. 

But, to back-track, Thanksgiving we had some of my siblings over and after eating we pulled out the Wii for some Super Monkey Ball madness. 

Here are my brother, his wife, my sister and Ryan playing their hearts out.

 Meanwhile, Aunt Valerie and Berlin were having some snuggle time.

Finley and Berlin got in on the action with the running game.

Since it was so cold the day after Thanksgiving we pulled out the tree and set up the decorations. If you see our tree in person, there aren't any on the back, a few on the top and then LOTS of clumps around the middle & bottom.  And, if you can believe it, control freak me, for the first time ever, hasn't even bothered to re-arrange the ornaments they put on. That's a first for me.... progess folks, progress.

Of course, after which Berlin wanted to have a photo session with Ryan - so cute!

So stocking's are hung, the tree is up, and the overflowing with Christmas cheer. Shopping & gifts are done! HOORAY! Which means that we can just enjoy the rest of the month and all the activities that come with the holidays.