Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Another Stationary box

I made another stationary box and wanted to share it with you! I got the idea from Jackie Topa's blog. Check it out here
The box: Opened:
6 standard sized cards:

3 - 3" x 3" cards:




3 - 2" x 3" tags:







Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Natalie's Vest - a post for Cheri Ü

There's always that one gift that one of your kids asks for that is either a) too expensive or b) hard to find. This year was no exception. Meet the vest:


This vest was the most difficult thing I've ever had to find for one of my kids. About 2 months ago we were in Sport Authority and Natalie found this vest - she wanted it soo bad. But, it was $90! There was NO way I was buying an 8 year old a $90 vest. A snowboarding jacket? Maybe, but not a vest! So I told her to ask Santa and she did. All she wanted was a white, hooded (fur lined hood) vest. I thought "No big deal it should be easy to find - I've seen them everywhere." Boy was I wrong! They were everywhere last year. I searched the internet, eBay, overstocks, amazon - everyplace online that I thought might have one. I went to Target, Costco, ShopKo, Fred Meyer, TJ Maxx, Ross, Burlington coat Factory, Old Navy, GAP kids, Gymboree, TCP, Limited Too, Sears, JC Penney, Macy's . . I even went into Value Village I was sooo desparate to have one for her. I had my friends and mom out looking for it too! I asked her, "If mommy can't find you a white one, what else do you want?" Her reply? " A brown one." UGHHH I was soo frustrated by my search and vented to Monte one day about 2 weeks before Christmas - he says "We're going to Sport Authority and just getting the darn thing then!" ACKKK Even when I explained that it was $90 and she's only 8 and blah blah blah . . he said " I don't care. It's all she's asked for." ( Yeah she's got him wrapped around her finger!) So we went to Sport Authority. And low and behold they still had one (no wonder there - who's gonna buy it for $90?) Not only did they have her size, but it was ON CLEARANCE!!! WOHOOO happy dance!!! So that is how Nat got her vest - whether you wanted to know or not:)

Funny little tree decorations

Michelle had picked up some tree decorations last year on clearance (I believe that's the story on them!) anyways it was pretty funny that there were onions, artichokes and garlic bulbs in one pack and an eggplant, pickle and jalepeno in another set. Here's Andrew with the onion:



And here's the jalepeno on the tree. We could not say jalepeno without adding "on a stick" to the end of it! Kaylee decided that it wasn't really "on a stick", it was "on a string"! If you don't understand why this is soooo funny, then check out this clip of Jeff Dunham on YouTube.

the jalepeno comes in around 2 1/2 minutes into it.

Getting the tree . . .

We drove about an hour and a half on Christmas Eve morning to cut down a Christmas tree. We have never done that before and it was soooo much fun! One of the requirements for choosing a tree was that it had to be at least 200 yards from the main road. This meant that we had to trek thru 2-3 feet of snow to get that far. Natalie got stuck a few times, but she had her snowboarding whistle with her and let us know where she was. Andrew was really too short for most of the drifts, so he was piggy-backed a lot :) We had taken a picnic lunch up with us including hot chocolate! After the long ride home again we set up the tree and decorated it!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Merry Christmas . . . a bit late!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year!!
These are the kids' pj's from this year. The shirts were designed by Aunt Cheri and the pants were made by my friend Mary's mother - MaMarne. Thanks to both of you- we love them!!!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Christmas pics

Here are some snapshots that we took while the kids opened their presents from us. It was all done in a real hurry (probably 15 minutes max) as we needed to get on the road for our trip to spend Christmas with my Dad and step-Mom, Michelle in Southern Oregon. The boys each got a bean bag chair - Kaylee got a bunch of Tinkerbell stuff - and Natalie got "the vest" that she wanted. The kids also got a dvd system for the car which was a lifesaver in keeping them occupied on the long trip. The roads in Portland were also really nasty with compact snow and ice so it was great to have them distracted!