Welcome 2011!

Well, we made it to the end of 2010.  I can't believe it went so fast.

Well, I don't have much to share except that I hope to get a lot of scrapbooking done over the next few days.  Grandma D saved the day by offering to keep Hope and the twins for the long weekend.  I dropped them off last night.  I just got home from work, and now I am set to get started!

YIPEEEEEEEE!

The weather is really icy here, so no plans to leave the house for any celebration.  So here's to a happy 2011!  Be safe!

Darla

The last of the Christmas posts for 2010

Well, I think this post will just about cover the rest of our Christmas events.  Here we go...

Hope squealed when she opened this gift.  This was the very first thing she put on her list earlier this fall.  It is the Tangled Barbie doll that came with a contraption to braid the dolls hair.  What a PAIN!  But she loved it, so I guess it was worth it.

This was the gifts she got from Santa.

I love the Christmas pajamas we found this year.  We both freaked out when we were walking through Target and saw these, which of course had her name on them.  

As I mentioned yesterday, Joe's brother got married on Christmas Day.  Here is Hope and her new American Girl doll all dressed up for the wedding.

Several years ago, I started a tradition of making a name ornament to hang on the "family" Christmas tree.  If you have ever watched Days of Our Lives, every year the Horton family would gather on Christmas Eve and hang their special name ornaments.  That was always my favorite episode of the year.  I haven't watched the show in years, but I am sure they still carry on the tradition.

So this year, we added three members to the Weber Family tree.  Baby Colin...

...the new bride...

...and the groom from July.  Ironically enough, he grew up in TN, so the orange was a perfect choice for him.  

This was a gift from our neighbors.  I haven't had a chance to ask her yet, but I think they just  printed our names and the poem on a transparency and eased it down into the container.  I think this is a really COOL idea.  This would make a really great teacher gift.  

Well, now that Christmas is done, I decided to start working on some Valentine cards.  When I get a chance to take pictures I will try and share.

Have a good night!

Darla

Goodbye Elfie!

We had a very good Christmas holiday weekend.  It was very busy...

First off, before we headed to Waterloo, we said goodbye to Elfie since he would be leaving early to help Santa before Christmas.

This is my new nephew Colin.  Isn't he so CUTE!  He was born over 10 weeks early and he is now 7 weeks.  He is doing very good.  This was the first chance I got to see him (& hold him) since I had been sick when Joe had visited at the hospital.

This is one of the outfits I got for Colin.  Hehehehehe!  I couldn't help myself.

Besides Santa, we also had a wedding on Christmas Day.  Joe performed the ceremony to marry Julie and his brother Rick on Christmas Day.  Congrats to the newlyweds!  It was nice to see Rick's girls and meet Julie's family too.

Reilly got to stay at Dawn's house.  The twins dressed him in a Santa hat and put a scarf on him.  He had a good time there, but we sure did miss him.

Well, it is time to get Hope off to bed, so I will share Christmas morning photos later this week.

Goodnight!

Darla

Merry Christmas!

Well, we are getting ready for the arrival of Santa.  We did break down and let Hope open one present while we were waiting to go visit family.  I will keep it short as time is short tonight with all the activities going on.

First off, here is the tiger paw banner I made for Hope's Kindergarten teacher.  The school colors are orange and black and they are the tigers. 

Here is the lotion we made and gave to Hope's teachers.

These were what the gift bags looked like.  I used some left over Christmas paper to decorate the bags and the lotion container.

At her school party, they got to decorate cookies with frosting.  Hope loved this, as did most of the kids.  They really piled on the frosting and sprinkles.  It was pretty funny!

And now for the latest Elfie update...

This week we found him on the top ledge in the family room...

...and he tied himself to the snowman wallhanging in the hall.  He must have tied himself too tight that night, because we found him in the same place the next morning.  Oooops!

Well, that is all for tonight!  Everyone have a great and safe Christmas Eve.  We will enjoy our VERY white Christmas.

Darla

Another gift...

Today I delivered two more crafty gifts, so now I can share them with you.

I made this one for my good friend Evon.  She loves to sew.  I thought she could hang this in her sewing room.  I delivered it to her today at work.

Tomorrow I will share the banner I made for Hope's teacher, Mrs. Nelson.  We delivered it today at the Holiday party at school.  I stopped by to snap a few photos.

Well, keeping it short today.  The neighbor girls are over playing so I am going to take advantage of the "free" time and clean my scrapbook room.

Darla

Family Christmas

This weekend, I was lucky enough to get time to spend with my family to celebrate Christmas.  Here we all are.

The kids all had fun opening gifts, although we did make them wait until we had taken the family photos.  They were pretty patient through it all!

Here is a sisters shot with mom.  That is Dee sitting on mom's lap.  :)

This one was funny, because we added Kendal at the last second.  She was like, "What is going on!"

Here is my little family!  Hope pretty much used her scary cheesy smile for every picture.

Here are some shots of the kids opening their presents. 

This is Ally, and she is checking out the Snow White dress that Grandma Deloris made for her American Girl doll. 

This is Hope opening her box of American Girl clothes from Grandma Deloris.

And this is Annie showing the Cinderella and Belle dresses.

