White Christmas

Our Christmas was just wonderful. The kiddos were SO. STINKIN. EXCITED. that it just bathed everyone with excitement and anticipation!

Sleepy-eyed excitement on Christmas morn!

Ella Beth l-o-v-e-d everything she got. Over and over throughout the day we heard her say, "Oh! My wish came true!" as she opened her gifts. :)

Some of Landon's gifts (a bulldozer and a dump truck) were as big as he is!

Landon's "new" smile. :)

Another one of Ella Beth's wishes coming true...

A fully furnished doll house!

Landon thinks he's a BIG boy now on his new bicycle!

Opening more presents Christmas evening at Aunt Karla's house.

If your little one received a pillow pet for Christmas I am sure these were the same faces you saw when he or she opened it!!!

Ella Beth screamed, "This is the BEST. DAY. EVER. Oh, my favorite wish came true!" (She's not the least bit dramatic. ;))

And, to top it all off...it was a White Christmas. What a special day indeed!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

This week we invited our neighbors over for a Happy Birthday Jesus party. We had a wonderful time celebrating the true reason for the season with everyone. The kiddos even sat down for the SWEETEST kids' Christmas story EVER!

The book is God Gave Us Christmas, by Lisa Tawn Bergren (who also wrote God Gave Us You, which you are probably familiar with). It is simply lays out how God is everywhere, and He gave us Christmas because of His great love for us. A must!

Time for cupcakes!

Happy Birthday, Jesus! Thank you for loving us ALL so much that you came just for us.

Multitudes on Mondays

I found this beautiful button with its even more beautiful story.



It is the story of a young girl who experiences a horrible tragedy. She questions God - where is He? How can He be good when there is so much bad? Questions, if we are honest, we have all asked.

Yet, she has a list of one thousand gifts that her Heavenly Father has bestowed to her.

And, on this Multitudes on Monday, I will share a few of my own:

*belly laughs from children

*medicine to make the coughs quiet and help the children (and parents!) sleep

*warm clothes to wear in extremely cold temperatures

*nutritious food to eat when so many in this world have none

*the sparkle of our Christmas tree - white AND colored lights all on one tree!

*the feeling of being a hero...I say "only" to Ella Beth, but she says there is no other

*the love of a God who will pursue me no matter how far I run

*the meaning of Christmas - our Savior who promises us eternity

Now, what are your Multitudes this Monday?

Kicked-up T-shirts

I bought some inexpensive long sleeved t-shirts at Target, and I decided to kick them up a notch (thank you, Emeril).

First, I used my handy and amazing Cricut (thank you, Mama) to cut my templates out of cardstock. Of course, you could always free hand your templates, but I'm type-A remember?!?!

I found some great fabric at Hobby Lobby and traced the templates.

I cut the templates out. A little tricky, but that wasn't the worst step.

That would be cutting out and applying the fabric adhesive. You do have to be precise because the adhesive will spread beyond the fabric...and you don't want that. Of course, almost all of my patterns had lots of curves so this was the hardest step most annoying step step that required the most patience. :)

Once you apply the fabric to the shirt, iron on to adhere the adhesive. Is that redundant?!?

And, wa-la, the end results are pretty darn cute!


Ella Beth's favorite - she's so proud to be 4!

My favorite.

I really like this butterfly template AND the colors in this fabric.

I can't believe Landon will be wearing this shirt in just 2 short months. Sigh.

If you're interested in me making any, let me know! And, if you have a little one's birthday coming up, don't be surprised to find one of these as a present from the Castleberrys. ;)