Let It Be Christmas

Welcome!!! Come on in and take a peek! We spent the weekend getting our house ready for Christmas. I still need to finish making the tree look good, but I am pretty pleased with how the rest is turning out. I finally got my Uppercase Living on the wall and I bought some new decorations.

I love snowmen! I am such a sucker for them. So, I couldn't resist the new one that is in my entryway now. I have another on order that should be arriving in a couple of days. I can't wait for it to come!! It is really starting to feel like Christmas around here! And the kids were in fine form today, so I can tell Christmas is getting closer! LOL! The cold has also moved in, so it was a perfect day to stay home and decorate. Right now, it is 1 degree outside and with the windchill is is in the negative 20's. BRRRR!!!!



We were asked to host my dad's side of the family Christmas this year, but we thought we probably shouldn't, in case anyone was sick. Lynn can't really take any chances right now. So, I am a little bummed that no one will get to see all our our work from this weekend. We might ask his Dad and step mom to come over on Christmas eve.


Another thing that really gets me in the Christmas spirit is music. I just love the lyrics to this song. Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson. I think it really talks about the spirit of Christmas -- that Christmas is in our hearts and is felt through the love that we share. I bought this cd last year and this was the song I played over and over. It is such a meaningful song.



Here are some more of my new pretties!!






Enjoying the Season ~

Amy

Thank you Mrs. A!!!

Since April, my chidren and I have been making the trek to Lincoln (an hour and a 1/2 drive --each way!) twice a week for Samuel to meet with a trainer at LearningRX. He is very right brained and phonic programs do not make sense to him, so we sought out some additional help. It was a very intense program. He worked with her for 3 hours each week and then he and I had 3 hours of home training each week. I think my brain has been trained now also!

His trainer was wonderful. He loved working with her and she did a great job with him. She told him many times that he was her favorite and that she didn't know what she would do when it was time for him to be done with the program.

We thought we would never see the end, but the day before Thanksgiving was our last day with Barb. I am kind of sad that the end has come. We had some fun days driving there and hanging out together, yet I am glad that we will now have those 10 plus hours at home!! Maybe we can get something done around here??? LOL!

Anyway, a special person deserves a special thank you gift. I had so much fun whipping this up for her. She was such a big part of our life for the past 8 months.

I used one Close to My Heart's acrylic albums. These are so much fun to work with!! I am trying to think of who else I could make one for now.

I had a hard time parting with it. Guess I'll just have to make another one now for Samuel to remember all his hard work.

Happy ??? Birthday to me . . .

HA!!! Thank goodness it is almost midnight and my birthday is just about over. This one hasn't been very good at all. I should have done what I was originally planning, which was taking the kids out for a fun day. I opted to stay at home though and am now regretting it.

Part of what made it so awful is that my husband scheduled a major medical procedure for today without even telling me about it. This is something I thought that we would discuss together when the time came and I have been totally in the dark about it. Not only am I hurt that he has kept me in the dark about this, but I am also very angry.

I didn't even get a present to open today. The kids and Lynn gave me flowers and bought a cake. I was so wound up today over his secret that going out for supper didn't even sound good. The kids wanted to take me out though, so we went to Perkins.

Hopefully next year's will be better ~ I guess it can't get much worse.

Amy

3 Days of Cropping . . . .

And this is what I have to show for it!! LOL! :)

I spent last weekend at a 3 day crop in Albion, Nebraska. I had a good time talking, laughing, and getting little sleep, but don't have much at all to show for it.

The 3 classes that I taught and the booth kept me busy, so this was all I got done. These pictures are from 2002, but I love the way this layout turned out. I am glad I waited to scrap them.

I had a great time though and can't wait to do it again next year!

Amy

Making Life a Little Easier . . .

Ok, so it doesn't look so pretty in my *needs to be defrosted* freezer, but there are 27 meals in there ready to go!!! I am so excited. October and November have been pretty busy around here. I hosted one crop in October and am teaching/vending at 2 in November. Add in our trips to Lincoln twice a week and life is busy. It seems like 5 o'clock always rolls around and the kids are saying they are hungry and I have no idea what we are going to have for supper.

I spent Sat., Nov. 1st making all of these. The kids were a big help and even better -- now that we have started eating them, they say that everyone has been good. They did think last nights was too spicy though. Samuel said tonight that we need to make notes about which were good and which weren't so we can do this again. He's a thinker!! LOL! We used recipes from www.savingdinner.com.

I learned a few things from this venture. If at all possible, don't shop and cook on the same day! By the time I got everything bought and home, it was late afternoon. We worked on these until about 10 and had the majority of them done. Also, prep work is important. If I had it to do again, I would shop on Friday and cook on Saturday. I would also do the prep work Friday night, so I would be ready to roll on Saturday.

I have always wanted to do this and I think it would be fun to do with a friend. However, I could never find anyone that was able to get together or had similar tastes. My mom said she would come help me tries this a couple of years ago, but she was just too busy to come help.

I finally just decided that it was time to give it a whirl and see how it went. It really wasn't as bad as I had thought. The kids were a bigger help than I thought they would be. Next time around should be even better, now that I have them trained. :) LOL! There favorite job was to suck the air out of the bag with the handy dandy new tool from ziploc.

It has been very nice just pulling out a meal and KNOWING what is for supper at 5 pm!!

YUM, YUM!

Amy

More October fun & a Belated Happy Halloween!

The kids had Wild Hair night at AWANA.  These were our hair creations.    They received the titles of most colorful.  They had quite the do's.  I hope they got coloring their hair out of their system and won't need to do that again!

Happy Belated Halloween from the Wicked Witch and The Hulk!!!! These were our little spooks. We went to the Family Fun Fest for an evening of games and candy. It was a fun night and it wasn't too crowded.



They really raked in the loot. Now, it they would just stop hiding it from me, I would have a pretty good supply of candy!!




We have been enjoying the fun of Fall! It's hard to believe that the Christmas season will soon be upon us. It seems like I missed a good chunk of fall with being gone.



Amy

AACK!!!! Where has October gone?????

Oh my!!  I can't believe it is already November and I haven't updated my blog at all.  I have thought about it many times, but just haven't had the time to sit down and type.  I was looking through some pictures tonight to post on here and can see why the month has flown by.  

I'll have to post pictures of our trip later.  There are too many great pictures to go through them tonight (I took over 1,300!!!)  It was truly the trip of a lifetime.  I really enjoyed it and would love to go back again if I ever get the chance.  I would have loved to have spent more time in London and in Pompeii.  Next time though, I'll leave Lynn at home!!   LOL!  I may be looking for a friend to take to NZ with me on the next one.  He isn't excited at all about the plane ride.

We got home on the 13th and Samuel's birthday was on the 18th.  I can't believe that "my baby" is 10 already!!  Where have the years gone?  It is hard to believe that he started out at 5 pounds 10 oz.  It won't be too much longer before he will be as tall as me!!  

We wanted to spend some time with the kids, so we went to Omaha to celebrate his birthday at Coco Keys (an indoor waterpark).  It was a lot of fun.  Samuel wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory for supper -- yummy!  I wish we had one closer to us.  

Amy