Our Christmas Tree 2010

The result of a months crafting and lots of fond memories and love filled moments with my family :)
We also happened to find one of the most naturally perfect trees I've ever seen. It's perfect and I'd rather have our tree than the most expensive ornaments we could find.
Everything is painted, colored, or cut and glued by the Bakers except the angel, mini-candy canes, the beads, and three silver initials for the kids. We'll have to aim for our own tree topper another year. I love the tree and I'm excited to see how our ornament collection grows and develops as the kids get older in years to come.

2010 Christmas Ornaments

Another one of our new traditions I mentioned in previous posts is I'm painting ornaments for the kids each year. And I finally got some pictures of this years ornaments.
C wanted a doggy in the snow with red flowers, J wanted a kitty cat next to a Christmas tree with a star, and I chose a rabbit snuggled up in the snow for my Baby Bunny, E.

They also each have their names and the year on the back.
I'm happy how they turned out and excited about adding to the kids ornament collection in years to come.

Preparing for Christmas

Today was pretty calm (excepting some dental work for Mommy) and I need to get back to crocheting so just a quick post with extra pics. We have continued our decorating endeavors. The kids and I painted the salt dough ornaments. We also made some felt ornaments I will add pics of later. Hubby got an early Christmas gift from MIL...a scroll saw. And tomorrow we will be making more ornaments with it. I'll continue to upload pics of our Christmas decorations and make your own ornament experiences.

Also one random development of note. C has started rewriting songs. In other words she's changing the words to many of her favorite songs, whether this is including J and her names or making a song about Ibu's cat to the tune of Jingle Bells, it's very cute and interesting. J keeps getting frustrated and correcting her. "No those aren't the words, it's ...(insert correct lyrics usually sung back)..." All day I was serenaded with the kids singing back and forth :)

Here's some pics from today.
Painting

J

Salt dough Ornaments painted


The girls, C was talking to E and I snapped this and thought the expressions were cute

Happy bday MIL and Christmas Trees

Today was MIL's birthday and we celebrated with her by going to a Christmas tree lot to get our first real full size tree. Before this year we had a ceramic tree, a mini fake one, and a couple branches tied together and glued on a wooden base (all which we put high out of reach of the kids) but this year we have the room and got a real one which is gorgeous and smells wonderful. I can't wait to decorate tomorrow, though it won't get all it's ornaments for another couple weeks as we gradually make them in various ways.

MIL went a little Christmas crazy at the tree lot. We got wreaths, garlands, and trees. It should all come together nicely in our holiday decor for sure. It was freezing (C was actually snuggling into the tree at one point to keep warmth) but we still had a lot of fun and I'm glad we got to all go together.

After getting the trees we went to eat and had an amazing meal at Longhorn. Dinner at restaurants is always amusing with my MIL since she used to be a waitress and manager at an Applebees and feels she has an unspoken understanding with the waiter or waitress we get. Add this in with the spoken bond she develops as the meal progresses, the general amusements of dining with toddlers (though the kids were very well behaved thankfully), and a reason to celebrate and you have quite an amusing meal.

After dinner we made a huge target run which was originally supposed to just be for lights. The car was packed with kids, various Christmas greenery, and all sorts of goodies when we left.

We now have the tree up in the living room. C did decide to take it on herself to begin decorating. She put her Minny Mouse doll's bow on one of the branches lol. She kept getting up from bed earlier saying "Mommy I've got to tell you something!....Look at the beautiful tree!" It was cute. The Baker family is definitely getting in the holiday spirit.

I also made 3 ornaments today here's a pic of a couple of them, along with a pic of the kids and the tree.

And here's the link for the heart video (the circle I just made combining a few different site suggestions and stitches I've learned)

C and J were kind of moving into the tree for this but still cute lol. They love the tree!

Another Wonderful Saturday

Today was busy but great. Looking back I'm surprised at all we got done considering I was able to sleep in (which was so nice of hubby)

Hubby took C out for a Daddy day with her and they ran several errands and went out to eat. She loved it and was so excited (we haven't had one of these days in a bit though we used to do it more often before we moved to our current place. We're trying to get back into the habit.

J and E and I had a day just us which meant J got some extra Mommy one on one time. We colored some wooden ornaments, made salt dough ornaments (which we will all be painting tomorrow and I will be making a cinnamon version with C)and had fun just the two of us (and E but she was content to watch nearby or from my lap).

Also though I didn't have that much quiet time today I got to work on crocheting a hat and it's done! I got the pattern and instructions from this youtube video, and left the scalloped edges because it looked so cute on her. It fits E perfectly amazingly enough and not too bad for having crocheted for all of 2 days now lol. Now C and J are asking for ones too and C wants me to teach her to crochet (not sure if I'll be undertaking that with a three year old despite it being easier than I expected).

Tomorrow we're planning a family outing (all of us) to get a tree, wish us look in the search since hubby's pretty picky on that front lol. He'll be making wooden ornaments, I'll be painting them, the kids will be painting the dough ornaments, and I have several crochet and felt ornaments planned too. It's definitely feeling more and more like Christmas here an I can't wait to see all the ornaments we've made on the tree and the kids get to know they had such a big part in it. Hope yall are having a wonderful weekend as well!

And here's a few pics from today's adventures.
J making salt dough ornaments with Mommy:



E and her new hat by Mommy :) The colors are more light pink and burgundy IRL though they show up pretty bright in these pics (just taken quickly with my cybershot)



C in reindeer antlers after getting back from her date with Daddy (She kept yelling "There's a reindeer in the house" lol)