Christmas Cards

Its almost that time again....

Christmas card time!

I look forward to getting the mail everyday in December in anticipation on getting those adorable pictures from friends and family.

I love looking at all the pictures and hanging them up but I am always sad when Christmas is over and I have to take them down...

So I decided to keep them in Photo Album I really enjoy looking back through all the years and see how kids have grown and changed.

I cut out the picture(s) then slide them in a photo album (A couple of years ago I bought a bunch after Christmas Sale)

This is a fun way to save all those precious picture

Monster Party

For Jeffrey's 3rd birthday I decided to do a "Monster Theme Party"

recently he had become obsessed with Monsters Inc. Well its been a awhile since the movie has been out... I knew I was going to have a hard time finding items for this party. So I went with "Monster bash party" I had a lot of fun researching ideas for the party so many great ideas out there. Since I was on a tight budget I made a lot of the decor myself and used all my resources wisely.

First I started out by making my own cupcake toppers. I had found monster invitations at Walmart for only $.97 for a pack of 6 that was I deal I couldn't pass up. The plates, napkins and table cover were also $.97 each my kind of bargain.

So for the cupcake toppers I used the extra invitations I had and cut out the monsters.

After I cut out the monster I found some extra card stock I had laying around and cut them into squares to use as the background. Then I used my trusty glue gun and started my project. I had tons on tooth picks laying around the house so I then glued them to the back of the card stock square, then to finish it off a little scrap paper to cover up the tooth pick.

Then they were ready to go....

I really enjoyed making my own Monster cupcake toppers they were super easy, very cheap and matched the other decor perfectly

I also made all the "signs" for all the food and drinks, I used Halloween paper again at Walmart I think the pack of 6 different types of paper was around $1.00. I then cut the paper to make a tee pee affect and got creative I used things like "Monster Eyes" (meatballs) "Green Slime" (green punch) etc.... It really added some uniqueness to the food and drinks.

I used the same paper pattern to make my own "happy birthday" garland. I traced a triangle out and then wrote "happy birthday" I taped the back to some string I had around house then hung it up

Next I decided to make my own monster party hats... I found this cute idea on a blog during my research.... http://hiphiphoorayblog.com/2011/01/little-monster-party/

so I went and bought some felt... with no pattern for the party hats I kind of did a trial and error.

First I measured on Jeffrey's head what size would be best, then I found a item around the house that had the perfect circle shape for the eye. After I had traced the eyes out in white I then did the same in black. With the black felt I cut in a circular motion to make the smaller inner eye, with the extra felt in between each eye that I cut out I noticed it made a great monster mouth so I used that as the mouth, then with the scrap white I cut mini triangles for the fangs.

With my trusty glue gun again I glued it all together and... I think they turned out great!

I then used a hole puncher and pipe cleaners to finish them off. I had them right at the front door so as kids came into the party they could put them on right away. However getting toddlers to wear anything is a challenge so most of the party they didn't wear them but all in all a fun project.

For a fun game I had wanted to do "Pin the eyes on the monster" My mom and her husband Steve were visiting and asked if I needed help with anything for the party I said yes! I need a artist to draw a monster on poster board. So Steve did, he looked at the invitations then drew a monster free hand... it turned out perfectly :) So for the kids to play I cut out strips of cardboard then glue wiggle eyes to them and when it was their turn we put tape on the cardboard and they placed it where they thought it might go. It was a simple and fun game for some of the older kids.

I love doing crafts for little kids so I had set up a table for the kiddos to make their own goody bags. I found some awesome monster crafts on Orientaltrading.com the kids really enjoyed making their own bags and then later on they had something to hold all their candy from the pinta. I had some credit to Oriental trading from making previous purchases (I am firm believer in signing up for "rewards programs" in any company)I found tons of monster favors everything matched very well.

Those were just a few of the ideas I used for the MONSTER party on a budget :)

The final party came together very well and kids had a great time

Jeffrey's 3rd Birthday

Wow time has flown by........ my little man turned 3! I would say I was in denial about it only because 3 means preschool soon then kindergarten and before I know it high school graduation :( People always told me "enjoy every moment it goes by so fast" I truly believe it! I used to be able to hold my little boy in my arms and he would fall asleep to the sound of my voice singing a sweet lullaby... now I have to use all my strength to lift him and sometimes he doesn't want me to sing :( But now we start a new chapter in our lives which I am excited for, Jeffrey is potty trained yah! (only took about a year), he is learning all his colors, numbers, recognizing shapes and talks a lot. He loves to build puzzles, legos and towers to destroy (typical boy)

Well heres to the next chapter....

Jeffrey from birth to 3

oh how life changes so quickly

Wow where do I begin.... since my last post was in January so much to catch up on.So we sold our house January and moved out in 2 week

s. It was quite stressful trying to pack so fast but we had a cash offer that we couldn't refuse.

Joel and I really wanted to buy another house but I didn't want to rush the process just so we could "have a house" so we decided to move in with my mom in Chandler. It was very tight living space with all three of us and oh I was PREGNANT. :)

We found out in January that we were having another baby I was so excited and thought it was perfect timing since Jeffrey was 2 1/2.

