Christmas Card

I absolutely LOVE to receive and send Christmas cards. However each year I am not able to send out as many as I would like due to cost. So if you didn't receive one from The DeLoach household, please know you are still loved!

Merry Christmas from the DeLoach's!

Not Me Monday

I did NOT let my kids decorate their Christmas shaped cookies however they pleased. It did NOT pain me for the cookies to not look like snowmen or Christmas trees afterwards. Just a sugar overload.

Yes, I realize Isabel is in a spider / Halloween shirt to decorate Christmas cookies. I battle dirty laundry daily and on that day, dirty laundry won.

Gingerbread Nativity

Seems like everywhere we go people are asking the kids what Santa is going to bring them and even what their elf's name is. I know lots of you are into the whole elf thing, but just so you know if you ask my kids who their elf is they will look at you with blank stares. This momma doesn't do the elf on the shelf.

We do have a fun activity each day that we do together as a family. Go here if you missed that post.

Last year we made a Gingerbread house to put as the centerpiece of our dinning room table. This year I wanted something more Christ focused in our decorations. This is what I found. The Gingerbread Nativity.

We read from the Bible the story of Christ's birth. Then made our own Nativity.

It was such a fun craft that we have actually made several. We made one with my sister, one with our church family, and one with a neighbor. Such a great way to share the birth of Christ with kids.

Not Me Monday

I do NOT love wrapping presents more than buying them. I also do NOT love to purchase wrapping paper.

Discovery Clubs

Serving isn't easy sometimes. Especially with 4 kids in tow. A question I often ask myself is how I can serve and NOT have to hire a babysitter? For us, Discovery Clubs was one answer. One day a week Ben and I along with all four of our kids drive down the street to Robinson Elementary where we get to interact with a special group of kids. It's not always easy to get there and it requires Ben coming from one direction with 2 kids and me coming from another direction with the other 2 kids. Many days I have to take a deep breath before I enter the room, but once I see the smiling faces of those 2nd grade girls it's all worth it. It's not about me and what is easy for me. It's about spending time with these children and loving them as we show them the love of Christ. We get to sing, have snack, teach from The Jesus Storybook Bible, pray, meet in small groups and most importantly share Christ with these kids. We are also thankful to be doing this with 6 other people from our church (absolutely LOVE serving along side these ladies each week.)

As a little side note, I will say I am NOT a fan of the yellow vest we are required to wear. However, I do obey the rules and wear it.

The guys teach the 2nd grade boys and the women teach the 2nd grade girls. It's actually a perfect setting to take my boys to since they are 1st and 2nd grade. Even though Isabel is 4, she fits right in with the girls. Cannon, well, he watches from the stroller and does a great job at being the perfect baby.

In the schools that Discovery Clubs are offered they begin with the 2nd grade and if there are enough volunteers they add others grades up to 4th. There just aren't enough volunteers to offer more at Robinson right now. We meet once a week right after school lets out. Now don't think that Discovery Clubs are just offered to inner city schools. They are all over Birmingham. Remember, it's not just the inner city kids that need Christ. The school where Carter went to Kindergarten, Mt. Laurel, is in a very "well to do" area and they have a club that meets on Thursday afternoons.

I would say it's only a one hour a week commitment, but by the time you arrive at the school - spend time with the kids - then wait till they have all gone home, it's about a 2 hour a week commitment. Of course if your doing the teaching part it requires some prep time as well.

If you are interested in serving with Discovery Clubs I would be more than happy to get you connected, just let me know. You can go here to see all the schools that offer Discovery Clubs as an after school program.

Countdown to Christmas

I found lots of different ways to count down to the day of Christmas.
Here's how the DeLoach's are counting.

I am a sucker for using something that I already have at the house.
I painted some larger Popsicle sticks green and some smaller ones yellow.

Then cut out some folding cards and placed a number on top. I got the number printable here.

I then hot glued some of my green sticks together (made a group of 3, 4, and 5). Then glued my yellow ones together to make a star.

Final product - a tree.

Add a little ribbon to the cards and place them on the branches. Ta da - Christmas Tree countdown! Each day when they open the card there is a fun surprise.

It may be as simple as family game night or their favorite so far - tent in living room and dinner inside.



How do you count down the days till Christmas?

Art

I've mentioned before that we let each of the kids pick an activity or sport they wanted to do. Caden decided he didn't want to do a sport just yet, but he did want to take art. Since September Caden has been going once a week to art. He is absolutely in love with the painting and drawing. I have to say he is coming home with some pretty impressive stuff. Now just where do I put it all? Until I can figure something else out, right now his art goes on his bulletin board in the classroom.

Since Isabel doesn't get to go to the co-op we let her take art as well. Same teacher, but she goes while her big brothers are at school. Their teacher is amazing!

She even came home with a new decoration for her door.

Not Me Monday

I did NOT go get the pipe cleaners out to make a craft and find that they had all been turned into snakes.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from....

