Christmas Advent Calendar

I have been wanting a cute advent calendar for a few years. We had the cheap felt one from Walmart for a few years, but it wasn't nearly as cute as it could have been....so I decided to make my own. I did a little research online, and I got a ton of inspiration from other blogs and from Etsy! I took a few of the ideas that I found and mixed them all up and came up with my own advent calendar.

I hit up Hobby Lobby for

a canvas

wedding favor tins

scrapbook paper

and

a painted star

I already had some stuff at home

fabric

rick rack

mod podge

and

hot glue

I started by cutting out a lot of circle...48 to be exact. 24 without numbers for the inside of the tins.

24 with numbers for the outside of the tins.
I applied a thin layer of mod podge to the inside of the tin and to the inside of the lid. Then I place the unnumbered circles inside the tins and mod podged them in place.
I put the numbered circles in the lids {with the paper and number showing through the plastic} and then mod podged them into place. I cut out a Chrismas tree from leftover fabric and used spray adhesive to attach it to the canvas. I finished off the edges by hot glueing on some white rick rack.

After everything was dry, I put the lids on the tins and hot glued them to the fabric Christmas tree.

Starting on December 1st the boys will get to remove the lid to one tin a day and get a special treat that is inside. I also placed small pieces of paper with special Christmas activites {bake cookies, sing Christmas songs, wrap presents, watch a Christmas cartoon, read the Christmas story} for us to do in some of the tins.

I also made the boys some SUPER cute shirts to wear this Christmas! I used all left over fabrics for their shirts this year...so the only thing I bought was the actual shirt that was $3.50 at Walmart!

It's Magic!

Magic Cookie Bars

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups (12 oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

HEAT oven to 350°F. Spray 13 x 9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.

COMBINE graham cracker crumbs and butter in small bowl. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with fork.

BAKE 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Loosen from sides of pan while still warm; cool on wire rack. Cut into bars or diamonds.

For perfectly cut cookie bars, line entire pan with foil, extending foil over edge of pan. Coat lightly with no-stick cooking spray. After bars have baked and cooled, lift up with edges of foil to remove from pan. Cut into individual bars.


I think the MAGIC is how fast these bars will disappear once you make them! This was my first time making these, and they were so easy and SUPER tasty! I will be making these for a few holiday parties over the next few months for sure!

Mail Time

It is so strange to me how something as mundane as the mail can evoke such varied emotions. Depending on what is in your mailbox at the end of the day, you could be SUPER excited or maybe even a little depressed.

Junk mail is just annoying.

Bills are something you never want to see in the mailbox....unless it is a statement saying all your bills have been paid off!

Free stuff, coupons, and catalogs are almost always fun to get.

And packages are SUPER exciting!

In the past week, I have gotten some mail that has made me just a little sad.
This may sound strange, but receiving two American Girl catalogs in my mailbox in one week is just a little too much of a reminder that I don't have a little girl to buy one of those SUPER cute dolls for! I mean, really, how mean is it to send one of these {oh so cute} catalogs to house full of boys who only want to play with trucks and balls!
I remember these dolls from when I was little. They always seemed so fun and interesting, plus they all come with books. Not only are you getting a SUPER cute doll, but you are going to be smarter for reading about your doll and her special place in history! I also remember thinking that one day I would buy my daughter one of these dolls. But so far, that dream isn't coming true....because I'm pretty sure that my boys wouldn't want to play with Kirsten, Felicity, or Molly.

Getting stuff like this in the mail, seeing all the cute girls' clothes at Target, shopping at a craft show that is full of hair bows and headbands, listening to friends talk about dance classes....all these things just make my desire for a daughter even stronger.

Who knows if I will have a daughter one day?!? Maybe I was just meant to be a boys' mom. And if that is the case, then I will be SUPER happy being the mom to Henry, Grant, and Eli. But for now, every time I get a catalog {like American Girl} in the mail....I will hope and pray that one day it will make me happy instead of just a little sad!

Christmas Crafts and a Cutie!

I am in a crafty kind of mood this week!
Yesterday, we took a trip to Hobby Lobby to get supplies for a few Christmas crafts. I am going to start working an Advent calendar soon, and I need to get busy making the boys' Christmas shirts so that we can take some SUPER cute pictures for Christmas cards. I also bought a few wooden cut outs for the boys to Mod Podge since they had so much fun with our pumpkins!

And here is a picture of Eli...just because he was being SUPER cute laughing at me through the gate while I was working on some crafts!

Wordless Wednesday: On the Road

Fall de Rah!

I'm not quite sure what it means....but that is what they call it! I just like all the SUPER cute fall decorations. Even though my boys weren't very cooperative when it came to pictures with the pumpkins, we still had a fun time tromping through the hay and looking at the scarecrows!

Two of the best pictures that I ended up with were in this old rocking chair that was back behind some of the fall decorations! I think maybe it is Santa's chair that they use at Christmas time...but it kept Eli in one place long enough for me to get a few shots!

