Christmas Gift Projects 2012

Handmade Christmas gifts has become one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  I have a lot of fun figuring out what to make and what people would like.  It's also fun to stretch my abilities and see what I can really do!  Here is a sampling of what I cam up with this year:

This is a wooden door hanger that I made for my Grandma.  I actually made two of them because I made one for me as well.

These tutu bags were for my cousin's girls.  One of the girls told me that she had always wanted one of these but she forgot to put it on her Christmas list.  I guess they were the right choice!  One lesson learned making these:  Sewing with glitter tulle = GLITTER MESS!!!

These are plastic shopping bag holders.  I was actually able to make all of these with fabric from my stash and didn't have to buy any for them.  I love how they turned out! 

This is how I packaged the bag holders.

These were probably the most popular gift that I came up with this year.  They are called Devil Sticks, or juggling sticks.  You use two sticks in your hand to juggle the bigger stick with the tassels on the end.  I was excited when I found the instructions to make these because I thought they would be fun for the teenagers on my list.  They were all pretty excited to learn how to use them, so I guess I was right!  The hardest part of these was acquiring the truck inner tubes for the rubber to make the tassels.  

Here is a closer look at the ends.  I packaged them in a cloth drawstring bag that can also be used to store them in.

These are cloth bags for baking potatoes in the microwave.  I got one of these a few years ago, and I love it and use it all of the time.  So this year I made a few for the people on my list.  They were pretty easy to make and I hope that they get well used.

Just a picture of my potato bags stacked up.

I also made these little hand warmers.  They are like those hot packs full of rice that you heat in the microwave, but they are small (3-4 inches) so you can put them in your pocket to keep you fingers warm. They were fun, but a lot of work because they all had to be hand sewn shut.  I made some for my boys as well and they have already used them a ton!  I hope that other people are getting use out of them as well!

This is the whole group of them. I ended up making 37 pairs of them!

Overall, it was a productive Christmas and I had a lot of fun making my projects!  I am already getting some good ideas for next year!

Lights at Temple Square 2012

We made it down to see the lights downtown this year.  We even made it before the week after Christmas! Uncle Brian and Aunt Bonnie came down and went with us.  The night we decided to go, it was snowing like crazy, but we were actually glad.  We took trax downtown, so we didn't have to drive in the weather.  It actually made for a nice atmosphere with all of the snow, it was just pretty cold.  We had lots of fun!

This is the cute picture that we put with our Christmas card.

We looked at the candy windows downtown.  This was our favorite.  I like the beard made out of candy canes.

A pic of the Temple with the snowflakes.

Our fun company!

The boys loved all of the nativity's from the different countries.  This Mexican one was their favorite.

This picture is an good example of the hazards of taking pictures in the snow.  Cute boys, both cooperating and smiling.  A perfect picture, you know, except for that snowflake in front of Steven's face!

Ahh! That's better!

It was snowing just a little bit.  This was Sam after sitting in the stroller for only about five minutes!  Good thing his little coat is waterproof!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

Our Thanksgiving Holiday was lots of fun.  We have started a little system for celebrating that seems to work well for our little family.  We have Thanksgiving dinner with Matt's parents and siblings, then we drive to Logan that night and spend the weekend with my family.  I like to go Black Friday shopping to the fabric store with my cousin.  I have found that the Joann's in Logan is far less crazy than the one by my house! 

Thanksgiving dinner was extra fun this year because my sister in-law is in a graduate program for teaching English as a second language and some of her foreign friends from her program joined us.  It was fun to be able to share our holiday, and it was fun to see how they joined right in, played with the babies & kids and enjoyed their time with us!   My Black Friday shopping was fun too! I got to go to the fabric store and scored some great deals, then later in the day, I went out again and got to go shopping with my sister-in-law.  We had lot's of fun wandering around stores and just browsing what was on sale.

One of my favorite traditions of the Thanksgiving weekend is putting up my parent's Christmas Lights.  We have found that if we all chip in we can get it done pretty quickly and it makes it a lot of fun!

