pre-holiday stuff

baking with Uncle Steve/Auntie Heather's

meeting up with our dear TX friends at a popular Denver restaurant

Lauren wanted her ears pierced for her "big" Christmas gift this year- so cute!

school parties, Christmas play at Cherry Creek, lovely Christmas Eve service 

snow!

sledding on the huge hill right next to our house

Merriest to you!

Through HOPE and prayers, God’s GRACE led us to a PEACE and we are finding great JOY and so in LOVE with our new life here in Colorado. Merry Christmas!

Who likes stressful family picture time? 

Not us. We aren't raising our hand on that one. 

For the past 4 years or so we tickle our creative bones and think of a few things to do and

grab the camera. 

This year we headed to one of our favorite places to hike here. 

 A great memory and some sweet shots to remember 2011.

Christmas creative

How fun it is for me to be around two groups of women 

who desire to get creative once a month! Joy. Joy!

This month we:

glittered up

twirled up

stamped up

toasted up 

hot glued up

twisted up

stacked up

wrapped up

Hannah's dinner party

She's growing up. She's texting. She's got an email account. She's getting more independent. She's got a mind of her own. Speaking her own. She's lovely. Smart. Easy going (most of the time). A peace maker. Fun. 

Oozes kindness.

Makes me smile.

She typed this paper below for a Language Arts class this week. (!)

She's totally Daddy's girl.

(Judist Priest? yep. All other 80's heavy metal bands deleted on her Ipod.... yikes!)

I am having a dinner party. Why I am having it is I want to meet

the people I am inviting.I came up with the idea when Mrs. Taylor

first told me about it.It will be fun and everyone will be friends with

eachother.

The people I am inviting are:Myself, Ellie, A Beatle, Chris(from

Coldplay), Judist Preist, Mrs. Stewart, Mrs. Karlovetz, C.S. Lewis,

Eric Carle, and Will Ferrell.I invited Ellie and I because we are best

friends.A Beatle, Chris,and Judist Priest because they are all good

artists.I love their music too. I invited Mrs. Parsons and my mom because they both love art. Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Karlovetz because they are my favorite teachers. And I invited C.S. Lewis, Eric Carle and Will Ferrell because they would have a funny conversation together.

I had my dinner party at a mountain resort because it is a very scenic place. It might be a little chilly though. This place is special because I love the mountains (because I came from Texas). Then after we would go skiing.

I carefully chose their seating places too. Myself and Ellie are BFF’s and we would talk a lot. Judas Priest, a Beatle and Chris Martin would talk about music and probably play some too. Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Karlovetz would talk about teaching and kids. My mom and Mrs. Parsons are great artist and will talk about art. C.S. Lewis, Eric Carell and Will Ferrell will talk about their books and acting/theater.

My dinner party went really well and we all had fun. Also wish them luck on the rest of their lives. It was very pretty and we all were full and happy.

all pics taken by her from her ipod:)

giving thanks

we thought about, talked about and wrote about what we are thankful for

we hugged and loved

we gave thanks for being together

we prayed

we ate

we enjoyed awesome food from Wes/Dawn's home and ended the night with giggles from game time

Breckenridge

Our new awesome friends here invited us to a huge beautiful lodge home for the weekend in Breckenridge. It was a perfect get-away that was a "thank you gift" to their family from a business deal...aaand they graciously invited us to join in the fun. The home had 30 ft ceilings, heated floors...the works. Yea, we didn't hesitate one bit!

Went tubing at Keystone- so much fun...my heart dropped into my belly a bit from the ride(s)!

The sweet kiddos had a blast along with the big kiddos.

