JUDE. December 27, 2011

Today is my son Jude’s birthday!

He is now 4. Which is weird because this is how he looked yesterday. Weird right?

It amazes me how much a child can change over the course of a few years.

It has all gone by so fast.

I enjoy every day I have with my precious little boy.

He has such a fun personality.

He is silly.

He is a ham.

 He is ornery and adventurous.

He is adorable and loving.

He is brave and rambunctious.

 He is smart and athletic.

He is all boy!

 I thank God for making him my boy.

Happy birthday my son!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas Morning! December 26, 2011

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas.

  Christmas is always a fun time in our household. With 5 children there seems to be no dull moment. We have our little special ways of doing things and this year was no exception.

On Christmas eve we open one present which is always a new pair of pajamas to wear to bed on Christmas eve night.

Then it is off to bed for what I am sure is a long night of waiting for morning.

When the children get up they know to come wake up mommy and daddy. Then we all snuggle in our bed and wait for everyone else to wake up. (or be woken up by loud siblings)

Once everyone has gotten up we all snuggle and talk about Jesus’ birth and then we pray.

After we pray together I go down stairs and get the camera ready and turn on the Christmas lights and the music.

Waiting for the go ahead.

It’s finally time to open presents! The older boys have to help read the names and pass out to the right person.

(I love how Jonah has a one arm push up going on here)

I adore watching my children open their gifts and seeing the flood of excitement that follows with each present.

Such a joy to watch.

Exactly what he wanted. (No, not his 2 front teeth. Walkie talkies.)

Only little girls get absolutely excited over clothing accessories.

Hope enjoyed her gifts too but mostly she liked…..

The wrapping paper!

She loved it!

Last year Faith was a bit young to open presents and to understand what was going on and this year she really had it down.

Her little face lit up when she opened up her gifts.

It was a disaster after the presents were all opened.

Now it was time to play with all the toys!

My three boys.

Faith’s new baby doll.

She has been taking good care of her baby.

Jonah’s GI Joe flying high.

Then Joe got into a bit of a predicament.

The boys were enjoying listening to their new MP3 players. I loaded them up with their favorite songs and audio books.

Every time I turn around there is a new character there to greet me. (Jude)

One of the last things we do after presents and stockings is open the last door in our advent house.

This house has a door from the 1st to the 25th.

Each day the kids open a door and read the scripture inside and eat the treat that is there for them too.

One of my favorite traditions.

I also love all the cards I get!

Thank you everyone!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

This year Christmas will be gone all to soon for us since we are packing up today and tomorrow and moving on Thursday.

So the new year will bring a lot for our family and I plan to keep you all updated right here!

Merry Christmas.

To Christ be the glory….

Baby’s First Christmas December 24, 2011

Christmas is literally right around the corner. Tomorrow is the big day!

One thing of many that I am looking forward to is seeing Hope have her first Christmas. Babies don’t get into it as much as the older kids but they enjoy it in different ways.

I can’t imagine how much fun she is going to have with the wrapping paper that will be all over the floor.

That is like a baby paradise!

All the paper she could ever want to crunch and shake and chew.

She will also enjoy her new toys once her siblings help her open them.

Hope got her first taste of Christmas cheer while we were decorating the tree. She was mesmerized by the lights.

We would turn them off and she would look around and wonder what had happened.

Then we would turn them on again and she would get very excited!

My sweet Christmas girl.

I think Christmas lights would be a very entertaining toy year round.

“Ooooh look a camera.”

(This is where she crawls after me in a hopeless chase for the camera)

Cheese! (“Now give me that camera mom!”)

She lost interest in the camera and went back to the lights.

She was screaming with joy as she shook the lights all around.

When I was showing these pictures to Shane he reminded me that we had taken pictures of all the other kiddos playing with lights too.

So after a little digging in the past Christmas photos I found these gems.

(Warning! These are photos from the past. As in no Canon rebel in my life at the time.)

Here is Jacob. (2)

Little baby Jonah. (1) He really liked the lights!

Cutie pie Jude. (almost 1, his birthday is 2 days after Christmas.)

Faith (1) She was more interested in saying cheese then with the lights. Silly girl!

So all of our sweet babies have had their play time with Christmas lights. I love that we have pictures of them all.