I'm so glad that Fall is finally here!

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
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I did NOT spend almost all of last week debating on whether or not I was going to go with Jason on a business trip. I did NOT consider letting the boys miss a few days of school just so I wouldn't have to be home alone {you know, with no other adults} for a whole week. I also did NOT consider just letting Henry and Grant spend the week with my mom while Eli and I enjoyed a little vacation!

I did NOT take Grant to the dentist last week to have one of his {baby} teeth fixed. I did NOT spend way too much just a little bit of money getting his tooth fixed strictly for cosmetic reasons. I would NEVER be so worried about appearance and spend so much on a tooth that he is going to lose in a few years anyway.

{His tooth did NOT go from gross, gray, injured tooth to nice normal looking tooth after 1 1/2 hours and about $500!}

I did NOT take the boys to attempt pictures with one of our local town's fall decorations. I did NOT take at least 50 shots...and only end up with about 3 good ones{I will post the good ones later this week}! I REALLY did NOT realize how hard it is to get three little boys to look {and smile} at the camera at the same time!

Things That Make Me Happy...

Fall Colors
Fearless Boys

Food

{really dessert...but that doesn't start with F}
Francesca Battistelli

What F things make you happy?

Monthly Craft Challenge: Photo Projects

I am participating in Heidi's {@ Blue Eyed Blessings} Monthly Craft Challenge.
This month challenge is Photo Projects.

Apparently I am not very creative when it comes to photos because I only have one project to share this month.

Photo Gift Tags

I made these last Christmas using the boys' Christmas picture.

But you could also use them for any other occasion....birthdays especially.
They are SUPER easy to make.

All you need is a picture, some scrapbook paper, ribbon, a circle cutter, hot glue gun, and a hole punch.

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To make the Photo Gift Tags:

Cut the photo of your choice with the circle cutter

Then cut a circle of scrapbook paper larger than your picture

Hot glue the picture to one side of the scrapbook paper circle

Then write TO: or your message of choice on the other side

Punch a hole in the top and thread some ribbon through the hole

These Photo Gift Tags are SUPER easy to make and SUPER inexpensive too! Plus, everyone loves how personal it makes their gift seem...and at the holidays they can double as a SUPER cute keepsake!

Wordless Wednesday: Eli's New Toy

Just a Little Messier Than I Was Anticipating...But Still SUPER Cute!

This is how our project ended:

Despite the major mess and the {now} dry and scratchy carpet, our Thanksgiving/fall pumpkins turned out SUPER cute!

Just in case you want to make a HUGE mess and some SUPER cute pumpkins...here is the list of supplies and steps we followed to make them.

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Plastic pumpkins {mine were $1 at Walmart}

Scrapbook Paper {8 sheets for $1 at Target}

Mod Podge

Paint Brushes

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Tear scrapbook paper into small pieces

Attach the paper to the pumpkin and continue to coat it with Mod Podge until all the paper is wet and stuck to the pumpkin really well. This is the messy part, because the only way to make the paper stick really well is to work it with your hands! Eli and I worked on some painting while Henry and Grant were finishing up their pumpkins. These SUPER cute and oh so chubby handprints are going to be turkeys and leaves once I get my paintpens after them! Just a little hint....be careful when painting with brown paint, because your kiddo might think it is chocolate and try to lick it off his hand! :)

Then use a foam paintbrush to apply a coat of Mod Podge all over the pumpkins and let them dry. 

Our pumpkins {coated with Mod Podge} drying on the table...picture taken by Henry {because I still had a two inch layer of MP on my hands}!

Our finished Thanksgiving/Fall Pumpkins!

Rainy Monday Afternoon

I am sitting at the computer...listening to it rain. Probably something I'm going to be hearing a lot of for the next day or so thanks to Ida {who is now thankfully only a tropical storm}.

I have been slacking when it comes to the blog lately. Not because of lack of want to...more like lack of inspiration. The last few days have been hectic and tiring, and I haven't had the time {or energy} to do anything fun or inspirational!

Last week, I spent a few days out of town to attend a funeral. And when I got back, I was so exhausted that it has taken me all weekend to recuperate and try to get back into a semi-normal routine.

And now the weather is throwing everything off. Henry's school closed an hour early today, and I'm guessing that they are going to cancel school tomorrow just to be safe. During a normal week, that would be fine....but I had a doctor's appointment today and Grant is going to the dentist to have a procedure done on his tooth tomorrow. Plus, there is no school or preschool on Wednesday for Veteran's Day. That means two more days of sitting inside listening to the rain {that is if I can hear it over my extremely loud children}.

Maybe all this time off {and rain} will give me a chance to get crafty with the boys! I still haven't started working on these:

And I think the boys will really like getting all sticky and messy with me. I just hope I can handle all three of them when they get messy...and keep Eli from eating too much Mod Podge!

Well, I'm off to start laundry...because, you know, it is Monday!

Hopefully I will have some great {and SUPER messy} pictures of our pumpkin project to share with you tomorrow!