My Kind of Gingerbread

I don't LOVE the taste of gingerbread or all the time and effort it takes to make, roll, cut, bake and put together gingerbread houses. (I do LOVE the way they look and smell though.) My kind of gingerbread houses are the graham cracker kind! It has become somewhat of a tradition in our home. No baking required... just lots of fun decorating! This year, we had cousins at our house overnight (Tim and Karen went on a little 24-hour staycation for their anniversary) and I thought it would be fun to do it with them.

I read on a blog that I frequent, that you could hot glue them together. This sounded like a great idea, so I glued and assembled the night before. It worked great! The houses were more durable and had less set up/drying time. I'd highly recommend it if doing this project with kids.

At first, my kids were worried that I had put glue on their food. I told them they didn't have to eat the glue... just the crackers and candy. (It seemed like it would peel off fairly easily when it did come time to eat.)

Get ready... get set... decorate!

Audrey's ready

Katelyn says, "Ta-da!"

Abree's excited about the candy cane, but hasn't decided where to put it.

As soon as Treyson's was completed he asked, "Can we eat it now?"

I told him he had to wait for a few days, so it could decorate our house for Christmas. It didn't take long for it to be picked at and dilapidated looking.

Rylee had to piece hers back together, after a candy light mishap.

Taylee came up with the idea of using a Tootsie Roll for a chimney. She angled it so it would fit just right.

L is for Ladybugs & Lollipops

When it was my turn for pre-school this month, I had the letter L.

The first day we talked about ladybugs. We colored a picture, made a counting book (with fingerprint ladybugs) and played a "site word" ladybug BINGO type game. (Some of the girls are starting to be able to recognize the site words! Some still don't really care.) :)

The next day we talked about lollipops. I had this idea about making lollipop sugar cookies.
Plan A : roll the dough into "snakes". Then wind them around in a swirl creating a lollipop.

The dough was WAY too crumbly to do this. Soooo....

Plan B: Form different sizes of balls squish them into circle shapes onto the sticks.

They were supposed to be edible, but they didn't taste very good in my opinion (a new cookie recipe that someone on the internet raved about). Maybe too much food coloring??? They were pretty bright! :)

We also made these little lollipop magnets. This was my last minute brainstorm that ended up being so cute.

I had the girls glue the circles together, sandwich the craft sticks between 2 yellow circles, put a clear plastic bag over, tie a bow and stick a magnet on the back.

---I was happy to use the little craft sticks and little plastic bags I bought on clearance... I didn't have a use for them at the time. I have LOTS more. Anyone NEED a lollipop magnet???

Ison Christmas FHE

The Annual Ison Christmas Family Home Evening.... a tradition that has been going well over 60 years.

Some things have changed; the location, the nativity narrator, the number of attendees, the addition of bells to our Christmas songs and the children (they just keep growing up!).

Some things have remained the same; children playing the parts of the Christmas story in Luke, the adult white elephant gift exchange, yummy food and a special visitor, with gifts, for the kids.

The kids no longer play a specific part in the Christmas story re-enactment. They're all Mary's, Joseph's, shepherds angels and wisemen. I guess the idea is less fighting that way. Usually there is only 1 Baby Jesus. This year, there was no fighting or crying about who was to hold him. Whew!

The kids getting geared up to play the parts of the Christmas story.

This year, Josh was our Luke 2 narrator.
Isn't Daisylyn the cutest Mary/Wiseman/Shepherd/Angel you've ever seen?

Santa had trouble with his sled this year. We sang and sang and kept singing waiting for him to arrive. We moved onto the adult gift exchange when we ran out of songs to sing. Finally, Santa arrived and explained that Mrs. Claus forgot to fill up the sled with gas, so he had to borrow her sled. We were just glad Santa had made it safe and sound.

Given the choice of a Santa gift or playing in the adult gift exchange, Rylee chose the Santa gift, "You usually get something you want from Santa. You may not be as lucky in the gift exchange." Smart girl.

Abree was quiet, but DID sit on Santa's lap.

Treyson bounded up onto Santa's knee. Hopefully he didn't hurt Santa.

When Santa asked what he thought his mom wanted for Christmas, Treyson replied, "Ummm, maybe a new camera???"

YES! I hope Santa was listening.

