Last Minute Valentine Mantle

I decided to do a little last minute Valentine's Day decorating last night.  I had the idea in my head for a few weeks, just didn't have the time to do it.  My inspiration was my Pawpaw's slide ruler (I salvaged from a junk pile at his house after his passing) that I shaped into a heart.  I hung it from my existing empty frames on the mantle.  I liked the "measuring" part and decided to continue the theme.  I made a sign that says, "You are loved beyond measure!" 

Happy Valentine's Day!  I am loved and love my sweet boys and husband.   Here is the rest of the mantle.

I really like the ruler in the shape of a heart.  I think I'm going to leave it that way year round.  Thanks pawpaw for it! 

I took my sewing tape measure and wrapped it around the sign to continue the theme.

The red feather boa was from Ryan's chicken costume.  :)  Reuse, reuse, reuse!

Look closely and you can see the "stems" for these hearts are rulers.  I took one and cut in half for the smaller two hearts and used one whole one for the big heart.  I placed them in Ball jars filled with buttons from my mom's old button box. 

Ryan made this Valentine for his family.  I love it!  It looks so nice displayed on the mantle.

Two of hearts...enough said.  I love this little red egg server w/hearts on it.

We are loved beyond measure by Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior! 

Charlotte's Web

Ryan had a school project to make a scene from Charlotte's Web.  They could use any material.  Of course, Ryan decided to make his out of Lego's!  I must say, it was AWESOME!  He did such a great job.  My crafty little heart was so proud of him.  He also made an ABC book with a Charlotte's Web theme out of lunch bags.  I helped him on this one.  He said his classmates loved it!  I just wanted to share some of the pictures of the Lego scene.  Great job, Ryan!

Ryan and the whole farm scene.

The Zuckerman's farm house.

The apple tree where Wilbur ran when he escaped.

The road by the farm, complete with Mr. Arable on a motorcycle.  There was a really neat tractor that Ryan made from scratch.

A farm hand cutting down a tree with an axe.  If you look closely, you can see that Ryan used a Lego piece that made it look like the tree had actually been chopped. 

The barn.  I love the way he did the roof and kept the back open so you could see all the things inside.

A clothes line, complete with a minitature shirt and pants.

Inside the barn:  a hay loft, horse stables, manure pile, Charlotte's Web hanging on the edge of the barn and Wilbur's pen beside the barn. 

Fern sitting beside Wilbur's pen.  Wilbur is looking up at Charlotte. 

Easy Valentine Treats

Last year, the boys and I made super easy Valentine treats for their teachers.  I'm always looking for inexpensive easy ideas, and this is definitely a keeper. 

We placed strawberry flavored marshmallows on lollipop sticks, dipped them in chocolate and added Valentine sprinkles for a cute, yummy teacher treat.  We wrapped them in clear cellophane bags, tied them w/ribbon, and added a paper heart. 

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve at home this year with the boys and Lillian and Timothy.  We had such a good time popping fireworks, eating hot dogs, making smores and talking by the firepit.  Thanks Lillian and Timothy for coming to our WILD & CRAZY party!  :)

Lillian and Cannon getting the clothes hangers ready for the hot dogs and marshmallow roasting.

The feast.  :)

Cannon helped get the smores ready.  Yum!

Parker chowing down on a chip.  He dressed up in his tie for the party.

Lillian, Timothy and Jaron, getting out of control!

Ryan and Cannon toasting their sparkling apple juice for New Year's.

The soon to be newlyweds.

Parker trying to wait out the new year.

Daddy and Parker by the fire.

Smores Time!

Daddy and the boys. 

Ryan and Cannon had a blast running around with thier sparklers.

Ryan with two sparklers at once...wild man.

Lillian's with her sparkler.  :)

Parker's first sparkler. 

Cannon gave a thumbs up to the New Year's celebration. 

It was chilly! 

The big daddy firework.  It got the neighbors cheering.  Totally illegal since we live in the city limits...

Boys big and small love fireworks. 

Valentine's Day

We have had five snow days in the past two weeks where we have missed school and had temperatures in the teens.  It was such a blessing to have the time at home, because I got sooo much done.  I cleaned out closets and was able to get rid of a ton of stuff.  I'm trying my luck w/selling the baby items on Craigslist for now.  Unfortunately, all of that cleaning meant that I didn't get around to doing my Valentines decorating this year.  Bummer!  I'm going to post my pictures from last year's Valentines.

Cannon asked to buy a little heart shaped box of chocolates for a girl in his kindergarten class.  He is so sweet.  When I asked him if this was his girlfriend, he said no and that he just can't decide which one to pick.  He said there were too many pretty ones.  :)  I'm afraid he is going to break lots of hearts.  Ryan would rather stick needles in both of his eyes than get a girl chocolate....I wonder how much longer before that changes.  :) 

Jaron and I are not  planning on doing anything special this year for Valentines, but I hope he knows how much I love him!  We just celebrated 12 years of marriage and we've been together for 18 years...that's more than half our lives!  We have so much fun together.  I know I am so blessed to have such a good husband that takes care of his family and is such a strong spiritual leader for our home. 

Merry Christmas!

 Christmas 2010

We began this Christmas break with a surprise birthday party for Jaron.  His mother and step dad secretly flew in from Kentucky for his surprise and for the state playoff game the next day.  He was totally surprised and so glad they could be there for the big game.  At the party were Jason & Lacey, Timothy, Kim & Paul, the boys and me and Jaron.  We ate at Genghis Grill, one of his favorite restaurants.  Jaron's mom brought a cake shaped like a football and football themed cookies from Kentucky.  They were awesome.  Happy 35th Birthday, old man!

