The news I was dreading...

In a previous post, I mentioned that my husband and I were having some trouble getting pregnant. Well yesterday, I got the news I was dreading. I went to the Dr. last month because my cycle never started and I was worried something might be wrong. She put me on Provera to start my cycle (which worked) and then she wanted to do a blood test to check and see if I was ovulating. They like your progesterone level to be 15 or higher, which shows that you're actually releasing an egg. My progesterone level was 0.5. :-( So I'm not ovulating at all. She said she'd like to put me on the fertility drug called Clomid. So I will start that my next cycle. Please keep us in your prayers.

2010 Family Christmas Picture!

Every year, since Jake and I have been married, we've taken a family picture in front of our tree. The only person not in the picture is the cat, and thats only because he won't cooperate, ;-) I always buy a picture frame ornament from Michaels with the year on it and that way we have an ornament with our picture in it from every year. We will be able to look back and see all the Christmas' past and see how our family has grown. For the past 3 years its just been Jake and I and Libby and Hunter... but this year we have added Max to the family. Thankfully he's a good sport about taking pictures. Jake and Hunter on the other hand are only a couple cooperation levels above the cat. As you can see in the picture, neither of them look all that thrilled. I even let Jake wear his Chiefs jersey and hat, since he had been to a game earlier that day. But all in all I'm happy with our picture this year and look forward to putting it in our 2010 ornament. Thanks for looking and I hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season!

Star of Wonder ~ Our childrens Christmas Musical at Church

Every year, since 1988 when I was 7 years old, the church I attend has put on a Childrens' Christmas Musical. This past weekend was our 22nd annual Christmas Musical. Since 1988 I've starred and participated in every musical in one way or another. Once I got to be too old, I started helping with directing the musical. This year I helped direct and danced in it. Here are a few pictures from this years musical.

The set. 

The main characters of the play. They were all stars.

The kids singing.

The toddler aged kids singing and dancing.

A few boys from the youth group. 

Myself and three of the girls in the youth group. We danced to one of the songs in the musical. 



Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

This past Saturday night we had our first snow storm of the season. We only got about 1-3 inches, but its soooo cold that it all turned very icy. The temp. on my way to work this morning was 6 degrees!! Way too cold for me. :-( But since it was the first time Max has seen and played in snow, I thought I better take some pictures. Here are my 3 dogs having a good time in the snow yesterday...

Libby in the snow.

Hunter and Max playing in the snow.

All three dogs in the snow.

Max, after playing in the snow. He loved it!!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

After I got the tree and decorations up on Saturday night, I decided to try and get my 3 dogs in front of the tree for our Christmas Card Photo. I wasn't sure whether I'd even get a good enough shot of all three, but I was determined to try. I had gotten some ribbon to tie around their necks and with my husband's help, here are some of the shots I got. Hunter wouldn't cooperate at first so I got some cute ones of Libby and our new baby Max.

Max and Libby posing in front of the tree.

Libby in front of the tree. She's always been good about taking pictures. :-)

Libby, Max and Hunter in front of the tree.

I think this will be the picture we use for our Christmas Card this year. 

Libby, Max and Hunter laying in front of the tree. 2010

Max being sweet!! 

Our new puppy Max in front of the tree looking oh so cute!

Our cat, Stormy.



12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 12: Decorations

Sorry this post is a couple days late. I've been busy decorating and working with the kids at church on the Christmas Musical.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting all my decorations out and decorating the house. I get so excited unwrapping each and every ornament, to see which one its going to be. We went and got our 2010 Noble Fir this past Friday night and then Saturday I decorated. I've gotten so many of my decorations from PartyLite. A couple other decorations are from Avon and then the rest were homemade by myself or my mom.

The tree before decorations.

The tree after decorations.

Our living room decorated for Christmas.

The end-table in our living room. The reindeer, candles and musicbox are all from PartyLite.

The snow globe and infinite reflections are both from Partylite, the clock is from Avon and was a gift from my MIL. It plays a Christmas carol every hour... I love it! The nativity scene I've had for probably 10 years or more. Not sure where I got it but I've set it out every year.

My new table runner I got his year at Hobby Lobby for 50% off!!

The decorations in this picture are all Partylite except the frame. I think I got this frame at Walmart the first Christmas Jake and I were married. It has our first family Christmas Picture in it from 2007.

All the decorations in this picture are from Partylite.

The dining room table decorated for Christmas.

A close up of the place setting.

A close up of the centerpiece.

The bakers rack all decorated for Christmas.

 This is a super cute glass block night light that my mom made this year.

And the stockings were hung. All 6 of our stockings! :-)

 Jake's Great-Grandma made this tree skirt for him before he was even married. She made one for each of his brothers as well. It has been under our tree every year. I'm very sentimental and I love stuff like that. :-) She's in her 80's and still makes us a Christmas present every year.

