Easy 5 minute winter wreath

Last February I had this wreath hanging on my front door.

 

It was thrown together and served it's purpose.

I wanted to use the same wreath to create a Winter one for the door.

I had a few plastic flowers that I decided to use for the wreath.  

 

It was very simple.  

I just cut the flowers off (leaving quite a bit of the plastic) and some of the silver pine twigs and inserted them into the wreath.

 

I didn't even need to hot glue them in because I cut them long enough.

Once I got several put into the wreath, I tied a piece of twine around the wreath so it would be easier to hang on the door hanger.

I love the way it turned out.

 

Don't you just love a 5 minute project.  I know I do.

 

I'm linking up with these parties.... 

365 photos a day project - week 1

This year one of my New Year's resolutions was to get back on the bandwagon with the 365 photos a day project.  So far, after 1 week; I haven't missed a day.  I have to constantly remind myself to take a photo, but I haven't missed a day.

It is only week 1 so we'll see how the rest of the 51 weeks go.

My very first picture... January 1, 2013

This is a shot from the upstairs balcony looking over at the Christmas tree and the fire glowing in the fireplace.

My tree is 10' tall and I just love it.  It's getting time to take it down so I wanted to capture the warmth it gives the family room.

January 2, 2013

The day before school goes back and I promised my daughter that I would take her to get a pair of jeans with some of her Christmas money.

She knew that part of my New Years resolutions were to take more pictures of my kids not on the ball fields, somehow she was still irritated with this picture and with the whole picture-taking process.

 

I told her to smile... guess this is what she gets.

January 3, 2013

The kids are back to school, the hubby is back to work and it's time to start taking down the Christmas decorations.  I did a little at a time; pulling a few boxes up from the basement and getting them filled.  I always hate taking them down and it makes the house feel so empty afterwards.

 

January 4, 2013

I love going to the movies by myself.  I don't know why, but I do.  I have been wanting to see this movie since it came out on Christmas day.  I decided to head to the theatre to see it.  It was funny, adult funny, but very funny.  Lots of language so be careful if you are thinking of taking any kids with you.

 January 5, 2013

Basketball games started back today.  Basketball is not my favorite sport but I always enjoy watching my little man play.

 

January 6, 2013

It was coupon day.  We haven't had any coupons in our newspaper since Dec 9.  I was very excited to have gotten so many inserts this week.

 

January 7, 2013

I spent the day working in my office and getting hostess kits ready to be delivered.  I have 4 taste-testing parties coming up this month and I'm very excited to be starting the year off with Tastefully Simple in my life.

January 8, 2013

On my way back from the post office, I stopped in at Hobby Lobby.  Boy am I glad that I did.  They had tons of stuff on clearance and I scored all this stuff for just $11.  I love the knobs and have a great plan for them.

So that's my first week of my 365 photos a day challenge.  Crossing my fingers that I can keep it up through the rest of the year.

You can also keep up with all my photos by following "theturnerfive" on Instagram.

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.