Something simple!

I had to share.  I love this project I just did and it didn't cost me a cent!
So it's canvas that was given to me, scrapbook paper I had, buttons that my mother-in-law let me have and mod podge which I always have.

Isn't it cute!  I just love when something so simple looks so good!

House

So the day after Christmas we were busy!  We moved!  Yes we know we are crazy.  Here's the story.  We are buying my mother-in-laws home from her.  There is an upstairs apartment that she is living in and she wanted to renovate it before we all moved.  Well dealing with contractors made the move get pushed back several times so the soonest we could move was after Christmas.  So we moved After Christmas.  We are still in the process of actually purchasing the home but it will hopefully be final the end of this month.  But we are good and moved in and my house was clean today so I took some pictures to show you and give you a tour of our house.

So as you pull in the driveway the house is on the right it has a very unique history that I will do a separate post for but as you can see it's not a cookie cutter house.  The upper part of the house is my mother-in-laws apartment and we live on the main level and have the basement also.  There is a 3 car carport with 3 storage units.  We do not lack in storage area.

Across the gaint driveway (trust me it's a lot to shovel) you go down some steps to a large yard.  My kids love running around down there

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So back inside the house.  You walk into the main entrance you see in the picture and you are in the kitchen on your right.  It's a good size kitchen and I love it!  We just got a new stove and microwave.

  

Then as you go through the kitchen you come to the dining room and computer room.  It's on giant room but it's easy to divide it.  Look to the left you have the dining room.

 

Look to the right and you have computer room.

 

Also the master bedroom is in this half of the house at this point.  It's a big room and it has it's own bathroom!  The closet is also big so I love our room!  This shot is when you walk in our room. 

 

Then as you walk in to the left you see the bathroom.

 

Okay so going back thru the kitchen you come to 3 little stairs that lower you into the living room.  It's big and fun and plenty of room for everything.  This is coming down into the living room from the kitchen.

 

This is the other end and the other door into the house.

 

So off to the left is the kids rooms and bathroom.  There is a little small hallway that leads down to Kayla's room and the bathroom.  Carter's is the first one you come to.

 

Kayla has a big room and it use to be Graydon's when he was growing up.  She has been asking almost every day if we can paint her room but for now I added some butterflies to make it more girlie.

 

Well that's my house!  There is a basement that has a pretty big room and storage and laundry room.  Nothing worth taking pictures.  It's unique, it's the perfect size for our family and I love the ward and city.

Christmas

Christmas was wonderful this year and a little stressful.  We moved the day after Christmas but there will be a post on that coming up.  So we found this amazing doll house for Kayla at Costco like 3 months before for a steal of a deal.  Santa's helpers aka me and Graydon had to put it together Christmas Eve.

 

  It took us until 1am to get it put together.  Here is Graydon showing just how big this thing is!  Christmas morning was awesome!  Both kids were super excited to see that Santa had come.  Kayla was very happy that Santa had left one cookie for her to eat.

Kayla was thrilled with her new doll house!  She just couldn't believe it was so big! 

Carter loved his basketball hoop game.  He just played with it forever!  I'm so glad Santa did so well this year.

The damage of the morning.  We were spoiled this year.  See that box in the bottom corner.  Yep I got a beautiful KitchenAid Mixer!  I love it!  I definitely felt very spoiled getting it!

We spent the rest of the day going from family to family loving to see everyone and enjoy the holiday together.  It really was a great Christmas and Kayla even told us to wish Jesus a happy birthday so I feel like we got some of the true meaning across this year.

First Snow

This was Carter's first encounter with snow and he enjoyed it.  Kayla was completely excited to play with snow and had been waiting for it to snow for weeks.

Snow angels anyone?

 

A little timid at first.  Not sure what to think.

 

Mom it's cold!  I don't know what to do!

 

Trying to make a snowball to throw at me.

 

And then he face planted in the snow and he was done.  He couldn't quite walk in the snow so crawling was it.

Hi!

Yes we are alive and yes we didn't fall off the face of the earth.  Life has just been super busy.  Christmas, moving the day after Christmas, work and well life.  I will be filling in the blanks with post this week but I thought I would say hi!  So look forward to some fun filled posts.

My hobby

So I have taken up a hobby and thought I would share.  I love to make wreaths!  I am always looking for a new type of wreath to make.  These are a few of the wreaths I have made.  I didn't take pictures of a couple of the ones I made for others but I wish I would have.  I love it when someone comments one my wreath or asks me how to make them.  It's very relaxing and entertaining to me to make them.  I of course got the ideas for the wreaths from other sources so I have put a  link under the wreaths if you want to know how to make them.

So this one is my snowflake and candy cane wreaths.  They are tutu wreaths and super easy to make.  I love how fun they are.  I ended up giving these both to someone so I need to make one for my self again.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/10/how-to-make-a-tulle-wreath-halloween-edition/

 

This one is actually made using paper flowers.  I made a couple more of these wreaths but didn't take pictures before giving them to people.  They take longer to make since the paper flowers are a bit of a process to make but so worth it.  I have learned how to make a new paper flower and can't wait to use it on a wreath.

http://mmscrapshoppe.blogspot.com/2010/05/ceramic-paper-roses.html

 

This is a ribbon wreath.  Again super easy and time consuming.  But it was way fun to make.  I ended up making another one of different ribbon but again didn't take a picture.  This one you just cut ribbon in the length you want it and then tie it to a wire wreath base.  That's it you decide the spacing and length and just go to town with the ribbon.  Someone told me about this wreath so I don't have any link for it.

 

This is my newest wreath, a yarn wreath.  I saw one on pinterest and knew I had to try it.  I loved the way it turned out and I look forward to making different colors of these types and adding different types of embellishments. 

http://mmscrapshoppe.blogspot.com/2010/03/yarn-wreath-with-mini-tutorial.html

I love making wreaths but I can't keep making wreaths for myself or I might never be able to use all of them so if you ever want one let me know I would be happy to make one for you.

Carving Pumpkins

 

So this was Carter's first time carving pumpkins and we didn't know how he would do with it.  He loved it.  Kept trying to eat the pumpkin but he enjoyed himself.  We did a simple pumpkin for him and it was just perfect.

 

Kayla is pro now and she was excited to scrap out the pumpkin guts.  I couldn't get her to look at the camera so here's the top of her head.

 

She also helped by pulling out the piece after they were cut.  Side note we had some, let's say issues with Kayla's pumpkin so if you turned it around it had a big gaping hole in the back of the head.  So her pumpkin ended up being a grumpy pumpkin.

  

Graydon made a fancy pumpkin as always.  He really enjoys taking the time to carve details into the pumpkins.  So here are our pumpkins for 2011