Merry Christmas from Elle

December 25th 2013 is officially upon us! This year we as the coolest parents ever, decided it would be an Xbox and airsoft kind of Christmas around here. While the kids got other things as well those were there two big presents, an xbox 360, some games, and a couple of controllers and of course airsoft rifle and pistols all around :) I will say having a family of all boys is very interesting to say the least.  And of course you can not give every little boy in the house a new gun and not give the big boy one too, he would feel left out. So I surprised Mr. Wonderful with an airsoft gun too and now all 6 of them are out running through the woods having a real life game of Call of Duty Ghost or which ever game they think they are playing this time. Now I was so shocked when they all decided they were going outside to play and not the first one asked about hooking up the new Xbox, but I think I am going to hook it up and try it out before they get back :) naughty mommy is going to play with the kids toys while they are gone! So all in all I think we had a pretty great Christmas morning.

I'm pretty sure this is what my kids are doing right now, or at least it's what they think they are doing anyways.

Yesterday, Christmas Eve to most, was my son Zachary's birthday. My big guy turned 12 and it makes me a little sad to think this is his last year before becoming a teenager. I didn't think it would be a real big deal, but just knowing that he is growing up so fast already and that time seems to be slipping by faster and faster. It also makes me remember that Jason is right behind him, because in 4 months my little man will be 11. Guess I am finally having that feeling of panic that my babies are growing up and what then??? LOL I know most mom's get that when the youngest is like 2 or 3. It just took me longer.

anyone who's kids are growing up will understand.

 

Zachary will be heading to his dads house this afternoon and he will be gone until the 31st. He had asked me to talk to his dad about letting him stay here a couple of days, but I told him he had to have that conversation with his dad because I was not getting in the middle of that one. We will say that he didn't want to hurt his dads feelings so he never asked, that and I am sure he wants his Christmas presents from over there too. His dad and I talked probably 4 times about what are you getting him so we didn't both get him the same things and luckily his dad is being very cool about if Zach wants to bring something from his house back with him to play with it's fine with him which is nice for Zach so he doesn't feel like he has to just leave everything.

and I miss you when you are gone.

So for Christmas this year I got a bath set :) (what girl doesn't like the idea of getting to relax in a bath) and a cute mug from Jason that says "my mom, my friend" which is an adorable idea because I have about a million mugs in the kitchen, but he knows I like coffee and thought I needed one more, I love the way little minds think, and Chad got me a pair of footed pajamas!!!! Duck Dynasty footed pajamas to be exact which is something I have wanted for awhile. And best of all I got what I REALLY wanted, my children are getting along and having a good day which is honestly what I told them I wanted. When they fight it drives me crazy and just bothers me so much that it is so nice to see them getting along and being happy together.

These are EXACTLY the p.j's that I got :)

I hope everyone has had an awesome day so far and that they enjoy seeing friends and family for the rest of the day as well. I know that as for myself and Mr. Wonderful most of our family lives in different states and while we wont be seeing them we will be thinking of them. And as for my sister Desiree, we will be getting together before long so I can steal her children lol.

Yesterday Abby tried to stay with me instead of going to see Santa. You know you are an awesome Aunt when they pick you over Santa!!!

A gift from Elle's little guy...

Today Jason and I made his teachers a Christmas present, and since it was pretty simple and really, really cute I figured I would share it with everyone. I think in all (including all of Jason's help) it took probably about an hour to make it all.

So this was our finished project. Two "pencils" for each teacher and we added a small angel ornament that I had made prior to this craft.

 



So to start with we had to collect all the pieces to make this. Since we decided that each of the teachers should have two pencils each (and you can do as many as you think you want) this is what we needed:

8 packs of Rolos
2 pieces of yellow construction paper
1 piece of  pink construction paper
8 Hershey's kisses
regular scissors and a pair of neat shaped scissors
some aluminum foil
some ribbon
my glue gun
and the little angels that I had made before for something else.


First step after getting everything together was to cut the two yellow pieces of construction paper in half both ways

See simple already.

 

Then I took the kiss and put a very small drop of hot glue onto the rolo and attached the kiss to it. This is the part that makes it look like pencil tip.

This is what it looked like when they were all done.

 

Next I took my funny shaped scissors and cut one of the long edges of the yellow square's of paper to make that sharpened look for a pencil.

Still very simple.

 

 

Ok I set those aside and took half of the piece of pink paper and traced 8 circles from a quarter and cut them out. Then I put another small dot of glue on the other end of the Rolo and stuck the small pink circle to the Rolo.

 

I have to give credit to Jason he wanted to help with every step and cut out my circles for me.

