Life in the Wight House

Monday, December 7, 2009

Christmas Countdown Lay Out

It is Monday again and one of my lay out assignments was published in
today's Scrap Girls newsletter.


For this assignment I was asked to scrap a Christmas Tradition using products by Jacelen Deinema. She has got some great stuff. She paints most of her stuff using watercolors and then transfer it to digital. What talent!!!
In one of her collections, she had this basket and it reminded me of our basket we use to keep our books in for our Christmas Countdown. And so this lay out was born. I had a lot of fun with the hanging frames and it was fun to go back through old photos. Boy, have the children changed! Time sure does fly.

(Our countdown tradition started in 2006.)
Page Journaling:
We started a new Christmas Tradition this year. I gathered 24 picture books relating to Christmas or the Winter Season and wrapped them each individually. The wrapped books were put in a basket and placed under the tree. Each night before bed the kids were able to unwrap one book for their bedtime story. Once the last book was unwrapped, we knew Christmas Eve had arrived.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thanksgiving

So two weekends before Thanksgiving, RJ's kindergarten class was preparing to read a book about a turkey disguising himself for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The children were each given a turkey to disguise and bring back Monday or no later then Wednesday.
Of cousre, being the responable parents like we are, we forgot till late Sunday night. It was already an hour past bedtime and both kids were cranky and so ready to crash. We told RJ that we would just do it Monday after school, that he had until Wednesday anyway. Well, RJ flipped out, saying he had to turn it in Monday. Unfortunately, he had no idea what he wanted to disguise his turkey as.
After giving him many ideas, which he turned down (parents just aren't cool or creative enough), we finally sent RJ off to bed telling him he will just have to turn it in on Tuesday. Being extremely tired, RJ threw a huge fit and decided to go with mommy's first idea, Santa Claus. (Who would cook Santa for dinner, right? I thought it was a pretty cool idea.)
Daddy promised RJ that if he went to bed, he would have a Santa disguise all ready for him to put together in the morning and he could turn it in on time. RJ reluctantly agreed and went to bed. Daddy stayed up another hour cutting out a Santa Suit from construction paper.
The next morning, after a good night's rest, RJ was in a better mood. Luckily,
we had plenty of time before the bus came and he got his homework done on time.
I think we all learned a good lesson that night.

Thanksgiving Day


It was a beautiful day. We had lived in our new home for a total of 4 four day. We had a lot to be Thankful for. We did miss our family, but we made the most of it.
We got our kitchen put together just in time for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Jared set up the trampoline, and the kids enjoyed it while the Turkey cooked. This year we decided that cooking a Thanksgiving meal for the 5 of us was going to be just too much. Zachery of course wouldn't eat much of it, RJ just wanted a PB&J sandwich anyway, Savannah would eat some of it, and Jared and I were tired from unpoacking and felt very disorganized to even begin thinking about cooking a big meal. So the solutions: Thanksgiving in a box from Kroger.
We got all this, plus a good size Turkey and rolls. We just had to buy a Marie Calendar pumpkin pie and we were set.
The turkey was actually pretty good. Very moist, not a lot of flavor, but not bad. The sides were better then I imagined. We had a good feast for our current situation.


After dinner I taught RJ how to play chess. He picked it up so much faster then I expected. And even though I could care less about the game, I actually was surprised to find that I had fun playing it with him. Probably because it was so fun to watch him learn.
(the Frankenstein piece is part of a Simply Fun version of Chess, makes the game go faster).

After our game we had Pumpkin Pie. Yummy!!! Usually we make it from scratch with our pumpkin we freeze from our Halloween cravings, but like I said before, our life had been very disorganized. So we had good old Marie Calendar's pie.
(talking to Grandma on the phone)


Zachery wasn't feeling very well on Thanksgiving or from much of the week. He had a bad ear infection and was just out of sorts. He really didn't want anything to do with food other then nursing, so he was mad when I put him in his chair for some pie.
A little better. He still didn't want to eat the pie, silly boy. But he did enjoy playing with a spoon covered in cool whip for a bit, while I enjoyed my pie.

