Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Day in Texas

Nothing cuter than seeing your kid on Christmas morning.  I love getting to capture this on video!
So I have been experimenting with what to eat Christmas morning.  I really want to find something fun, but easy so I don't spend Christmas morning making breakfast.  I decided to try this Paula Deen's overnight French Toast with a fruit salad.  However although it looked great, it was not very good.  Extremely rich and actually soggy.  So next year we will have to try something else out.  Any good suggestions?
Showing off some of his fun Christmas gifts!
I actually didn't get any pictures of him opening gifts this years.  We were able to get on either Skype or FaceTime with family and Grandparents were able to watch the present opening festivities this year!  
Caleb made me this sweet present for Christmas.  It is a diorama of our hiking trip to Bryce Canyon.  Absolutely Priceless!
We did get a few snowflakes on Christmas Day.  Can you see them?  Well they were there for a few minutes!
Santa brought a family gift this year and surprised with our first gaming system.  We got an X-Box with the Kinect.  We also got the game Skylanders that Caleb had learned about and was dieing to get!  Christmas day was spent playing video games as a family.  The boys especially had fun!
We decided to give Caleb a fun homemade gift.  I got the idea from Pinterest and we have had a lot of creative moments with it.  We gave him a set of PVC pipe cut up with a bunch of connectors.  It makes a really cool fort!
Yummy Christmas dinner with family!
Even tried out some fancy place settings and of course lots of tasty food.  
I have to admit the Kinect is a LOT of FUN!!  We spent the evening trying out all the games.  Brydon and I like to play in the evening together and it has been a fun new toy to have.  We highly recommend the Kinect!
 
So grateful for the Christmas Season to remember the birth of our Savior and spend time with cherished family and friends!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Bradshaw Christmas Eve

We love making fun holiday traditions!  And Christmas Eve is so much fun!  It was a just a chill day but filled with all our favorite things and a few new traditions.
Gingerbread Pancakes for Breakfast!  The best way to start Christmas Eve!
We had to check out this really cute website!  
Caleb loved this!  You can watch elves and Santa feed the reindeer and they list all the children on the Nice List!  Caleb was so excited to see the name "Caleb"!
Making cookies for Santa is always so much fun!  We always make sugar cookies but Brydon is working hard to convince Caleb that Santa really loves chocolate chip cookies :)

For Christmas Eve dinner, we joined our Bradshaw side of the family.  We had so much yummy food we could hardly move!  Then we joined them for some of their awesome family traditions. 
We all dressed up and acted out the Christmas story.  Caleb was Joseph and Brynn was Mary.  Caleb took his role very serious and the whole thing was quite hilarious. 
Gary makes a great and dramatic angel as he visits the shepherds!  Nothing can be too serious at the Bradshaw house.
Brydon, Ethan, and I got to be the 3 kings
The entire cast of our Christmas Story production
The Bradshaw's have this really neat set of chimes and a music book so we could play Christmas carols together.  We had a lot of fun doing this.  The kids were so intent on not missing their notes!
Check out our amazing musical abilities!
After we got home, we set out our milk and cookies along with carrots for the reindeer and headed to bed.  Caleb was so excited he didn't think he could ever fall asleep but fortunately it didn't take too long.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Christmas preparations were a bit chaotic this year but we do like to go all out for Christmas!  We love Christmas and it wouldn't be complete without our red and silver decorations, our Christmas village, and homemade gifts. 
Cooper being festive!
Our first Christmas tree was a bit beat up in all the moves, so last year after Christmas we were able to find this new tree and it is much bigger.  We ended up having to pick out some new red and silver tinsel and just a few hundred more lights.  There was quite the red glow in our house!
We continued our new Elf on the Shelf tradition.  After getting some fun ideas from Pinterest our Elf was a bit more exciting.  I just couldn't have him do all the naughty stuff but he did have more fun.
 We enjoy seeing the local Christmas lights.  One of our favorite places has this super cute phone booth where the children can call Santa's workshop.  Caleb loves this place.  He doesn't believe the Santas in the stores are real so he loves to actually call the North Pole so he can really tell Santa what he wants.  
For some strange reason I like to make homemade Christmas gifts for our families.  I spend all year (or the year before) planning on what to make people and what would fit each person best.  I am not sure they turn out great but it is what they get and I think it just really gives me an excuse to sew and make all the fun things I want to do
I like getting the chance to make cute girly gifts for my nieces.  It allows me the chance to have tulle and flowers in the house.  I thought it was fun to design this girly bag for my 4 year old niece.  I think it turned out pretty well especially since it is made from a placemat!

I found this great tutorial (on Pinterest of course) on how to make this car cosy.  I got to make one for 2 of my nephews.  You can check out this great tutorial here. 
A super creative friend has a blog that shared the idea behind these Holiday blocks.  As it turns out, Happy Halloween and Merry Christmas have the same number of letters so one side the blocks says Happy Halloween and then you turn them over and they say Merry Christmas.  Quite ingenious!  Check out my friends blogs at Family Ever After.
I put my Cricut to even more use making these decorative plates and a couple tiles.  I've enjoyed finding meaningful quotes lately and have all kinds of plans for quotes around the house if I ever get to that.