 

 

Ok then I just took the rest of that same half of pink paper and cut 8 long strips to finish off the eraser part of the pencil. I used my glue gun to put a dot of glue on the edge of the Rolo roll and just wrapped the strip of paper around the tube and used a second dot of glue to hold the other end together.

This is what they looked like when we got finished with all the pink strips of paper.

 

 

Ok remember those yellow squares with the pretty shaped edges? Now it's time to grab those again. I used two small drops of glue one at the top and one at the bottom to hold them into place. After I secured the corners I did see that it was a little slack in the center so I added a third drop of glue to hold that down too. Then just like the pink papers I wrapped the yellow papers ( remember to put the edge that is cut with the cool shaped scissors down) around the tube and then I put a couple of glue dots to hold it all together. Also a note: The pink strip and yellow paper were longer than the actual shape so I did cut them off to fit the size.

I tried to line the cut line up with the yellow and pink tips.

 

 

What it looked like when all 8 were done.

 

To finish up the pencil look we took a small strip of aluminum foil and like the pink and yellow paper just added a glue dot and wrapped it around the whole thing on top of the paper. I tried to put the foil half in the pink and half in the yellow to make it look more like a real pencil. I'm sure you have all seen the little metal part that holds the eraser to the wood and are getting the idea anyways.

 

I forgot to take a picture at this step :( but take a look at the finished project picture at the top of the page and I'm sure you will be able to see what I am talking about.

 

After we got done making the pencils we just took them two at a time and tied a piece of ribbon around them and before tying the loop part of the bow we just slid the angels loop string over one side of the ribbon and finished off the tying of the bow.

 

Last step we took a marker and wrote the teachers name on one of the pencils.

 

DONE!! See I told you it was super simple. One hour and about 10 dollars worth of candy and some other things that I already had here at the house and I have 4 teachers presents done and ready to go.

 

Thank you Jason for helping mom make these and taking a whole hour out of your busy day to spend the time with me that it took to put these together. I love you very much my dear son. Hopefully when you grow up you will think back and remember this kind of  thing.

 

 



In~laws for Elle

So Mr. Wonderful and I have been together for almost 2 years now and we haven't really done a lot when it come to meeting the family so to speak. He of course knows my sister and brother in law since they introduced us :) and he did meet my dad over the summer when he came for an over night stay, but I have not met anyone in his family.... yet..... That's right folks I am meeting the soon to be in laws. Mr. Wonderful's mother and husband will be coming to town this weekend. I feel almost silly for being so excited to meet them, I haven't had to "meet the parents" so to speak in YEARS.

This should be fun.......

Which means that now I am feeling the pressure of running around and getting the whole house spotless and perfect. Only problem is that I have no motivation to get off my butt and do it! I had Sunday off, but I have to work every day until they get here other than that. Luckily the kids were back in school today so I could get some cleaning done today. Seems like a great reason to do some spring cleaning just in the winter.I do love the look on his face when he comes home and sees the living room really clean one day and then the next day the bedroom looks really good. It makes him very happy and I like when he is happy.

LOL oh my.... I couldn't help it babe. I love you so much, but my mom should

 have warned me about the maintenance man for sure.

We got our Christmas tree in the last couple of days. We actually ended up with two trees thanks to the generosity of a few people who were just looking to get rid of them. I took one to work because the boss man was going to have to go buy one and since we don't really need two I thought it would be a nice thing to do and since Mr. Wonderful agreed that's what we did. I had to go get lights, garland, ornament and a tree skirt for our tree this year. We moved into our house on December 15th last year and just didn't have time to get a tree up and going so we just skipped it since the boys already know the "big Santa secret" and it didn't bother them even a little to get their new DSI's out of their stocking instead of from under a tree. :) Glad to know they just want the presents lol. I was recently called a bad mother for this fact of course my answer to that is fu#k off b!tch. Especially from the person who thought they were so much better of a parent than me, but of course they beat their children (literally) with a cord from a game controller until the poor child is screaming for them to stop and then they still don't. (Yeah with me on the phone so I can hear the whole thing. No wonder we aren't friends any more) And while I'm on the subject who let's their 13 year old daughter spend the night with a boy that she has had a crush on for 4 nights sleeping in the same room????? I'm just sayin'.

This is very true, especially with a 12 year old who wants an iphone 5.

Ok so I love the new Joe Boxer Christmas commercial!! Every time it comes on if I am on the computer or in the other room I have to stop what I am doing so that I can watch it. So here it is for everyone else to enjoy. :) Well the female readers will anyways.

Merry Christmas everyone!! Enjoy......