Merry Christmas everyone! It's finally time to share the precious photos from our Christmas card that I've been waiting to post. I think this is probably my favorite picture of Kerigan so far...
It was actually taken about a month ago before we went to have pictures taken with Santa at Bass Pro Shops. It just shows her smiley personality and I just think she looks like a little baby doll! I love how her little hands are clasped too. And can I just say, I only got this shot because of the quickness of my camera. She smiled like this one time, for a split second, and my camera caught it. Bless that thing! It was worth every penny!
I had no intention of using any Santa photos on our Christmas card. However, when my daughter was placed in the big guy's lap and immediately grinned like this... an idea for a card started brewing in my mind!
And the finished product... (It's scanned, so not the best quality)
FRONT:
INSIDE:
BACK:
In other news around here... we've had a special couple of days and I want to blog about them soon, but I didn't get this update posted as soon as I would like, and for the sake of keeping things in order I wanted to post it today, since I finally got time to just sit down and do an update.
So some pre-Christmas activities that have occurred in our household the past couple weeks...
My Christmas card shutter display is complete! And I loooooove it!
I think the clothespins added so much, and they were super easy and didn't take much time at all so thought I'd share how I did it...
First, I went to our favorite scrapbook store in town and picked out a combination of paper I liked. I also bought some mini clothespins (the regular sized ones didn't fit behind the shutter as well).
I just measured the width of the clothespins in a few different spots and used a paper cutter to cut it into strips- easy!
Then I measured the length of each one and cut into smaller pieces, the exact size of the clothespin.
I applied mod podge to the clothespin and stuck the paper on, then let it dry for a few minutes.
Then I brushed mod podge over the top for extra shine.
I tied twine around them for a finished look, and attached my cards to the shutter! I love the way it turned out. And I especially love that I can see all the photos of our family and friends, instead of sticking them in a basket where they can't be seen. I also am glad the package I bought came with 2 shutters, because by the time Christmas rolled around, I filled up 2 of them!
More crafting...
The other morning I woke up early with Kerigan and she and I got busy on her very first craft. And no, I don't have a picture of us actually doing it, not only because we were the only ones awake, but because it was extremely messy, stressful, and we both needed a serious bath afterwards! Ha!
This is a craft I used to do with my students when I taught younger grades. When Andrew was born, I wanted to do it for him for his first Christmas (he was 11 months old at the time). Kerigan being 5 months old on her first Christmas, I thought about waiting since she's so little. And yes, it's almost next to impossible to do with a 5 month old, but I was persistent and Kerigan, being the laid back baby that she is, just went with the flow and let her crazy mama go to town! I really wanted them to each have one from their first Christmas. And when I compared the size of their hands, it just made me laugh.
(Andrew's hands)
Kerigan's are actually a tiny bit bigger than his were! And she is 6 months younger than he was! Ha! I thought that was too funny.
We've also been doing some extra baking to give treats to friends, neighbors, teachers, and Andrew's bus driver.
We made the cutest snowman pops to take to Andrew's preschool.
This was something so fun to do together that Andrew could help me with.
He loved putting the faces on!
This just cracks me up because this was a little "behind the scenes" picture I don't usually post, but my mom was taking a ton of pictures and Andrew was acting so silly! This just shows how the project really went (me working hard and trying to get things done, and Andrew goofing off and driving me crazy! Ha!)
The finished product! I've already had questions on Facebook how I made them and how I got the sticks to stay in. I just used oreos and I separated them. I melted almond bark in the microwave and dipped the stick into the almond bark, then gently pressed it in the oreo and then put the top back on. I let it sit for a minute to dry so the stick stayed put when I dipped the rest of the cookie.
Then you just put on wax paper and make the faces and let them harden. So cute! Andrew's little friends loved them!
Our other project was making two more batches of our famous sugar cookies and frosting them all!
I think this was Andrew's favorite thing of all... decorating!
His idea of decorating was dumping the entire container of sprinkles on the cookies! Ha!
We ended up with about five containers full of these to share for Christmas goodies!
Andrew and daddy were hanging out downstairs one night (supposed to be getting ready for bed!) and Kerigan and I were upstairs. I heard them down there chatting and I asked what they were doing. Craig says "We're just having some hot chocolate and a cookie before bed!" Ha! It was so cute. I had to take their picture.
This little sweetie and her family came over to exchange gifts the other night...
Can you tell Andrew was slightly excited to have Lilly over??
She brought Andrew a super cool Cars 2 play mat, which he has played with every single day since!
Lilly was so cute, we got her a Barbie with a baby (since she has a new brother!) and I also gave her a sack full of old Barbie happy meal toys (the ones that my grandma collected for years and has stored in her basement that I invade from time to time for prizes for Andrew!) Lilly loves Barbies, so I figured she'd go nuts over them! This picture cracked me up of her on the couch covered in the wrappers! Ha! She just kept digging them out and ripping them open! I don't think she could believe it!
Alissa also brought over 5 more huge tubs full of Lilly's clothes for Kerigan! Yay! Unfortunately she has almost outgrown all of the other things she brought over when she was first born. I can't believe how much she has grown (she was 17.4 pounds at the doctor the other day- we took her when she had a cold).
I didn't get a picture of all the kids together, but this is Lilly's little brother Jack (he was hungry and mad!)- isn't he so sweet in his little sock monkey outfit? Now why didn't they have this stuff when Andrew was a baby? Ha! He was so precious! I couldn't even believe how much smaller he is than Kerigan, it almost made me miss that newborn stage (and we were just there five months ago! Ha!)
Christmas parties...
Andrew got to bring a "special friend" to preschool on his last day before break to help him make a gingerbread house.
Who do you think he picked? Yep! Ga Ga!
This is pretty much what the afternoon was like... Ga Ga decorating the house... Andrew eating all the candy! Ha!
They had so much fun doing this together. I had emailed his teacher earlier to ask if I could come and take pictures and she had told me there could only be one person per child. I was stressing out with this dilemma (ha!) because I wanted to be there, yet I wanted he and Ga Ga to enjoy doing this together too. My plan was to stay back and let the two of them go, when his sweet teacher emailed me back and said there was another child who didn't have a special helper coming, so I could come and help that child! Yay!
As Craig would say, I finnagled (not sure if that's a word but I use it all the time!) my way into that one!
I was trying to get a decent picture of them and Andrew would not have it! He is being such a stinker lately. If he's not in the mood for pictures- forget it!
Seriously, look at him! Ha! That's real life I guess! No more perfectly posed pictures....!
I've been experimenting with my camera and my Christmas tree lately! I am in love with this setting to get a glowing tree! Don't you hate it when the tree looks so beautiful like this, and all the presents underneath have been so carefully wrapped and decorated, only to rip into them and have it be all over in a matter of seconds?? Ha!
We have had the best little Christmas together, I can't wait to share all about it! But now I am going back downstairs to relax and enjoy my family!
Merry Christmas!
