Christmas morning at our house

Here is a picture of our tree, that we got out of our backyard...I was shocked to see that the price of 

tree's had gone up to $25-30 at the tree lots. We usually get our tree out of our yard anyways, and my dh picked out this gorgeous one for us to enjoy this year :)!

The first thing my dd opened from her stocking was this cute stuffed penguine, and as soon as she opened it she couldn't stop hugging it. She kept saying "hi,penguine!" 

Here is one of the first gifts my oldest opened, it was a snowman he got from Aunt Diane and her family...he just LOVES that snowman.  All the children got a snowman except for my middle child, he got a polar bear with a hat and scart. Which I think he preferred over the snowman...he snuggles with it whenever he is home...

My dh and I gave our son a trampoline...one of the mini one's for xmas, because we had heard that these things work wonders with children like him.  Sure enough it has helped him out a lot :)!  Here he is with the part you jump on his head, while having a rare quiet moment...

Hugs,

catherine

Christmas at my parents place

Here we are at my parents place celebrating Christmas, even though we are celebrating it on Boxing day with my family.  So this picture is of my 3 children and my oldest nephew, I thought this picture was great...then I noticed my middle child pulling the side of his mouth with his finger. It is still great, but it adds a touch of silliness to it :)!

Awww, this is one of my favorite pictures that I took over the Christmas holidays...too cute :)!  Too bad they wouldn't co-operate like this when I am at the pro

fessional photographers studio :p!

Here is my dd wearing a Santa's hat that my mom had at her house, my dd was quite taken with this hat :)!  Someone just called her name, so she just looked up from opening the gift on the table.

My dd got a apron from Aunt Elizabeth, and she just loved it so much that she wouldn't let anyone 

take it off...then she decided that she needed her Santa's hat to go with it.

Lol, here is my dd pretending to be a x-mas

 present...lol...she kept sticking the bows to her nose and saying "Look at me!"

 

He just opened a "Pirates who Don't do Anything" puzzle, and boy was he thrilled...lol, as you can see by his face :)!  For some reason he was more thrilled about the puzzle,  than the remote control helicopter that my parents gave him. However, he is now thrilled about the helicopter and flies it around the house as much as he can...the amazing thing is that he is okay when we have to re-charge it.  Last year if we had done that, he would have had a huge meltdown...so he has made huge changes :).

Here is one of the BEST pictures ever that I took over the holidays...I know, I know, I already said that about another picture I took.  Here is my dd, exhausted from the holiday get togethers and playing with her presents...

Hugs,

catherine

more random pictures from Christmas

This is my brother-in-law,  I think I caught him off guard but am glad this picture still turned out :D!

Story time with Aunt Alissa and all the cousins, sitting around her on Nana and Poppy's coach in their living room.  Well, except for the youngest one...he is sitting on the floor playing with his mommy.

My nephew with his new super G (the "G" is the first letter in his name) costume that his Aunt Erin made him for Christmas.  Here he is posing with his new costume on, what a super hero he is :)!

The 3 older cousins together, lol, they looked impressed eh?? 

Here are all the cousins together,  what a bunch they are :)!  They range in age from 7 mos. to 7 years of age, quite the age range eh??

Hugs,

Catherine

Afternoon at Aunt Diane's

On Monday December the 22nd, we went over to Aunt Diane's house to have a counsins playdate and I think we all had a lot of fun.  Here is my dd standing in front of one of Aunt Diane's many Christmas Decorations/displays, she loved looking at this xmas village. 

My sister in law, her little fella are playing with toys on the floor while Aunt Diane looks on from the couch.  Aunt Diane has lots of great toys that her boys used to play with when they were younger, and I think that is the thrill of her toys.

My other sister in law with her dd, her dd just woke up and is in that snuggly stage....the one where she only wants mommy to hold her!  

Aunt Diane, made both my dd and my niece a poncho (spelling error I am sure lol)...they are bday gifts for them...beautiful work she does.  Lol, my dd is just pointing to her nose....NOT picking it...although it does look like she is picking it. I tried :(!!  

Here is my niece with her poncho on, lol...she took hers off shortly after I took this picture.  What cuties they were with their poncho's on :)!  

Story time with Aunt Diane, see she is a librarian at 2 elementary schools and she just loves to share books with the kids.  She finds the most amazing, beautiful stories that I have ever seen 

and the kids just LOVE them too :)!  The first story that she told was a Christmas stoy about Pirates, and the second story was about a little drummer boy.  

