Christmas Wrap Up

Our Christmas was hectic as most are.  I didn't get everything done before that I wanted to.  But I thought I'd share some pictures of it all with you.

Bean took part in her very first Christmas pageant.  Well, she KINDA took part.  Her preschool held the pageant in their school gym and it was packed out with adoring parents and family and friends.  Bean made it down the aisle and to her seat with the rest of her classmates but that was about it.  As soon as the music started for the first song, I hear Hubz say "Oh crap, she's losing it."  I couldn't see her but the next thing I knew there she was at our row crying her eyes out.  I guess she got scared with everyone looking at them.  I was a little embarrassed because we had invited Nano and Nanny R. to see Bean sing and there was no singing Bean.    But then the second song started and one by one her classmates followed suit and ran to their own parents.  So I guess Bean was just a trendsetter.  Oh well, there will be other Christmas programs that we'll have and I'm sure half of them won't be as entertaining as this one.

We made a few homemade gifts.  We made snowman crayons for Bean's classmates.  These were a huge hit.  We made teacup candles for her teachers and a few family and friends.  We also made some candy dishes for family.

We went to the Callaway Gardens Festival of Lights and Bean got to meet Santa.  He was a very nice Santa and took a lot of time with her.  The only thing that was strange was that he had a deep Southern accent.  Now, who doesn't in this house but you just don't expect Santa to sound like us hillbillies!

Bean was a huge help to Mommy with all the decorating, cooking, cleaning, and even the wrapping.

Christmas morning was evidently an ode to the Disney Princesses at our house.  Bean got an Disney Princess Ultimate Castle along with a set of Princess dolls.  I think ole Walt Disney needs to send me a kickback or something for all the Princess promoting we've done.

I think she really enjoyed all of her presents from Santa and family and friends.  She plays with all of her toys and still loves to tell us what each one does on a daily basis.  I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas as much as our little one did hers.

Happy New Year 2012!

http://littlebirdieblessings.blogspot.com

I hope 2012 brings us all happiness, health and some prosperity.  We all sure could use it.

Happy New Year from Pinkie and The Bean!

"The Bampire"

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - Christmas or Hanukkah, whichever is your choice.  I'm aiming to share a holiday re-cap post showing some snapshots of our Christmas.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a little ditty of something that Bean did a week before Christmas.

I was at my computer working.  Hubz was in the living room watching tv.  Bean was...well...that was a good question.  She had been noticeably quiet for a few minutes and THAT IS NEVER A GOOD THING.  When your toddler gets quiet, they aren't meditating.  They aren't contemplating life's mysteries.  They aren't trying to cure cancer either.

They are up to no dang good.  Trust me.  It's a rule of thumb that has never been proven wrong.

I asked Hubz what Bean was doing.  Deep in concentration over the football game of the moment, he mumbled "in her room playing".  Uh oh.  I looked around the corner and her bedroom door was closed.  We...I...have a rule that she is not allowed to play in her room with the door closed.  This rule came from a hard lesson I learned awhile back.  One day in the middle of cleaning out her closet, I left the room to go put clothes in the dryer.  When I came back, one whole corner of the room was covered in baby powder.  It literally looked like it had snowed there.  All over her little tv, all over her desk, the wall, and in the carpet.  From a reenactment, she demonstrated how she had stood there and squeezed the life out of this container of baby powder.  "Watch Mommy!".  So that began the rule of the door must always be open.

The door was now closed.  Again - uh oh.

"Bean!"

I hear the door open and out she comes running.  Then I hear Hubz laughing.  The next moment THIS was shoved in my face...

I will admit I let out a small shriek.

I look down at my darling child and she has the biggest grin on her face.  She says...

"Look, Mommy!  I made her into a bampire!"

Uh huh.  Poor doll.  Strange kid.

I said "Well, technically, since you made her green, doesn't that make her a zombie?"

"No, Mommy, she a bampire."

Okay.  Bampire it is.

Christmas Card 2011 - or What Might Have Been

I think most of you that know me might have picked up that I like to hand make cards.  I developed this love by hanging out with my good friend, Tracy.  She introduced me to the world of card making and my checkbook has never been the same since.

