Christmas Pintrest project

If you are like me you get a few Christmas cards in the mail starting this time of year.  I have not been able to find a "good" way of displaying them all in the past.  We still receive some traditional cards but more and more we are getting the photo cards, like I prefer to send - they come with our note already on them and no one has to endure my horrible penmanship!  I start out putting some photo cards on the fridge but in this house that is hallowed ground!  With our new house comes a new, smaller fridge due to how the kitchen is set up.  The boys bring home more papers than I can keep up with and between a few family pics, school calendar, and monthly meal menu there just isnt enough room to go around.  Then you have the traditional card which can be placed neatly on the kitchen table - until they have to be moved for each meal and then set up again.  Or on the tv stand but then moving again for dusting or when the kids knock them down.  You get the picture - everything just seemed like a pain...until I saw a pin on pintrest that I knew would work for me!  It was super easy, low cost, and with the new house I had the perfect location!!  Today I finally got some painters tape - Thanks Mom! - and put it all together.  It took less than 5 minutes to do and i LOVE it!
Supplies - Christmasy ribbon
clips or clothes pins
painters tape

The whole project

closer view - we havent gotten too many cards yet so I added some other pics - I suppose it is still November!

zoom in to the project on just one cabinet, and my beautiful goddaughter's announcement!

Layla's baptism

This past Saturday night we headed up to Pomeroy for my college roommate's daughter's baptism.  I had the honor of being a sponsor/Godmother!  The five of us first headed to DSM shortly before lunch to see if we could find any good deals leftover from Black Friday and get a few things from Costco.  As luck would have it we let time get away from up and were later than we wanted leaving DSM to head to Pomeroy.  Long story short, Jeremy drove fast and got us there safely and I changed my clothes in the car heading down the highway.  Luckily it was getting dark already!  We made it to the service just in time.  Then we headed over to another small town, Manson, to Pizza Ranch for some dinner.  My children were quite entertaining to the group since they were the only other small children.  At least they were relatively well behaved and didnt embarrass me too much!  They also all wanted to hold baby Layla and not share her!  Layla was born on October 2 and is my friend Jaime's first born and my first born Hayden was born on October 3!  I am sure we will be making lots more trips up to Pocahontas to visit and hopefully they can make it down to see up here in Pella too!

 

Their birthdays are one day apart - and 8 years!

Nile and Layla - as you can see they all wanted a chance to hold her!

First atempt of Aubrey holding Layla with Mommy's help

Aubrey was in love with her!

My daughter, my goddaughter, and me!

finally got one with both of them looking at the camera!

long ride home!

Thanksgiving and Football

my boys enjoying a Hawkeye cookie in their school Thanksgiving attire!

Even if our Hawkeyes didnt end up with a great football season the cookies from the bakery were still delicious!  Dont worry I didnt let them eat it all in one sitting.  And I of course had to taste test them both just to make sure they were good!  Aubrey got a Miss Piggy cookies and licked the pink frosting off! 
On to basketball and wrestling season!!

Santa!

Aubrey was not a fan of Santa so Mommy got to be in the picture too!

trying to think of something to tell Santa to bring them

Last night was the festival of trees downtown in Pella.  The weather was wonderful.  All we needed was a light jacket and we even walked from the Opera House to Meryl Lynch where they were having a holiday party for clients.  No need to make supper last night!  Lots of yummy snacks and desserts.  It is fun to see all the trees different organizations have decorated to be auctioned off.  All the stores were open as well but we didnt have time or need to stop at any.  Last year I dressed all the kids up nicely and planned to take a pic of them with Santa.  Well Aubrey would have nothing to do with him so I ended up having to hold her similar to this year - only thing was I was wearing a Hawkeye t-shirt and jeans while everyone look nice and holidayish.  This year I planned ahead and decided to get out of my sweats and into a nice top and jeans.  I also didnt bother dressing the kids up.  Nile was excited to get a candy cane and all three kids enjoyed some crafts as well.

Aubrey's turn

It look s like the fever bug the boys had a few weeks ago has claimed another victim.  Aubrey is now running a temp around 101.  She is hanging out on the couch watching movies in her jammies under her zebra blanket.  Hopefully the fever wont hang around quite as long for her as it did for the boys.

cheese!

looking cute eating some cheetos last week

A sign of things to come?....

No this is not a political post.  Last week we had some kind of bug at our house.  Monday after school Nile wasn't feeling well and stayed home the rest of the week.  Then Tuesday after school Hayden came home and took a nap.  He stayed home from school until this week Tuesday.  They weren't terrible sick - like cant keep anything down or anything like that, thanks goodness!  Mostly they just had temps that would fluctuate between 99 and 101.  After a week of lots of water and ibuprofen they seem to be doing better.  Still a little coughing but nothing too terrible.
Now starting yesterday morning my lower back has been hurting.  I am hoping it goes away on its own soon since the ibuprofen isn't helping much. 
I am hoping that these illnesses and pains aren't a sign of the winter ahead.  I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.  I know that we have so much to be thankful for and I am hoping we can all stay healthy for the upcoming holiday season!
Blessings to all!
Allison