So we lived with my mom for about 4 months, in those months we both worked like crazy and tried to figure out our next step.

During those months my mom met her future husband ( I was a little skeptical at first) but I am so happy for her! My mom got married in June and moved to Kansas City, MO with Corey they love it there, although I miss them greatly. So with my mom moving away we decided to look for a place to stay... and we found a great house in Queen Creek area that we are renting. I was totally against renting for the longest time but now I really like it because if something breaks I call the landlord and they fix it.

During that time Joel was still working for the school district as a bus driver but he was ready to move on from it.... he worked a security job for a couple of months then the Army offered him a full time job doing construction for some barracks the

y were building in Florence. He took the job and loved it, the benefits were awesom

e. Very cheap heath care which was perfect since we were having a baby soon :) After the job finished Joel applied to be Corrections Officer and he got it! He started his 6 week training last week and so far is really enjoying it.

During the summer I worked my tail off..... I was the VBS director for our church again this year and I worked full time at Starbucks. I had many long and overwhelming days, but it is always worth to see 500 kids get excited about learning about God!

After the summer past it was time to focus on our baby GIRL :) I was beyond excited to find out we were having a girl and mostly in shock I had them check numerous times at the ultra sound.

My pregnancy went very well, I did have few signs of high blood pressure so they kept a close eye on me.

My due date was September 14th ( I assumed I was going to be a week late like I was with Jeffrey)

We had her named picked out to be Liberty Bettina Page. Bettina is family name and my middle name, since Jeffrey has Joel's middle name we thought it would be perfect for her to have mine.

I had decided to work up pretty much to my due date, my last day of work was September 10th... I was excited to take off 12 weeks and enjoy some down time until the baby arrived. Well....

our little love decided to come a little early :) On 9/11/11 our sweet baby Liberty was born at 9:30am 7lbs 7oz and 20 1/2 inches long she was perfect!

My labor went very smooth and fast I was sad that

my mom wasn't able to make it out but I can't wait for her to come visit in just a few short days :)

So wow a lot to catch up on... I love being on leave I have become quite crafty and enjoy spending time with my babies :)

Next week Jeffrey will be turing 3! Im so not ready for it, I wish he could stay little forever.

So there is a quick ( sort of ) update of our lives.... I hope to get better about updating :)

pumpkin pie

Tried this for the first time...

It was Delicious!

A cheap and easy way to make Pumpkin Pie under 30 minutes

Baby Food Jars

A simple and easy way to keep crafts supplies organized is using old baby food jars!

other uses: craft scraps, wiggly eyes, sequins or buttons

Time has flown by....

Oh boy these past few months have gone by so fast I can't believe Christmas was just a few weeks ago. So to catchup quickly here is snap shot of the past few months...

November 6th was Joel's 26th Birthday he celebrated in Fort Benning, Georgia with his Army buddies

November 9th-12th Kelly and I headed to Georgia to see Joel during his Infantry Graduation. What and amazing time watching Joel finally graduate after 4 months of hard core training.

November 25th Thanksgiving it was so nice be able to have dinner together with Joel, my heart went out to everyone who has a solider that was not with themWe were able to spend time with my cousins, my brother and my nephew!

December seemed to be way too busy it went by so fast lots of fun Christmas parties, busy shopping, working a lot and eating tons of food!

December 10th We had our 2nd annual Ugly Christmas sweater party, what a hilarious time! Everyone was so creative and shopped very well for Ugly sweaters!

December 24th Christmas Eve came so quick! I felt good about gifts this year, I really try to shop all year long to avoid the madness during this week. Our church had 4 services, there were so many new people that came what a lovely time to celebrate Christ's birth!

That evening we all went over to my moms house to open presents and enjoy our time together.

Christmas day! We had to wake Jeffrey up around 8:00am to get the day moving along, he was not too happy. We brought him over to his santa gifts he was a little cranky the whole morning but as the day went on he got better. That morning we went over to Kelly's house to open presents from everyone! That evening for the 1st time ever we went to the movies! I think I might start this as a new

tradition it was fun seeing everyone on Christmas day with all their families.

What a wonderful and laid back Christmas we had

Happy New Year!

December 31st-January 3rd

We drove up to Greer, AZ up in the white mountains, the drive was defiantly an adventure... snow, chains, traffic etc... when we finally arrived there was so much snow and it was so nice to bundle up in a beautiful cabin!

We loved playing in the snow, we went sledding, played a game of football, and just rolled around the beautiful powder of snow!

Jeffrey was not too sure about playing in snow but he loved being outside and wear his snow boots!

January 7th: We decided that it would be best for our family to sell our house, we are going to try to rent a house closer to "town." Our house is officially on the market so we will see if its in God's plan for us to move.

In other news we are still trying figure out what our "next step" will be....

Joel might deploy to Afghanistan in March

He will be going back to school to get his pilots license (just not sure when)

Starting to potty train our lovely 2 year old

Is it time for a big boy bed? Hmmm

In the mean time we are enjoying our crazy journey we are on.....

I wonder what will be next :)