I wanted to share a picture of our 2011 Christmas card that I made - or what I like to call "What Might Have Been".  I am normally a procrastinator.  I will admit that.  And this year wasn't any different.  I first couldn't decide what I wanted to make.  But then once everything was decided, I got to work.  I made about 2 cards and my paper punch broke.  I replaced my paper punch and sat down to work again.  This time the new punch broke after 4 cards. I tried to exchange it but there were no more of this design left and I couldn't find anything else that I could use.  I even tried to replicate the design on my Silhouette.  That didn't turn out right either.

So I was able to complete 6 of our Christmas cards. Yep.  Six.

Here is a picture of one of those six limited edition cards.

I absolutely love this design.  I love the colors, I love the little girl, I just love it all.  I used all Stampin' Up products except for the punch and ribbon.  Another card making buddy (Thanks Doc!) taught me how to run the stamp design through a Xyron machine to make the front of the design sticky so that I could then apply glitter to add a "pop" to the card.  You use a used dryer sheet to complete that process.  I would have never come up with that on my own.  I printed out the snowflakes on my Silhouette.

I am very sad that here it is December 21st and I have no way of completing them so that I can mail them off.

I think I will continue looking for the punch and keep working on them.  I'll just look at it as I now have a jump start on next year's cards.

Now you know why you haven't received a card from us this season.  Merry Christmas to you  all!

Linking up with these pretty parties:

Update on our Cinderella fan letter

Remember this post where I confessed to becoming a fan girl for Cinderella?  Well, we received our letter back.  It is actually a full color large postcard.  One side has a picture of Cinderella and all her princess friends and the other side has a special message from Cinderella.

Bean was thrilled to receive this.  She even sat her Daddy down and explained who each princess in the picture was.  He now knows more about the Disney Princesses than I'm sure he ever wanted to know.

Glowstick Bath

Awhile back I ran across a blog post by The Zinnia Patch sharing her idea of putting glowsticks in the bath tub. I knew Bean would love this.

So one night last week I filled up a tub for her nightly bath and decided I would surprise her with the glowsticks.  Bean has started objecting to bath time.  She knows it's the beginning of the end of the day and she isn't ready to stop playing each night so now she balks at taking a bath.

While she was still playing I snuck into the bathroom and started the bath.  I turned out all the lights and the light from the glowsticks were enough to light up the room nicely.

Sure enough though when I went to get Bean, she started squawking that she didn't need a bath.  Once I told her I had a surprise for her, she was singing a different tune.

This is what she saw when she went into the bathroom.

Here's a picture with the tub light on so you can see it better.

She really loved playing with the glowsticks in the tub.  In fact, I had to make her get out.  That's definitely a change from the usual. She has already asked twice for another glowstick bath.  You can get a tube of these sticks for $1 at most craft stores.  It's a fun change of pace activity if you have a child that doesn't want to take their bath.

Book Advent Calendar - Update 1

We've made it to December 7th and Bean still loves this idea.  Mommy still hasn't picked up the remaining books that we need to get all the way to the 24th.  Hey, I'll try to do it after my Procrastinators Anonymous meeting tonight.

Here are the book selections for December 2nd through the 5th.

December 2nd:  All I Want for Christmas

December 3rd:  Merry Christmas, Curious George

December 4th: The Christmas Story

December 5th:  The Littlest Christmas Elf

Are you using a fun way to count down the days 'til Christmas?

THE Question.

So on the way home from daycare tonight, Bean pipes up from the back seat and asks 

"Mommy, where do you get babies from?"

She's 3.  I thought I'd have a few more years to practice my delivery, to get my lines right, hit my mark.  

Needless to say I was dumbfounded.  All I could think of was "oh, all sorts of places".   

Finally, she said "no, they come from Jesus".  

Oh yeah.  That's right.  Jesus.  I forgot.

Finding our Christmas Tree

On Sunday, we went out in search for our Christmas tree.  I wanted to go to the beloved Christmas tree farm that we've been to a couple of times.  I mean, they have bunnies.  Bunnies in Santa hats.  What more could you want in a tree farm?

