Christmas Countdown Paper Chain

Today we made a Christmas Countdown Paper Chain. I remember making these when I was little, my sister and I just loved ripping the links off each day.

Supplies needed:
2 pieces each of Red, green & white paper
Scissors
Tape or a stapler
Cut 4 strips, longways, out of each piece of paper, except for one piece, cut out 5 strips. You need 8 strips of 2 colors and 9 strips of the third color to add up to 25 strips (one for each day, December 1-25).

Now all you do is make a loop with one strip and tape (or staple) it closed. Put the next strip through the loop and tape it closed and continue adding loops until all the strips are used up. Easy as pie!

If your little one is too young to cut and tape/staple, you will have to do that part. But this is a great activity for teaching toddlers the colors. I asked Jimmy to hand me each strip by color as I needed it. I rotated them green, red, white, green, red, white, etc.

Help your little one count down to Christmas (starting today) by removing one link from the chain each day. Have fun!

Its December!! Homemade Ornaments

It's the 1st day of December, Christmas is coming fast!! Ack, I need to go shopping!!!

I am so excited, this will be Jimmy's 2nd Christmas, but this is the first year he will actually understand a little better what is going on. I can't wait for him to be able to open presents and see the excitement on his face! I am so excited to do Christmas crafts with him, make cookies and all sorts of things. Yesterday, my lovely friend and very expectant mommy Katie came over with her soon to be 3 year old little girl. We made Christmas ornaments! We used 2 different recipes. One was the salt dough kind that you bake in the oven and the other was a cinnamon dough that smells SOOO good!! Here are some pics of the ones we made with links to the recipes:

Salt Dough Ornaments.

Cinnamon Ornaments

We just rolled out the dough and cut it out with cookie cutters, poking holes in the tops with a straw so they can be strung with ribbon or yarn and hung. Jimmy and I are going to be painting the salt dough ones and I will post some pics when they are done. The cinnamon ornaments smell very good and would be perfect for someone with country or primitive decor. These would make great gifts and/or add-ons to the outside of wrapped gifts. Have fun if you decide to try these and don't be tempted to eat the cinnamon ones! Hubby almost took a bite of one last night but thought, wait, those are a bit TOO strong smelling and then he asked me about them. I told him they had cinnamon, applesauce and GLUE in them and he was like eeeeew, glad I didn't take a bite! lol! Enjoy!

Honoring Those Who Have Served

Thank You to all of our Veterans!

Our 4th Of July Weekend

We had a nice weekend celebrating our country's independence. Friday we had a family picnic and then went to the Cincinnati Reds ballgame (who lost to the Cardinals, booo!). Here a some pics from our evening at the ballpark.

The game started out with the National Anthem and a Bald Eagle flying from the outfield to the pitcher's mound. Unfortunately I did not have my camera out yet but it was a beautiful sight! Such a gorgeous, majestic bird, what a perfect symbol of our country.

Jimmy eating all of his cousin Conner's goldfish (daddy was getting food! Mommy just forgot to bring snacks....thanks for keeping the peace Aunt Mandy! lol)




First baseman Joey Votto, one of my current favorite players, he is such a cutie! ;-) No home runs tonight though.

Game Summary (photo courtesy of Mandy my sis in law)

A parachuting demonstration (don't ask me what they are called, I totally forget! Bad Ali!), we could see the plane above, the jumpers had sparklers so you could watch them coming down, and they landed right on the field. It was really neat!

Fireworks Intro (photo courtesy of Mandy again ;-) )

This was the kickoff to the fireworks, pretty cool. The guy had to start the fireworks with that box right in the middle of the ballfield.

Some bad pics of the fireworks, didn't get too many shots of them because.....

....I was holding this sweet little guy while he watched. He loved them and kept pointing to them, it was so cute!

