itunes…

So my iPod shuffle has made me look into itunes…never before have I ventured there.   Some great free Podcasts that I never knew existed :

Walk in the world with James McDonald…great Christian speaker (you can search for it on itunes) Listened to him while I worked out and burned off 450 calories last night…gotta love that!

Even have some scrapbooking ones!  SCRAPcast is one I listened to and enjoyed.

And of course I put some music on my iPod…not free but I already had it on my computer so as of yet I haven’t spent any $$ on itunes.  Some City of Angels movie CD music and Newsboys Adoration album.

So what are your favs on itunes?

Went to Sam’s club and guess what I got?

The first Ipod anything the house…this Ipod shuffle:

I was so sick of going to the gym and hearing things that I could do without (weight lifters grunting, rap music, etc).

Gingerbread trains

Forgot to post these pics on here.  I got everything ready and constructed the gingerbread trains with the kids the Friday before Christmas just in time for my hubby to get home…so I ordered them pizza and left them to decorate them.   I went to do the grocery shopping for Christmas.  Worked out great…the grocery stores (yes…more than one) were not crowded at all and I had no kids with me . 

My husband’s mom made Gingerbread houses with them for years and years so my hubby is an old pro. 

 

Here is my youngest’s train in green…his favorite color of all time (has been his favorite color since he was 2 and for a kid who constantly changes his mind about most things…keeping a favorite color for that long is amazing!).  Loved the snowman.

Here is my oldest’s.  Loved the smokestack…which I just realized I cut off in the pic.  It is still intact so I have to retake that picture! 

Candy unwrapped and organized by my 6 year old.  See the candy bucket sitting on the right?  The rest of our Halloween candy.  So great to get the Halloween candy confiscated and then once they put it on their gingerbread creations, you can’t eat it, right?

Working on calendars

Busy with these calendars from SEI.  I make quite a number of these per year as gifts.  This year I was trying so hard to be ahead of schedule…ordered pictures, had my LSS order the calendars for me in October…I was set.  Waited and waited for my LSS to get them in…finally gave up and ordered a few from an online site a few weeks before Christmas.  I got them in…and haven’t been able to work on them because my neck and shoulders have been so messed up and sitting and working on such things just aggravated it.  I think I am pretty much on the mend now.

Anyway…working on them.  Tonight and tomorrow night we have plans to go out.  They are going to be late, late, late getting to loved ones.

Very nice Christmas

This was written by our 6 year old on the dry erase board in the playroom.  Pretty cute.  Signed with his name and his brother’s. 

Santa did spoil them pretty much…more later.  Busy around here.

Are these snowmen cupcakes not the cutest?

Look here…ran across this blog today and was pleasantly greeted by these guys.  So fun!

Busy, busy…

Seems like this time of year I a busy no matter what I accomplished early in an effort to get “ahead”.  I keep trying to remind myself…to enjoy.  Enjoy my kids, my hubby, Jesus’s birthday!!, family, friends…slow down and enjoy!

So with that in mind I sit down to share a little and enjoy…

Here is a train treasure box that I made for one of my nephews for his Christmas: 

Yes…those “stripes” are not perfect by anyone’s  imagination but I don’t think a 2 year old is going to mind too much .   Again, as with the dino treasure box that I posted about earlier…I used that great glue.  Loving that stuff…it sets up fast and has a super bond.  It does have fumes…so gotta be prepared for that.

I have also been making ornaments.  Glass ornaments are from Hobby Lobby.  Rub ons for the letters and flourishes.  Grass is from the Christmas section at Hobby Lobby.

This lady on 2 peas made some really cute ones…I like the use of the beads.  I tried beads but the only beads I had on hand were really tiny…and I saw no reason to make a messy ornament that was constantly loosing small beads. Those large beads are really precious.  However…I vow not to go to Hobby Lobby one more time before Christmas…okay…that is unless I need something really important!

I will be doing our Gingerbread houses and trains today and tomorrow with the boys. Fun stuff.   Boys are on Christmas break…they are excited to have numerous “mommy days” ahead of them and I am looking forward to it too.  

Another advent box idea

My mom caught this advent box idea:

one on the Carol Duval show this morning.  I like the concept as it has lots of possibilities.  My mom suggested putting in little advent objects that remind us all about the true meaning of Christmas…which I thought was a neat idea.  I might do this one next year around that theme. 

Those little match boxes must be available at craft stores…I don’t get too far away from the scrapbooking section of my Hobby Lobby…but they must be there somewhere!

New look

Finally figured out how to add my own picture as a header.  I love taking photos…so you will probably see lots of my pictures as headers as time goes on.

Picture is of what is on my mantle this Christmas.  

Worried about lead in toys?

To be truthful, I haven’t been overly concerned about the new lead in toys bombshell myself.   For my kids…the damage is done, right?  Okay…sarcastic I know but my boys are done chewing on things and they wash their hands often so this information would have been a big deal to me a few years earlier.  (Although I am comforted by the fact that neither of my boys was terribly oral and they didn’t do a lot of putting things in their mouth after the age of 18 months or so…minimizing their exposure some I suppose).

Anyway…this is a neat website that tests toys for lead and 8 other contaminants and gives each toy an overall rating (plus rates them individually for lead, cadmium, chlorine/pvc, arsenic, and mercury). 

Looks to me like those vinyl lunch bags like this one:

are not the best thing to send lunches in.  All those contaminants in a container that is used for transporting food just doesn’t seem like the best plan in the world to me…and I will likely be moving on to metal boxes for my boys.  Just a thought.