12 Days of Christmas, Day 11: New Years Resolutions

I don't normally make New Years Resolutions because I don't normally stick to them. Last year I said I was going to try and be more punctual and well, that hasn't really happened. So I'm going to continue to work on that. I'd also like to be credit card debt free by the end of 2011 and thats actually a pretty attainable resolution. When we bought our house we did many updates to the house and we unfortunately used credit cards as a means to pay for all the improvements. For the last couple years we've been working on paying it all off and are very close to having no credit card debt!!!! So in 2011 I hope we will be able to finally say that we're credit card debt free.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles

There are so many great Christmas songs, but some of my favorites are...

Carol of the Bells by Transiberian Orchestra

O Come O Come Emanuel

What Child is this by Mercy Me

O Holy Night by Mercy Me

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Mercy Me

Wizards in Winter by Transiberian Orchestra

Christmas Time is Here from Charlie Brown Christmas
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire by Nat King Cole
The Nutcracker Suite
Baby its Cold Outside
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 9: Favorite Holiday Food

This is a tough one, but I'd have to say its a tie between chicken and dumplings and pumpkin pie!

Don't forget to link up here:

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 8: Least favorite thing about the Holidays

I would have to say my least favorite thing about the holidays is all the hustle and bustle. I wish it could be a more relaxing time, rather than being stressful. With the Christmas Musical and Christmas Store at my church that I'm involved in, and the three Dec. birthdays in my family and then all the Christmas shopping and gatherings with different family members, it can be a pretty busy time of year. I think thats why I always look forward to our Christmas Eve service at church. Its seems like that evening is when I finally get to relax and focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas. :-)

Link up here...

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 7: Holiday Craft

My church has a Christmas store every year where we make crafts and sell them. My craft has recently been these few ornaments!

For this ornament, you just buy some clear glass ornaments and then take strips of scrapbook paper and roll them individually on a pencil, then stick the paper into the ornament. You continue to do this til the ornament is filled up. I then tie a piece of pretty ribbon onto the top and I might also put a cute Christmas sticker on the front.

This isn't one we've made for the store because its so personal, but I've made them for my tree and I've made them as gifts. You just take a 2x3 acrilic stamp block (from Archivers) and a 2x3 wallet size photo. You buy some two sided tape sheets (also from Archivers) and you rub the tape onto one side of the block. You then set your picture, front side down onto the block and press firmly to make sure every part of the picture sticks to the block. Then I glue some ribbon all the way around the 3 sides and tie a pretty bow so that it can hang on your tree. I've also used photoshop to put the year on the picture so that I can always remember what year it was. I then put 4 little rhinestones on each corner for added decoration.

This is actually an ornament my made for our store a couple years ago. She just painted a penguin onto a light bulb and attached some ribbon to the top.

This is just a red ball ornament with a piece of 2 sided tape around the middle. You then roll the tape in black glitter and then use a gold glitter pen (stickles) to put the belt buckle on. Then you glue a white pipe cleaner to the top and add some ribbon.

 This is an ornament I just started making last year. I made this one Twilight themed for my tree, but we've made them Christmas themed for the store. You just poor a little bit of pledge floor wax, swish it around to get all of the inside covered, then poor the remaining pledge out. You then take any color of Martha Stewart fine glitter and poor it into the ornament. You will swish the glitter around to cover the whole insde of the ornament as well. Then put the top back on and add some ribbon to the front. You can also add some vinyl cut out using the cricut, or you can add a cute Christmas sticker.

This is an ornament I made last year for our store. I'm also making several more this year. Its just a cookie cutter with scrapbook paper glued around the outside edge. I used my xyron to glue the strip of paper on. I then tied a piece of matching ribbon onto the top and then I made a little bow and hot glued it onto the side along with a couple of little bells. I made these in several different shapes.

This is a craft my mom made for our Christmas store a couple years ago. Its just a stone paver from Home Depot or Lowes thats been painted to look like a snowman. She then tied some fabric around his neck and glued some pom poms onto his head and some wire to make them look like ear muffs.

And last, but certainly not least, my mom is making these glass block lights this year with a snow man face on them. We've sold several of them already and the store isn't even til this coming weekend. We just buy the glass blocks from Home Depot and drill a hole in the side of them. You then put a strand of 20-35 christmas lights in there. The face is put on using vinyl and the cricut. She also hot glued a sock hat on the top and tied a piece of ribbon around the bottom or you can also use a scrap of fabric or fleece for a scarf.

Thanks for looking at all my crafts and don't forget to link up here:

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 6: Gift Ideas for Me!

A few things that I'd like to have for Christmas are...

1. I have been collecting Disney Classic DVD's for the last few years, so a couple I'd like to have for my collection are...

Each of these just came out of the vault this year or are about to come out.

2. I also collect Japanese Teapots, so I always put that on my list. Here is one I'd like to have...

3. I'd also like to have just about anything from this website. There are so many cool things at this store and some of the proceeds go to help rescue animals.

4. Edward and Bella Hallmark Keepsake Ornament