Mamatography: Days 358-364

 

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

 

Here we are: it's the last full week of Mamatography! It has been a long year filled with challenges I could never have imagined, but I'm so glad that I documented it as we went along. I just ordered a photo book from Shutterfly of some of the pictures (98 to be exact) from this year. Now I'll have something physical to remember it all by!*

 

Sunday, we had church then our Christmas exchange at my grandma's house. I forgot to take pictures there, but here's a blurry one Isaiah wanted to take while we were getting ready for church.

 

Monday, we had our Christmas with Mama and Papa, and B, N, and my brother-in-law. Isaiah had a blast opening all of his new presents. It was a pretty emotional day for me because it was the first Christmas Eve without Mamaw, and it was always tradition to get pizza from Pizza Oven and open presents with her that night. We kept the pizza tradition, and mom and dad gave all of us one last gift card from Mamaw, so we all know B and I were teary eyed.

Tuesday, we opened presents at home then went to my grandma's house for Christmas Dinner. I was hard pressed to pull Little I away from all his new toys and books long enough to get dressed and leave the house.

Wednesday was a lazy day playing with toys and chilling at home while a blizzard raged around us. Isaiah loved watching out the window between games on his LeapPad.

 Thursday, my prize package from Mamavation ** (& of course, Bob Harper). I got The Skinny Rules as well as all of Bob's workout DVDs so I've been reading this book and doing a few workouts since they came.

 Later Thursday, we cleaned off the car (after a little snowball fight) and headed to my parents to get out of the house before coming home again for dinner.

 He had fun just getting snow all over his gloves and shaking them all around to get it off again.

 Friday, I had some more of the amazing homemade applesauce that was my gift from my grandma. Then we went to my mom and dad's house for dinner and some quality time.

 This morning, Little I watched UmiZoomi on his Leap Pad while I read some more.

Tonight, we played with new toys (like the "tar" from Aunt B), played games on the Wii, and played our new game Uno Moo.

My little rocker!

 And then, after Isaiah was fast asleep, I watched a guy get arrested for drunkenly walking down the middle of my road yelling profanities at the police.

Yes, I'm that nosy neighbor that will take pictures of these kinds of things. Lol

 

* By the way, if you want to order a photo book, they're on sale up to 40% off, as well as you can get an extra 20% by using the code "EXTRA20", free shipping on orders over $30 with "SHIP30", and plenty other discounts and coupon codes that can be found at RetailMeNot. I'm not being paid to tell you this, I just think it's cool.

 

**Mamavation and Omron Fitness is hosting a 30 Day fitness challenge for 25 bloggers starting in January that you can find here. It's a really awesome opportunity if you think you'd like to apply to take the challenge

Kid's Sock Snowman: Pinterest Sunday.. er Thursday.

You can find me on Pinterest and Twitter.

Sorry I'm late on this one. I thought I had it scheduled to go out on Sunday. Alas, I was wrong. Oh well.

This week's inspiration for a craft is from Just a Little Creativity. We did it the same day as we did the hand print snowmen ornaments, and Isaiah had fun stuffing the sock full of polyfil.

I did a few things different than the original poster: I didn't use a hot glue gun, googley eyes, or pom poms. Instead, we used paint. You'll see how I attached the top ribbon below.

1.) Fill a small sock with stuffing.

2.) Put rubber bands on the sock. We did two balls of stuffing (so two rubber bands).

3.) Add a scarf (ribbon of your choice) and either use your choice of craft supplies to make the face and buttons.
I used fabric puffy paint because I had it on hand I like how the nose stuck out some.

4.) If you don't want to use a hook to hang it on the tree, add a ribbon around/on top of the top rubber band. Then cut a hole in the sock and stick the rest of the ribbon through and tie it into a loop to hang on the tree.

Tada! You're done!

Disclaimer: This is only semi-kid-friendly. Isaiah stuffed the sock, helped with the picking out of the ribbon, and started the black painting, but then I had to touch it up with white afterward.

Wordless Wednesday: The Aftermath

Sorry for the break in regular posts! With Christmas and the craziness of everything, I got a bit sidetracked. Things will be to normal shortly.

My 5 Christmas Break Projects

I took my last final exam today, so now I am truly on Christmas Break!


