Photography Giveaway

This is a post for my photography.

I don't have a photography page yet so I'm going to use this since Facebook won't let you do giveaways on there anymore.

At least that's what I've heard.

Ok so it's almost Christmas and I've been thinking about doing a giveaway.

 I've been trying to get across to my kids the real meaning of Christmas and that it's important to give as Christ gave.

And I decided I really need to stop talking about it and do something myself!

So I am giving away a 1 hour photo shoot to use anytime next year.

But in the theme of giving I want you to nominate someone you think deserves it.

 Just leave a comment telling me who you want to get the shoot and why.

You have until December 23rd at 9pm to enter and the winner will be announced on Christmas Eve.

So take a minute to think about who you think would really appreciate some photos.

Fine Print :)

The person needs to be in the Huntington/Fort Wayne, IN area

You can nominate as many people as you like who are not in your household.
Oh and while you're here go ahead and follow my blog. It's not required but it's fun!

Self Confidence

Today I am looking for a little bit of advice.

Maybe some advice for me and some for Ava.

I've never been a very confident person, and I don't have a very positive self image

and lately I've noticed Ava worrying about the way she looks WAY to much.

Here are a few examples.

The other day I did her hair.

It was cute but it wasn't perfect and we were running late for school so I didn't have time to redo it.

All the way to school she was crying that her hair didn't look good and that the kids would make fun of her. Let me just add that I know the kids are not making fun of her at school. Every day I am bombarded by kids asking to come to our house and play with Ava and she gets multiple compliments through the week about how cute she looks.

And maybe that's part of it.

Maybe she gets too many compliments on how she looks.

I don't know.

Another example happened last night.

I put her to bed and she was crying because she had a bump on her cheek.

She wanted me to get something to fix it right away.

I told her it was fine and we would look and it in the morning and she got really upset (sad upset, not fit throwing upset) I finally got her calmed down and told her you couldn't even see the bump and then she went to bed fine.

Those are just a few examples but it's been happening a lot lately.

I know that she is watching me and that plays a big part and I try not to say things in front of her but I'm not sure what to do.

How do make a little girl understand how wonderful she is?

She hears it from us on a daily basis but apparently that's not enough.

I know that this is something that will affect her for the rest of her life and that's why I'm asking for any advice you can give.

I know you all are full of wisdom

and thank you in advance.

The Polar Bear Express

Yesterday we had an awesome experience.

My Grandparents got everyone in the family who was able to go tickets to ride the Polar Bear Express.

My great grandpa was a railroad engineer so my grandma has a soft spot for trains and for Christmas but I'm not sure the reason behind that.

Probably because Christmas is just makes your feel all giddy and joyful.

Well at least that's how it makes me feel.

Anyway, we got to listen to a Christmas story and then ride the train for about an hour.

Santa and Mrs. Clause and a polar bear walked around and greeted us and

they served hot chocolate and cookies.

It was so much fun spending time with family and traveling by train.

So here are a ton of pictures to document our night.



It only took a year...

Well this week I've been loving on my little sicko.

He's been down and out for 3 days now and his only request is to be held.

24 hours a day.

This is one of those times when I wish my little guy wasn't chunky

because my arms are ready to fall off!

But don't get me wrong I love the cuddle time because my baby is becoming independent way to fast.

So we've read a lot of books.

And colored a lot of pictures.

But most of the time we just cuddled.

And there's not a picture of that because

well no one wants to see what I've looked like the last 3 days.

Now what I've really been wanting to show you is one of Ava's Christmas presents.

I thought of this idea about a year ago,

bought all the stuff to make it about 6 months ago,

and finally got around to making it in the last few weeks.

 I know it's sad but that's how things work around here.

But after a year in the making here is her tutu bedskirt!

Ok so a few things.

First I really think it was worth the wait.

And I realize she really needs a comforter that matches her room.

Hopefully that will be solved sometime soon.

But I'm really loving it!

It's really not that hard to make either.

All you need is LOTS of tulle and a piece of PVC pipe.

Cut the pvc to the length of the bed.

Then cut your tulle and tie it around the pvc just like you would for a tutu skirt.

If your not sure how to do it there are tutorials all over the web.

Just use my friend google and he'll help you out.

When your pipe is covered you want to place 2 screws on the ends of the bed but only screw them in half way.

