Little Drummer Boy

Around here, we listen to and play a lot of music.  Matt loves to find new artists and songs he enjoys, and he's also a piano, guitar, and drum player.  I am (slowly!) learning how to play the piano, and I love to sing.  Both Bella and Elijah love music too.  They will sing and dance to anything they hear, and they love to play instruments with Daddy.  It's no wonder they both love music so much, we've been playing for them since they were in the womb.  We are so happy that they love it as much as we do!  It's such a fun thing to do together as a family. 

Elijah's favorite thing to play, by far, are the drums.  He's become quite the little drummer boy!  He loves when Daddy holds him on his lap to play, or he will walk over to the drums himself and try to bang away with whatever object is in his hands.  Matt lets him sit and practice with him as long as Elijah is wearing ear protection.  He absolutely loves it!  Maybe he will be a drummer in a band someday, who knows?! 

Here's to putting a little beat in your step today:)

Cuties eating Cuties

Just a couple of cuties eating cuties around here.  Cuties clementines that is! 

 My kiddos LOVE these little snacks.  I can hardly get them peeled fast enough to satisfy these two!  Who knew they'd go so crazy for fruit?!  Thank the Lord for the small blessings.

Happy Friday to you!

Christmas time

Well, we are busy around here doing all things Christmas!

We've been working on Christmas ornaments

Building Gingerbread houses with Grandma

(And eating gingerbread houses!)

Decorating the house for Christmas

Hanging out with the family

Watching the first big snowfall of the season!

Bella's excited for snowballs:)

Playing with friends

And watching the Christmas Parade!

We've also started a coloring sheet for each of the 12 days of Christmas.  The kids started their first one today, and we are going to try to complete one for each day.  Here's the link if you'd like to use the free print outs too!

Hope you are having a fun Christmas Season so far! 

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

At the request of my mother in law Debbie and my sister in law Erika, here is my homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe.  I can't take all the credit though, it is a recipe originally from my mom (thanks mom!).  I hope you all enjoy it!

Chicken Pot Pie

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp salt (optional)

1/4 tsp pepper

1 1/2 cups water

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp. chicken bullion granules (I use 1 tsp. low sodium, and 1 tsp. regular)

2 cups of cubed, cooked chicken

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

2 pie crusts (store bought or homemade will work)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2.Melt butter in a sauce pan, stir in the flour and the next six ingredients until blended.  Boil 2 minutes then remove from heat.

3. Stir in chicken and vegetables.

4.Using a greased pie pan, place the first pie shell down and put mixture into a pie shell, then cover top with the other shell.

5. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown and filling is bubbly.

6. Enjoy:)

Button Artwork

I found this project idea on pinterest (see here), and decided to try it myself.  It's a quick, fun project for a kid's room. 

Here's the end result:

Materials needed:

Canvas

Buttons

Paint and Brushes

Hot Glue Gun

Permanent Marker

Googly eyes (if you want!)

First, make a rough outline of the shape you are making and paint it in the color that most buttons will be.  This way, if there are gaps, the background color is the same. 

Next, hot glue on buttons, layering several and vary the shades of the color you are using (Be careful, the hot glue tends to seep through the button holes-ouch!).  Take a look at the picture from a few steps back-it's easy to just keep adding more and more buttons! 

I decided to have my elephant holding one big red balloon, but you could do several small balloons, several colors, etc.  I thought it would be cute to do a pink balloon for a girl's room.  I used a permanent marker to draw the string of the balloon. 

Last I added a little googly eye to the elephant (can you spot it?)  It doesn't stick out, but I think it looks pretty cute:)  Let it dry, and hang it up! 

View my post on the sign next the the elephant here

The site I found this idea on also had some other cute button projects.  My mom came up with her own idea-a letter H for their last name.  It turned out pretty cute, huh?   Feel free to try out these projects if you'd like!  I think it would be a cute idea for a baby shower of birthday gift too:)

Elijah's First Birthday!

That's right, our little boy is 1!  We can hardly believe it...this past year has gone by fast! 

We celebrated Elijah's special day with a 'little man' party.  We had mustaches, ties, and lots of fun treats to eat.  Here is a recap in pictures:

Our Little Man!

We had everyone put something into a time capsule for Elijah to open on his 18th (golden!) birthday.  Most people wrote a letter or added pictures. 

So Big!

Elijah thought the mustaches were pretty funny!

Matt making good use of the extra mustaches

Big Sister Bella was pretty excited for all the birthday fun

PRESENTS!

Our sweet pug Cayman was such a good sport-she looks good with a 'stache, huh?!

Cake Time!

Cake Attacker!

Our son is 1!

Happy Birthday Elijah!  You are such a wonderful part of our family and we are so happy and blessed that you are our son.  We love you so much!  We pray that the Lord will continue to bless your life.