25 Days of Christmas

Dear People Who Read My Blog,

I've put together a fun activity for the kiddos to do leading up to Christmas.  I've made and laminated paper "presents", then written on the back different things for us to do, one a day, until Christmas.  The kiddos will take turns (happily, of course) choosing one of the presents to do that day.  Below you'll see the list.  If they're things that I found online, I linked them, so that if you want to, you can look to see what the different things are.  I'm going to try to post some of finished projects, either here or on my school blog or the kiddos blogs (they're private, so links. Sorry.  If you'd like an invite, let me know).  Merry Christmas!

Love,

Me:)

1. Christmas Mini-Alphabet book
2. Make Gingerbread Houses
3. Visit a local exhibit
4. Make and deliver cookies
5. Santa advent countdown  - THIS IS OUR DAY 1 ACTIVITY, SO THAT WE CAN USE IT ALL MONTH, INSTEAD OF FINDING IT ON THE 23RD, WHEN THE COUNTDOWN WOULD BE ALMOST OVER.
6. Pom pom christmas tree
7. snowman ornaments
8. Collecting snowballs game
9. glue snowman
10. homemade snow-globes
11. popcorn wreath (along with the book If you Take a Mouse to the Movies)
12. candy cane ornaments
13. Christmas action cards (along with the book Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree)
14. Pin the nose on Rudolph felt board
15. Go sledding at a park
16. Make Karmel Krispy Treats
17. Make Christmas Cards 
18. Make placemats
19. Christmas sensory bin - this is our day 2, so that they can use it all month.
20. Visit City Hall (ours has a Christmas display)
21. Christmas Matching Game
22. Window Clings
23. Rudolph hand/foot print art - I can't find this one again to link it, but I'll be sure to post it after we've done it.
24. Watch a Christmas Movie

My Memories Suite Review and GIVEAWAY

My Memories Suite (a digital scrapbooking software company) recently contacted me asking me to review their software.  I was more than happy to oblige (since my previous digital scrapbooking software had crashed on me, with no help from support).  I was a little nervous, since not all programs are designed for Macs, but I was HAPPY to find that My Memories has both a windows and a Mac version.  

After playing with My Memories Suite for a while, I was in love!  It is so easy to work with!  It comes with a wide selection of papers, embellishments, word art, templates, etc.  And there are a lot more that you can download, some are even free!

You can print from home, turn your pages into an album, make calendars, add music, video, narration, and turn your project into a JPEG (which is what I did with my poster, below).  There's probably even more amazing things that you can do, I just haven't found them all yet.  

Now for the giveaway.  Would you like to have your VERY OWN My Memories Suite?  Would you like to give one away for Christmas?  Because I get to give one away!  Here's what to do:

Visit www.mymemories.com and find your favorite paper set, then come back here and leave me a comment, telling me which one it is.  That's it!  

If you don't want to wait and see if you win, you can use my special code and get $10 off your own My Memories Suite (which is only $39.97 to begin with!).  You'll also get $10 in downloads. The code is STMMMS32928.

Leave your comment before midnight on Saturday, November 27, or you won't have a chance to win!

Fall

A few weeks ago we drove up the canyon to "See Fall".

It was beautiful.  And I took pictures.

On the way down, our brakes caught on fire.  While we were on the side of the road "A" had a blow-out diaper.  We ran into a couple from our long-ago singles ward.  And when I downloaded the pictures, I found that I hadn't changed my cameras settings from when I had been playing and trying to "learn my camera". 

It was a drive to remember.

TODAY is Halloween?

With this much candy already gathered, I thought we'd already had it! 

Soup, Anyone?

I made a new soup recipe the other night (I wouldn't recommend the recipe), and started out with my regular soup pot.  I soon found that I needed to use my larger pot!

Misc.