Then you can put the pipe over the screws and that will help hold it in place.

So it would look like this.

Does that make sense?

If not let me know and I'll get some pictures of it.

Here it is tucked down where it would go.

Mine's not put together yet because it's for Christmas.

I'm SOOOO excited to show Ava.

Now I just have to finish her tutu skirt

and a million other Christmas presents.

Are you ready for Christmas yet???

Linking up to

http://www.mushkiloves.com/



Classic with a twist

Last night was the first night of December!

Which means the countdown until Christmas begins.

The first activity on our Advent Calendar was to watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn.

I must say that the Christmas spirt took over right away because they agreed on a movie without any fighting!

But before we could watch the movie we had to make the popcorn.

But not just any popcorn

Peppermint Popcorn

I kind of had mixed thoughts about what it was going to taste like but I thought it was worth a shot and it would at least be festive.

I found the recipe on Pinterest (favorite site EVER!!!)

But it comes from the blog Plain Chicken

Peppermint Popcorn

You need to take one bag of microwave popcorn and pop it. ( She uses plain popcorn but I used butter and it tasted good too) Then crush up 6 candy canes and pour on top of popcorn. Melt half a package of Almond bark and and 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract to the melted almond bark. Pour it over the popcorn and mix it all together. When it's all mixed up spread it out on parchment paper until the chocolate is hardened. Then break apart and eat.

Overall it was a pretty good success.

Braeden who normally doesn't eat popcorn, ate some and both kids asked for some first thing when they woke up.

And of course Mason chowed down as much as he could.

(Some of my pictures just won't flip no matter what I do)

So after our snack was ready we relaxed to the glow of the Christmas tree and watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Can't really ask for much better than that for the first night of December.
Well except for Reed being home to enjoy it with us.

So how did you spend your night?

First Snow of the Season = First Snow Day!

On Tuesday it started snowing.

And snowing.

And snowing.

Mason and Ava were so excited and they stared out the window most of the day.

It was so cute watching Mason in complete awe of the change that was happening outside.

I can just imagine what that little mind of his was thinking.

Then when Braeden got home he got started making snowballs right away.

And you can't make a snowball without throwing it!

So he took aim at his sister who was watching him through the window.

 On Wednesday we woke up to school being cancelled and daddy being sick.

What a fun combination!

So to try and keep the kids from begging and whining about wanting to go outside for just a little while I decided to make some peanut butter clay.

It's super easy and just 3 ingredients.

Peanut Butter Clay

Mix 1 Cup of Peanut Butter with 1/2 Cup of Honey. Add 1 Cup of Powdered milk. Gradually add more until no longer sticky but not too much or it will get crumbly. Then break out the cookie cutters and have fun!

 My kids will play for hours with clay or play doh

and that's just what they did.

(And yes we stay in our jammies all day on snow days)

Then of course you can't have the first snowfall without getting out there and playing in it!

So I bundled them up and sent them out to burn off some stuck in the house energy.

I must admit that I think I like snow days more then the kids do.

We have a whole day to stay at home and work on fun things, and play games.

And tonight we start our 24 days of Christmas.

I still have to get the calendar set up but we'll be ready.

We are also doing a special service activity that we will be starting soon.

More to come on that in the near future.

Have a Happy first day of December!

Teamwork!

Every once in awhile I come across a project that I want to do and Reed jumps in is forced to help me out.

This was one of those projects.

I've been wanting a shelf for my living room for awhile but I didn't want to spend the money to buy one and if I was going to make it, it had to be super easy or it wouldn't get finished.

Confession: I sometimes think I'm more awesome than I really am and take on projects I can't figure out.

But I found this shelf here.

It has awesome instructions and it really wasn't hard at all.
We did tweek it a little.
We didn't put the trim on the bottom and I think we used smaller crown molding then they used.

Reed and I are seriously beginners at this type of stuff so I'm sure you can do it too.

We hung it up and I LOVE IT!!!!

The pictures of my cute kids don't hurt either.

I don't have all of my pictures yet and I'm going to paint some of the frames but I'm pretty impressed with me and my hubby.
Now I need to come up with a saying to put across the bottom in vinyl.
I've got some ideas but I'm not sure yet.
Feel free to give me some imput!
Now excuse me I have to get back to looking at my shelf :)