Happy 4th 2013!

I would like to say that we did something super fun- as this is probably one of my favorite holidays-but that is not the case. All four of my kids have been due around the 4th, and I am pregnant yet again.
My husband's job is such that he works most holidays- so we don't get to do much.
About the only thing I did, was buy- not make- some flag shirts for my kids, and make them take a few photos. I know- thrilling.
I also live in what I consider a very unpatriotic community- no parades-no 10K races-etc. It is so hot that you really can't do all day activities out there anyway. So my favorite holiday was a regular day.
What was yours like?
Thanks for reading!

Shutterfly Holiday Cards {Give-a-way!}

I'm teaming up with my good friends from Shutterfly to bring you a great give-a-way!
One Little Gems Reader will receive-$50 off total order from Shutterfly!  (does not include shipping & cannot be combined with any other promos)


It's never too early to think about your Holiday Cards! I've been thinking about them a lot lately- what my boys will wear, where we will take the photo, and most importantly what kind of card design I would like. Shutterfly has an amazing amount of choices-from traditional, to merry and bright colors, to cards that feel very modern. They even have cards that are religous or scripture based. There is something for everyone at Shutterfly! Seriously, their cards are so stinkin' cute, I almost want to get more than one! Here are just a few that I really like this year:

As most of you know, I  am a huge Shutterfly fan! I use their site for photo books, calendars, address labels, and cards. In fact, I just did a few little presentations and shared their great photo books with women in my church.  They always have the best special offers too! There is always  a deal going at Shutterfly. {If you sign up for their emails, you will informed about all of their great deals and offers!}

So would you like to win $50 to use at Shutterfly this year?
Here is what you need to do:
Take a look at the wonderfulHoliday Cards! Tell me which one or ones you like in a comment and make sure I have a way to contact you! Shutterfly will send you the code directly, so you must make sure I have a valid email address, or link to one!

Give-a-way ends on Friday, October 26th, at 10:00 p.m. P.S.T. Good luck!

{this is a sponsored post by Shutterfly, but all opinions are 100% mine.}
You can connect with Shutterfly at:
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Thanks for reading! Happy Holiday Card Season!

Christmas At My House in Photos

 I am not a very good blogger during Christmas time. I LOVE this season!! And there is only so much time and so many things to do, so blogging and the computer are lower on the priority list. BUT...

I thought it might be fun to show you a few photos of our Christmas this year. And I need to post this, so when I look back and remember that we never got our outside Christmas lights up, I will also remember all the wonderful family fun we had. In our family, Christmas is about Jesus. BUT we do teach our children about the Savior all year, so at Christmas we also like to join the festive fun. Looking through my photos, there were so many fun things we did with our family, and in preschool, I just don't have time to post it all. So here are just a few photos of some fun things we have done. Hope your Holiday is festive and fun at your house!  Enjoy!

 Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best...wearing a Santa hat and coloring a Christmas picture is one if those simple pleasures.

 Every year we get an ornament. This tree has all those fun ornaments, as well as the ones the kids have made in school or that we may have from our childhood.

 I was going to create a new way to hang cards this year, but time ran out. I do love Christmas Cards!!

 Of all the cool Advent Countdown Calendars we have, these are their favorite ones. For a dollar each, Trader Joe's has out done me... My kids love these!

 After decorating the tree this year, I realized I had forgotten a few important things, that needed to go on first. But I was not going to undo the tree for it. And so... I decided it looked pretty anyway. I love silver and red- even if the latest trends say blue and gold or whatever...I finally bought a tree skirt this year. I know it is just dots. But I love pok-a-dots. love them. And maybe the reds are not exactly matchy. But it works for me.

 For the past 7 Christmases- I have been pregnant or nursing so I had to show you why- isn't he cute?

 Again, Trader Joe's wins..with their Gigantic Gingerbread Boys, and even their Gingerbread houses...it is always a hit each year.

 I can't even begin to list the fun preschool adventures we had this season. Some days, we did paint, and frosting in the same day. It was so much fun and I love finding new things to do. Sigh...that will have to be a future post.