It almost like an accidental tradition.

I hope you enjoy all your Christmas traditions this year.

Spend time together and enjoy every minute.

May you all remember the miracle of Jesus’ birth this Christmas season.

At the name of Jesus

Every knee shall bow

and every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord.

~Phillipians 2:10 and 11

 

 

 

Oh Christmas Tree. December 17, 2011

I feel like it has been such a long time since I wrote a post here. Sorry for the big gap of time my friends but you all know how life can be sometimes. We have been sick.

 My children and I have all had some sort of tummy bug over the last week. It has been a long and terrible and messy week. So glad it is over.

Praise God for quick bugs that kids can shake in a day or so.

So needless to say I have not gotten around to adding my first Christmas post.

So now I get to sit down and sip my coffee and show you all the fun we had decorating the tree this year.

First Jacob and Jonah helped daddy to trim the trunk and set the tree up. Then Jacob got to cut the string off.

 He thought the tree was going to spring out once the string was cut but to his disappointment it didn’t.

 It took a few hours but the tree finally opened up and it was revealed that we had bought a very fat tree!

So the kiddos started in on decorating the tree with all of their ornaments of Christmas’ past. Jude had a hard time understanding why he did not have as many ornaments as Jacob.

After countless times explaining it to him I think it finally clicked.

 I think?

I love the excitement that comes when you open the box of ornaments. For me it was always a flood of different memories.

A special memory for each and every ornament.

I love it.

One special ornament that we put on the tree every year is our Christmas nail.  Shane is explaining the significance of the Christmas nail to the children.

“The Christmas tree but foreshadows the Christ-tree which only He could decorate for us, ornamented with nails as this.”

Then daddy gets to put the star on. That is his job every year. That tradition may have come about because he was the only one who could reach.

Then all of the children get to hang their new ornament that they got to pick out all by themselves. (regardless of what mom thinks they should pick)

Jacob chose the 101 dalmatian dogs.

Jonah picked a…

Airplane!!

Jude had to have…

Phineas and Ferb.

 

After the harsh realization that the Rapunzel ornament was out of stock Faith settled for….

Gnomeo and Juliet

This will be Hope’s first Christmas! So I had to get her a baby’s first Christmas ornament of course.

I love the picture of her sweet face inside it.

So here is the finished project.

Our lovely, fat tree. The kids enjoyed decorating and singing songs while we trimmed the tree.

And the last but not least Christmas tradition, the photo of the children in front of the tree.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

So tell me what are your tree traditions?

Technicolor Buffalo!? December 11, 2011

In Wyoming there lies a small town called Thermopolis.

 Within this small town there is a buffalo pasture.

I went there.

 I took pictures.

 The pictures were not great.

I was going to delete most of them.

Then I got bored.

I sat with my sick 2-year-old all day yesterday.

There is only so much to be done while sitting.

I Christmas shopped online.

I explored my apps on my ipad.

I played angry birds.

Then I was bored again.

So I took my not so great photos and I played around with photoshop.

So let me show you what I made during my Photoshop playtime!

 

Fence line in the buffalo pasture.

 

In case you were wondering. This is a buffalo in the buffalo pasture. Crazy right?!

Regular color.

The frost on the grass made everything super white and I don’t know enough yet to know how to deal with that.

Until then I will just do crazy stuff with the picture in photoshop until my heart is content.

 

Simple edit.

Then I found this effect!

I am in love with this effect!

See all this playing around can help with learning new things!

I cant wait to use this again.

 

Vintage-ish looking.

 

I love the vintage canvas look this has going on.

 

Last but not least is my Technicolor buffalo.

Yep, I went there.

I am thinking now that I almost wish the buffalo was not in the picture because the landscape looks awesome in the Technicolor.

Maybe that will come another time.

Maybe I will make these photoshop playtime sessions a regular thing.

Hopefully minus the sick kiddo next time.

 

 

 

Christmas Gift Box Ideas!! December 7, 2011

Christmas is 18 days away!!!

I cannot believe this year. It has slipped past me like a ninja!

I have much to accomplish before Christmas comes but I know it will get done.

It always seems too.