I have a list a mile long of things I want to do over Christmas break, but the thing I did first was rearrange my living room. I started with this:

And (after 7 different arrangements and a few hours at it) I ended up with this:

There's still a lot of odds and ends that need to find a home (sitting in the dining room doorway)

There is tons more room right in the middle of the space, which is much better. Also, Isaiah's toys now have the TV stand in the corner (now termed "his corner") with a big end table as his table and his Thomas the Train chair, and the TV got moved on the coffee table. I started on Tuesday night just before midnight after I got the urge to just move everything while Isaiah wasn't around to be in the way. I decided to carry my loveseat upstairs to the playroom/office by my self...I realized half-way that I should have waited for help. I gave up--unsatisfied--around 3am and went to bed, only to have my dad/the roofers wake me up at 7:14. I finally got everything to where I like it during nap time.

I have a feeling some of it will be moved around again once the Christmas tree is down.

This is where the loveseat ended up:

Yes, those walls really are that pink. I want to paint, but I don't know what color yet. Any suggestions are welcome.

Something I recently decided needs to be on my "to do" list is sewing, specifically:

1.) A cute camera strap for my little sister (and possibly for me). I found this awesome tutorial tonight from Becca at Home is Where My Story Begins, and while I might not follow it to a T, I will use it as a general guideline.

2.) A small playhouse for Isaiah. Something like one of these.

Hallway tent via ikat bag

Felt Playhouse, via This Big Oak Tree

The hallway tent is much easier, so that one might be the one, however the card table playhouse looks like something Isaiah would enjoy, too. Maybe I'll do that one for his birthday? Ikat bag also has an awesome pvc pipe(?) tent/playhouse that looks awesome. If you're interested, here are Phase 2 and Phase 3  of the felt playhouse from This Big Oak Tree.


3.) Some of these Fabric Scrap Keychains via Craftiness is Not Optional:

4.) These grilled cheese rolls from Dainty Chef:

 5.) Make my own pajama pants. I'm a big fan of making my own (and Isaiah's) clothes, because then I know I can take it apart or take it in if it doesn't fit right. This might happen after Christmas, though, so I can use any Christmas money I get for fabric. I like the tutorial I found at My Cotton Creations 
 

 

Oh, and by the way, you can find most of these over on my Pinterest boards.

Snowman Ornaments: Pinterest Sunday

It's another crafty-Pinteresty day. Today's craft is a hand print snowman ornament from Full of Great Ideas.

First: gather your ornament(s), paint, and paint brush. You can use any color ornament, but I chose clear, thinking that I can also possibly put white glitter or something in them. I also protected my table with a plastic film (the stuff we used for painting the attic a while back.)

Second: Get your child(ren) ready. The goggles were his idea.

Third: Either paint your child's hand, or do what I did and spread some paint on the plastic and have them smush their hand in it.

Fourth: Have them grab the ornaments one by one. I placed one in Isaiah's hand and had him grab it. It helped to take out the hangars and stand the ornaments up on the flat ends to dry. I also got a wet paper towel to wipe off any mistakes before they dried.

A picture of the painted hand... I made him hold it up so we could go wash it.

After they dried, we added decorations.

Isaiah wasn't satisfied with just eyes, noses, and buttons, so we added hats, arms, and scarves.

Next week we'll have another snowman ornament craft.. but with a twist.

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Wordless Wednesday: Crafting time

Ah, the goggles. There are no lenses, so there's no protection, but he loves them.

Searching for a Wise Man

I finally started decorating my house for Christmas. The boxes have been sitting in my dining room since last weekend, which means Isaiah has been getting into stuff. I put the tree up on Saturday, but didn't put any ornaments on until today.**


This also means that I didn't put up any other decorations until today, like my nativity scene.

 It's from my mom. She's had it for years, but had two so she gave one to me,  and she just found the box for it a couple weeks ago and gave that to me. So when I finally put it up today, I realized I'm missing a wise man.

There's no brand name on the box, I don't know what store it's from (though I suspect KMart) but I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find the missing wise man to go with it?*** I don't want to buy the whole set (since I already have most of it).

**Related: I realized I don't have very many ornaments. Although we just made two kinds yesterday, so maybe the solution is just to make more?
 ***Yes, I realize this is probably a lost cause. No one will want to separate the set. It's worth a try though.