Quick and Easy

 My Grandma has been sick so we made this card to send to her.  Perfect easy thing to make with toddlers who want to help.  They both colored pictures to put inside too.  I found this idea on pinterest, which I am obsessed with now and currently wasting way too much time on. So much for temporarily deactivating my facebook account for the summer to cut back on computer time!  Guess I just need to get rid of my computer to solve that problem!

 The boys have been working on making a clubhouse out of some of our old moving boxes.  Brayden has big plans for how he wants it to be and right now they are in the process of decorating the sides of it. I thought this was cute...these are all his disney guys he drew.

Ok and I was amazed when I saw this. He looked at a picture of Pluto and drew it all by himself! Thats seriously better then I could do!

Every night we find Tyler asleep like this...blanket wrapped around his head.  We have to try to carefully take it off without waking him up because he gets so sweaty under there!

Easter Cards

I wanted to have Brayden make some easter cards that we could send to family this year so I found this idea that was really easy and fun!

We used this multicolored stamp pad

And Brayden made thumb prints with all the colors

Then we decorated his thumbprints like easter eggs

And turned 2 of them on the front into little easter bunnies! We're sending them off in the mail today!

Can't believe its almost Easter!

Finally Done!

I have been working forever on this advent calender for Christmas this year and I finally finished it today...planned to have it done by December 1st, but that didn't quite happen!
These are all the little pieces that you put in the pockets to countdown the days until Christmas!
Now I just need to start working on a stocking for this new baby for next Christmas...maybe I should start it in January so I have lots of time to finish it by then :)

Turkeys to Christmas trees

Well, I gave in and let Brayden use the paints again... it went much better than last time! We are getting so excited for Thanksgiving next week so we decided to make place mats for everybody to use at dinner. Brayden thought it was awesome that I was actually letting him get his hand all painty to make the turkey. He was truly in heaven!

Now I have to admit that I also gave in and got out all our Christmas stuff already! I just couldn't take it anymore!! We won't be around for some of December so we just decided to get it all out so we could at least enjoy it for a full month! As soon as we get back from Thanksgiving we are planning on getting our tree to put up... last year we waited awhile and were only able to have it up for a short time before we left for Christmas! So yes we are crazy, but I love it and can't wait for all the fun things we have planned for December! If only we got snow here.... :(

Our Thanksgiving Tree

I really wanted to find something that I could do with Brayden this Thanksgiving season to focus on all of the things that we are thankful for. We truly have been SO blessed in our life and I feel like its easy to take it all for granted. I found this great idea online that I thought was perfect. A Thanksgiving tree! We started out by going on a nature walk to find a good "tree" (branch). It took us some time because Brayden was always drawn to the huge ones lying around and was set on bringing home the biggest one ever! But I finally convinced him that this was a good size! We cut out leaves in all different colors and hung them on our tree with little clothes pins. Every day until Thanksgiving we are going to talk about what we are thankful for and write it on a leaf. I love hearing the sweet things that Brayden is thankful for so far. I think we need more leaves for November so he can fit all his ideas! :) On the other side of the leaf we are writing something that we have done for others. It's been fun to not only recognize the blessings we've been given, but to also focus on what we can do to help others. Brayden is such a huge helper so he's enjoyed looking for things to do to help mommy and daddy!
It'll be fun on Thanksgiving to read all of our leaves before dinner (maybe we'll bring them to Arkansas where we'll be for the big feast this year!) I'm hoping that we can make this "thanks" and "giving" tree a tradition with our kids each year to help focus more on the season. We had a lot of fun making it together as a family and that's something I'm thankful for! :)

Just hangin' at home

My little cowboy riding his horse!
Well, we're still a one car family and plan on that for awhile longer I think. Guy will ride his bike to work sometimes so we can have the car, which is crazy to me, but it works... it's like a total of 32 miles a day when he does! But he actually really enjoys it so I say go ahead! :) Riding that far would be considered a form of torture to me! Anyways, we've been spending a lot more time at home (which is why I've been blogging so much lately I think!) So here are just a few random pictures for the day. I'm excited its almost the weekend!

I gave in and finally let him use his paints again...now I remember why we don't get them out much. After a spilled mess and paint from head to toe, it turned out to be a lot of work! This is obviously a before pic to the disaster! But he loves his skeleton so its all worth it I guess! :)

Just in time for Christmas

I finally finished these stockings just in time for Christmas. They have been works in progress all year, but I finally cracked down and got them done these last few months. You can tell I have no life!! :) My aunt DeeAnn made us stockings like these for Christmas one year when I was growing up and I always loved them so I figured I'd carry on the tradition. Now we just need a fireplace to hang them up on!!