New Year's Resolutions

This year one of my New Year's Resolutions was to finally learn how to digital scrapbook. I don't plan to do all of my layouts digitally because I like the look and textures of the old fashioned scrapbook pages. However I like a lot of the digital pieces available at so many of the on-line shops. Maybe hybrid is for me?! I signed up for four Jessica Sprague digital classes and this is what I was able to produce with lesson two of my first class. I am happy with the outcome. Jessica makes it so easy to do! I look forward to the rest of my lessons!

Elf on the Shelf

I have been meaning to add this post for nearly a month now. This little guy entered our lives on December 14th and was the most fun part of our Christmas holiday this year. He is sent from the North Pole to sit (on a shelf) and keep watch over us. He reports back to Santa every night letting Santa know if we've been good or bad. He returns the next morning perched in a different location. Madison was completely enamored with him. She fed him special treats every morning and evening. She wrote him notes (which he replied to daily) and even gave him toys, a scarf, and a cape to keep warm during his nightly journey. Mornings were the most fun hunting for his new location. He ususally ended up where the girls spent the most time the previous day. The only rule we had to follow (besides being "good") was to NOT touch him or his magical powers would disappear. Which would mean he couldn't go back and forth to the North Pole every night. Even now Maddie still talks about Pepper. We named him Pepper Minstix. We hope he shows up earlier next year so we can have more than 11 days with him (he leaves when he hears Santa come down the chimney).

Getting into the Holiday Spirit

Last night we met some friends at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the GardenFest of Lights. What an amazing display!! This beautiful spider web and the peacock were just a sampling of the light displays throughout the gardens. The kids enjoyed a maze of lights (particularly when the adults were chasing them through it). It was a little chilly and rainy at the gardens, but there was snow coming down at our house. Jordan and Madison ate a few of those huge snowflakes before we left for the GardenFest. At home we all wore our pajamas inside-out and backwards in hopes of more snow to play in this morning. As you can see from the last photo, there was just a dusting. The girls are so into their December Daily books that they really haven't had any interest in decorating for Christmas. Sad to say, I don't feel like decorating either. This house is smaller than the house we left in Texas where we built the curved staircase for our 12 foot pre-lit Christmas tree. We had to get rid of that tree because the ceilings here are considerably lower. I don't look forward to sorting through all of my holiday decorations to find the few things I can put out this year. I've already spent the last three months sorting through everything else we own to pare down to what is essential. I am tired of sorting through stuff. I need Peter Walsh from Clean Sweep to help me out!! Anyway, Jordan is insisting we at least get ornaments on the tree today. Maybe we'll just take it one day at a time.

Time for Advent and Crafting

Looks like I'm lucky to get one post a month done! The girls were excited for the start of the Christmas countdown. They unpacked the Advent calendar (house) and just waited for December first. They still had so much candy leftover from Halloween that I didn't want to fill it with candy. I didn't want to fill it with holiday activities either because during the week there just isn't time for anything but homework and dinner. So my next idea was a scavenger hunt to find the little "treasures" they would receive each day after school. They've enjoyed trying to figure out my lame clues and looking for their little prize everyday. They also embraced the December Daily journal idea from Ali Edwards. The weekend after Thanksgiving they picked out papers for their scrapbook/journal and assembled the book. The first thing they did when they got home from school on December 1st was to run up to the craft room and begin work on their first page and they continued everyday this past week. They've discovered more paper crafting techniques this past week than they (or I) could have possibly imagined. We check in with Tim Holtz everyday for his 12 Tags of Christmas inspiration and have used a few of his ideas on their pages. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a few of their pages within the next week.

It's November Already??

We were just preparing for Halloween yesterday, weren't we? The girls had so much fun this year (they do every year, don't they?)!! There wasn't a ton of planning involved with their costumes, but they both looked so great! Jordan knew a long time ago that she wanted to be Frankenstein. She bought pants and a jacket at a thrift store for a whole $3.00 and we just added shoes, face paint, and black hairspray. Madison wasn't sure what she was going to be until about 4:00 p.m. on Halloween. She ended up being the Bride of Frankenstien. I was so excited about how great they looked tonight. The neighborhood had a parade just before trick-or-treating began and everybody thought these two costumes were amazing. When the girls were trick-or-treating, people handing out canding were taking their picture. Trick-or-Treating starts and ends early here in Virginia, which I like. However, Halloween was on a Friday this year so it wasn't a big deal if the girls weren't in bed at a decent hour. The fun began around 5:30 and ended by 7:00 p.m. There were a few older kids that came by later, but not very many.

Autumn in Virgina

I have to say we are very much enjoying autumn in Virginia. This morning, while driving to school, the girls made mention of the beautiful fall foliage and also noted that in Texas the leaves go from green directly to brown. We all have made a smooth transition. There are so many kids in our new neighborhood, that the girls always have someone to play with, usually four-five kids at a time. They ride bikes, explore the little nearby creek, play table tennis, ride scooters, cruise around on our golf cart, and play flashlight tag (at night). Jordan has already had three babysitting jobs and hopes for many more. It's funny that whenever the phone rings, I immediately know it's for the girls and let them answer it.

The cooler temperatures are a welcome change. However, we had to do a little shopping to get some warmer clothes for the girls to wear to school. The picture I posted shows the girls with our loot at the nearby outdoor mall. Notice the gorgeous trees in the background. There are trees everywhere!! Another thing we love about Virginia that we're not used to, coming from Texas.

I am finally down to unpacking the final boxes in the third-floor storage room. Once these are unpacked, I hope to be able to hang pictures, place miscellaneous furniture, paint a few more rooms, and have a couple of areas remodeled. The girls' jack-and-jill bathroom has six doors throughout and I hope to be able to take out a few of these doors and put in a couple of pocket doors in their place. I feel like I'm walking through a maze when going through there.

The girls have Thursday and Friday off from school this week. They are very excited for a few days off even though they love school. Jordan is especially enjoying her classes this year. I found it interesting, in one conversation we had, I made a joke about the kids at school making fun of her for wearing a shirt we were looking at and she looked at me and said, "the kids there don't make fun of people". That statement sure made my heart happy!!! We really struggled the past few years with mean, inconsiderate, selfish kids at her last school. I am so glad for this change. Maddie, of course always the social butterfly, has loads of new friends in her class.

It's been about six weeks or so since our move and the experience has been nothing but positive.

Busy, busy, busy

We didn't waste anytime falling back into the old school routine. While the girls are at school, I unpack boxes (yeah, I know, it's been more than a month since we moved in) and try to find places for the things I unpack. I think I need to just throw more stuff away. We've been taking a car load to a donation site every weekend. This is taking forever!! Madison comes home from school, does homework and then heads right outside to play until dinner. Once she's eaten, she's gone again. Jordan gets home and does homework until dinner and again after dinner. She tries to get a 10-15 minute bike ride in before it's time to get ready for bed. We did take a little time to go play on the playground at Maddie's school. It was a nice break from house stuff!!