Family Portraits!!

We did it we took pictures back in November!!

a little sneak peak of # 4 there!!

Mr. Hollywood Indeed!!

 Our cute little bug!!

Mr Cool!!

sweet boys!!

The cute couple

In the end we chose this picture and style to hang on the wall in our living room!!



Christmas 2011

Christmas for me really starts on Thanksgiving Night around Midnightish, :D  I convinced my mom to go to Toysrus with me, which I have never done before.  I go out every year and stay out all night but I had never done Toysrus it just scared me, but this year they had something I really wanted and ride on motorized Mater for Isaac for 60 bucks, so I had to do it!!

here is proof I went out pregnant and all and stood in lines for hours and got everything I wanted !!  The quality is not so great but hey it was dark and it was taken with a cell phone... :D

We decorated by throwing a decorating party!! this is the way to do it, by the way, we got all the trees and stuff set up in just one night

 
Yes,  pregnant or not I couldn't help but do my favorite part and put the Angel on the tree!!

Just the next week my parents thought it was such a great idea they threw a party too!!!

So this year it felt like we had two Christmas' right in a row!!  We were able to go over on Christmas Eve to the Low Family Christmas and then we had our Christmas here with my family and the Willis Family on Christmas Day.  It was lots of fun and quite a whirlwind!!.  I am really low on pictures from the Low Family Party so if any of my Low family has pictures they think should be added to this post please send them my way :D.  At the Low's we were greeted by lots of family and the boys were super spoiled being the only kiddos there!! We spent pretty much all day opening a gift and playing with it for an hour or so and then opening another and doing the same it made for a very fun day and lots and lots of play! The boys scored at Mima and Papa's with lots of games and Isaac scored in the choo choo train category, (he is a big fan) and the big boys got their own skate boards...but Isaac was not going to be left out of this either and he muscled a skate board away from Adam and had himself some good fun!!

At the end of the party we had an adult gift exchange where we exchanged gifts white elephant style.  We brought the glasses from my previous post along with some mini owl pillows like the ones in my last post.  After my cousin, Ashley,  read this post she reminded me I forgot to tell the owl story so here it is. 

The mini owl pillows were a big hit. Bryce, the newest member of the family, we love him...really liked them when he and Ashley opened them.  He was afraid that his mother-in-law, Aunt Barb, would steal them.  So as she was looking around the room deciding whether she wanted to steal or grab a new unopened gift he clearly and with reckless abandom LICKED the pillows...yes he LICKED them.  Sadly for him it did not keep Barb from stealing them and he had to give up his licked owl pillows and here they rest with Aunt Barb's Cat!!

So there it is a hilarious Christmas story that really should be remembered forever :D  WE LOVE YOU, BRYCE!!!

after the party we came home got the kiddos snuggled in bed dreaming of sugar plums and such and went to work!! Grandma and Grandpa came over and brought over their sleigh full of gifts as well and here is what it looks like when 3 families do Christmas together!!

Josh organized the gifts in a very organized  manner with all small ones out front and larger ones to the middle so it looks very impressive!!

The next day was Christmas morning!!

Again I am short on pictures like for instance of Isaac riding his mater around the kitchen table, which I know about 20 pictures were taken but apparently not with my camera. 

Christmas was so much fun!  My favorite part of Christmas this year is that it fell on a Sunday.  We got to stop everything we were doing and go to Sacrament.  I was also blessed to be one of the speakers on Christmas Day and I spoke on the gifts I have received from my Savior.  It was perfect.  I wish every Christmas was on Sunday.  The boys, of course had a fun filled day of endless surprises and visits from

Aunts and Uncles and Grandma and Grandpa and Nana, for them the fun truly never ended!!

Uncle Josh and Aunts Sarah...A Christmas Staple at our house!!

Grandma and Grandpa!!

My 3 sons, funny they are all in red that really wasn't actually planned!!

cooperative choo choo train building!!

it would hardly be Christmas without spider man!!

....and star wars...(and Kevin is really into writing things down so he was very excited to get his own pen and paper)

Isaac was sure that he was going to need Adam's new helmet next time he took Adam's new skate board!!



Aunt Sarah and Uncle Josh got the boys giant pillow pets and for Adam a giant "baby" was just too exciting!!



later the Willis family came over for Christmas Dinner and it was Christmas all over again!!  We pulled out our super rad table and had no trouble accommodating the 13 people  for dinner at one table and it was a wonderful Christmas.  I wish every day were Christmas!!



Let's Get Crafty!!