I have to mention, it was also my grandparents 61st wedding anniversary! Here they are enjoying the fireworks =)

And by the time the finale came around, this is what Jimmy's little cousin Conner was doing. He slept right through the grand finale and it was loud & bright as day! ;-)
(sorry lady's whose rear is in the photo lol)

After such a big day, we actually didn't do much on Saturday. We went to the Americana Festival in my hometown around lunchtime and then went out to eat. Then we came home. We did some farm chores and rented a movie and had dinner, a nice and relaxing evening for the 4th of July. Even saw some fireworks out the window in the distance (crazy farm kids! ;-) )

Sunday we went over to my in-laws for a cookout lunch and then we ended up going over to my Dad & Kathy's again to pick up a horse. We are trading one of ours for one of theirs for a while, one, to have a horse we can actually RIDE, and two, to see if one of my "sisters" can ride Gunner and work with him a little bit since they know waay more about horses & training than we do. We borrowed their trailer (couldn't use ours because it is full of stuff that we took to the flea market lol) so we are taking Gunner over there tonight when we take the trailer back. Here is a pic of Mimsy the "ugly mare" they call her. She is named after Madam Mim from the Sword in the Stone movie. I don't think she is too ugly! ;-)

Well, thats it! I guess we had a pretty bust weekend afterall. But it was nice. I hope you all had a great weekend too (ha, now that is is Tuesday lol)! Have a great week!

Let Freedom Ring!

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone enjoys celebrating our country's freedom and takes time to remember how lucky we are to live in a place such as ours. Here are a couple short fireworks videos from last night after the ballgame we went to (don't forget to hit pause on my play list, over to the right, first). Enjoy!

Happy Mother's Day

I know it is late, but I still wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Mother's Day. I hope all you mothers had a very wonderful day with your families. And I hope the mommies who have lost loved ones had great days too, even though they may be very sad for losing loved ones. I lost my mom 3 years ago, so it is a difficult day for me. But it was also a very lovely day spent with my in-laws and then my Dad and step-mom Kathy.

Here are a couple pics of my mom:

Not sure if she was married yet, but she is probably 18 or 19 in this pic:



And here are myself, my Oma (mom's mother) and my mom, 3 generations, at my high school graduation =)


Happy Mother's Day to my mommy, I miss you! And also, I want to say happy Mother's Day to my step-mom Kathy, my mother-in-law Karen, my very good friend Joy Marie, my Oma, and my Grandma. I love you all very much and am so blessed to have you all in my life!

And.....Happy Mother's Day to all my bloggy mommy friends!

Easter Pics

Here are some pics from the last two days. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and got to spend time with their families, whether human or animal! ;-)

Coloring Eggs

Jimmy hunting eggs and finding his "new" tractor from the Easter Bunny
(funny, it is JUST like the one Daddy had when he was little...hmmm)

Mmm....so THAT'S what they taste like!

All ready for church in his new outfit from Grandma & Grandpa C.
(mommy is not ready for church yet, as always lol)

Easter Egg Tree

Since my Oma (Grandma) is full German, my mom passed on a lot of German holiday traditions. One of them was the Easter Egg Tree. She and Oma each made one every year. So this year I decided I would do it. They always used blooming Forsythia or Pussy Willow branches, but since my Forsythias are just getting started, and I don't have a Pussy Willow yet, I had to use Maple. Soo....

Here is my Easter Tree. I was a little late putting it together, but I am so glad it is finished. I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go as far as design/style for decorating the eggs, so I did a plethora of styles. Maybe next year I will go all in one direction or even paint/dye the entire egg, we'll see.All I did was cut 3 small branches from a big fallen Maple branch, then I tied a ribbon around them to keep them together. I stuck them in in my rectangular vase with river rocks in the bottom and green moss on top.

For the eggs, I had started collecting them a couple weeks ago. I just poked holes in both ends with a pin and blew them out for Jimmy's scrambled eggs. I then rinsed the shells and let them dry. Then I pulled the ribbon through with a piece of wire - loop at the top and tied a knot on the bottom. Then I painted them. Easy as pie!

I just found out about the Round Robin event over at "Keeping Up With The Schultz Family"

so I thought I would add this post. So head over and check out all the other blogs!

A Valentine for Daddy

Jimmy making his first Valentine (mommy helped) =) Mommy made him a couple of potato stamps, we had fun!