Anyways, if you are in the same boat with me and you have almost every single gift still to purchase than maybe these precious little gift boxes will help. They are the perfect size for some sweets, a gift card or anything small you can think of!

I cut the boxes out using my cricut machine with the Close To My Heart cartridge. https://chelseysullivan.myctmh.com/Retail/Product.aspx?ItemID=6168

This was the most simple bag I made. So if you need something quick and easy this is the way to go.

Just stamp a wreath, cut it out, glue it on. Put on some bitty sparkles and a small bow and your done!

If you need any of the supplies for this just head over to my website and you will find everything you need.

http://chelseysullivan.myctmh.com

Ok, no more website plugs I promise!

Another very simple design using the CTMH believe paper and bitty sparkles!

Cutting the stockings with the cricut made this bag come together in a snap as well.

 

This bag is my favorite by far. It has many time-consuming details on it though. So worth it sometimes don’t you think?

No let’s move on to the chinese take out boxes. Also cut out by the cricut with the CTMH cartridge.

I used the believe paper and the snowflakes are cut from the cricut.

 

 

Sweet Christmas birds.

For the snow dusted branch I used embossing powder.

 

 

I really wanted an animal wearing a scarf and the birds did not look right because of their short necks so that gave me the idea for the giraffe and I adore how it turned out!

 

 

Pretty ornaments on a branch. Simple and beautiful.

 

 

Christmas treat boxes.

 

 

Same boxes again. I just liked this photo. I can’t help it!

So there it is, a few fun ideas for Christmas treat boxes! I hope you are inspired now.

Time to go and create something!

 

 

Roping 101 December 2, 2011

On our last trip to Wyoming we were able to spend some time in Thermopolis. We stayed a few days with my dad and his wonderful wife Linda. During our time there Jacob had his 7th birthday! He felt pretty special that he got to be in Wyoming and especially at papa and grandma’s house for his birthday. My sister Mandy and my niece and nephews also came to Thermopolis to celebrate Jacob’s birthday. Since all my boys birthday’s are fairly close together we tend to celebrate them all at one time. So papa and grandma bought a special gift for all 3 of the boys. They all got a real “cowboy rope” as Jacob calls them. They also got a practice steer that they can use to learn how to rope the head and heels. They were so excited to learn how to rope. They had big plans on how they were going to “catch bad guys and cows” with their new ropes.  So after having to wait a few days till the weather was better they finally got lesson #1 with papa John!

Here is the view from papa’s front porch. A perfect setting for some roping practice I think.

So the boys gathered around and I settled in with my camera to fully document this fun event.

Step 1. Make sure you have on your western gear. (My son told me this was very important)

I thought they all looked so adorable in their new hats!

I snapped a picture of each of the boys and it just so happened that each picture of them was a perfect image of their personalities.

Jacob. My sweet and perpetually happy son.

Jonah. My rough and tough adventurer son.

Jude. My silly and ornery son. (No that is not a yawn, that is his beastly character bursting out)

Step 2. Grab your ropes and gather around papa. (It also helps to have a champion team roper as your papa for lessons)

I absolutely was overjoyed watching my boys with their papa.

First they learned how to coil their ropes. (A very hard skill for younger kids but they did catch on……eventually.)

I couldn’t resist the urge to take a picture of the cute wrangler buns.

The boys caught on quickly, just like kids tend to do. I was very proud of them. (And papa for being so patient)

After about 25 minutes of coiling and throwing and coiling again, Jude lost interest. He was more interested in playing with the gun and shooting Grandma!

They had a friendly war going on. Then they joined forces and turned on me. Like I said before, ornery.

Those are the hands of a working man. Love it.

Working out the kinks. Literally.

I adore how rough and tender this is at the same time.

Again, it amazes me how quickly kids pick things up. About 35 minutes in Jacob and Jonah started to get it.

It’s all in the wrist.

His first hit! Papa was coming in to get the heels. The boys had gotten a few hits each after just an hour. They were having such a great time.

Papa showed the kids how to set a trap to rope the feet. (Jude was shown first hand) I think I will regret this lesson!

I think papa may regret it too!

They tried and tried but could not bring the giant down!

They boys learned a lot and practiced hard. I hope they have a fond memory of their first lesson with papa. I know I will.