Contest of the Ginger Bread Builders

Trader Joes has a really great kit to make Ginger Bread Houses

And with my kids one of the best ways to get things done is a Contest!

My older two are very competitive so I never let them be on the same team. So they Always make great team leaded. (Shyanne is a little OCD so most of the time if your on her team your not going to get to much hands on, but we are working on that)

So here we go with a 50 minute timer.

Team 1 

Shyanne and Levi

Team 2

Allyson and Anika

46 minutes into the contest we didnt even have frosting yet! Come on slackers

Shyanne working hard on gluing the house together and of course Levi just looking cute

Team 2 looks like they are sure working together well.

Look at that Clean house.....Must be Team 1

Here Team 2 has already got a lot going on...Wonder if they will win with so much eye catching frosting! I think this team might just be hopped up on Sugar?

Amariah the youngest of the crew was not happy that she didnt get a team. Mommy wasnt about to let her out of the fun. So I grabbed some Ginger Bread cookies that she could decorate and I think it made her day. Just look at that SMILE-

And the concentration was impressive 

I am kind of surprised their was no tongue sticking out.

I think someone might be just as OCD as her sister?

Little hands are so cute and apparently skilled ;)

Team 1 has now finished and Entered this beauty into the contest

Team 2  Has also put up a good Fight, the choice wont be easy?.....

Team 1 Santa is no stranger to this house and whats winter with out Jack frost 

helping play in the snow with the kids and Grandma? 

Nice and Neat and Hard to Beat

Team 2 Also has a Santa who looks like he might have lost some of his goodies?

Creative but a little messy for the Judges taste. 

But we believe they had a lot of Creativity and a LOT of SUGAR!

But after all is said and done the winners were.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

........

........

Team 1

Shyanne and Levi!

Levi is sporting the team number and that they are #1

~Happy Crafting~

And 

Merry Christmas

Crafts for Donations

A lot of my family and friends already know that we are hoping and desiring to Host an Orphan. The plan was that we were going to have an 8 year old girl here for Christmas. Unfortunately the program got put on hold because not enough children got picked to be hosted.

We started raising money to host her about two months ago. We got 1/2 way to our goal which was great news! So we are saving that money and waiting to use it for her when the program is back on this summer. Hopefully more kids will get hosted and she will be able to come (We already have Christmas gifts for her along with a blanket and a few other things, so we cant wait to give them to her)

We also know that we will probably fall in love with her and want her to become part of our family. So in the hopes of that I have decided to make crafts to give out with a Donation of a set amount of money. My first idea is these Owl Pillows, or Rice neck warmers. I am not sure

if people would want them so I am asking my Bloggers what you think? I would give our the owls for a suggested donation of $15 plus shipping. What do you think?

I just love the owl fabric so my neck warmer shown here 

is also in the fabric and would be a suggested donation of $10 plus shipping

I even have a cute little model to show off the size of the pillow

I can make them in all sizes and colors more boy or girl 

Let me know your thoughts and if you want one. Contact me at in the comments :)

Maybe if we can raise enough money we can also bring another child to America from the same orphanage! Wouldnt that be awesome!

Burlap!

Who loves Burlap?........I DO!

Yet I almost missed out on knowing that I loved it so much. I always saw Pintrest post, blogs, and friends posting their burlap creations. I dont know what it was I just didnt really have any interest in using the stuff or messing with it. My almost 10 year old daughter just got a bunk bed renovation (you can find that blog post here:

 http://coffeeandkids.blogspot.com/2014/12/bunk-bed-renovation.html )

As we were walking the Halls of Hobby Lobby we saw some really cute stuff that she said she would love to have in her room. The Bunk bed didnt really match the style of the room anymore because of the color combos that was in there before and as children do, she is growing into a new style.

So I let her pick out a few items that she liked and we took pictures of them, so I could remember them later for gift ideas, etc... 

After awhile I was just looking at them and thought, hm how easy would that be to make myself? I went to my local Walmart and found the supplies and brought it home. I admit that I stayed up way to late. I think it was around 2 am when I finally went to bed? But I cut out the roll of burlap to make a banner and started painting away with the colors that matched her bunch bed.

Polka Dots

Flowers (this is free hand)

And in the spirit of my daughter 

who loves all things animal print I even tried to copy

a zebra print fabric I had.

I even took it into her room and hung it up while she was sleeping.

Notice the Eiffel Tower? She loves the idea of a French theme 

I then took some more Burlap and painted the words "Paris" on it and and painted on a bow- Lucky for the both of us I had a white frame that I didnt know what to put in it. So in the frame went the burlap Paris pic.

But it didnt look finished......what to do? Paint it!

So I started Zebra painting the frame and ended up with 

This:

To keep the pink, white, black and Zebra theme going I turned that Zebra fabric I had into a Photo board.

(Although its not quiet finished as I ran out of little bows and the store that carries

them doesnt have them back in stock yet.)

So her room is on its way to be fully decorated!

~Happy Crafting~

Super Easy Christmas Card Holder

Christmas Card holder craft (this was my first one and I did rush, so the letters are wanky, but it was so easy I will make a new one, or just repaint lol)

To save time I just Spray painted the board white, and clothes pins red. Let dry and then pain on the lettering. Use a stencil to make it nicer than mine.