Yep, you guessed it, mom made three sets of Princess outfits for each of the girls.  Hope loved it, and ran to get her doll she brought with her to change her clothes.  The first outfit she chose was the Ariel dress.  When we got home, she changed her into the Sleeping Beauty dress, and her doll slept with her in that.  Then this morning before school, she changed her into Belle.

This is Hope opening a dog bed for her Build A Bear dog, which we will get to go get stuffed one of these days.  There was also a gift cert. so she could buy some accessories.

This is Kendal, my great-niece (ok that makes me sound really old).  Isn't she the cutest thing ever!

Her parents went to Iowa State, so I got an ISU cheer outfit and some pom-poms.  She was having a lot of fun whooshing them around and whacking people in the face.  

And of course, MORE little parts from the Polly Pockets.  She loves them though, so she will have fun!  She was SO amazed that the mermaid body and hair change colors when they get wet and back again as they dry out.  COOL!

Here is mom with the banner that I made for her.

Here is the photo I took before I gave it to her.  I got the idea from a project in the Maya Road booth at CHA this summer.  

This is the center of the banner.

If you look closely, you can see I have tiny wooden spools of thread between each machine.  I bought the spools at Hobby Lobby and the thread was from a sewing repair kit I received in a goodie bag at a scrapbook retreat.  At the time I wasn't sure how I would use it, but I knew I would use it eventually.  

Alright, now that I have overloaded your computer with pictures, I need to get the family photos downloaded to Shutterfly and share them with everyone.

Have a good night!

Darla

Firetruck Santa

Today, Santa stopped by on a firetruck.  I am just bummed I didn't really get a good picture of the truck.

She just hopped up on his lap and started chatting.

On a different note, this morning was the final testing for my FXB team I have been coaching the past 10 weeks.  I am very proud of their results and am happy to report that someone from my team won the $1000 from our location.  I am 2 for 2, because the last time I coached I also had a winner.  Exciting stuff!

This is the card I made for them to congratulate them on all their hard work.

Of course, I used a scale and played on the words of losing weight.  

Well, I need to get ready for the party where the winner will be announced.  

Goodnight!

Darla

Elfie update!

Well, Elfie has been very busy each night reporting to Santa and then flying back before morning to find a new hiding spot.

Every morning when Hope gets up, she has to find where he hid.  She is always so excited when she finds him.

Here is where he has been this week...

On Saturday, you can see the snow sticking to the window behind.  This was the night the twins stayed all night, and Ally was so excited because she couldn't wait to see where he would show up in the morning.  I actually missed the next night, because he was found again in the Christmas village, but over on the shelves this time.  Maybe he chose the shelves, because it rhymes with elves.  Hmmmmm!

The next night he moved to the hallway, so he could peek at her coming down the stairs.

I think he noticed that our art/scrapbook/office was looking messing, so he decided to hide in there.  I guess he thought we might now find him since it was so messy.

Last night he was sitting on the ledge of a painting in our dinning room.

An finally tonight, he is on top of the microwave.  He is a busy elf!

Well, as for the pink eye, it has been a rough week getting the drops in Hope's eyes.  She is NOT cooperative at all.  So we usually make her do it in whatever room Elfie is hiding in.  :)  And, tonight Joe came home from work, with a very RED/PINK eye.  Bummer.  I am still holding out that I won't get it.

And I found a few cards that I haven't shared yet, so here is one for tonight.

  

Well, I am off to clean up my scrapbook desk.  I have been a cleaning maniac tonight, but it was really getting deep around here.  It was time to clean up some of the toy storage areas.  Later!

Darla

Pink Eye!

Yep, we have had our first case of pink eye!  And of course we had the twins and Grandma Deloris here this weekend, so they were exposed too.  I hope nobody else gets it, including me!  :)

As I mentioned, we had a family slumber party this weekend, so we were very busy with lots of activities.

We made cinnamon ornaments, and each of the girls plan to give them to their teachers for Christmas.

We also made "lotion potion".  It is handmade lotion.  

Here is the recipe:

4 - 4oz jars of vitamin E cream

1 - small jar of Vaseline

2 - bottles of baby lotion 

(I have tried the regular-pink, cucumber melon and this batch was vanilla oatmeal)

Mix all the ingredients together with a hand mixer and add to jars.  I use the left over Vitamin E Cream jars, and until you have enough saved up just use jelly jars or other small containers.

Each of the girls took some of these jars too for their teacher gifts.  I am planning on decorating a jar for Hope's teacher with paper scraps and a tag with the recipe.

I missed this activity, but Joe had brought home a small bag of "snow".  It was to make "snow".  It was kind of cool, and even days later is still cold like snow.  I guess it is some kind of chemical reaction.  

And finally, I had bought some ornaments to paint and each girl worked on those.

I was exhausted, but somehow found the energy to get all of our Christmas/Birthday presents organized and Joe helped me get them wrapped, after all the girls went to bed.

Then on Monday, Hope and I stayed home from work and school because of her pink eye.  Today, we were finally back to normal.  Well, off to figure out what we are having for supper, but before I go, here is one last card I have to share with you.

Good night!

Darla