Last Sunday
It was a gorgeous 70 degree sunny day. LOVED IT!! We spent the afternoon enjoying our yard.


This is RJ's favorite tree. It is fun to climb. Unfortunately, it will have to be cut down since it is getting in the way of power lines.


And check out this awesome feature. The people before us, put in a tether ball, and left it for us. It is the prefect size for the kids. How cool is that!!

Side Notes:
RJ is loving his new School. He is soooo excited to go to school each morning. It is making going to school so much more easier. I am so happy. It is what I always thought going to kindergarten would be. He loves it. And I love that we can walk him to school. It has been great!!
Savannah keeps me entertained through out the day. She comes up with the most random stuff. I love her train of thoughts, too funny. The other day she saw an infomercial for a toothpaste dispenser and she went on and on about how that was a must have, quoting line from the sale's pitch. It was just too darn cute, because she was just so serious about it.
Zachery is a ball of fun. (Except right now, it is 12:30 am and he is just wide awake!!) I need to find the charge for the other camera so I can get a video of him chasing the kids around the house. He just loves it when RJ and Savannah get done and play at his level. He just laughs and giggle whenever they are near. If Savannah and RJ are running around he will crawl after them, just a laughing, it is so cute and the kids love it. They can play tag and never be "It"!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Scrapbooking Pages & Update

First an update:
We have now been in our house for a little over a week. There are still lots of boxes to go through. We have the kitchen all done and all the other rooms all most all done. We got sick of boxes for awhile and took a break and have enjoyed the nice 60/70 degree weather doing yard work and such.
Zachery was sick during moving day. It made moving hard and it has made unpacking just as hard. He is doing better but still demands lots of attention.
Savannah is still her silly self and has been keeping busy with movies as I try to get things done. I need to schedule a few play dates soon to get her eyes off the screen for awhile.
RJ LOVES his new school and teacher. There are 15 kids in his class and one lives right behind us. We have walked to school with them, which makes things that much more fun.
We enjoyed a small quit Thanksgiving, just the 5 of us. I hope to upload photos soon.
Jared and I have been doing nothing but house work and yard work. Oh the joys of home ownership!! We are hoping to be settled and box free soon.
That about it.

Here are two of my scrap book pages that appeared in yesterday's Scrap Girls newsletter.
This photo was taken in Hawaii as we celebrated our 5th Anniversary in 2007.
Supplies for products used can be found here.

Journaling: The tradition started in 2003 when Jared decided he wanted to make homemade pumpkin pie out of the pumpkin we scraped out of our Halloween jack-o-lanterns. Since then, we save a little pumpkin from our Halloween cravings and use it to make our Thanksgiving Day Pumpkin Pies.
Supply list: here

Sunday, November 22, 2009

We have moved

We have LOTS of boxes. Big boxes, small boxes, heavy boxes, light boxes all full of stuff. Wow, we have got a lot of stuff. Useful stuff and not so useful stuff.
Yesterday was moving day and I will be spending the nest few weeks unboxing all that stuff. It is an exciting time. We are amazed at how big and nice our new home is. The kids are enjoying their new rooms and slept very well in them the first night. The unfortunate thing is that Zachery was sick during all this moving. He has got an awful cold. His nose is running, eyes are goopy, he's got a little cough and a low fever. Poor little guy. I sure hope he can kick it soon and get back to feeling better.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Moments like these .... ...

It was really quiet. You know that eerie quiet when you know your kids are up to something. I went to investigate and was pleased to find them sitting together quietly creating their own Mr. Potato Heads. I had to smile and grab my camera. What a rare occasion. I love moments like these when all three kids enjoy play time together.








BTW: I edited the previous post with pictures of the new house.