Then when dry you hot glue the pins to the board where you want it. Hot glue dries really fast so pretty much by the time you have them all glued on you can hang those cards or pictures right away!

~Happy Crafting~

Bunk Bed Renovation

My wonderful cousin was moving and gave us this FREE bunk bed. Well When you have 5 kids thats a pretty amazing gift! Which is pretty cool considering she also has 5 kids except they are almost all grown and out of the house.

But as most furniture goes after 1 kid let alone 5 it pretty much takes a beating. This one was no excuse. Carved initials, bang marks, etc.... Whats a mom to do? Renovation!!!

The best thing about furniture renovations is that you can seriously make a room look completely different and all you did was change a piece or pieces of furniture. This bunk bed also came with two dressers that are still in the process of being renovated.

Anyways, Step one- Come up with a plan/idea of what you want. In this cause I just straight up asked the girls that were going to be using it what colors they wanted. With one screaming Pink and one screaming Black I figured a nice mix of both would be awesome.

Step Two- Go get your supplies. I got mine at Target. I bought the paint and so I didnt have a bunch of work I cheated and bought chevron wall paper that was self sticking (basically wall sticker)

Set Three- Prep your project which this one I am not going lie didnt need anything really a light sanding and done.

Step Four-Paint and let dry

Step Five-Cut the wall sticker the size I needed for the indents and stick on

Step Six-Take a bunch of pics and post it on your blog ;)

Here is the finished product 

Where does the time Go?

Where does the time go? I mean I thought that I would seriously have this blogging thing down. Yet here I am and its been what?....8 months sense my last post?
We have been living back in Tennessee and took on another dog! Ha Ha yes we are so crazy. This time we got a Newfoundland Mastiff. Remember that Dog in the cartoon, Peter Pan?

(Nana from Peter Pan)

Most people believe that the dog in the Cartoon was a Saint Bernard, but in the actual discription of the movie she was actually a Newfie (Newfoundland Mastiff) So in the spirit of The movie we named our cute little (not really so little puppy) Nanna.

This was when we brought her home back in Aug 

But as we know puppies dont stay small for long, and neither did Nanna-

(Harlow & Nanna)

Nanna is now bigger than Harlow, Our Boxer! They pretty much love each other ;) but play fight all the time which drives me nuts. 

Other then the fact that we got a new dog I have been home schooling, but thats not really new thats just life here with our amazing 5 kids. We are in the process of House Hunting. I CANT WAIT! I am so excited about moving into our very own house so we can get back to work with gardening and farm animals, plus it would be nice to have a bigger yard for our BIG dogs. 

We are just 4 days away from Christmas, the birth of our Savior. So in remembering the season we have been really talking to the kids about thinking of others and sharing the gospel. 

One of the biggest things that has changed is that Mike (my husband) and I have repented from our Apathy for standing up for our unborn neighbor. Abortion is one of the most horrific things going on in our country and yet its legal! Just like Nazi Germany. So many people lead away to slaughter and yet its was legal. Yet we have managed to kill more unborn children in America then Germans killed Jews. We have joined up with Abolish Human Abortion (AHA),projectfrontlines.com You can go check out for more information also check out ahamidtn.com If your ever interested in coming out and standing with us we would be more than happy to see you there! you can contact us on the second link for details.

Other than that we are just raising our 5 kids and trying our hardest to do what God is asking us to do. 

So thats the update before this December 2014 turns into 2015!!!

Life is a Go-

Well to drop the BOMB on my blog followers who do not know me in person.......WE are leaving England and moving BACK to America!

Thats right! Our 4 years in England got cut down to about a year and 2 months.

Long story short we saw an opportunity to get out of the military life and we took it. We do love military life, and families we have meet along the way. But we just feel called to go in another direction. God has chosen another plan for us and we are going to be faithful and follow it.

So where are we off to? Tennessee!

We had a grand Adventure here in England and with that we learned how to own chickens. Fresh morning eggs were amazing. So will be looking for property in Tennessee to call our own and raise up some more chickens, for meat and eggs. We will start a garden (I am so excited about this) Maybe even raise some Goats, or Sheep? We are getting bold! Farm life for us :)

I am ready to start our life on the farm in full force. We have even been looking into buying a travel trailer to start out in. YES! I know what your thinking......7 people in a travel trailer (5 kids) It will sure be interesting and a blog post all in its self!

I will truly focus more on my blog to keep everyone up to date as we have decided that facebook just isnt really for us anymore. I will check it from time to time. Because I do have a business page and I dont want to lose contacts for $. But it will most likely be on a weekend bases. So During the week I can keep everyone updated on our life, through blogging.

Here is whats ahead on our trip to come!

We have a plane ride coming up from London (ahhh to say goodbye will be bitter sweet. So far London has been my favorite city!) Then we will fly into Chicago....
Option 1 will then have a 6 hr layover waiting for our second plane ride to Atlanta Ga.
Where we will stay the night before we drive to Tenn.
Option 2 we will skip the lay over and flight altogether and drive seven hours to Tenn.
(BOTH OPTIONS SOUND HORRID! But thats about the best we can do with the fact that we are bring our Boxer dog who has decided to have a massive growth spurt! right before our trip, Thank you Harlow)

Anyways.....so thats the update for now.

I will of course have a story to tell about out actual travel day. I am sure it will be full of excitement.