This is one of my best ideas ever (I think).  I have some bookshelves in my living room that aren't usable as such because the kiddos ("J") enjoy taking things - especially books - off the shelves.  So the shelves have been sitting empty and/or cluttered for the greater part of this year.  After thinking and pondering for many months, I came up with the idea of a flannel board of sorts.  Using felt and sticky back velcro dots, I created this scene to go along with the book/poem "5 Little Pumpkins".  I figure I can change it with the seasons, it's a decoration and child-safe.  

"A" got his hair cut earlier this evening.  He does not like getting his hair cut, so I always put it off as long as I possibly can.  I took the chair outside, because we usually get less crying out there, the cape, the clippers, the extension cord - it was all set up before I took him out (he did not go willingly.  I had told him what I was going to do).  Even though there was a bit of whining at the end, there were NO tears!  I explained what I was doing and what the next thing was every step of the way.  He asked me to turn the clippers off a couple of times and I did.  He looked for airplanes and birds and helicopters when I needed him to look up.  He showed me his feet when I needed him to look down.  I'm not saying he was laughing through it, but he wasn't crying.  And that's a huge step for my boy-o!

Have y'all heard of Halo Heaven?  It's my absolute favorite go-to place for hair-bows.  Like the ones pictured above.  And butterfly wings - because "N" loves being a butterfly.  And is going to be one for Halloween this year (again) and why pay $5 at W@l-m@rt when I can pay $1.50 at Halo Heaven?  I have a serious weakness for this store.  This is not meant to be an advertisement.  I just love them.  

Freezer Meals

We recently purchased a large freezer.  And this month my goal is to fill it up with freezer meals.  For those days when I know I won't have time to fix a dinner or for when I forget that I'm supposed to fix dinner or for when a friend needs a meal, etc.

I have a tendency, however, to forget what I've put into the freezer - especially since it's downstairs and my kitchen is upstairs.  So I made a handy chart to put on my fridge, so that I can remember what I've put in the freezer, and know when I need to replenish it (cheese, etc).  My method may not work for everybody, but you can take the idea and run with it.  But if you make a better method, will you tell me so that I can use it, too?

Caterpillars

We found this guy in our carport, while unloading children, after an unsuccessful caterpillar hunt.  Funny?  I think so.

 This is him next to a regular-sized bubble wand.  He was a little skeptical of it and didn't want to get to close.  When he's fully extended, he's about the same length.

 This is him next to an extra-long bubble wand.  He's seriously big!  I've been searching and searching online to figure out what he is, so that we can feed him the correct kind of leaves.  No luck yet.

This is our other resident caterpillar, Gracyn or Mickey, depending on the day.  She's a Wooly Bear Caterpillar, that eats grass and hibernates all winter, spinning her cocoon in the spring and turning into an Isabella Tiger Moth.  

The kiddos have had a great time playing with her.  This is what we were hunting for today, when we came back empty handed.

Sadly, I think the kiddos might have had too much fun with her.  She's not moving a lot (at all).  "N" thinks she's already hibernating.  I'm not convinced...

From the Garden

It's our first ever, home-grown cantaloupe!  We had some left-over seeds when we planted our garden, and I let the kiddos plant them in the front dirt that will one day be over-flowing with beautiful flowers, not even thinking that they would survive.  I was surprised to see a cantaloupe vine growing and even more surprised a month or so later when there was a cantaloupe on the vine!  It's taken a very long time for it to ripen, but it finally did!  And it's delicious!  The funniest part is that the cantaloupe that we planted in our actual garden never took off, and still has no cantaloupes on the vine, which finally started growing about a month ago.   Now we'll see if the other cantaloupes have time to ripen, before the cold weather comes and never leaves.

Yard Sales and Rollerskates

I love yard sales!  I picked up these skates (and a few other things) for $5 today at a random yard sale, we weren't even looking for yard sales!  The kiddos had a blast outside, every chance they had.  After dinner,  DH and I put on our rollerblades and we all had a go.  So much fun!