A New Family Tradition! - Moveable Manger

Last weekend my family attended a special event at church focused on the tradition of Advent. I didn't grow up celebrating Advent and to be honest - I really don't know that much about it.
But, we 're going to learn this year. We are following an Advent calendar, purchased our candles, and created our own Moveable Manger.





We created our own manger characters (following patterns that we were given).





Will cut 2X4 blocks of wood for them to be placed on.













We will begin our new family Advent tradition tomorrow night. We will scatter the characters throughout the house, moving them closer to the manger each night, anticipating the Baby Jesus! I think the boys will love it!

And I am so excited to begin this new tradition as a family!

A Result of My Addiction (to Pinterest)!

I have mentioned before that I am a Pinterest addict! I am constantly on the search for new holiday crafts, party ideas, yummy treats - whatever I can find!
The other day I was playing on the Pinterest site and found this cute idea for storing stuffed animals. With three kiddos - we have managed to accumulate tons of these adorable critters. They are stashed in toy boxes, top closet shelves, under beds - wherever I can find a spot.
I texted Will a picture of this contraption - he headed to Lowe's, got the wood that he would need and got to work within a few days!



He also had a little help for two very helpful assistants!







I was very pleased with the outcome.





Now it just needs some paint and a cute "name". The one on Pinterest is "The Zoo" - we shall see.......

I'm Way Ahead

For once, I'm way ahead on my Christmas shopping. I usually wait til the day after Thanksgiving and begin my "Black Friday Nightmare" in tow with Mom and sister.
This year I started early, having done tons of shopping online, and found a few early sells.

Big C - almost complete (just some treats for his stocking)
Little H - same!
Toddler G - same!

Can you believe it! - a month til Christmas and boys are almost done! Check for me!

My parents - they wanted a Keuring coffee pot and coffee - check!

I have to admit - I am so proud of myself!

....on a side note, since I do have a few presents to wrap and am so done with fall decor, I am dying to put up my Christmas tree. Only thing is, family Thanksgiving is at my house and it just feels "wrong" to celebrate Thanksgiving with a huge tree in the living room.
Guess I'll wait til Thanksgiving night......

~ ~ ~

Here is my sweet Gray tonight enjoying an activity I found on Pinterest (my addiction to Pinterest is a blog for another time)

The Daniels' Christmas Ornament Preview

Each year since I was a child, my Dad has purchased me a Hallmark Christmas ornament. Dad started this tradition when he and Mom married and continued it with my sister and me.
..........many years later........
When Will and I started dating, we began buying Hallmark ornaments for each other to begin building our own Christmas traditions. Our first Christmas together, my parents wrapped up and gave me all of the ornaments from my childhood to fill our first tree. Will and I continued to buy Hallmark ornaments for each other until we had Clayton and we have continued this tradition each year. We now purchase one family ornament (mainly for me), one for Clayton, one for Hudson and one for Graydon.
Because we went on our first Disney family trip last month, I decided to veer from the Hallmark ornaments this year - for the first time in 30 years!
I searched the Disney Store online and found an ornament that best suited each child's memories of trip and myself (included!)

For Clayton - I chose a Phineas and Ferb ornament! - He loves this show and he loved meeting these characters at Hollywood Studios. We spend many afternoons and weekends watching On Demand episodes of these mischievous, but super-smart brothers.



For Hudson - I chose a Buzz and Woody ornament! - Hudson's favorite ride in Magic Kingdom was the Buzz Spin Ride (or at least that's what we called it!) Our family rode this ride many times - and loved every minute of it! We also stood in line for almost an hour at Hollywood Studios to meet these movie characters, so they are worthy of an ornament to remember them by.



For Graydon - I chose a Simba and Nala ornament. Graydon stared in amazement during the show Festival of the Lion King. He seemed to love the characters, music and dancing. I chose something that fit "just him" and was completely adorable.



And for me.........I chose a red set of Mickey Mouse ears displaying something memorable from each of the parks. Something simple, yet a reminder of our first family Disney trip together.


I think it was totally worth a break-in-tradition this year....
but next year, probably back to Hallmark!

A Backtrack to Halloween: My 3 Monsters

Halloween was over 2 weeks ago, and I have yet to blog about my 3, sweet and scary monsters. This was the first Halloween that our boys didn't have a "theme" - I couldn't get Clayton to agree on anything with the little boys. I thought I had a few great ideas.
Farm theme: Clayton - scarecrow, Hudson - farmer, and Graydon - a farm animal
Monster theme: Clayton - skeleton, Hudson - monster, Graydon - spider

None of my ideas passed the test.

This year I ended up with 1 Red Skull Ninja, 1 Ninja Turtle, and 1 Alligator.
(O.K., so Clayton and Hudson had the word "ninja" in their name!)





We were able to Trunk or Treat with Aunt Karen, Uncle James, Cam, and Kylee at their church this year.



My Turtle waits patiently for a treat.





Clayton Ninja tries to look fierce!



Gator Gray enjoyed many suckers that night!





Mommies and Babies (Aunt Karen and Kylee with Graydon and me)

And Halloween night Uncle James, Aunt Karen, Cam, and Kylee came and trick-or-treated in our neighborhood.







My 3 monsters had one spook-tastic Halloween!

I'm Officially a Lego-Maniac!

This December is Clayton's 7th birthday! I can hardly believe he will be SEVEN years old in a month- but that's another story.
This year he has decided to choose a Lego-themed birthday party! I absolutely loved the idea!
I headed straight to the computer to start my party-planning......invitations, cake, treat bags, games, party decoration, - you name it! and Pinterest has been my best friend is all of this planning.
This afternoon I began a few of my Lego ideas that I stole straight from my beloved Pinterest site.

Clayton's invitations



A few weeks ago, Clayton and I created the #7 out of Legos for this pictures that we would use for his invite.

Clayton's treat bags



Not sure about all of our "treat bag goodies", but my wheels are turning.
(Lego man cake pops, Lego baggies,..............)


Something else Lego -
Lego ornaments that Clayton, Hudson, and I created one afternoon last week.



Super easy - plain, glass ornaments stuffed with Lego pieces.

With Legos, the possibilities are endless!

Our Favorite Turtle: Ninja Hudson

Hudson is our family's "Little Ham", "All Boy", "Little Will", and this Halloween he made an absolutely adorable Ninja Turtle! His preschool continued their annual Costume Parade and Will was there to snap tons of pictures. (Will was to the rescue again - since I was at school during his program).





His preschool class marching in........





This smile melts my heart!







His class - complete with 7 girls and 3 boys





Look at him watching his teacher - so sweet!

We are so proud of the sweet little boy he is becoming! - except for the occasional "sassy-ness."
O.K., so no kid is completely perfect - but Hudson comes pretty close!