Festival of Lights Parade

On Saturday night we met up with our friends, the Essers, and went to the Parade. It was a chilly night but we managed to make it until Santa came!

I can't believe I don't have pics of the Essers but Matt is the one in the Santa hat off to the right of the picture.

This was my favorite decorated truck. They also had a truck pulling an old Tow Mater but I wasn't able to get the picture...booo!!

Afterwards we went for some New York style pizza at Anthony's. We had to wait half an hour for the pizza to come out so I decided to entertain the kids with the camera while all of the other adults got to chat. It was sooo much fun! Here are a few of our kooky pictures:

Those are Kaylee's chapped lips....I know....HORRIBLE!!

Christmas Carolers

So, this is a craft we found in the Family Fun magazine. I set Kaylee and her friend up and they sat around Sunday morning creating these. These are Kailoni's, Kaylee didn't like the way that hers turned out.

Instructions: All you do is paint toilet paper rolls whatever color. The faces are cut out of construction paper..faces drawn with Sharpie. Mittens are also cut out. Print one page of sheet music and cut out sections. The hats are old socks tied with a ribbon or string.

Perfect craft for 10 year olds. No help needed and takes up a lot of time!!

2009 Christmas Shirts

This year we had our friends, the Bainbridges, come over to do Christmas shirts with us. We set the kids up at the table with Hot Chocolate and then called them one by one into the shirt making studio (my kitchen). It was tons of fun and I can't wait to get pictures of all of the kids wearing their shirts!

All of the kids loved having their feet washed after the footprint. As soon as we would start to wash their feet they would say "ahhhhh." It was adorable! Alexia was first in line and the first to get the refreshing foot wash.

Jagger was such a big boy this year. I can tell how much he has grown as we go through some of our traditions. Things that he needed so much help from me for last year, he is practically doing on his own this year. It's sad to watch your baby grow so fast!

Kaylee really enjoyed doing her own shirt this year. You'll be able to tell hers apart from the others in the last picture. Talk about babies growing up..!!

Have I ever mentioned to you about the Bainbridge children having the most precious smiles?? Well, they do!! Check out Ryan having a good time getting his foot painted.

Mr. Bill showed up and was able to help me out with the more wiggly children. Yes, my James is definately in the more wiggly category!

Jonathon went last. He wasn't so sure about getting painted. He ended up loving it and proving that he is such a big boy!

And here are all of the shirts. The Bainbridges did short sleeve and my kiddos did the long sleeves. What a fun afternoon!!

Trimming the Tree

Every year my children get a new ornament to put on the tree. If they did something special (such as start school, play a sport, etc) then they get an ornament that reflects that. Some years though we just have a "personality" year....that means that nothing big took place so the kids just get something that suits their personality.

Kaylee got a peace sign...in turquoise. She is at the age where she writes peace on everything and turquoise is her favorite color.

James got an ornament that looks like a DS because he is the handheld game KING!!!

Jagger got a transformer ornament...he loves transformers.


And here is a picture of the tree decorated with the boys in front that Kaylee took.

My Kitchen Makeover Wish

So, I know I talk about all of the great savings I get with groceries, clothes and pretty much everything else. I'm also on the saving boat and refuse to buy anything that is not budgeted for.

However...it's not always easy.

Jimmy and I love to travel. And we love to remodel.

And I have an itch!

I love living in Colorado. And I really like my house. But I HATE (and yes, I mean to use that strong of a word!!) my kitchen. The layout is stupid...truly! However, I could deal with the layout if we could just update everything else. My cabinets look pink. It would be expensive to get all new cabinets because we have a ton. However, I'm scared that if we paint them then we it will make the kitchen seem cheaper somehow. I would love a deep chocolate brown...yum!

The floors are just a boring beige tile. What I miss most about my house in TX is the slate tile we had in our kitchen. It's not a very expensive tile, it looks awesome, it has the warm earthy tones I love...and it hides dirt!

My counters look like they walked out of the 80's and straight into my house. The edges are wood and you can see the finishing nails. I seriously thought the project hadn't been finished but no, it's the same counter and edges in the upstairs bathroom. Yuck!! I have a granite that we both love and it turns out that it's the same granite that is in our fireplace upstairs. It has beige and brown and black...totally yummy again.

And wouldn't it be nice to put some nice beige subway tiles as the backsplash??

So, my husband is out on the town with a friend tonight, my daughter is at a sleepover, my boys are off playing in their rooms....and I sit here dreaming.......

Christmas Shirt Instructions

One of our very favorite things to do in the Clinton house is to make Christmas Shirts. We started on Kaylee's 2nd Christmas (she was only a month old for her 1st Christmas....not enough time to come up with these great ideas!!) and we have not missed a year since. This year we sent Christmas Shirt kits to the three babies in our family, my niece, Jim's nephew and my great-niece. I hope they all have as much fun making them as we do!!

So, the instructions...

Put a plastic bag in the middle of the shirt. You don't want the paint to bleed through and end up on the back of the shirt too.

Use brown fabric paint. Pick a foot and paint the bottom of it. Make a footprint sort of in the middle of the shirt. Wash foot. (Really good idea to do this at bath time.)

Now it's time to paint the hands. Do one at a time...too messy with two painted hands!! Do the left hand and place it down for the right ear. Right hand becomes left ear.

If the child is old enough then they can trace the outline with the brown paint themselves (straight from the bottle, not with a brush, so that the line is slightly bubbled). If not, then mom or dad can do it for them. Use red paint to draw on Rudolph's nose (we've also used small red pompoms for older children) and use black paint to do the eyes (we've used googly eyes also but again, not safe for babies or toddlers).

Then you can use red, green and/or yellow to put any other decorations on. I always put the year somewhere on the shirt. Sometimes on the line of the reindeer, sometimes on the neck. I also did it once on the back of the shirt up at the top. You may want to put initials somewhere if you have more than one child or plan on having more than one child. Even though they may be different sizes now, in 5 years you won't be able to tell whose is whose anymore.

Here is Jagger's shirt from last year for an example:

Our kids always wear their spiffy shirts to Christmas parties at school and to get their pictures taken with Santa. Kaylee is 10 now and she is refusing to wear it to school but still enjoys the fun of making the shirt...especially now that she can do it all by herself!

Have tons of fun!

Thanksgiving Feast

This was taken at Jagger's Thanksgiving Feast at school...new favorite pic of us!