This year was probably my most homemade Christmas ever.  I had lots of ideas, (a whole lot less dineros) but I found some great crafty things that turned out pretty good so for the record here is what "she" made this year!!  (oh and I'll add all the projects Bryan did too, he is awesome)

Before the Holidays got truly crazy I had a few things that had been sitting in my room for months waiting to be painted and hung.  Bryan took on these projects and they turned out even better than I had imagined. 

first is our art wall.  We use this to hang the kid's school work or awesome drawings, pictures, crafts, or great examples of writing and so on.  pretty much like the refridgerator except our refridgerator is not magnetic (dang stainless steel appliances) so we needed a place to display our works of art!  How we did it:  We bought letters at Michaels and clipboards from Walmart...spray paint from Lowe's.  We spray painted them all the same color and hung them on the wall!!! TaDah!!! I love how it turned out.  and it was a cheap way to fill a big wall.  We have lived here over 2 years and have hung nearly nothing so it was time!!

there are two projects in this photo, actually.  One is the lights 3 separate light shades from Ikea hung from the ceiling and voilla...light!!!  We had a very dark living room since our fan light broke about a year ago and we found out we have to replace the whole fan to fix it :(  so instead we just added more light elsewhere :D.  I love having light in my living room again, I missed it so much

The second project is the Mirror.  We got the Mirror from a guy in the neighborhood who posted it on the neighborhood FB page for free. Bryan went right over and picked it up.  It was big with a big gold plastic frame.  Again we went to Lowe's and bought some light yellow spray paint this time and spray painted the frame and again TaDah!! perfectly awesome Mirror for about $10 and again another big wall filler.  The wreath was an old red berry wreath I had for Christmas I like it so much on the Mirror with the yellow that I have not taken it down even though Christmas now is long past...

This was another Bryan project.  I went to Ikea and bought the glasses and Home Depot to get the chalkboard spray paint.  Then Bryan taped them up and wrapped them in newspaper and spray painted the bottoms (3 coats)  and they were gifted as a white elephant gift with a chalk pen...Big Hit...I have to make some for myself now :D  (you could write names or anything I guess on them)

Next was the spice rack project.  This took a little more gathering than other projects did, But again, Bryan put it all together once the pieces were all here.  I got the magnetic canisters at Walmart in the office section.  The frames from Michaels on a killer sale!!  Chalkboard paint from Joannes.  Spices from the grocery store, and the Metal sheets from Lowe's we also needed to purchase sheet metal sheers (or tin snips) to cut the metal for this project...(so if you need some we have some you could borrow)  We did two different themes for these one was all Pizza Spices and one was all Grilling Spices!!  These were also given with a chalk pen (I am in love with those things)  These made great homemade guy gifts which are always hard for me to come up with :D

A wreath!! I made this for the homemade Christmas Party in Newhall!!  I thought it was so pretty I made myself one almost just like it, lol.  For these, I bought one of the wreaths that look like hay at Joannes and wrapped them in white yarn.  Then I made the felt flowers added little plastic pearls (from Joannes) and hot glued them on along with the sticks of Christmas colored berries.  The tutorial was on Better Homes and Gardens Site Here

Here is the one I made for myself.  I added yellow to match the bright yellow chairs on our patio so it would look planned...lol...I have not taken this down either because I like it so much and I think it IS Christmassy but also wintery so I'm leaving it up.  I love how colorful it is on my dark teal door anyway!!

 Owl Pillows so this was a total experiment in scrap fabrics which I thought turned out dang adorable.  Kevin Loved them too (that is whose hand is in the photo)  I did these the same way you might do Ugly Dolls if you have done those.  I used felt for the eyes and different textures and types of fabrics for all the rest.  As you can see in this pic I had not stuffed the last one yet in the pic...(of course, I ran out of batting)

Wreath # 2  Okay so I saw a picture of a wreath like this on Pinterest and thought I could do that...Isn't that how all great stories start out?  It looked simple enough some fabric flowers, some pretty pearly pieces and I added the L on my own as it was a gift for Bryan's stepmom Lorraine Low.  So I thought a monogrammed wreath would be super cute.  It was pretty simple except for making the flowers which turned out to be a very time consuming and painful (for my hands) process.  but the final product turned out really pretty actually much prettier than the picture.  Here is the tutorial for the flowers.  I actually made two of these the other one was round not oval and did not have the letter on it.

Another crazy project.  I saw these at the homemade Christmas Party in Newhall,  Harry Potter Pillows!!.  Someone had made them and afterwards I thought these would be super cute for my sister.  Well anyway of course there is no tutorial online for them but you could buy them here on Etsy.  (they were a little pricey for me) I then set about making up my own pattern and just doing it myself.  They turned out really good.  I made 18 x18 inch pillows but I ended up using 20 x20 inch pillows forms to fill them from Ikea (way cheap pillow forms without going downtown)  they fit just fine into my pillows since they were not very full being from Ikea and all,  it turned out perfect!!  I have the dimensions for these if you ever wanted to make them as for the hair I just winged it.  I drew it and cut it and hoped it worked out :D

I also made a dessert platter, but I don't have a photo of that sadly.  I made it for the homemade Christmas Party I held here in Anaheim.  It was made from plates bought at Cost Plus World Market and a candlestick holder from the same place simply glued together with an apoxy glue bought at Lowe's.  It turned out darling and I am thinking next time the plates go on sale again over there I will have to get some to make myself one...then I'll add a pic unless I can get one from the lucky gal that took it home :D

So that is it, I think, It seemed like so much more when I was doing them.  but things always seem that way I guess when you are in the middle of it :D