A Christmas vacation

Back in April my sister mentioned to us that her and her family would be spending Christmas at Disney in Florida.  She told me she could get us a condo with them for the same week if we were interested in going.

Hubby and I thought about it and decided since we didn't get to go to the beach this summer that we would go.  This was completely new for us, we've never taken the kids anywhere for Christmas.  We have always been home, enjoying Christmas in our own house.  We've never even traveled to Ohio to be with family.

As time got closer and we started planning the trip we all got more and more excited.  The kids were a little apprehensive because they were unsure of where Santa would leave their presents.  Not to mention, they wanted to unwrap presents on Christmas day and have their things.  We finally got through to them that they would be able to get their presents after we got back home and they would be having so much fun they wouldn't want their presents on the trip.

We were pretty much right.  They had a great time.  It was a wonderful vacation and we hadn't been to Disney since 2005 so we were long overdue.

We are on our way....
 

We got to have 6 whole days at the parks.  We went to Animal Kingdom first.  I loved going at Christmas time because they had a Christmas tree at every park.

 

We did everything at Animal Kingdom that we could possibly do.  We rode most of the rides, went on the safari and enjoyed a couple great restaurants.

 

Our second day we went to Hollywood Studios.  

 

Zachary was so excited to see Mike from Monsters, Inc.

 

The coolest thing about Hollywood Studios is when it gets dark and they do The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.  It was AWESOME! I could have watched the lights, dancing to Christmas music, all night.

 

Our 3rd day we went to Epcot.  Since we planned to do Epcot over 2 days, we spend the 1st day riding all the rides then the 2nd day going through all the countries.

 

My daughter was messing around with my camera and took this picture.  

 

The 4th and 5th days we spent at Magic Kingdom.  One of the days it rained so we were kept from doing a lot so it was nice we were able to do 2 days.  

My main mission at Magic Kingdom was to see Merida.

I stood in line for 45 minutes to see her.

 

She's my favorite!

 

 

We got to do a Character dinner with Piglet, Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.

 

The castle looked awesome with all the lights.  I watched every show and parade that was at Magic Kingdom for 2 days.  It's definitely my favorite part.

 

So, even though we had a great time; it was really weird being there over Christmas.  The parades had Santa at the end of them but it still didn't "feel" like Christmas.  We usually go to church and out to a nice restaurant for dinner on Christmas Eve, this year we ate dinner at Pizza Planet at Hollywood Studios.  

All in all, I wouldn't rule out a vacation to Disney at Christmas in our future.  We really did have a great time.

A new year along with new resolutions

Happy 2013

It seems like just yesterday that I typed Happy 2012.  It's amazing to me how fast the years are flying by.  I feel like I've said that before also.

So, onto my new years resolutions.  I try to make my resolutions not only something that will make me a better person but also benefit others in some way.

This year I have 5 resolutions.  I actually have 4 new ones and 1 that I want to roll over from last year.

My first one is to continue to send birthday cards to family members.  I have tried doing this in the past and failed miserably.  I'm happy to say that last year, I got a birthday card to every member of my family.  Let me stop here and clarify; I'm not including aunts, uncles and cousins, I send to siblings, parents and nieces/nephews.  I really can't go further out of the family circle than that.  You can read about my resolution to do this last year by going here.

#2

I love to take pictures. My second resolution is to get back on the 365 photo a day challenge band wagon.  The basic idea is to take a picture everyday for a year.  At the end of the year, I would like to put together a scrapbook of all the pictures.  I have a friend who has done this and it's such a great idea.

This is my first one of the new year:

 

#3

My third one goes along with #2; it's to take more pictures of my kids.  I take lots of pictures of my kids on the sporting fields and I want to take more of them actually posing for the camera.  Say maybe one day before school and I think they look great in the outfit they have on, or after church getting them together for a family photo.  When I was looking for pictures to put in our Christmas card this year, I was sad to see that all my pictures were of sporting events.  I will still take the sports photos, but need to add more photos in with it.

#4

I suggested this resolution to my hubby and kids and thought it would be a great family resolution.  It's to read 1 novel a month.  I thought it would be a great family activity but the hubs and our daughter didn't think so.  I think I can get the youngest son on board because, like me; he loves to read.

