embrace the camera {winter chores}

So here we are still doing our morning chores all together the four of us. I thought the kids would have "chickened out" by now, but all 3 of them are still heading out with this momma everyday to collect the eggs.

My little guy starts out on his snowshoes but half-way-up there usually hops into the sled with the girls. Surprisingly, even though it takes a good hour to get out the door and to collect the eggs, I have actually enjoyed most days. I get to strap on my snowshoes and be outdoors. The worst part is just getting out the door. Ya know, by the time the second one is all dressed, the first one is undressed again. Gloves need to be put on 5X before we even make it to the chicken coop, and someone always does a face plant in the snow and has a melt down.

Thanks to our 6 chickens, they get us out of the house everyday. It's not always fun and I don't always look forward to it, but once we are finished there is nothing like going back inside and warming up. And really, I'm getting one great workout everyday.

That's right, only 3 eggs today! For some reason our chickens are not good at doing their job. Any suggestions?

my handmade Christmas presents

As I write this post I am still working on finishing the last of my Christmas presents, that's right, Christmas is not over in this house yet. One more apron to go! The week before Christmas all the girls in this house had nasty colds and one little baby with croup. So I went a whole week with nearly any sleep and not sewing a single thing. Thankfully, I have some very understanding friends and family. You know making most of your Christmas presents is way harder then just buying them from the store. So thanks guys for understanding! So here are a few of the gifts that were given away this year for Christmas.

Casserole carrier using melon from the Meadowsweet collection.

**Quick question: Would you think differently of me if you knew that I carried my casserole dish to Christmas dinner wrapped in aluminum foil? That's right, I do not have a casserole carrier of my own!**

Velour terry cloth dish towels.

And lots of aprons! This was year that lots of little ones were getting their first kitchen sets and NEEDED an apron to go along with it.

This is one of my favorites! First of all, you know my love for orange, but also I love this plaid fabric from Michael Miller! Hope it makes a little nephew of mine happy.

So, am I the only one still working on their Christmas presents?

The kids playroom {then and now}

After posting pictures of our kitchen, I got a few emails wondering, do my kids have any toys? and where the heck do our 3 little ones play? Well... right in our kitchen of course and in here... the hallway! That's right my kids playroom is actually in the hallway. It is not ideal, but "it is what it is," until the rest of the house is finished. Yes, it is super tiny, but luckily they know no different.

So here it is, the kids playroom.

A before shot of what this area looked like 6 years ago. Again... What were we thinking!!! I wish I had more pictures of this area to share, but this is the only one I could find.

You can see through the doorway into our kitchen (yes, my kids are watching TV...gasp!) which also doubles as our living room/dining room/craft room/and guest room when Grammy comes to stay. Like I have said, not practical, not fun, but "it is what it is." And really it could be worse. When we first bought the house this was just a big nasty room with no insulation and the walls were old barn boards. We turned this empty room into a hallway and on the other side of the coat rack is where our bathroom is now.

AWW, our kitchen set. It was last years Christmas present and it is the BEST! The kids just LOVE IT and so doesn't every kid that comes over to play. And yes, we actually have kids over to play as you can only imagine it is just plain CHAOS when that happens!

All of the kids coloring and craft suppllies are kept up high and out of reach of those little fingers.

So there it is, our little playroom!

Whatcha think, Wanna come over and play... in the hallway?

Christmas 2010

With only a Christmas branch, I had to get inventive on where to put our presents. Wanting to make it magical and look special for the kiddo's I decided to stack all of the presents as high as they would go and strung lights all around them. The kids just loved it and I definitely got the reaction I was hoping for. Thank goodness it doesn't take much to get these little kiddo's of mine excited.

After spending a crazy-fun-filled Christmas Eve with family, we spent Christmas Day at home just the 5 of us. We wasted away the day by opening presents, making homemade donuts, playing with our new tractors and trains, watching a little girl push her new stroller and dolls all around the house, and reading our new books. We even got out to do some snowshoeing. Oh it was wonderful! But then again, I always enjoy days when the hubby is home and all we do is spend time playing with the kids, eating way too much food and are able to sneak in a movie when the kids are napping.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Merry Christmas to all!

embrace the camera {momma's 3 little reindeer}

First of all, congrats to the Anderson crew! Such great news and we are so excited for all of you. You truly got the most precious gift for Christmas this year, and so didn't she!

Oh how we have loved opening our advent calendar this year. The kids take turns each day opening each one up. It is usually something for them to share, an activity to do, or they both get a little something. Remember the numbers that I purchased to make our advent calendar? Well it not only came with the numbers but also some fun activities to do with the kids. So on this day when they opened their advent calendar they had a little circle telling them that they were going to have a mini photo shoot, complete with costumes. Of course I thought it would be fun to dress up as reindeer. I quickly sewed up some brown and white striped pj pants for the kids and threw on some reindeer antlers.

Gotta have a red nose!

And here is what our photo shoot really looked like. One boy totally not wanting to cooperate, a little missy girl trying to get everyone to smile and coordinate things, a little baby not wanting to sit still (gotta love crawling babies) and this momma with some major haven't-washed-my-hair-in-2-days with my I-will-pretend-this-was-WAAY-fun-smile!

Oh yes, we also had a few tears.

Some antler fights.

With a little wrestling and lots of dorky smiles.

AWW yes! That was fun. F-U-N... FUN!

Well, actually we did had FUN, once I turned the camera off. Isn't that the way it always goes?!

2010 Christmas branch

Just another reason why living in this house of ours is so hard...no place for a Christmas tree! For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted a house that would hold the biggest Christmas tree eva, but instead our house can only hold the smallest Christmas tree eva! That makes this Christmas tree loving momma so sad. While our oldest kept asking us when we were going to cut down our tree I had to explain to him that we had no room for a tree. It just broke my heart. Wanting and needing something, we decided to cut down a Christmas branch.

So after lunch we bundled up and headed outside to cut down our Christmas branch that Daddy ever so cleverly "planted."

Our son spotted it first. The most perfect Christmas branch for us to "cut down."

After "cutting down" our branch we enjoyed some time outside with the kiddo's.

The baby just loved it! I wasn't sure how she was going to be her first time in a sled with brother pulling her. But there were lots of smiles from her and brother was so sweet and gentle with her.

And of course one of these was bound to happen!

We even managed to get a picture of the whole family.

While the two youngest were sleeping, we decorated our Christmas branch. I was still feeling a little bummed about our lack of big Christmas tree until...

my little girl woke up and proceeded to squeal in delight with the branch that was twinkling. Oh, she just Melted MY HEART!

So I'm over it!

It's not about the biggest tree, and thanks to my little ones for making me realize that. That still doesn't mean that one of Christmas wishes will be for our house to be finished and for a big tree next year!