Oh What Fun… !

Christmas FLEW by! I can’t believe it’s already over. As a parent, I have the sensation of cooking an exquisite meal and then having it gone in minutes.

BUT, those few minutes are the most joyous minutes we could ever ask for, and I look forward to them every year.

Looks like Santa came!

*Gasp* Are those puppets I see?

…and of course here are the kids opening everything!

Jaycen with his AT-AT walker. Trust me, it’s larger than it looks. (hm…either that or Jaycen is a giant…)

 
Nothing like a 5-year-old and his daddy playing with legos and Star Wars toys!

Here are the kids testing out their puppets and theater curtain! (found the perfect tier curtain and tension rod at Wal-Mart!)

And here’s some more holiday fun that we had…

We made a gingerbread house…

Mommy and the kids made Santa’s sleigh with mommy’s stamps…

Mommy made pumpkin bread (this was before the icing was added!)…

And here are 2 more dashes of cuteness before I go!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Time is Fun when your Having Flies…

Okay so I had mojo going with my posts and then it went POPCRUNCHFIZZzzzzzzzZZzzzz…

I blinked and a month went by! Hmm…a review of some things that have happened since I last wrote.

The kids did a trunk-or-treat and dressed as Nintendo classics for Halloween

 
We saw lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) at the Point Defiance Zoo…well okay, no lions, but there were sharks. DUN-DUN…DUN-DUN….

 
It snowed… (hoping for more!)

 
…and we got a new, itty-bitty Christmas Tree. Trying to start fresh this year.

 
A few other updates, in no particular order (though I numbered them because numbers look fancy!)…

1. We made a gingerbread house last night
2. We had to get a Feliway for the cats (they’re crazy)
3. We got a bird feeder for the Juncos and Chickadees
4. I have been doing artwork like a mad-woman
5. We got the kids their first Legos
6. We finished homeschooling for this term
   (Brooke is becoming a great narrator…though her copywork seems to be lost when she writes for fun)

A few things I am wanting to work on…
(more numbers, yay!)

1. Getting our house more de-cluttered
   (the front room is looking tons better)
2. Actually participating in The Toy Society
3. Putting out some Operation Nice cards
   (I keep forgetting…haven’t done it yet!)
4. Blogging and uploading family pictures more!!

…and of course, being as manic as I am, I have a ton of ideas for things to make. I still need to finish Jaycen’s crochet teddy bear, and I am still considering making a little shop for those. I am also considering making little ‘charms’ with Shrinkie-Dinks out of my stamp designs. …Why? Because Shrinkie-Dinks are fun!

Now for a cool spirit-of-giving story…

 
Here are some puppets. I mentioned wanting to get puppets together for the kids for Christmas. I don’t have time (or the sneakiness factor) to make them by hand, so I ordered this cute set from Oriental Trading.

They came…and they are just as cute as they look (my hand can fit in them too, which is a big deal)…but got no lion…and 2 giraffes! This made me sad, as Lions are Brooke’s favorite animal. So I called Oriental Trading. Guess what they did? They didn’t ask for pictures or any other kind of proof…the gal on the phone apologized and they’re sending out a WHOLE NEW SET for free, saying that we can keep them all. Isn’t that amazing?

I know this might not seem a big deal to you, but in this day and age with everything so big and instant (and electronic) it was so nice to experience such trust and kindness in the spirit of the holidays.

I will write again soon! (hugs to you all)

Time flies!

There aren’t enough hours in the day! My mother used to say that and now I believe her. I’ve been doing so many things…I am trying to set up a few places on the web to further share my stamp designs, I have been getting into crocheting/knitting again, and homeschool is in full swing.

 
I feel homeschool is sort of so-so. Maybe it’s fine, but it’s hard to tell. We all tend to watch movies and stuff in free-time, but Brooke is improving in Narration (depending on the theme of the story) and copywork. I am determined…I’m not going to give up!

Back to the crochet thing, I have this big itch to make cute teddy bears and scarves and sell them on Etsy (check out PlanetJune to see what critters I’m thinking of making!). I just love the idea of having my own shop again there. I’ve never tried to sell stuff that I crochet, so I don’t know how well it will do. I also focus so intently on my artwork in every venue, that I am not sure where I would talk about my crochet! But I suppose I could share some here as I make things. We’ll see. :-)

Anyway, here are some cute pictures…

I taught the kids how to sew a week or so ago. I think Brooke is pulling the box of supplies out again as I type this!

  
Jaycen made ‘sleeping bags’ and pillows for his two favorite stuffed animals!

Rex being irresistibly cute…

 
He’s taken over the kitty bed that we got for Bolita. Took him some time, but this is just too darn cute for words!!

As much as Rex gives Bolita a hard time, I think they do love eachother. Cats are funny like that…

Bolita is such a lovely little girl. She’s becoming ‘plushy’!

Now for some more pictures…Halloween fun and homeschooling!

Brooke’s glittery picture of a House Sparrow!
 
 
Making some fun Halloween decorations…

 
…and of course, I’ve been working on my stamp designs.

I’m really grateful that I have this as a hobby-turned-business. It’s a huge blessing.

 
Sorry I’ve been behind on posting – I hope to get in the swing someday soon before the world ends! Lol, sheesh.

What a Fun Week!

ALL this week, Jared was off work. So we’ve had a total of 8 days together so far, tomorrow is his last day before going back to work again. It’s been lots of fun. :-) I’ll miss it!

I got a bit of artwork done…not too much. Had to wait for my classic Mead sketchbooks to come in the mail. I just have to have my special sketchbooks! I’m so picky.

(No, this is not my special sketchbook. This was an intruder.)

The rest of the week, and most of our days, looked like this (yes, we got LOTS of 4th of July Celebrations in too! Got to use dad’s fireworks from last year):

  
We also got to go to what the kids dub ‘the duck park’. It’s a swim area off of a lake. Going early in the morning just after breakfast is perfect. Nice and cool and quiet. Perfect for family fun! I don’t have a swimsuit, so I rolled up my jeans to my knees and got in the water that way! :-)

  
This is one of the things our son did to entertain himself during the hot afternoons…

…and of course little Too Sweet is loving the heat sans air conditioner. It keeps her old little kitty paws warm! I love Too Sweet so much. She’s such a little cuddle bug. I could hold her like this all day. Literally. She would never move. :-)

That’s it for now! I’m so happy to be back into the swing of blogging. Hopefully I can do it somewhat steadily so you won’t have to sift through novel length posts and bazillions of pictures, haha! :-)

See you next time!