Wrapping up November.....

This was at the Christmas Lights Parade



Doing crafts with our friends

my little helper (washing the table)

Silly Olivia

Who do I pass it to? Anyone open??

Olivia

Zachary and a friend

Me 22 weeks

Abigail on her 7th birthday in her new outfit

Thanksgiving

Quinten made rolls from scratch.

Abigail made apple/pear crisp

Jacob made a pumpkin pie.. but we decided to go with premade mix and crust

Official Taste Tester (Zachary)

Isaac helped with the Green Bean Casserole, Stuffing,
Mashed Potatoes and the Cranberry Sauce

Waiting patiently? for dinner to be served

Daddy and the girls watching football

Urijah decided to nap...

Getting ready to say Prayer.....

A frugal mom's Christmas gift giving guide

With all the commercials and toy books that come out this time of year its hard to stick to a budget. My first recommendation.. CASH ONLY.. make out what you can AFFORD to spend. Take that money and use it to shop.. I cannot fathom going into debt for Christmas gifts.. It makes absolutely no sense. Maybe I need to market Christmas cards that say "Merry Christmas, I used my car payment to buy your gift"..

There are may ideas that a frugal and/or cost worthy.. so here's my little gift giving lowdown

Make it. If you are crafty, or maybe if you aren't a personalized or handmade gift can carry much more sentiment than store bought ones.. Maybe a quilt, made of old family materials, ie old baby blankets and such. A scrapbook filled with photos of loved ones. A hand painted picture. Create a book, I "published" a book from a story Jacob and I made up one year. Maybe record a book on tape.. For the older generations, make your family a recording of old family stories.. I have heard many people say they wish they had the family stories after loved ones had passed.. Grandparents seem to love anything with grandchildren's hand prints/footprints.. I made my mom a t-shirt once with the kids hands on the front and feet on the back. She has requested and updated version ;). You can get plaster and little gems at the craft store and make decorative stepping stones for a flower garden or walk way. Salt dough can also be fun to make small things. Esp for kids to make. There are hundreds of websites that have ideas.

Shop Thrift stores.. some people can shop year round and hide things for Christmas.. I, Nicole, am a Christmas eve shopper LOL.. Mainly because I am terrible with those kind of surprises.. If I get something for the kids I want to give it right now! plus If I do manage to hide it it wont be found again till we move. But shopping thrift store is a wonderful way to save $.. With new resources such as freecycle.org and craigslist.org it has opened up thrift store shopping to a whole new level!

Sometimes a gift is worth the extra cost.. When we do buy toys and games we try to make sure they have some educational value and longevity.. One of our favorite it Leap Frog Games and Toys.. those have stood the test of time. Knex, if you havent seen these they are awesome. All my kids love to play with them.. To keep thier life they are stored in a rubbermaid bin in my bedroom.

Other things that we like to buy are science project type gifts and books.. My kids LOVE books.. Craft projects and supplies are excellent.. and good for most kids of all ages.. Magazine subscriptions also make great gifts. Deseret Book has some great scripture related gifts for kids and aduls..

A tip I try to share with new parents is dont focus on the baby.. Its easy to get wrapped up in Baby's first Christmas.. they generally dont need much and are more fascinated with the paper and boxes! If you really want to go out for the baby, skip the baby dept and find a photographer, or DIY! .. $100 ( or less) worth of beautiful baby photos will be one of your best investements.. I mean how cute is this!


Plan a family activity or trip.. A membership to the zoo or museum or a weekend camping package make great gifts.

Other unique ideas are tree's they can plant in the spring, maybe a coupon book of sorts. A"Me and you" day out package.. There is so much you can do!

A frugal mom's Christmas gift giving guide

With all the commercials and toy books that come out this time of year its hard to stick to a budget. My first recommendation.. CASH ONLY.. make out what you can AFFORD to spend. Take that money and use it to shop.. I cannot fathom going into debt for Christmas gifts.. It makes absolutely no sense. Maybe I need to market Christmas cards that say "Merry Christmas, I used my car payment to buy your gift"..

There are may ideas that a frugal and/or cost worthy.. so here's my little gift giving lowdown

Make it. If you are crafty, or maybe if you aren't a personalized or handmade gift can carry much more sentiment than store bought ones.. Maybe a quilt, made of old family materials, ie old baby blankets and such. A scrapbook filled with photos of loved ones. A hand painted picture. Create a book, I "published" a book from a story Jacob and I made up one year. Maybe record a book on tape.. For the older generations, make your family a recording of old family stories.. I have heard many people say they wish they had the family stories after loved ones had passed.. Grandparents seem to love anything with grandchildren's hand prints/footprints.. I made my mom a t-shirt once with the kids hands on the front and feet on the back. She has requested and updated version ;). You can get plaster and little gems at the craft store and make decorative stepping stones for a flower garden or walk way. Salt dough can also be fun to make small things. Esp for kids to make. There are hundreds of websites that have ideas.