It. was. coooold. But so beautiful.

hot cocoa on the gondola just topped off the day

That night us adults went downtown to a small and trendy restaurant; listened to the jazz band, tried escargot, saw a famous snowboarder (Louis Vito, on the Bachelor/Dancing with the Stars).

we laughed a ton- ate incredible food- we danced like college kids at an old tavern bar...

we had snowflakes on our faces... a delight

the two big hot tubs outside the home porches that everyone enjoyed for two nights...especially the ladies!! 

silly. silly... and I can't say that the guys made us do this

things I've come to know- part 3

~prayers are powerful and are answered (already really knew that, just confirmed again:)
~kids are like sponges, especially (and more important to know) when they grow older
~there's always a rainbow behind the clouds of life
~there's enough time in each day to remember to be grateful, joyful and seek grace
~all women carry their our own loads of hurt, stress, pain, loneliness and feelings of inadequacy
~if you have enough smiles and laughter in your marriage, it thrives
~babies steal your whole heart when they smile
~decorating takes t-i-m-e and money and energy- and you lose it all quickly
~a warm, stinky dog by your feet ALL day long IS ok
~it can snow over a foot and in 2 days melt away
~Incredible deals on groupon.com and livingsocial.com- sign up!
~Proverbs 3:5-6
~playing the guitar for hours soothes my husbands soul
~so thankful and thrilled over the 20+ orders on Etsy in 8 weeks
~ladies can get to know eachother quickly over a hot cup of coffee
~I don't have near enough sweaters coming from TX to here
~I get excited to watch Nate Berkus Show, Storage Wars, House Hunters (eek!)
~Hannah has seen every episode of the Three Stooges 3x over (n giggles every time)
~disorder and busyness can eat me alive
~been cherishing the spontaneous, grab-a-bite to eat times with my mom
~if you give yourself enough time being strong and brave, everything gets easier
~most all of us go through the same stuff in the world of parenthood at one time or another
~a daughter in Girl Scouts is a full circle moment for me
~my sweet neighbor friend Kim, Alexe and Imogen= blessings.
~hot electric blankets are the way to go tucked underneath the sheet on your bed
~every day does have the possibility to be FABULOUS. right, Josh?

In case you wanna know...
here's: part one and part two.

Hey Alison-- you won the $30 GIFT CARD to spend on my shop- yay! 
Love ya sweet friend! I'll get with you about it.

our ART CLUB Barbie creations

I texted a sweet friend and asked her if she just doesn't wish she could take a long, gulit-free, relaxing NAP (or a long, relaxing, guilt-free ANYTHING) and not have a gazillion things to get done in one day all the time?! She whole-heartedly agreed! I mean, really- I know we are in the holiday season but Thanksgiving hasn't even come yet. I need to let go and let myself just be in chaos-mode for the rest of the year (not that the ENTIRE year hasn't been a bit bonkers).
Among all the crazy, I have loved to take some time with awesome girls and create something. It's that feel good and excited place I like to go to spoil myself a tad. Here is our Art Gypsie project (compliments of wonderful Reba) we did for this month. Oh, I was so pumped for it. I know I'm nearing my forties...but I still have a special place in my heart for Barbie. I played with them until I was in like, 8th grade or something (no kidding) and my girls have a dozen or so all piled up in a naked mess downstairs. They are still dressin' them up and playing house and I'm not stoppin' them anytime soon.

Ok, let me get to it.
I will tell you all the process of these altered Barbie creations. pssst, you can make these with your daughters old dolls!

spray paint her, add some gel medium (we used Golden brand) to kink up her hair wild-n-crazy, let dry

have a "theme" that you want to go with...winter fairy, birds, travel, crazy art girl, etc

wrap her bod, limbs etc. with maps, newspaper, magazine pages, tissue paper...using the gel medium- dry

with spray Tacky glue and hot glue: add stickers, glitter, gems, embellishments, more glitter...

wings! butterfly or angel wings

paintbrushes, ribbons, beads in the hair, beads glued to the hair...crazier hair the better

so cool. just go for it.

there you have it- cool, crazy Barbie creations

(if you want to see more- go to Becky's post too:)

PS: LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE POST BELOW 

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