Each year, I try to have a "Kids and Cookie" party. We invite a few friends, and decorate sugar cookies.

 Probably the highlight for our family this year so far, was traveling North to play in the snow and ride the Polar Express. The snow was so fun- that I almost missed it. I actually wanted to move back to the snow. (and I kind of still do...)

I hope you are having a joyful holiday season! I have so many gifts to finish so I will probably be a little busy. Thanks for reading! Happy Holidays!

DIY LETTERING {without a fancy cutting machine or stencil} NOEL BLOCKS

I want a Silhouette machine. Or a Circuit would do. But I don't have one and I don't have funds for one right now. So I make do. I recently figured out  a new way to do lettering-which I used on my "Save the Date Blocks". No vinyl. No cutting out Freezer Paper stencils. Just printing off letters. This is super easy and anyone can do it.

DIY LETTERING:

1. PRINT OUT YOUR LETTERS ON THE COMPUTER.

I used a very large font size, about 300; and used an outline style letter, so that I did not waste all my computer ink. The blocks I made here, were about 5-6 inches high.

2.TAPE THE LETTER TO YOUR BLOCK. Paint the block and let it dry before putting your letters on the blocks.

3. TRACE YOUR LETTER WITH A BALL POINT PEN- PRESSING HARD.

Now your block should have a light outline of your letter on the wood block.

4. REMOVE THE PAPER.

5. PAINT IN THE LETTER. I used my old tole- painting brushes- some had flat bristles and others were very small and fine. You could probably use your child's watercolor brushes if you did not have anything else.

To paint these blocks, I used acrylic craft paints.

 When you are done painting your letters, they will look something like this:

Not perfect, so an easy solution to make them look better, is to distress them a bit with some sandpaper. After that, they look like this:

And that is it. No special letter cutting machine, no stencils, just a font from your computer.

The possibilities are endless- but I'm sure if I did something more complicated, I would prefer a stencil or vinyl. But for now, this works great!

Happy Holidays!

Apple Caramel Pie in the Slow Cooker/Crockpot

After making my Apple Pie in the Crockpot, I found this recipe on the Fix-It and Forget-about-It site. And it was really  really good. And now I know I can make almost any flavor pie in a crock pot. yay.

I t was simple and yummy, but obviously, don't make it if you don't have self control when it comes to dessert. It is too good to resist! And I'm glad my husband ate most of it.

You really only need 3 ingredients:

Pie Crust (2- top and bottom pieces), Apple Pie Filling (about 3 cups- we used some we had made in the Crock Pot) and about 12 Kraft Caramels.

I learned a few things when making this: DON'T spray your crock pot with non-stick spray. It will slide down the sides. Don't overlap your pie crusts too much when placing them in the crock pot.

Cook the crust on HIGH for 1 1/2 hours first.

Then add the apple pie filling, mixed with the caramels-which I cut up, and cook for 1 1/2 hours on LOW. Every crock pot or slow cooker is different, so keep an eye on it.

The entire recipe can be found HERE- and there are lots of good questions that are answered there too!

Thanks for reading!

30 Picture Books for Christmas {my top favorites preschool-2nd grade read alouds}

I've been doing the "25 Books for Christmas Countdown/Advent" for years now. It is a really fun one, that I'm sure you have seen by now if you are a blog reader. The other night I stayed up and wrapped up my favorite ones for my kids. Well... I have WAY too many Christmas books- like probably over 100....and more than we can possibly read. Since I have small children, I picked the ones that they would enjoy the most for reading aloud. I thought I would share my list with you, even though I really could make it about 5 times this long. {If you have a 2 year old, don't spend a lot of time wrapping these up all fancy- because chances are, if the 2 year old sees them, he will unwrapped them before you want him too....}

 A lot of Christmas picture books are wonderful, but too long to read in one sitting to young children. So keep in mind that these are mostly shorter ones- as in ones that you can read in 10-15 minutes or less. I left off my longer picture books- the ones that have really good stories and illustrations, but too long for my preschooler.