My 3 Indians
And My Little Turkey

Not Me Monday

I did NOT wake up yesterday morning with the outside of my nose being sore to the touch. I did not apply more makeup to cover the redness. I did NOT ask a friend (who's a doctor) if my sinuses (which have been giving me grief) could actually cause the outside of my nose to be sore. I did NOT have my husband ask me repeatly all....day....long why my nose was so red. At the end of the day, while our family was eating dinner, my husband did NOT look at me with a puzzled look and tell me that I had to have hit my nose on something. Then he did NOT burst into laughter as he told me that he just remembered something. He did NOT at that very moment remember this.....that in the middle of the night Sat. night while we were sleeping, he had rolled over in bed and when he did his forehead hit my nose! He woke up when it happened, I did not. I have NOT been in pain all day because of it.

In Ground Trampoline

In June 2010 when we were packing our boxes to move, we asked ourselves the question. Do we move the trampoline & the swing set/play yard too? We decided to even though our current backyard has holes, trees, stumps and is a gradual down slope. So the question was where do you put a trampoline & swing set??? We still haven't figured out the swing set / play yard (it's in pieces on the back patio) - the trampoline however now sits in our backyard. Literally.

After many measurements & drawings on paper we came up with a plan. Then over the course of a few weeks Ben, my dad and the boys dug a 3 foot hole in the back yard.

Then we laid the trampoline on top of the hole and attached the poles for the net.


It's the perfect fit for our backyard!

Bet you won't guess where I got the idea? Yup, Pinterest :)

Burlap Turkey

My new door decor obsession involves burlap so you may see lots of it in the months to come. Not that I'm an expert on how to make these burlap designs, but here's what I do if your interested.

When I purchased my burlap from Hobby Lobby they only had a few colors left so I took what they had and have just made it work. My first step is to decide exactly what I want - in this case a turkey for Thanksgiving / November. So I cut my burlap into a round / oval shape. Then I painted the whole thing brown. If you notice the white lines on the edges, I took a piece of chalk and drew exactly where I needed to cut, so I didn't just take scissors and start cutting aimlessly. That would be way to risky as I can't draw or cut a straight line without guidance.

I like the "frayed" look on my burlap so after it was painted & cut into my shape of preference I went along the edges and pulled just a little to fray all my sides. It is easier to do before it's painted, but I wanted to make sure I had the shape I wanted before I started fraying.
I then drew in chalk the exact design.


Picked out my paint colors

And got to painting.

Decided to dress him up a little with some polka dots, because everything is cuter with some dots.

I then hot glued some hemp cord - something I had left over from when we made some bracelets - to the top to hook on my door hanger. Seems to work great.

Since the Turkey was wider than he was tall he kept wanting to bend in the middle when he was on the door. So I got out the handy dandy hot glue gun once again and hot glued an extra blind blade to the back for support.

Then sprayed it down in this for sealing & protecting.

Happy November!!

Not Me Monday

I did NOT leave my baby home with my husband while I ran some errands. When I returned I did NOT find the baby in the middle of the living room floor in front of the t.v. watching an episode of Phineas & Ferb - by the time I got the camera out to snap a picture, Cannon had NOT fallen asleep.

Amazon Mom

Ben and I were blessed by friends and family with 3 months worth of diapers for Cannon. When it came time to buy diapers again I decided this time around to order them online. There were too many late night runs to Wal-Mart for diapers with the other 3 kiddos. There are several popular websites for diapers, but I decided to go with Amazon since I visit the site frequently & 90% of what I buy online comes from them anyway.

I had a friend tell me about their Amazon Mom program so I quickly checked it out. It is wondermus! You sign up totally free for Amazon Mom and their Subscribe & Save Delivery Program. Not only do you get 20% off diapers with your membership you get prime shipping (free 2 day shipping on everything NOT just your diaper order) up to a year. Thing is it's not just for moms or just for purchasing diapers. Best way to see all the details is to just go here.

When this box of size 3 pampers cruisers (186 diapers total) comes to my door each month I get supper excited. Because I know it's regular 47.19 on Amazon. Then I get a discount of $7.08 for being a free amazon mom member and another discount of $7.08 for being a subscribe & save delivery member (which means you tell them how often you want your diapers delivered & they send them automatically). Best part is you can cancel or change the delivery frequency anytime. So my big box of diapers is only $33.03.

Why does that bring such a huge smile on my face? Because I know Wal-mart has the same big box of diapers for $47.19 online (free shipping if order is more than $45). And Diapers.com has the same item for $44.99 (if you sign up for the take 5 program - free shipping included). I get supper giddy knowing I'm getting a deal :)

5 Months

Don't get many upset faces from this little bundle.

Doesn't take a paci, but does love his "lovey". Where does he want it? Right next to his face for sleeping.

I'm sure we'll hear arguments when we're older than 5 months, but today big brothers are letting him in the "living room tent" and everyone's happy.

He can pull his toy & make his own music on the bouncer. And he wants you to clap every time!

The days of baby food have begun. Loves some carrots & sweet potatoes.

Always has those feet crossed. Love me some baby toes!

Not Me Monday

I did NOT have to ask my kids to forgive me for the way I reacted after I found this had happened when they knocked my favorite pitcher off the counter.