I am sad that I totally spaced taking a picture of my niece's sparkly tutu and the new quiet book I made my sister in law.  I did learn that glitter on tulle does not like to stay on the tulle, my poor sister in law is probably just loving all the glitter in her house.  This year I found a cute page with a Mr./Mrs. Potato Head that you dress up with fun eyes and shoes, a pie with crust to practice weaving, and a tic-tac-toe game to add to Caleb's and my other sister in law's book.  Caleb's isn't quite done yet but hopefully I will get to pull out the sewing machine again soon!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Another Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

Last year after hearing about some great Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties, we decided to throw our own.  It was so much fun and we just had to have another party this year.  There is nothing quite like a bunch of yummy treats, a white elephant gift exchange, some silly "Minute to Win it Games", and of course ugly sweaters to kick off the Christmas season.  We have found it to be a great way to kick off the Winter Break and relax right before the big Christmas Day!  

This year we decided to have an adult party and a kid party.  The adults met at our house and the kids were at another friend's house with a few young women.  It worked out great and I most definitely hope we can plan more of these in the future.  

After spending time chatting and trying out all the yummy treats, we had our white elephant exchange.  This year proved to be as unique as always in the gift department.  Some adult diapers, a squirrel nutcracker, a Christmas snow globe, a beautiful picture of Jay Barney as a drag queen, and a macaroni penguin golf club cover were just a few of the highlights.  Brydon and I scored a large picture featuring the main character from the American American movie "Roots".  Although pretty, you will not find the picture in our home anytime soon.  

After the white elephant exchange, the games began.  I found some fun Christmas "Minute to Win it Games" and we had a blast.  There is nothing like cutting loose with some awesome friends, and making fools of yourself.

Deck the Balls
For this game, Mardy had to use a wrapping paper tube to suck up an ornamen,t then pass the ornament to Sean with his wrapping paper tub,e and then place the ornament in the tree.  Unfortunately we learned that Mardy is not very good at sucking!

Christmas Nut Stacker
In this challenge, David and Mike had to take the 4 nuts that were on their candy cane and with their mouths only, stack the nuts on their side.  They are quite the nut stackers!

Christmas Ball Conveyor
Troy and Thora were given the challenge of using ribbon wrapped around them to create an ornament conveyor belt.  This turned out to be a tab bit tricky, but Troy learned that some fancy hip action was the key to moving the ornament around.

Nose Dive
Lesa and Julie showed off their great nose skills as they used petroleum jelly to get 5 cotton balls in their bowl.

Christmas Cliffhanger
Gary and Natalee had to gently blow Christmas cards across the table until they just hung on the edge of the table.  However they both proved to be a bit too strong winded.

Back Flip
Ben was able to show us his special talent.  He was quite the pro at placing pencils on the back of his hand and tossing them in the air to catch them.  He was able to toss and catch all 12 pencils!  

Reindeer Nose Dive
Desiree and Kara didn't have much luck with their challenge.  They had to put the end of a ribbon in their mouth, on the other end was a red pom pom.  Without using hands, they had to swing the pom pom up and try to catch it on their petroleum jelly covered nose.  Alas no Rudolfs.

Suck It Up
Tammy and Brydon sharpened their sucking skills by using a straw to suck up skittles and then place them on the tops of the markers balanced on the table.  Brydon had some surprisingly quick sucking skills.

Candy Elevator
Randy was quite the careful mechanic.  Using 2 pencils with a string attached on each end, he had to lift 2 skittles to his mouth elevator style with the string draped over his ears.  He stayed nice and steady under pressure.
 
A Bit Dicey
Somehow I ended up last.  My challenge was to hold a popsicle stick in my mouth  and line up 6 dice on the stick.  This would not have been so hard if everyone hadn't been making me laugh so I failed miserably.  

Ugly Sweater Winner
Just call him Agent Goldfinger!

Got to love the Lime Green Cannon's!
Randy is being a bit shy showing off his new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underwear to go with his wife's hot pink underwear that may have come from Brydon and I.  Who doesn't need a pair of underwear like that!
Agent Goldfinger and his sexy wife in her stringy sweater and awesome pants!
Go team Sutton!
Although we missed Jay, we were pretty lucky to get Kara to come party with us.
The Ross's showing off their Christmas spirit and so excited to score their adult diapers.
The Rollins had just moved in and were good sports to party with some strangers.  We are glad to call them friends now.
It wouldn't be a party without the Bradshaw's!
And of course the hubby and I.  
Got to love the style of an ugly sweater party!

If you ever want to just have a fun, cut loose party during the Christmas season, I highly recommend an 
Ugly Sweater Party!
Or you can just come hang out with all of us.