more christmas crafts

 i just had to add my cute santa.

the  before - party popcorn (air popped popcorn, melted white chocolate chips, sprinkles added on top)

 the after - party popcorn

 handprint wreath made with miles handprints. it turned out so cute.

 flash doll that audrey drew up for me to make for miles from felt.

hawkgirl doll that audrey drew for me to make for her from felt.

miles rockin out

sorry its sideways. you may choose to watch this video without the sound, miles is listening to a wiggles song. just warning you.

2 things

what we did for great grandpa (jake's grandpa) for christmas: i knew he would love pictures of the kids so we bought some wooden ornaments, had audrey paint them and added the kid's pictures. i think they turned out great.

the other thing is that my son will NOT keep his shoes on in the car and it drives me crazy. even if we are going a short distance he whips those things off, socks too. so today i came up with a crazy idea - i put socks that are alittle too big over his shoes. it worked!! so i may have a solution for maybe a few trips in the car.

it SNOWED!!

yeah, we had our first snow last night!!

 

its beginning to look alot like christmas

here are some pictures of some decorating i did, with inspiration by pinterest of course.

 our felt tree. im still deciding if it needs more felt ornaments (for miles to pull down).

 candy cane garland

 some of our nativity sets and the awesome wreath that my friends grandma made.

snowflake ornaments hung in frames with my homemade ornament wreath (i love it!).

parade of lights

so our town has a parade of lights and my husband and daughter's school was in it. audrey was chosen to be her class representative. she got to ride in the trailer with the other pre-k and kindergarten class representatives. my husband also got to be in the parade, walking behind the trailer. it was a fun night.
miles also LOVED the parade. he did alot of waving and some dancing.
sorry that the first is a horrible picture, i was so excited i didnt do a good job. oh well, i was in the moment. in the first picture audrey is in the trailer, you can kind of see her with her white shirt, green vest, and red and white santa hat.

 

christmas projects

ive been working on some christmas projects, most that i saw from pinterest. my favorite is, of course, the charlie brown felt ornaments.

 charlie brown felt ornaments

 christmas - sy necklace (this is my own design)

 felt mistletoe

 just a cheap, fun snowman craft with audrey

our thanksgving

we had a wonderful thanksgiving where almost all our close family was able to spend time together. we did the meal at my parents house because lets face it, our house is too small for a big meal.
audrey was very excited and even made a craft for us all to participate in, she drew turkey parts that we had to color and then cut and glue them together. heres some pictures:

 

 

audrey wanted to try some press on nails with dora but decided they felt too weird to actually wear them for the holiday.

and to make sure that audrey understood that thanksgiving is about being thankful we made a thanksgiving tree. i just used scrapbook paper and cut out a tree shape. then cut out leaf shapes out of scrapbook paper. she loved writing what she was thankful for all by herself. (yes there is a turkey decoration flying around by the tree, guess who did that?!)

some major things we are thankful for this year are: miles development (he only has to see a physical therapist once every 3 months and he no longer needs occupational therapy, yeah!!), audrey and jake's school, God's faithfulness and unfailing love.

thanksgiving lunch with audrey

i had thanksgiving lunch with audrey today at her school. she was so excited to have me come and eat with her, plus it was the first time she got to have cafeteria food. im glad that i could make her day alittle happier.

 

a cute guy in the leaves

here is miles enjoying the leaves and the awesome fall weather.

children's aquarium

yesterday miles and i went to the children's aquarium at fair park with our church's mommy group. it was lots of fun. its not very big but there are quite a few hands on things as well as tanks that really let the kids get close to fish. my favorite was the large shark tank and the sting ray area, you can even pet and feed the sting rays. i also liked the sea turtle, 3 different kinds of sea horses and the jelly fish. here are some cute pictures from our day.

 

 

 

dress for audrey

one of audrey's favorite shirts was getting too short so i cut a bit off, added a skirt and a sash and now she has a favorite dress. i love that i can sew.

our awesome playset and 2 wild kids

we had a great time playing outside yesterday. heres some pictures:

 

we hatched some butterflies

audrey received the butterfly garden for her birthday. it is basically a mesh enclosure for you to watch caterpillars become butterflies. with the enclosure comes a coupon code to send off for your caterpillars. i made the mistake of sending for them when it was still too warm.
when they arrived we had some crispy critters, it didnt help that we are at the end of our mailman's route so they probably sat in his hot truck all day. but they guarantee at least 3 that will turn into butterflies so i sent them back (i marked out the part on the envelope that says "live" and wrote dead). this time i had them sent to my parent's house as they get their mail sooner in the day. and it worked, very well. this time we had 6 live ones, very live ones.
it was so amazing to see how they developed and audrey LOVED it! i definitely recommend this as a gift for your kids and its only $20 plus $5 for every shipment of live caterpillars (yes, you can reuse your enclosure over and over).
we released them yesterday. audrey was alittle heartbroken. they are painted lady butterflies and we hit the jackpot, we had 6. we will definitely be doing this again.

 

 

a super hero halloween

the kids were super heroes this year.
miles was the incredible hulk and audrey was supergirl.
miles costume went together easily but audrey's boots were a problem. there was a pin on pinterest about making duct tape boots. you basically have your kid put on some shoes, put knee highs over them and then wrap their foot in duct tape. but guess what if their foot is wrapped in duct tape its too tight on their foot and makes it so they cant walk. on the pin she added grommets and laced them together which might work but it still seemed too tight to me. so we ditched them. they are now "clifford's" legs in one of audrey's crafts.

 

and then he got glasses

miles has glasses now and while they are as cute as can be they are going to be a major pain as he gets used to them. to get them on i have to lay him on the floor and kneel over him, pinning his arms against his body. then i get the glasses on and carefully grab his hands. then i get to hold his hands until i get trusting and then wait about 5 seconds, thats how long the glasses stay on. sounds fun right?!
im just trying to think of this like surgery. in 2 weeks it will be fine, i pray and hope.
now heres some cute pictures:

 

insert joke here

here is a video of miles giggling. you can "tell" him a joke and then start it so you have someone to laugh at you. :)

homemade guitar

this happened this summer but i just got the pictures from my dad.
audrey and tim made this guitar for audrey to play in her band (she made tim and joel be in it with her).
ill say it again, i love that this girl is creative.

 

 audrey demands perfection from her bandmates, too bad they didnt know the song very well.

 uncle tim showing audrey where in the bible the words from the song came from. im pretty sure she was telling him that she already knew that.