We didn't win the state championship, but the Raiders had a great season.  We are so proud of the players and all of their hard work.  Maybe next year we can have another run at the title!

We enjoyed spending the first part of Christmas break with Kim and Paul.  They were there for Christmas morning and Christmas dinner.  Jaron's brothers and their wife/fiance joined us and Kim and Paul for Christmas dinner.  We celebrated Christmas Eve at Jaron's Dad's house and enjoyed playing Lego's and opening presents.  The celebrations continued with Sunday at Jaron's grandparents and at my sister's house with my entire family. 

The boys got some awesome gifts including a trampoline, Lego sets, football table, a baby ride-on four wheeler, an indoor basketball goal, a Build-a-Bear longhorn, Wii games, and the list goes on and on.  They were grateful for their presents and were deserving.  Good boys!  Jaron and I were spoiled by his mom and step dad and his dad and step mom too.  We are blessed. 

I would say our most favorite present was the gift of the time we got to spend with each other this holiday break.  We had two full weeks together and loved every minute of it.  Many days we were lazy and never got out of our pajamas!  Many other days, our house was full of company and busyness.  Timothy, the boy's uncle, had a break from college and got to spend many nights with us...the boys absolutely love it when he is here!  Jaron and I decided that we need to win the lottery because we totally love being at home with our boys.  I guess you have to play the lottery to actually win!

Here are some photos of Christmas at our house.

Spending time with family

Manna enjoying holding Parker on Christmas Eve.

Ryan and Cannon exchanged presents they had got for each other on Christmas Eve.  They were so sweet and kind in the gifts they traded.

 

 Jason and Lacey joined us for Christmas Dinner.

Parker's favorite gift from Santa!  He had a little trouble working it, but his brothers were quick to "help."

Cannon's favorite present.  Good gift, Manna & Paul.  There have been many basketball games in the kitchen since it was unwrapped. 

The Santa Mantel

Each member of our family has a hand beaded Christmas stocking hanging from the chimney.  Jaron grew up with stockings that looked like these, so when we started our family, we decided to make ones like them.  So every time a new baby came along, Jaron and I sat on the couch and hand beaded and sequined a stocking.  We love them and the special meaning they have.

The Santa and frosty fireplace screen.  We inherited this from Jaron's parents.  My boys enjoy it just as much as Jaron and his brothers did growing up.

I found this Santa silhouette at a thrift store for $2!  It went perfect w/the rest of the Santa decor on the mantel.  A little secret, instead of attaching it w/nails or screws, I just hot glued it to the bricks.  It peeled off fine after Christmas.

Dear Santa, I can explain...  I took a piece of burlap and wrapped it around a board for a super cute addition to the mantle.  Instead of paint, I used a Sharpie to write the words. 

Our Santa stocking hangers were a hazard for Parker (pull the on his head), so I just wrapped greenery around them and kept them up. 

I got a huge sack of vintage decorations at a thrift store in town that a little old lady had just donated.  This Santa was only one of the neat things inside!  In the background, you can see the boys pictures with Santa.  We put their new picture up every year.  We had nine displayed this year.  It is so neat to see how much they have grown.  Our favorite one is of Ryan screaming his head off in Santa's lap.  Poor Santa!

I got a new Santa snow globe from Paul to add to the others he has gotten me in past Christmases.  I just love Christmas snow globes.

The whole mantle.  If you look closely on the TV, you can see that it is J-Wow and Snookie on Regis and Kelly...nothing says Christmas like Jersey Shore. 

The Christmas Trees

This is our main tree.  It is decorated w/a ton of ornaments that we have collected over the years.  Each year we buy the boys a new ornament so when they get married they will have 20+ ornaments to put on their tree so it won't be bare.  (Look closely and you can see Paul w/his apron on busily getting ready for Christmas dinner!)

The dining room tree.  This little guy sat on top of the buffet.  I placed some of the vintage Christmas decorations from the thrift store find on the tree for a reindeer theme. 

Our starfish we found on the beach this past summer in South Carolina.

The silver kitchen tree.  I love this tree because it reminds me of the silver tree we had in our house when I was little.  I so wish I still had that tree, but this one is a fine substitute.  I usually decorate the silver tree w/my vintage tin cookie cutters, but I just ran out of time this year.  I used some burlap for the tree skirt.  I liked the burlap and silver together.

Christmas Dinner

The table looked so nice with my Friendly Village china that I received from Paul.  I was proud to use them and continue his family tradition of the china being used for Christmas dinner.

Some of the many sweets!

Look at those Christmas cookies!  I wish I could claim those as my own, but they were flown in from Kentucky.  Manna buys them from a really talented lady there.  They are too pretty to eat!

 Other Decorations Around the House

I love these vintage Christmas ornaments I found for pennies at an antique mall.

Another one of the little old lady's donations that I scooped up from the thrift store!  There were about a dozen of these little birds with hand glittered wings.

With visions of sugar plums...this was a Hallmark ornament that we bought for the tree this year, because we thought it looked like our three little boys.  I repainted two of the boy's hair here to look more like Cannon and Parker.  :)

Manna's Hallmark Toymaker ornament for this year.  She has given Jaron and I one every year since we have been married.  I hope Hallmark doesn't stop making them!

My pawpaw's wooden tool box makes a great holder for all of our children's Christmas books.