Hubz did not want to go to the tree farm.  He evidently hates bunnies or Santa hats or something.  He wanted to go to Home Depot because it's closer.

Home Depot?  What kind of holiday memories can we make at Home Depot?  "Oh hurry!  I can't wait to get to Aisle 5!!!"

Nobody says that.  Aisle 5 is not Christmas-magical.  It's just the same dang Aisle 5 that's there all year long.  You know what I mean?

I wanted to go to a place where we could make beautiful, loving family memories that Hubz and I will be able to remember when we are old and grey and peeing ourselves in our rocking chairs.  You can't get that at Home Depot.

Hubz evidently hates family memories, too, cause Home Depot won out.

Bean ran all over looking at one tree and then the next.  She was having a ball.  "Make this one stand up, Daddy!"  "I wanna see this one, Daddy!"  "We have to get a really big tree, Mommy."  She was hard to keep up with.

Mommy ultimately chose the tree.   I think by that time they all looked the same to Bean and Hubz was too scared to say anything after my parking lot meltdown over family memories and pee-stained rocking chairs.

We even picked out a smaller tree for Bean.  We did this last year at the tree farm and she loved being able to decorate a tree her own size.  That one only cost $5 though. See, another "pro" for the tree farm.

I will say that I think I need to remember that we can make memories anywhere.  We don't have to go to any special place to create them.  It just really adds to the scenery.  The love and the time together is still there.  I know Bean had fun and I will always remember that.

So...that's all good and well but since Hubz messed up my "scenery", his picture is going up.

Here he is being manly by trying to get the tree on top of the car.  Work it!

Here's Bean taking a break from all the action and sneaking a sip or twelve from Daddy's Dr. Pepper.

Oh, look!  Hubz is still fighting with that tree.  If we had gone to the tree farm, the guys there would have put it up on the car for him. Hmmmm....

Our Advent Calendar - Bookworm Style.

I ran across this idea of a book advent calendar last year on several other blogs and thought it was brilliant.

We have a basket that holds 24 gift wrapped Christmas-themed books.  Well, there WILL be 24 books in it soon.  This is one advantage to having a kid that can't count yet - you can go right along after you realize you miscounted and didn't get enough books to make 24.

Don't tell her.  She loves this idea and is so excited about it.  Santa's helper will just sneak a few more in one night.

But here's our little basket of books.  She will open one book each night before Christmas.  (Sorry for the picture quality.  Once I showed it to her, Bean was too excited to wait so I could get a better picture.)  Preplanning is my not strong suit.

Last night Bean opened the first book.  She can choose whichever book from the box that she wants each night.  She has become an Olympic-style unwrapping fiend.

The book that marked December 1st was Gingerbread Mouse.

I can't vouch for the story yet as Hubz was the one to read it at bedtime.  I will try to share a picture of each night's book as we move along towards Christmas.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

We shared awhile back that Bean had decided to entertain herself by cutting her own hair.  I've been trying to let the side grow where she decided to chop a chunk off.  The waiting has been so long.  I've also tried and tried to get this haircut for awhile but the schedules never matched up.  (Sorry!)

So this past Black Friday, I stopped by my SIL's shop and she did the honors.

We went from this:

To this:

And the result is this:

And the only one that cried was me.

Holiday Gift Guides - The Men

*From The Graphics Fairy

Since the Holidays are coming up, I thought it would be fun to create a few gift guides for your shopping pleasure.  I've used Etsy (once again) to create a treasury showcasing some cool gifts I found.

Today I will share gift ideas I've found for the men in our lives.  I think men are hard to shop for.  Other people say no, but I get stumped every time I need a gift for Hubz.  Or maybe it's because I know that the things he likes aren't my taste and I don't want them "decorating" my house.  LOL

I do think he might like a couple of things on this treasury though.  Hope you can find some ideas for your guys.

Now I'm a fan girl.

Have you ever written a fan letter to a celebrity? I can neither confirm nor deny that I ever wrote one to someone in New Kids on the Block.  I didn't.  Really, I didn't.  But I did buy one of their videos and secretly watched it over and over and...nevermind.

Well, today I became a fan girl again.  Yep, I wrote another letter.  Don't worry, Jordan Knight.  You're safe.