So here is my list for this year:

Read-a-Loud Christmas Picture Book List

1. Come and See by Monica Mayper

2. Santa's New Suit by Laura Rader

3. A Piggie Christmas by Howard Fine

4. A New Improved Santa by Patricia Rae Wolff

5. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer

6. A Visit From St. Nicholas & Santa Mouse too! by Clement C. Mouse

7. Mary's Baby by Jane Chapman

8. Crispin-The Pig Who Had it All by Ted Dewan

 9. The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza by David Shannon (my favorite!!)

10. Santa's Noisy Night by Julie Sykes &Tim Warnes

11. Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker

12. Rudolph by Robert L. May

13. Here Comes Santa Claus by Gene Autry & Oakley Haldeman

14. This is the Star by Joyce DunBar

15. Little Tree by E.E. Cummings

16. The 12 Days of Christmas-illustrated by Jan Brett

17. The Night Before Christmas (any version) illustrations by Mary Englebreit or Jan Brett

18. Bear's Christmas by Brigitte Freymoret

19. The Nativity -illustrated by Julie Vivas

20. On Christmas Eve by Margaret Wise Brown

21. When Santa was a Kid by Janice Leotti-Bachem

22. Mr. Christmas by Roger Hargreaves

23. Little Miss Christmas by Roger Hargreaves

24. How Santa Lost His Job by Stephen Krensky

25. Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini

26.Santa's Hawaiian Vacation by (oops it is wrapped)

27. The Holiday Handwriting School by Robin Pulver

28. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff

29. Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft

30. On Christmas Eve by Peter Collington

My husband likes to read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and we try to read that together. This is my list for easy read-a-louds. There are many others out there- some great ones that are a little longer. I'll have to share that list later.

Happy Reading ! I'd love to hear what some of your favorite Christmas Stories are!

Christmas Tree Healthy Snack or Appetizer

 Happy Black Friday! If you aren't out shopping, and over did it on Thanksgiving, this is a great healthy snack that the whole family will love- especially the kids! It is also a great idea to bring to those Christmas parties, if you want something more healthy among all those Christmas cookies.

 I saw this idea in Family Fun Magazine, but they used parsley. I used green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and cheese. Cut your cheese into little cubes or squares. Lay out your lettuce to form a tree shape- I used 2 leafs of lettuce. Lay everything out on a tray to form a tree.

I added a star to mine- with a cookie cutter I cut a small star from cheese- of course this was the part all the kids wanted to eat.  This was fun, simple, and easy to do, and my kids ate it all up.

Happy Holiday Season!

DIY Christmas Decor & Gift Idea: Save the Date Blocks

 In October, I made up these little blocks for the holidays. (excuse the boring photos...but you get the idea.)  There were some 2 by 4's or 2 by 6's sitting in the garage, so I had my husband cut them up for me. I painted them a solid color, and then printed out the dates on my computer. I found a font I liked and played around with it until I got the right size. These are LARGE. I think I used the font at size 300. Here is the fun part. I applied the letters 2 different ways. I did some using freezer paper stencil. BUT an even easier way, was to print the letters, and use a sharp item- such as a ball point pen. Place the paper on top of the painted wood, and trace the letters onto the wood pressing very hard. When you are done, you have the outline of the letters in the wood. Now you just have to fill it in with paint. (I will try to do a tutorial on how I did this is if I just confused you...)  This is how I did the OCTOBER one. The other two are freezer paper stencils.  Of course you lucky people who own a fancy cutting machine, can just use that to make something like this.

 I thought it would be fun to make a few of these, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's and the 4th of July, and give them as a gift-- to that person who likes holiday decor.  The best part of this is that it was FREE (already had the wood and paint) and EASY. After painting the dates on, I sanded the blocks lightly. This helps you to hide any mistakes, and give it that "old  shabby look." (don't ask me what it is called...)

Thanks for reading!

Happy Halloween!

I am pooped out. I don't know how you all do it. It wears me out just getting these 4 into their costumes.

We have had a busy week full of Halloween activities in preschool, and on the homefront. And Halloween isn't until tomorrow! Hope everyone has a fun and safe time!

I'll be back later this week with 2 give-a-ways to gear us up for Christmas! yay!

Thanks for reading! oxoxo