I started my January novel yesterday and I'm reading The Descendents by Kaui Hart Hemmings.  

Photo credit

#5

My fifth and last is to finish more projects that I've started.  I have so many unfinished projects laying around my craft room and I get so irritated when I go out and buy more stuff to start new projects when I already have unfinished projects that need to be worked on.  Some of these projects are my scrapbooks.  I have so many unfinished scrapbook projects that I really want to get caught-up on.  I have some sewing projects that I want to finish and well as home improvement projects.  

So, as you can see, I'm sure to be a very busy person this year.  I'll do my best to keep you updated on how things are going throughout the year.

Turkey Day Menu

Thanksgiving is going to be here in the blink of an eye.  For several years we went to Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with our families.

I was looking back through some photos for this post and came across some family photos that were taken on our trips up North.

This is from Thanksgiving 2001

 

 This is with my husbands family.  All the great-grandkids with great-grandma.

Thanksgiving 2002

 

This is my kids with my sister's kids and our parents. 

Thanksgiving 2003

 

We took a family portrait with hubby's family.

Thanksgiving 2005

 

Cousins on my side of the family.

Thanksgiving 2006

 

 My kids ready for dinner at my parents house.

Thanksgiving 2007

 

 My kids with my parents.

In 2009 and 2010, we decided to stay home and had Thanksgiving here.

Thanksgiving 2011

 

 All the girls on hubby's side of the family.

 

 My and my dad.  

This was the last Thanksgiving I got to spend with him.  He passed away 2 weeks later.

We decided to stay home again this year.  I just don't have the gumption to go to Ohio.  

I love to cook and plan menus so I'm excited to be able to plan our Thanksgiving menu.  My father-in-law is coming down to spend the week with us.  

So this is what's on our menu for this year.

Ultimate Stuffed Mushrooms

Deviled Eggs

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Corn Casserole

Stuffing

Dinner Rolls

Dessert will include:

New York Cheesecake

Apple Crumb Pie

I've been making my shopping list and hope to get my shopping done before the weekend hits and I have to fight the crowd.

I'll be sure to share the recipes for all these delicious items after Thanksgiving.

Do you plan a Thanksgiving menu? Do you find yourself having the same things over and over each year?  I like to throw in something different every year.  

Whatever your style is or whatever is on your menu, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

Basic training

The son of a good friend of mine just headed off to basic training with the National Guard.

It brought back so many memories of when my own son left, a few months after graduating high school.

He was only 18 and I just knew he was too young to be heading off to Missouri with a bunch of strangers.

I vividly remember taking him to the National Guard armory to board a bus that would take him to the airport and then to Fort Leonard wood, Missouri.  He was going to be gone for 6 months.

I cried.

I cried a lot.

It was so hard to see him go.  He was so young and had never been away from home for any length of time before.

He left on August 17, 2009.  This was the first picture that I got from him while away, it was taken November 29, 2009.

I went over 2 months without seeing him.

He already looked so much older.

I was telling my friend how hard it was.  My son was gone for almost 6 months straight.  He did get to come home for Christmas, but then had to go back for the last 2 weeks of training.

We drove out to Missouri for the family day and graduation.

It was an awesome experience.

I was telling my friend that she needs to make a point of going to the graduation.  It's a once in a lifetime experience.

This is Trency with his drill sergeant.  That guy doesn't look so scary!!  I think he's even trying to smile.

If you've ever been to a military graduation, I think you'll agree it's something you will never forget.

If you have never been then you can get an idea of what I'm talking about from these 2 videos.

Warning: the volume is really loud, you may want to turn your computer volume down.

And here is the second one...

    He is leaving in February to head oversees.  If I thought basic training was hard, I'm sure this will be much harder.      

My first painting class

A few months ago, I was invited to attend a painting class with some friends from church.  I've never seen myself as much of a painter, in fact I'm usually the one that would spill an entire gallon of paint on carpet.

I'm generally very clumsy and sloppy when it comes to painting.