Here are most of the cousins listening intently to Aunt Diane's stories...too cute :)! 

Here is an attempt at a group shot of all the cousins sitting with Aunt Diane, not exactly getting the co-operation we needed. Lol :)!

Here are a

ll the boy cousins sitting together, with my middle child holding up a picture craft that he made for Aunt Diane. Something else he hasn't been doing, making crafts for people, and letting them stay with them. Usually he makes a craft for someone, tells them it is for them, but he has to keep it. He was so proud of this picture he made for her :)!

Here are the girl cousins together sitting with Aunt Diane, the girls are definitely NOT co-operating.

A bit better...

Hugs,

catherine

Wagon ride 2008

My mother in law and father in law, invited the family to go on a wagon ride at a place called "Hatfield farms"...I think there might have been 24 or so of us (sorry if I am off by a few numbers here). Cool eh?? What beautiful horses, and what an amazing trip we had...mind you it was one of those freezing cold days that we had.

Here is a picture ofmy oldest son, my nephew 

and one of my sister in laws sitting across from me on the wagon.  We were waiting for everyone to sign waivers, get comfy and make sure we didn't forget anything or anyone.  

Here is a picture of my dh, my father in law, a cousin of mydh's and her children...it was really great that the younger cousins were able to be there. We don't get to see very much of them, only once in a while at other family gatherings...so it was nice to get them all together.

Okay, let me see here if I can figure out who everyone is here....since they are all bundled up and it is hard to tell.  So we have my other sister in law

 (wearing the beige hat with sunglasses), her little guy, Bonnie, Celest, someone's child (not one of mine) and Uncle Stan.  

Here was the cutest little fella there, tee hee, this is my nephew he is 7 months old now...the youngest there :). 

 

My sister in law and her dh, who were visiting

 with their two kids from Toronto.  They came to visit about a week before Christmas, and luckily got out of Toronto before that huge storm hit.  They left the day before Xmas eve, and managed to also make it back home to then drive to Michigan to visit the inlaws there....think they said it was a 6 hour drive from home.

Now

 I know a lot of you will enjo

y this (well my dh'sfamily members especially), here is a picture of my father in law riding on the mechanical bull there in one of the barns...it is on a low setting.  In this same barn, there was a bouncy castle, a boxing ring with HUGE gloves to wear, and this other game you could play with poles to knock off your opponents.  We were in this barn for about 20 minutes, the children wanted to stay longer there but we couldn't there was another party coming right behind us. 

 

Lol, this picture of my son makes me laugh

 whenever I see it because it is just so funny with

 these HUGE gloves on this little guy. My son told me that they were hard to lift up, but I had him do it so I could take a picture of him with them on.

From that fun barn, we walked over to the dining room to have lunch...they provided hot dogs,

 drinks (hot or cold)...they also had a nice big warm fire there in the lodge to make us warm :)!

My dh's older sister, my dh, and my dh's younger sister....what a great shot eh?? Can tell that they were just outside in the freezing cold...

Here is a picture of my dd, she is busy watching her older cousins run around...and people taking pictures of her sitting with her cousins.  Lol, got her making a funny face :p!

This is a picture of my brother in law (far left), his wife, and my father in law...we are all now on our way back to the cars. Man was it cold out!!!  Thank you to my inlaws for inviting us all on this wonderful adventure, it was a lot of fun :)!

Hugs,

catherine

Wow, what a xmas

First, of all I need to let you all know that I had THE BEST xmas gift ever this year...nope and it wasn't from my dh either...although his gift did rank high :) *sorry dear*!  My xmas wish this year was to see my middle child be excited about Christmas, to show emotions that any other child would have when opening a gift and to see that it is what they wanted.  Last Xmas we didn't get any excitement from him, and that was hard for me to see him not be excited about gifts he asked for and got. It was hard for me to see him just sit there and open gifts one after another without showing any kind of emotion from him...it was like he was empty :(!

Well, let me tell you Xmas 2008 was the complete opposite :D!  My son was so excited about every gift he opened, sometimes he got a little too excited and started to shake...but he was showing emotions.  I couldn't believe my eyes, nor could anyone else that has seen him over the past week or two...he has made HUGE changes, especially from last year which is awesome :)!  

He came home from school the other day, ran in the house to his little sister and said "Hi, my little cutie...I missed you so much!" Then he gave her a hug and a kiss, HE HAS NEVER DONE that before ever...I was almost in tears to see/hear this coming from him :)!  I am so thankful that we put him on that diet, and so greatful for 

everyone who works with him at his preschool 2 full days a week.   Just look at these two pictures I took of him...can't you see the excitement and the emotions there??  I know it might not sound much to anyone esle, but it is something HUGE for us and our family and I just wanted to share with you my xmas wish :)!

