Deployment 2010

Well two days after Christmas we sent John off on another deployment..... of course he had to be at the airport at six-thirty in the morning, which meant we had to leave our house at five-thirty, ugh, I will never understand why they leave and arrive so early.......so once again, it is just the kids and I for about the next 8 months.

Cake Challenge...sord of....

Lexie, the night before John was to leave on deployment decided she wanted to have a cake challenge. If anyone knows the cake challenge on the Food Network you know where she got the idea... we love watching that show.
So using moon sand and play dough we held our own cake challenge. I found also, Lexie could use new play dough.... Here are our results....
Tell us what you think.....

What we have been up to this month.

I am either just creative or extremely bored. Elizabeth says I am over creative, if there is such a thing. I just want to make sure to make the holidays memorable for the kids, a special time that they will remember. Though I try to do that with everything we do. I want to make sure they have good memories of their child hood, that they know they have parents that cared. So using salt dough molds that we used a couple of years ago making Halloween decorations I got this crazy idea to use it to make Christmas decorations as well... I used about 7 cups of flour and 3 cups of salt to make our ornaments.... we made tons of ornaments and other decorations for the house. Everything painted by the girls and I and the ornaments all beaded and strung by me... This is only a few of them we have made, we also made some for their friends, teachers and some Grandma's and Grandpa's will be receiving some as well....

These decorations were 3D cookie cutters that I bought last year to make into cookies... did not work out so easy for cookies but made great decorations for the house.. after painting them I hot glued all their pieces together so they would stay standing, otherwise they really don't stay together on their own to well...

We also made tons of cookies to decorate for the girls to take to school for their Christmas party before vacation.

Lexie's class room party, everyone was suppose to wear their pajamas to school that day, and they aired The Polar Express on their tv's that each class room has as they colored and ate their treats.

We had observation week at the ballet studio this month as well, pictures and videos!

We made gingerbread houses using graham crackers- we used gingerbread cookies last year, but we thought we would try graham crackers instead this time, did you know that Betty Crocker vanilla frosting and graham crackers really taste good together? LOL

Our first snowfall of the season, it wasn't much but just enough for the kids to enjoy if only for a little while. I couldn't get Anthony to get in it, too cold he said.

Christmas Eve we took the kids ice skating. At first it was a little tough getting started, I only had been on the ice two other times in the my life, the kids never saw a rink before.

But as time went on we all got a little bit more brave and ventured away from the wall.......




John didn't go skating, a few days away from deployment he thought it would be a good idea NOT to break anything.....I think he was mostly scared to try,,,,,LOL so he took pictures, and video.

Her own fashion statement....

Aren't girls just adorable?

Elizabeth's Birthday

Last weekend we celebrated Elizabeth's birthday. We invited friends this year and we had an afternoon of playing Highschool Musical Bingo, making charm bracelets and having cake and ice cream. Ten years!!! I can't believe it.... my babies are growing up to fast!

My attempts at family photos this year.........

I thought I had a cute idea for family photos this year…… all of us around our Christmas tree…. WHAT was I thinking!!!!!???
Here are our attempts to getting a decent picture…..

This would have been a good one, if Anthony didn't look like he was so far back.

There was coughing

Eyes not staying open…..


And the need for cute poses……


Or without being to close or too far from the camera…

I am sooo not a photographer….
But. . . .
What was that look???

Anthony insisted on being behind the tree instead of closer to the camera, in almost every shot he looks like he is way back there....lol

Oh come on!!! Just one good picture, PLEASE!!!!!

This. . . . .

Was the best I could do......

And don't get me started on Lexie's choice of apparel..... It was either argue with a five year old that we don't wear dress up clothes in family photos, or just let her have her way and save the battle for something else.....I was losing anyway. If Belle can wear the red cape in her Christmas special why can't Lexie....as she pointed out....What could I say....

Christmas decorations

I love Christmas, I love celebrating Christ, I love the atmosphere it brings to my home, the chilly air, the decorations, the winter crafts we do, and the Christmas movies and hot chocolate with my children.
We go through a lot of hot chocolate this time of year...lol


I probably went a little over board with the garland and lights this year, well, I think I do it every year. At least Anthony thinks I perhaps did in the living room anyway. I just love the warm homey feeling it gives me.

I see where a few decorations need a little adjusting....





I have garland and lights around every door way and window in the living room, that is three doorways that lead to another room, one that leads to the back porch and three windows…..and the one by the tree, not to mention the tree…
I didn’t seem to get them all pictured, but you get the idea… talk about a night light! LOL…




I have garland on the front door, no lights, just my seashell ornaments I made, garland over a doorway in the hallway and even garland and lights on the railing leading up the stairs…. and candy canes lining the hallway downstairs....THE KIDS LOVE IT, as do I. We even decorated our downstairs screened in porch since we really don't have a yard, looks nice... and festive...

My village once again with the hustle and bustle of people enjoying the holiday season.

Our angel on top of our tree who watches over us, and baby Jesus, our savior....

To much time on my hands?

ok, perhaps I have to much time on my hands when the kids are in school. But I have the creative bug going right now. Check out my latest project...lol They are seashell ornaments, I have made them and sold them before on ebay... thought I would get creative and try again, since I have sooooo many seashells that I have collected off of the beach. www.sweetcountrycottagetoo.blogspot.com

On another note, the kids brought home grade cards today, Anthony is doing well, he is struggling a little, so he thinks, but his grades are quite well, a couple of C's everything else A's B's. Elizabeth made the A B honor roll this nine weeks! YEA Elizabeth... and Lexie is coming along really well with her first year in school! GREAT JOB GUYS!

Happy Halloween!

ok, I tried to make costumes this year, well at least Lexie, I changed my mind about making Elizabeth's when I started to make Lexie's..... I guess at a distance it didn't turn out so bad. LOL...... I made the mistake of using satin to make her costume...SHOULD not have done that... that stuff is soooooo slippery. I even attempted to make the wings... using and old pair of wings that had been made of tulle that we bought with other costumes, I took the design it had and tore off the tulle and used regular fabric and copied the design on to it and used glitter paint to trace and Viola! wings! maybe not perfect, but cute and lasts longer then the tulle would.

She wanted to be Silvermist from Tinkerbell.

her waist was a separate piece that I made to velcro in the back.. but it appears to ride up on her waist.... o'well... I tried.

Elizabeth decided this year that she wanted to be a witch, which is totally opposite of past Halloween's.