Christmas at the Capitol

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Capitol to see the Christmas trees with our family.  The trees, music, and time with our family didn't disappoint this year either:

Easton checking out the cute little teddy bears

Xavier pleasing his Mama by pausing for a picture with his little brother

For some reason Xavier really wanted to take "silly" pictures that day.

He said he saw it on Caillou :)

 

 

 

This was the best family picture we got that day. 

Easton & Xavier look less than impressed.

 

Xavier LOVES nutcrackers and The Nutcracker Suite music :)

 

 

"What are YOU doing here, Mickey?"

 

 

Easton enjoying a ride on Rudolph

 

 

The boys with Rudolph

 

 

Xavier being silly in the background

 

Easton strangling the stuffed puppy in the background

 

 

My favorite picture of the boys from that day

 

 

The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect! ~Charles N. Barnard

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!  There are SO many reasons I love this time of year.  Here are just a few reasons:



Putting up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night:

 

 

 





Helping Gramma Deb put up her Christmas trees on Black Friday:

If you're Easton, this means sitting in

the decoration boxes so no one can decorate!

Making Christmas cookies and goodies with Xavier 

 

 

 



 Waking up to our beautiful boys...complete with "Who" hair

(you have to be festive this time of year you know!)

 

 

 

SNOW!!!

 

 

 

Xavier's Christmas Program at Church

 

 

 

Driving around looking at Christmas lights, wrapping presents, re-wrapping presents after Easton ripped the paper off of them, watching Christmas movies, doing the Advent Calendar with the boys, and best of all - spending lots of time with family and friends!  As Tiny Tim says, "God bless us, every one!"  Merry Christmas!!!!

 

 

"It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."- W.T.Ellis

Advent Tradition

Advent Calendars were a holiday tradition Mike & Scott grew up with, and we continued the tradition starting with Xavier's first Christmas season.  Gramma Deb & Papa Gary got Xavier a Nativity scene Advent Calendar, which has a magnetic piece of the Nativity behind each door.  We also include an ornament for his mini tree and a small present or treat behind each door as well.

Xavier's Advent Calendar

(with about half of the magnetic pieces shown)

 

 

We absolutely LOVE Xavier's Advent Calendar and the fact that it's wooden and will last for a very long time.  Before Thanksgiving this year, Mike and I started looking for an Advent Calendar for Easton.  I thought it would be fairly easy to find something similar that I liked just as much...boy was I wrong!  After looking at about 300 different Advent Calendars, I decided the one I had in mind didn't exist :( 

Adie made some adorable Advent Calendars for Maddie & Henry last year, so I thought maybe I could find something I could make that I would like.  I was on a quest to find something that had the boxes around the outside with a space in the middle to make some type of Christmas scene.  To my surprise, I found exactly what I was looking for!  So I ordered it...and waited...and waited...Then I contacted the company wondering why it hadn't arrived yet, only to find out they cancelled my order because they were out of stock.  I found it from another company and ordered it.  Then I got an email saying it was back ordered and wouldn't be shipped until mid-December, so they were wondering if I wanted them to cancel my order.  I cancelled my order and ordered it from yet another company.  Less than a week later I had two packages in the mail - TWO Advent Calendars-the one that had been back ordered shipped earlier than they expected so they didn't cancel my order...oh well, better to have two than none, right!?  It was already December 8th though, so Advent had already been under way for a week, but I still wanted to make it to give to Easton for a Christmas present (I decided he would just have to share with his big brother this year).

I decided I wanted to do a Christmas living room scene in the space in the middle, and thus began "Opperation Advent Calendar" for Easton:

The unassembled kit:

 

 

At this point, I began to wonder if this was such a great idea.  Maybe we should have just gone with the mediocre Christmas tree Advent Calendar we found online (even if I didn't really like it much at all).  NO!  I have an image in my head of what I want Easton's Advent Calendar to look like, and it's NOT that crappy little Christmas tree one!  I CAN DO THIS!

 

 

 

The assembled Advent Calendar:

This is all the further you get with the kit.  It's a total blank slate.  The rest is up to each individual person to create whatever they want with it (including rounding up whatever you want to decorate the boxes and the center area with) - that's kind of half the appeal though...it can be whatever you want!

 

 

I decided to use wrapping paper and modge podge to decorate the boxes.  For the center area, I printed a couple of pictures off the internet and did some shopping in a scrapbooking section.  I also decided I wanted it to be magnetic like Xavier's so Deb helped me out by giving me a magnetic vent cover that worked perfectly for this project!

