head over to jtphoto.org to see what's new!

Yes, I know my blog needs some love. But....I've been busy. I've got a week worth of my Handmade Christmas projects lined up on my photography blog. Come on over and check them out!

I've got some more videos to add here, but I've got other more important things to do first, like sleep, clean, organize, play with kids, etc, etc, etc. But really, I will be updating my other blog lots this week!

baby steps

Greg and I sat down with Hannah last night and tried to get her to walk a little more and be brave. We got her taking a few more steps...then I grabbed the camera and was able to catch this little video of her walking to get something! So cute! So, I guess she'll do some more practicing and then she'll be on her own! Maybe even before Christmas!!!

Butt scootin boogie

I was talking to a friend at church on Wednesday night while Hannah scooted around in the background. She then asked me if I had any video of Hannah scooting around because when I'm 100 I'm going to want to remember that little scoot. I told her that I think I took video of the little scoot the other day but hadn't uploaded it to my computer yet. Well, I finally did upload the video to my computer and tried to get the video to load to facebook...but it wouldn't and that's okay. I think I'd rather have it here on my blog anyway. So, here's a little video of one of Hannah's favorite ways of getting around.

She's starting to get more brave and stands up in the middle of the room randomly now...but still no real walking. She's taking her sweet time...and I'm okay with that!!!

away in a manger

We have the coolest kids. Greg and I say that on a regular basis. But seriously they are pretty awesome. They're hilarious, caring, thoughtful, loud, mischevious, entertaining and just down right sweet. The other day Naomi and Micah were singing Away in a Manger and the first time Micah sang it like this "Olivia no crib for a bed. The stars in the sky. The little Lord Jesus shut the door." Crazy kid. Then I asked him to sing it again and he sang the first verse perfectly. I asked him if he knew any of the other verses and he just said, "nope, I only know one" He does know parts of the other verses but he just needs someone to sing with him. I cannot wait for the Christmas program on Sunday, should be good.

Here's Micah singing Away in a Manger!!

Naomi wanted in on the video action too so here she is singing Away in a Manger. I asked her what other songs she has to sing for the Christmas program and she told me "Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" I asked her if she wanted to practice with me and she said "No mom, that's why we have practice on Saturday"....so I guess I'll leave it to the professionals (aka, the sunday school teachers).

Gifts for yourself

Today is the last day of the 12 crafts for Christmas hosted by The Trendy Treehouse! Here's my last post!

We all know that Christmas is a time of giving. A time when we remember the greatest gift ever given, the gift of Jesus in flesh. The gift of salvation brought to life. We give gifts because we've already received the greatest gift ever to be given. We give gifts to everyone in our lives, kids, parents, teachers, postal workers, but is it wrong to give a gift to yourself? I don't think so. So often we as mothers give give and give some more that sometimes it's nice and actually IMPORTANT to give a little to ourselves.

Maybe your gift to yourself this year will be laying off the mommy guilt. Maybe you'll give yourself permission to fail, to not be the "perfect" wife, mom, etc because we all know that person doesn't exist. Maybe you'll give yourself 10 extra minutes of peace and quiet by setting the alarm. Maybe you're going to give yourself energy by exercising a little more regularly. Maybe you're going to give yourself time by setting a timer for "extra" things like tv shows or computer time so you don't get sucked ALL the way in, but then you'll have the time to do the things you want and need to do.  Maybe you'll give yourself time to craft things for YOU! I plan on doing ALL of these things.

Maybe your gift to yourself will be more a material object. Those are nice too. My husband and I do the St. Nicholas thing with our kids (but not Santa) since he was a real man who gave to the poor and needy. But who fills my stocking...me! So, this  year I didn't give myself anything. But that's becuse I didn't have any small gift that I really wanted...and I am still working on gifts for others so I haven't gotten around to my own crafting yet...but I will. I will make myself some pajama pants and I will make myself a clothespin people wall hanging.


What are you going to give to yourself?

If you're still looking for the perfect gift some someone on your list come on over to my etsy store and see what I've got that might help you check off another name!

Hannah's room featured!

Hannah's room is featured over at Baby Lifestyles! I was so excited when they contacted me about featuring her room. This room is a labor of love, making everything myself (or as much as possible) and keeping the budget at a minimum, and totally worth it!

Christmas Crafting with the kids

We got our first snow here in West Tennessee early this week. My kids were so excited. This is really the first time that they've experienced a real snow fall. When we lived in Texas it snowed about 1/4 of an inch in February of this year and it only stuck to the driveway (so that's where they made their snow angels). So, they were super excited. They played outside in the snow...got cold...came in and had hot chocolate. We've also been doing some more crafting and Christmas crafting in particular. My kids love to do "projects", and ask to do them all the time. I figured it was time I start actually doing some of the things that I pin on my pinterest board...so we got out the construction paper and got to work!

The first thing we made was a Christmas Tree ring Advent calendar from Make and Takes. Naomi was able to do this pretty well on her own, I just had to tell her where to put the next ring, however I had to help Micah with it quite a bit.

 Then I decided to cut out their handprints and make a wreath. My mom used to make a big Christmas tree with her second grade classes handprints. I'm sure this wreath has been done before and is nothing new but it was fun to make and it'll be fun to see how their handprints grow over the years. So, I just traced their hands on one piece of paper and then cut six out at a time. Then you just curl the fingers in a bit and then I glued them to a cardboard cereal box circle.

Glue them around the circle and keep layering them until the wreath looks full. Then I just glued some red circles around and covered the middle with a big red circle and as you can see wrote "merry christmas" on the circle to cover up the ends of the hands. I think I used about 24 handprints (half from a 5 year old and half from a 3 year old).

I tried to trace Hannah's hand so that I could make a small Christmas tree but she threw a fit. I'll try again some other time. But, you can use the handprints to create a Christmas tree as well. Just start the hands with the curled fingers pointing down but the hands curling upwards and layer the handprints in the shape of a tree. I'll try and get a photo of one soon!

Happy Christmas crafting!