Three wise men

Here is a picture of my daughter, and 2 of her friends when they were little. We made wise men hats. As we decorated them we talked about the story of the birth of Christ, and how the wisemen came and brought gifts to baby Jesus. This was a fun activity that allowed me to share our faith with my little one and her friends. I think kids learn and have a better understanding of a story when you can include them in doing something fun. Then the fun part came when they got to play in them.

Having "touchable" nativity sets are great, as well as putting "angel" or "shephards" clothing in your dress up center for your kids to play with for the month of December.

Hope some of these ideas spark some imaginative play for you and your kids this December.

That reminds me if you need a visual reminder or love to decorate with subway art for the holiday you have to check out Jessica's blog Craftily Ever After She has a free printable Wisemen art!!

Is that not the cutest!!! You will have to check it out!!

What to do if you wash your Ipod Touch

First of all, this has been a trial and error post by no means am I a professional Ipod worker. However as a stay at home mom who does the laundry - I was appalled the other day when I reached into the washing machine to transfer the clothes to the dryer to find one of my daughter's ipod touch in the bottom of the washing machine. AAH!!! and here is the worst part - it had been in my husband's pocket so he had been the culprit that left it in his pocket not my daughter. (Ur!! Yes, it's true I do not check pockets, I am a mom of 3 girls - girls we do not carry anything in our pockets that why we have a purse for, and my hubby is an adult and he knows he better empty his pockets) and yes, did I mention that she had saved her allowance and birthday money up to purchase said Ipod touch -Ur! You can imagine my despair and frustration! So I quickly ran upstairs and goggled Ipod and water.

Well after much research I found that as long as the Ipod was off when it got wet there probably was not any damage "yet". So the first thing to know is:

DO NOT TURN ON THE IPOD!!! LET ME REPEAT AND SAY DO NOT TURN ON THE IPOD

secondly, I located many older video's that showed how to take apart (I know my heart starts beating very fast at just the thought!) but all the videos I could find were of older Ipod Touches. So I decided to do the next best thing I filled a bowl with rice, and then dropped a few pieces down the hold where the earphone jack is put into the ipod then placed the ipod into the bowl of rice making sure it is covered well. Then I left it for 3 days!! (I changed out the rice that was in the hold of for the earbuds once a day). At the end of the 3 days I hoped that it had been sufficiently dried out - whew! It was, so I placed the Ipod touch on the charger. I did have to restore the Ipod to the factory setting. However I was so relieved to have a working Ipod for my daughter that was nothing.

It is my understanding in layman's terms: that as long as it dries out before turning the ipod on it will not short it's circuit board out. However if the ipod is on, or has been left on, it most likely is to late. However one can always be a optimist and try turning it off quickly and drying it out in rice. Well good luck to you and your ipod I wish you the best of luck! If not I did see that Ipod does offer to repair the Ipod for a fee.

Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer

This is one of my favorite Christmas shirts that I made for my kids! I used their hands and footprint. The footprint made the face of the reindeer, and their hand prints made the reindeer's antlers. I then sewed on a red pom-pom for the nose (Rudolph of course). I used googly eyes for the reindeer's eye, but you could always paint them if you are more artistic than me. You could also make this print on tea towels to give to the grandma's at Christmas time. I hope you do not mind the picture - it was taken long before I started blogging. Thanks!

Sweet 16!

I just recently celebrated my 16th wedding anniversary. Wow! That number is starting to sound bigger, and look bigger to my eyes. In someways we have built our lives together, had children and are busy raising them and the years have passed by very fast. In other ways I am still just as giggly, crazy bride in love with her new husband. God has blessed me with a good marriage, one that I hope I will never take for granted. Thank you Lord for blessing me with Brent to share my life with! Thank you Lord that 16 years of marriage is even sweeter than the first year of marriage!

Santa Baby

Santa Baby, hurry down the chimney with care! Well Santa is such a big man during the holidays you really can not prepare your heart, and your family without pre-deciding how you are going to deal with the BIG man.

I can tell you for me and my husband we decided that we would have to “play” Santa a little bit, because we were going to be sending our kids to public school and we did not want to have 20 parents calling us mad because our little precious one went and told the class that Santa was not real. Not a real good way to win friends and influence people is it?

So we decided to do to Santa what the world has down with Christ during the Christmas Season- we decided to “Marginalize” him. What does that mean you ask? Well for our home that means Santa brings 1 gift, and fills the stockings (usually panties, socks, and some candy) – by no way does Santa bring the coolest most desired toy. Mom and Dad have worked very hard since our kids were little letting them know right off the bat what gifts might be to big, or too much for Santa to bring. And to safeguard ourselves we have always said, parents have veto power, and Santa always checks with mom and dad before he brings anything into our home – to be polite of course.

We also do not spend time emphasizing and assigning god like attributes to Santa (like he knows when you've’e been bad or good, or he sees you when your sleeping) nope! That also means we do not use Santa as a means of disciplining or keeping our children in line during this time of year. (I love the manger idea a few post down to help with that!).

What do you do? How does your family handle the whole Santa issue??

The Secret Stitch blog

I love this blog! It always has the cutest projects and one of my very favorite for this time of year is a cute photo and frame "how to" on the "keep calm and carry on" theme! Love it here is the site

it is: the secret stitch club

So head on over to this cute blog and check it out! They have great pictures and step by step instructions!

Well we have been busy making Merry - today is the youngest daughter's Christmas program at school. This time of year is so much fun, but it can be a very stressful time of year as well. Our family has started trying to fill a manger with little strips of yellow paper - our "hay" that is written on it the nice things that we do for other people. Everyone seems to be really enjoying this - I am telling you this is a great challenge for Adults!!! It gets you thinking who am I making an impact on today besides the people I live with. (which should be receiving your blessings every day) This has been so wonderful to do -it is a must at least for me each year!

I have had to work hard to come up with nice things to "do" for other people that does not just include "buying" them things. The kids are much better at it than me. You should ready their straw - a sample of them include some of the following (between all 3 of them)

* said please and thank-you all day long

* I helped a lady reach a movie off of a shelf in the store

*carried fire wood inside

*cleaned out the van for mom

*used nice words to everyone

*gave someone a bible

*helped my sister

wow! I am loving the kindness, and the selflessness this activity is producing in our household, and in my kids and my heart! Well this is my update - I will post more later on today. Hope everyone is having a blessed Christmas season!