 

 

Finished decorating the little boxes and the frame!

(except putting the numbers on the boxes)

 

Done?  Something seems to be missing though,

and I don't love the "wall color" - the white/gray looks like a cement wall :(

It's not the cozy living room that I was hoping for, so...back to work!

 

 

Officially DONE! 

I painted the background tan (so it no longer

looks like a cement wall) and added a window. 

Much cozier, just like I had pictured!

 

I was able to make all of the pieces (except the fireplace, window, and the green part of the tree) magnetic, so one piece can go in each of the little boxes to create the Christmas living room scene one day at a time throughout the Advent season. 

 

 

A lot of time and love went into this project, and it was absolutely worth it!!  Hopefully it will be something Easton enjoys for many years to come too! 

 

 

Christmas is sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.   ~ William Saroyan

 



ONE!

It's hard to believe how quickly a year goes by!  Easton turned "1" on November 4.  Here are some highlights from his big day:

 

 

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!  Now get this stupid hat off of me!!!

My little Bunkey (Baby + Monkey = Bunkey)

Birthday boy opening his presents...with lots of help and a big audience :)

Ridin' along in my new John Deere dump truck!

 

 

Playing in my new tunnel!  I'm not sure who likes it more - Easton or Jackson :)

 

Monkey Birthday Cake for my little Baby Monkey!

Sizing it up...

Really?  I get this WHOLE thing all to myself!?

Diving right in by sucking on the frosting.

 

Mmmm...

This is too good to leave any on my fingers!

It's FUN to be ONE!

 

 



You may only weigh a few pounds and you are small enough to fit in my arms, but the amount of joy and happiness you have brought in my life is larger than life itself. Happy 1st Birthday!

Little Spooks

I realize it is December 23 and I'm just getting around to posting the pictures of the boys in their Halloween costumes...story of my life :)

Anyway, I thought they were pretty cute little spooks so I decided to post it even though it's 2 months late!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xavier, Easton & our Halloween friend "Bubba" ...the boys love him (believe it or not!)

 

 

 

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.  ~Henry David Thoreau

 

Bad Picture?

It's surprising difficult for me to get a picture of my boys in which they both are looking at the camera and have their eyes open.  Now, facing the camera with their eyes shut - THAT I have mastered somehow!!!  I probably couldn't do it if I was trying, but since I'm not trying to do that, I find that it happens suprisingly often...

I think it may be their way of getting back at me for always wanting to take pictures of them! :)


There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.”    ~Abraham Lincoln

Handy or Cheap?

It's been almost an entire month since I said, "I'm not doing anymore DIY projects"...and today I turned myself into a liar.  The top portion of the agitator on our washing machine quit last Sunday, and after calling Whirlpool 3 different times and finding out that a service call would cost $200 just to get them here - then to have the customer service rep tell me they can't send someone here because we are out of their service area and ask, "Where the heck do you live!?" I decided I would try to figure out what was wrong with it.  After a few minutes searching online (seriously I think you can find the solution or directions to just about ANYTHING on there) I figured out that the dog agits had worn out.  I tried getting them from our hardware stores, but they didn't have them, so I ordered them from Amazon and had the shipping expedited for a combined total of about $10.  I had 4 loads of laundry I needed to do, and more piling up quickly, so I was really hoping my washing machine would be in working order again soon!

The dog agits arrived today, and Mike helped me get the agitators out of the washing machine and Xavier helped me clean it and put the new dog agits in and reassemble it...it works better than ever now! WOOHOO!!

That must have given me the itch for DIY projects again or something because I also decided to try to figure out how to replace the drain in our bathtub/shower because 1) it doesn't drain well most of the time despite gallons and gallons of Draino/Liquid Plumber and cleaning all my hair out of it with a pair of tweezers and 2) the drain switch thing doesn't work so we have to use a rubber stopper thing to be able to fill the tub to give the boys a bath, and 3) the drain switch thing is so corroded that it just looks disgusting anyway (and drives me crazy!).  A trip to our hardware store, $20, and 30 minutes later and it's in perfect working order now too!  It was a very productive DIY day!

I've decided it's a good thing I'm semi-handy and not afraid to try to tackle new because I'm too dang cheap to pay someone else to do these things that I think I'm capable of doing!  :) 

If a woman is sufficiently ambitious, determined and gifted, there is practically nothing she can't do.  ~Helen Lawrenson