Jason and Taylee were at an award ceremony for the Reflections Art Contest. Taylee had received an "Award of Excellence" once again this year. They showed up after Santa had gone, so we saved Taylee's gift for her. (More on the contest later.)

The Ison Christmas Family Home Evening is a tradition we look forward to every year.

Happy Birthday Aunt Hertha!

Monday, December 7th, was my Aunt Hertha's birthday. (She passed away from a battle with cancer in 1990.)

In remembrance of her, I dug through my childhood keepsakes and found this cute denim purse she made and personalized for me. I'm so glad that I've kept it over these years and am so glad that I have something to remember her by....precious!

I often think of her, as I stay up late to work on projects. (Something she did all the time.)I remember how she told me that it was cool to be tall. She said that I have a "presence" as I walk into a room.

I wonder what she would be up to, if she were still here on earth with us? I wonder what kinds of projects she would be into (besides sewing, of course)? I wonder how many more ribbons she would have won at the fair? I think of her often.

Thank you for being a part of my life Aunt Hertha.

Teenage Mom

It's official, I'm a teenage mom.... a mom to a teen that is.

Rylee turned 13 on Sunday!

My friend Krissi, Abree and I went to Rylee's school and decorated her locker Thursday afternoon, so she could see it Friday morning. (I forgot to take a picture, darn.) Then on Friday, while she was at school, we worked on this little project...

a bedroom for Rylee.

Rylee has been wanting her own room for several years now, but we've never had enough space to give her one. Even in our new house we only have 3 bedrooms-- the girl's room, Treyson's room and the master bedroom for Jason and I. (We actually do have another room that we call "the office". It has our piano in it and is used for craft storage and guests when they come.)

As I thought about a room possibility for Rylee, I started thinking about the unused space at the top of our stairs, sort of a huge landing area. I don't know what it's intended use is, but we used it for our computer at one time. Recently, we've moved the computer downstairs into the nook by our kitchen, so the space has just been sitting there mostly empty.

I pondered how I could divide the space, for a little privacy. At first, we thought of buying some type of divider, maybe like an office cubical. That seemed like an expensive, too-much-to-figure-out solution. Then I came up with the idea of a temporary wardrobe closet thingy. I had one that I used to store Halloween costumes in for re-sale, so I it gave me a good idea of how big it would be and how it would divide the space. I thought it would be a good solution. I bought a new one for her room, because my costume one was FULL.

After wrestling with the wardrobe thingy and bending back and cracking my big toenail in half on the bed frame (OUCH!), I finally got the room set up. I decorated with new bedding, painted canvas', polka dots and a great vinyl phrase; "Cinderella.... proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life." (Rylee is a BIG time shoe freak! A perfect saying for her.)

When she got home from school we waited and waited for her to discover it. Finally, we told Abree to take Rylee upstairs to help her with something in her room (she was sworn to secrecy and wasn't supposed to say anything). Rylee said that as she walked up the stairs she saw the wardrobe thingy first and thought that I had created a little craft corner for myself. As she walked around it and looked in, she saw the bed, decorations and note that said, "Happy Birthday Rylee!" We heard her gasp and squeal, "Oh...oh...I LOVE IT!... I can't believe it!... I LOVE it sooooo much Mom!.. Thank you!... Thank you!... I LOVE it!" Such a fun, big reaction... so funny, so dramatically teenager-ish. :)

The room is a work in progress. I couldn't get everything done in that one afternoon. So Rylee and I will work together to complete it and get it looking ultra cute. There may be more photos to come, as it takes shape.

On Sunday, her actual birthday, we celebrated in the normal way.... gifts and cake. Rylee's bedroom was her main gift, but she did open a few others; Wii "Pop Star", Michael Jackson's "One" cd, "Princess Diaries", fuzzy socks, a basketball and Colgate Wisps (she's been wanting some of these for months. Don't ask me why???).
We had yummy pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting instead of a normal cake. We also did a sparkler star "candle". Lots of smoke, but really fun and different.

Happy Birthday Rylee!!!

We LOVE you!

With Tiffany in Mind

As I walked into "Real Deals" this Thursday, I was greeted by these beauties.

The colors made me think of you, Tiffany.

Enjoy...

I thought this decoration was especially interesting. They took a Christmas tree and hung it upside-down from the rafters. It created a cool shape and neat effect. I would love to try this in the entryway of my home. Ya right. Getting Jason to figure out the logistics and rigging it up would be another neat effect.