I was a little apprehensive about attending this class, since we did have to pay for it; but I figured what the heck, I'll go and enjoy myself and it'll be a nice afternoon out with the girls.

Well let me just say, I loved it!

In fact, I loved it so much I've been checking their website every month to see what I would like to go back and paint.  So far I haven't been able to find the time to attend another class :(

The class itself was 3 hours long.  That may seem like a long time, but you are busy every.single.minute

There is so much that goes into the painting.  You don't just go there and slap some paint on a piece of canvas.  The instructors take their time and actually teach you how to paint.

We went to a place called Sips n Strokes.  You can check out their calendar here.

The painting we were doing was called Whimsical Tree.

We started out with a blank canvas and a paper plate full of paint.

Talk about daunting....I'm not sure how I'm ever going to get all this paint onto that white canvas and make it look like anything but a big gloppy mess.

Julie and Pam are excited and ready to go.

 

 Ok, so all of us are excited and ready to go.

 

The instructors were fabulous.  They taught us how to do everything in baby steps.  That's exactly what I need, baby steps.

This was our first layer.

I could have just taken this home and it would have been better than anything I had painted before.

But no, they made us keep going.

The top of my tree.  It's already starting to look whimsical.

 

We just kept adding more and more to our tree, eventually filling up the entire canvas.

 

Then we added all the other colors.  I loved that we could do it anyway we wanted, it was our own painting and it could look how we wanted it to look.

 

Our finished products.

My family couldn't believe that I had painted it.

 

I have my painting proudly displayed in the library.

I really did enjoy myself and can't wait to get back and do a second painting.

 

If you have a Sips n Strokes in your area, you definitely need to check it out.

I think you will love it too!

How to frame a window

 

Framing a window seems like it would be a fairly difficult task, but it really isn't as hard as it seems.

There are a lot of steps to it, but it can be done by almost any DIYer.

Hubby and I work together on a lot of projects in our home.  He will do the harder, or shall I say manlier stuff and I will do the easier things.

While he is at work during the day, I can get a lot of the steps for our projects done if he has done his harder parts before hand.

We have been finishing our basement, a little at a time, as time and money allows.

Framing the last window was next on our list so I got us started on this project.

This is the window to be framed.

 

It's just a single window in the basement and should be a very easy job.

The window had only been installed by the builders and left as is.  After drywall is installed, then we (the homeowner) have to finish the framing.  This makes the window look all pretty and hopefully will help to keep bugs out.

 

We had all the supplies on hand and start by having hubby cut all the 1x8's to the correct length and width.  You will have to measure your width from drywall to window to insure you cut yours correctly.

 

Four pieces will need to be cut to go around the perimeter of the window.

 

Once all the boards have been cut to length and width and you ensure they all fit correctly, they can be nailed to the 2x4 inside the window ledge.

Start by drilling a hole for the nails.   Drilling a hole first will help keep the wood from splitting when you hammer in the nail.

 

Then you just hammer in the nail.  You want to make sure that you put the nails close to the window ensuring that you hit the 2x4 that is inside.

 

After you install all the wood around the window ledge, you can begin measuring and cutting your trim. 

Cutting the trim is a little trickier as you have to remember to cut on a 45* angle and to make the cuts on each end go in opposite directions.  Other wise it won't line up correctly.

Attaching the trim is super easy if you have a pneumatic nail gun.  Hubby used to have to drill holes and then nail in finishing nails.  It would take him forever but with the nail gun, it's super quick.

After you nail up the trim, the window already looks so much better.

 The next step is to caulk all the openings around the window.  This will also help with keeping bugs from getting in.

Also use wood filler to fill in the indentations made from the nail gun.

 

After everything is sanded, it is ready for some primer.

 

After the primer has dried, the window is ready for a coat of white paint.  Sometimes I will go back and do a second coat of paint if I don't like the way the 1st coat looks.  Usually with the primer, that isn't necessary.

And now, the window is finished.  The drywall in this room has yet to be taped and mudded, so I'll have to wait for any window treatments.  

 Have you ever framed a window?  Did you think it was pretty easy or something you hope to never have to do again?