Both of the boys love this because they get to spend the afternoon running around and playing outside!

Putting up the lights around the sidewalk is perfect for little hands to help with.  Steven was especially helpful with hooking the lights to the little sticks.  He loved helping and did a great job!  

Sam helped with the sidewalk lights as well.  He liked laying a stick next to each light so that they were ready to be stuck into the ground.

Another shot of Steven hooking the lights to the sticks.

Sam "helping" Uncle Brian by popping his gum bubbles.

Aunt Bonnie is super awesome at decorating my mom's tree, so she gets that job.  She always makes it look awesome!

My sweetie up on the roof helping line it with lights and getting everything hooked to the outlets.

My Dad and my Matt lining the front of the house with strands of lights.

Lining the tallest part of the front of the roof.  I love Brian doing a little jig at the bottom of the ladder.

Oh look! I'm in some pics on the blog!  I really was there helping! Thanks Bonnie for hijacking my camera so I can be in my pics too!

My mom hangs a wooden sock under the front windows with each of our names on them.  Here I am with mine.

Sam posing with his sock, and picking his lip.  He is quite a little picker. His lip, his scabs, his nose.... I am hoping that he grows out of it. Soon.

Steven with his sock. Love this little smile!

So excited to help Grandma punch out the new magnets for the garage door.

Brian, Nate and the boys helping grandma put the magnets on the garage door.  In this one I think that they are actually taking the Thanksgiving ones off and sticking them to my car...

Another shot of Matt hanging out on the roof.

Grandpa and uncle Brian trying to figure out why the star for the roof won't light up.  Half of the lights wouldn't light up and they didn't want to re-string it.

The boys and Uncle Brian figuring out the star still.  They did end up being successful and it didn't have to be re-strung! Yay!

Brian changing out burned out bulbs.  

At one point we looked out the front window and Brian and Nate were in the road. Brian had the broom, and Nate had the dustpan.  Apparently Nate had wondered what one of the burned out bulbs would do if it broke, and since no one was around, or so they thought, Brian went ahead and threw one out into the street.  It broke with a nice pop and just then, my dad came out of the garage and said, "now you've got a mess to clean up".  So they had to go out in the road and sweep it up.  Leave it to my brother!  

The finished result! It is a lot of work, and costs my parents a bit extra on their power bill, but it is one of our favorite ways to celebrate the holidays!  There is just something fantastic about falling asleep to the glow of Christmas lights on Christmas Eve or otherwise that I love!

Halloween 2012

Our Halloween this year was lot's of fun.  We had a family party for Matt's dad's side of the family and got to see lot's of fun people that we haven't seen in a long time.  On Halloween itself, the boys wanted to stay home and pass out candy to trick-or-treaters so we stayed in and watched Halloween shows on Netflix.  

Here are our pumpkins.  Matt was the mastermind behind making Steven's design happen.  Steven's is the one that is eating a little pumpkin. 

Here they are glowing.

This is us dressed up at the family Halloween party.  Matt actually dressed up with us this year.  Yes, this is as good as it gets with him.  His shirt says, "this is my costume".

They boys really wanted to be skeletons this year.  I bought Sam's jacket at a yard sale in the summer, and we got Steven's from kohls.  I made their pants using freezer paper stencils.

This is a closer look at my costume. I made the entire thing using freezer paper stencils as well.  My favorite part is the little blue hat.  It was what we used to let everyone know that our new little one is going to be a boy.

Samuel's View of Fall

Here are some of the pictures from Sam's camera from our fall fun:

I especially love this one.  It is fun to look at his pictures because they are all  taken from his short height.  It is fun to see his take on the world!

One of his favorite pumpkins from the Pumpkin Walk.  It's a little truck pulling a camping trailer.

Love this little self portrait!

He found a pumpkin with Perry the Platypus on it at the pumpkin walk.

Another awesome self portrait!

Pictures of Grandma's ducks from her deck.

Here is a fun picture that he took at Gardner Village.

Here is a picture of his favorite witch.  She is a firewoman that sprays water on one of the bridges.