Hugs,

catherine

so sorry for my lack of posts

Sorry, for my lack of posts...with family get togethers, NASTY stomach flu's, colds, trip to ER with dh (thought he was having a heart attack, but it was just Pneumonia) and just not getting a whole lot of sleep happened.  I will be back full tilt in a few days...but I do have lots of photo's to share :D!

I know, I know not the same as fun crafty projects on the go :(!

Hugs,

catherine

xmas mail

Here is a beautiful card that I recieved in the mail yesterday from Yvonne, and boy was I excited to

 open it because inside it had some goodness. Here let me show you :)!  

Inside my card was a candy cane, and also some yummy Second Cup Mint Hot chocolate which I had as I am typing t

his out to you all :).  Thank you so much Yvonne for this beautiful card and yummy treat, which I really really enjoyed...

The second piece of mail I got in the mail yesterday was a

 beautiful Christmas card from anita , she is a good friend of

 mine from church who has helped us out with our long road to get our son the help he needs.  Thank you Anita for the beautiful card :)!  

I know I haven't made anything for you to feast your eyes on for about a week now but I still don't have my energy back yet from the flu I had a week ago...I am so tired :(!  But not to worry I do have something to share, actually 2 things to share 

:)!!!   I needed a gift for a good friend of

 mine and my half sister for Christmas, don't worry they don't read my blog so it is safe to post

 them...tee hee :)!   

Once I finnished making the 2 necklaces, I needed something to put them in and it had to not be too bulky or something that would bend them. So I sat in my crafty area and thought, then it dawned on me that I could use empty cd cases....then I added 2 different colored pieces of cardstock for the back of the cd case.  Next, I used white Stayz on ink and I stamped on a image onto the front of the case....looks pretty neat...pretty good idea for a spurr of the moment idea :)!   

Hugs,

catherine

Spellbinders blog giveaway

Please head on over to Spellbinders blog to win yourself some of the newer Spellbinders Nestabilities...hurry up you have until the 22nd I believe to enter...and I know you DON'T want to miss out :).

Hugs,

catherine

My blog candy winnings

Yep, I actually won some blog candy several weeks ago...it is a rare thing that I win blog candy giveaways but like to keep you all informed of them incase you win :).  

The first giveaway I won was from Betty Wright's blog, she sent me the stamp set called "Worship the Lord" by Our Daily Bread designs and also a beautiful card made using this same stamp set. LOVE what you did with the card Betty :)!  Thank you so much Betty, I LOVE this stamp set and am in the process of creating a card using it...sorry I didn't make one sooner.

The second giveaway I won was over on Leslie Ensley's blog, what you had to do to win her blog candy was to give her "Sentiments" that would work well with her card because she needed one that would suit it.  So I got to choose a Hannah stamp set...I chose the "B is for Baby" stamp set because I saw all the cute cards all of you were making with it :)!  Thank you so much Leslie for this treat :), was in need of a treat like this :)!

The third blog candy I won, is still in the mail...will post about it once it arrives :)!  However, in the mean time I did buy a stamp set that I am VERY excited about inking up today or tomorrow...it is the "My Cuppa Joe" stamp set by Gina K.  

Well, I gotta run due to the snow flying outside my window and I have to go call the school to see if it is cancelling...plus things are cold in here too..so that means I gotta go outside and get more fire wood :).  Ttyl, and stay warm...sounds like this is going to be a messy storm...

Hugs,

catherine

My dd bday cupcakes

Here is my dd cupcake that I made for her 2nd bday, which we ate after her bday supper. Lol, you will nver guess what she chose to have....lol...KD was her bday supper choice.  It was just the 5 of us for this bday supper, but not to worry we are going to Hatfield farms on Saturda

y for a family get together.

My dd wouldn't blow out her candles either, she just sat there giving me the look you see here in this picture...an unsure one :). Meanwhile her two brothers were jumping up and down hoping that I would ask them to help her blow out her bday candles, but eventually she did help them blog the candles out.

I just LOVE this picture because of what my middle child is doing...lol, yep that would be the one who is peering over my dd's head.  Cute pic eh?? 

But here is the better picture of them all, which is also one of those rare photo occasions that they were all wanting their picture taken. Can't argue with that when they all are happily wanting their pictures taken.

Hugs,

Catherine