This time I wrote a letter to...this girl.

Yeah, I wrote to Cinderella.

And I hope, hope, hope she writes me back.

Recently, I read this post by Couponing to Disney where she explains that you can write to your favorite Disney character and receive an autographed picture back from them.

Stop it.  Stop laughing at me.

I did it for Bean.  Bean is a huge Cinderella fan.  Don't you remember this?

She loves Cinderella.  She sings "Cinderella...dressed in yella" around the house all the time thanks to Hubz. She squeals with delight every time we're in a store and she sees something with Cinderella on it.

Yep.  Minnie Mouse has been kicked to the curb.  It's all about Cinderella now.

Bean even has several Cinderella wants on her Christmas wish list.  Whenever anyone asks her what she wants for Christmas she says "a Cinderella doll".  The kid might wind up with 12 on Christmas but even if she does I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she will be delighted to have them all.

So anyways, with Christmas coming up and then her birthday right after, I thought getting an autographed picture from Cinderella would be an amazing gift for Bean.  So I put my sarcastic thoughts (well, most of them) away and wrote a letter to Cinderella to see if she will send Bean a picture.

Couponing to Disney said she received her autograph in about two weeks.  I'm putting our letter in the mail today - November 21, 2011.  We'll see if we ever do receive a picture and how long it takes if we do.

If you want to write to your favorite Disney character, too, here's the address I used.

Walt Disney World Communications
P.O. Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

Come on, Cinderella, have a heart!  Send this beautiful little girl an autograph.  It will make her smile which will make me smile.

I'll keep you guys updated.

So...what's up?

I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted.  I'm a bad blogger.

I think I'm in a funk.  Do you know what I mean?  I just haven't had much to say in a blog post.  I realized today I haven't even taken any new pictures since Halloween.

I might get kicked out of the Mommy Club for that.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

I will give you an update on Bean.  She came home from school this week singing Christmas songs.  I asked her about it and she said that her teacher said they were going to learn some Christmas songs to sing to the mommies and daddies but that she couldn't tell Mommy and Daddy about it because it is a surprise.

Okay.  I'll still be surprised!

It's funny the little things that she says that I pick up on.  For example, there always seems to be a granddaddy long-legs spider or 12 on our front porch.  When Bean sees one, she starts that "ah ah ah" scream like the character Stuart from MAD TV used to do.  She calls them "granddad spiders".  They do kinda look like her grandfather though.  Hmmmm....just kidding.

She has already started asking if it's Christmas time yet.  So, in turn, I've already started saying to her "Santa is watching you.  You'd better stop doing that if you want him to bring you presents".  See, toddlers don't always have to win.

Wordless Wednesday - Trick or Treat

It's Trick or Treat Day!

Bean is very excited that "Halloween Day" has finally gotten here.  She has asked every day if it is time for her to wear her Cinderella costume and her "high heels" that light up.

Last night she helped her Daddy carve the pumpkin.  Hubz found a picture of Mickey Mouse and asked Bean if she wanted him on her pumpkin.

She said "Uh, no.  But we can have a Minnie Mouse."

So Hubz agreed.  I have to brag on Hubz a little bit.  He found a picture of Minnie Mouse on his phone web browser and free handed the stencil he used to carve her face.  I was amazed.  I had no idea he was so creative.  Too bad he let me know because I will use this talent in the future somehow.

Here's this year's pumpkin.

I usually have trouble waking Bean up in the mornings.  She can be a little grouchy when woken up.  I have NO IDEA where she gets this trait from.  None whatsoever.

But this morning was different.  All I had to say was "It's Halloween Day!  You get to wear your costume."

She hopped right out of bed.  This is something else I will have to use in the future.

She put on her dress and she looked beautiful.  Her hair didn't quite cooperate but I have come to realize that whenever there is something going on where I want Bean to look exceptionally cute or when she'll have her picture taken a lot, her hair turns against me.  My hair does the same thing to me but now this is the second generation of hair that is pullin' a 'tude on me and I really don't appreciate it.  Oh well...

Here is Beanerella!

Happy Halloween from us to you!