Christmas Gifts For Janitors @FLES!

I believe fully in showing those who care for you, YOU appreciate them.  It really doesn't take much either.  A simple note, a gentle hug, and beautiful smile, or a gift! The janitors at FLES are pretty dang engaging with the kids.  My kids "LOVE Ms. Susie" and have built a report with Mr. Leftwhich and Mr. Ernie.  So, I have made it a small tradition, ever year, for three years now or more, to give them BOTH the Chick-Fil-A Cow Calendar and the Krispy Kreme Donut Calendar.  It's $15 worth of gifts, but the gift keeps giving ALL YEAR ROUND. I printed a note that said exactly what I felt, "Thank you for your helping hands!"

The cow calendar is AWESOME! I have posted on it before, in detail, so I didn't bother investing the time doing it again.  Read all about what it is HERE.

I stumbled across the Krispy Kreme calendar a few years back, on accident.  I have made certain to NOT forget this as a gift option for MANY!  This year, I LOVED that they made it not only a calendar filled with freebies and awesome coupons, but they ALSO made it a coloring calendar.  

I took pics of each month, minus January, not sure why, see below... my favorite months are February, August, and December.  SO FUN and so cute... As you will see in the fourth picture over, from the top row, EACH MONTH is filled with free stuff and amazing coupons.

I also sent in some Santa donuts for them and the office staff: principal, secretary, nurse, and janitors.

 Here are a few more examples of the coupons offered under each month!

Don't make excuses for WHY you don't give to others. It really doesn't even take money to show you care. It's never the case that you give to someone and feel crappy or regret it (unless of course they are ungrateful).  Giving is the best feeling ever!

Family Birthdays!

I am always looking for a special way to celebrate those I love, on their birthdays.  I believe that one's birthday is truly the only DAY set aside, specifically for them, to CELEBRATE them and show them how much they mean to you.  It could be a sweet note, a well thought out gift, a meal, a hug, whatever it is... as long as you DO SOMETHING that expresses and celebrates your love for them that's all that matters. I have several family members who are AWFUL about even being able to remember when everyone's birthdays are.  Our family has gotten pretty big, but more than that, I think life is just so busy that they don't make it a priority to mark these special days down. SO... Kristin to the rescue.  I found a unique way to help those family members remember the most important dates of the year.  I spotted this "Family Birthday" plaque at LTD for ONLY $6.98. SCORE! Especially since Amazon sells it for $17. I was super excited at both the idea and the price.

My handwriting is SO big, so I needed a way to place everyone's names on the small quarter size tags.  To make it look consistent and clean looking, I used my label maker.

There were enough tags for everyone's birthdays, even Jesus' birthday!

 I LOVE the way it turned out.  

Finally, the actual birthdates were NEEDED/REQUIRED, right?  I made a document and printed both a LARGE and small version of it. I taped the small version, of the birthdates, onto the BACK of the plaque, this way it would never be lost. I did include a few wedding anniversaries too!

Now, hopefully these family members with "NEVER FORGET" the important people in their lives. 

Gingerbread House Fun - 2016!

It's a tradition started years and years ago! I recall buying ONE for Tyson and I and being so excited to work on it with him and then realizing that my vision of the final outcome was NOTHING like a 3 year old's vision.  I either had to adopt the attitude of "let him have fun" or "control".  I wanted this tradition to be filled with good memories, so I allowed him to decorate it whatever way he desired.  And then came two more babies, which later meant two more gingerbread houses, making a total of 3 gingerbread houses. Haha.  This was the first year, I decided mommy needed a gingerbread house of her own.  I set up our stations filled with the pre-assembled gingerbread house, frosting, a butter knife, and all of the FUN embellishments featured below.

The kids were excited and got to work quickly!

My kids are very much perfectionists, so there was a lot of frustration at first! "Mine doesn't look good!", "Mommy yours is so much prettier than mine!", "My frosting looks messy!"  

I just tried to continually remind them that this is supposed to be fun. We aren't entering our homes into a contest and more than likely NO ONE will even see the end result. Things eventually got a lot more light hearted.

I enjoyed sitting still and letting my creative juices flow.  Hello shiny head. Haha.  Geez.

The houses were a lot smaller than I had hoped, but a lot larger than the kids had patience for.  Next year, I may get them the mini homes.

At one point, I was completely deserted at the gingerbread house table! Their attention span lasted about 25 minutes.  NOT BAD, but I sat at that table for 1.50 hours.  

Here is the end result... my house!

Love Shack!

Lilah's house!

Tyson's house.

Jaxey's house.

And of course, as you saw in the last post, after the holidays, I let the kids SMASH their gingerbread houses with a hammer. We will NOW be making that our NEWEST end of the Christmas season tradition. LOL! ALL that HARD WORK for NOTHING! 

Happy New Year!!!!

I wish I had an AWESOME, festive New Year's Eve party to share with you, but our Sunday, church service landed on New Year's Day, so we chose to take our New Year's Eve celebration down a HUGE notch and pass out at 10 pm.  I bought fun plates, napkins, confetti, blowers, hats, and non-alcoholic champagne, but it just didn't feel right to celebrate unless we could watch the ball drop.  Instead, we organized and cleaned our entire home from about 8:20 a.m. till 9:20 p.m.  Haha.  I know, how boring, but that's real life people.  Today, I decided to let Lilah use the confetti.  I enjoyed capturing AND watching this random fun. She had a blast.

The very last sight of Christmas, in our home, was our gingerbread houses.  I usually just throw them right into the trash can, but while showering this morning, I thought about a fun idea and I was able to bring it to fruition.  We took hammers to our gingerbread houses.  Haha.  I know, this seems like an AWFUL idea if you were ME, who spent like a gazillion hours decorating mine.  See the gingerbread SMASH below!

Smash!!!!!!!!!!

Demolition girl!

These pictures and moments are so precious to me. I love watching her come to life, smile, and just doing what kids should be doing... having fun. Not a stress or a care in the world!

I wish all of my blog followers a very Happy New Year! No matter what comes your way, please be reminded that the Lord only gives you what you can handle! During those difficult moments in 2017, because trust me they will come, just remember that HE gives you challenges and trials to GROW you! Take on the challenge and consider it love.