Shop Thrift stores.. some people can shop year round and hide things for Christmas.. I, Nicole, am a Christmas eve shopper LOL.. Mainly because I am terrible with those kind of surprises.. If I get something for the kids I want to give it right now! plus If I do manage to hide it it wont be found again till we move. But shopping thrift store is a wonderful way to save $.. With new resources such as freecycle.org and craigslist.org it has opened up thrift store shopping to a whole new level!

Sometimes a gift is worth the extra cost.. When we do buy toys and games we try to make sure they have some educational value and longevity.. One of our favorite it Leap Frog Games and Toys.. those have stood the test of time. Knex, if you havent seen these they are awesome. All my kids love to play with them.. To keep thier life they are stored in a rubbermaid bin in my bedroom.

Other things that we like to buy are science project type gifts and books.. My kids LOVE books.. Craft projects and supplies are excellent.. and good for most kids of all ages.. Magazine subscriptions also make great gifts. Deseret Book has some great scripture related gifts for kids and aduls..

A tip I try to share with new parents is dont focus on the baby.. Its easy to get wrapped up in Baby's first Christmas.. they generally dont need much and are more fascinated with the paper and boxes! If you really want to go out for the baby, skip the baby dept and find a photographer, or DIY! .. $100 ( or less) worth of beautiful baby photos will be one of your best investements.. I mean how cute is this!


Plan a family activity or trip.. A membership to the zoo or museum or a weekend camping package make great gifts.

Other unique ideas are tree's they can plant in the spring, maybe a coupon book of sorts. A"Me and you" day out package.. There is so much you can do!

Tis' the Season

My little countdown ticker says 33 days till Christmas.. Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Although many Christians and even Non Christian Biblical Scholars believe that Jesus was born in the spring (April 6), Christmas is celebrated on December 25th.. This is mainly due to the Christian "conversion" of pagan traditions. However it came about, the meaning is the same.. and for Christians, Jesus' birth is what we are celebrating...

I love the "Christmas Season". In fact I love the last 3 mos of the year.. Fall, with the colors and smells, is one of my favorite things.. And it all wraps up nicely with Christmas.. The one thing I do not like is the commercialism of the "Holiday". It seems more of a way to get a business out of the red than to celebrate some as important as Jesus.. I ask this year that all of us try to focus more on the Jesus part.

Every home has its traditions. In our house we decided when Jacob was born to not put a big focus on Santa.. at the time it was more because one, Mom has a hard time of keeping track of things and didn't want to get busted and two, we didn't want to start our kids with materialistic ideas. The reality for us was the gifts are from family member who love you, but may be on a budget, not a fabled source with unlimited resources. Its the spirit of Christmas we focus on.. But Santa is not obsolete.. He does leave candy on the tree and treats in out stockings..

One of my favorite traditions is that each year I make the kids a special gift.. Its my gift to them and I do it all by myself.. the best part is I didn't start off as a crafty person, and still struggle with most of it.. But the result is fantastic.. The kids have blankets and pillows that have kept over the years. As the kids get older I have had to come up with other ideas, last year I painted a few of the kids library bags and this year I have a few ideas in the works, but nothing concrete yet..

Another tradition we do is one my mother started, and we embellished upon. Each year I get the kids a special ornament for the tree.. Its the only gift we open on Christmas eve. Each Christmas eve we look at lights, come home for hot coco and open our gift.

The Tree is always real.. It goes up right around Jacobs birthday ( the 18th) and comes down New Years day. The kids help decorate it with ornaments from years past and a few new ones they may decide to make.. The other decorations start going up after Thanksgiving. Not around Halloween as seems to be the new tradition.

The meal has been basic.. although Joe wants to experiment with some meat combination ideas, I prefer ham with pineapple and cloves for Christmas. Green Bean Casserole is a MUST have and my family knows to make one just for me.. We have added a new dish to the menu, birthday cake of course ;)

As the traditions have been set in place my children seem to have a better understanding of the Christmas spirit. For them, they enjoy as much as I do the feeling of Christmas.. The gifts are fun but its not the all.. I posted a gift giving resource on my frugal blog. This year my kids will be working on handmade gifts as well.. We would have liked to undertake a service project but feel we may not be able to do a big one with all of our other undertakings. As the kids get older we will have the opportunity to do more..

Lastly, for Christmas, read the scriptures and other related material, in regards to the birth of Christ. Take time to recollect the story with your family..

Jacob got his Arrow Of Light

The Arrow of Light is the highest Award a Cub Scout can earn and the only badge that can be crossed over into Boy Scouts

Jacob is now a recipient of that award.. In January he will cross over into Boy Scouts

This is Jacob with his Den Leader

Zachary got some refreshements

This was Quinten and Lucy yesterday at work

A quick update

We listened to Dr. Alan Keyes at a Tea Party Meeting

Jacob worked on his scissoring skills today

Quinten teaches the little ones the "art of doing dishes" :)

well just some new pics.. ;)

A few scrap pages