~Jesus is the Reason for the Season~

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV)

(In our Christmas Jammies)

Here all 5 of the kids are in there new Christmas Jammies

With this being our very first time in Tennessee for Christmas we needed to figure out where to look at Christmas lights???

A friend of ours gave us three suggestions. So we headed to a town about 30 mins away.

WOW were we blown away. Unfortunately I only had my camera phone and the photos do NOT do it Justice at all.

But here is what I got.

1st location Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds

Fair Grounds

 Fair Grounds

Second Location. I think this is enough lights to cover the whole state! 

But its just one house

Live Animals at the 3rd location

This was the 3rd location with a Live Santa

And a Frosty

Which My son is FREAKED out about anyone in costume (except Santa?)

I took so many more photos but they just came out worse then these ones. Boo-Next year my night vision Camera is for sure going to be there.
But we spent the night doing what most people do. In our house its Potato Soup, Christmas story, Night before Christmas story, and Christmas Jammies! But we added on a gift exchange where each member of the family drew and name and did a gift exchange. I got a cute little book from my 2nd oldest daughter that was all about how lucky she was to have a mom like me. Heart melting!! And the kids all got some toy they wanted lol My memory is already fading so here is some pics.

Legos for Levi

Baby Doll for Amariah 

(Oh and each kid got marshmallows and a hot chocolate pack to take with us to look at lights)

Anika a Art box full of different art supplies

Shyanne got a Doc McStuffins "Stuffy" Dragon

Mike got a Something he wanted? I have no idea really what it is?

But he is apparently really excited about it

Allyson got some 5 headed dragon

And I guess I didnt take a picture of my book but I need to get one and put it on here.

Then after all the excitement and looking at the lights we sent the kiddos to bed. 

Mike and I knew that no matter what we did we probably would not be getting much sleep. I finished watching the rest of the Nativity movie that we had started before dinner time. Then when we thought the kids might be asleep, or at least pretending well we started packing the bottom of the tree with gifts and stocking the stockings!

One little sneaky kid was peaking. I wont say who this child was but SHE is not the first born, or the third, or the 5th. This little sneaky got caught though and ended up in a room with a closed door. I was thinking I might need to add something black and hard to her stocking. But I guess its the season of showing Grace to others. So I let her slide this one time.

Like most Christmas mornings the kids are up way to early. In fact I found out later on in the day that a Ms. Allyson was up at 2 am thinking the day should start. Luckily for me her oldest sister Anika told her it was way to early and sent her back to bed. I heard the kids get up around 5:30am and tried ignoring them to the best of my abilities. But I couldnt go back to sleep. So instead I spend about 30 mins in God's word reading John. I used to think John was my favorite book in the Bible but now I have so many favorites I couldnt possibly choose. Nothing like starting Jesus's Birthday off with his word and story of his birth.

About 6am I rolled over in bed and told Mike it was probably about time we got up and let the kids get out of misery of waiting to open stuff. We said they could do stockings but after stockings they needed to wait tell I had breakfast in the oven. Breakfast consisted of a Bacon-Cheese Quiche and Carmel Cinnamon rolls. Heres the link to the Quiche is your want to make it. It was my first attempt and ended up being a crowd pleaser.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/272327108693635725/

Oh and that mug I got in my stocking from Mike. It says, "Instant Human Just add Coffee"

He knows me all to well.

After a torturous 35 mins or so I had everything in the oven and the kids were ready to roll with the gifts.

Things I enjoyed the most was my mom hand made 4 American Girl doll dresses for the girl's dolls (Amariah doesnt have one yet so her dress will have to wait tell shes older) I cant believe how much time she must have put into them and they are amazing. They really need there own blog!  Once the kids get them on their dolls I am sure I will post that blog.

Thanks MAMA! 

Heres a few pics to show off the goodies.

 

 
  I know I said a few. But with 5 kids a few ends up being 13-ekkk

That was the majority of the kids goods and Mike got a bunch of AHA stuff and I got a water bath cooker (canning yay) a cook book to go with that. New knives set, and a cow hide rug (not real fur) So it was pretty good! :)

This Christmas has been one of our Laziest ones with the fact that we arent hosting anyone at our house. Which usually I would say it doesnt feel like Christmas but this time around it has been very nice. I get to just kind of lounge around. We hate left over soup for Lunch and I threw in some cornbread. But dont think we are being completely anti-social as we are heading off to my Aunts house for dinner.

Also Mikes parents are flying in from California and Land some time around 8pm tonight so we will be seeing them tomorrow and spending the next few days with them. So I am sure I will have a lot more to Blog about. Until Next year-
Remember that the true meaning of Christmas isnt about presents or bows but about the Savior who humbled himself enough to be born of a virgin and give us all the best gift of all Grace and Salvation.  That is why we exchange gifts. To remind us of THE gift of Jesus for each and everyone.


(If you want to know more about Jesus and what the Gospel is check out the link http://www.thegospelistrue.com/)

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~